We live in the social era. Everyone is one Facebook ‘liking’ each others posts, tweets about developments as they happen and professional networking on Linkedin while searching for jobs. Content creation too has been democratized beyond our imagination. Recently a superior showed his daughters blog on poetry, and she is all of nine. The stuff she wrote was good. She is a poet/writer from her pre-teen years. Unthinkable when i was growing up about a decade and a half back. I would have to type the article, send it over to the editor of the prospective magazine and wait for months before publication. Now a days, an aspiring singer/musician practices his/her craft, records it on the smart phone and uploads it on You Tube and it goes viral. The movie song ‘Kolaveri Di’ became an international phenomenon spurring derivatives of the original one.  Disruptive innovation is transforming creative production and distribution.  The era of intellectual property protection is diluted to no extent, as peer to peer websites have everything money can buy.

Amazon has changed the way we buy books. It has destroyed book store chains such as Borders and Barnes & Noble to close its business. Authors have their revenue streams cut. The royalty on an e book download is a fraction of its hardcopy counterpart. Authors publish their works for free by letting Amazon publish it only for the tremendous reach the website has. Book Publishing in its traditional sense is gone as is the Music Business. The Apple devices changed the dynamics of the music industry by i tunes. These are legitimate sources of revenue. Pirated music and books are available at a click of a Google search.  Internet Piracy websites are being shut and the owners prosecuted but another dozen copycats arise in a week’s time. Legislative mechanisms cannot keep track with the lightening pace of technology.

Good ideas are no one’s monopoly. Even if rampant copying of content takes place apart from an academic setting its fine with me as more the information spreads the better it is. Knowledge is there is enlighten us and individual egos are simply too trivial . Although this is bad news for musicians and authors, we would have to deal with it. New revenue streams have to be figured out. There is a positive that everyone has access to information which was earlier the privy of the intellectual elite.

The magazine or the newspaper which I earlier used to buy of the stands is now available online. Movies can be livestreamed as can TV shows. Businesses in this sector would have to be ‘really’ creative to make money apart from the construct of IP protection to make themselves survive.

Bollywood for me is not simply an cinematic art form, but has been an integral part of understanding about life. One of my earliest memories as a toddler, was watching the Subhash Ghai film ‘Ram Lakkhan’ and the Ajay Devgun debut film: ‘Phool aur Kaante’.  Since then, i have hooked to the song and dance, melodramatic genre of cinema called Bollywood. Well Amitabh Bacchchan detests the term and he prefers to term it the Indian Film Industry. I would rather call it the Hind ‘Phillum’ Industry, as there are other regional vernacular film industries that are bigger such as Tamil and Telugu film industries.  Films are a part of the rubric of contemporary Indian Culture. The trajectory of post liberalization India can be charted through Bollywood films from Darr to Dostana to Dabangg.

I am not a purist, nor claim to be a student of cinema but I am a affecionado of Bollywood fims. I have watched films from the brilliant to the bizzare. This term ‘Bolly Holic’ has been coined by my graduate student colleague in English Literature at the Nanyang Technological University Mr. JX Ho over a heated conversation over Rang De Basanti with another opinionated Colleague from India (ex JNU).  The beauty of a Dulhe Raja or a Partner by David Dhawan, cannot be expressed by a rational mind. A Dabangg or a Wanted is simply too entertaining for words. Bollywood has progressed with a better educated audience watching films like Kahaani or a Dirty Picture.

Bollywood is India’s Soft Power as is American films. A DON franchise film or an Agneepath, was shown in Singaporean theaters with non South Asian viewers.  Bollywood films emote so well, that the language gap is transcended. I have watched films in theaters across, South East Asia and the Middle East. There is a theater exhibiting Bollywood fare across almost every major capital across the Globe. As an expat kid in the Persian Gulf, Bollywood as a medium to connect to my cultural ethos. Watching ‘D’ and ‘Company’ connected me to Mumbai, the city of my Birth as does ‘Kahaani’, the city of my ethnicity.

The emotions expressed in a Bollywood film from a  mediocre student in 3 Idiots to the heartbreak in Rockstar all resonate with me and many millions. The quest to be someone and the zest for life in Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara is so refreshing. These are all cinematic experiences which make my life richer.

People should not compare Bollywood with Hollywood films, they are as different as having parathas and pizzas. Let us enjoy them for what they are for.

Over the past few days, a lot of equations in Indian politics seem to be changing since the verdict of the recent provincial polls came out. Samajwadi Party is King in Uttar Pradesh led by the unassuming environmental engineer by training Akhilesh Yadav. A 38 year old, led the party from the front changing many a perception of the archaic old school politics of the Lohia-ites, or the socialists. He spoke the lingo of the ‘aam admi’, although thoroughly populist rhetoric. It is certainly a breath of fresh air. The Trinamool Congress, the major player in West Bengal made a dent as the principal opposition force in the North Eastern state of Manipur.  It is slowly expanding its base in the Bengali speaking areas in the North East and filling the vacuum in the fragmented clan oriented politics of the region.

The Akali Dal in Punjab won the elections this without much of the contribution from the BJP. Odisha has seen a single party dominate the political landscape over the last 15 years with the BJD. It looks like that the dominance is set to continue. What Trinanamool Congress offered Bengal is not only an option from the ineffective governance of the Left over the last three decades but also an opportunity for the Bengali Identity to emerge from the Left rubric. Bengal used to contribute the maximum number of Left MP’s to Sansad Bhawan, but the power centre of the Left remained in Kerala. In short Bengal lost its voice in National politics. Its voice got drowned out in the cacophony of leftist jargon. Regional Parties are vital for regional development, Tamil Nadu and Bihar have showed the way in this respect.  Regional Identity with aspiration based politics is what made the JDU successful in Bihar. Regional identity based politics transcends religion, hence is a strong adhesive.

The Third Front is a political experiment bound to fail as it would require either of the national parties to prop up the arrangement. In the following days we can see the two major National Parties decline, as they have been unable to live up their promises. Most of the regional parties have charismatic leaders. From Nitish to Mamata to Naveen to now Akhilesh, they are populist with governance at the heart of their agenda. The National players lack strong presentable leadership as the top leadership in the BJP are competent but indecisive, and the Congress unable to convert Rahulji’s popularity in to votes.

May be we are heading towards a more federal structure indeed.

Recently i had attended a symposium on Science, Technology and Innovation Policy where the EU Commissionaire on Science and Technology spoke.  One of the startling things to note was the intellectual transition from the paradigm of  ‘Research and Development’ to ‘Research, Innovation and Enterprise’.  That the role of knowledge creation is towards job creation and monetary ends. Everything in the scientific en devour is for the knowledge economy. The best scientific minds it seems will shift globally for research funding and the correct innovation ecosystem. As Marx said, a man’s labor is for capital accumulation. seems fit in this regard.

Science is a game changing social institution, there is no two ways about that.  Scientific talent have changed society for the better mostly. Apart from Nuclear Technology which has a potential for destruction is also a source for energy independence from Oil.  The question which came to my mind is, where is the patience for fundamental scientific research if every piece of intellectual property  is geared towards capital generation. Core fundamental scientific research takes a long time to be of any use in a commercial form. The market does not have the time for such experimentation. Not all research is as easy as creating an i phone app, quantum physics to cancer biology research; things take time.  We have been sold the story about the IT phenomenon, but innovation has a price and real innovation needs persistence.  Good Science takes time.

Every technology has a unique epistemology which is followed. Core Science research cannot be open source totally. The main element which i find lacking in the current innovation discourse is the missing social centric approach. Application of Science towards developmental needs is critical. It is about time, that Innovation planners account for what kind of scientific solutions which communities shall require in the upcoming decades. Market is excellent when it comes towards disseminating a technology, not when it comes to a breakthrough. Defense Research created the Internet, Nuclear Energy came from the Manhattan Project; Its time to be Social Constructionist in Nature not Technologically Deterministic. A radical rethink is indeed required.