Sachin, the Intrapreneur!

 

The picture above shows Microsoft flag flying at half-mast. It was done to honour the memory of our son Sachin who passed on 21^st October. He was a GM and Partner at Microsoft.

But I thought that this a good time to remember good and happy things from Sachin’s life. It is time to celebrate his life at some stage. He has given us lovely moments right from childhood. I remember when he was around four years old. We were to travel from Mysore to Ooty. During the night in Mysore, he had a fall in the hotel bathroom and needed stitches above an eyebrow. The doctor advised us to travel, she said children do not bother about such things. At a bus stand on the way, we saw a guava seller. The seller was shouting in Tamil, “கொய்யாமரம்“. Sachin loved the word so much, all through the journey he was repeating the word and laughing. He was a happy child.

An Intrapreneur is a manager within a large company who promotes innovative product development and marketing- many other things too. But to me, he or she always thinks of the organisation where they are working as their own. They treat it like a startup and work with enthusiasm- which is infectious. The people who work with them are always colleagues. There are no bosses or juniors. These persons have knowledge of varied subjects, both technical and otherwise. When you talk to them, they always have a solution to issues being discussed.

Sachin was a born intrapreneur. An entrepreneur is a person who sets up a business or businesses, taking on financial risks in the hope of profit. The only difference between the two is the financial risks. But since intrapreneur generally works in large companies, financial gambles due to his or her actions are even larger, though not out of pocket. Humans are never opposed to risks, but at the same time, they are careful about losses, whether it is their own money or company money.

Come to think of it, we as a family have either been entrepreneurs or intrapreneurs. I have been running my business since 1981. Priya, with her training as a pediatric dentist, has been on her own while she practiced in India. Jaya was awarded Praj Maha Intrapreneur award in 2012 while she was site-leader and Director with Nvidia, Pune center.

Microsoft Word – mahaintrapreneur-award-2012-Press-Release

That Sachin took this role over a period was not a surprise for us in the family. Right from his childhood, he liked to own whatever responsibility that came his way, he always chose it. While in the sixth or seventh grade, he went for a trek to Manali with a group. When he came back, he shyly took out a neatly folded piece of paper. They had awarded him the best participant award for what else, “Team Work and Collaboration“! He had travelled without family for the first time. But I am sure he must have merged with the group quite smoothly. Right from his young days, he was a voracious reader. He had a remarkable capacity to understand, absorb information and knowledge. He could retrieve it at the right moment when required.

Retrieving the right information from your brain at the right time is an art form- Sachin had that. He would know everything about everything (well almost)- this statement is not a hyperbole. Sachin, in his late twenties, had travelled with two colleagues on business. During dinner, his senior, a Sr Vice President, said, ” I am going to tell you some information about computers, from the period before Sachin was born.” She finished her narrative and smiled at Sachin. Sachin smiled back and said, “If I may, you seem to have missed on the following three things……” When do people like Sachin read about such things, and assimilate them, is difficult to understand, but it is even more difficult to know how these nuggets are retrieved at the right time.

During his COEP days, he is 1995 batch Mechanical, he had time for different projects, taking part in Firodia Karandak- not the acting role but backstage tasks like building a POP model of a dam. He had to be the best in seminar speech, he worked hard for it. He also studied when he found time from his courtship with Prajakta (E&TC) – his future wife. One project from those days, stood out in my mind. During a regatta function at the boat club (that year it was during the monsoon), he created a fountain in the middle of the Mula river. He managed to get waterproof electrical cables and a submersible pump. The fountain in the middle of the river was fun to watch, but to me, as a parent, it was a bit too risky- but he handled it ably.

He worked at PTC in Boston initially, and then Microsoft in Seattle. Whenever we had any discussion about his work in either place, he was full of enthusiasm. Since Jaya and I both were able to discuss details with him, he shared many aspects of how he approached the work, how he tried to encourage colleagues to perform better. I once asked him jokingly, ” You always talked about your colleagues performing better, but why not look at your own career path.” He replied with a smile, ” Of course, Baba, if my colleagues do well, I automatically do well, is it not?” PTC was a mid-sized company. Sachin became a vice president there at the age of thirty. A few years later, during a conversation, he mentioned that he felt some limitations for his career due to the size of PTC- I told him “Jump in the ocean!” He joined Microsoft in about three months. There too in ten years, he became a partner and a GM.

There was never a doubt his professional abilities but the way he developed into an ever-smiling, ever available, ever empathetic person has been a real pleasure to watch. It was amazing to know that he found time for many one on one meetings. During his online memorial meeting many people of different cultures, and race spoke about Sachin. All of them had only one common thread. You may have met Sachin once, or you may know him for ten years – you always felt that you knew him for many years. All felt that he always had a solution for their issues, professional and personal. One of his colleagues who initially lived in China said, “I got transferred to Seattle after a long struggle. But when the decision was taken in Seattle, Sachin called his colleague in China at late-night, Seattle time to inform- Sachin was more delighted than me.”

The following incident will tell you how Sachin influenced others for life. Sachin had reviewed one of his colleague in 2010, which led to the colleagues’ promotion. This colleague keeps a printed copy of his review in his backpack even today- he moved from Microsoft long back. He shared it with me a couple of weeks ago. He said that Sachin’s old review gives him the energy to look at things positively; it also told him about many good traits about which he was not aware.

Sachin, I agree with you! Your influence has made hundreds of your colleagues, better professionals and even better human beings. What was the contribution of Jaya and me here! We only made his wings stronger and let him fly. But it appears that the power needed by the wings was  more than his heart could handle! 

I thought I will share one small video he had sent me this year on my birthday- I had hoped many more videos will come later!

https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aq4ckSwupy2Smf4_d4vBMxMtoWT6tA?e=DEbj8u

 

 

 

 

 

 

To hell with Monopoly

To hell with Monopoly is a sarcastic statement about real-life problems. When an organisation becomes monopolistic, that company’s control over the market is very strong. Google is one such organisation which has a stronghold on the market about online advertisements (because of the search engine), Android apps sold on Google Play. In both areas, other companies and some governments do not like it. The push back has already started. So the battle-cry would be “To hell with Monopoly!” It is very easy to utter such statements, but real-life situations are quite different.

Google is not a news gathering agency, but every news that we want to see, read and search is available on their search engine. This has made Google as a place to look for information, and not the real news gathering/ publishing agency. But people now advertise more with Google than these news agencies. Australia, New Zealand and now France have already started pushing Google to share the revenues earned. The first two have won the initial battle, and this will now continue the world over.

A similar battle has very recently started about Google’s Android app sharing site Google Play. They have an absolute monopoly for quite some time. But two to three weeks back, a couple off apps, Paytm and Paytm First Games along with their updates were blocked by Google for some minor reason. Google says Paytm was breaking gambling laws, and Paytm says it was not doing so. Within a few hours, a settlement was reached and Paytm became available on Google Play, again. There have been different statements about Google taking advantage of their Monopoly. But the truth obviously would be somewhere in between. The funny thing is that if the breach of rules was so strong and obvious, even Apple store would have disallowed the access on their store for Paytm iOS app, but they did not prevent them.

What is the real story? Paytm says that Google purposely troubles them as Paytm is a major force in payment wallet business, at least in India. Google is trying to push its own Google pay app instead. The action comes at a time when the Indian startup community has raised concerns. The concerns are over Google’s alleged misuse of its dominant market position; as Google said last month that Indian businesses selling digital goods through Play Store apps would be charged a 30% commission. It is in line with Google’s global billing policy. This briefly is the crux of the problem—Google, facing severe backlash, has deferred levying the 30 per cent transaction fee in India till April 2022. The fight started about the mini-apps that startups create. Mini apps are a custom-built mobile websites that give users app-like experience without having to download them.

To counter Google, Paytm is making their platform available to these companies, and will not charge any fees. The only charges will be for credit and debit card use, where they will charge 2 % fees- like Google. Although Google has worked closely with India’s booming startup sector and is ramping up its investments, it has recently angered many tech companies with what they say are unfair practices.

Many of India’s technology startups, upset at Google’s local dominance of key apps, are coming together to consider ways to challenge the US tech giant, including by lodging complaints with the government and courts. It has set the stage for a potential showdown, entrepreneurs held two video conferences this week, in India,  to strategise.

I thought that I should share a couple of asides. When we use the search engine, we say let us Google. Searching is now referred to as Googling. But you may not be aware that the search engine used by Facebook is Bing from Microsoft. Independent share for Google is 73% worldwide, and about 12% for Bing. But Bing is also used by Facebook as its search engine. Facebook has 2.41 crore, monthly active users, as in 2019. These will get added to Bing %, which will make its overall share decent. First Microsoft Android device came out this year, but you will be surprised to know that Microsoft made two billion US $ about ten years back from Android phone makers. These were the patent licensing fees.

Let us go back to the original story. Now Paytm has set aside Rs ten crores to help the startups and Indian developers. The money can be used for developing the systems which will enable them to use Paytm site. In the meanwhile, Google Play has made it mandatory for app developers to use their Invoice system if they do not have their own Invoice system. Of course, they will charge fees on this usage too! In short, Google has been trying to take advantage of its strength to squeeze companies.

At some stage, this push-back had to happen. But outwardly this push-back appears to be a David Vs Goliath fight! But is it really so? When we look at Rs ten crore, it appears to be a small amount to fight with Google. But any beginning is always small.

Paytm launched its new Mini App Store that will give direct competition to Google’s Play Store for the Android OS. The company claims that more than 300 apps like Decathlon, Ola, Rapido, and Dominos Pizza will join the Paytm App Store.

In a virtual gathering organised by the Paytm on Thursday, CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma urged developers to join Paytm’s Mini App Store, promising zero developer fee or commissions. Paytm said more than 5,000 developers from across the country joined the virtual conference. Sharma has set an ambitious target of “at least one million mini-apps” on the Mini App Store platform to stop what he called “the victimisation of 30% charges Google is putting on all of us.” Describing the investment as an incubation fund, Sharma said it would be used to develop new solutions and help the local app developers who join the Mini App Store.

Other than this, investors in Paytm are Softbank of Japan and Alibaba from China. It will be interesting to see what stand they take. Chinese are already pushing the US tech companies by having their own search engine Baidu, Alibaba is a big name in online selling. All the global companies are aware of the fact that in the number game, they need to keep China and India humour. But Chinese are already breaking away,  sometimes ahead of the global giants. Is India going to try the same thing? Will Googles of this world take a step or two back? If Paytm cannot do it, someone, I am sure, will take the plunge. Indian companies have the technology, knowledge. The only thing they are lacking is courage. If large Indian companies do not show courage, it will again prove that they are afraid to take on the giants. They would rather continue to remain service providers, or remain second rate companies!

A small wave have has been started by Paytm, let us hope that it turns into a Tsunami- taking the tech world by storm- pun intended!

 

Internationally India Matters II

“A nation that does not honour its past has no future- GOETHE.

External Affairs Minister of India- S Jaishankar has shared this thought by Goethe at the beginning of one of the chapters in his book “The India Way- The Strategies of uncertain World”. What a wise statement and it shows the thoughtfulness and wisdom of Mr Jaishankar. He has used the gems from Mahabharata to explain how the modern world operates.

The picture above depicts how Shrikrishna advised Arjun to finish off Karna, as Karna was busy removing the chariot wheel stuck in the ground- it was one the treacheries or in today’s context called Out of Box thinking suggested by Krishna. We come across many real-life situations in Mahabharata, the Hindu classic. As a tactic, looking at the furious activity of the Chinese army recently, our army acted smartly and swiftly to wrest control of heights in that area.

We became independent in the year 1947 and were a poor country with low self-esteem as all the other larger nations would utilise experiences from their history to decide worldly affairs. We as a nation and a society had low self-esteem and pride in our past. Mahabharata is vast, it does not talk of only about theory but explains and discusses real-life situations. We should be proud of the real-life depiction. All these years, we spoke about Mahabharata as mythological treaties and never as go-to, wise writings of our ancestors. Jaishankar suggests that we should be proud of these treaties and utilise the wealth of knowledge it provides to be used in the modern world of the 21^st century. Basic things in our lives never change. We all need the air and water to survive; the food may be fancy or simple- but some food is also required. Mahabharata has simple, challenging, tricky, apparent solutions to the most things in life personal, social interactions and for diplomacy. We need to only search for it. There is the betrayal by Shakuni in the dice game, and Kauravas trying to burn Pandavas in the Lac (a highly inflammable material) house were the tricks Kauravas tried. Pandavas’ intelligence gathering got them critical information in time, and they escaped.

The statecraft is well explained in Bhagwad Gita. Krishna tells Arjuna that duty comes before everything else without getting scared about the collateral damage. After the battle, all Kauravas who were cousins of Pandavs were killed. Indian nation and society learnt it’s lessons over a period. Almost every decade or two was the turning point after independence. Just after independence, India tried to get “poor” countries together as a non-aligned movement. We were afraid of joining the western group or the soviet group. But the 1962 war with China exposed our wrong thinking about battle readiness. It was the lowest point in our modern history. We learnt our lessons, and in 1971  we showed the courage against Pakistan to make them weak permanently- by creating Bangla Desh. There was fear of the US helping Pakistan, but we did what needed to be done.

1974 Pokharan nuclear test was another event which India used to showcase the capabilities. But again we faltered and delayed the next test for 24 years. But 1998 nuclear test and the 9/11 event changed the US thinking about India and in 2005 the nuclear treaty was signed. The world prefers strong nations. We as nation dilly-dallied with a weak response to firm acts. We were not used to working from the position of strengths. A young friend sent me a comment, “What did India gain by banning TikTok?” after reading the part I of this blog. I wrote to him, ” It was only to show to the Chinese that we can not be browbeaten now, we can stand up to them!” My friend’s response was a typical response from a weak position and a need to keep the status quo! But now the time has come to demand “Status Quo Ante”! “Status Quo Antebellum” is the original Latin phrase which is shortened to “Status Quo Ante” in real use. It means the state existing before the war!

This brings us to the recent meeting between Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart Yang Li! The statement after the meeting did not use the words “Status Quo Ante”! Opposition parties in India started making a big noise about the report. An ex Indian Ambassador explained that such statements are for the consumption of politics in the respective nations. It is evident that when political parties, including the opposition parties, are on the same page, national issues get resolved satisfactorily. If COVID and Chinese aggression are not national issues, then are Kangana Ranaut and Sushant Singh death national issues? India’s political parties have shown this wisdom during previous difficult situations! I sincerely hope they do it again.

When Chakaravyuha was created, Arjuna was busy, so his son Abhimanyu went to break it. Jayadratha could prevent other Pandavas from helping Abhimanyu and who died. It was an error of judgement. Sending Indian forces to Sri Lanka as IPKF was a similar error. India lost many soldiers and was forced to retreat. India has learnt from the mistakes of IPKF and the 1962 Chinese war. I am sure they have realised the mistake they made like sending Abhimanyu to war!

The brute strength of the army matters but in Mahabharata, before the war, Arjun and Duroyodhan went to Krishna to take his help. Krishna said, “I will not fight, but I can give my army for fighting on one side, and I will become an advisor to the other side.” Arjuna opted for Krishna’s advisory role. The correct judgment of the situation, tactical decisions are essential in a war. Krishna used his tactical knowledge and sometimes advising diversionary tactics to win some battle e. g. the killing of Jayadratha, use of Shikhandi against Bhishma. During Balakot surgical strike, one set of planes was sent in the direction different than Balakot. Pakistan ATC’s were diverted to look at these planes. In the meanwhile, another group of planes performed the surgical strike. Shivaji did the same trick by sending bulls, with torches tied to their horns, to deceive Shahistakhan.

What a wise statement made by Goethe and appropriately selected by Jaishankar. Going deep into our history is essential, and we should be proud of our history. Mahabharata is a treaty that has such vital situations which perfectly fit our daily life of today. But that is a matter a few more blogs.

But one thing is for sure, the Indian government and people handling the international matters have become adept to handling tricky situations. They think ahead and are willing to change as per needs. In today’s multipolar world, where you have frenemies every day could be a different and complicated day. People like Jaishankar know what they are doing, and will ensure that India gets its rightful place in the world hierarchy.

Internationally, India Matters- Part I

Standard rules from our life apply to international diplomacy also. Like we have big bullies in schools and in real life, we see the nations that behave in the same fashion. Then there are groups, and there are rival camps. We see the same things in international diplomacy. At the end of the second world, USSR had partnered with the US, Britain and France to defeat Germany, Japan and Italy. Later on, the cold war started with Russia and its satellites (conquered countries) on one side, and all the western world joined on the other. (Where were India and China?) It was led by the US because they were a large country, economy and had a large army. The US was physically separated by the Atlantic Ocean on one side and the Pacific Ocean on the other side. The world lived in groups of democratic countries and dictatorial communist countries. India, though it was a large country, had just got its independence. It was a poor country and had no confidence in its own abilities.

India hence started a non-aligned group of countries and tried to keep good relations with both sides of the Cold War countries. Similarly, China was also large, like India but was also ignored by other countries. Those were the times of mutual cooperation amongst friends, where rules were dictated by a few large countries- bullies! India’s confidence was so low in those days that India rejected a permanent seat in the Security Council of the United Nation- a coveted position.

I am currently reading two books. “The Room where it happened”- by John Bolton, National Security Advisor (NSA) to Trump- he resigned in 2019. Book is about the working of the US government. The Room is the Oval Office in the White House- Home of the US President. My first observation about this book is that India is nowhere on the radar of the US strategy. But that does not mean that all is lost.

The second one is ” The India Way- The Strategies of uncertain World”. This book is written by the current External Affairs Minister of India- S Jaishankar. The book is about the uncertain ways the world operates now.

My brain started looking at the “strange” way the world operates now. It feels strange because we were used to groups and mutual cooperation. China growth story began in the mid-seventies of the last century, the world hardly noticed it. The US took advantage of the situation. The US-China love story had begun when the Nixon-Kissinger team was in the saddle. Within the next thirty years or so, China grew very fast, and now China is the world’s number two economy. I am not talking about China’s internal political system, but India started its trajectory in 1991 with the Narsimha Rao-Manmohan Singh combo. India has now become the world’s number five economy.

Look at the world scenario today vis-à-vis that post-world war II scenario. India and China were not even discussed. Germany and Japan were crushed by the war. But now the first five economies in the world are the US, China, Japan, Germany and India! Miracle- no but pragmatism yes! Is this going to be the Asian Century? Possible.

During the induction of the Rafael planes in the Indian Airforce at Ambala yesterday, the French Defence Minister Florence Parly made an interesting statement. She talked in general about mutual cooperation between the countries but made a significant statement. She said, “France is going to actively pursue the induction of India as a permanent member of the security council in the UNO.” France has openly accepted the significance of India’s rise in the global hierarchy. Sometimes India and France openly disagree on specific issues. But it is the case of agreeing to disagree! Jaishankar has coined the word “Frenemies” in his book. He says, “The days of active groups and mutual cooperation are numbered. It is now about friends who can be enemies too- not necessarily on territorial aspects. Territorial enemies like India and China, are physical neighbours.

How swiftly has this situation changed? Since we are not in the field of diplomacy, we tend to miss the events that are occurring. Since Trump took over the US Presidentship, he is not afraid to openly talk about the US first policy. Sometimes he makes an awkward statement which his colleagues also find difficult to justify. But he is also now talking of frenemies. The US had taken the moral responsibility of saving and helping the whole world from bad things- it could be Vietnam, or a Taliban crisis or the ISIS issue. The US bubble about security due to oceans was badly shattered by the 9/11 event- today is the 19^th anniversary of the event. Their resolve became even stronger to save the world.

Though the US is the wealthiest country in the world, Trump has realised that they are spending too much money on saving the world. His famous theory is to charge the NATO countries and the countries like South Korea, Japan, for the security support they are getting from the US. His formula is Cost plus 50%! Many of the “saved’ countries have been wealthy in their own way. But they are paying minimal compensation to the US. The US hegemony in world politics is being challenged by the Chinese. Initially, this happened slowly, but as Chinese GDP started growing, they started dominating on different forums. The US and the world, in general, realised their folly in showing too much dependence on the Chinese. China became the factory for the world, and many multinationals became too dependent on China. A gamechanger like COVID showed these countries the mistakes they had made by buying cheap components and products only from China.

Galwan was the gamechanger for India. The event showed us the Chinese strategy of treating border clashes and trade separately. Post-Galwan India wants to make borders safe before discussing business with China. India has started with banning a few Chinese companies from tendering process. Chinese apps like TikTok, PUBG and many others can not be accessed from India. India has begun understanding how to fight above their pay grade! Significantly, India is not afraid to do so. India is now intensely talking of Atmanirbharata- self-reliance! India and many nations in the world have understood the Chinese plot.

India is the first country in the world that has shown the will and the courage to have a confrontation with China. Mr Jaishankar has suggested many ways in his book. But he feels that India must take lessons from history- or take the help of Mahabharata to handle the current complicated global situation. I will discuss this in part II of this blog which will be published in a couple of days.

SOS! House Full!

There was an urgent meeting being held, and the subject was how to stop the rush of new arrivals! An emergency had been declared six months ago. Everybody had hoped that six months of crisis would be more than enough to handle the surge of new arrivals. Everybody was surprised to see the rush at the wrong time of the year. Old hands were shaking their heads, the expert analysts, professors, were shocked that their predictions were going haywire. The computer experts were checking and rechecking the algorithms to see what was going wrong. They were trying to use Artificial Intelligence as well as own intelligence to solve the puzzle.

The state budget had overrun. The Big Boss had called for the two-day meeting to discuss the situation and decide the way forward. The business was growing fast, but it was coming from unexpected areas. Logistics, IT, transportation, language/translators every group was under tremendous pressure. Finally, the Boss arrived. I was talking about the place called Yamlok!

In the picture above, you see the Boss. Due to a tremendous increase in business, the Boss had to support the logistics staff. The systems were so well-oiled previously that the Boss had stopped taking part in operations a long time ago. He settled down, wiped his sweat and said, “Give me a couple of minutes. I need to talk to my wife. I have so many missed calls.” For the next ten minutes, all that others could hear was “Yes, darling! I will definitely call you at least three times a day! Oh, I am not dead! How can I die? Come on, be fair to me!” He drank a bottle full of chilled water and said,” Okay! Let us begin!”

As you rightly guessed the folks were not dead scared of the Boss, but still, the Boss is Boss, and he is always right. That fear of the kick on the butt was always there! Yamraj said, let me begin. “Folks there is an unprecedented growth in business. You have seen that I have just come back from a business call. We are short of people everywhere. In olden days, six months back, Chitragupt’s department used to send a list of people who would be “travelling”, in advance. We had a month to get our logistics in place. We had to arrange for agents, translators, vehicles. Our facility of transit accommodation was adequate. Chitragupta’s department was working efficiently. By the time they were through with one batch, their final abode was ready, as per their bookings in the hell or in heaven. Our systems were much better than down there. The identity cards of new arrivals were prepared well in advance, including their NirAAdhar number and PIP code. But recently our system has collapsed. I will just give you an example. A lady called Heroin Ramirez was expected to arrive on a specific date. Instead of sending a Spanish speaking agent, a Marathi speaking agent was assigned. That agent made his first mistake. He thought the lady was Spanish and went to Spain but could not locate her. On asking he was told by our local contacts that the lady lived in Mexico. The last moment Visa, Flights etc. were somehow managed; the Heroin had her tryst with destiny at the allotted time- but it only happened because of time difference.”

I have told the story briefly, but one whole session was needed to explain intricacies. During the meeting one by one, each group was asked to give their presentation. China head started her business presentation. She said that their intelligence found out that there would be a surge in customers in 2020. They started getting the lists, and suddenly they found that these Chinese somehow managed to cheat the system. Our agents went to the customers at designated addresses, but at many places, they were told that such people did not exist! Yamraj thought for a moment and said, “My grandfather had told me that Chinese always beat our systems!” China head said that their preparations for a surge in China were wasted.

Then was the turn of Europe head. He said, “We had a massive load of additional work, but used our Chinese preparations for Europe. We had to quickly retrain them for different languages, but it was manageable. But we are facing a new problem. Agents are tired of overload and finding various excuses. Agents are cooking stories about our transport, रेडा ( a male buffalo). It is explained in the picture below.”

“One of the agents said that he took a loo break, and when he came back, he saw that his रेडा was missing. On checking up, I found out that a Lion was roaming about in that area; hence the रेडा was hiding.” He further said that “The issue is now I can not now locate my guest; he has gone home as I did not reach on time. I do not have his home address!”

Then was the turn of the US head! He said, “I will tell you briefly my status because I have to rush back for the coordination at home. With so many guests wanting to travel, we have started sharing flyers with people to tell them that it is better not to migrate. Living on earth is not so bad as you think. We even hired people dressed like our Boss to distribute flyers- saying DO NOT TRAVEL! It is houseful at our end too! In a rush to come here, I could not get our flyer to share with you. Hence I am sharing with you a sample flyer we have made for India. Our “India head” was saying that he would also like to start distributing flyers in India, looking at the situation there.

“In the US, we started late, at least in India, we should start early to distribute flyers. There is another suggestion. We should put House Full board at Chitrgupt’s office entrance then our friends will inform back home that it is “House Full” both in Heaven and Hell!”

Friends, in today’s tough, painful and severe times of COVID 19 pandemic, I have tried to take a lighter look at the situation. But it appears that in the three of the top four most populous countries India, the US and Brazil the pandemic does not appear to be under control. In some cases, there are practical difficulties, and in others, people feel that it is ok to die than give up personal freedom. But it is not that easy. When you have COVID, your family and friends are sad and may catch the bug. Your own freedom should not be at the cost of other peoples choice. Take care, be safe, wear a mask and keep social distancing.

Industry 4.0

COVID 19 is always there in the background of everybody’s mind, and it has hindered the overall thought process and thinking in human consciousness. It is easy to get caught up into the quagmire. My friend Vilas shared his life’s experiences with friends on a bi-weekly zoom meeting yesterday. His current work involves working on the high-end modern systems, including the concept of Industry 4.0. I had not written any blog recently, based on advanced technological concepts. Hence I thought this could be an excellent subject to discuss with friends. As usual, I will try to write in a language which makes it easy for non-technical people to understand too!

Let us as usual begin in the beginning. When we talk of something called Industry 4.0, what are 1.0/2.0/3.0? Industry 1.0 is assigned time between 1760 to 1840, give and take a decade or two. Till then, all the work was done manually. During this period the people started understanding the use of water and steam to help them perform some activities, instead of doing everything manually. It was the 1.0 of the sector which came to be known as Industry.

Industry 2.0, or the second industrial revolution or better known as the technological revolution, is the period between 1870 and 1914. The railroad networks, expressways and the telegraph allowed for faster transfer of people and ideas. Electricity generation had become routine, which allowed for factory electrification and the modern production lines. It is also a period of considerable economic growth, with an increase in productivity. It, however, caused a surge in unemployment since many workers were replaced by machines in factories. With every rise in the Industrial revolution, the pressure of laying off people arose. Along with this, medical facilities were also improving, which led to an increase in longevity, causing further stress on society for providing jobs to people.

Industry 3.0 started after the end of two world wars and later due to the introduction of computers in our day to day lives. It led to a wave of automation, further putting pressure on the workforce to retain their jobs. But at the same time, these fifty years saw an unprecedented wave of growth and wealth generation. From the early seventies, in China and then in nineties in India, these changes started taking effect. The effects were happening on the one-third population of this world. A large number of people came above the poverty line during this period.

Friends, you must be wondering that when everything is improving, where was the need for Industry 4.0? Well, nobody does these things with planning, these things just happen. When these things happen on a mass scale, a name is given to such a phenomenon. In 2011, a German engineer and economist, Klauss Schwab, used the term Industry 4.0. It was also the theme of the World Economic Forum meeting at Davos in 2016. People knew that something new had arrived, and everybody started taking Industry 4.0 seriously and with enthusiasm.

What is Industry 4.0? It is something that is going to be useful to all the factories, manufacturing units to get more information about themselves. The process, I am sure, must have started ten years before. Because of improvement in the communication system, the managements the world over, approved budgets for systems to automatically collect the data about their manufacturing machines/equipment. Till then, most of such information was captured and displayed in tabular format. From registers and logbooks, the bosses got an idea of what was happening in their plants, but the data could be overwhelming. Analysing the data and finding the solution was a significant task. Industry 4.0 started coming into the picture to change this situation. Shown below is a representative graphical presentation.

A couple of buzzwords. Data Science is a multifaceted field used to gain insights from complex data. Data scientists use knowledge of Probability and Statistics, and many such sciences; in this phase, questions are asked. Business Intelligence is a stage where data analysed is being used to make decisions.

Suppose there is some equipment. It performs various functions. Some functions are electronically monitored, and others are manually noted. You have uptime and downtime! For downtime, there are reasons. The reasons could be process-related, mechanical, electrical problems, operator issues and many others. By capturing all this data, the manager or supervisor can know about the performance of the machine and productivity. Such data was conventionally collected in a logbook or a register. A group of people would sit together and get information about when, why and how- hopefully!

Now consider hundreds of such machines and the processes which are dependent on the previous process. The data in logbooks or registers would be huge and practically impossible to analyse as a whole. Big data calls for data science experts. They set up systems to check data for anomalies, and then process the anomalies as per the requirement of the organisation. The process data then is taken by BI or business intelligence. You can get the graphs, displays that are easily understandable. Then there is a facility called drill-down. The drill-down definition is to access successively deeper levels of a hierarchically organised database, set of files, etc. The process explained above analyses the issues threadbare and because these systems are “Intelligent” systems, they offer solutions too!

Since I do not want to get into technical aspects, I am not mentioning technical terms. It will suffice to say that the concept is not for maintaining some industry standards, to satisfy the customers. Industry 4.0 concept is for your own betterment. The systems will keep on improving with time, thereby improving the performance, but the basic idea behind this is to pinpoint issues.

I will explain to you with the help of an example. A factory has 20 machines of the same make and capacity. But the productivity of each device is varying. By capturing all possible data for each machine, the shop in charge would be able to understand what is going wrong. Different equipment will have various problems, and the degree of variance could also be varying. Problems could be related to maintenance, the accuracy of the process. The data may indicate that some machines need preventive maintenance in the current week, and others may need it next month and so on. If this work is carried out systematically, machine stoppage will reduce. Some data will show that the user is making mistakes; hence reports will indicate that a specific operator needs to be retrained. 🙂🙂 Data may show that temperature reading in some machines is faulty; correcting them would improve efficiency and reduce rejection. One can go on and on. By the way, the same principle can be applied to our own life too! I am talking about thought processes. One more thought to end the blog.

Has Industry 5.0 started without us knowing about it? Do you know what I am talking about? Yes, I am talking of Coronavirus pandemic. It has started a major overhaul in the thinking of doing work; the WFH- working from home concept is already there and it could continue even after the pandemic is over! Or is it the beginning of Business 1.0! Industry 4.0 is about efficiency, cost savings and thereby improvement in profitability. The same thing is going to happen now not by modern technology but by forced out of box thinking of business process, thanks to Corona!

Do you know what it could do? I definitely know! I need to write another blog!

 

Pragmatism at its best

The whole world was in sleep mode while China was conquering different frontiers with contract manufacturing, and direct production. Before the world realised, China had become the number 2 economy behind the US. They became number one in the car manufacture, new infrastructure, contract manufacturing and many other areas which included computer games.

But something has been definitely changing in China, and China has started flexing its muscles and is showing an expansionist tendency of late. China tried the same act with India in Ladakh, probably hoping that India will blink first. They made a significant error of judgment, and India pushed back hard. All these years, India was not mixing border disputes with the trade. But Galwan changed everything.

After Galwan skirmish, India is systematically trying to push China, where it hurts. It started with slowly not allowing the Chinese companies to take part in tenders for infrastructure. The masterstroke was banning gaming and other apps. If you read carefully, the gaming companies hardly make money by the usage, but they are after their valuation done by the market. The valuation of such companies is dependent on the number of downloads and the number of active users. As these numbers increases, their valuation increases proportionately.

TikTok has about two billion downloads. Their current valuation is the US $50/ billion. These are market figures, and in the event of sale of the TikTok, by the parent company, ByDance is expected to make the US $ 50/ billion. India ban and future US ban will reduce the active users from the current 800 million by 35%. This reduction can severely affect ByDance’s TikTok valuation.

India has shown a great pragmatism by acting against the apps, which include a search engine and a chat application. By doing so in India, we will be hardly affected, but the Chinese companies owning these apps will be definitely affected. People had doubts that by banning Chinese products, production of Indian manufacturing companies could get affected. But the Indian Government has been more pragmatic. They have not taken any such steps. The steps taken are well thought as they are being implemented.

Following the Indian action, the US government also declared that it is going to ban TikTok in the US. In a surprise move, Microsoft has announced that it is in the process of buying out TikTok operations in the US, Australia and New Zealand. (Today’s news is that they want to buy global services)Though the total active users may not be as large as in India, they would be substantial. Why do they want to buy TokTok? The reason is that there would be considerable consumer revenue from advertisements, an area where Microsoft is lagging way behind FB and Google. Customers will get a trusted and secure provider that all the governments trust. None of the other social media biggies, like Facebook, Google can buy due to the anti-trust investigation going on in the US senate. Whether Microsoft will buy it or not depends on many factors. The first of these would be who blinks first? Microsoft or TikTok? Is Microsoft more desperate to buy or is TikTok more desperate to sell? Microsoft is loaded with money. A few years back they bought out LinkedIn. Before that, they had acquired Nokia’s cell phone business- the acquisition which miserably failed. But looking at recent Microsoft functioning, they appear to be pretty much in control of what they are doing. With Azure/Cloud computing business taking off for Microsoft, they again seem to have got their act together.

I have written about the business side of it. But even the US government led by President Trump has taken a pragmatic decision for a change. Without saying so, they have declared that they will ban TikTok US operations from 15^th September. It means they have given leeway and time to Microsoft till that date. It is a very pragmatic and practical decision. It could have quickly banned TikTok overnight, but it saw that Microsoft was trying to make a deal where they will pay some money to the US government in the form of taxes- the amount would be directly proportional to the size of the contract.

As against that, there was a news item which said that Tata Motors is trying to hive off their car business in India. It wants to sale 49% equity to some reputed car manufacturer but intends to retain controlling shares with them. Is it pragmatic? Hiving off is pragmatic but trying to maintain control is not! Why is Tata Motors diluting their stakes? The first reason that I see is that they feel that they can not become a serious player in the Indian market with the current quality of cars being produced. The Sierras, Estates, Indica, Nano have created a long list of products which became difficult to sale, even in India. It became apparent once the Suzukis and Hyundais of the world took a firm foothold in the Indian market. With the new range of cars like Tiago and others, Tata made a bit of comeback. But this is not going to be enough. It is always going to be a catch-up game.

With Suzuki and Toyota coming together in India for both the IC engine and Electric cars, it is going to be tough for the competition to challenge them. Suzuki is a well-proven numero uno in India. Money power and technology of Toyota will boost the operations further. The combination is going to be tough for the competitors. They have also decided to come together in Electric Vehicles. Their battery plant is well on its way in Gujarat, in collaboration with Toshiba. For EV’s, it is going to Toyota design, Suzuki manufacturing cars for both for themselves and Toyota too, in India. The engine- battery power pack, would be Toshiba technology, which will be a win-win situation for all.

As against this, Tata Motors is going to find it difficult if they do not become pragmatic and handover control to the new partner. Especially with JLR facing tough times in China and other international markets, pragmatism is what is going to help. Sometimes it is essential to bite that bullet. There is a history of two significant partners not being able to work together. Bajaj Auto and Kawasaki tried this for some time, but it did not work out. Once Hero became very big, they broke the collaboration with Honda. Aramco and Reliance have been trying to come together in India, but somehow it is not working out, yet. But looking at history, it seems complicated.

When a large company is looking for a world-class organisation for collaboration, seeking to control the new company is not a pragmatic approach. The other company is also going to be significant. So, friends let us wait and watch the fascinating battle in the market place.

Let Sushant rest in peace

Writing a second blog about a film personality in two months is not my style! But events that are happening around forced me to write this piece. The disclaimer- Sushant was a good actor with personality, he always appeared to be happy! I have nothing personal about him; I am only sad that such a young man could not handle life and died very young!

China, COVID and Sushant have been three essential news items everywhere since June. The first two interchanged the positions intermittently, but Sushant was a strong third in the news. As has been happening after the advent of social media, we see instant psychologists, psychoanalysts galore mushrooming in society faster than the mushrooms themselves. I am sure all my psychiatrist friends have taken refreshers courses on the WhatsApp or FB university. The public attention and media attention are two amazing things, to say the least- these have worked themselves into a frenzy.

The discussions have extended beyond a reasonable time as a film personality was involved. A word that is used continually is nepotism. Nepotism means the practice among those with power or influence of favouring relatives or friends, especially by giving them jobs. The discussion is about “Insiders” and “Outsiders”. To my understanding, this phenomenon has been there from the early seventies. The first insider, as I remember, was Randhir Kapoor. Then there was Rishi Kapoor, Abhishek Bacchan and Hrithik Roshan. Among ladies were Karishma and Kareena Kapoor.

If nepotism theory was correct, then Randhir Kapoor would have become Raj Kapoor II. Abhishek Bacchan would have become Amitabh II. Others mentioned above have become successful because they have been damn good anyway. Yes because these were “Insiders” they get opportunities quickly. Raj Kapoor produced Bobby to introduce Rishi Kapoor and not for Abhishek Bacchan. In the same movie Dimple Kapadia, the “outsider” was also launched. Raj Kapoor put his own money to back a family member, and Mukesh Ambani does not help even his brother Anil’s children to start their career. The empire is exclusively for his family.

For Bollywood families, being known to each other since childhood is an asset. You do not distribute family gold to outsiders. All the people criticising the system should tell how many “outsiders” they have launched in their family business. Have you heard the names, Rahul Gandhi, Sachin Pilot, Jyotiraditya Scindia? Being inside only helps initially. And do we mean to say that the insiders, once launched, are on the auto-pilot all through their career? No, they have to work hard, they need to keep on working hard all the time. They have to manage their work, their good looks and their availability all the time. For this, some have worked in two long shifts, every day for months and years together. Let us not be naïve! Arjun Tendulkar, the “Insider” from cricket fraternity is yet to get selected to Mumbai Ranji team.

Unfortunately, Sushant was suffering from bipolar disorder. The information is now coming out from the doctors who were interviewed.

https://zeenews.india.com/people/sushant-singh-rajput-had-bipolar-disorder-was-stressed-and-not-taking-medicines-regularly-actors-psychiatrists-tell-mumbai-police-2297209.html

For a Bihar boy from a well-to-do family living in Mumbai, must have been tough. It must have become complicated with his psychological issues. He lived alone, and he had a breakup, plus he had a new girlfriend too- life was too complicated! From the news that one reads, he must have made appr Rs. 15 crores during the short span he worked in Bollywood. I will not go into details about his expenses as read from various news items- suffice to say that he had expensive tastes. A close friend’s wife had this disorder. My friend told me that when she came out, temporarily, from depression, she would become extraordinarily euphoric and spend large amounts of money.

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/bipolar-disorder/symptoms-causes/syc-20355955

Money could have become a problem because of excessive spending to maintain the Bollywood lifestyle. Sushant was ill, and he did not have any projects going. It was a classic case for trundling down the slopes to disaster. He was away from his family, and I do not know why nobody helped even before Corona. Such mental conditions are challenging to understand from a distance. Add to this the lockdowns starting from 22^nd March due to Corona! He barely survived the isolation due to lockdowns.

On top of that, he, unfortunately, was not taking his medicines regularly. (Read Zee report above) The fear of the unknown and the fear of shortage of funds is a terrible concoction for anybody. Bollywood has a history of such cases since olden times. Nowadays, the Bollywood people get good financial advice about investing money. They start throwing money around after they have put aside big money. Amitabh Bacchan had reached the nadir of his finances in the early ’90s. Kaun Banega Crorepati saved him. He slipped down from becoming the superhero to zero, and back to doing well financially. From movies, he came back to TV- it must take courage to do so. Bharat Bhushan, the hero from my childhood, had many bungalows and fancy cars. He put his money into producing movies. After initial success, he did not realise how frail was the crown of a successful movie maker. He died a pauper. Bhagwan, the “Sham Dhale” fame, also died a pauper. He lived in a chawl in Parel area in his old days.

Bollywood is a bad, bad boy of business. Many critics and TRP wallas discuss as if Bollywood specifically ganged up against Sushant. Kangana Ranaut has taken up the mantel to take up the nepotism debate to a different level. Recently videos of her interviews are coming out from archives, where she was all for the current system that is in place. Now suddenly she is opposing the regime. In 2019, she was asked who the top three male actors were in that year. Sushant’s name was not there. Now she is arguing how the top most talent like Sushant was hounded out, and finally killed by a faction in Bollywood. It appears that police also have nothing better to do; they have interrogated around 40 people to find out if Sushant was targeted by a group! Do not forget that at the end of the day, it is business. Getting part in a movie is like receiving a purchase order in business. One has to learn the art of getting those orders.

On WhatsApp groups, it is fashionable to blame the whole world for Sushant’s death (his world, of course). But we should not forget that in an industry that is run like a family business, we know of Dev Anand’s and Dharmendra’s of this world had slept on footpaths before they made it. For every Dharmendra, there have been hundreds who struggled all their life or went back home. I will not say that they were made of different fabric, but they were lucky to have managed to remain sane, though weak. Sushant was unfortunate that he got stressed out and could never come out. People forget THE OUTSIDER of them all, Shah Rukh did not come from Delhi and straight away bought Mannat! Everybody has to struggle, some have less struggle! That I feel is nepotism. Be pragmatic! At least let Sushant rest in peace, knowing that he was hounded by his demons during the lifetime.

Sushant, kiddo, if there is next life, come back with a bit stronger mind- ask HIM before your future birth. HE knows how you have suffered and will be kind to you next time! Rest in peace!

P.S. Sushant’s father has registered an FIR in Bihar against Rhea Chakravarty saying she stole his money, and abetted to his suicide!

The Real China Story!

Disclaimer: I have written this blog based on Mr Bambawale’s zoom meeting with Indian Express that I attended. If there is some incorrect explanation, it is because of my misunderstanding. It has nothing to do with Mr Bambawale’s views. His views were crystal clear!

Yesterday I heard Gautam Bambawale’s interview on the China situation. The Zoom meeting was arranged by the Indian Express; the interviewer was Shubhajit Roy. For records purposes, Gautam was India’s ambassador to China. Incidentally, another Indian Ambassador to China, Nalin Suri was my hostel mate, in Elphinstone, in the year 1967- he was in the arts stream!

Years back, Andy Grove used to teach at Stanford. Some students were asked how they felt when “THE” Andy Grove taught them. Their answer was simple. They said, ” We felt as if God was teaching us!” I will not take Gautam to that level about his knowledge of China, but he was almost there. He was soft-spoken, knowledgeable, and humble. He had the clarity that he had retired and politely replied to a question that it was not for him to comment on a specific tricky question about future policies. He also refrained from talking about political issues.

In the beginning, he explained beautifully, the difference in the Chinese philosophy of life and our philosophy—the meaning of word China means Zhong Guo (Middle Country). It means that they are at the centre of the Universe. The 21^st century is not going to be the century of Asia, as per the Chinese. As per them, it is going to be the Century of China! Indian thinking is वसुधैव कुटुम्बकम्, the world is one family! Gautam explained that because of the difference in basic thinking, Chinese are of expansionist mentality, and Indians want to get along smoothly with all others.

About the Galwan crisis, he said that it is the game-changer in the India/China relationship. Last so many years, both sides have shown restraint. There is an agreement that during any clash, bullets will not be fired. The practice was followed by both the parties during Galwan skirmish too. As a democracy, our government has shared the details of our casualties with all. The Chinese shared the details of losses on their side in the 1962 war in the year 1994. So we may never know the Chinese details about casualty anytime soon.

By game-changer, he meant that China now probably feels that India can be pushovers. Chinese GDP is almost 4 ½ times that of India, which could have given false notions to them about India’s weakness. According to Bambawale, the Indian army has given a fitting reply to the Chinese in Galwan, and we should be proud to have such strong armed forces. He also said that India had matched the Chinese buildup in Ladakh. All the previous events involved not more than 100 to 150 men, but this time buildup is enormous on both sides. Deaths have occurred in such events after more than forty years.

One of the reasons for disputes is that there is no clear cut border demarcation. During the last few decades, border disputes and trade disputes have been handled independently of each other. The border disputes were sorted out over a period, but that did not put brakes to the trade activity. Now the trade between the two countries has reached a level of 100 billion US dollars. According to Gautam, the time has come to delink border disputes and the business. China sent a message to India in no uncertain terms about their intentions. Probably they misjudged the bravery and courage of our troops. They may try to push us again anywhere on the 3400 km border.

But India is also in the preparation mode to give it back to Chinese all along the border. India should reset all the previous ways and give a fresh thought about handling the situation. India’s sharp reply to a brutal Chinese attack is a message sent to China in no uncertain terms. Just after I exited the Zoom meeting, I saw the news on TV that the Indian government has banned 59 Chinese apps from India. It has given instructions to service providers and Google/Apple not to allow users to use or download the apps- they are given 48 hours to do it.

The naysayers will, of course, ask how India will be benefitted from this action. There may not be severe damage financially, but it is the first clear message to China to behave. Commercially there are many things that government can do. But the society in general and the business houses also have this responsibility. He gave a couple of examples. In India, Chinese cell phones have a 60 to 70 % market share. For our next phone, all of us can switch to Samsung- he jokingly said that he is not the agent for Samsung. He also further noted that individual components, products may become expensive for the initial period. It is the cost we as a nation may have to bear to reset our equations vis a vis China.

He was asked why China has started the border dispute? Firstly, he felt that China wants to bring all the Asian countries under their hegemony. This thinking has probably started because there is a global pressure from the world regarding Corona Wuhan’s episode. On the side, the US and China trade war has been going on for a couple of years. China is also in conflict with Japan. But China also gets into fights with the outside world when it has internal or party clashes going on within China. These are their standard diversionary tactics. Overall it seems that China is driven by their wish to show that they are going to be number one in the world over a period.

From here onwards, I will write my two cents on the subject. Why do political parties not come together even in an event when there is a threat to national security? Is tweeter a medium to air one’s views on security matters? Do opposition political parties expect the government to share information about Galwan in the public domain? The government needs to think, discuss, plan execute plans ruthlessly if required. We should not make any decisions emotionally, but we should not forget that the effect of this reset is going to be long term. Colossal money will have to be budgeted for the expenses on the armed forces.

Even if there is a four-day war, we cannot afford it because the economy is already fully stretched due to the pandemic. But if the need arises, we may be forced to make the ultimate decision. If we hesitate, China will try to go for a kill which we can ill afford!

Atmanirbharata-Self Reliance!

Tejas Fighter

Atmanirbharata is a word that came into circulation, recently. The term means Self-reliance! When our PM talked about Atmanirbharata, all the “experts” and the political opponents decided that India was being taken back to the stone age. They declared that India is going back to the permit Raj. On the other side, China baiters started screaming “Ban the Chinese products” and some such slogans. Self-reliance means the reliance on one’s own powers and resources instead of those of others.

How can a society, state or a nation become Atmanirbhar? For any change to happen in humanity, it is the smallest part of the vast populace must become Atmanirbhar first.

“Self-Reliance” is an 1841 essay written by American philosopher and essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson. It contains the most thorough statement of one of Emerson’s recurrent themes: the need for each individual to avoid conformity and false consistency and follow his own instincts and ideas. Emerson emphasises the importance of individualism and its effect on an individual’s satisfaction in life. He stresses that anyone can achieve happiness and become Atmanirbhar, simply if they change their mindset.

The philosophical thinking about Atmanirbharata has been prevalent in the world for a long time. Since most have not analysed the term, the usual expert comments are thrown using strong expressions against the thought process. Atmanirbharata has to start from childhood. We teach our kids to crawl, walk, run and ride a cycle. How do we do it? We do it by encouraging them. We explain to them that we can fall, and get hurt, but unless these things happen, children do not become independent. These actions are the fundamental actions that we need to know about life’s journey. We all know that kids love them, they want to be Atmanirbhar in their life. I am talking about physical acts. So, what should we do about our mental facilities? Should we not become Atmanirbhar in our thinking too? Do we like to be pushed by someone- do it this way, do it that way! Do not use your brain, do as I tell you!

The physical part is eating, drinking, toilet training and so on! As children grow, formal education begins. All these are things designed by and for life’s university. If done well, the child grows up into a self-reliant human. The family, school, the society, the town, and the nation become self-reliant if everyone becomes self-sufficient.

When our PM talked about Atmanirbharata, what did he mean? He did not say bring draconian rules of license raj. Do not stop imports of things that make the nation dependent on the other countries even for basic things. No nation in the world can become 100% self-reliant because of various reasons. There are hundreds of reasons for this, but that is not what we are discussing.

Assuming that we are a nation of self-reliant people. They take up jobs, they become businesspeople. They become officers and pilots. Within their sphere, they have to act to get the things to the best of their ability. I will share an example of an individual who is a buyer for an organisation. The management decides to cut expenses to improve profitability. The buyer’s job is to find the correct supplier of quality goods at the right price. The buyer looks around, locates the supplier in China, and starts buying from him everything. That my friend is not Atmanirbharata. He should have checked why the cost is so low. Is it sustainable over a period? What happens in situations, like COVID? The buyer did not spread his risks- then he failed in making his company self-reliant! Deciding your policy in such a way that in all situation his organisation should remain self-reliant. Atmanirbhar anyone?

I had shared an example of the Indian Motorcycle industry, becoming world-class in a short period. The sector still buys components from China, but the Chinese companies are more dependent on our Motorcycle companies. That is Atmanirbharata.

During the spread of COVID, in India, there was a shortage of everything needed by health professionals like doctors, nurses, ward boys and ambulance drivers. Within three months, we started making a massive number of PPE’s, Masks and what have you. Now we can probably export these items. We ramped up our facilities and capacities to make ventilators in large numbers, so we do not need to depend on other countries. Mind you, not every component required for ventilators may be available in India. But by importing these components, we are well on the way to become in the manufacture of ventilators. We did the same thing in COVID test kits- this was achieved by a small company in Pune.

The first big Atmanirbharata decision taken by the government is opening up the Coal sector to the private sector. In future, India can export a lot of coal!

Let us now consider the year to year problems faced by our farmer brethren. Though we have made significant progress in irrigation, our topography, and financial constraints (and not to forget corruption!) make farmers dependent on rains for water. Regularly, the rainfall is short or too much. Many times, we do not get rains when most needed. So what is the solution? I had written a blog about Jalyayukt Shivar, a drive, by the Maharashtra government to make farmers self-reliant for their water requirement by digging water reservoirs in every village. The rainwater is stored in these reservoirs and could be used when needed. Friends, it is Atmanirbharata at its best. You do not need Chinese or American components for this project; you need the will-power and smart thinking to make such projects a reality. When I wrote this blog, we did not even know the word COVID 19. There was no China hate in the air!

https://panvalkarpramod.wordpress.com/2018/05/07/jalyukt-shivar-a-new-drive-in-water-management/

My friend Ram sent me an article about Ulhas Paranjpe, Ram’s batchmate in engineering. Ulhas has developed a technology by which villagers can build water tanks by using Ferrocement in construction; this method more than halves the cost of building the tanks.

I have taken the liberty to share his cell phone number here. He is just one phone call away and gives telephonic advice on how to build such tanks: Ulhas’s Cell plus WhatsApp number +91 98207 88061. The web site: http://www.jalvardhini.org/

Are we taking India back to the dark age? Is this going to be the permit Raj again? Many of these experts have probably never seen a village and give expert advice on the TV channels and spread their (lack of) knowledge. Or maybe they have an agenda against the government!

Atmanirbharata does not mean that you do not use products made in other countries. Any product or services where our nation does not have expertise can be brought in, but the locally available products must be procured locally.

What is the point in getting Ganapati Idols, Decorative items, Manja used in kite flying? These items are IndJalvardhiniian, and the traders started importing them from China because they were getting more margins. End-user did not even know that these items were made in China. This is negative Atmanirbharata.

Very few countries in the world make aeroplanes. India had no choice but to import them. But over a period, we have developed a fighter plane, Tejas, for the Indian Air Force. That my friend is Atmanirbharata. Not all parts made are in India for our fighter plane.

Jaya, in her career, had made great strides in Atmanirbharata. She took training in Canada for some systems, in 1981, which cost eight hundred thousand dollars in those days. One system was imported, and Jaya got fourteen such systems made in Pune, at Rs eight hundred thousand each!

Friends, Atmanirbharata is no China-bashing, it is not going back to license Raj. It is being prudent in what we buy and what we produce in our country. Go ahead and import a few things from China or where ever you want. But do not outsource Chole Bhature from Philippines and Rasgulla from Bangla Desh!