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CONTENTS
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EDITORIAL
Gp Capt R Vijayakumar (Retd), VSM
Some Changes Coming Our Way…
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he short story of this mega city: water scarcity in the city from January to October; water scares the city in November and December. It’s shocking to know that around 125 tmc ft of water drained into the sea these past two months. An expert panel should be constituted to manage aquifers in the state, propagate water conservation techniques, and redefine the criteria for recycling and reusing water. In this context, MMA is organizing a unique discussion on the theme “Watershed: How We Destroyed India’s Water and How We Can Save It” on 10th December 2021. Join us at MMA in person at 06.00 pm.
Towards Reducing the Cost of Supply Chain The cost of logistics in India is approximately 14% of its gross domestic product, while that of developed countries is in the range of 8-10%. An improved logistics environment will foster production and distribution, generate better economics of scale,
At any rate, November continues to be busy month at MMA. In addition to our numerous Professional Management Development Programmes, we embarked on implementing a CSR initiative in a number of schools where poor children are studying. This has been possible with the support of ACSYS Investments Pvt Ltd and Super Auto Forge Pvt Ltd. I am personally blessed to be part of such an initiative. We need to mount a well-planned and well-funded rescue mission to revitalize schools affected by the pandemic.
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The implementation of Industry 4.0 requires a good knowledge of the critical value drivers, the key technologies, and the practical implementation steps to achieve this transformation and sustained growth.
5 DEC 2021
minimize cost per unit, and ultimately lead to lowering of prices for the consumer. The government’s aim is to bring down the cost by 5% of GDP over the next five years. A number of initiatives have been put in place by the government to achieve this objective. In this context, MMA is organizing a conclave in association with KAS and IIMM on the theme “Reimagining India's Supply Chain to Improve Competitiveness.” Join us at MMA in person or watch the program live.
Farm Laws: A Time for Flexibility Hopefully, the decision to repeal Farm Laws does not effectively kill the much needed reforms in the agricultural sector. The government’s decision to form a Committee to address concerns would go a long way towards identifying actual pain points of farmers. There is a need for reforms in farming, including investing in agriculture and marketing agricultural produce. Farm Laws should reflect regional and crop diversity. In cooperative federalism, states have a major role; therefore, the ideal way forward is to invite all stake holders to achieve success. Farmers should withdraw protest and push for consultation in efforts to reform the sector. Flexibility is not a bad trait in democracy, which is about constant negotiations.
Industry 4.0 to Our Aid MSMEs play a critical role in driving the economy. This segment can impact jobs, livelihood and growth; however, adapting to technology is still a pain point that negatively impacts it. The disruption due to the pandemic has impacted almost every manufacturing company. Some companies dynamically adjusted their production plan based on the changing market demands and availability of raw materials. This was possible because smart manufacturing enables devices and machines to communicate with each other and make effective decisions on production planning and actual production, based on triggers in the demand of the product, thus efficiently managing manufacturing and distribution. The phrase “Industry 4.0” describes this transition and explains how the production processes are organised based on technology and devices that can exchange information along the value chain. The transition brought on by Industry 4.0 can 6
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enable companies to reimagine production, sourcing and business strategies to remain relevant in the postpandemic world. The journey towards Industry 4.0 of tomorrow must begin today. The implementation of Industry 4.0 requires a good knowledge of the critical value drivers, the key technologies, and the practical implementation steps to achieve this transformation and sustained growth. In this regard, MMA is organizing a seminar on the theme, “Implementation of Industry 4.0 in a Post-Pandemic World.” The seminar will include a unique mix of state-of-the-art developments and practical examples on Industry 4.0 taken from the direct experiences of practising experts. Join us on Thursday, 16th December 2021 at MMA Management Center or watch it live to know more about the implementing strategy of Industry 4.0. Click to view.
MMA Start‐up Series An entrepreneur’s journey is both a joy and a burden. In tough times, when your judgement is clouded, you should have a strong system of support to rely on. Entrepreneurship is a journey—a hard, lonely one that can drive one crazy at times but is equally rewarding and fulfilling. The start-up series lectures organized by MMA with successful and outstanding entrepreneurs provided interesting insights on this aspect of entrepreneurship. Listen to Mr Shankar in conversation with Mr Tarun Mehta, on “Ather - Electric is Here!” —Click to watch.
Crypto is Here to Stay! There is a strong belief that crypto currencies are here to stay in different forms whether as floating currencies or stable coins, which are pegged to actual currencies or digital coins issued by the Central Bank. The rapid adoption of Crypto currencies has also led to them being recognized as a legal tender by countries like El Salvador and being regulated by US Securities and Exchange communications as a security asset. Our policy on digital currencies should be guided by an analysis of potential wide-range scenarios in India. We must also consider the gains that crypto-based enterprises can generate and be realistic about a genie that won’t get corked back in. The policy-makers have to come to terms with this new form of currency and dedicated awareness campaigns must be organised to sensitise investors about the legitimate and illegitimate
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ways in which crypto currencies can be used. A ban on private Crypto may not work, given their decentralized technology. Regulating them, however, could address the Central Bank’s concerns and would be a better option.
Race to Net Zero Carbon Emissions Climate change is one of the most pressing issue that currently concerns humanity. It is expected that with the further worsening of the environmental situation in India, drastic changes are urgently required in its climate change policy. The solution cannot be left in the hands of a few and it is high time that the Government considers adopting significant changes in its current climate change policy implementation mechanism in order to meet one of the most changing realities of our time. Committing to Net Zero Carbon emissions is a tall order. India is a developing nation with a lion’s share of its energy produced through thermal power. The country should for now focus on gradually turning to relying on renewable source of energy.
Albert Einstein was when he said, “Amidst every crisis lies the great opportunity.” I believe that the overall situation seems optimistic. It is still very necessary for each one of us not to let our guard down; it is essential to follow the covid appropriate behaviours—masking, distancing, hand washing and avoiding large crowds till we are absolutely sure we have conquered the virus. In this issue, we present to you thought provoking articles. The insightful discussions with Viswanathan Anand and Viren Rasquinha will surely inspire you and equip you with sound knowledge to drive positive change in yourself and in your organization. Let me know what you think about everything that’s happening at MMA. You may contact me at ed@mmachennai.org. Stay safe, stay healthy, and keep learning!
Leaving Behind the Pandemic India and Indian Inc. have adapted well and truly put the first and second waves of the pandemic behind. Nowhere is it more evident than in booming stock market and healthy corporate results despite the debilitating and ferocious second wave that hit the country. We are now confident to defeat any impending waves of the pandemic. India Inc. has shown how right
•EDITOR •Gp Capt R Vijayakumar ﴾Retd﴿, VSM
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The special session on the theme, ‘Appreciation of Life’ was chaired by R Ramaraj, Founder, Sify Technologies Pvt Ltd. Viswanathan Anand, Chess Grandmaster and Former World Champion, and Viren Rasquinha, Former Indian Hockey Captain, shared their wisdom of handling success and failure, pursuing one’s goals and enjoying life with fun. Excerpts from the Panel Discussion
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amaraj: Vishy. You became the first Grandmaster in India. There was no role model you could emulate. In your book, you have quoted Paul Anka and Frank Sinatra in their song of 'My Way,' and how you did it your way. What pointers, based on your extraordinarily successful background, can you share with the young leaders who are going to step out of colleges into the business world?
fighting at the highest level. Then the first unexpected slump came along. Things seem to be going smoothly and suddenly I felt like hitting a performance wall and I could not go forward. I realised that pushing myself 100% was good to test my limits but it was not a longterm strategy. I had to keep time for yourself. Even if you are fairly independent, you still need to set time aside for things to recover.
Vishy ﴾Viswanathan Anand﴿: I am fortunate that I am the first Indian Grandmaster, the first Indian to qualify for the World Championship and so on. As a result, I could set my expectations. It was challenging as well as I had to learn many things on my own. In the beginning of my career, my three goals were just ranking, ranking and ranking, just like placement for college students.
So around 93-94, I started paying attention to things I had neglected for a while. I was getting some time off, learning about new things, spending a few moments in the day to enjoy and going to lovely places. I expanded my horizon a bit and the beautiful thing is that very soon, I made the connections.
Early in your career, you will not have anything called work-life balance. You have to go 100%. It's part of the learning process. You understand what happens when you press the accelerator all the way. Soon I had a big breakthrough at the world level when I became a world chess champion and a grandmaster in the same year. It took me a while to get used to my new situation. Then I broke through to the next level that opened new doors to new prestigious tournaments, playing against top players. Then I got used to that, 10
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What you are saying is that there is a lot of hard work if you want to be successful and leave a legacy behind but you must balance it at some stage by being mindful of things around you. Just take stock. Enjoy small things. Take time to appreciate the little things as much as the big things. Viren, what inspired you to take up hockey and not cricket?
Viren ﴾Viren Rasquinha﴿: I came up from a very normal conservative middle-class background. I grew up in the late 80s and early 90s, in the suburb of Bandra in Mumbai. You then had to become either a doctor or an engineer. My mom
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was a doctor and dad, an engineer. My parents were super-strict with my eldest brother and he loved sports. But he eventually became an engineer. They were sort of medium-strict with my second brother. He loved football and was really good at it. Eventually, he became an engineer as well. I was the third and last and the luckiest one, because by the time I came along, my parents were not bothered at all. That's how I could start playing hockey. The funny part was that I was a fairly good student and in SSC board exams, I came 13th in the Mumbai merit list. Everyone told my parents that I should take up medicine or engineering. I was scared to see my mom's big medical journals and my brother's even bigger engineering books at home. I couldn't understand a single equation in school. I thought I would save more lives if I did not become a doctor!
out, maybe I could achieve something in hockey. Honestly, we all need mentors, good teachers and coaches in life. For me, Marcellus Gomes was that coach who changed my life. As an athlete, I had to sleep by 9:30 or 10:00 every night because we would start at 5:30 or 6:00 in the morning. I was too exhausted to last beyond 9.30. There was hardly any internet, Wi-Fi and mobile phones for distraction. But I never looked upon all that as a sacrifice because I was just doing what I loved—playing hockey.
I thought hockey was a little bit simpler and that's how I took to hockey. I was very lucky again in school, because my school—St. Stanislaus High School is famous for hockey. It has produced around six or seven players who have played for India, including a few Olympians. My coach in school—Marcellus Gomes—was an Olympian who played in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. When I was 11 or 12 years old, he taught me everything—not only technical hockey skills but also the importance of team work, discipline and commitment. Most importantly, he taught me to believe in myself, to believe that I had the talent and if I worked BUSINESS MANDATE
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I was in the Indian team by 18 or 19 years. All my friends thought I was leading a very glamorous life, flying across the world and playing in Amsterdam, Munich and Sydney. But it was hard to tell them that actually I did not see anything other than airports, hotels and stadiums. 11 DEC 2021
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One thing led to the other and I went on to play for India, captain the Indian Hockey team and play at the Olympics. It was just a tremendous journey and I relate so much to what Vishy said about focus in the early days. I too was so focussed at that point of time. I was in the Indian team by 18 or 19 years. All my friends thought I was leading a very glamorous life, flying across the world and playing in Amsterdam, Munich and Sydney. But it was hard to tell them that actually I did not see anything other than airports, hotels and stadiums. On hindsight, I realized that it did affect my game. We have to take some time off to take a walk down the beach or have a leisurely cup of coffee.
You both said that there is so much of hard work needed in order to be really successful. But if we reach some level of success, we get into a comfort zone and not really come up to our full potential. What are your tips to youngsters to realise their potential?
Viren: I can't say much about others. I'll just say a little bit about my own journey. After 10th standard, Indian kids make a decision in life to study medicine, engineering or any other stream. I wanted to play hockey and I did what I felt was best for me. I didn't feel that I needed anyone else to tell me what to do in life. I backed myself and I just said that I'll work hard and take full responsibility and ownership for my actions. I was fairly confident that if I did not succeed, I would go back to studies. The same thing happened really. At the age of 27, when I had played many years for the Indian hockey team and was thinking of the next phase of my life, my aunt said that I should be playing for another Olympics cycle—3 or 4 years more. At that point, when everyone wanted me to play, I wanted to study. I felt it was the right time to move on, when I was at the peak of my game and do what I wanted to do. The important thing here is taking calculated risks; backing yourselves; and being prepared.
Grandmaster and you became one. Why didn't you retire? What motivated you to keep going? Even today, you continue to play on the world stage and give everybody a hard time.
Vishy: This is a self-correcting problem. When I became a Grandmaster, I had the feeling that I've done this and that was enough. You could shrug off a bad result and just go on with life because you still feel very good about yourself. But I said this is self-correcting because it's almost human to have this kind of blind and even illogical ambition. Maybe it's not justified but we have it. Usually, there is a natural way where you'll come out to motivate and push yourself. After a few months as a Grandmaster, I realized the world works in a certain way and that people forget that you became a Grandmaster. You also have to move on. Second thing I would say is, as a species, we are very curious. We want to see how far we can go. The nicest challenges are the futile ones, because when you try for something, you discover a lot about yourself. We need to have a conscious goal. We can't just fly blind. This doesn't have to be an arrow pointing upwards always. It can point sideways too. You can do something with a bit more of fun or help someone else to succeed. But setting new goals like that, gives the motivation to work and it becomes very exciting. Being from a country without a chess history had its advantages because people wanted to see me play. Organizers invited me because they thought Russians playing chess was no big deal and if Indians play, they wanted to find out and see what it was. I just went about working towards the world title, which means making constant improvements. After becoming the world champion, I still needed new ways to push
I did my homework when I was 15. I had coaches. I knew the teams that I wanted to be in. When I was 27, I was already preparing for my GMAT exams. I got into ISB. I think preparation gives you confidence. If we prepare the right way and think in the right direction, then it will always help us. Take calculated risks and do not necessarily go down the beaten path.
The key thing is understanding when you are likely to perform well and what are the conditions in which that happens. And for me very often, the answer to that was when I am relaxed, when I have slept well and when I am in a positive frame of mind.
Vishy, you had one goal—to become India's first BUSINESS MANDATE
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myself, like striving for new ratings. The key thing is understanding when you are likely to perform well and what are the conditions in which that happens. And for me very often, the answer to that was when I am relaxed, when I have slept well and when I am in a positive frame of mind. When you have that, you can also enjoy life and maintain a balance.
Vishy and Viren, both of you have been very fortunate that from a young age, you discovered your passion and then built on it. Most of us move either because of parents pushing us in one direction or peer pressure or many other things. So, how do we step back and set proper goals and not get buffeted by either short-term victory or failure?
Vishy: Similar to Viren, I was fortunate that my parents were incredibly supportive. My mother herself was the one who introduced me to chess and I also benefited from the fact that I was doing something that nobody really knew how to judge. I'm sure my dad would have given me more advice if I had tried to become an engineer. For becoming a chess player, what could he say? He said, ‘Okay. You figure your way out,’ and that was nice. One of the things I feel now is that the path is much broader. There are things you have to do in the right way but I cannot say now that I would not have become world champion if I had followed some other path. At a young age, we are obsessed with following one right path. But as you get older, you realize that there are many paths that could have led you to the goal. It is important that I create an ambience where I tend to perform the best. We often try to see how somebody else did it but we're all pretty unique. Collaborate with people. Be aware of things like what irritates you before you go to sleep, what emotions do you have that you don't admit to everyone but you know it affects you a lot. It could be jealousy and we don't want to broadcast. We must know when it peaks and develop any perspective to minimize it the next time it comes up, as it doesn't correlate well with performance. Everyone has to find their own cooking recipe so to speak.
Vishy: Yes. It is those small things. Only you will know about a small incident at the airport before you arrived at the tournament or a small interaction somewhere that upset you. Sports journalists always dissect the results and write only from what they see. There are thousand little things that can happen in the background. Emotional stability is very important.
How do you recover from failures?
Vishy: I practise recovering from a loss in two steps —first, recovering emotionally and then recovering technically. Emotional recovery is very important to find my balance. Technical recovery helps me to find out why I lost. Viren, at every stage, we see that you brought clarity in your decision making—when you decided take up hockey in school, then to do MBA at 27 and later on take up a job. Tell us something about this (job) process.
Viren: Around 2007, there was financial meltdown. The Dean of ISB where I pursed my MBA got sacked. Somehow, I got a decent placement. Then I happened to meet OGQ (Olympic Gold Quest) Board and people like Geet Sethi and Prakash Padukone, whom I really admired. OGQ was a not-for-profit organisation. We did not have much funds. When I met these people, I realised that this is a place where I can learn a lot from scratch. I had a blank white board and I could draw my own picture. It gave me the freedom to pursue my passion. I couldn't win an Olympic medal and I wanted to help the next generation. It gave me the platform to put the wrongs right, from my own experience of playing. I felt I would
We are very good at assessing others but not in our own selfassessment. That is what Vishy said—Take stock. It could be small emotions. Our performance is dependent on the quality of our actions, and our actions are driven by how good we feel about ourselves, both at a physical level and at an emotional level. It is the Japanese way of Kaizen as they call it—small steps in the right direction. 14
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In life, more than running a sprint, endurance is very important. In my hockey days, I would hate the endurance training, running from National stadium to Rashtrapathi Bhavan in Delhi and back, six to seven times in a day. I loved explosive strength training but not this.
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be backed by great people, a great Board, who were far more experienced than me. That was more attractive to me than the pay package. In life, more than running a sprint, endurance is very important. In my hockey days, I would hate the endurance training, running from National stadium to Rashtrapathi Bhavan in Delhi and back, six to seven times in a day. I loved explosive strength training but not this. But every kilometre of running would teach you something different about your body and about yourself. The mind has to be really strong to last a marathon.
Openness to learning is very important. We have to learn, unlearn and relearn. Vishy talked about the need for curiosity. Sometimes, our education system kills this curiosity, restricting students to stick to text books. So our students must develop the mindset to be curious and constantly learn and figure out their purpose in life.
Viren: True, a good coach is one who teaches you how to make your own decisions. Because, in a playground, when you step across the white line, you have to make your own decision. The coach is not going to play for you.
At OGQ, are you seeing a bunch of young women out there to make India proud? What quality do you see in them?
Viren: Most of India's stars today in Olympics are women —from Mary Kom to Sindhu to Sania Mirza to Mirabhai Chanu to Vinesh Phogat. They are amazing. Most of them are from backgrounds where sports was not their
Talent is a real thing but it exists in a very small quantity. There are many players who put in the same amount of practice but one player makes an effortless progress because of talent, while others slog.
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natural part. They didn't have the right coaching, infra or institutions. They had no support at all. Take the Indian women's hockey team. Half the team comes from small villages in Haryana. None of them had Astroturf hockey grounds to play. They can't have their own mobile phones. They can't marry someone of their choice. These are tough situations. Yet they are able to rise above all these. If women are given the right opportunities, the right platform and a level playing field, they can achieve far more than men.
How can you transform yourself from being a talented player to a champion player?
Vishy: Talent is a real thing but it exists in a very small quantity. There are many players who put in the same amount of practice but one player makes an effortless progress because of talent, while others slog. But when I work on something I am unfamiliar, my intuition improves. Thoughts become more coherent. If you want to get good at something, you must work at it. It improves your muscle memory. If you enjoy something, it allows you to put in a phenomenal amount of time in it, without resenting that. Find something that you really love. If you don’t love it, find some part of it that you really love and work at it. For instance, I am more naturally drawn towards middle games than end games. But if I work on my end games, it allows me to focus well during a game. In this way, you can become good at doing things in which you are not naturally good at.
How did you lead as a captain of the Indian Hockey team?
Viren: As a captain, I set example in terms of work ethics, positive body language, creating the right environment for people to air their opinions without being judged, ticking off someone in private and praising them in public and ensuring the importance of team.
Vishy and Viren. Your closing remarks and advice to the students?
Vishy: You will have lots of success. Enjoy them. As you go along, you will have more of shocks too. Enjoy them too. Viren: As a sports player, I had the courage to overcome injuries and other challenges. So, have courage and face your career successfully.
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How do you futureproof your career, so that you stay in step with all the opportunities and take full advantage of them? Gopi Kallayil, Chief Evangelist, Digital Transformation and Strategy at Google, shares his learning in his keynote address at the 20th All India Management Students Convention.
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want to start off by asking you a question. How many organs are there in your body? If you're not sure, Google will tell you that there are 78. I want to introduce the 79th organ, which is the little device that you hold in the palm of your hand—your mobile phone. It has a skin. You touch it; it responds. It has ears. You speak to it; it understands your voice. It can talk to you. It has eyes because it can see things around you. It recognises faces and objects. It is incredibly intelligent: it seems to be able to tap into the collective knowledge available to humanity and give you the best answer. It can give you directions. It can order food for you. It can call a car to take you to the airport. You can pay various merchants with it. It is a source of endless music and entertainment. It can find a room for you to stay when you travel. All of these have become entire subclasses of industries with their own career tracks. None of this was available 15 years ago. The iPhone itself was only introduced in 2007. So it is a very recent phenomenon. I am using this one piece of technology as an example to showcase how much opportunity now exists in terms of career paths. So congratulations! You are stepping into an incredible array of opportunities. But they also beg the question: how do you navigate your way through all this? How do you futureproof your career, so that you stay in step with all the
opportunities and take full advantage of them? As answer to the question, I have five recommendations or suggestions.
Is this going to fulfil me? The first principle is: Pick a career track that gives you the most meaning and context. No matter what you pick, you need to have a sense of purpose. This is a lesson I learned early on from David S. Pottruck, who was former CEO of Charles Schwab. When I joined Wharton as young MBA student, CEOs of big companies were invited to come and speak to the students. In my first month at Wharton, David S. Pottruck was one of the invited guests and I got a chance to meet him and have dinner with him later. When we asked him how he had made his career choices and futureproofed his career, he said, “The first job I picked when I graduated from Wharton was not based on the highest salary. But I picked a job that gave me the most meaning, context, a sense of purpose and fulfilment.” David said that he did it for his second job and third job too. In each job, he outperformed because he was in love with his job. That led him to become the CEO of Charles Schwab eventually. I took that advice to heart and have followed it ever since. I always ask the question
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when I pick a job or career or project: Is this going to fulfill me?
A Mission in 10 Words When Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the founders of Google—where I work—started the company in 1998, they came up with a mission statement in just 10 words and they articulated very clearly the meaning, purpose and mission of the company. Every employee could easily understand it. Those ten words were: Organize the world's information, make it universally accessible and useful. I have seen over the years how Googlers often take that purpose and meaning and contextualize it for themselves in their own personal way. My roots go back to a tiny rice farming village in Palakkad, Kerala, called Chittlancherry. It is a small village of mostly rice farmers. My grandparents were poor rice farmers. My parents grew very modestly —without electricity, running water or access to college education. When they finished high school level education in the village, their education pretty much stopped. But they had aspirations for their four kids and hoped that they would go on to do other things and would have better education.
schools, even though my parents had never set foot in America. So what caused that kind of social mobility in one generation? It is simply access to information. I remember when I was at the National Institute of Technology (NIT), Trichy, and wanted to apply to graduate schools in the US. I took the Rockfort Express from Trichy to Chennai, so I could go to the US Library and look at a physical copy of the US World News Guide to Graduate Schools. I was willing to make that eight hour train journey in order to get access to that particular report. Today eight hours seems too long
Thanks to those aspirations, their four children —my three siblings and I—went on to get advanced degrees, including two from US ivy league business 20
like oxygen, we are levelling the playing field for information and that is what gives me a sense of meaning and purpose in my own job. I have taken the mission of the company and contextualized it for my own
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In an era where information is
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personal context.
because we have got used to accessing information in much more faster ways. But back then, even though it was a slow process, that access is what propelled me and my siblings forward to where we are today. When I go back to the village school where my mother studied in Chittlancherry and look around, one thing becomes very clear to me. While the physical infrastructure may not have changed dramatically, what has changed is that kids in that school and in schools around the world have access to the kind of technologies that we are now building. They have access to the same amount of information as somebody who goes to an IIT or to Harvard Business School. In an era where information is like oxygen, we are levelling the playing field for information and that is what gives me a sense of meaning and purpose in my own job. I have taken the mission of the company and contextualized it for my own personal context. So that would be my first lesson to you: Find meaning and context in the job and find a sense of purpose.
Find Your Ikigai The second principle is to find your Ikigai through your job. Ikigai, a Japanese word means, finding your true purpose in life. How do you do that? You can find your Ikigai when your life, your work, your career sits at the intersection of four circles. What are those four circles? The first circle is, do what you love. No matter what you pick as a job, career or profession, make sure you truly love it from the bottom of your heart. It is something that you really look forward to. It makes a huge difference.
There was no YouTube, Chrome, Android or self‐driving car then. When a new thing comes up, find out what it is. Thankfully, when a new technology emerges, there is a huge amount of information available.
The second circle is, do what you are good at because we are all innately talented in a variety of things. It could be leading organisations, music, creative works, speaking, teaching or doing social work. Whatever it is, every one of us is good at something. Find that something. The third circle is, do something for which there is a demand. Ultimately, whatever you pick as a job or a career, you want to make sure that there is a demand for that particular line of work. The fourth circle is, do what the world will pay you for. There must be a fair economic compensation for what you do. In my present role, I love to be in front of customers, talk to them and demystify complex concepts for them. There is a demand for it and I am paid for it.
Be Curious The third principle is: Embrace curiosity. It is impossible to tell what the careers will be, five years from now. When I graduated from NIT, there was nothing that I could have learnt to be in the centre of the industry that I am now: internet, cloud-based computing or machine learning. But along the way, I picked them up. Curiosity is what drove me to new and interesting frontiers of technology. Even when I joined Google, I could not have anticipated the kind of things that I am doing today. There was no YouTube, Chrome, Android or selfdriving car then. When a new thing comes up, find out what it is. Thankfully, when a new technology emerges, there is a huge amount of information available. For instance, now there is so much information about crypto currency. Platforms like YouTube explode with talks, tutorials and workshops conducted by experts. You get free access to that information. All you need is a sense of curiosity to embrace these new things.
A Giant Experiment The fourth principle is: Embrace experimentation. I picked up a philosophy from going to ‘Burning Man’ for fifteen years and that is, 'all of life is a giant experiment.' Experiments by definition lead to unexpected results. But we will never find out, till we try out. Treat your life as one series of experiments and be curious. Try different things. For example, early in my career, I was working in McKinsey as a strategic consultant. I decided to experiment and leave the consulting career to start a company along with McKinsey alumni. I did two startups. We noticed some success. Both got acquired. We could argue that we didn't fail. I could experiment in preparing a business
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plan, fund-raising from investors, taking a new concept to the market and proving that there is a use case for the concept. I learnt about what it takes to start a company and to have a first customer. I would not have learnt any of these, if I had not experimented. I can guarantee that it gave me unexpected results.
Fail Well The fifth principle is a concept that we follow in Google—that is, fail well. In Google, we have nine products that are used by a billion people but many may not be aware that behind those massively successful products, there were hundreds of products that failed. Many of them did not even get launched. That is the dirty little secret of successful companies like Google. It is considered okay in an innovationdriven company like Google. So we often say: fail well, fail fast, fail big and fail often. Be prepared to have a similar mentality when it comes to your career. Try a lot of different things, knowing that you will fail most of the time. Embrace the failure. The most important question is: what did you learn from the failure? What can you salvage from 22
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the failure? Can you morph the failure into something else? The concept of morphing from failure is an important one. I worked for many years in Google Plus —Google’s social media. Currently, the product is withdrawn but out of that experimentation emerged two products that you know and use all the time —Google Photos and Google Meet. They were derivatives of building a social media platform called Google Plus. In that sense, we can call it a partial success as it morphed into something else. So always think of experimenting with your career. Be prepared to succeed sometimes and fail most times but out of each failure, learn something and morph into something else. In conclusion, I would like to summarise the five lessons to futureproof your career: • Find meaning and context in your job • Find your Ikigai through your job. • Embrace curiosity, as things are going to emerge rapidly. • Treat your life as one giant experiment. • Fail well, fail fast, fail big and fail often. Embrace failure but learn the lessons.
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23 DEC 2021
In his speech at the 20th All India Management Students Convention, Mithun Sundar, Microsoft India, shows us how hybrid working has ushered in a new world, which is hyperconnected and driven by AI.
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hen I think about AI, I can't help think about it in the context of the last 18 months that all of us have gone through. We had a terrible pandemic. It troubled a lot of us but it has also resulted in a sea change in almost every industry. In healthcare, the adoption of telehealth is amazing. My own dad, 76 years of age, is able to consult doctors via a quick phone call or on WhatsApp, Teams or Zoom. Today, we are no longer scared if we walk out of the house without a wallet, because the phone has become the wallet. The requirement to have a credit card or cash has gone out of the window in India, even in the smallest of places. I am able to walk in Chennai Beach and pay a peanut vendor scanning a QR code. Our habits have changed dramatically and we are seamlessly interconnected. In that context, I see four large trends that are coming up in this world from a business perspective. • First: How can you lead and run a company, optimize yourself and your company in this new hybrid world, where all work is going to be hybrid? That is the first big shift. • Second: Every company lives and breathes for its customers and consumers. How do you help your customers to build a truly hyper-
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connected business? • Third: How can every business become a digital business? There are some which are born digitally native but there are several others which are not digitally native. • Fourth: How do you protect all of this in a world where you and I can't meet each other, and manage it with endto-end security? These are the four aspects which span across this hyper-connected, AI-driven world. Let me go there one by one. I work in Microsoft and I am sure many of you must have read the recent news which broke out about the ‘metaverse’ and how Microsoft is collaborating with a couple of other large tech companies to truly change how we live in the metaverse.
What is Metaverse? We all live in the universe, but we are now slowly moving to a place we call ‘metaverse.’ It allows you to have shared experiences across both the physical and digital worlds; across people, places and things. It is a comprehensive set of resources that you will be able to leverage and work and do things in it. You will have things like an AI Avatar, which will be able to add points in time where you are not present. The AI Avatar will show up for you and be able to conduct what you would
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normally do. It will have access to all kinds of information at fingertips and it will be a place where people are able to be present—partly physical and partly in digital— ‘phygital’ is one of the words that we use, and that is where the world is heading. Several companies have already made the leap. Lots of people are getting towards the metaverse. Metaverse combines both the web and internet.
Managing Hybrid World When I speak about hybrid work, let me go back
Overnight, everyone had to sit inside their homes. Think of businesses on the street side, the kirana stores, the cycle repair shops, an internet browsing centre or a peripheral store. These smaller traders had borrowed from our company and their businesses were dramatically hit.
to my experience. When the pandemic broke out, I was based in Bangalore leading a fintech company which used to give loans to micro, small and medium enterprises in India. We have a pretty large loan book of almost 5,000 crores worth of loans out in the market. Overnight, everyone had to sit inside their homes. Think of businesses on the street side, the kirana stores, the cycle repair shops, an internet browsing centre or a peripheral store. These smaller traders had borrowed from our company and their businesses were dramatically hit. What did we do to adapt to the hybrid work? There is the easy part and the tough part. In the normal days, I used to go to office and all of us used to meet each other. For meetings, we would sit in a meeting room, collaborate and figure out ideas on what to do. We could move that very quickly indoors as we were privileged to have seamless digital connectivity. So that part, while disruptive, was the easy part. All we had to do was to learn etiquette on how to manage hyper-connectivity and how to manage hybrid work in an AI driven manner. But the next step is: what do you do with your customers—people who live in the real world? How will the hyper-connectivity help us manage those customers? We started to slowly get people on board. India now has more than 70% smartphone and internet penetration. That is a significant number with 3G and 4G coming in fairly quickly, with a lot of players coming up.
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Relevant Services through AI We were able to connect with our customers and offer them relevant services when they needed it. What do I mean by relevant services? This is where something like AI comes into play, at an intuitive level. The businesses we lent money were struggling with cash flow. They needed to pay out their migrant employees who had to move back to their hometowns. We wanted to help everyone but we also had to be prudent. We made use of large datasets. When we spoke to any one business, we used to take from them 6 to 12 and sometimes even 24 months bank statements. Multiply that by the number of transactions that they have done, add their GST returns, then 3 or 4 of other statements. We have more than two lakh data points for a single customer. If we use this in an organized and efficient manner and make an intelligent forecasting engine, it can decide about how to help that customer, what kind of a working capital loan we should give them and what financial products we should provide. What we were happy to do during that period from March 2020 all the way to the end of the year was that we were able to collaborate with the financial ecosystem in the country, use the power of Data, AI and ML and relevant models to identify resilient entrepreneurs —say 20 to 30 out of 100 entrepreneurs—and extend them the right working capital support. For the balance 50 to 70% of the entrepreneurs, working capital support may not be the right answer. We offered insurance which is a different financial product. All of these could not have been invented, sitting in a room without access to data point per customer, leveraged with the right kind of AI and ML to learn continuously. The second angle I spoke about was, how to build a hyper-connected business. What do we mean by hyper-connected? I have worked in the e-commerce industry for about 23 years. I was in the fashion space with Myntra. I recently read a news about a company that started in the US which guarantees less than 10 minutes to deliver. They are doing it in about six or seven cities now though not across the country. Amazon Prime offers 30 minute delivery. There are people who offer ‘within 10 minutes’ delivery. How do we make that happen in a cost-efficient manner? We can't have a warehouse outside every apartment in every area. I grew up in the 90s in Chennai. At that time, there was this '30 minutes delivery or free' guarantee given by one of the famous pizza companies. Back then, it was revolutionary. Indians are always ready for a deal and I too tested 26
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the proposition quite a few times, living in a crowded area known as Choolaimedu in Chennai. 90% of the time, they managed to get the pizza in time. To do that, we have to build a connectivity from end to end. In the Pizza business that I described, the ingredients are already bought. The base level is to create the right kind of infrastructure and network of stores in the city but the second level after that is to have predictive demand planning. If you expect your demand in a certain area, during a certain period of time to spike, you can bake sufficient number of Pizza bases for you to be ready. Doing this at scale, across an entire country and multiple regions with all kinds of variability is possible when AI comes in, because our ability to process multiple variables starts to diminish. Analytics is an old phenomenon, which is now powered faster and faster, by newer ways of learning with machine based computing tools and AI. This is the example for a hyper-connected business.
Going Digital My third piece is making every business digital. When I was at Myntra, we used to source our garments from a lot of brands. These famous brand companies started in a physical world. Myntra was at the front end of their digital world, where they were selling to consumers through us. As time went along, they also wanted to directly reach their consumers for which they had to shift to truly digital companies. They had to reimagine their supply chain. Earlier, fashion seasons used to come only about two times in a year. Now the number of times people refresh their wardrobe has significantly increased. So a physical business must move to a truly digital business. This applies to almost any industry. I have seen digital transformations happening even in industries which we may consider to be very old-world—the cement industry, for instance. Large players in India today have changed their entire sales force working based on apps that they have on their phone, to be able to order multiple varieties of building materials including cement and integrate with players who offer the other pieces of the puzzle.
Solving the Size Puzzle Artificial intelligence can enable us to move truly at a higher level which we have not yet experienced. One of the biggest problems in India is that people buy clothes and often send them back because they don't fit them. 'Large (L)' in one brand may be 'Medium (M)' in another brand. When I was at Myntra, we tried
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to address this problem. If you have purchased a 'Jack and Jones' shirt and retained it, then it likely means that you are satisfied with the shirt that you purchased. Now, if Jack and Jones size 42 suits you, I can use my AI and suggest suitable sizes of other brands during the next purchase, if you look for other brands. Thus returns can be avoided and the customer becomes satisfied. The customer experience improves. This is the power of AI. There was another company which was creating a fit by asking customers to take a picture of them and send it. They would analyse the full scale picture and using artificial intelligence, suggest a suitable outfit and brand. This is how AI can truly transform businesses.
In an AI powered world, how can we solve for trust and security?
The sophis ca on and frequency of cyber‐a acks have gone up. They don't discriminate between small and big companies. We need to do three things: •
Get the right infrastructure and build it on a secure pla orm.
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Build resilience within the organisa on through culture, process, training and other checks and balances.
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Investment in security and solving for risk must be a top priority.
End‐to‐End Security The last thing that I want to discuss is end-to-end security. How can we feel confident that the security is based on access and rights that we granted and not something that is taken for granted? Our data must stay integral and should not be used somewhere else. In a hyper-connected, AI driven world, companies which do that will stay differentiated.
Summing Up • In the last 18 months, we have seen credible change, not just for businesses but people as well. You and I today work and live very differently from how we lived 18 to 20 months back. Lots of things which were originally physical have been dramatically accelerated to get into a digital world because we didn't have an option. • In such a digital world, the ability to stay connected with secure systems using AI and ML to power companies to growth will be the differentiator between successful companies and lesser successful ones. • Companies must adapt to a new world of hybrid working. They must make sure their business is hyper
connected
end
to
end—from
raw
materials all the way through to the customer and that the data flow makes the experience a positive one for the consumer. Make every business a digital business. Make customer as the centre of all this and ensure security of data.
How can companies adapt to the WFA (work from anywhere) and hybrid work place culture?
WFA is an outcome of connec vity. What is required is live, updated informa on. We need to first build the base for this. We need to have the right piece of equipment that allows you to have the remote conversa ons. The next level will be connec vity to have great experience. I don't think human connec ons will go away. We will con nue to live in a ‘phygital’ world. We cannot subs tute the trust that is built in a human connec on. Can you give examples of companies that have truly leveraged AI for success? What are the learnings?
From my experience, I can talk about Myntra World. Myntra created an AI engine to predict fashion. One of the biggest problems in the fashion industry is that you will make something in March. By July or August, people may not like that style. Chances are that 20% may get sold and the rest 80% may have to be wri en off. Due to this a) business suffers; b) customer experience is also hit because they don't get what they want; c) It pollutes the environment, as so much is wri en off as waste. We predicted the trend taking the data from the shopping informa on available on social media pla orms like—are people going to buy more of stripe or more of dots? We created an AI engine that gives real informa on back to company on what kind of style they need to manufacture. That allows the company to manufacture just in me and reduce the total wastage. It is a win‐win situa on. I have seen logis cs companies across the globe being able to use it at scale and predict where the biggest demand and supply is happening. This has helped them predict problems well ahead of me and solve them.
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MMA‐KAS held an online discussion on the theme of the book, “How Come No One Told Me That? Life Lessons, Practical Advice and Timeless Wisdom for Success," authored by Mr Prakash Iyer, Author, Motivational Speaker & Leadership Coach
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ven though we learn a lot from schools and colleges, there are many life lessons that we can pick up along the way interacting with our friends, colleagues and many others that we come across,” said Mr Prakash Iyer, while sharing some of the insights covered in his book. We always worry about what others will think when we try to do something. But others are fully occupied with their own work that they may not even notice what we do. Many of us compromise our own strengths, so that we look good to others. We try to do many things because others do that. What others do, may not be the right option for us. We need to ask: Will this option work for me? A startup may be created with long-term or short-term objectives in mind. Even if it is intended for short-term, the fundamental values on which the business is created should not be compromised. A long-term today is a series of short-term efforts.
Need for Agility in Businesses Big businesses have realised that they do not have the speed and agility which the startups have. Eric Yuan, the founder of Zoom, while working for WebEx (which was acquired by Cisco) proposed a mobile phone-friendly video conferencing app but it was rejected by Cisco. Eric Yuan left the company and started Zoom and became a billionaire.
Letting Go We may have a toaster that we have not used for several years. If someone asks for it, we may be reluctant to part with it and try to find a use for the toaster. The question is: Do we really need it or have we found a use for the toaster because someone is asking for it. We need to develop the attitude of ‘Letting go.’
Alteration Tailor If a dress does not fit us perfectly, we give it to a tailor to alter it by making some small changes so that it becomes a right fit. Extending this analogy to life, we all have some areas for improvement. Like an alteration tailor, a coach, colleague or mentor can suggest to us the small changes that we need to make in us, so that we become very effective.
Drawbacks of Plan B When we have many options available to us, it is likely that the best may not come out of us. For instance, if we have Plan A and Plan B, we try Plan A first, with the assurance that if Plan A fails, there is always Plan B to fall back upon. If there is no Plan B, then we will put 100% commitment towards Plan A and there are high chances that we will succeed in this attempt. People who are rich and comfortable in life may have many options, with the result that they may not try one thing with focus. Whereas those who are poor do not have choices. They work
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with single-mindedness and succeed.
The Short Clock In basketball, in earlier days, if one team scored a shot, they would try to hold on to it just by dribbling the ball and wasting the time. This made the game very boring, until a new rule of ‘short clock’ was introduced. As per this new rule, within 22 seconds of scoring a shot, the team must aim for the next shot. This tells us that we should not sit back on our past achievements. We should keep on moving in life towards higher goals.
see a tiger at all but on the way, we might have come across many animals like deer and rhino. Without enjoying them, we may just worry about not spotting a tiger, thus spoiling the experience of a tiger safari.
Stupidity, not Malice Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by stupidity or ignorance. We may buy 12 bananas and come back home with 11. It could be because the vendor made an intentional slip. Instead, we start blaming the vendor for cheating and even try to avoid the market where he operates from.
Quality vs. Quantity We are always told that quality matters more than quantity. We need to challenge all such statements. In a pottery class, a professor divided the students into two batches. One batch would be graded based on their quality of output and the other based on their quantity of output. It turned out that the latter batch produced exquisite quality of pots than the other batch. The ‘quality’ batch was so fixated with quality that they tried to make very few pots. But the ‘quantity’ batch made many pots and by trial and error, they arrived at better quality of pots too. The moral is: Just keep doing. As you do, you will get better and better at it.
Enjoy the Ride Enjoy the journey as you move towards a destination. When we go on a tiger safari, we may not 30
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As per this new rule, within 22 seconds of scoring a shot, the team must aim for the next shot. This tells us that we should not sit back on our past achievements.
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Excerpts from the Key Note Address given by Prof V Kamakoti, Department of Computer Science & Engineering, IIT, Madras on, ‘Cyber Security and the Fourth Industrial Revolution.’
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ndustrial Revolution 1.0 started with steam and then proceeded to electric power as Industrial Revolution 2.0. It further evolved and more of automation came as part of Industrial Revolution 3.0. Today, Industrial Revolution 4.0 is governed by data, next gen communication and connectivity. When we say data, there will be many sources of data. These sources are going to come from all digitization initiatives, starting from smart cities, telehealth, 3D printing, monitoring of agriculture and irrigation, ocean engineering, vaccination and so on. Even Covid hotspot prediction is modelled on data. The most important thing is communication and connectivity. A lot of collaborative effort is required in Industry 4.0 to get the best outcomes. Next generation communication, including 5G and 6G, will drive this whole effort. In healthcare, it is now possible to do remote surgery. For these applications, some of the biggest challenges are getting low latency and high bandwidth communication. That is precisely where the next generation communication is taking us forward. When control is being exerted from a remote place, communication has to be extremely reliable with low latency involving a lot of data exchange.
the number of elements or components that we have in the system. If we have a low number of components, reliability will be high. If we have more components, there will be a higher chance of failure and a higher risk of being intruded by a hacker. In 5G and 6G, the number of components will be at least 10X of what we have seen in 4G, especially in number of base stations, small cells, etc. Many things are going to come up. Once we have such a very complex environment, then it is going to be a very
Once we think of that, immediately cyber security becomes extremely important. The security of anything is directly proportional to 32
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Next gen communication is driven by software. That is precisely the reason why more people today talk of indigenous software in their own country. This software will run on commodity servers.
complex affair to deal with cyber security, and that is why the government has taken a lot of initiatives. One such very important initiative is the National Telecom Security Committee headed by the Deputy NSA, which looks at the trustworthiness of the components introduced into a telecommunication network inside the country. This is a very proactive measure that the government has taken.
Need for Atmanirbhar Next gen communication is driven by software. That is precisely the reason why more people today talk of indigenous software in their own country. This software will run on commodity servers. We can now decouple hardware and software and have different vendors for each. Is this a boon or bane?
Our mobile phone is a compute infrastructure that needs to be secured. There are many things coming up in this direction. 5G and 6G are going to be very important factors for our success in Industry 4.0 and there is no doubt about it. Once that comes up, there are going to be more cyber security issues. There is an immediate necessity for us to build many more atmanirbhar components to see that we are secured and we can gain confidence in this direction. The government policies are extremely crucial for this. The government has come up with important policies, including personal data protection regulations
Having different vendors mitigates the risk of a bigger attack on the network. That is a boon. We, as a country, have been developing complex software over a period of time and so we can have an atmanirbhar communication network. But on the negative side, since it is software driven, there can be more attacks. We need to have a high level of security in the compute infrastructure that we put as part of next-generation communication network. For example, a core today has a lot more compute which runs on the commodity server. The compute infrastructure needs to be highly secured. BUSINESS MANDATE
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One of the recent developments is the release of drone regulations. Regulations must also ensure is that there is ease of doing business. Security and ease of doing business are two ends and we need to find out a proper balance.
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and non-personal data protection regulations. Data is the oil of the next century. It is a wealth of information from which we could get many things, both commercially and strategically.
Drone and Space Then there are a lot more of enablers that come for Industry 4.0, especially unmanned aerial vehicles and some autonomous vehicles. One of the recent developments is the release of drone regulations. Regulations must also ensure is that there is ease of doing business. Security and ease of doing business are two ends and we need to find out a proper balance. We cannot compromise on security and this is one major challenge, both from strategic and civilian ends. The recent drone regulations are favourable to the industry. Today, space also has become very important. Last week, there was a launch of the Indian Space Association–INSPACe. When we talk about space, again there is a lot more of connectivity that is coming up which will be 6G driven. We need to regulate the data transmission from an Indian entity to another Indian entity such that it doesn't go out of India to a foreign nation.
Life in a Cyber Physical World We are going to live in a cyber-physical world. Recently, Mahindra and Morris Garage have come up with AI-driven vehicles which will be completely connected. We have around 8 to 10 cars today which are connected. We can even track these vehicles. One important mission of the government—The National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber Physical Systems (NMICPS) was launched a couple of years ago with an outlay of close to half a billion dollar. All the IITs and
some IIITs have set up Technology Innovation hubs to work on the different verticals, starting from A for agriculture to O for Ocean engineering. There are many vertical sectors. IIT Madras is involved in sensor networking actuators and control systems. We call it SNACS. We welcome members who are interested to reach us. Interestingly, these innovation hubs are formed as not-for-profit companies. It is involved in incubating startups to make and deliver systems for the next generation cyber physical world. Cyber security essentially has to be an underlying enabler or a building block for this.
Separation Kernel The last point that I want to talk of is about compute. Today, a lot of things including communication itself are more of computation. The interesting thing is that the hardware and software need not necessarily be from the person who is doing the business. For example, if I am doing banking, I really can't do the hardware or the software. I depend upon some external vendor to give me this. The bank owns the data but one who can interpret it and do a lot of things on the data would be essentially a system integrator. Essentially, this means that there needs to be some sort of confidence. That is where the notion of what we call ‘Separation Kernel’ comes up. We had earlier seen only one such in the world. Now, there is an Indian company which has this separation kernel today and it is successfully working; a piece of software that exists between the hardware and the operating system. This can control the use of hardware from the operating system. So, a lot more of security can be introduced in this. We are trying to put this all the way from a small mobile phone to a largescale high performance computing server in a super computing environment or on a cloud. This could give us a very high level of security.
Covid: The Test Bed
Today, a lot of things including communication itself are more of computation. The interesting thing is that the hardware and software need not necessarily be from the person who is doing the business.
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A lot of unfortunate things happened because of Covid. But one thing that Covid has done is that it has created a test bed for all the things that we discussed. There was a work from home challenge. Banks have today employees who have to work from home. That means, their core banking has to be given some access. The Stock Exchange has worked with employees working from home. If they don't work, the entire economy of the country will tank. Telemedicine did work. Online meetings worked. We don't know whether these meetings can be tapped by someone but then, this gives us a test bed on which we can start experimenting and put sound cyber security systems in place.
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35 DEC 2021
MMA‐KAS held a virtual discussion on the theme of the book, “Decisive Decade – India 2030: Gazelle or Hippo” authored by Mr Kiran Karnik, Former President, NASSCOM & Director, Central board of Directors, Reserve Bank of India
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ccording to Mr Kiran Karnik, the current decade up to 2030 is important for India. He said that the decade from 1991 was significant because of the liberalisation and the reforms announced. Then there was a slowdown in both the Indian and global economies. Moreover, the change of government, demonetisation and GST introduction put temporary skids on our growth. When things started stabilising, there was Covid, which put our economy and education back by two years. Therefore the decade up to 2030 will be very crucial for India.
kinds of skills. • The demographic dividend will help India to be a powerhouse. • A TFR (total fertility rate) of 2.1 is the recommended replacement rate for the population to sustain at the current levels. But we see a decline in TFR in many states and the population curve will flatten. Also, because of good healthcare, the people in the older age group are increasing and they need social care and other kinds of support.
The Significance of Gazelle and Hippo India has always been associated with the elephant for its sheer size and steady progress. Later, the tiger became the symbol of the ‘Make in India’ movement. A hippo is a large animal generally slow in movement, but it charges at anyone going near it. It is not an animal that is liked by people. On the other hand, a gazelle is pleasing to the eyes, friendly and agile. How India charts its course in this decade will decide if it will become a gazelle or hippo by 2030.
Key Takeaways from the Q&A:
• There will be loss of many existing jobs, but there will be an overall increase in jobs requiring different
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The number of parliamentarians for the Lok Sabha was arrived at based on the delimitation exercise carried out in the 1971 census. This will need to be revised in 2026.
• Many of the aged people may be able to contribute to the workforce through gig jobs. Women also can contribute to the workforce apart from being a housewife, enabled by technology and models such as WFH / WFA (work from home / anywhere). • The number of parliamentarians for the Lok Sabha was arrived at based on the delimitation exercise carried out in the 1971 census. This will need to be revised in 2026. There has been a sharp increase in the population of northern states as compared to
•
•
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The future will be decided by 3Ds: Decentralisation, Devolution and Digitisation. In
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fact, digitisation will drive decentralisation and devolution of powers.
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the southern states like Tamil Nadu and Kerala. If the number of parliamentarians is arrived at purely based on population of States, there is a possibility that northern states like UP and Bihar will have more number of MPs. The southern states may lose their voice in such a set up. However, it is hoped that our parliamentarians will discuss and resolve this dilemma in an acceptable manner. One option is to have Lok Sabha (Lower House) MPs based on population and Rajya Sabha (Upper House) MPs as a fixed number for each state, to overcome this anomaly. The future will be decided by 3Ds: Decentralisation, Devolution and Digitisation. In fact, digitisation will drive decentralisation and devolution of powers. This will happen not only in polity but also in manufacturing. Does ‘gazelle’ imply that India could become a prey for larger nations –like the US, China or Russia? It is possible, but India has to focus on being with allies or find an elephant behind which we can take cover. The government of Delhi has done a lot of good and visible work to improve the government school education by improving the infrastructure, painting the schools and creating a nice ambience, improving the teacher-parent connect, etc. Social organisations are also helping the government
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37 DEC 2021
in this good initiative but they are in need of funds. There are some other states too which are doing well in school education. India needs to focus on this similar to the landmark institutions we have set up like IITs and IIMs. • IT connectivity can help in developing the rural economy apart from agriculture based economy, and bridging the urban-rural divide. • If India can come to some sort of understanding with Pakistan and China to freeze the borders as it exists now for 30 years till 2050, India can have peace and concentrate fully on development. However, this is just a hope. China did this earlier with its neighbours and fully focussed on its development for close to 30 years. • India needs to concentrate not only on eliminating hunger but also on providing nutritious food, especially for children. Schemes like MGNREGA have helped in reducing hunger. Maybe, we can improve on MGNREGA and come up with more innovative schemes.
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• India has been doing well in terms of alliances with other nations like QUAD and we can continue in this direction. It will be good if SAARC is revived and it becomes a force to reckon with and help us protect our borders. But it remains a dream as long as IndoPakistan hostility continues. • India has progressed so well because of democracy. Nobel laureate Amartya Sen stated that India did not have famines because of democracy. Even in Covid, because of democracy and the criticism the Government faced in handling the situation, so many corrective steps happened so quickly, like in the oxygen supply, availability of ventilators, vaccination, etc. • India’s spending on healthcare so far has been dismal. The silver lining from Covid and also from political compulsions is that the government is now working on trying to address this issue. The Delhi government which campaigned on health, education and safety could win by a massive mandate in the state elections.
BUSINESS MANDATE
fountainhead of excellence
BUSINESS MANDATE
fountainhead of excellence
39 DEC 2021
