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.

Sir V S Naipaul at the Tehelka Goa Think Fest a few months back while in conversation with Tarun Tejpal commented in response to his question regarding the best advice he can provide writers: and the venerable Mr. Naipaul said that it would the best thing for a potential writer to skip university. Thats a radical suggestion from all dimensions. The rationale which VS Naipaul gave that university shapes a person to think in a particular manner. The distinctive style of writing is thus lost which a person is born with, an artistic flair that is not manufactured and is thus a breath of fresh air. Education presents us cognitive frameworks to think, analyse content, data and situations. But the talent cannot be given birth in a creative writing class. It is the raw marble slab which is polished fine in an English literature program.   Education gives us certification, and the time to grow up to be what we are; but these things can be done after high school taking up an apprenticeship  and working up the ranks.  The Citadels of Higher Education are creating non functional beings, unable to think for themselves and hence becoming slaves of the market.

Innovative talent gets lost in the quagmire of structured learning as teachers want us to think in a particular manner. Its the teachers perspective which prevails. As a person shifting from Engineering to Sociology, I have faced the brunt of this treatment. I have miserably done in assignments as i ‘did not meet’ the teachers expectation. Is this grad school all about? Is it about social control and conditioning or about value creation and learning at the end of the day. So much for the oxymoron called ‘inter-disciplinary-learning’.  It takes time, effort and energy to make a domain transition and for cross-pollination of intellectual ideas. Structured learning does not have any room for that, and then these folks expect ‘out of the box thinking and learning’.

I am equally amused, bewildered and frustrated in equal measure. The Iron Towers of High Table Academia are impossible to breach as people need PhD’s and Post Docs to make it even to a reasonable university to teach. The paradigm of publish and perish makes it hard to hire good teachers which ultimately becomes difficult to create a generation of informed citizens as profs are more inclined towards writing papers and not towards teaching. Its a battle for tenure than teaching well at the end of the day. Do not blame them, we all have bills to pay and families to feed.

I have come across high profile managers who are doing good with an undergrad degree in their careers, who teach adjunct in universities and teach better than career academics. Salman Rushdie’s books are taught in post colonial literature PhD level modules in English Literature programs globally, and he himself is a history major from Cambridge and teaches at Emory in the USA. I support the Stanford Prof in Computer Science who quit his tenured post and started a open digital university offering courses. The Un College movement started by Dale Stephens, a Thiel Fellowship recipient offers training which is free and open source, which an average college student in US is raking up debt which they cannot pay back for years after graduating.

I feel as education has under-delivered when it comes to skills really needed in the market, an undergrad degree is equal to a diploma 30 years back. A double masters holder gets offered an entry level job. What the hell is going on? I feel saddened at the state of affairs, truly….

Whenever, the narrative about development is written it is always the rural poor which is focused upon.  The narrative often forgets that there is something as the urban poor which live in the flavellas of Rio to the slums of Dharavi. Slums in global megapolis’es are the economic engines of those regions. These are the areas which serve us. The domestic staff, factory labor and the minimum wage staff all live in urban shanty town’s. The inner cities are the heart of our cities really. Social Enterprises (or simply SE from now on in the article) mostly cater to the rural folks in selling artisan products or bringing skills training. Or the success story of Microfinance in Bangladesh brings credence to the story in circulation. Grameen and BRAC are both case studies in their own right because of their spectacular success. Microfinance is unique not only to the rural poor but also to the urban poor as credit access is limited by lack of identity proof and hence there is no question of credit history in this regard.  Singapore based  Microfinance SE Milaap is reaching poor urban communities in southern India in their quest for better life for the borrowers.

We can see in a Singaporean context that SE’s or Social Enterprises in short can fill up a niche, which is hard to bridge either by corporate s or by the Government. Old School is an educational SE that serves people who dropped out of formal public education early on. Or a World Toilet Organization which spreads the ‘good word’ about sanitation across developing countries globally. In Mumbai, India Ambulance 1298 is providing emergency access to ambulances during the ‘golden hour’, which saves lives. Embrace, a Stanford D School based SE is providing affordable non power based incubators for infants. In the developing world, power cuts are the norm rather than the exception even in urban spaces. As the world is getting more urbanized with China already crossing the psychological threshold of more residents in cities than in the rural areas, SE’s are the way ahead in building sustainable communities, one at a time complimenting local civic governments.

Dear Friend

Its Valentines day yet again!! This is one day that single guys like me post status messages, especially funny ones to heal the   burden of being, well what else but the fact of being single! Its almost been ages for me on this planet, observing the festival of love being celebrated in three different culturally distinctive regions of Asia. From the conservative to the liberal, call it globalization, neo-liberalization or Americanization; V Day is a global metaphor for celebrating the emotion of love, of being wanted, the irresistible feeling of being cherished and to cherish someone special. Whether it is  youth of Meerut (Or any other Tier 3 town) in India calling it ‘Pyaar ka Teohar’ or the festival of love, this day has evolved in to a life of its own divorcing itself from the traditional religious baggage.

Films such as Pyaar Ka Panchnama show the frailties of being in a relationship and all the emotional complexities that a young guy in a relationship goes through.  It is true to a large extent that relationships are hard to maintain. It is a work in progress and takes effort. But if two souls are willing to create magic then the magic is certainly present. And as always the best relationship advice comes from a friend who is perennialy single 🙂 Relationships have power dynamics but start off with the chemistry which is ethereal and magical. Lets celebrate the magic once again on this day.

This is one day where either we feel the sense of relief that our wallets are not being lightened or we want to feel that moment, which is truly priceless, even if the credit card statement for the next month is going to give one a bad financial hangover. Card Shops, Eateries and Coffee Chains make a killing on this day. Cannot find a decent place in a restaurant this evening for sure as love soaked birds would be sharing a wonderful time together. Well this makes me feel even better 😦

The World requires more days of Love, or celebrating, acknowledging the sanctity of love than strife and conflict. How many days in our globalized calender do we remember which glorifies strife. Media channelized new content is predominantly bad news, or gossip which is meaningless. How many days of our lives do we consciously  make a effort to demonstrate an act of kindness. This day is filled with symbolism, and symbolism is per say not bad if the essence behind the razzmatazz and hype is worth it.  Every day is worth living and loving to the full, every second of it. This is what creates the energy to live in the darkness around us. We need nodes like V Day in our lives, to channelize the emotion of love and bring the heart back in the mind-space instead of dry rationality that envelops us.

Most of my V Days since the past few years, are spent at School (Grad School) doing assignments, readings, meetings. In short its a normal day, very normal.  But the buzz around is special, that what makes it a special day. This year too will be no different, as my sing my favorite Adnan Sami Track – Kabhi To Nazr Milao to glory over Green Tea!

Have a Great V Day Friend, even if you are in a relationship with some one, or in a relationship with life itself, such as me:)

How can you know my madness till you become mad with me ?

With Love

Change Thinker

A few days ago while exchanging pleasantries with a friend of mine on Twitter, i had ‘favorited’ his post, and bang the reply came that i had extended the nation of the virtual like from Facebook on to Twitter. Yes, i was taken aback with the extent that Facebook-ization has enveloped my life and the legion of social media addicts. We engage with friends, acquaintances and online pals on a regular basis, and have translated one to one human interaction on the language on online space. The vocabulary of online interactions has exponentially increased certainly, with a dis-like button on You Tube, to express dissatisfaction. May be a kiss (with Valentine’s Day around the corner) and a slap is on the way (a very needed button indeed), with the ‘poke’ already around. We can like a comment, and now a like, does not really mean that we have to like, like it but it is just an acknowledgement that the comment has been well, acknowledged, received and read.

Social Media has about a billion users around the planet, with local languages expanding the reach further. This is changing how we interact in a highly connected, but disconnected generation. We might not know our next door neighbor very well in person, but we chat on Google Talk everyday saying Hi or Salaam. Has our quality of interaction bettered over the years? Or are we doing social media because some friends are on it.  We are chronicling our lives online, every event is being recorded in pictures, tag in to a place or simply status updates. The Cool Factor is certainly contributing to the buzz. We feel good at the end of the day when we get a like or a comment, and even better a meaning one on our thoughts that we have shared. This can even be a conversation initiator in the real world, the next time when we catch up with a friend.

I get to read some of the most amazing stuff posted by my friends on Facebook and Twitter and also the equally absurd content.  We the ‘Like’ -o-philic generation, we get to like stuff miles away from the actual event, share some insanely creative stuff.  Technology is like a kitchen knife, it can cut veggies as well as can be applied to heinous ends. It is the values which matter behind the technology and not the technology itself. Facebook is well on its way to create a lot of wealth for its shareholders through its IPO, well, thats something to ‘like’ about!

I was horrified today morning  by watching an emotionally soaked ad of Vedanta on an Indian News Channel, talking about the rhetoric of development. This is the same organization that has run in to controversy with the tribals in Orissa state in India over mining leases. This has even lead to protests by tribals. Similarly, savvy corporate communication strategists wean over any bad publicity by conning the general public with elegant media campaigns. Corporates have green washed their way through by tying up with non profits in exchange for some loose change in the form of grants. Academics are not untouched too. The Climate Change skepticism is fueled by the lobbies in America, fund research to discredit Climate Change such as the Koch Brothers. Climate Change is a meta phenomena which impacts poor, vulnerable communities from the Maldives to Tuvalu every single day. Media is also driven by advertising moolah, its role is implicit in the contamination of the narrative.

Green washing can help only so far. Sincere efforts are around, but they are few and far in between. The lust for money can lead to intellectual infidelity and professional devaluation. This is not un-natural as there are families to feed and bills to pay, but in such circumstances the moral and ethical entrepreneurs of our society have to brought to audit as well.  Think Tanks and Global NGO’s are driven by vested interests. Capitalist fodder drives them. The developmental narrative is hence not immune too.  Corporate Social Responsibility has a strategic social risk management value, and shared value can indeed be created, but the soul of development seems to be eroded. The MBA-ization of the development sector is impertetive but how much of the donor dollar is actually reaching the intended recipient is a different issue altogether. It seems, that neoliberal agenda rebrands its old wine in new skin every generation, the spirit of capitalism should be relived in its original avatar.

I have been an expat most of my life and have come across many from the sub-continent over the years who come to a phoren country to work or study with dreams in their eyes and hope in their breath. Many of them take student loans, mortgage property and valuables and then come overseas in the hope of a better future. Firstly, many anticipate a land of milk and honey which turn into the despair and misery for millions. Dreams crushed to rubble. Most are scared to go back as they will have to confront failure, condemnation and social shame. Students are economic migrants too but they come to a foreign country early in life to study and to make their career. They are focused on creating value for oneself and their family. Not all succeed in reaching the peak and create success stories to be recited in local village schools but at-least are able to garner a better life financially.

People become immigrants because they do not find the right platform, jobs or opportunities to shine in their own backyard. No one migrates out of pleasure as changes and struggles are enormous. States in India such as Punjab and Kerala specialize in migrant workforces, although many a time social bullying plays a substantial role in triggering the desire to go overseas. The ‘catching up with the jones’es’ is a major driver. In short its greed and desperation that are the catalysts. migrant labor are the underbelly of globalization and the veins of global capitalism. From Chinese traders in Guyana to Nigerian folks in Guangzhou, world has indeed come full circle.  Illegal human trafficking is the dark side of  this pathetic human story. Overseas workers are underpaid and exploited everyday in sweatshops and construction sites across the globe.  For one success story there are countless many, who did not make it….

It is indeed time that we re-assess the need of migrating overseas vis-a-vis staying at home to crave a future, sometimes there is sadly none to fall back upon…..

I am an engineer, an environmental engineer and more than half the time i have the dubious honor what is exactly the domain as an electrical or mechanical engineering is more mainstream. It is usually confused with environmental or life sciences and its identity is usually muddled up with chemical and civil engineering. In lay man’s terminology it is related to pollution control and conserving nature via tech solutioneering. Recently a colleague, mentioned that it is not a high paying job, yes its operational jobs are paid as low as senior technicians and most of the day it is with government agencies, and consulting offers saves the day for many of my fraternity financially. Environmental researchers are saving the world metaphorically, but the job opportunities are few and far in between. Prior to Environmental Engineering and NUS, I majored in Industrial Biotechnology in my undergrad in Oman, a hotpotch semi science, semi engineering degree that is a good for nothing degree apart from being a good launch pad for a  research career in the life sciences as it had a broad based curriculum ranging from chemical engineering to cell biology.  I wrote all my undergrad research papers and publications in technology policy and business as my wandering mind was never satiated with science.  I am an accidental engineer at best, as a good Indian boy I was fulfilling my mother’s desire to have an engineer son!

In retrospect, I was’nt a miserable engineer as I knew my stuff. I undermined my technical abilities considerably. I loved bioprocess engineering and molecular biology during my undergrad, and air pollution control and risk assessment during my masters. My passion for public policy made apply for my second masters in sociology and here at NTU i work on the social elements of an exciting infrastructure project.  Politics, History, Society have been hobbies which i plan to convert to a career via writing, teaching and consulting. Academic transitions have been emotionally brutal and my present endevour in sociology is a labor of love, as I do not have the academic skills of a sociology major but I can definitely see the applications of the theoretical grounding in real life incidents, having had a diverse academic canvas.

I share the sentiment of Prof. Tommy Koh, the Ambassador at Large of the Singaporean Foreign Ministry and senior academic that right opportunities opened up at the right time even if I am not a straight A student, which certainly I am not. I am only an intellectual explorer, (not an academic fanatic), in search of new frontiers to create synergistic value, and trying to be of some good to the community around me rather than going away with warming the pews of the Church of life, which would be quite sad. I do not know which direction i am heading next professionally but I do expect a fascinating journey ahead. The end might not be as productive as the journey, but is productivity everything in life?   naah ….

Wishing all readers a very Blessed 2012! I had my year end annual vacation with a trip back home to Muscat, Oman recently where I have lived for a significant part of my life. Muscat, is serene, beautiful Arab City with the laid-back charm ideal for a family life. Gross National Happiness indicators for Oman must be really high!  Meeting old friends, teachers and Church folks along with going to my favorite places in Muscat, having the best of food, at home and at restaurants was the best stress buster i needed from academics. The Old Muscat Shiva Temple, Marina Bandar, Shatti Beach, the buzzing Ruwi area never fail to rock my socks! I realized one important lesson from this trip, time is precious and we spend too much of time planning on the future rather than relishing and savoring the moment that we live in today.  The Bollywood film Zindagi Milegi Na Dobara exemplifies it, and i completely agree that in order to achieve our goals for the future we abdicate the present. Hrithik  Roshan’s character in the film is a financial broker who has had a tough childhood and he prizes money more than anything else, even to the extent of losing his girlfriend. There is certainly a grave importance for future planning but fanatical zeal for reaching the top and losing everything else is not worth it simply. You do not take your bank balance to the grave, we remember the fulfilling moment when we die or are sick. The character of Gopal in Chetan Bhagat’s Revolution 2020, is a boy who failed to be an engineer but went on to be a engineering college owner, just to prove to his object of affection, that he is ‘Big’ in front of her IITan idealistic Boyfriend. But he ultimately loses her as succumbs to temporary lusts.

In the pursuance of the Rat Race called Life, we lose our sanity, health and basic peace. Most of the time we are catching up with the IIT-IIM passout neighborhood school topper, who is horrible looking but is dating the prettiest girl . This rat race burns us out. Its about priorities ultimately. Competition is good, predatory competition is cruel. Its time that we be ourself, listen to our hearts instead of the ‘aunties’ yapping about their child’s 20 lac annual package or their swanky new car. Its the time now to live a meaningful life for us and the community at large, and start with a ‘me’.

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 1,900 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 32 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.