Update on policy making

I witnessed few very strange things.

1. Tatkaal line had more than 20 people while normal line had no one.
This points to two things:
---One, people do not mind paying more money if they are getting a better service.
---Second, People are getting impatient. They need quick service.

2. There were nearly 1000 people inside a small hall. At 5'o clock in the evening, Nearly 300 people were inside the hall.
This indicates:
---Officials and staff members who are working in the office are significantly burdened and regularly doing overtime. Thus any expectation of empathy or gentle communication is misplaced.
---The standards of service are not matching with the money charged with the consumer. The normal quota fees is 1500 while for Tatkaal it is 3500 rs. This means nearly 25% Indians (BPL) can never get their passport.
---This indicates a poor trend of "data-less policy". How:

Firstly, a common man can not afford to spend so much of their time on getting one identity card. I am young, I can stand for 6 hours but what about so many elderly. The number of seats installed for seating are disproportionately less than the scale of crowd present in the small hall of passport office in Ghaziabaad. And it is not very hard to imagine that Air-conditioning is rendered ineffective in such situation. While government is crying so much about "ease of doing business", I wonder why there is no focus on "ease of living" for a common man.

An informed policy maker has many levers to deal with this situation:
a. Increase the number of seats, office space, number of officer and Air-conditioning capacity.
b. Decrease the number of people you are inviting for service delivery.

However, it is easier said than done,
Take option b, If they decrease the number of people then It'll increase the delay in service. A person may have to wait for 6 month to 1 year for getting passport so clearly this option is not very futuristic.

Now option a, This requires money. Now one might wonder what about 3500 they have paid for Tatkaal. Is it not sufficient sum of money? The problem is, Government has outsourced some of the software to private companies who charge exorbitantly for those software pieces thus in order to compensate for such large tender, government charges more from people.

Why does software company charge exorbitantly? This is because most of the time there is nexus between bureaucrate-politician and businessman thus such tender processes are compromised. The large amount of corruption money which company pays to officials and public servant is recovered from the public at large. This is true for all the tendering processes and service delivery models. In fact, it would not be inaccurate to say that tendering and quality monitoring are the two points from where corruption seeps into the system.

Now why does official and politician take corruption and show favors? Simple, Apart from all moral reasons, firstly family welfare, nepotism etc influence the system. Second and more importantly, politician take money to recover the expenses in the election. He spends huge sum of money to party leadership and distribute good amount of alcohol and rupaiyaa to illiterate population in order to buy their vote. Thus He take bribe to recover the money.
Why this is not checked? Because, election commission officials are firstly not trained, secondly over burdened, thirdly fearful of being beaten, and fourthly have compromised their work ethics and job quality standards and fifthly take money for not doing their job properly.

Now why officials take money? For Politicians we understand that they have spent crores to satisfy the un-quenching power thirst of top leadership. But officials have come through competitive exams. What about them? The reason is most of the exams are compromised. Most of the state PSC members have political connections. They are appointed by politicians. Politicians take money from PSC members or give monetary targets to PSC officials in order to recover the money invested in the elections. PSC officials in turn charge money from the aspiring candidates. Aspiring candidate after becoming officers charge money from common man or the corporates. Corporates pass the burden to common man. Whoever is able to take the burden will have access to services and whoever is not in the position to pay will end up at disadvantage. Thus creating inequality in the system.


Any way coming back to the topic of passport office.
So for informed policy maker, It is essential to have data. How many people are getting their passport ready? How many people are expected to come? What are the places from where people are more likely to come?

On basis of this:
Either increase 5 days to 6 days working
Open regional offices so that person does not have to travel 500km twice in a week to get his passport
Increase the passport validity period from 10 to 15 years
Rent out more space and open additional services like cafeteria to recover their money

And most importantly, tell your officers to be strict but not obsessed, to be vigilant but at least be informed about the rules and not be fearful in accepting a clear cut case of valid passport.


Many other things, But time is an issue. I hope I had a machine which would read my mind and write down my thoughts but sad I dont have one yet.

Good night

Experience at Passport office: Importance of good policy and Impact of bad one

Today I visited passport office in Ghaziabad. This was my second visit. The earlier visit was fruitless as my name on election Id was not same as it was in the passport.
Today's visit was also fruitless. I saw the importance of policy making in user experience and good governance.

As I have a get up early so I'll complete this one later. I wish to explain the roots of "chalta hai" attitude of Indian system. I would also dwell on corruption and issue of data less policy making. Many other things as well.

Good night

Meeting with a friend

Today I submitted my Psychology assignments. It gave me a sense of accomplishment. The Psycho classes are so happening. I love the practical stuff. Class is full of girls. Boys are in minority. I met couple of interesting people there. My teacher said a wonderful line today.. Become a teer and not a tukka. At some point, you got to specialize in your field.

Now there is strong desire to earn money. I need to start somewhere. Met a friend and discussed many ideas. The guy was good in the sense, he pitched an idea on which I have worked in great details. I understood some nuances of E-commerce space. He also explained me how should I become part of entrepreneurial networks. We had good meal of paneer chawal at some shop near Hanuman Mandir.

Anyway, I need to begin with some thing concrete. The idea for next few days is to work on entrepreneurship Idea and alongside apply for jobs in Colleges. For earning some immediate money, I'll take up teaching activity in some coaching institute where I would try to keep my load to only three classes a week.

Let us see what happens and how things transpire. Tomorrow is also a hectic day.
Visit to Passport office.
Reading the book 0 to 1 given by Srini and
Start working on Idea of Connect

Good night for now.

A song

Watched movie Marvelous, really lovely.. The character Neil Baldwin was great...

Enjoy yourself, its later than you think
Enjoy yourself, while you're still in the pink

The years go by as quickly as a wink
Enjoy yourself, enjoy yourself
It's later than you think!

You worry when the weather's cold
You worry when it's hot

You worry when you're doing well
you worry when you're not

It's worry worry all the time,
You don't know how to laugh!

You'll think of something funny
When they write your epitaph

Enjoy yourself, It's later than you think

When I started preparing for Civil Services, I never believed that I would be giving fourth attempt. I gave it a thought but only in theory.
I had very strong belief in my Hard work. I always told myself to work so hard that no body in this universe can claim to be more hardworking than me. The lines of song "khudi ko kar buland Itna" always reverberated in my ears. I believed hard work never goes waste.

For first three attempt I never asked god or any saint to bless me with success in the Civil Services examination. Rather I only requested them to giving me blessing that "My believe in Hard work is sustained". It is only in the fourth attempt that desperation came out in the open. For some time, I was confused whether to give exam with job or with out job. I started looking for internship and other opportunities. Never got any call for job or internship. I was not depressed or disappointed but I was confused about what to do in future. Good thing was that I was exploring some or other opportunity all the time. Drafted my own entrepreneurial idea and started working on that.

My Inter-personal and Intra-personal skills improved big time during Civils apart from my other faculties. After fourth attempt mains, I prepared a list and started accomplishing task one after the other. Did political party active election volunteering, went on Vipasana, traveled in mountain regions, finished psychology first year, started blogging and exercise schedules, debating club, RTI to UPPSC, letter to IGNOU, meditation etc. etc..

Now as the result is being delayed, I need to decide on the future course of action.... I finalized on certain things.
Will write about it in detail tomorrow... Some important work is pending....

Intense debate on reservation in Judiciary

One thing I admire about JITO is kind of liberal environment and open minded, extremely knowledgeable, talented and smart group of people with whom you get to interact.
We have formed an informal discussion group here in which we actively debate, discuss, dissent about various social, economic, political, cultural issues. The debates are very deep, informed , argumentative in nature thus intellectually fulfilling as well.

Today, we had intense debate on the issue of reservation in Judiciary. Recently some protests were held in Tamil Nadu where the people from disadvantaged section are demanding reservation in Judiciary. The article in Hindu highlighted that out of 84 judge at lower level only 2 are from general, while rest are from reserved category only. Thus the call for reservation sounds misinformed and political in nature.

The roots of reservation were sown at time of Poona pact between Mahatma Gandhi and B.R. Ambedkar. At time of independence, reservation was considered a necessity considering the socio-educational backwardness, discriminating caste based hierarchical social setup. However, it was subjected to the article 335 which calls for no compromise on efficiency and inadequacy of representation as basic principles for reservation provision. Further government created enabling provision under article 15 and 16 to provide reservation to socio-economic backward class of citizens. The clause of reservation came with sunset clause of 10 year but extension of this sunset clause for another 10 years since then has become a political ritual. Further in 77th C.A.A. parliament provided for reservation in promotion as well under article 16(4A). Later government tried to bring 117 C.A.A. to dilute the efficiency clause of article 335 and claimed that SC/ST should be deemed socio-economically backward thus clearing the way of competitive reservation politics.

In the whole process, certain basic questions remain unanswered. Has policy of reservation paid its dividend? Should be put any limit of usage of reservation clause by any individual? Whether we should allow reservation in Judiciary (higher judiciary because lower judiciary already has reservation) or armed forces? Alternatively, should we restrict reservation to lower strata of bureaucracy? Should reservation be allowed in Jobs or promotion or consequential seniority? Does reservation leads to compromise on efficiency? Has the time come to activate sun set clause? Does the case of women reservation and caste reservation follow qualitatively same line of argument? What is the impact on he psyche of a general category meritorious candidate? What is class in caste framework? Has policy of reservation turned selective in nature? Does reservation goes against argument of merit, wisdom and excellence?

We discussed all these issue in great depth supporting or refuting each other arguments with facts, logic or counter-arguments. No where I can get the opportunity to become part of such a informed group. I am not going to list our arguments because that will consume lot of my energy but I would definitely like to thank all the group members for making the discussion so lively, informative, democratic and fruitful.

Good night

Working abroad

I have had big debates with my friends on the issue of brain drain. Many of them consider that brain drain is no issue at all and in the globalized world, raising issue of brain drain in itself is regressive. Anyway discussion on Brain Drain or intellectual imperialism demands a good book in itself. As of now, I would limit the discussion to the topic of working abroad superficially touching on brain drain. Many Indians including me keep asking our relatives to move back to India and do some thing here. But given the hopeless state of affair, is this really pragmatic?

As a professional, I would say quality of work is any day better in developed countries and so is quality of life as well. Thus If one gets an opportunity to work abroad then there is no reason to stay behind. There is no reason to remain a "Koop Mandook" (frog in the well with shallow mind). It is always better to learn about new technology, new culture and take challenges. If we carry some self-imposed restraint of not leaving India or develop xenophobic or chauvinistic tendencies then we are inviting regressive thoughts.

However, what irks me is the fact that we import 80% of our defense equipment from abroad. Any one who has some awareness on the foreign and strategic affairs can tell "How often India is insulted, ignored or disgraced by the supplier nations". The world politics largely runs on realism and not idealism. The big countries do not understand the power of argument rather they understand the argument of power. In such scenario, I believe that our young lads should be more motivated or inclined to work in defense sector at the least.

I was pleased to see so many Indians dancing and Indian flag waving in Australian cricket grounds. So the deep cultural connection with India is there but I wonder how many of them have ever given a thought about how could we make India a better place to live. Invariably people start talking in third person and blame Indian political and social systems for all the ills but we ignore that people in political social high positions are also one among us. They are our siblings or extended family members or some acquaintance. In all certainty, they are Indians. They have not come from heaven. If we wish to make this a developed country, then we will have to do it. God will not come from heaven to this job. However, bitter truth is people search for such gods who can reform the country with their magic wands. Probably that is why Many in India build a temple for their political leaders and our brothers and sisters abroad blame it entirely on Indian political and social system turning oblivion to the fact that given their higher education, greater cultural knowledge, they occupy a central position in the political and social system.

I also have a hard line argument on the subject which is true at least in theory. Just imagine a alternate life pattern for a young individual who do not move out of the country and decide to invest their energies in the country itself. One may argue that their professional competencies may not reach to the full potential given the state of affair in the country. The person may live a poor quality of life. May be he'll end up wasting his talent or resources. If we apply psychological principles of behaviorism, then the person would be shaped and adapted by the rules of environment i.e. may be he'll develop same "chalta hai" attitude.

But even if 1 out of 100 motivated individual starts his own company or enterprise new idea or incubate a social change process or leave impact in political system then it can have huge multiplier effect on the whole system. Just imagine, had Arvind Kejariwal moved to USA in the quest for better life, could we have movement like AAP today?. This is true in theory. Anyway individuals who are moving for a high end job abroad are our young, dynamic, intellectual assets of the country. We can expect this much from the top talent of the country. At least our defense dependence would be reduced.

People often give argument that India is a country of very high population and job absorption is low so in order to accommodate such huge workforce, migration abroad is beneficial. I asked the similar question to R.A. Mashelkar, Padma Vibhushana awardee. He gave a good answer. He asked out of 100 researcher, how many would produce 1 research paper. As per his mathematical calculation, It would be nearly all hundred. Then he posed question of how many of them would produce 2 research papers, He himself answered it to be 50. for 4 paper, 25 researcher, for 8 papers, 12 researchers and for 32 papers, 2 or 3 people. He explained the pyramidal structure of the talent pool of the country so it seems that US/UK or other developing countries are poaching only minority of workforce but in reality these 2 or 3 people are the apex of pyramid. The cost of brain drain is huge. It is unimaginable. It could only be a presumptive loss because the people who are migrating, they are the best in the country and for them even sky is not the limit.The migration of young Indian talent is equivalent to the scenario where we provide raw iron to China or USA and they send a manufactured product at 5 times higher price.

But then we can not expect every individual to leave the material pursuit. Fault lies with our systemic social arrangements. How can we expect a girl to stay in such a restrictive discriminating and unsafe environment?. Not every one has will power or passion to control the sensual gratification of free culture, material comfort, easy money and good quality of life. In the past many people have tried to come back but only to be bitten by the system so badly that they decided to go back. Only a few with tough mindset, great resolve and fearless resilient attitude who are ready to break the social custom of "chalta hai" can make some change. And possibly that's the path of greatness. This is certainly not everyone's cup of tea. Patriotism can not be forced on people. It can only be inculcated through early cultural, social education process.

In my opinion, all 120 crore people do not have same mindset. Rather, a major initiative needs to start from the policy making, political and social sphere to retain the talent in the country. This is possible only when we provide our young workforce with the quality work, good life style, loads of money, and channels of growth. Who'll do this? I do not bank my faith on any one political leader or social guru. Rather a collective collaborative effort from all those who play active role in policy making could bring decisive shift in our attitude. I feel fortunate that I decided to pursue Civil Services because selection in this exam would certainly place me in some position where at some point in life I can have a say in policy making. There are other ways as well. As the policy making is moving towards inclusiveness, any one a respected professor in good University in India or abroad or big businessmen or technocrates or whoever is best in his/her business India or abraod can get their chance to shape and formulate policies. But bureaucracy remains the safest and most certain way of becoming part of policy making process.

Many people ask me given opportunity, whether I would love to move abroad? MNC does not offer job to people because people wish to work with MNC rather it is the MNC who wants to work with talented people so MNC's run behind them. And if ever I get the opportunity to work in home based organizations especially in defense and space like ISRO, DRDO, or prestigious institutes like IIT/IISER which can fulfill my maslownian needs then I would prefer to work here. But I consider working for Google, Microsoft in San-Jose is more professionally rewarding than working for TCS. At some point, quality of work, quick money etc matters. Frankly, at this point I feel I am not tough enough to start a social movement or political movement. I need more time, experience etc.

Some one asked me how does it feel to be unemployed? For me, Unemployment is state of mind like Poverty is for dear Rahul Gandhi. I am generally in constant learning mode, a habit. So unemployment does not mean I am unskilled. That is the beauty of Civil Services examination. People often wonder why a particular person is investing so much energy in some exam where he has so less probability of selection, process is non-transparent and random at times and salary one would draw is hardly $650 per month or 35K on which an honest person can not afford to entertain more than one guest visit at home? The taste of pudding lies in eating it. The exam process is so thrilling and exciting that it keeps alive candidate hope. It increases your appetite for intellectual discussion, knowledge that person may find a phase difference in the thought process and attitude vis-a-vis people in the external world. "Keeda hai, kaat jaata hai to chodta nahi hai". :)

Any way, enough for the day. Don't feel like correcting grammar or english.. will do it tomorrow. Please excuse my mistakes. Good night. Many thoughts are remaining to be put here but will write some other time.

Work and Time Management

All through my life I have been involved in doing so many things that my plate has always been full. Focus was there but complacency and realistic goal setting was missing. There is an incessant desire and insatiable hunger to master every thing I engage into. This has impacted my health, friends and family relationship at times.
For example, in my Computer Science days during college, I aspired to learn as many languages as possible. I would set huge targets of learning and mastery for myself. For example, making a operating system during operating systems class or becoming a god of computer science by learning or knowing every trick of the trade. If I finished reading one technical book then before reaching the end of first book, I tend to start thinking about the next one. May be the mix of competition, ambition and perfection drove me to limits of craziness.

In psychological terms, I was a type B personality. People who wish to do more and more in less time, who are always in "catching with the work" mode. Type B are considered anxious soul who tries to be perfectionist or put large loaf in their mouth than what they can actually chew. These people never rise beyond middle level management. Some times they are hook in the ass of their employee. However, Type B people are the strength of the organization because they are the go-getter and real implementer of things.

With the preparation of Civil Services Examination, I struggled with this habit. The syllabus was endless literally spanning everything under the sun and even beyond it whatever possible. I learned the skill to sideline unimportant things, prioritize my work. I became multi-tasker though I still prefer to do one thing at at time. Ambition and Competition factor remained but perfection was diluted slightly.

Couple of failure helped me in introspection. My subject of Psychology helped me in looking at myself and my daily activities from a neutral stand point. One thing I learned that if I waste my 10 minutes at this point then I do not need to become restless. The day and night progresses in cyclic fashion. In long term, such small interruptions are equalized and would not count as long as you remain focused.

It turned me into hardy personality. This personality type is defined by 3 C's of behavior namely commitment, control and challenge. They have very resilience attitude. The stress at work has a motivating and efficiency inducing effect on them. The insatiable hunger and incessant desire has even increased given my scholarly engagement with Psychology, Political Science and affectionate subject of Computer Science. The domain of reading and interest subjects has increased manifold. I hardly cover even 25% of material available at any point of time. This information overload has very fear-inducing paralytic effect.

Now I understand that I need to put Competition*Ambition*Perfection into the framework of time, relations, and abilities. I do not need to master every single thing. Rather I need to master the essential and spot the people who know the rest. Connect with them or at least know them. It is better to be master of one than Jack of all. Being a Jack has its own advantage and given the experience of civil services, that advantage is going to remain in some core form. But now time has come when I develop masterful skills in one particular domain.

I wish I get into Civils as IAS so that I would be able to put all my skills to productive use in one job. If that does not happen then teaching and entrepreneurship are two alternate activities where I can do justice with my talent and hard work that I have put in. Anyway Let us see which way the wind will blow. The results of Mains are awaited and would be released soon. Let us see what happens then.

Well the transformation from Type B to Hardy personality does not mean that Type B traits are all gone. There are times when I get rest-less. I look at amount of work and activities I need to finish and suddenly I get tensed about poor work management. Though it is momentary but it does happen once in a while. The good thing is I have found an easy way out. Either watch a movie and resume the work after some time or spot the most important task and forget about every single thing on the earth, Just get on the job, finish it and have a sense of accomplishment. It is easier said than done but it works. Another strategy is to write some thing or talk to some one and share your tension. I am doing the same here. Had I been at home, I would have beaten the teddy bear of my sister badly. That would have helped me in cathartic release.

Before ending, Let me tell you Type A as well. They are cool-headed guys, just like Dhoni. They stay calm. They are efficient and good at delegating the work. Thus they are good high end managers like CEO or CMD etc. This does not mean that Type A is better than Type B. They have their own drawbacks like crippling down in the event of too much work.

So the best confluence of Type A and Type B is the HARDY PERSONALITY but the tilt in the mix should be towards Type A. They are the best in the business, true entrepreneurs and energetic creative gutsy individuals. In my case tilt is towards Type B. May be when I get married, the shift may occur. Right now, lot of my work activities are like getting passport renewed or register for Kailash Mansarovar or get UGC certificate or get a bank draft. I wish I had a PA who could have taken care of this overhead. I would have concentrated better on my central activities. Anyway, enough for now. I will start a fresh day tomorrow and focus on only one thing, my entrepreneurship idea. Let the rest of the world **** in the gutter.

One thing I have noted, My titles does not reflect the true essence of my posts. May be because I tend to express myself in honest manner thus loose the track in the course. I should be more careful about this. And don't term me narcissistic for excessive use of I. Ultimately Its my blog.

Missed last night...

When I looked up at the clock, It was already past 12 so I decided to sleep instead of posting a blog entry in drowsy state of mind like the day before.

was reading about death of Lee Kuan Yew, the father of Singapore. He gave vision of Asian values and 5C's namely cash, condo, car, credit card, country club. He was credited with creation of first world oasis among the third world countries. He was considered a benevolent dictator, a rare species on the planet earth because power has a corrupting influence over mindset. May his soul rest in peace.

Anyway, my concern here is different. I read about his disappointment with India. He considered India as nation of unfulfilled aspirations and greatness. He described India as unit of 32 nations lying around British Railways.


I am anguished over his poor understanding of India as a nation. He did not account for the idea of Indianness, cultural unity in diversity and spirit of peace, non-violence and tolerance ingrained so deeply in our lifestyle. No doubt, India has not achieved its true potential, but defining India as unit of 32 nations being together due to colonial rule shows the shallow understanding of Indian history. Be it Ashoka or Gupta or Khilji and Moughal rule, a rudimentary territorial integrity comprising plain, plateau, desert and deltaic region has always existed.

A nation needs four basic ingredients namely, territory, population, army, culture. Singapore does not fulfill these criteria. I think it has outsourced its defense setup. India however is strong exception to traditional understanding which views culture as linguistic homogenity. The cultural unity for us is visible at deeper abstract level of values of peace, tolerance etc. A simple litmus test of strength and resilience of a nation could be answer to the question " whether the nation could be won over by outside army or outside culture"? In both cases, India would maintain its fabric. History stands witness to this fact. Be it Kushanas or Indo-greeks or mongols or moughal, Invaders were Indianized rather other way around. Some examples like last kushana king was named Vasudeva(Hindu name). How many times do we see a foreigner giving a local name to their kids? Definitely, it requires a deeper cultural affinity to name your kid that way.

Coming to the economic model, I believe application of Singapore model to India would be a huge mistake of misapplication. There is difference of size and agree or not size does matter. In India, we need to look at political economic and social repercussions of Singaporean dictator model. Singapore economic progress was not a threat to any one but India's economic progress ignites jealosy from neighbor Pakistan and his Pak's big brother China who carry a deceptive semblance towards India.

Anyway. Enough. There are many other reasons and argument but small screen of my phone is somewhat stress inducing. So done for the day. Will be careful to put the entry before night 12 but can not commit because some times it break the flow of work.

Xoxoxo

Not a productive day

Today I finished a long pending work of sending my RTI queries to up public service commission. I won't be able write much. My whole body is aching due to heavy exercises in evening. But to keep my pledge, posting something is essential. Tomorrow again a very very hectic day.
hav to meet Sarah
finish letter to vice chancellor IGNOU
and most importantly setup my computer for android workstation settings.

need to think hard about where am i wasting time.

Good night...

A pledge to begin with

No body can stop an idea whose time has come. After years of business and months of inertia, I have finally decided to begin blogging on a regular basis.


Initially I intend to keep it simple, limiting its domain to day to day experience but gradually I would love to move on to serious political economic cultural discussions. I realise if I do not begin now, I would be wasting the knowledge which I have earned over the years.


Last few years have been very fulfilling in terms of learning. Though results have not been favorable but the phase of UPSC turned out to be a true test of my attitudinal strength and character. I feel happy that I survived this onslaught.


Many people express their sympathies on my continuous failed attempts at civil services. Some of my friend feel sorry for me for my decision to choose Civil Services over Computer Science. I express my gratitude to all these well wishers who wonder 'How could I be happy in the present situation'? However, if I were to live my life again then again I would make the same choice.

Your comments and feedback would be truly motivating for me. I request to whoever read my blogs to provide me feedback. It could be anything a word of appreciation or criticism, correction in grammar or a alternate perspective on social political issues.

signing off for the day. The pursuit has begun. :)