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.

Beyond ‘Growth-ism’ : unearthing a narrative beyond the bottom line

There is a world beyond the Shenton Way, Bandra-Kurla Complexes and DLF Cyber City’s of the world. There is a peri-urban India and a rural India that might be influenced by its urban cousins due to the dominant, hegemonic discourse crafted by the elite but their world is still rooted in tradition and Asian values.  As ‘Metros have been transformed in to financial products’ in the words the authors of the mightily influential treatise on development sociology in India: ‘Churning the Earth: The Making of Global India’, the role of the City as an overpowering entity is articulated as the village cedes control to the city and farmers lose agency in the process. A farmer with limited resources but most importantly dignity denigrates himself into a commodity in the market when the government or a private developer acquires his land hopefully for a fair compensation package.  The new land acquisition bill makes robust Relief & Rehabilitation provisions for the Project Affected Families. The farmer does not have any other skill set apart from farming and money management is not one of them. It might be a barely literate famer moving from his second hand motor-bike to an Audi the next day, it will not be far way that, he will be a security guard at a shopping mall built on his land holding that he sold off (remember the Bollywood Film Shanghai?).  This might be Jairam’s single largest contribution to the policy landscape of the country.  Might delay projects and escalate costs, but the farmer is at the heart of the story and not the developer. The vulnerable and the marginalised should be the ones protected by the legislative architecture of the State and not act as an agent of the Capitalist classes. The line is often blurred beyond recognition with Industrialists populating both houses of parliament and siting on JPC’s with severe conflicts of interest. Great in one way as they have the ability of project execution but in another fashion take away the essence of grassroots commoner.

The semantics of the rhetoric of Mint Street unfortunately influences corporatized media boardrooms and sometimes North Block.  Umair Haque, who writes a popular column in the HBS Blogs website recently wrote a hard hitting post on the ills of American Capitalism in what he captures as ‘Capitalist-Stan’. American Capitalism was known for its ability as a power social escalator for the mobility it used to provide for all irrespective of ones birth. Opportunity equality was the byword. In the present times, the cliques of the ‘Lords of Finance’ on Wall Street rule the finance arena, influencing public policy that a former Goldman Sachs CEO becomes the treasury secretary under Bush ’43.  No wonder they are the highest campaign contributors to Presidential/Senate contests in the USA. Obama is no exception too.  The decrease in social mobility in hyper charged globalised capitalism is not surprising as ‘only the folks with the correct connections and skill sets’ are able to crack the ivory towers oops the glass tinted buildings of Central Business Districts of Global Econohubs.  It’s the same situation in India, as only 20% of engineering graduates being potentially employable. Many of the younger engineers I know cannot compose a proper mail in business English. English is the Lingua Franca is the Modern World of commerce. This is a pre-requisite as problem solving is in engineering. If you cannot communicate, then you do not know your stuff, if you cannot express.

‘Market-ism’ being the central ideological construct of the bankers and the capitalist classes has led to ‘Growth-ism’. This Growth-ism has led to the culture of the bottom-line and ‘Quarter se Quarter Tak’ (from one quarterly results reporting to the other) ethos.

Take the long term view, because concrete value cannot be created overnight. Mohenjadaro as Rome was not built in a day. Capitalism includes economic growth, and market is a vehicle for channelize the ‘animal spirits’ to create wealth.  But capitalism is also about meritocracy and wealth creation. More importantly its about pursuing ones calling in the sentiments of Weber.

 Growth-ism stands for parochial wealth creation unfortunately now days. When wealth is created, it is distributed for welfare of the poor, so that they can a more playing field can be created. This element is sadly missing from the conversation. I was on an Al Jazeera International’s show – ‘The Stream’ on the 9th of October 2013, speaking on an esteemed panel on the Food Security Bill. I spoke in favour of the bill that a welfare legislation is a public policy innovation and is a start, might be flawed but is a start.  A policy pundit, a very knowledgeable Think Tank honcho and friend shouted me down espousing his beliefs in ‘Market-ism’.  Market is a great slave but a terrible master; my friends from Dalal Street should understand.

 

Create your market. The world will buy your product.

I am a former  advanced grad school research student in Sociology, a trained Environmental Engineer with a undergrad degree in Biotech Engineering with a passion for public policy (I studied a minor in public policy too in my first masters). With this versatile background, it will be a difficult exercise to sell my narrative to the employer in bits and parts, but as a holistic skill-set offering it’s a unique offering.  Well, this post is not a vanity initiative but a post I have intending to write for a while since a very good friend coaxed me to share my experience regarding making the grade from research in to consulting?  I have a lot of friends who are in academic research who want to make the transition to real world aka Industry.  Industry is a real contact sport, a lot less dreamy and lighter on intellect, more hands on business. It means dealing with real client pressures every day, navigating business cycles, making it better than the person in the cubicle next to you.  Academic Research has the leverage of time. My first industry CEO told me: “Consulting, is quick, applied research”. I found my immediate connect, merging research and business. Bingo.

When I started blogging, a received a barrage of stinging reviews. ‘You write average stuff’ was the initial feedback, but i did not stop expressing. Three years down the line, i am on international TV (Al Jazeera International) on a debate with my icons, discussing the Food Security Bill. Have faith in your ability. A book is next up the bend.

Whatever subject you are majoring in grad school whether it is English Literature or Physics, here are a few simple things if implemented in a steadfast fashion could yield rich dividends in terms of making the right dent for you.

Start engaging in the clubs/non-profits in grad school– I worked with GIVE.Sg and AIESEC (Still work with them whenever there is a match) : This helps in expanding ones circle or ‘the network’, learning an additional skill-set like sales and proving ones mettle (I did research and strategy for them, my comfort zone). I learnt to be a better people’s person at AIESEC. It is soft boarding your surf into industry.

The key take-way from this : Create ‘Shared Value’ for yourself and your stakeholders that you operate in.

Start Blogging and Tweeting – Helps bring your passion and niche across : If you are a quantum physicist with an inclination for numbers and photography, start a photo blog or crunch data and distil insights for the uninitiated.

If you are an English Major, do PR/Communications for a start-up or for the more ambitious self-publish a poetry collection.

 If people do not open when you knock, break the door not by banging it but manufacturing a gayle force wind which will unlock the door naturally.

Create a Linkedin Account : More Professional and impactful. Use the InMail function wisely.

Join Industry Groups and Associations as Student Member : Access to Industry Professionals (I was a student member of the Sustainable Energy Association of Singapore)

Try and get a mentor : makes life easy

These measures take time to gain critical mass, and if you are planning to take the Industry plunge start asap. There is no substitute to hard skill and hard work, but if you have a passion and skill, learn to demonstrate it to the world. Social Media is free. Social Marketing is not.

Get an Idea Sijee

Politics in Urban India needs a reboot: an exegesis

India is rapidly urbanizing as cities expand into the hinterland and form urban mega clusters like the National Capital Region and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region among others. Even Kolkata has a ‘New Town’ and Rajarhat to contend.  Cities are economic engines of growth with densely packed spaces and brimming with activity.  By the year 2030, as per an influential Mc Kinsey Report on urbanization states that, India will be predominantly urban.  Most state capitals are urban agglomerations, and provide most of the revenue for the state. Mumbai contributes India’s lion share of corporate taxes but gets peanuts in return from politicians whose voter base is hooked on ‘sugar’ in Western Maharashtra. Mumbai is a Cash Cow for these rural politicians to milk Mumbai dry in order to fund their ‘Pork Barrel’ projects (sorry borrowing an American Political Nuance 😛 ). Mumbai on the same lines as Delhi will not be given autonomy for this very reason as other backward regions in Maharashtra are financially on a drip line called Mumbai. Cultural reasons apart, the devolution of power to Mumbai is difficult only for the cash question in contention.   As a third generation Marathi speaking Mumbaikar, who has lived in first world capitals in our very own Asia; am honestly appalled by the traffic quicksand which I face at the bottle neck at Ghatkoper and Saki Naka everyday when I travel from far away Navi Mumbai.  Mumbai is currently going to have a Mass Transit Line soon; unfortunately we are two decades late.  A commercial backwater (or an art centric vanguard which ever pov one looks at) such as Kolkata had a Metro System way back in the 1980’s.

The urban voter’s needs are neglected. Municipal Corporations are archaic institutions with no teeth; no policing prowess and normally short changing on financing options.  A government in a union territory like Delhi has no jurisdiction over Law and Order and Land Issues and has two to three Municipal bodies with the Central Governments over arching Big Brother attitude. It is quite a quagmire of overlapping scope of work in Consultant Speak. With the rest of NCR either lying in Haryana (Gurgaon) or UP (NOIDA)- Urban Governance needs a new operating system.  

The Mumbai Metropolitan Region has the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM), Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation, Kalyan-Dombivali Municipal Corporation and Vasai-Virar Municipal Corporation as its stakeholders with Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) as the focal point for Infrastructure development in this megapolis.  The MMRDA is under the Maharashtra State Government’s Urban Development Ministry which is under a Congress Chief Minister, the Public Works Ministry with its unfriendly coalition partner NCP and the MCGM is under the control of the Opposition BJP-Shiv Sena. The MCGM’s budget is more than many a budget of a smaller state like Goa and Manipur.  These political conflicting turfs make for haphazard planning and execution of mega infrastructure projects.  There should be a single window clearance mechanism for such projects which reshape the economic landscape.

India needs a new social contract with its urban citizens. Parliamentarians from urban India are not able to reflect the aspirations of a rapidly globalizing youth. The Politics of this nation is stuck in 1970’s with Right to Food, Education and other welfarist legislations. Social Infrastructure public sector initiatives are fully supported by the author but in order to power these projects, one needs the cash, hard cold cash. The cities are the growth incubators. Empower them with good politics. Effective governance is tied in to good politics.  A new politics is required for reform;  new operating system which captures the aspirations of urban India. The existing parties are terribly falling short. A Milind Deora or a Sandeep Dixit is great, but we need a sea of them.  We need the ‘Citizen Elite’ to rise and usher in a new wave of caste neutral development centric urban politics.

Politics of the Urban Voter is not new. The Swatantra Party, the Jan Sangh and especially the Mumbai and Marathi centric identity politics of the Shiv Sena. The Right Wing Parties with their emphasis on free market and physical infrastructure focus have been better at capturing the urban imagination.  The Swantantra Party decayed and declined in the 1960’s as socialism became the voice of economic thinking during Nehru ji and Indira ji. Even the Congress has appropriated some of these tactics to win in Delhi and Mumbai over the past decade.  Sheila Dixit with the Delhi Metro is a case in point where urban development has worked for a left of centre Congress in a totally urban electorate.

 The Shiv Sena is a ‘Made in Mumbai’ urban ideological product. The Shiv Sena founded by cartoonist turned Hindutva icon Late Balasaheb Thackeray in 1966 at Shivaji Park, Dadar distilled the grudge of native Marathis in Mumbai against the ‘Outsider’ over the decades till it reached its zenith of power in 1995 when they reached Mantralaya in the aftermath of the 1993 riots. Although the urbane politics of the Shiv Sena was narrow and parochial; they transformed Mumbai City with 72 flyovers in five years from 1995-99. The Mumbai-Pune Expressway was a signature project of the regime.

The Aam Admi Party with Civic Society Activist Arvind Kejriwal has transformed a volunteer led citizen movement in to a political fighting force. In the opinion polls in the run up to the Delhi Assembly Polls it is poised to do phenomenally well for a first time entrant. If they succeed, they are poised to be India’s first and truly urban political voice. Lok Satta is another one down south. Such actors are needed, as microbes in the governance gut to clean up the digestive system known as politics.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why Arvind Kejriwal will transform Politics in India?

India has now reached the inflection point in which the post liberalization generation who have not experienced the License Raj economic climate of the days of ‘Hindu Growth Rate’ demanding a scale up. Economic Reforms 2.0 have taken a back seat of sorts as the Congress led coalition focuses on delivering Welfare measures as it concentrates on Main Street than Mint Street. A ‘chowraha’ or a four point crossing-intersection, emblematic of a town centre like Sangli or Anantapur is an image that conjures up in my head. The electoral politics of the Congress dictates a pro poor orientation (which the writer full heartedly endorses as welfare is an enabler for the poor) and the urban voter base is not the target audience which it normally courts. Although the Congress dispensation, has been ruling urban Delhi over the last 15 years.  It is quite ironical but Sheila Auntyji has been doing a good job with Infrastructure in spite of the CWG Scam and poor security for the better gender.

Discontentment with the current government has reached a tether. The economy is tanking although ‘Governator’ Rajan has started off with a bang. The encouraging development in this state of political churning is the role which the educated middle class is playing in shaping the political discourse in a small but critical fashion.  The National Advisory Council is the best illustration of an Educated Citizen Elite contributing to construct policies.  While Aruna Roy and Harsh Mandar spearheaded the Right to work Program Bill, Jean Dreaze and Prof Amartya Sen extended intellectual legitimacy to the Right to Food Act.  Welfare Legislations help in transforming voters into citizens as democracy is not only about voting but about governance.

 The idea of the Citizen Elite was sparked while reading the famed Indian Sociologist Dipankar Gupta’s new book “Revolution from Above: India’s Future and the Citizen Elite”. A breakthrough read, Prof Gupta enunciates the concept of the Elite of Calling’s role in creating transformational change like bring universal healthcare and suffrage in 19th Century Victorian England. Closer home, Sati practice abolition was an act of the educated elite who thought of the greater good of the ‘public’.  Remember Raja Ram Mohun Roy and the Bramha Samaj Reformation Movement?

The educated intelligentsia usually confined to the civil service and the academia has found a voice in think tanks and the electronic media. Legions of bloggers-online writers such as me write on topical issues to generate a conversation in communities we reside in rising above discussing mundane ‘Big Boss’ and ‘Grand Masti’. It is the Citizen Elite who has the bright and the right set of ideas for masses even if they might not be popular at the moment. The masses do not have the time or the resources to agitate. Even if they do, it fizzles off as the ruling class throttles the oxygen for the masses to survive.  It is easy to harass the activist bunch in India by accusing him of tax evasion and something more heinous that even.

The Jan Lok Pal Agitation is an ideal case study to illustrate the soft and symbolic power of the Caravan reading Indian cultural elite. Aided by the 24×7 beast called as the electronic and social media to fuel the rage, Anna Hazare had his Nelson Mandela moment as the political totem symbolizing the dearth of moral leadership in this nation. Much diluted ombudsman legislation was ratified in a shoddy manner, but that was a victory for the ‘Elite of calling’ lead by civil society leaders as Mr. Arvind Kejriwal and Ms. Kiran Bedi. The Jan Lok Pal Team is a bunch of Moral Entrepreneurs with an exemplary track record.  Mr. Kejriwal, a Magsayasay Awardee led the movement for the Right to Information Act.  Shazia Ilmi, an excellent journalist who traded positions to be the media contact person for the Jan Lok Pal Agitation.

These people had good ideas, went to elite educational institutions, worked in the top echelons of civil service and corporate sector to bring those skills to the advocacy and political conversations. More importantly, they had a profusely keen sense of destiny that they can make the world a better place.

That is the differentiating element between the ‘Citizen Elite’ and current crop of political leaders who are political entrepreneurs; second generation legislators or business tycoons who buy their way through Rajya Sabha like Bellary Mining Tycoon Avinash Lad or the revered Dr. Mallaya. A Jay Panda is a parliamentarian of the Citizen Elite Genre. Naveen Jindal, although an Industrialist has pioneered the path for a common man to unfurl the National Tricolor sans inhibition.  

The Prakash Jha directed ‘Satyagraha’ starring Amitabh Bachchan is a cinematic take on the Jan Lok Pal Movement with Bachchan portraying a loosely caricatured Anna Hazare taking the lead over an anti corruption movement.   The former Jan Lok Pal Team apart from Kiran Bedi has formed the Aam Admi Party which is creating a flutter before the Delhi Assembly Elections.  Lok Satta Party’s Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan is a former civil servant turned MLA from Kutapally, Andhra Pradesh who stands for a clean political discourse. He had put up exemplary candidates for the Karnataka Assembly Polls although none of them won. The entire point of the exercise is about signaling a change.

In the rough and tumble of politics in India, ‘the Citizen Elite’ are slowly gravitating from the periphery to the epicenter of elections. I hope for more Jairam’s and Kejriwal’s to join the conversation.

 Only the Citizen Elite can bring the Change. Yes, We Can.

 

Is Arnab Goswami framing our National Conversation?

Our  ‘Present’- tation State of the Economy is in ‘Slide Show’ mode. With an economy in free fall and governance in a coma, it’s frankly no surprise to ordinary ‘aam aadmi’ that a time would arrive when a PAN Card would have to be furnished to the vegetable vendor to purchase onions which is a staple of the Indian diet. The government is busy engineering a political relief package for itself by ‘friending’ Nitish on the social network of Indian coalition politics. Creation of Telengana as a separate state has ensured that the UPA will have a landslide in 21 seats of the region in 2014. As I had written in my previous post supporting the passage of the revolutionary welfare legislation the Food Security Bill, it will be a Killer App along with Direct Cash Transfer to bring in votes for the present dispensation.  The Food Security Bill has widespread support across the political spectrum with opposing voices only suggesting minor amendments. Even the BJP is engaging in a regressive competitive populism by supporting the legislation in order to save face as a pro poor party. As a right wing opposition party it should technically speak is opposing legislations which distribute such largesse from an ideological standpoint.  No political actor seems to be also interested in running the business of governance which is policy making on the floor of the house. A majority of MP’s it seems want to head home after a 1pm adjournment, so as to grab subsidized biryani from the parliament canteen for lunch and subsequently have a proverbial snooze.

A major reason for policy paralysis is a dysfunctional parliament and a severe paucity of democratic debate.  The locus of our national conversation seems to be shaped by the media and a social anthropologist named Arnab Goswami is its torch bearer.  When mainstream democratic channels of expression are stifled, then alternative platforms emerge such as the primetime TV debate with armchair intellectuals and Rajya Sabha MP’s who are either media tycoons or Industrial honchos (read leaders with no mass base). Having a technocrat Prime Minister who prefers silence to debate does not really alleviate the matter.  Strong Leaders in times of crisis,  require political capital and the promoter-professional management divide does not work.

There is a significant disconnect between the policy discourse in the media led by policy wonks and in general intelligentsia and the grass roots strongmen who fight elections with money and muscle power in Anantapur, Sangli or Saharsa.  It is ultimately these strongmen with mass voter base in shanties and below poverty line villages that enter parliament. I will be very surprised if they have even come across the word ‘discourse’ leave alone engage in an intellectually stimulating debate over issues such as Secularism or the Food Security Legislation.  The wonks in the Planning Commission/Think Tanks would do the research for them. Politicians such as Jay Panda are a rarity as they represent rural poor constituencies such as Kendrapada in Odisha and be equally innovative as hiring Swaniti/PRS LAMP Legislative Fellows to help him with their research.

As important policy debates are outsourced to Arnab to act as a ‘Speaker’; the educated class atleast have an opportunity to engage the political class via twitter. Arnab’s anger resonates with the outrage of the masses albeit with popcorn and coke in an Airconditioned living room.  But sadly Tweets do not equal votes and the indelible ink on your finger.

The realpolitik of politics is fought in the dust bowls of Bundelkhand and not in the tony cafes of South Bombay where the LSE-Ivy League educated intelligentsia frequent.  Let us take some of the brilliant minds on prime time debate TV such as Swapan Dasgupta or a Dr. Swamy into the hallowed alleys of Parliament.

Or even Arnab, although I am skeptical that he would win a Lok Sabha poll even from his native Guhawati.

Why India’s Food Security Bill is needed

We are in the midst of an ideological battle over a legislation which is a rare welcome initiative in our complicated national discourse usually muddled within the finite contours of caste and religion.   It’s a battle between greatest Indian Economist of our generation Nobel Laureate Dr. Amartya Sen and equally formidable duo of Dr. Jagdish Bhagwati and Dr. Arvind Panagariya on the Food Security Legislation. It is a social sector legislation of unprecedented magnitude. 800 million people will get subsidized access to grains.

In this cruel globalized world of inter-connected commodity markets where some incident a world away can lead to a borderline BPL family skipping a meal due to a spike in prices; subsidized grains can save lives.

According to Dr. Sen, this legislation will add one percent more to our expenditure while subsidized fuel and power to the middle classes which cost a lot more to our expenditure and do not raise a hue & cry with the right wing intelligentsia as their air-conditioned glitzy office spaces are itself subsidized by the State. If the price of LPG cylinders is increased, then the first people to cry wolf are the right wing as their appeal is mainly to the urban voter base. It can be deducted that as the BJP is an upper caste, urbane voter base, any positive rural social policy move which is a political killer app for the Congress will be discredited. Modi Evangelists have even started to discredit a national icon such as Dr. Sen in their petty politicking. My humble request to my friends who believe in the Modi Doctrine will be to excuse Dr. Sen of their rant. We fundamentally need to respect our Gurus. It is our Culture.

I do not discredit the Gujarat Model of Development totally, as an ideologically heterodox man; I understand that the space required for different economic development models the Indian social rubric. Rather, Mr. Modi has done a great job in creating World Class Physical Infrastructure in his state and has good ideas for the Nation as his Fergusson College address has shown.

It is indeed a bold move by Dr. Sen to stick his neck out and support radical social sector legislation such as the food security bill which is a political minefield just before the 2014 polls. As an academic, he could have played safe and lived out his twilight years at Harvard churning out research papers. He is a man who was offered the Finance Minister’s post during the United Front dispensation by Jyoti Basu of the Left, but he declined. As a man who lived through the Bengal Famine of the early 1940’s and saw the brutal partition we need to respect his perspective on development issues. A chartered accountant named Piyush Goyal who happens to be a BJP Rajya Sabha MP in his economic times editorial dated 24.7.13 has just succeeded in demonstrating his shallow thought process by maligning Dr. Sen.  The BJP should attack the chinks of the food bill and not attack intellectuals.

But, the Food Bill is not without legitimate concerns which my friends from the right churn out in an acerbic fashion. The Checks & Balances are woefully inadequate in our Public Distribution System and pilferages have lead to have massive corruption in the process. We do not have good cold storage infrastructure which has resulted in millions of tones of food grains rotting in Food Corporation of India godowns. India is urbanizing at a blistering pace, and has resulted in internal migration on an unimaginable magnitude. Agricultural spends have been stagnant and we are currently an importer of food grains. All these above elements, add to the question of the overall effectiveness of this social legislation.

The Practice of Power called Electoral Politics drives all discourse in our country. State Governments such as in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka have already introduced subsidized grains schemes which have historically reaped positive rewards for the political dispensation in place.  The pioneering social sector act; Mahatma Gandhi National Employment Guarantee Legislation brought back UPA to power in 2009.  A combination of Aadhar, Direct Cash Transfer and Food Bill will be the 2014 electoral plank as envisaged by the Congress Strategists. Social Policies are critical to Inclusive Economic Growth and Nation Building.

Legislation is not cast in stone and has an iterative feedback loop of learning and thus progressive alterations can be made as the cracks in the implementation program will surface and eventually be plugged by amendments.

But to deny the poor food to eat, because legislation is not theoretically full proof is just callus.  Often, welfare is the option of the last resort of the poorest of the poor. The poor are not just statistics but are souls with agency.

The wonks at Takshashila and American Enterprise Institute just won’t understand as they are blinded by cold statistical logic. Sometimes empathy is the most needed ingredient in policy formulation.

 

It is a Difficult Generation to make a mark

Well, the essence of this title of this rather short post has been evoked by previous generations. My grad school teacher in contemporary social theory used to quip in his lecture that when we are young, we are prone to be rebellious and be inspired by Marx. In the family stage of life we are more likely to be inspired by Weber, more spiritual. In the middle age, we are pessimistic as Durkheim. This generation has seen a tsunami of technological advancements from Doordarshan (State Controlled Media) to Direct to Home TV to social media on smart phone. With these advancements in the post liberalization era, the guaranteed life time employment is a thing of the past as technology has changed the fundamental nature of work with some professions relegated to the thrash bin of history . We have more money in hand, but  paradoxically with even more avenues to spend money. This is also the era of the pink slip. Don’t perform; someone else will do your job at a cheaper rate.  Our better gender peers are competing with us shoulder to shoulder, leading to changed equations at home. This is the best part of the generational transformation.  The male attitudes have not changed unfortunately. The Indian Male has not ‘grown up’ to the fact that this is a different era.   My female friends are super achievers: academically brilliant, career wise top notch and family oriented. All ‘Leaned in’ to towards being the next Sheryl Sandberg’s of the world. Very inspiring. The power equations have changed for good. You would have to f**king good to marry one.

In this era of Online Learning, the degree is both under-valued and over-rated. A masters degree is the new under-grad in this recessionary scenario. I was born into the job market in the midst of the 2008 recession. We are expected to learn life long as our smart phone knows more than us. How we apply ourselves is the key.  A married life at 28 to 30 years of age, considered ‘normal’ until 15 years back seems to be passé.  Rentals are so expensive, buying one in a metro is beyond comprehension.  Our Salaries are a ‘slurry’, entering and exiting our accounts in a blink.  Savings are difficult.  And employment opportunities are few and far between. Ones Social and Cultural Capital seems to hold the answer. Where one studies, the brand of the institution , our network and connections with the right information is the ladder to the correct job.

Being a young man has not been any easier as of now.  One has be on ones toe to grapple with the chaos and complexity of everyday life.  Life is truly intoxicating. The game is on.

The Holy Grail of the Sustainability Discourse: Linking Financial and Environment & Social Performance tangibly

Sustainability has graduated from being a definition in the 1987 Brundtland Report to being one which is embedded in to mainstream corporate strategy. A ton of business literature has been dedicated to the ‘cause’ and some companies have truly derived value from being sustainable apart from the green washing aspect, which we all know is the principal driver in most cases. Sustainability has transitioned from a being a rhetorical vantage point to an implementable procedure which could extract some impact on the bottom-line.  Resource savings to better motivated employees, every possible trick in the book has been utilized to promote sustainability. Most of it has been driven from a piecemeal perspective.

Sustainability has grown in currency as often a safety related death, an oil spill or an industrial accident is terrible for the reputational capital of the firm, which is in turn bad for the face value of the stock if it is a publically listed company.  BP collapsed from an industry giant to a takeover target post the deep water horizon disaster. The Indian Multinational Group Mahindra & Mahindra, uses Sustainability as a governing ethos of the enterprise. It is the Harvard read Anand Mahindra’s leadership and foresight to utilize Sustainability as a compass to drive inclusive growth.  In developing nations such as India, sustainability often is a business pre-requisite as an unhappy community of stakeholders will douse the flames of any tentative project flaring up into a profitable venture. POSCO and Singur are a case in point where social inclusion which is critical component of a 360 degree sustainability strategy faltered terribly.

Social Satisfaction, Safety, Happy Employees are issues which are intangible positives which cannot be translated in to the financial bottomline. The triple bottomline is popular, but the only bottomline which matters is the ROI for the share holder.  The era of Sustainability is passé, Corporate Resilience is better paradigm in a discontinuous and networked world.  New indicators will have to be devised for that Environmental & Social Performance is better communicated to shareholders. Resource Extractive Industries are on the frontline of the Sustainability Battle.  Globalization in an uncertain world demands better parameters to generate insights. This is the Holy Grail. Someone needs to unlock it?

May be a PhD topic if a University funds me 🙂

It’s a ‘Dammed’ affair: Energy, Politics and Development in Uttaranchal

In the past couple of weeks we have seen man made environmental disasters in two contrasting ecosystems in the Himalayan north of India and in the Urban & Ecological Jungles of Southern Malaysia and Singapore. The Singapore Haze Story is a man made healthcare scare and has had severe economic implications for the City State with a billion dollar hit according to Barclays. The Indonesians will perennially clear the forests for cropping and the rest of the region will to suffer unless a regional resource commons governance initiative propelled by hard cash is devised. The meritocratic and innovative Singaporean government lead by the PAP kept the population abreast of the air haze news by the minute through social media and a National Environmental Agency Smart Phone App which is commendable and a benchmark for disaster governance. The Government could not have done any more as it is a trans-boundary issue.  Quite a contrast to the abysmal standards of disaster governance at Uttarakhand vis-a-vis Singaporean standards of excellence.

The Tragedy was triggered by a cloud burst and torrential downpours in the Himalayan Uttarakhand State, which is a hydel power hotbed with numerous dams. These dams have amplified the ecological sensitivities which have contributed to the cataclysmic landslides, killing hundreds making the Uttarakhand tragedy a humbling experience for the priests of aggressive developmental drive paradigm. In a rush to feed an energy hungry northern grid, Uttarakhand led by callus leaders who ‘damned’ literally every available water stream dug their own grave, with the temple towns collapsing like a flimsy pack of cards. With job hungry Uttarachalis whose main occupation has traditionally aligned with armed forces, looking for work outside the government, the so called renewable energy industry came to the rescue. The same armed forces, which are India’s only Disaster Management competent agency, are now saving the day, in a nation which is woefully inept at saving ones backside. The Congress which is ruling the state with a wafer thin majority is all set to face the electoral music in 2014, with the state having ten seats for the Lok Sabha.  The important point being, that the congress is competitive in this state where in other places it is losing its deposit.

Environmental Issues are Force Multipliers. They might not win anyone one an election; but it will aggregate a small crisis to a regional disaster, which will surely make one lose a poll. Will the consultants/bureaucrats who did the environmental clearances for the dams be held accountable for this disaster? When will the corporate-political cartel take environmental compliance seriously?

Uttarakhand is an inflection point in the developmental & environmental governance narrative in this nation. It is time that we do not dust these lessons in to garbage bin of history and wait for another one to happen.

Arab Spring is dead

The benefit of hindsight is that it has a perfect 20-20 vision. The neo-con and the conservative lobby who claimed that an invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan in 2003 shall ensure a tsunami of democracy have got it terribly incorrect with huge costs: Trillions down the drain, thousands of soldiers dead and millions displaced and killed.  The Arab Spring with Mohammaed Bouzizi’s immolation and the historic events at Maidan Al Tahrir to Pearl Square, Manama to Globe Roundabout in Sohar has lead to a democratic transition of sorts but with the wrong revolutionary actors in place. The Muslim Brotherhood and the Al Nur Salafist block have sidelined the liberals like Amr Moosa and have lead to further persecution of  two millennia old Copts in Cairo.  Hosni Mubarak was a secular, army led dictator who safeguarded the interests of Christians.  The Evangelical Right drove the neo con agenda in 2003 saying the liberal and democratic values were needed in the Middle East. They got their premonitions wrong.

Ideas have Consequences, as it is said as it drives decisions. The Wrong ideas can have cataclysmic outcomes. The neocon experiment has shown aptly.

The brothers from Bible belt in the mid western United States were simply ignorantly aiding the detractors of Christians in the Middle East say the Brotherhood to make the transition from the underground to the presidential palace.  The Cultural Context of the Middle East was not understood by the neo con establishment. A steak eating mid westerner from Ames, who has not even travelled to the east coast of the US, cannot comprehend the subtlety and complexity of the social forces at play in Allepo.

The similar story is underway in Syria. The Assads as did fellow Baathists in Baghdad always had a friendly relationship with the progressive, liberal Christian community in the Middle East. Saddam Al Tikriti’s Spokesperson was a certain Mr. Tareq Aziz, a Roman Catholic with excellent links to the Vatican. Basher Assad the Ophthalmologist from London is a secular, western man. The Alawaites are Shia-ites but they have held excellent historical ties with the Druuze and Maronite ethnic Christian Communities unlike the Salafist Sunnis. I recently saw the desecration of an ancient Orthodox Church on BBC World, in a report by Lyse Doucet in Allepo, Syria by the so call ‘Free Syrian Army’. The persecution of Christians in the post Arab Spring Middle East is intense. As the Christians sided with the dictators in the pre 2003 era, the Salafist opposition backed by Gulf States, newly Islamized Turkey and the ignorant Western Leadership are on a witch hunt to eliminate any symbol relevant to Middle Eastern Christianity.

Syria has turn into a metaphor not only for the Arab Spring but for Shia-Sunni divide for geo-political control. It is not a Syrian Control but the war threatens to suck the neighbors in too. Hezbollah, Sunni Jihadis, Gulf Petro Dollars and Western attempts to marginalize Iran all count for an explosive Molotov cocktail with a nuclear Israel along the fringes.  The revolutions in Yemen, Bahrain, and Morocco and to a limited extent Oman have yielded to insignificant changes although reforms have been kick started.

The successes of the Arab Spring are surely Tunisia and Libya. The Success Story also ends there.  Teksim Square is a blip on the radar. Shahbhag is an ongoing ideological battle. A Revolution which had showed great promise but faded out in the cacophony of various actors.

The Arab Spring is dead. We surely need to resolve Syria now to prevent more damage. My appeal to the United States is to not get involved in Damascus by supporting the rebels. Remember, the CIA created ‘the Base’ (Al Qaeda) of the Islamic Terror Movement indirectly via arming the Mujahidin in Afghanistan?

History has many lessons to offer, if we pay an attentive ear.