Delhi proposal for pollution control –absurd or brilliant?

To begin with, the sources of pollution in the capital aren’t clear: factories, crop burning in neighbouring states, power plants, cooking on coal or wood stoves, old autos and aged commercial vehicles are also significant polluters. Incidentally, none of those in the last category will be covered in the odd-even plan proposed by Delhi government. Without a clear calculation of how much private vehicles contribute to Delhi’s pollution, making half of them sit idle at all times seems like a draconian and ill-conceived idea.

Next, we just don’t have the traffic police manpower to track adherence. Theoretically, scheme supporters may believe that people will be good. However, if we were good people, all of India’s schemes would have worked. There will be legal ways around the scheme (buy another car for the number plate, often an old, second hand, more polluting one) or illegal ways (fake an emergency certificate, bribe the cop, take a chance, switch the number plate). After the initial euphoria and media frenzy around the scheme dies, Delhiites will figure out a way to get their cars on the road.

For those who adhere to the rules, they will end burdening the already choked public transport system even more. Autos will either not be available, or will overcharge. Metros, already packed, will become worse. Delhi doesn’t have public transport like Paris and Singapore (where such measures were applied, albeit only on a temporary basis). Alongside this, there will be tremendous negative side-effects for certain sections of our society. Many drivers will be without jobs, goods won’t move efficiently causing inflation and school kids who travel in private vehicles will suffer.

The worst part is this quick fix solution will give us a false sense of achievement while the real solutions will be ignored. In many places where such measures were tried, such as Mexico and Bogota, they have failed. In Beijing, an often touted example, the measure worked somewhat but it was temporary, for a specific event. Also, Beijing is not a democracy, and the plan fits into what an authoritarian state would do. In democratic India, we must think a hundred times before we steal our people’s freedom. Incidentally, Beijing also rolled tanks on people who tried the kind of movements from which AAP was born. Hence, compare cities with caution.

Solutions do exist. The long-term solution is to create more world-class cities like Delhi, so we reduce the pressure from the super metros. The super metros also need a much better public transport system. Provide metros & public transport that people would prefer of their own, as in places like Finland & UK, where there are excellent public transportation. In India, if a middle class or well to do person says that he took public transport to office, he is often looked down or considered to have class. This is largely due to the facilities & comfort provided in these public transportation.

Statistics say that vehicles are not the only polluters and in fact, contribute to less than 1/3^rd of the pollutants. That being the case, reducing vehicles alone will not help and there can be adverse effect, through loss of productivity, increase in intolerance (favourite buzzword around currently) etc.

In the short term, we can incentivize offices with lower taxes to have different work hours, which will balance out the traffic and make it move faster. A car stuck in a traffic jam pollutes much more than a car that quickly finishes its journey. We can also raise taxes on purchase of new cars (or limit their numbers). We also need Radio Frequency Identification Device (RFID) tags on all cars in the city, so we can introduce peak hour congestion charges and other such road optimization measures. Many cities across countries (London, Singapore, Stockholm, Milan etc.) have introduced congestion pricing or charges & have seen improvement in congestion during peak hours in urban areas. Taxi sharing apps must be encouraged for they can go a long way in reducing cars on the roads.

The issue is not limited only to Delhi, every metro city in India is struggling with pollution. Just that, Delhi’s situation is out of control, for the pollution is at its excess during winter. While other cities/government has done lip service to curb pollution, Delhi government is willing to bite the bullet and implement anti-pollution measures, although had to water down the proposal to exclude only ladies driven car, rule only between 8 AM to 8 PM, exempting two wheelers, Sundays exempted, initially only between Jan1 to Jan15 etc.

Make no mistake, AAP deserves credit for trying to do something about Delhi’s pollution. Delhi deserves better air but it also deserves more sensible solutions to achieve the same.

Read situations in all the perspectives

The sage Narada wanted to marry a young princess. But she said she wanted to marry only Hari. Hari is the name of Vishnu, who is God and the guardian of earth. Narada went to the princess but instead of garlanding him, she turned around in disgust. There behind her stood Vishnu. The overjoyed princess garlanded Vishnu. Narada wondered what was wrong. Then he saw his face reflected on a mirror.

It was that of a monkey! He accused Vishnu of cheating him. Vishnu smiled and replied, “I gave you the face of Hari, which literally means monkey, though it happens to be my name.”

Narada can read the situation in two ways: a strategic narrative or a sincere narrative.

In a strategic narrative, Narada can see behaving like a lawyer, playing with words to make him feel like a fool.

In a sincere narrative, Narada can see Vishnu behave like God, using a play of words to enlighten him not to trick a young girl simply because he can.

In a strategic narrative, Vishnu is the wily trickster who wants for princess for himself.

In a sincere narrative, Vishnu stops Narada from being a trickster and grants the princess her wish.

In a strategic narrative, Narada feels like a fool.

In a sincere narrative, Narada is enlightened.

Every situation can be read strategically or sincerely.

When we read a situation strategically, we feel manipulated; we feel we have been reduced to a performing monkey.

When we read a situation sincerely, we learn from it; we feel someone cares for us enough to demonstrate to us our shortcomings rather than simply pointing it out.

Now to demonstrate this with a practical example:

After completing his course in Australia, Jason returned to India with plans to start a fast food joint. His father, Paul was a renowned restaurateur, with many small boutique hotels in India, saw the business plan and knew that it would not work. But he gave his son the seeding capital he needed for the business.

The hotel started with much fanfare, but was in the red in less than six months. Jason approached his dad Paul and he in turn, sent his team to help out Jason. They made two key changes, in the menu and in the advertising. And in no time, the sample place, which was empty for six months, was now full of customers.

Now Jason has two options, just like Narada. He can read his father’s actions strategically or sincerely. He can see his dad Paul as a manipulator, a dominant father, one who does not want to help him and want to put him in his place.

Or he can see Paul as a teacher, a caring father, who wanted to show him what actually works in the restaurant business.

Jason can feel like Hari, the monkey, or thank Hari, the teacher. The choice is very his…

Make Vishnu’s four symbols your management tools

Found the following interesting article in Economic Times. And it suits so much to our corporate life and the actions we pursue…

Hindu Gods are distinguished from each other by the symbols they carry. Shiva, the ascetic, for example, is identified by his trident and rattle drum. Brahma, the priest-teacher, is identified by his books, rosary and pot. Vishnu, the leader-king, is identified with four symbols: conch-shell trumpet or shankh, discus whirring around his index finger or chakra, a mace or gada and a lotus or Padma. Come to think of it, a good leader also has only four goals to get this work done. His very own shankh, chakra, gada and Padma. Only, one does not identify his tools using mythological vocabulary.

Vishnu’s shankh or conch-shell trumpet is blown to announce his presence on a battlefield. In Vedic times, this instrument was used by the commander to rally their troops. Warriors also used this to demonstrate their stamina before their enemies for blowing a conch-shell trumpet was a measure of lung-power and mind control. Every warrior in the Mahabharat, from Krishna to Arjun had their own very own conch-shell.

The conch-shell can be viewed as an instrument of communication. The first rule of leadership is to be an effective communicator. Your team must know, who you are, what you capabilities are, what your vision is and what you expect them to do, and why, and how this will help in achieving your final objective.

Your competition also needs to know that you are powerful and they must avoid confrontation. Unless you communicate, nobody is aware of your presence. ‘Blowing your own trumpet’ and getting your thoughts across is necessary, if anything needs to get done.

Vishnu’s chakra, which whirs round his index finger, is both a weapon as well as a symbol of life that Vishnu’s sustains. As a weapon, it strikes a target, trims the unwanted and undesirable elements like an electric saw and returns to Vishnu’s finger like a boomerang. As a symbol of life, it indicates time (what goes around comes around in this life or in the next) and space (the circular horizon of our world view).

The chakra can be viewed as a symbol of review. A good leader’s job does not end with communicating what he desired and what he expects from his team. He reviews their progress regularly by organizing daily meetings, weekly meetings, monthly meetings. In these meetings, he checks what has been done and what has not been done. He ensures that the team has not drifted from the goal. He discovers what has worked and what has not.

He identifies new creative thoughts and anticipates possible hurdles. This he does again and again and again. Repetition is the key word. With each review, things get trimmed and the vision gets sharper and clearer so that a new horizon of possibilities emerge.

To keep your team on track, the traditional method is to use the system of reward and punishment discreetly. Vishnu’s carrot and stick approach of leadership is represented through his mace or gada and his lotus or Padma. The mace is like a teacher’s ruler, to punish those who do not do what they are supposed to do. The lotus rich with nectar and pollen, which attracts bees and butterfly, is for those who do what they are supposed to do and more.

The one he uses to strike down the rule/law/system breakers. The other he uses to reward the rule/law/system followers. Thus he keeps his team on the straight and narrow, ensuring they achieve what they set out to achieve together. The one ensures that errors are not repeated. The other ensures that best practices are always followed.

In some organizations, the four tools generate fear and anxiety. When this happens, both the goal and the tools have to be relooked at. Is the goal driven by reality or falsehood? Is it motivated by greed? Is the conch-shell trumpeting or the rotation of the wheel excessive? Is the mace too harsh or the lotus too stingy? In some organizations, the tools serve no purpose.

People continue to do what they are supposed to do, moving in different directions, with no alignment to each other. When this happens, the communication has to be reooked at. Has the message gone through correctly or is the message changing repeatedly confusing all or is there a message at all?

The message of ten contains only the goal – what must be achieved. The conch-shell, however, must all communicate how it much be achieved. The aim of the review is to focus on the how – if the prescribed methods are working or failing, the reasons for the success and failure. Often review meetings are not used for review what has been planned – they are used to generate new ideas and discard old ones.

New whats and hows to replace old whats and old hows. Review meetings can generate new insights but it must never be at the cost of the planned agenda. New ideas must be parked, reviewed later and then communicated accordingly. Otherwise, the review loses its purpose and the conch-shell produces cacophony, with things going in every direction.

Why is junk foods not junked?

Enough has been written about the Maggi controversy, where multiple government labs across country have found more than permissible lead and MSG. The resultant PR disaster from Nestle end, confusion and nationwide recall of one of the most popular products in the country is likely to become a case study in business schools.

However, there is something else as important as the controversy about harmful substances. It is that Maggi noodles, or for that matter any instant noodles, are not healthy for you in any case, with or without lead and MSG. It is time we have a new, simplified classification system and scale for junk versus healthy food.

Eating refined starch that is processed, dried and kept for months with the help of chemical preservatives is unlikely to be good for you. The ads may be extremely moving emotionally, the brand ambassador could be highly credible, and the soupy noodles might taste really good. It is still not good for you.

Hence, even with no MSG or lead, Maggi’s tagline of “Taste Bhi, Health Bhi”, was only half correct, former than latter. Any nutritional expert will tell you eating instant noodles for health is about as funny and implausible as using a cheap deodorant to attract dozens of women.

Of course, the noodles won’t kill you. Our diet today has plenty of other unhealthy things as well. For instance, almost all Indian mithais are unhealthy. As are many of our gravy ‘delicacies’. We give up health benefits of food in favour of cost, convenience or taste. Same goes for all the wafers and chips and aerated cool drinks, list goes on…

Such compromises are acceptable to an extent. However, if done in excess they can lead to major health problems such as obesity, heart disease and diabetes.

How does one limit unhealthy food then? The problem comes when junk is marketed as healthy. Our advertising standards for food are extraordinarily lax. Junk food manufacturers not only hide the nature of their food, but also position them as health filled alternatives. Armed with ads of beaming mothers feeding sparkly kids, we have junk marketed as emotional nectar every day.

In other sectors, such nonsensical advertising would never be allowed. In financial services there have to be a ton of disclaimers reminding investors of the market risk they take. In cigarettes, we have pictures of blackened lungs on the packs. But packets of potato chips don’t bear the picture of an obese heart patient, right?

Food — be it for nourishment or pleasure — has positive associations for us. Any food is good and the kind of food doesn’t seem to matter. Perhaps this comes from a time when India was poorer and food was scarce. When we worked 12 hours a day in the fields and could eat and burn as many calories as we wanted. This was also when processed food from big corporations didn’t exist.

However, times have changed. Physical labour is reducing and we don’t burn off calories as easily. Hence, we need to monitor our food intake carefully. If a big part of our diet has to come from packaged food, we need to understand and label it accordingly.

Of course, nutritional values are provided for most packaged food products today. However, to the average person it is a jumble of tiny font text and numbers. Even if you were to read the data, what would you make of it? Is it healthy food or junk food? Or is it healthy but only in moderation?

Should there not be any indication or label on the packet that indicates the goodness or unhealthiness of it to health –similar to the way it is mentioned on cigarette packet or liquor bottle?

The future generation of country is getting spoiled and parents are either unaware of the harm these processed/packaged foods are carrying or too busy to bother about it. A healthy society leads to lower healthcare costs, improved productivity at work and a better quality of life for citizens. Food is a big part of public health. About time we knew what we are buying and putting in our mouths.

Where did BJP go wrong in Delhi elections?

There are many theories and numbers floating around, in regards to BJP’s loss in Delhi elections, which they were expected to win easily. Some say, the voting percentage for BJP was just the same as in early election – just a marginal dip of 0.8% (Lok Sabha election of 2014 & previous Delhi Vidhan Sabha election of 2013), and it is the Congress votes that has gone to AAP, resulting in BJP’s loss.

If we look back at the results, my personal feeling is, yes, voters have moved from Congress to AAP (14.85% decrease in Congress vote share vis-à-vis 24.8% increase in AAP vote share is testimony of that). But then, why did they not move to BJP & why to AAP?

The answer lies within BJP, for they have believed themselves all along that they are invincible & public will vote for them only as alternative to Congress. They openly challenged AAP and never far once were willing to give credit to AAP’s ideology or to their leaders.

Even in Lok Sabha elections, BJP won not because of their own good doing, but largely because of anti-incumbency voting, wherein public wanted a change, for they were bored of the corrupted UPA and the only party they perceived capable of running the country was BJP. But, they did not realise this and started to become over confident.

But come Delhi elections, this was not the case. Delhi public were aware of AAP & Arvind Kejriwal, and they believed, this party can provide better alternative government to Congress (and not BJP). And this showed in the results, where 96% of seats were won by AAP alone & BJP won paltry 3 seats, a reduction of 29 seats (from 32 seats earlier).

In voters’ minds, it was always a question of Congress or its alternative. And not necessarily, BJP is the alternative always. So, if BJP wants to be the primary choice, then it will have to take the position of Congress, that is it being the driver & public to choose between itself & alternative (which can be Congress or AAP or SP etc.)

Till that happens, there shall be more states that may go Delhi way for BJP. It can be Bihar, Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala etc.

Arvind Kejriwal – AAP – Fascinating success story!!

Till couple of months back, when Delhi elections were being announced, no one gave any outside chance for Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) or for that matter to Arvind Kejriwal.

Senior Leaders from the party were leaving; quite a few of them while leaving accused Arvind Kejriwal of being dictatorship, not listening to others etc. And opponents were dismissing them out rightly, stating Arvind to be ‘bhagoda’, one time wonder etc.

And on 10^th February, when nation was glued to news channels, what they got to see was a stunning result, that blasted the party ruling at centre, which was expecting Delhi to be easy win, something they had taken for granted. AAP got 96% of the seats (67 out of 70 seats), which is a monumental record in Delhi elections history. Something that has never been achieved, and that too by a new party which has established themselves just couple of years earlier.

These truly made global headlines, on how a small party, that does not has any major names or backing has defeated the mighty political party in power at their own den, so to speak.

When we analyse this success story, there are many areas that AAP & Arvind Kejriwal, in particular did very well, which touched the public. Of course, their win was also facilitated by their opponents, knowingly or unknowingly.

• Perseverance: Arvind/AAP never gave in to opponents, no matter how much they stooped themselves down to. They kept doing, what was correct as per them.
• Build your support system & leaders: Though Arvind was the face of party, there were equally strong support system, cadre, including the likes of Manish Shisodia, Yogendra Yadav etc.
• Clear ideology: AAP communicated its ideology & what they stand for, very early in their campaign. So there was no last minute manifesto or confusing signals to voting public.
• Common man image: Arvind’s image as a common man had etched strongly in people’s mind. There were no helicopters for aerial visits or fancy designer suits or fancy vehicles being taken around for campaigning etc. Arvind lived up to his right throughout and even his opponents could not attack him much on that image. This helped voting public to see him as one among them.
• Be positive, keep negativity at distance: Haters gonna hate. And in politics, no matter how good a person is, opponents will find reasons to hate. No two parties appreciate each other, even if they do not have anything to criticize. It is all about hate & hatred. BJP tried lot of negative campaigns and it backfired in this election, like, making fun of Arvind’s gotra, questioning AAP’s party funds, bhagoda (for Arvind quiting in 49 days in his earlier stint) and so on. But this only solidified public behind Arvind.
• Accept mistakes: In politics, generally parties do not apologies for their mistakes. Congress never apologised for Blue Star operations in 1984, BJP did not apologies either for 1991 Babri Masjid or for 2002 Gujarat riots etc., in spite of proven guilty. But Arvind apologised openly for his mistake of resigning in his earlier CM stint, that they faltered then in their judgement. While BJP tried using this to their advantage & criticized Arvind as Bhagoda, that did not cut any ice with public. Clearly, AAP were willing to make amendments and move on.

With great power comes great responsibility: While everybody is lauding AAP’s victory the real test begins now. Success brings along with it hope and responsibility. And this is true for us too. It is important to plan ahead of success. Handling these responsibilities and living up to the expectations is the only sure way to achieve the next milestone. Let’s plan and track our own progress on that front while the nation tracks AAP.

As the AAP victory goes down in history, we must carry these learnings with us. It’s time to take action and start writing your own success story now!

Do employers prefer employees who are above 50 years of age?

Been wondering for a while, what will happen to myself after I become 50+ years old.

Will I get a job in market, if I want to make a job change?

Will I still be in demand?

These questions are plaguing in my mind and when I see all around, I see more and more companies trying to recruit employees in mid 20s or maximum early 30s.

Employees in 40s (early & late not withstanding) are looked down and seldom confined to back-office. They are sort of unwanted within the organization. And if you are 50+, then you can very well count the number of days before, organization will give you a voluntary retirement, whether it is voluntary from your part or involuntary.

This is unless; you are very high in management cadre, somewhere close to top.

If I analyse reasons on why does this happen, then the answers are varied:

• Employers preferring youth: Helps them to have average age of employee workforce to under 30.
• Cost to Company: Invariably, the CTC of employees under 30s shall be comparatively lesser than employees in their 50s.
• Fresh blood & ideas: General perception that young employees will come up with fresh & innovative ideas, including risk taking abilities.
• Long working hours & stress: Employees in 20s & early 30s will be happy to put in more working hours in office & absorb more stress, as against employees in 50s.

Does this mean, men/women who are into their 50s do not have a demand in market? God forbid, if someone loses a job & he/she is 50+, then it shall be really cruel. He/She may lose hopes & optimism in life.

In short, what shall men/women in 50s do for the next 30-35 years of life?

Sit idle, watch TV and get bored of life or do social service, whether or not the person is interested in it?

Or create a new hobby or passion and devote time into it?

I am still trying to figure out answers to these… Shall put in another blog, if I could find answers. If you guys can help me with your ideas, will be more than happy to receive them…