This is not a sequel to any works of Stephen Hawking or Bertrand Russell. With due apologies to Toynbee, the entire human history can be aptly sub-divided into few major chapters based on the progress it has made in the area of morality of murder.
- To start with, there was a period when the concept of murder was unknown
- The concept slowly took shape in the minds of people and they were afraid that entertaining a mere thought of murder is as heinous as the murder itself
- People have started committing murders here and there but were soon feeling remorse and used to plead guilty
- People have started committing murders on larger scale without feeling any remorse; invent ways and means of escaping punishment. The feudal lords of pre-independence era, if it is inevitable, used to bestow the privilege of surrendering on one of their trusted servants or someone innocent in exchange of taking care of their family for rest of the life. A proxy used to take the punishment.
- People started committing murders with impunity and use sophisticated techniques to erase all evidence.
- People started committing murders and implicate the innocent (two birds at one shot technique)
- People started outsourcing murders so that they are free to focus on their core competence areas.
- The Corporate Sector started making foray (ex: Bhopal); administrators are busy picking up dollars strewn all over for decades and forget all about the murderers and the victims.
- Gradual nationalization is taking place – (ex: state governments have started murdering people by supplying so called drinking water with abundant E.coli enough to kill few hundred people in few days flat by way of cholera. They maintain fictitious records as though the water is treated and tested before supplying.
- National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) indulging in mass genocide in style; by way of not warning the people and ordering evacuation in time to save at least some souls during floods.
Murders committed by Nations in other nations are traditionally called wars and hence fall outside the purview of the present discussion. Similarly, causing extinction of other species, the global murders and attempts to exterminate human race in next few decades by not caring for the environment is a separate subject on its own.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Multiple Choice Questions
Soon after taking charge of HRD ministry, Kapil Sibal started seriously thinking: why, not all students are performing well in the examinations? He wanted to form a committee to go into the matter and come up with solutions within 100 days. He could not entrust it to academicians as they are not trust worthy for such an important task and besides there is always a fair chance that it is the academia, which is responsible. If such is the case, according to his HLS trained brilliant legal mind, truth will never come out and the very objective of forming a committee of academicians to investigate the faults of the system, to which they are a party, get vitiated. Hence he formed a committee comprising of all party parliamentarians to come up with recommendations.
Members have laboriously studied various types of question papers since 1947 pertaining to all types of examinations held in India. They have noted two startling lacunae in the examination systems in India. Being very responsible persons, they refrained from blame game; more so because some party or other was in power in some state or the other at one point or another. Hence, they have recommended that the examination system needs an urgent and thorough overhaul. HRD minister, who is impressed, requested the same committee to recommend a new system. However, the members hesitantly accepted the additional responsibilities with a clear understanding that such a task needs some more time and they shall endeavor to complete the assignment within additional 100 days.
In order to understand and appreciate the forthcoming changes, it is only fair that one should understand the observations of the committee first. They are as follows: (a) none of the regular question papers ever carried the answers: how can a student answer a question when no answer is given? (b) all the multiple choice questions, which have mostly carried four options, found to contain only one right answer as against all the remaining ones being wrong! Committee felt that this is a blatant way of misleading the already misguided youth and such a form of question papers should cease with immediate effect. They wanted a silent revolution in the Examination System of India.
After long deliberations, they have come up with a uniform system of examinations, for all purposes, across the length and breadth of the country. Have a glimpse of the model question paper under recommendation by the committee, which is expected to provide equal opportunity to score for all strata of society:
Q. When did India get independence from British Rule?
Answer: (A) On 15th August 1947 (B) One Day after 14th August 1947 (C) One Day before 16th August 1947 (D) All the above.
Q. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is:
Answer: (A) Daughter-in-law of Amitabh Bachchan (B) Wife of Abhishek Bachchan (C) Miss World in 1994 (D) All the Above.
Members have laboriously studied various types of question papers since 1947 pertaining to all types of examinations held in India. They have noted two startling lacunae in the examination systems in India. Being very responsible persons, they refrained from blame game; more so because some party or other was in power in some state or the other at one point or another. Hence, they have recommended that the examination system needs an urgent and thorough overhaul. HRD minister, who is impressed, requested the same committee to recommend a new system. However, the members hesitantly accepted the additional responsibilities with a clear understanding that such a task needs some more time and they shall endeavor to complete the assignment within additional 100 days.
In order to understand and appreciate the forthcoming changes, it is only fair that one should understand the observations of the committee first. They are as follows: (a) none of the regular question papers ever carried the answers: how can a student answer a question when no answer is given? (b) all the multiple choice questions, which have mostly carried four options, found to contain only one right answer as against all the remaining ones being wrong! Committee felt that this is a blatant way of misleading the already misguided youth and such a form of question papers should cease with immediate effect. They wanted a silent revolution in the Examination System of India.
After long deliberations, they have come up with a uniform system of examinations, for all purposes, across the length and breadth of the country. Have a glimpse of the model question paper under recommendation by the committee, which is expected to provide equal opportunity to score for all strata of society:
Q. When did India get independence from British Rule?
Answer: (A) On 15th August 1947 (B) One Day after 14th August 1947 (C) One Day before 16th August 1947 (D) All the above.
Q. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is:
Answer: (A) Daughter-in-law of Amitabh Bachchan (B) Wife of Abhishek Bachchan (C) Miss World in 1994 (D) All the Above.
Making it Difficult to Fail
There is interesting news at the following site of The Hindu:
http://beta.thehindu.com/news/national/article39147.ece
This news item outlines the purpose of Kapil Sibal’s forthcoming visit to Howard, MIT, Yale and so on to coax them to set up campuses in India and assure them of adequate students under the government sponsored and constitutionally validated reservation system. What is not immediately clear and worrying is why he had not mentioned about Harvard, his alma mater, Stanford, Princeton and IAS. Apparently, there is a part of his agenda, which he wants to keep close to his chest. One must appreciate Kapil’s determination to see that India produces indigenous Harvard educated KSs in coming decades who ensure that newly reformed Indian Educational System gets a seamless migration into 22nd century without overseas dependence. Remarkable foresight, that is!
Today’s TOI published a front-page news item titled: “CBSE makes it tough to fail in Class IX & X”. Anonymous sources in HRD ministry have indicated that there is indeed a hidden agenda of Kapil Sibal, which has connection with the time-bound activity related to TOI news item. It is also reliably learnt that certain US mathematicians of both Indian and non-Indian origin (i.e., except un-Indian) are working hard on perfecting certain mathematical algorithms which are easy to understand and implement ahead of Kapil’s clandestine visit to some of the Universities which did not find a mention in his travel press release. Let us have a sneak preview of some of the models:
Absolute Value Model: This is perceived to be an excellent model which transforms a student with highly negative marks into highly positive. Ex: a student with -89% marks will now get 89%. After implementation, it is hoped that this model will get an unparalleled mass appeal to make SRT, AB (Big one) and KK turn green. This model is easy to implement. One has to just ignore '-ve' sign. Always be positive, an American attitude which made them successful. It is just that simple and not known to have side effects on students scoring +ve marks even when applied accidentally. This model is particularly helpful in examinations like CAT, where negative scoring is rampant; academically highly challenged need not depend on reservation system any longer!
100’s Complement Model: This state-of-the-art model is expected to be a KS’s gift to low scorers since it transforms them into high scorers. This model is applicable to those scoring below 50%, though. Ex: a student with 4% marks will now get 96% under this model. This model is akin to the highly successful and time-tested models like 2’s complement and 10’s complement which are familiar to Computer Scientists and they do not go wrong. The beauty lies in its simplicity: just subtract the low marks from 100 and lo presto, you get new marks!
Combo Model: While mathematical fraternity has recognized the absolute brilliance of the absolute value model, some purists are not too happy as this model does not address students with slightly negative marks, say, those getting -6%. To counter their valid criticism, a new Combo Model is being perfected where the first two models are applied exactly in that order. Ex: student with -6% marks scores 6% (after absolute value model) and then it works out to 94% marks (after the 100’s complement model).
In the present educational system, it is generally adequate to pass by scoring 30 or 35%, inclusive of grace marks, by fair or foul means. These new models are a sure fire to exceed avowed objectives of HRD ministry and make it nearly impossible to fail till the time some idiot ill-conceives the idea of increasing the cut off for pass to 85% or 90%.
http://beta.thehindu.com/news/national/article39147.ece
This news item outlines the purpose of Kapil Sibal’s forthcoming visit to Howard, MIT, Yale and so on to coax them to set up campuses in India and assure them of adequate students under the government sponsored and constitutionally validated reservation system. What is not immediately clear and worrying is why he had not mentioned about Harvard, his alma mater, Stanford, Princeton and IAS. Apparently, there is a part of his agenda, which he wants to keep close to his chest. One must appreciate Kapil’s determination to see that India produces indigenous Harvard educated KSs in coming decades who ensure that newly reformed Indian Educational System gets a seamless migration into 22nd century without overseas dependence. Remarkable foresight, that is!
Today’s TOI published a front-page news item titled: “CBSE makes it tough to fail in Class IX & X”. Anonymous sources in HRD ministry have indicated that there is indeed a hidden agenda of Kapil Sibal, which has connection with the time-bound activity related to TOI news item. It is also reliably learnt that certain US mathematicians of both Indian and non-Indian origin (i.e., except un-Indian) are working hard on perfecting certain mathematical algorithms which are easy to understand and implement ahead of Kapil’s clandestine visit to some of the Universities which did not find a mention in his travel press release. Let us have a sneak preview of some of the models:
Absolute Value Model: This is perceived to be an excellent model which transforms a student with highly negative marks into highly positive. Ex: a student with -89% marks will now get 89%. After implementation, it is hoped that this model will get an unparalleled mass appeal to make SRT, AB (Big one) and KK turn green. This model is easy to implement. One has to just ignore '-ve' sign. Always be positive, an American attitude which made them successful. It is just that simple and not known to have side effects on students scoring +ve marks even when applied accidentally. This model is particularly helpful in examinations like CAT, where negative scoring is rampant; academically highly challenged need not depend on reservation system any longer!
100’s Complement Model: This state-of-the-art model is expected to be a KS’s gift to low scorers since it transforms them into high scorers. This model is applicable to those scoring below 50%, though. Ex: a student with 4% marks will now get 96% under this model. This model is akin to the highly successful and time-tested models like 2’s complement and 10’s complement which are familiar to Computer Scientists and they do not go wrong. The beauty lies in its simplicity: just subtract the low marks from 100 and lo presto, you get new marks!
Combo Model: While mathematical fraternity has recognized the absolute brilliance of the absolute value model, some purists are not too happy as this model does not address students with slightly negative marks, say, those getting -6%. To counter their valid criticism, a new Combo Model is being perfected where the first two models are applied exactly in that order. Ex: student with -6% marks scores 6% (after absolute value model) and then it works out to 94% marks (after the 100’s complement model).
In the present educational system, it is generally adequate to pass by scoring 30 or 35%, inclusive of grace marks, by fair or foul means. These new models are a sure fire to exceed avowed objectives of HRD ministry and make it nearly impossible to fail till the time some idiot ill-conceives the idea of increasing the cut off for pass to 85% or 90%.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Mother Teresa
Agnesë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu (August 26, 1910 - September 5, 1997), better known as Mother Teresa all over the world, is in news. This time it is not in the context of taking forward her unfinished agenda or for eradicating poverty or for mitigating the suffering of millions. It is in the context of fight for her mortal remains, exhuming her body and relocating to another country!
What is baffling is why some of the Nations, their Governments, State Governments and other local bodies cannot allow Mother to take well-deserved rest in a place of her choice. She breathed her last twelve years back.
Yes, she is mother of all poor wherever they are in the world and also to millions of her admirers. However, vast majority of her children are in India. Her soul is Indian. She is in integral part of Mother Earth now. It is natural justice not to disturb her remains in India to remind the world of her unfinished work. People around the world, please stop bickering for her remains.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Birthday Gift
On October 9, 2009 when the five-member Norwegian Nobel Committee met in Oslo, they faced an unusual question: What would be the world’s most appropriate Birthday gift?
Often the Nobel Prizes for Literature and Peace become contentious. No matter what the committee does, or for that matter does not, there is always some criticism. After some deliberations, in a relaxed environment, they have unanimously agreed that nothing beats a Nobel Peace Prize if it is subtly gift wrapped.
They have promptly given it to Barack Obama as a gift for the first birthday of Bo.
Often the Nobel Prizes for Literature and Peace become contentious. No matter what the committee does, or for that matter does not, there is always some criticism. After some deliberations, in a relaxed environment, they have unanimously agreed that nothing beats a Nobel Peace Prize if it is subtly gift wrapped.
They have promptly given it to Barack Obama as a gift for the first birthday of Bo.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Stealing the Credit
Prof. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, known to his friends as Venki, shared Nobel Prize for Chemistry with two others in 2009. In fact, he is the first person of Indian origin to get Nobel Prize in Chemistry. With this, Indians or people of Indian origin appear in all the six Nobel Prize categories. It is laudable since not too many Indians (to be more precise, including people of Indian origin) have won this coveted prize so far. In the field of Mathematics, there is no Nobel Prize although there are mathematicians who won Nobel Prize in some other field like John F. Nash Jr. in Economics. Fields Medal in Mathematics (regarded as Nobel Prize equivalent in Mathematics) is considered by many as far more difficult to get for two simple reasons, namely, it is awarded only once in four years unlike Nobel Prize which is awarded annually and there is an upper age limit of forty years for Fields Medal. So far, no Indian got this.
In the present post, I would like to discuss the topic: Is it right on the part of India to steal the credit for the work done elsewhere by people of Indian origin?
Venki had his early education in Baroda, Pre-university from Annamalai University and B.Sc from Baroda. He had his higher education in US and currently working in Cambridge, UK. He is a US citizen now. Both his parents being scientists and educationalists, their role in molding him and inculcating scientific temperament are understandable. Beyond this, what moral right India has in feeling as though an Indian had won a prize for the work done in India?
Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, Sir C V Raman and Mother Teresa got recognition for their work done on Indian soil. Mother Teresa (Agnesë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu), an Albanian born elsewhere, Indian by citizenship, worked all over the world, having her base in Calcutta. She is an integral part of India.
Hargobind Khorana was born in Raipur village that is now in Pakistan. With his high credentials found it difficult to get even a small job in India. He was literally compelled to seek livelihood elsewhere and eventually got recognition for his work. Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, after college, spent his life in UK and US. He was born in Lahore (now in Pakistan) before independence. Amartya Sen, barring a brief stint at Jadavpur University, worked in UK and US in his long illustrious career. Dalailama (Tenzin Gyatso) lives in exile in India, a country that has given him political asylum. For all practical purposes, he is a world citizen. Rudyard Kipling and Ronald Ross are British born in India. V S Naipaul is a British born elsewhere. Dr. Abdus Salam was born in today’s Pakistan during pre-independence era. Dr. Rajendra Kumar Pachauri, an Indian, received Nobel Prize for Peace in his capacity as chairperson of IPCC, which was shared with Al Gore. Dr. Pachauri did not get it in his individual capacity. Some of them did not hold Indian citizenship at the time of getting the Nobel Prize; nor were they awarded for their work done in India. We can only pray that an Indian gets Fields Medal this time which gets presented in ICM-2010 being held in Hyderabad during August 2010.
It is clear that only three Indian citizens received Nobel Prize for their work done India since its inception in 1901. Mother Teresa got it in post independent era while other two got long before independence. The whole point is, India does not have the infrastructure or ambience necessary for world-class scientific research to get world wide recognition. In the absence of funding, researchers can hardly hope to have facilities required for their work. In most of the Universities, the ambience required for research is missing. Despite the handicap, some scientists and academicians are showing results here and there but that is hardly adequate to get recognition at any international forum.
India can be truly proud only when India is in a position to retain its talent and attract fresh talent from outside world by establishing world-class facilities. Such organisations should get a free hand to work without political interference in any form. Someone has to dream big like Chanakya (Vishnugupta) did some 2,400 years ago: he dreamt of establishing a University near Patliputra (today's Patna) in direct competition with Takshashila (Taxila) where he taught Economics and Political Philosophy and shift the focal point of education at that time and made it happen.
In the present post, I would like to discuss the topic: Is it right on the part of India to steal the credit for the work done elsewhere by people of Indian origin?
Venki had his early education in Baroda, Pre-university from Annamalai University and B.Sc from Baroda. He had his higher education in US and currently working in Cambridge, UK. He is a US citizen now. Both his parents being scientists and educationalists, their role in molding him and inculcating scientific temperament are understandable. Beyond this, what moral right India has in feeling as though an Indian had won a prize for the work done in India?
Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, Sir C V Raman and Mother Teresa got recognition for their work done on Indian soil. Mother Teresa (Agnesë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu), an Albanian born elsewhere, Indian by citizenship, worked all over the world, having her base in Calcutta. She is an integral part of India.
Hargobind Khorana was born in Raipur village that is now in Pakistan. With his high credentials found it difficult to get even a small job in India. He was literally compelled to seek livelihood elsewhere and eventually got recognition for his work. Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, after college, spent his life in UK and US. He was born in Lahore (now in Pakistan) before independence. Amartya Sen, barring a brief stint at Jadavpur University, worked in UK and US in his long illustrious career. Dalailama (Tenzin Gyatso) lives in exile in India, a country that has given him political asylum. For all practical purposes, he is a world citizen. Rudyard Kipling and Ronald Ross are British born in India. V S Naipaul is a British born elsewhere. Dr. Abdus Salam was born in today’s Pakistan during pre-independence era. Dr. Rajendra Kumar Pachauri, an Indian, received Nobel Prize for Peace in his capacity as chairperson of IPCC, which was shared with Al Gore. Dr. Pachauri did not get it in his individual capacity. Some of them did not hold Indian citizenship at the time of getting the Nobel Prize; nor were they awarded for their work done in India. We can only pray that an Indian gets Fields Medal this time which gets presented in ICM-2010 being held in Hyderabad during August 2010.
It is clear that only three Indian citizens received Nobel Prize for their work done India since its inception in 1901. Mother Teresa got it in post independent era while other two got long before independence. The whole point is, India does not have the infrastructure or ambience necessary for world-class scientific research to get world wide recognition. In the absence of funding, researchers can hardly hope to have facilities required for their work. In most of the Universities, the ambience required for research is missing. Despite the handicap, some scientists and academicians are showing results here and there but that is hardly adequate to get recognition at any international forum.
India can be truly proud only when India is in a position to retain its talent and attract fresh talent from outside world by establishing world-class facilities. Such organisations should get a free hand to work without political interference in any form. Someone has to dream big like Chanakya (Vishnugupta) did some 2,400 years ago: he dreamt of establishing a University near Patliputra (today's Patna) in direct competition with Takshashila (Taxila) where he taught Economics and Political Philosophy and shift the focal point of education at that time and made it happen.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Ragging
Ragging in educational institutions is an abuse prevalent in some commonwealth countries. Hence, my guess about its original roots is as good as yours. There are numerous forms of ragging, but in the present post, we shall confine to most notorious form viz., senior students ragging their juniors (usually freshers). Hereinafter, we shall use the word raggee to represent the person who got ragged and ragger to represent the person who is ragging. Your blogger intends to study history and current state of raggee-ragger relationship, as a true historian would do, by not indulging in taking sides, to make Toynbee proud.
In the ancient Indian educational methodology, this practice is non-existent. This practice must have started taking its roots in India with the advent of British occupation and gradually picked up. This has made most of its present day progress in post-independence era and particularly accelerated in last couple of decades. In the last few years it is coming to limelight for various reasons like i) omnipresence of media ii) awareness which dawned on the government in recent years and some of the ordinances promulgamated and so on iii) increasing judicial activism to curb this perceived menace and iv) considerable progress ragging has made both as a form of an art and science. It is always difficult to emulate the good practices of someone but easy to cultivate, emulate and institutionalize the bad ones. Ragging is no exception to this general rule.
Just as every dad is once a son, every ragger is a raggee once. They are two sides of the same coin. That is a law of nature. Raggee, having learnt the process through practical experience, perpetuates it with added innovations in the forthcoming years. He sets the bar to higher level. If a student is a raggee in his first year, he is a ragger for remaining years. This points to stages of a life cycle and certain genetic predisposition in the relationship between raggee and ragger.
No raggee ever wastes time thinking of the abuse he/she is going through for long. Past is past; he/she dreams of new era - there is always light at the end of the tunnel; awaits the privileges to come. One hears many complaints from raggees while they are passing through the process period of ragging. As soon as this process ends and is celebrated in the form of a Fresher’s Day or its equivalent, as the case may be, raggees of this year eagerly wait for the next year which comes with an automatic promotion to ragger class irrespective of their academic performance in the preceding year. This promotion does not have any qualifying requirements like minimum cut-off marks or CGPA. Metamorphosis takes place. Thus, the life goes on. It is an eternal cycle. Life's Truth (jeevansathy).
Parents complain about ragging when their ward is a fresher. How many parents have taught their children not to do the same unto their juniors? If anything, parents encourage the system, albeit in due course, with their silence. If all parents of freshers forbid their children from ragging their juniors in subsequent years, this institution would have been extint, as dead as a dodo, in three years flat! For an example, if you take an educational institute offering a four-year degree or a diploma, a fresher undergoes ragging in his first year but gets privileges for the remaining three years. Thrice blessed! If he/she manages to spend, more years in the same degree program, merrier are his/her days as someone said “the more the merrier”. In fact, raggee-ragger relationship, may not be as divine, but is so real and as eternal as devotee-God or student-teacher relationships.
There are some common misconceptions and we expose and explode them now: a) this process of ragging is masculine; Nope – it is gender-free. Girls do engage in this process as much as boys do; genetic predispositions have no gender barriers b) Girls do not rag boys; Wrong again. Only this form of ragging does not make news, as any raggee would suffer it silently for obvious reasons, rather than allowing anyone to know about it c) This is non-existent in institutes of higher learning (Post-graduate institutions as Indians call them or Graduate School in US parlance); Wrong again - IIMs have an entire week - dedicated right from the date of registration for the freshers, which is known as orientation week. They manage to keep this culture/tradition a secret and perpetuate with aplomb - there lie their management skills.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Public Holidays
Shashi Tharoor is at it again. This time it is decidedly for the better. He tweeted his views against Gandhi Jayanthi being a National Holiday.
In fact, there is a need to debate whether India needs or can afford so many holidays. We can safely leave aside private and unorganized sectors. In private sector, HR mangers prepare holiday list carefully to ensure that at least two of the so-called holidays fall on a Sunday. Working late hours behind closed shutters is common. There are four mandatory holidays (Republic Day, Mayday, Independence Day and Gandhi Jayanthi in a calendar year) and they have some flexibility in deciding about the festival holidays. Not many organizations declare more than 8 to 12holidays in a year, all included. In unionized sectors, management and the recognized union generally negotiate the holiday list without violating the upper limit. News paper industry has two or three holidays only in a year. Rules vary from organisation to organisation based on the Acts applicable to their sector.
If you take our nationalised Banks, for illustration, it is easier to count the working days than holidays. On the working days, actual official working hours, for public transaction purposes, are just about 4 hours/working-day. The concerned clerk/official will be engaged in different tasks of national importance during those hours meant for customers; to mention a few, discussing stock market trends, new public-issues (equity, debentures etc.), recent bank circulars and implications, pay revision, DA hike, new personal savings schemes, the purchases made on previous evening (restricted to female employees), movies just released, in-house shopping, additional coffee/tea/lunch break, cricket score etc. Consequently, they do not stay at counter for more than two hours on any working day. Another beautiful feature of banking system is out of the number of counters physically available in a branch, no more than 1/3rd operate at any time; upon inquiry, one usually gets answers like staff shortage, people are on leave, traffic jams, cricket matches going on, children's examinations, marriage season and such very valid reasons. Situations like power cut, non-availability of office boy etc. will bring transactions to a stand still. Whenever they want to yawn, they say system is down; how convenient! Latest fad is network is down. Officers and clerical staff go on strike in rotation to maximise effective holidays. All other State/Central government organizations follow remarkably similar techniques with minor changes to suit their transaction models. Mind you, we have not touched the topic of leave, whether they actually work or not with or without consideration.
How a country with a low economic growth as ours can afford so many holidays and such low working hours and productivity beats imagination. In addition, there will be several opportunities provided by Him such as strikes (sponsored by ruling parties in the govt., opposition parties and parties without representation in turns), bandhs, hartal, curphew, elections, state mourning, solar/lunar eclipses, H1N1, epidemics, rains, floods, cricket matches and so on and so forth.
Japanese people are not familiar with any type of work disruption. Long time back I read about an organization where employees had put in an extra hour a day as a mark of protest in a dispute with the management till it is amicably resolved. Yes, this method works where the society is not largely comprised of thick skinned. In some other organization, when their respected founder died, people had put in an extra hour and management erected a founder’s statue with the proceeds equivalent to employees’ extra hour’s wages and matching contribution from the management. How sensible of all of them; they have paid respects without declaring a holiday and their late founder had every reason to be happy, wherever he is.
In fact, there is a need to debate whether India needs or can afford so many holidays. We can safely leave aside private and unorganized sectors. In private sector, HR mangers prepare holiday list carefully to ensure that at least two of the so-called holidays fall on a Sunday. Working late hours behind closed shutters is common. There are four mandatory holidays (Republic Day, Mayday, Independence Day and Gandhi Jayanthi in a calendar year) and they have some flexibility in deciding about the festival holidays. Not many organizations declare more than 8 to 12holidays in a year, all included. In unionized sectors, management and the recognized union generally negotiate the holiday list without violating the upper limit. News paper industry has two or three holidays only in a year. Rules vary from organisation to organisation based on the Acts applicable to their sector.
If you take our nationalised Banks, for illustration, it is easier to count the working days than holidays. On the working days, actual official working hours, for public transaction purposes, are just about 4 hours/working-day. The concerned clerk/official will be engaged in different tasks of national importance during those hours meant for customers; to mention a few, discussing stock market trends, new public-issues (equity, debentures etc.), recent bank circulars and implications, pay revision, DA hike, new personal savings schemes, the purchases made on previous evening (restricted to female employees), movies just released, in-house shopping, additional coffee/tea/lunch break, cricket score etc. Consequently, they do not stay at counter for more than two hours on any working day. Another beautiful feature of banking system is out of the number of counters physically available in a branch, no more than 1/3rd operate at any time; upon inquiry, one usually gets answers like staff shortage, people are on leave, traffic jams, cricket matches going on, children's examinations, marriage season and such very valid reasons. Situations like power cut, non-availability of office boy etc. will bring transactions to a stand still. Whenever they want to yawn, they say system is down; how convenient! Latest fad is network is down. Officers and clerical staff go on strike in rotation to maximise effective holidays. All other State/Central government organizations follow remarkably similar techniques with minor changes to suit their transaction models. Mind you, we have not touched the topic of leave, whether they actually work or not with or without consideration.
How a country with a low economic growth as ours can afford so many holidays and such low working hours and productivity beats imagination. In addition, there will be several opportunities provided by Him such as strikes (sponsored by ruling parties in the govt., opposition parties and parties without representation in turns), bandhs, hartal, curphew, elections, state mourning, solar/lunar eclipses, H1N1, epidemics, rains, floods, cricket matches and so on and so forth.
Japanese people are not familiar with any type of work disruption. Long time back I read about an organization where employees had put in an extra hour a day as a mark of protest in a dispute with the management till it is amicably resolved. Yes, this method works where the society is not largely comprised of thick skinned. In some other organization, when their respected founder died, people had put in an extra hour and management erected a founder’s statue with the proceeds equivalent to employees’ extra hour’s wages and matching contribution from the management. How sensible of all of them; they have paid respects without declaring a holiday and their late founder had every reason to be happy, wherever he is.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Air India Pilots
Air India has its genesis when J R D Tata founded Tata Airlines in 1932. In the post World War II era it has become Air India, a plc. In post-independence era, Government of India purchased 49% stake; reserved its option to purchase additional 2%. It has become a national flag carrier and started international services under the name Air India International. In 1953, Government of India exercised its right for majority stake and nationalized air transportation in the country. At the same time, domestic operations were transferred to newly created Indian Airlines.
Students of the history of Air India and Indian Airlines will note two important aspects of this Organization(s), which is(are) Nation’s Pride. The first one, these two organs are routinely merged and de-merged, typically as a part of Strategic Management Initiatives taken by every new boss. It is the second learning that is most interesting.
The pilots of this national pride have created a unique patented culture of their own and it has become an accepted norm in our society. That is going on strike as frequently as practically feasible. The MTBS appears to be a shade less than 100 days. For the benefit of those uninitiated with civil airlines jargon, MTBS stands for Mean Time Between Strikes. In air force, this acronym has same expansion but means something else. This does not include the ones technically known as ‘flash strikes' which occur if any pilot drops his hat inadvertently anywhere between his house/5-star hotel and cockpit. Similary, mid-air strikes, runway strikes are also excluded for MTBS purposes. Each time they go on a strike, they routinely get a minimum monthly salary increase, which is about the full monthly salary of our beloved Prime Minister. They are high-flyers and they deserve hike for every take-off or landing us safely.
The management lesson here for all of us is, where MTBS is low, people and government do not raise their eyebrows and even get ready to meet the demands before they are made. Public does not react much as they are accustomed to that and already conditioned. Let us say a poor Postman goes on strike, not that it has ever happened in the long world history of Postal Service, entire 1.2 billion Indians will unanimously take up cudgels. The actual reason is MTBS is undefined as of now. Same thing happened in the case of IIT & IIM professors, as they did not study the techniques of our Pilots. There lies their fault.
PS: The rules of the game are different for private airline pilots; how can private sector pilots go on strike without paying royalty to Air India pilots?
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