Author: changethinker

Born and raised in Mumbai, India with an undergrad degree from Oman and a masters degree from the National University of Singapore. I am an Environmental Professional with a passion for Sustainability, Social Innovation and Governance related issues. A Change Agent in the making who believes that small is beautiful and that impact can be achieved -one soul at a time.

Reimagine Sustainability : moving beyond tick-box compliance

The only thing sustainable about the brutal reality of the  normative paradigm of sustainability is the ‘green’ colour of cash sadly rather than the altruism of this -ism. Not all that bad as monetary valuations are usually taken more seriously. The philosophical underpinning of sustainability is about inter-generational transferability as per the 1987 Bruntdland Report. The short-termism of financial markets and financial global capitalism does not render sustainability sustainable.

Sustainability ultimately is about better communities and liveability. Sustainability is triple headed : Ecological, Economic and Social are the three strands of the triple helix.  Sustainability has transformed from its normative origins in to a platform for communicating the corporate brand. Activist investors do ask for the Social Return on Investment on their impact bonds but these folks are a trickle in the avalanche of asset classes that global capital changes hands in. Sustainability Reports are prepared as per the GRI Framework to demonstrate sustainability performance to ecologically aware Gen Y retail investors. It is not for the displaced community in Lanjigarh, Odisha but for the analysts at Citi. The pull is from the masters of the market.

The latest flavour of the season in sustainability and corporate citizenship circles is the circular economy & sharing economy. Good old human sharing values and Cradle to Cradle thinking synced to create the latest cool intellectual fad.

Majority of sustainability related investment by private sector companies is to meet the local environmental, health & safety and social sector legislative requirements of the land. Sometimes, even voluntary best practice is beyond the ambit of the C Suite Level executive as the Randian view of shareholder value capture dominates. Green field industrial projects often require IFC funding or any form of Institutional Lender Support such as JICA or any Exim Bank. These financial institutions need the project proponent to adhere to Equator Principles and IFC Performance Standards throughout the Project Lifecycle to address environmental and social concerns. The decision making prowess for a change is with the environmental and social expert panel at IFC offices at Delhi and DC rather than the CFO. EHSS has to move beyond the tick box due diligence check-list to a move term governance led mechanism. The Finance Teams have to get the nuance of the Economics of Environmentalism for them to be truly invested in the process.

Sustainability can only take root if this ethical paradigm can be understood by the CFO over a casual water-cooler chat. Its time for Sustainability to move beyond green washing and be a profit centre SBU from a cost centre. Locking value from Sustainability Initiatives can take place if triple bottom-line thinking could dominate the thinking in strategic planning of SME’s.

Beyond the Technical: Reimagine the Engineer’s Tool Kit

The epistemic character of Engineering is about problem solving and crisis management and by default as an engineer I am expected to possess decent quantitative abilities as the lingua franca of science is mathematics. The social contract between the engineer and the work-place has undergone a transformation through the proportion of jobs shifts from the shop floor to the computer screen. Recently, I had been to a Steel Plant and I found 95% of all operations on the process floor automated (complex industrial process control) and that’s real brick and mortar stuff. The core metallurgical processes have not changed since the industrial revolution.

I have worked in Engineering & Policy Research Consulting for about 6+ years until now, and I have found to my surprise that science as a social institution inhabits a force field of economic, cultural and social realities that lie way beyond the lab.  Often the top leadership, whether technically trained or not (often a lawyer, accountant or a MBA) is merely focused on the quarterly results rather than the long term; a classic business strategy conundrum.  Accountability to the masters of Wall Street is more precious to your epistemic calling.

As the meta-phenomena of globalization and urbanization over the past three decades have desolated steel towns of Pittsburgh and Liverpool in the developed world, and in contrast have led to the tech boom towns of Route 128 and Silicon Valley. Manufacturing has dipped, being shipped off to the ‘Factory Girls’ of China and the automation revolution has stemmed blue-collar job creation. The ‘Myth of Manufacturing’ is real.

Nowadays engineers have to do more project management- resourcing, scheduling, and budgeting than wielding the spanner/shifter. Marine Engineers in the engine room of a Panamax have a lot more technology at their disposal which has reduced the crew of a ship to barely skeletal.

Engineering at the present is doing technology to create products which cater to the clients need, get paid and scaling up. Simple stuff, but it needs a very different mindset.

I have often heard a strain of discontent from my fellow early career technical professionals that they don’t get adequate opportunities to chart/shape the course of their technology product driven organizations. Here are a few suggestions to grow out of that inability:

  • Understand your organizational ecosystem
  • Learn to Negotiate Hard
  • Look and Talk like a Leader
  • Do not have Tunnel Vision mind-set regarding science
  • Learn to read a balance sheet
  • Keep yourself informed

Alas, the ability to learn and be agile is more crucial to your GPA. No one cares a shit about that.

Interstellar : A Film Review

interstellarInterstellar is an intellectually dense film like Nolan’s previous films such as Inception and Dark Knight. Interstellar connects strands of Food Security and Space Exploration; evokes human emotions such as longing, love, parenting, survival instincts and rational scientific thought. A great campus recruitment video for the  and social institution of science, subtly questions the landing on the moon. In a very Nolan-esque stroke of the cinematic brush, various ends have been tied up to dispense a spell binding narrative, albeit 15 minutes too long.

Ann Hathway as the junior Dr. Brand is gorgeous, and plays her cinematic role well. ‘Cooper’ the ex NASA Pilot turned explorer protagonist of the film is grief stricken from the demise of his wife. He is an absentee engineer, reclectant farmer father, in rural US and his daughter ‘Murph’ and son are being mentored by the Grand Dad. There is striking quip by the Grand Dad; saying that ‘parent teacher conferences’ are not grand parent teacher conferences’. There is some super-natural, gravitational phenomena eating away the harvest every year and human kind is dying with every generation. In this context, space research was treated as discretionary. NASA then was needed but had gone under-ground. How Cooper was tracked down by NASA through Morse Code and a constant mention of Murphy’s Law, Newtons Third Law and other high school physics syntax makes science and geek-ism sexy.

The Senior Dr Brand played by Matthew Caine, as the space pioneer has a certain depth to his presence on the screen. Human Politics is depicted in some detail and the quest for survival. The emphasis on love as an emotion greater then the self and as a raw material for making  ‘human’ , human is the signature take-way from this cinematic opus.

The emphasis on science, satiated my intellectual cravings;  not at all a masala entertainer A Must Watch at a theater near you.

‘This Changes Everything’ by Naomi Klein : A Book Review

This Changes EverythingI initially came across Naomi Klein’s work in decent detail when I was a tutor to an undergraduate class on Globalization at the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore where I had an opportunity to share regarding her iconoclastic work ‘Shock Doctrine’, elucidating the notion of ‘Disaster Capitalism’; where she was critical in deconstructing the Chicago School Style Free Market delusion which created a mess in many a Latin American Economy. The shocks via war and policy interventionism to society and economy by predatory capitalism formed a situation in which capitalism had a free run, often with catastrophic results such as Iraq and Chile.

Naomi Klein extends this train of thought to Climate Change in her latest intellectual work – ‘This Changes Everything’. Her surgical critique of the impacts of extractionary Chicago School Capitalism in aggravating the impacts of the meta, all consuming phenomena called Climate Change. Naomi Klein’s engaging activist commentary focuses on narratives such as extreme weather events. She presents the social and political context in which Climate Change has transformed in to a hot button issue. Naomi Klein labels it as a ‘Civilizational Call’. Normative and Powerful, this read is not meant for the scientific community but for the main street to appreciate the back story of environmental activism.

The book exposes the intricate details of the ideological system of Environmentalism and the various efforts made my climate denialists to dilute the cause of efforts of effective Climate Change Action. The important take away was securitization of the Climate Change discourse in order for it to taken more seriously by heartland USA. It reminds me of the Non Traditional Security Institute seminars at the Rajaratnam School in Singapore in Resilience and Climate Change I had attended as a researcher at the Nanyang Technological University.
The basic assertion which Klein makes it that process and activities triggered by market fundamentalism have accelerated anthropogenic climate change. A thesis tilts towards the left of centre as western culture’s extractivist designs imbued in predatory capitalism is heavily pounded upon. She has the gumption to reveal the paradoxical relationship between the fossil fuel industry that is incredibly carbon intensive and the environmental movement. Hypocrisy is to be exposed for truth to emerge, and normative initiatives to be strengthened. Kudos to Ms. Klein on that point.

The book as her last one, has sharp anecdotes and data points which form the backbone of her story-line. This book is a good addition to the green literature landscape though not as seminal as the ‘Shock Doctrine’.

Happy New Year: A Movie Review

Happy New Year is an exercise in cinematic excess and a Fan Girl tribute to SRK by Farah Khan. The Film is nether a thriller as its inspiration the Oceans Eleven Series, nor a complete comic spoof as Om Shanti Om nor a Dance Film as ‘Lets Dance’ or ABCD. A mashup that simply does not gel apart from stunning visuals of Dubai. Although SRK and Deepika are sincere, the film’s plot and editing could have been lean and sharp. The humor is purile and slapstick as Farah’s Brother Sajid has demonstrated in his rather elaborate cinemascape.

Vishal Dadlani and Anurag Kashyap have a gay comic scene exposing the hypocrisy of Reality Talent Shows that’s rather in very poor taste. The music for a dance based film could have been better.

The amateur attempt in evoking sentiments in Long Distance Nationalism during the film were targetted at NRI Riyals and Pounds at the Ticket Counter, and thoroughly reminded of Modi’s Madison Sqaure Garden Hysteria (there is even a Modi Look-alike in the film). SRK please head back to your Swades roots. Pun intended.

The Lahori Chole Puri and Chai with my Dad opposite my childhood theater in Ruwi after the movie really made my day.

Chetan Bhagat re-defines Indian English Writing, finally

Chetan Bhagat is a polarizing figure: an icon who democratized Indian Writing in English for the masses- made a first gen literate person to read ‘Inglis’ and make it cool to brag to your girlfriend or He is demeaned by the literati for being not writer enough as an Amitav Ghosh or Hari Kunzru. Chetan along with Amish have re-defined Indian Writing in English for the domestic audience and not for the Literature Festival circuit crowd. For an IIT-IIM Banker Quant Geek to express the story of his life through ‘Five Point Someone’ and ‘Two States’ were interesting, entertaining reads that had a genuine connect unlike ‘Revolution 2020’, which had the punch for a Phillum Script rather than a book. But, Chetan speaks for the educated post liberalization India who aspires for class, even if the person is not born into class. ‘Cattle-Class’ is the new Class Mr. Tharoor (a minor disclaimer- i am a Shashi Tharoor fan).

Chetan has the pulse of new India, even if his writing can improve in terms of style. His writing involves the polar paradox of a beautiful rich girl and a rural boy, with generous dollops of sex in it (a crucial ingredient for entertainment of the masses). His latest Half Girlfriend, a read which I took three hours flat is entertaining; a love story of a rich girl searching for her identity and well meaning driven rural Bihari boy divided into Elite Stephanian Delhi, NGO sector Bihar and United Nations New York has a contemporary narrative of aspiration, love and globalization. A story which is aptly fit for a Bollywood Film, but one that has a real connect with the new elite and the upcoming masses. Romance in the age of globalization as i would frame it in one sentence.

Chetan should be sent to Rajya Sabha by the BJP and PM Modi. He is a great observer of our times, as a writer should be.

Bang Bang: A Movie Review

‪Bang Bang‬ has a certain thud to it, if not the proverbial explosive boom as anticipated. Hrithik and Kat have awesome chemistry and, are the soul of the rather thin story driven venture. Stylized to the T, should have had more substantial character actors weaving the narrative of an espionage drama. Inspired from a Hollywood Thriller (How inspiring is that Mr. Anand); Bang Bang’s strength is the exotic locales of Prague, Abu Dhabi Yas Marina F1 Track and South East Asia in which the incessant action scenes are shot. Hrithik’s dancing and six pack abs plus the oozing oomph of Katrina sizzles up the screen amongst rather mediocre performances of the supporting artistes. Enough eye candy for the raging hormones. Danny as the principal negative character with Javed Jaffery as his sidekick was an interesting villain choice. Danny has a presence on screen to face-off with Hrithik.

More importantly, it was my first movie watching experience in Muscat with my Dad in a Decade. Priceless.

Subaltern India: un-ideal urbanism

 

 

 

buddhist

Pic : Neo-Buddhist Imagery in Satpur Village, Nashik District, Maharashtra

Urban spaces are melting pots. These places are objects of survival; an aspiration for the future is nuanced in everyday existence. The sights, sounds and the stark reality is surreal is every way, that one might confront the naked brutality of these interstial voids amongst lattices looking down on them.  Jean Braudillard’s ‘Simulacra and Simulation’ and its characterisation of the proverbial ‘Desert of The Real’ is the primary intellectual imagery which comes to my mind. The poverty and its depravation-destitution is numbing although there might be a satellite TV desktop box in the box. No clean water but a Dish TV, the reality of everyday living in subaltern urban India it’s paradoxical at best- aspiration and destitution co-exist on both sides of the page.

Bhimnagar-Bhatpada is urban slum areas in Mumbai; nested between Saki Naka and Ghatkoper East in Mumbai. On top of a hill, easily visible to the airplane landing at the international terminal via its characteristic blue tarpaulins.  These communities are characterised by its neo Buddhist symbolism- the shrine dedicated to Ambedkar and Buddha as differentiators from their marginalised history.  The motor-cycle is as much taken care of as the sacred cow. Capitalism is a great social leveller as caste melts away in the face of cash, as Dalit Scholar Chandrabhan would quip. Public Toilets are social intersecting areas for building social capital. The early morning loo call is a social event as much as an intimate one.  The mainstream political parties such as the Republican Party of India and the Bahujan Samaj Party; who claim to represent subaltern voices in the power structures of democracy have made their presence felt by the signages. I am not very sure if representation in democratic structures makes for real empowerment on the ground. It does on the other hand certainly present an opportunity as a social insurance against caste based discrimination. Often as the case in democracy it’s often the choice between the devil and the deep sea.

The Satpur Village adjacent to Satpur MIDC (an Industrial Zone) in the Nashik District of Maharashtra State in India is another example of the subaltern, social have-nots being collectivized and forging an alternate identity as a tool of resistance. Again out here Neo-Buddhist Imagery dominates the social mindscape. Subaltern communities are a crucial underbelly of urban capitalism as a manpower provider and a ‘Bottom of the Pyramid’ consumer base.  That is the salvation of the market as when the politics does not deliver, the invisible hand does.

My 10 favorite Books : a snapshot

In response to a suggestion by a Good Friend; Here are my 10 favorite reads (not necessarily in any order)

1.A Great Clamour: Encounters with China and Its Neighbours- Pankaj Mishra
2. From the Ruins of Empire: The Intellectuals Who Remade Asia – Pankaj Mishra
3. The Man in my Head : Pico Iyer
4. This Divided Island: Samanth Subramanian
5. My Friend, The Fundamentalist : Sadanand Dhume
6. The Elephant Catchers: Subroto Bagchi
7. The Professional : Subroto Bagchi
8. The New Asian Hemisphere : Prof Kishore Mahbubani
9. The Malayan Breeze : Sudhir Thomas Vadaketh
10. India Unbound : Gurcharan Das

The Authors above have shaped the way i think, hence the way i write; being a self-trained writer, a owe a virtual debt to them.

 

The Malaise of the Instant Coffee Policy Wonk

In this age of Web 2.0 and democratized information on the smart phone, everyone is a citizen journalist. Take a pic, tweet an event and you are contributing to the discourse, a position previously mandated to the career journalist and the academic. The 140 character brevity does not help all the time as the messy, complex reality of our existence needs nuanced understanding of issues which are often tangled and inter-twined beyond any recourse. Facebook is more of an intimate platform with a Billion plus users, bringing out the narcissistic side in us. I must admit, Selfies are fun 🙂

 Some friends on Social Media seem to voice opinion on every single data point from dog food to drones.  The essence of research and writing of essays seems to a lost art, exclusive to the academic community and obscure journals which are seldom read.  Culture Journals such as The New Yorker, Paris Review or The Caravan are rare breeds. We have limited attention spans, and a 2500 word essay written by Pankaj Mishra may render aesthetic pleasure but it is honestly cumbersome to read such art-pieces on a sub-way side.The audience is niche, not suited to social media blabbering.   The 24×7 information machine makes it impossible for a thought leader or a public intellectual to remain consistent, Fareed Zakaria can surely attest.

In depth understanding of a policy matter is mandatory to make an informed call. TV Punditry is sexy and I have been on international TV personally but experts are experts. Hard Work has no substitute.

Let us pass a statement when one knows something substantial.  Democratising information is one aspect but information pollution overload is another.