Wishing everyone a happy independence day 2020.
Happy Independence Day 2019 India
Wishing everyone a happy independence day 2019. Let the national flag be unfettered throughout this great nation. Let the flag fly high taking India to greater heights.
Happy Independence Day 2018 India
To the land of my birth, to my home, to the mother of a billion and more, I wish a happy independence day. To my fellow Indians, wishing you all a happy independence day 2018.
Technology and Elections: Democracy taken for a ride
We live in a tech savvy world where political polarization is widely done than ever before. Technology which was meant to bring transparency and clarity is used to clog and obscure people of reality.
Elections which are a quintessential part of democracy has been diluted of it’s attempt to create true change and nation building process.
There is a reason to discuss about current trending technologies as the following avenues can create a biased opinion in the minds of voters.
Social Media
- WhatsApp – Probably one of the most vulnerable platform to spread fake news, easy to opinionate, ability to reach out quickly to masses through groups and the power it gives for sharing content on it’s own platform and posts from other platforms. Political parties have been using this platform excessively to propitiate people by their propaganda.
- Facebook – Biggest social media platform which literally captures every single action of it’s users on it’s platform. It can influence all it’s members through groups, friend lists, pages, Facebook Ads. Given their ability to target ads to a particular group of people, this platform has the best route to impact people.
Further, the comments on posts and the likes/reactions for a post have multiple fake profiles used by political parties to create a opinion.
- YouTube – The leading video platform too is not spared from fake news, fake videos in recent years. Simple way of misusing the platform can be through it’s likes and dislikes button, again comments section here too can be misused. Each and every political video has 80 : 1 like, dislike ratio. Edited videos of speeches pose a threat to easier understanding for the people.
- Twitter – Twitter on the other hand is more for niche users which can be used like a cyber war platform for different political parties. Hashtags, retweets from socially influential people and parody accounts can bemuse people. Also, the follower count of various political leaders is questionable.
The above mentioned points address the user aspects only, if dug deep dark data in back-end higher insights shall be extracted through data dumps and data generated through users. And this data is available with the platform plus the data provider for the user device. If there is a need the government in concerned jurisdiction can also access user data.
IT cell of major political parties today is equivalent to any medium size software consulting firm. It’s almost near to impossible for independent and lesser known political parties to make their presence felt on these above mentioned platforms.
The recent findings of data misuse from Cambridge Analytica from Facebook data is a single case acknowledged properly so far, there are various loopholes on all these platforms which needs to be fixed.
Television
With television channels available on mobile devices the line is thinning between conventional tv’s and internet tv’s. Here consider only conventional tv, there are several channels which operate 24X7 reporting about elections, lobbying for their desired political parties. There is little consensus expressed by these news channels to report unbiased news.
Moreover the surveys and opinion polls conducted by most news channels bring out results in favor of political parties which they approve and validate.
Newspaper / Print Media
Once a heavily dependent mode of news consumption, now reduced in it’s numbers on advent of internet and television. Yet, they are making their presence felt through online news portals these days. All newspapers in circulation today have political affiliation to some or the other political party, this mode is comparatively trustable given there is an organization to look through articles printed on the newspaper.
Unlike the other modes newspapers are on record, from ages.
Thus, with these pointers on current technologies we head towards the Karnataka assembly elections on 12th May 2018. Vote for a candidate without prejudice but with reasoning, if you don’t like any of the candidates, press NOTA.
Exercise your power to vote.
Bengaluru and the spirit of Entrepreneurship
Here is a list of reasons for Bengaluru being a favorite location to start-up:
1 – Technology Infrastructure :- High end systems, high speed internet, ask for anything new in the field of technology, it’s usually first implemented in Bengaluru. That gets Bengaluru a premium tag.
2 – Workforce & Talent :- A plethora of highly qualified professionals makes it a easy choice for most of the entrepreneur’s to choose Bengaluru to kick-start their venture. Engineer’s and Business professionals are a new class of the neatly woven fabric in Bengaluru.
3 – Geographic location :- Weather in Bengaluru is usually pleasant with room temperature hovering between 23°C to 27°C throughout the year with summer being an exception. Bengaluru is the king among metropolitan cities of India, when it comes to weather.
4 – Koramangala :- The Heart of Entrepreneurship for the whole nation is located at koramangala. Visit any street in this locality of Bengaluru and you shall encounter a new venture or business being built. Koramangala is a place that every entrepreneur must visit at-least once in their lifetime.
5 – Government support :- The Karnataka Government has been one of the most proactive government in the country as far as Entrepreneurship is considered. Some of the highly successful Information Technology & Bio-technology ventures started off from Bengaluru by the initial support offered by Karnataka Government. ITPL and many SEZ’s in the city are examples for it.
6 – Cosmopolitan Nature :- This is the ultimate reason for Entrepreneurship to be cherished in Bengaluru. People from different parts of the country live and work in Bengaluru, surely Bengaluru is a “Melting pot”.
7 – Cost of living :- Of late the costs have been going up in Bengaluru considering inflation and other factors. But it’s still affordable for middle class to survive. Cost of living is comparatively cheaper than Delhi and Mumbai.
8 – Education :- The city hosts a series of exceptional institutions, IISc and IIM being the cream. Even at secondary and higher secondary level there are many noteworthy institutions.
9 – Law and Order :- Law & order is usually stable with few huff and puff at times. Law & order is one more reason to choose Bengaluru as a business location.
10 – Healthcare :- Many healthcare bodies are spread-out through the city, there are specialized units in the city where foreigner’s are addressed too. Healthcare facilities are cheaper in Bengaluru compared to International standards.
Bengaluru is the first Indian city to have it’s own logo.
“BE”ngalur“U”, BE and U in Bengaluru stands for “Be You”.
Why I chose India ? ‘The perquisite of choosing India over America’
Just like any other kid who completes engineering, I too had plans of pursuing masters in America.
I had the test scores of GRE and TOEFL, got few letters of recommendation, got all my transcripts. I was at the verge of applying to universities in US.
Initially, I had plans of joining masters program in Spring 2012(as I completed my Engineering in 2011). But postponed the joining date to Fall 2012 as the number of universities offering masters course would be more in Fall 2012.
I was fascinated with the idea of working with/studying cutting edge technologies in US.
When I started my engineering in 2007, the head of physics department professor H N Sathyamurthy had introduced me to the concept of higher education in US(before recession 2008), where there was plethora of opportunities if you worked hard. I am thankful to him for inculcating such ideals.
So the thought of going over to US was a prolonged one given the time period between ideation and pursuing masters.
Fast forward December 2011, I had two choices, either go over to US for masters or stay back in India with a comfortable lifestyle. The stakes were high if I was going over to US, the opportunity was a gamble.
I chose staying back in India. I was complacent initially, for not chasing the american dream.
But 3-6 years down the line I have realized the essence and advantage of staying back in India.
The biggest advantage of staying back has been the fact that you can be for your family and vice-versa.
A lot of technological advancements that used to be limited to US and developed countries have started making their presence in India as well. Cutting edge technology and premier research work is now available in different metro cities of India. Maybe not full fledged, but they have started having a decent visibility.
Given today’s political and visa norms in US, I find it was a very good decision to stay back in India.
Also, the kind of tech atmosphere that India is offering today can be contemplated to be among the best in the world.
When it comes to Internet startups, US has started reaching it’s saturation point. India offers a level playground and equal opportunity with net neutrality for tech startups.
The crowd in India is open to new ideas which was not the case say about 8-10 years ago.
Food – being a gourmet I find myself fortunate to eat as much Indian dishes as possible.
Healthcare – way cheaper compared to US even for a small ailment such as common cold.
The grass is always greener on the other side. It would be naive of me if I had believed only in “American Dream”.
India – Winners Under 19 Cricket World Cup : “The Wall” with twigs
ICC U19 World Cup 2018 is special for India because the performance of this team has been clinical and simply outstanding. Look at the track record starting from match 1 that India played in this tournament.
Group Matches
India won by 100 runs vs Australia
India won by 10 wickets vs Papua New Guinea
India won by 10 wickets vs Zimbabwe
Super League quarter-finals
India won by 131 runs vs Bangladesh
Super League semi-finals
India won by 203 runs vs Pakistan
Final
India won by 8 wickets vs Australia
The margin and the rate at which these boys have won matches has been phenomenal.
One man behind this stupendous show is ‘The Wall – Rahul Dravid’. Not to forget the contribution of other coaches and support staff involved with this team. Dravid, would definitely be a happy coach after winning the cup which his boys(different team) had lost a couple of years ago in the final.
This is India’s 4th title overall and 1st on New Zealand soil at under 19 level.
Things that this lads would have definitely learnt from Rahul Dravid:
i) To score runs patiently.
ii) To put a price on their wicket.
iii) To care for every single run.
Prithivi Shaw, Shubman Gill, Manjot Kalra, Anukul Roy have been the pick of this tournament.
Rahul Dravid comes from the old school of thought in going through the grind to master skills. This can be seen even today when he instructed the young boys to stay away from mobile phones till finals and concentrate on the tournament instead of IPL auctions.
Well, I remember reading in local newspaper that Dravid owns a plot in HSR Layout, wish he builds a home here so that I can meet him sometime in the future and brag he lives in my neighborhood.
Harsha Bhogle had once called Dravid as “the Wolf who lived for the pack”, well the wolf has grown now to guide the whelps.
Congratutions to U19 Indian cricket team and the coaches, including Rahul Dravid.
India : The Dark Horse
Let us understand and discern what population of India can deliver.
As of 2016 our population is 1.324 billion which translates to 132 crores(approximately).
Adult literacy rate is 72.1%(2015), assuming this population can do basic reading and writing.
Keeping the same percentage for 2016 would translate to 95.17 crores. If we consider 10% of this population to be the cream i.e. approximately 10 crore Indians would be the think tank of this country.
India is a mouth watering market for any tech company/startup today because India offers a sizable population to operate for these companies and also provides the demographic variety. So any company, if not now probably in the coming days would first want to test it’s product here before launching it globally.
Let us look at the sectors which offer opportunities :
- Internet – Has changed the way Indians live in the last 10 years, will continue to grow with the same pace with cheaper data rates and increasing mobile users.
- Infrastructure – Offers an extremely promising landscape provided there are easier policies while executing projects.
- Transportation – This is one sector which can bring perennial windfall of wealth if revamped and redesigned different routes with ports of this big nation.[looks like IIT(Internet, Infrastructure and Transportation) occupies the top place here too, just kidding there is nothing like top in this list as all these sectors give enough scope and space for development]
- Healthcare – One booming sector which is embracing and adapting to change quickly, with ageing population. It can be a mammoth sized industry if nurtured from grass-root level.
- Sports & Fitness – In one sentence this can be defined as the industry which requires immediate attention.
- Clean Energy – With depleting levels of non renewable energy sources it’s time to look for renewable sources as India provides ample opportunity with varied climatic condition throughout the country.
There are industries which give abundant opportunities upfront such as agriculture, education, FMCG, etc. The above mentioned list of industries are for an individual who wants to unlock potential with increasing population.
As a society, we are evolving from a large sized group to nuclear groups which is a necessary and more viable option in an urban mindset. It is more to do with can do approach rather than what if.
Population proliferation can be beneficent if acted upon now. That does not validate the fact that this trend must continue. There needs to be more opportunities for people who want to take risks by giving creative freedom, irrespective of results. This attitude will bring upon a change in how younger generation perceive their world within and outside themselves.
The horse is ready to gallop, time for jockey !
Data Source: Population - World Bank. Literacy rate - Wikipedia.
Indian
The highest form of endowment that I will ever possess will be the fact that I am an INDIAN.
India, the land of cultural resonance shall always hold a unique place on the globe.
Being Indian makes me rise above religion, caste, creed, state, language and many such boundaries.
This rich nation, has made me richer in every aspect, more so culturally. Probably, if not for India, I would have never had an opportunity to learn/speak Kannada, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu or English and enjoy the variety from myriad sources of this great nation.
Politically there may be leftist and rightist ideologies. But common man needs neither of them. Clearly, people of India need a rationalist movement.
Bhagat Singh was an atheist.
Swami Vivekananda believed in service to mankind.
APJ Abdul Kalam preached science as a tool for self reliance.
Verghese Kurien started white revolution.
Vikram Sarabhai stands as tall as Bahubali(Mahaveera) in Indian space research program.
All the great names mentioned above belonging to different religion such as Sikhism, Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Jainism have co-existed and contributed for overall development of this nation.
Mahatma Gandhi inspired a whole new generation across the world.
Looking Ahead
The biggest strength and weakness of current India is population. It is a strength because we have the largest youth population on this planet. It is a weakness since the opportunities are limited.
If we are to gain advantage over other nations and become a global power house, it’s about channeling youth energy.
India will overcome it’s shortcomings in the upcoming years, the Millennials will be operating for the next 10 years. Yes, the millennials are avert to many concepts, but they will be the key in shaping future India. One hurdle for millennials shall be capitalism versus socialism which millennials can pass through with time and experience.
Happy Republic Day everyone.
26th January, the day when India became a republic and constitution came into existence.
Constitution of India
The Indian Constitution has been a sovereign symbol of this glorious nation. For people who want to read and download the constitution please find the link below.
Read/Download: Constitution of India
The beauty of India lies in it’s diversity of food, dressing, habitat, lifestyle and culture. Let’s pledge to preserve and enrich them by respecting one another.
One India many cultures.