When India Awakened in Me

Re-posting Old Articles Published elsewhere online but now not available

Published in  Year 2012 

When India Awakened in Me

My 5th birthday was on 10^th December 1971.

The third Indo-Pak war is on its 7th day (if we say 4th December was the D-day). It is around 9 pm, I am sitting in the balcony of the government quarter where I stay. My mother is beside me and my sister who is 30 months old is sleeping in the room. We live in Faridabad, a small town near India’s capital - Delhi. My father, a government servant, goes every day on his bi-cycle to catch a train to Delhi where his office is and he comes late in the evening on the same bi-cycle which he keeps at the railway station. He also has to carry a license for his cycle.

Over the past few weeks my mother has put dark brown papers on all our windows and in fact painted everything black on the outside. The war between India and Pakistan can start any day and there are policemen and some sort of chowkidars whistling and telling to switch off all lights, not even candles should be lighted. There is a war between India and Pakistan. We kids go down to play in the open spaces between the rows of government quarters. Discussion is always about Gnats and Jets – I understand some – not much. One of the older kids was telling us that jets can fire missiles but our Gnats are very good and we can defeat them easily.

My father has not arrived from work; my mother is worried as we sit outside the house - in the balcony. This is a government colony and we are in the first story flat of two storied houses. As we sit outside, my mother looks at the sky - and sure enough there are dots moving below the stars. These are aircraft moving, my mother tells me. My mother tells me, "These are Indian Air Force planes. We don't have Jets that Pakistan has, but our pilots are brave and they will stop them". This is obvious reference to Sabrejets (F-86) that Pakistan had in 1971 from US. India did not have these types of high-end fighter planes. But our Hunters and Gnats proved better. The morale was high and may be so war training.

My father arrived on his cycle little late. He said he wanted to bring some cakes for my birthday
or something like that. I am not sure now. But my memory of looking at the sky with dots moving below the stars and the fear in the air of a possible long war and my mother holding me - the young boy of 5 years - in the balcony of the government flat in Faridabad is so vivid and clear even now.

I think that was the day, when INDIA AWAKENED IN ME!

I just wanted to get up - reach up the sky and fire the Gun that I have been given as my birthday present on the Sabrejets that the enemy brings to the war with my country! I think that was the day I got hooked on to India and Indian defence. I pursued, as a hobby, reading on Indian security, defence, war and history. And even now the interest continues.

When did I realize India is my country? This was I think the point - at the age of 5, India awakened in me. It may be an interesting exercise to recollect – when did India woke-up in you? Wishing you a very happy Independence Day.

Reaction to Pervez Hoodbhoy's article on North Korean Nuclear and Missile tests

The Article by Pakistan's nuclear physicist and a regular commentator on state of Pakistan's education has factual discrepancies in terms of Indian Nuclear Programme - especially the way it has developed.

Pervez Hoodbhoy's article can be read Here

He states, " Nuclear nationalism has worked well to stoke patriotic fires in all three countries. Remember those heady days of 1998 when India proclaimed its arrival on the world stage as a nuclear power? And when Pakistan strutted about excitedly as the first nuclear power in the Muslim world? Bomb-makers in both countries thumped their chests, and people showered rose petals on the ‘great’ nuclear scientists. There could be no greater nonsense.

My response to his equating India's nuclear programme that started with the peaceful nuclear explosion in 1974 and not in 1998, is below.

India is perhaps the only country that did the peaceful nuclear explosion in 1974 ... yes a good 24 years before it was forced to conduct 1998 shakti explosion to show the double standards of 5 nuclear states including USA, USSR and China, in letting Pakistan have the nuclear bomb. 

It's really a pity that the author decided to club India with Pakistan and North Korea (NK). Pakistani and NK nuclear and missile projects and capabilities clearly have Chinese components - it's well established. 

India despite developing its own nuclear bomb capability and missile capability opted, yes opted, to wait and show to the world it's good intentions for a nuclear weapons free world, which alas the existing powers never gave any ears.

India has been a reluctant and forced nuclear power, which she built completely on its own, unlike the borrowed means by Pakistan and North Korea. Even after the tests in 1998 we have been fighting the asymmetrical CTBT and NPT and have clearly told to the world about our Nuclear Doctrine which is NO FIRST USE ! 

Neither Pak nor NK has NFU . In fact it's a matter of deeper concerns that Pakistan is in fact proposing to use tactical nuclear weapons in case of war which clearly indicates the level of irresponsibility that is extremely dangerous for the world at large. 

With greatest infestation of terrorists organization along with the continuous spiral of making large number of nuclear bombs .. perhaps for KSA as well ... we are facing the nuclear jehad factory of the world along with the NK. So please spare us the comparison... India has been the most responsible actor in nuclear dimensions ... much more than the 5 nuclear haves and other possessors of nuclear weapons.

India, China and USA - Surviving Versus Desiging the Change Models

Wall Street Journal has this article on How India is shrewd enough to see US and China Smokescreens. The Article attributes this shrewdness to India on the basis of recent test of India's first ICBM - Agni-V. For my view on Agni-V and India's nuclear capability see my article at Frontier India - Agni-5 is not MAD

My view on the WSJ article

Indeed its the actions on ground that should be taken as input to formulating long-term responses. However, attributing shrewdness to largest democracy in the world on this is giving little bit too much credit to Indian policy makers and executives. Amazingly, Indian government continues to be reactive on all fronts - this is more so in security and defence than in other dimensions. 

After Deng's reforms in 1978, China created a longterm vision of economic development focus till 2000 including assimilation of HongKong, and now they are in the Military capability phase of becoming a superpower. They are well on their way, and that's great planning and amazing focus on the plan for so many decades. 

India is a Nation of Variety

In India, we do not have, as a nation a clarity on what constitutes world power, and also the very nature of Indian democracy and to a great extent social and intellectual fabric of the country, is built on assimilation of variety - its amazing that such large country builds and keeps on creating so much variety in its systems and people. Multiple plans and initiatives of the Government in multiple dimensions on the basis of specific keyholes that they may have, is just a reflection of India as a nation of variety. 

So, if a particular response survives the mess and becomes a capability - such as Agni-V - it will be foolhardy to attribute it to a shrewd response. I would like to state it to be a response of a nation who is reactive and may be more adaptive to changes and hence has a greater chances of survival rather than a nation who design change in the world with the purpose of controlling the world - for example, US policy of "shaping the world" and Chinese objective of becoming a superpower - militarily - by 2020. 

Algorithm for a Nation

India, on the other hand, has been just wriggling in this time of strategic history - and to some extent may be more appropriate as a nation to survive in the world of rapid change. However, I hope, Indian can learn from China and US to start designing change in the world as well - rather than adapting to change. As US is learning now and China will be forced to learn in a decade or so - the best way of course is to have largely an adaptive algorithm for the nation as somehow India has. But India need to structure the adaptive algorithm with a design algorithm to also create the change - that's what India should learn from declining US and rising China!

NOW PUBLISHED AT FRONTIER INDIA AS 

Penetrating US and China Smokescreens – Algorithm for India

Read more: http://frontierindia.net/penetrating-us-and-china-smokescreens-algorithm-for-india#ixzz1sw1JUmsy

India's Next Freedom Struggle - How to get freedom from rigidity

We need to start the Next Freedom Struggle - To make India Innovative - !

My working definition of Innovation is - successful creation of change by (new) ideas. Emphasis is on "successful" "creation" "change" and finally this has to happen through application of ideas - these ideas may or may not be "inventions" in the sense for example patent law/act describes it.

"Ideas" are those thoughts that become the genesis of change - these may be serendipitous or may be orchestrated. Since the genesis of change and in turn innovation (successful change creation) lies in ideas - it is must to enable ourselves with ability to generate ideas through thinking - may be systematically or may be through random triggers to the mind - Both are fine - but we need new type of thinking.

A new integrated thinking where three new thinking dimensions become important - "value thinking" - which has also been termed lean thinking, inventive thinking and finally holistic thinking or systems thinking. These three combined with existing analytical and logical thinking - is the framework that we call LIST (Lean Inventive Systems Thinking) - and our company CRAFITTI CONSULTING offers this an integrated approach for making your organization and in turn your country innovative.

CII's India@75 - A Grassroots Initiative to develop an aligned vision of India

Yesterday I attended the CII Karnataka Annual Members Day 2011, at Bangalore. The theme was India@75- An Innovative Vision.

India@75 is attributed to Late Prof. C.K. Prahalad. The documents shared during the seminar, explains India@75 as a grassroots initiative to develop an aligned vision for our country shared by people from all geos and all walks of life.

India@75 aims to change the face of India through various development initiatives such as 100% literacy, globally employable workforce, world class infrastructure etc.

The key to achieving these three objectives is innovation in multiple dimensions

1. By 2022, India should be a global technology leader - inventing new and better technologies rather than replicating the technologies of other countries
2. India should produce world class researchers
3. Major need is Innovation in Energy - we should be self-sufficient in meeting our energy needs
4. In Agriculture Innovation in must - as it employs 60% of India's population directly or indirectly
5. Business and Innovation - need to go hand in hand - Leading edge R&D is must.
6. Urbanization and Infrastructure - world class Indian cities need to be designed, developed, maintained and evolved
7. Innovation in Healthcare sector is must

The second half of the seminar (after customary political/Government statements in the first half) was followed by a public session with 4 important talks.

Keynote address by S V Ranganath, Chief Secretary, Government of Karnataka

{Noted points from his talk in my notes }

• Most of other countries first industrialized and then adopted democracy, India took reverse path - It adopted democracy and then moved towards industrialization - India has not done too bad as of now
• Two points agenda - Governance and Innovation
• Need for good governance - inclusive growth needed
• The key problem - where Jobs are where people are - seems to a big disconnect in India
• Coastal states are driving growth and inner states are driving population
• There is no dearth of ideas, capital, people - the key is the land - In India land title is the root cause of major issues - "Home Grown Mafia" want to maintain the status-quo and not let any land reforms happen
• Second problem of Governance is health and Education - Dearth of doctors/nurses - further pvt sector in healthcare is providing very poor quality and very heavy cost - How to regulate the pvt sector - rightly and properly?
• Third governance problem - Police and law and Order - In this case there is no private sector - the poor man's recourse - is to seek solutions outside - Extreme Naxal movements are the result
• Innovation and Creativity in dealing with these problems is needed - Innovation led economic growth - Innovation is driven by competition
• India has been creating Innovation buzz by $3000 Car, $300 Computer and $30 Mobile phones
• Environment for Innovation in India however needs to be created
• In Jayant Narlikar's book "Scientific Age" - he list 10 key contributions by India in Science and Technology in last century - (a) Ramanujam in Mathematics (b) Meghnath Saha in Physics (c) S.N. Bose of Bose Einstein statistics (d) C.V. Raman of Raman effect (e) Molecular Biologist (G.N. Ramachandran) (f) Bhabha in Atomic energy (g) Green Revolution - M.S. Swaminathan (h) Space revolution by Vikram sarabhai (i) Superconductivity by CN Rao at IISc
  
• Speaker added India making supercomputer in early 1990s as the 11th key coontribution.
• One point he observed - none of the contributions of second half are path breaking - like the contributions of the first half of the century.
• India Must focus on Science and technology
• Innovation for Governance is the need
• Innovation in Literacy
• Innovation in Agriculture - utilize traditional knowledge as well

India need to focus on

• Decentralization
• Transparency
• Education and
• Technology

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Keynote Speaker - Pankaj Chandra - IIM Bangalore

Excellence in Higher Education was his topic - and he qualified it with "what is holding us back"

India has Mountains to climb

He asked questions

• Why are best and brightest not joining academia?
• Can the society wait to invest in higher education?
• Can India remain insular to global education influence?

He said Government of India invest 0.8% of GDP for Higher Education - which comes to about USD 3.7 Billion

Further Indian students go abroad per year about 150,000 which amounts to USD 2 Billion

So around 6 billion is available within India - hence it is not about money.

He claimed it is about "partially" Understood objectives of Higher Education

• HE should be about advanced training not basic training -that should be over by Class XII. So Our students should be employable after Class XII.
• Parity across Education Institutes is not the right method
• Our Graduates are starved of "curiosity"
• Broad educational mindset is missing
• State is the key provider of HE
• State as the source of funding and CONTROL - Funding as a mechanism of control
• Society is a spectator

The speaker gave global HE models

• US Univ System is the Top - Mix of private and public endowments, research drive
• Oxbridge clan - also Ran
• Weak Liberalization - European Univ system
• Targeting winners - State univ of Singapore
• New Experimentalists - Chinese education system - Entrepreneurial, building endowment, academic fervor

key areas of Innovation for HE

University Role

• To answer society's dilemmas
• preparing manpower
• preparing thinking mind
• cultural spaces

Autonomy of Institution

• Perverse Centralization
• Funding does not mean control
• University or simply colleges
• Role of regulatory accredition - self regulation

Accountability of academic and administration

• Governance - recreating research base
• Poor understanding of financing of higher education
• Targeting needy users

Expansion of pvt capacity

• Why we havent passed private university bill?
• Vocational education - issue of capacity and mobility

Role of society

• People who dont want to think
• Where is the faculty
• Less salaries
• Funding for research? Research "pull" from industry

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Dr. R. Bala was the next speaker - Innovation in social sector

He started with - Industry has grown despite government but society will not grow

Innovation word has its origin in Latin 1540 - meaning - Just to change, renew, refresh

He said - Karnataka has rampant "Innovation Corruption"

His key message "Stop innovating misgovernment" first - before talking about innovating in governance - it was clear response to the chief secretary

He gave a possible solution

when industry buy land from farmers - why cant they be given stake in the company - let the industry be a user farmer's land

Industrialization in rural areas
Information disclosure - how much is right
Information packaging

Service delivery focus
Look at the last mile problem for service delivery

One needs value based leadership

"Local development is Global development"

Society co-opted in corruption

hence

one needs to LIVE THE CHANGE - sort of paraphrasing M.K. Gandhi's BE THE CHANGE!

Making India Happen

The Question to Ask is
" How to Make India Happen" -
If the world has to progress or may be continue to exist - it is becoming clear - India has to Happen - Else world has no hope!

The young minds will be here in near term, medium term and in long-term.
I think all of us - whether we are in India, outside India, Indians or non-Indians, need to MAKE INDIA HAPPEN!

Google Trends - India China

Since we are at Google Trends and flavor of the times is India and China - Just look at how India and China on Google Trends fare...






Seach Volume - India consistently outperforms China,

News Reference - There seems to be more News about China

May be China is not so open - and India is so open that what is India becomes very complex - hence individuals want to search more ....

Can anyone interpret these trends?