2. Once upon a time!
• There were POTS
• Difficult to get a phone line
– 1 Year waits
– Pilferage
– State run monopoly ITI
• stifled and strangled the telephony sector
• Story of a frog in the well – ITI star player
– Then came Sam Pitroda with PCO/STD
• Was incremental in its effect but transformed India
3. Mobile Telephone
• No need for physical network
• Africa, India and third world overnight became connected
• Information can be shared worldwide
• leveled the playing field in the domain of communication
• Now India, Africa are major markets for telcom MNCs
• Indians and Africans can no longer be ignored
• Indians and Africans are driving many innovation
• Indians and Africans are enjoying world class infrastructure
Typical of Innovation and disruptive technologies
India was limited by physical network
Mobile networks just did away with the need of physical network
Creative Destruction – Schumpeter – in play
ITI was replaced by Reliance, AIRTEL, BSNL
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123413407376461353.html#
4. World MNCs take note of Rural India
WSJ Article
lives without a toilet but cannot without cellphone
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/cont
ent/07_39/b4051058.htm -- mobile phones
ticket to better sales and marketing and even
education and banking
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/06/technology/06iht-wireless07.1.5582419.html
70 percent of India's 1.1 billion population, 770
million people, live in villages and rural areas
Overnight they all could all be in touch with each
other – an imperative for any social animal
Nokia introduced mobile phone van!
Nokia introduced FM Radio on their phones
besides SMS, Photo, Email
http://images.businessweek.com/ss/07/05/0511_nokia/image/nokia-mobile-van-3.jpg
Successful technologies will be tested in un-anticipated ways and result in big gains!
5. Tech Frenzy
• Confluence of different technologies
– Internet protocol
– Telephony
– Now we have
• Skype, Messenger, gtalk, AOL/AIM
Integrating different technologies in
Many different ways enhancing humanity.
Innovation is key!
Note Rich or Poor Innovative Technologies
don’t make a difference. Equalizer of sorts!
6. IP Telephony: magicJack
May be you have seen this.
Computer + broadband = worldwide telephone and more
7. Innovation is key!
• To fulfill Indian destiny and ensure dreams
come alive
– Job creation is key all over the country
• Not sustainable to urbanize to no end
• Need rural jobs
• Need millions of jobs every year
• Only new thinking can deliver such things
India is yours! Gandhi is not coming back. One of us shot him dead!
He has shown us the way – there are no limits
Do not put up with corruption and illiterate politicians
8. Think Big! Mauryan Scale!
20 Somethings, take note, this is your future.
This is your livelihood. This is your children’s future!
Keep the politicians hand out of the pot!
Become public servants, politicians!
This is not why Mahatma sacrificed his life…
what we now have is not independence!
India needs to free itself from corruption, lawlessness, greed
selfishness, money worship
Indians need to embrace service to fellowmen,
excellence, cleanliness http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gandhi
dhrtihi kshama damo asteyam, saucam indriya nigrahaha
Nothing of what I have
dhirvidya satyam akrodho, dasakam dharmalakshanam
recalled is new
Indians have known these
fortitude, forbearance, restraint, nonstealing, purification,
values for ages
control of senses, intellect, knowledge, truth, not getting angry
-- these ten are the characteristics of dharma
9. This is all old news for Indians!
samodamas tapah saucam, ksantir arjavam eva ca
jnanam vijnanam astikyam, brahma-karma svabhava-jam
Peacefulness, self-control, austerity, purity, tolerance, honesty,
knowledge, wisdom and religiousness — these are the natural qualities
for attaining your full potential says Gita 18-42.
http://saranathantg.blogspot.com/2009/01/bg-137.html
amanitvam adambhitvam
ahimsa ksantir arjavam
acaryopasanam shaucam
sthairyam atma-vinigrahah
"Humility; pridelessness; nonviolence; tolerance; simplicity; approaching a
bona fide spiritual master; cleanliness; steadiness; self-control;“
Lord Krishna Gita 13 Chapter-7 Sloka
10. Two major projects!
• The Garland – connect the rivers
• High Speed Rail Network – Weekend in Rajdhani
National Initiatives creating jobs and transforming Indian landscape!
11. Harness
• No floods
• No drought
• Garland project -- jobs
• Connect the rivers Ganges/Cauveri/Krishna
• Yes there will be problems
• It is not an easy project
• Get it done, we must
• Hold people accountable
• Don’t accept fraud /pilferage
• Satyam eva jayati –3-1-6 Mundakopanisad
my life is not worth anything!
• Do you know a North American company is
planning to import clean water to India over
shipping lines!
http://www.ecoworld.com/waters/indias-water-future.html
Map not drawn to scale – for illustration only.
12. Forget Airlines – High Speed Rail
• High Speed Rail Network
• Imagine in 2025, from
Bangalore
• to Hyderabad in 2 Hours
• To Madurai in 2 hours
• To Bombay in 4 hours
• To Delhi in 5 hours
• To Calcutta in 5 hours
• To Jammu in 7 hours
• Clean and on time!
http://www.mapsofindia.com/maps/cities/
13. No need for Airlines!
USA is a huge country/economy and air travel is somewhat suitable!
3 times bigger than India in land area…13 times bigger GDP
India is sufficiently small – Air travel cannot connect all the tier 1 and 2 cities
It is useless to fly to Madras and then switch to trains to Madurai!
India needs next generation transportation capabilities
High speed rail network will do that and
Will create jobs! Will spur indogeneous research and innovation!
These jobs will be distributed & spread over rural communities
Copying what the west does is not always suitable!
India needs to think for itself and do what is in the best interest of all its people!
http://www.raileurope.co.in/train-tickets?visitor_country=IN&cmpid=PS020402000001
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-speed_rail_in_China
Keep the barbarians out!
Be Proud of your work!
14. Grand Daddy of HSR
• Since 1964
• Initial 220 KMPH
• Trials today at 500+
• Ultra clean
• 6Billion passengers and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinkansen counting
also known as the bullet train • Ontime
2003 within 6 seconds
1997 within 18 seconds
That is kaizen.
16. Scale
• Americanism and USA just do not scale
– 766 cars per 1000 percapita car ownership
– India is at 12
– Imagine if we are on par with US.
– Owning a car is a liability
• Car insurance
• Pollution
• Fuel expense
• Depreciating asset
17. Not compatible!
• West is characterized by respect
• India is characterized by
for law, corruption-free,
lawlessness, corruption,
transparency,
lack of transparency, lack of
standards, poor • standards, advanced
infrastructure, lack of infrastructure, utmost respect
respect for fellowmen, for fellowmen, almost karmic
needless pride/ego, money attitude to life
worship, insatiable greed • Cleanliness
and creature comforts • Three times our resource and a
• uncleanliness third of the population
fastfood, hippie dress (tie/suit, jeans), materialism are not what Indians ought to emulate
indians ought to emulate innovativeness, research output, integrity, precision,
quality conscious,equality, fairness, justice for all and giving
18. India needs a design for Indians!
• Dhoti/sarees – not only are they eye catching
• They let air flow through – required in a temperate land
• Indians have always been original – way ahead!
– Zero came out of India!
– Helio centric cosmology was proposed by Indians in
the BC
– Sushruta thought of organ transplant and plastic
surgery way before MD came along
– Soul – mind/body connection is not a fad for an Indian
– Non-violence , tolerance is patently Indian Gita 13-6.
Indians would benefit immensely if they realized their strength and delivered on it!
They are ahead – our scriptures dictate “sarve lokhe suveeno bhavanthu”
Our ancestors thought of world peace, prosperity and health!
Amplify the best Indian traits, Adopt the best from the rest, Apply every living minute!
19. Don’t fall into the traps
• Gita demands that we treat all the same
– We cannot discriminate
• Gita says the lord resides in all! 18-61.
• Tell Max he is wrong and misleading!
• Rig Veda 1-164-46“Eko Sat, vipraha Bahuda vadanti”
– One God, the learned know him by many Names
– Inequality and discrimination is the fault of modern Indian not that of
the ancient Indian
20. DIY
• No Narayana Murthy • No Tatas, Birlas
You can do it!
Believe in yourself!
Self reliant!
And see yourself leading!
Do not leave Rural India behind!
Challenge status quo!
Do not take NO for an answer!
21. Introspect:Gita Says!
Iti te jnanamakhyatam guhyadguyataram maya
Vimrsyaitadasesena yathecchasi tatha kuru – 18-63
Lord Krishna says to Arjuna:
Thus, has this wisdom, more profound than
all profundities, been imparted to you. Deeply
pondering over it, now do you as you like!
Do not accept anything blindly. Introspect.
Never surrender your volition and freewill.
Think hard and do what is right for everyone!
25. Labor Force
• 2009 Estimate is about 467 Million
• India has been a trillion dollar economy
• Per capita GDP
– India is ranked 127th out of 153 countries
– china is 104th, USA is 10th
• Why is our productivity low?
• How can it be improved?
• http://www.photius.com/rankings/economy/gdp_per_capita_2010_0.html
26. Factors
• Not every Indian worker is equally productive
– Variability in our educational institutes
• Indian Institute of Technology vs Islamia Institute of
Technology
• Problem is even deeper
– Delhi Public School vs Mandya School District K-12
• Cultural deficiencies
• Lack of infrastructure
• Corruption corrodes productivity
27. Quality of Education
• Measurement
– What cannot be measured cannot be improved
• Accountability
– Teacher absenteeism
– Corrupt grading practices
• Motivation
– Educational infrastructure/facilities
– Internet/library
– Unfair merit recognition practices -- quota
28. Why QoE?
• Cost is minimal
– Sunk cost
– Gov pays teachers -- hold them accountable
– Gov funds educational efforts -- make sure funds
reach the recipient
• Eliminate corruption
– Sensitizing people to mind the quality of their
work -- cultural
– Bonus
• India can improve REAL GDP without spending much
29. A Small Step
• Visit rural school districts in your vicinity
– Understand core issues
• What prevents learning?
– Case study: One Haryana village
• Lack of electricity in the night
• Lack of stationary and supplies
• Lack of strategic understanding
– Villagers do not understand the importance of education
– Money worship in India
» Money tomorrow and now
30. What can you do?
• Solar lamps
• Notebooks and supplies
• Open tuition
– MPC and English teachers – tutor
– Outside normal school hours
• Starts after school 4 PM
• Ends at around 8PM
• Students can walk in and seek help or clarification
31. Results
• Day 1 -- 200 students showed up for open tuition
• 20 students were selected
– Capacity constraints
• 80% improvement in English
– At the start below standard writing or reading skills –
all failed
– At the end, significant improvement in both
– 16 students cleared the tests
– September 16th first test in MPC
32. Recommendations
• Attack many problems alongside
– Choose your school outside your state
– Hire local or recent college graduates
– measure, measure, measure at frequent intervals
– Hold tutors and students accountable
– Meet students often and set high expectation
– Remove dependency from psychology
• We don’t need the government to improve
• No corruption
• We can do it!
33. Time to Act!
• This is just the beginning – one village out of
640,000 villages
• No time to bask
• Not a task for any one individual
• Everyone can participate in whatever they can
• Eliminate dependence on government programs,
reservation/quota
• Provide a standard learning environment for all
35. Ask Questions!
• What is the cost of building a new airport vs
HSR terminal?
• What is the energy required to transport 1 kg
of material over HSR vs Airline?
• Time to implement?
• Cost of 1 HSR train vs an airplane
• Practical and intangible benefits inner cities
etc
36. Use the world wisdom!
• http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/12396/1/MPRA_paper_12396.pdf
Construction cost (per 500 KM) 9 Million range to 39 Million ( Euro)
Maintenance cost (per 500 KM) 12919 Euros to 71650 Euros.
Including train cost – 6Billion to 21 Billion Euros for 2.5 Million passenger capacity
http://pep.metapress.com/content/yr3634q74155701v/
http://www.oecdbookshop.org/oecd/display.asp?k=5KSCKSC5HPQ3&lang=fr
Times ran a blog on this very topic
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/04/running-the-numbers-on-
high-speed-trains/
The founders of transportation economics, like John Meyer and the deeply
missed John Kain, found that the benefits of passenger rail rarely exceeded
the costs.
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/28/is-high-speed-rail-a-good-public-investment/
37. Indians in USA
• A joint Duke University – UC Berkeley study revealed that Indian immigrants
have founded more engineering and technology companies from 1995 to 2005
than immigrants from the U.K., China, Taiwan and Japan combined
• one-third of the engineers in Silicon Valley are of Indian descent, while 7% of
valley hi-tech firms are led by Indian CEOs
• Almost 67% of all Indians have a bachelor’s or high degree (compared to 28%
nationally and 44% average for all Asian American groups).
• Almost 40% of all Indians in the United States have a master’s, doctorate or
other professional degree, which is five times the national average
• According to the 2000 U.S. Census, Indian American men had "the highest
year-round, full-time median earnings ($51,094)“
• Indian Americans own 50% of all economy lodges and 35% of all hotels in the
United States, which have a combined market value of almost $40 billion.
• In 2002, there were over 223,000 Asian Indian-owned firms in the U.S.,
employing more than 610,000 workers, and generating more than $88 billion
in revenue
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_American#Statistics_on_Indians_in_the_US
38. Indians in Dubai
If Indians can build Dubai they
can do so In India as well.
Over a million Indian migrants are estimated to be living in the UAE
(2000), who form over 40% of the total population of the UAE
Indians account for 42.5% of the labour force in UAE.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indians_in_the_United_Arab_Emirates
