What I Liked this Week (31 Oct – 6 Nov 2011)

1. The Legend Of Arsene Wenger
2. Race Language And Symbolism
3. Settle

What I liked this week (24 – 30 Oct 2011)

1. Past Tense
2. Sulking Over Salk….(Who the eff is salk anyway)
3. Subramanian Swamys complaint against Sonia Ghandhi
4. Law on FIR In India
5. India’s Naval Aassertions
6. Wonder if we live in a land with laws? Keenan Santos Could be you

Corruption – Varying degrees

There has been lot of noise about Kiran Bedi and her inflated ticket costs (Inflated travel cost) wrong as it might be or at the least debatable. See no reason why that by itself would discredit her and the larger anti corruption movement by team Anna (I have had points of disagreements articulated in an earlier post  Anna circus). Earlier there was news around Arvind Kejriwal (Arvind Kejriwal IT notice) There seems to be an ongoing effort to tarnish the members of team Anna which have been petty to say the least.Relatively and qualitatively, the scams such as the CWG, 2G, Adarsh housing and many others found, not found  and never to be found scams Vs misdeeds such as inflated travel expense, waived bonds could by no stretch of imagination be painted with the same brush. Flaws they both are, but the difference in quantum and magnitude must count for some. (even legally, when reprimanded the degree is considered)

Society can not operate in absolutes. Life is not black and white. There needs to be a sense of proportion and relativity. The case mentioned with regards to a Kiran Bedi and Arvind Kejriwal (in his case more debatable, if the advice to deduct dues is true) are by no means large ticket items. By that rule most of us would lose our voices and be silenced. Few would be the number among us who could say, never has a bill been fudged or an expenses overstated. Many a times it has been an unsaid and approved practice a perk that goes with the job, ask a traveling sales man, be it the oft inflated fuel bills or the entertainment expenses and sundry. Even graver would be the fudged medicine bills that most salaried class employees run after come Jan/Feb every year. The list would be endless. Should all of that justify corruption in high places at a macro level. In The Anna Circus have tried to articulate the two distinctly different types of corruption and the plausible solutions. For the afore-mentioned kind of misdeeds automation and systems would encourage us to be more truthful and less corrupt.

The reason these deeds are getting amplified is in many ways to discredit the movement at large, which one needs to be weary off. One has every right and could differ with the movement’s objective, modus operandi or maybe both. It would be sad if the reasons for that divergence were cases such these, for by that yard stick there would be few if not none who could cast the first stone…..

One Plus of reading online

One big plus I find of reading online, be it news or blogs or whatever else, is the easy access to the dictionary. Over the years have stumbled on words and at times have continued to stumble upon the same words, without knowing their exact meanings, most times the context of the line or the piece allows us to comprehend and hence we move on. The sheer effort of having to reach out for the dictionary, the need to leave a cozy chair or bed or where ever one is, many a time is more than enough to put it away for latter. A ‘later’ which rarely comes. The lethargy, inertia,potential of loosing continuity in our reading, does us in….

When reading online all it takes is opening a new tab with the dictionary on it (Which now for me is a habit http://dictionary.reference.com/ is perpetually open in one tab). The advantages are many, more so for some one as lazy and unorganized as me. One does not have to go hunting for the dictionary, that done one would have to flip through pages and search the word out. If all that was not enough, if the word being hunted down is a slang or a relatively newer word which does not find a place in that edition, the hunt ends futile. Further, for some one like me whose understanding of phonetics would make a ten-year old jump with joy and a sense of superiority….. An online dictionary is a sure blessing, where one could choose to listen to the word being called out. Not only does one get the meaning but also the correct pronunciation  of the word.

I for one, sure prefer cut & paste (ctrl c , ctrl v) to flipping through pages… Call me lazy!!!All this pretty much in real-time, without having to move one’s derriere or hinder one’s reading by much…

Movies I liked

This list is not necessarily a comprehensive and an all inclusive one, there could be movies I have liked and missed out here. Guess this is going to stay dynamic. There would be movies which would be added as and when I watch something and like, also there could be some dropped if on watching again it is not liked as much….

Information Technology – Well used, Indian railways & Banking sector

Edmondson cardboard ticket

computerised – I-ticket

Any Science or development fructifies when it goes on to effect and simply our lives. We in India today talk so much about information technology be it as a career choice or in terms of e-governance or commerce all leading to a better a life, and many a times it is a hyperbole….no doubt they have contributed significantly…

E-ticket

Two areas where the change and its effect has been felt widely are the Indian railways and the banking sector. A change drastic and visible in my life span (so far). I have and remember having traveled on tickets which was a stub made of cardboard around four inches in length and maybe around one and half inches across(the term for them seems to be Cardboard Edmondson tickets). Times when reservation slips were different from the ticket. When ticket and reservation for connecting trains were essentially communicated by telex. Also a time when in many divisions (like int he east for sure,more so Howrah) the touts ruled the roost. Then the ticketing process got computerized in late 80s early 90s, the process was still a far cry from today. One could still not book a ticket that did not involve a station (either destination or origin) which was not same as the  division of the booking office i.e If one were in a booking office in Chennai – One could not book a ticket if the destination or the Origin did not fall in the southern railway. After four or five years we got to a stage where the whole process was computerised and you could book tickets between any two stations with out limitation in any computerised booking office. Then came the facility of the booking the ticket from the comfort of one’s home or any place with access to the net – that saw the birth of what the railways called the I-ticket. One bought the ticket online and the ticket would be couriered to the passenger. From there to where we are today e-tickets, one not only booked the ticket online,but also printed the ticket oneself. All this in many ways in such a short time (around 20 years from the time they rolled a automated/computerised process). The experience is hugely different – (ask some one who had to book tickets to travel from lets say some where in south India to the northeast). Being some one who has a vague idea on how the airline industry across the globe struggled to move e-ticketing find the effort commendable.Is there not more they need to do, sure there is (the system still does not suggest connecting options, which could be a huge plus). Given their history am sure they would….

The Indian railways apart another sphere where I have personally experienced the difference and am happier for the changes is the banking sector. An era and time when for the smallest transaction one had to run to the bank and pretty much write off a fair bit of time to a single chore in the bank. Unless you were an HNI (high net worth individual – not sure if they had the classification then) or had some sort of clout.  Then came a time one could walk in to bank and be serviced by any vacant counter irrespective of the nature of transaction (not all banks did it).Today there are many of us who will not have visited their branch ever, the account is opened at the convenience of our homes or offices, hardly any transactions that one could not carry out sitting at one’s system or maybe even the mobile. Cheque books for many is becoming redundant with electronic transfers, where the money  finds the beneficiary faster then paper traveling through the clearing house. Once in a while when certain eventualities like loss off credentials or such happens, and needs us to visit the branch – we see ourselves complaining bitterly. Yet this remains a sector which has used technology effectively and has changed significantly(for the better I would say) the way we transact.

There are other areas where we are seeing change – the travel and tourism industry for one has embraced e-commerce a fair bit in the last decade or so, we see bit happening in the shopping spectrum. We see technology being used to reach out and service customers better in various sectors with varying degrees of success.

The reason I picked railways and banking for special mention was that they are large bodies. Creating and managing  change in them are that much more difficult. Further they could be classified as essential services pretty much touching most of us, if not all of us and hence a change many of us have experienced in the last couple of decades or less.

Here I must mention the the travel and tourism industry by far has embraced technology and e-commerce in a large way. Changing the way we transact to fulfill our travel related requirements be it tickets or allied products and services. Even the relatively lower priced services like buses and cabs have taken to e-commerce and have been showing significant growth. Shopping, movies are jumping on to the bandwagon, though small at this moment.

PS: Guess all these strides are related to the progress we have made in telecommunications, and hence the sector deserves a mention. I have picked up organisations/sector that have transformed from the old world to new world, and not the ones who started off in the way we see them today

PS II: Read a blog which captured a similar essence – differentiating scientists working in pure sciences vs applied sciences http://tjsgeorge.blogspot.com/2011/10/in-end-it-is-not-power-that-matters-but.html