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A good article by Sam Pitroda

Here's a really nice article that came out in The Economic Times today.

Describing the hype over the BPO industry in India as exaggerated and unrealistic, National Knowledge Commission chairperson Sam Pitroda has said the industry generated only 300,000 jobs a year against the 10 million required annually to counter unemployment .

Speaking to the BBC Hindi service, the man credited with ushering in the telecom revolution in India said the Commission was likely to submit a report next month to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh recommending university education reforms to check unemployment and promote research.

"India needs to generate 10 million jobs each year to counter growing unemployment and to build a world level skilled work force. However, merely three lakh (300,000) jobs are being created through outsourcing by foreign companies in the IT sector here.

"BPOs are a recent phenomenon and have been blown out of proportion. The attention given to outsourcing is a bit exaggerated," he told listeners from around the world.

"Let us be very clear that the country cannot run on outsourced jobs, we would have to look for serious alternatives. By running after outsourced jobs we are merely solving the problems of others, we should not forget that solutions to our problems would have to be provided by us only."

He said India's priority would have to be water, sanitation, energy, construction and health sectors, and outsourcing did not provide the answers to these issues.

Asked whether countries like China and the Philippines posed a threat to India in outsourced jobs, Pitroda urged the Indian BPO industry to go into newer areas saying: "Competition is on the rise worldwide, and a global outlook is preferred in all the professions... The BPO industry in India should look for new fields. Our cities became the outsourcing centres of the world, now our cities should make villages as their centres."

According to the tech guru, reforms in higher education were required at the earliest to counter unemployment and promote research. He said only six percent of youngsters in the relevant age group were pursuing higher education, and added that the number would have to at least increase threefold.

"Presently the Knowledge Commission is conducting a census on this, as we feel that a quantitative as well as qualitative increase in university education throughout the country is compulsory.

"We cannot move forward without this and the question is how fast could we do these reforms. By next month we would like to submit a report recommending university reforms," Pitroda said.

Asked about the possible sources of funding required, he replied: "We should invite foreign investment, look for collaborations, go in for more private universities, then only would we be able to bring back higher education into focus.

"We should not forget that almost half of the country's population is going to be less than 25 years of age, and by good university education we would be preparing a knowledge base for not just our country but for the world. I can say with reasonable surety that in 10 years, India's youth would be important for the world's development".

Citing the decrease in research work in the universities as an alarming sign for the country, Pitroda said the interest of the youth would have to be won back.

"Unfortunately now the research is being increasingly separated from the universities. No major research work is being done and the research scholars are on a decline. We would have to check this trend by giving more financial incentives and facilities for research."

Manmohan Singh constituted the Knowledge Commission last year to advise him on how India can meet knowledge challenges in this century in areas like education, scientific institutions, intellectual property and agriculture.

For more on India's history and future, including some searching stuff on the economy, I strongly recommend Amartya Sen's 'The Argumentative Indian'. Classy stuff.

A small memory

I was in Bangalore last weekend after a long time. Nearly three years.
Had a hell of a time meeting up with old friends and gossiping, as if it hadn't been a day since we last met. Memories kept coming rushing back.

It's an amazing thing, the way memory works.
I read somewhere - maybe in a science fiction story - that each memory in our heads had a unique chemical formula. Each memory stored was actually a mix of some elements and could be expressed as some complex compound. What an intriguing thought ! Does that mean someday, a scientist could synthesise a memory ? Could someone manufacture a thought ? The very idea chills me. It's simply too exciting for words.

I got very little time to myself in Bangalore. Always rushing off to meet someone or the other. One evening I was walking near a park, heading towards my old house to meet my old neighbors, when I suddenly saw something that made me stop.

It was a small broken bench in a park. Coles Park, to those who know Bangalore.

Wasn't much to the everyday passerby, but it brought back a whole flood of memories back to me.

When I was about 7, my father and I used to go for morning walks in this park. Bangalore used to have spendid weather at that time. We were walking there, at about 6 in the morning when suddenly I happened to spot a small pup. Brown, with white patches on it. I had seen the little fellow right under that broken bench. It seemed amazing to me that that very bench should still be there - almost exactly as I last remembered it. My father and I had taken the pup home and left it in the kitchen. My mother threw a fit on seeing it, but the pup was kept with us for a little more than a day, after which we realised we couldn't take care of it properly, and had to go and leave it at the same spot where we had found it.

The whole incident was a trivial one, but an inanimate object like that broken bench helped play back - like a movie reel - a day in my life of about 18 years ago. And the emotions associated with remembering an incident very vividly are quite amazing. I could hardly move away from that spot for a while. I looked around the park and realised that not much had changed after all. The swings, stone slides and even some of the trees in Coles park were recognisable. Every little thing had a meaning. Each image a constitutent of a small compound somewhere in my head.

I had to half run away from the spot, as it was all a bit overwhelming and scary.

I wish the mystery of memory is solved in my lifetime. I would love to know why we remember some things, and some other things (my studies, for instance) never seemed to find a place voluntarily in my head.

I wish someone could enhance those memories which one wanted to remember vividly.

Then again - I think - would it be a blessing to remember a lot of things ?
Personally, I have had a tough time forgetting many things in my life.

Maybe we are built all right after all.

But I wouldn't mind if I somehow came to know the formula for the memory of how I first brought a dog home from the old park.

I would keep in under my pillow for a long time.

Bjarne Stroustrup interview to the IEEE

This is the link to "Bjarne Stroustrup" interview to the IEEE's 'Computer' magazine. If you dont know who Bjarne Stroustrup is, read on and you will find out ...

"Laughter Guaranteed"

http://www.cse.psu.edu/~dale/humor/stroustrup.html

Thoughts stemming from the back of a matchbox

Yesterday, I noticed this great quote on the back of an AIM series matchbox - 'A rational person is a nice contrast to the real world.'

That set me thinking about just how true that statement was. I think I'm going to buy a lot of AIM matchboxes just on that strength alone. It brought to mind all the irrational things I have seen, all the whimsical stuff done by people who in some way are in control of my destiny. Among all the whimsical and irrational things I have seen in my lifetime (makes me sounds like a bearded old relic - but never mind), the most bizarre and unjustifiable thing I have come across is religion. The whole concept of religion has intrigued me ever since, maybe, when I was in class 10.

I have had so many talk with so many people about this, and I have - to my belief - had an open mind about the subject, but I haven't been able to be convinced by anyone that religion has anything good to offer to humanity. Absolutely nothing.

I wrote about this here, and it provoked a vitriolic attack from an anonymous commentor, many of whose comments I have deleted. Actually that article pretty much sums up what I thought about religion.

I have tried to read books prescribed by at least four religions, and not one of them has been free of blatant contradictions and fallacies.

I thought of writing this post just to put down some quotes of some of those people who were a contrast to the real world, some, who were puzzled by the existence of religion, and after a while were plain disgusted by it.

"Religion is based . . . mainly on fear . . . fear of the mysterious, fear of defeat, fear of death. Fear is the parent of cruelty, and therefore it is no wonder if cruelty and religion have gone hand in hand. . . . My own view on religion is that of Lucretius. I regard it as a disease born of fear and as a source of untold misery to the human race."

"I am myself a dissenter from all known religions, and I hope that every kind of religious belief will die out."
Bertrand Russel

"I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religion than it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it."

"I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own -- a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty. Neither can I believe that the individual survives the death of his body, although feeble souls harbor such thoughts through fear or ridiculous egotism."
Albert Einstein

"I am an atheist, out and out. It took me a long time to say it. I've been an atheist for years and years, but somehow I felt it was intellectually unrespectable to say that one is an atheist, because it assumed knowledge that one didn't have. Somehow it was better to say one was a humanist or agnostic. I don't have the evidence to prove that God doesn't exist, but I so strongly suspect that he doesn't that I don't want to waste my time."

"Creationists make it sound like a 'theory' is something you dreamt up after being drunk all night"
Isaac Asimov

"All thinking men are atheists."
Earnest Hemingway

"Religion is a byproduct of fear. For much of human history, it may have been a necessary evil, but why was it more evil than necessary? Isn't killing people in the name of God a pretty good definition of insanity?"
Arthur C. Clarke

"Lighthouses are more helpful then churches."
Benjamin Franklin

"I'm glad some people have that faith. I don't have that faith. If there is a God, a caring God, then we have to figure he's done an extraordinary job of making a very cruel world."
Dave Matthews

"My view is that if there is no evidence for it, then forget about it. An agnostic is somebody who doesn't believe in something until there is evidence for it, so I'm agnostic."
Carl Sagan

"Nothing can be more contrary to religion and the clergy than reason and common sense."
Voltaire

"The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one."

"At present there is not a single credible established religion in the world."
George Bernard Shaw

"The divinity of Jesus is made a convenient cover for absurdity."

"This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it."
John Adams

"Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet."

"All religions have been made by men."
Napoleon Bonaparte

"If Christ were here now there is one thing he would not be -- a Christian."
Mark Twain

The list of such quotes could go on. I have just picked up a few of my favorites from here.

It would seem that I am lookign specifically at quotes attacking Christianity, but in my mind all religions in the world deserve to be laughed at, for the absurdity it brings to our lives. I just haven't found quotes which interested me poking fun at other religions in articulate ways such as the ones above.

I visit this site at times to gloss over the inconsistencies in the Koran and Bible.

About the Hindu prescriptions for a good life. The Mahabharat, Ramayan, and other legends seem to me as amazing examples of male chauvinism in ancient India, where injustice was the norm rather than the exception. To go into that in detail would result in an epic in inself. They are fantastic reads though, especially the Mahabharat, if one looks at it as a thriller rather than a book with any spiritual value. This girl here has caught on the real spirit of the Mahabharat and is writing a great spoof on it. Follow the Mahabharat series link on the right sidebar of her page.

Some people would say it's best to keep quiet about such things, but I get so frustrated at the whole concept of religion, and the absurdness rampant among those who subscribe to it, that I just feel like shouting it out to everyone I see. Which is why a blog is a good thing. As Ashwini, sorry, @ashwini, said - a 'catharsis'.

sh"IT" Industry - how 'sh' came to IT?

You ask a layman where the technology jobs are and his reply will be “India”. But if you ask me, I would rather say “Down the Drains …” This is my opinion of the IT industry – Straight from My Gut … (thank you Mr. Jack Welch).

Sure, IT has brought in a lot of light to India but just as every rose has its thorn, the IT industry has a Dark side.

A company can be categorized as either a “Product” based or a “Service” based. You have “Work Security” in one and “Job Security” in the other. When working with a product based company, rest assured you will always have your plate full, something even more than what you can handle. Every ounce of your talented will be squeezed. Analogically speaking, you are the sugarcane and you will repeatedly go through the rollers, with lime and ginger as motivation and incentives. These companies will take the extremes of offering you the “Best in the Industry” package to the best “Severance” package. Little do they tell you which industry they are referring to when they say “Best in the Industry”. For those in doubt they are referring to the industry of “Slavery”. The severance package will be offered under conditions of Acquisitions, Mergers or simply – “the project has come to a closure - Sayonara”. But you have nothing to worry. Work with a service based company and you will have a 40-60 ratio of work to leisure. This comes with a bonus, Job Security. These companies are messiahs to the “impotents” and “incompetents” your leaders and managers basically. Imagine a company having its presence in Tahiti or some where in the Caribbean or even Goa. Your onsite assignments will on the beach with “Cocktails and Skin” … a voluntary retirement scheme.

You have often heard the term “Benched” … this is a requirement for all CMMI Level 5 companies. Companies like Infosys and Satyam have been on a rampage with recruitments because they want to hold on to their Level 5 certificate. How are they related? Well, one of the criteria of this certification says: you got to have a work force showing anticipation and readiness for work. The more you recruit, the more anticipation you show, the more will the “stock” be traded. While the recruited, get paid to indulge in a little Solitaire and as the new fads are: Sudoku and Blogging. For the record “I am not on BENCH” … I just don’t have work.

Ever heard of “Body Shopping”? This is when you are subcontracted. You are working for service based company and you are asked to work for a product based company. The work will be to clean the toilet after some one just pooped in and didn’t flush, put in the technological jargon you are asked to do Black Box Testing. Your incentive for doing this is a daily allowance of 100 to 300 Rs. and a high speed internet connection – for posting your resumes.

We have the MNC, the feel good factor. All “MNCs” start of as “R&Ds”, IBM did, Intel did. They initiate the design of some revolutionary product and just when its time to hit the market, they change their R&D centers to “Indian Offshore Development Centre”. IBM changed to IBM India. This way the tax on software export is rescinded. As the saying went in our college, the “R&D” has been reduced to “R A & D” or “R A N D” or just “WHORE”. Not to feel bad, there is an incentive here to … the engineers in the west get “Bangalored”. What’s “Banglored”? Type “banglored” as the search string in Google and the first result is:

“The US slang term 'Bangalored' refers to workers laid off because their jobs have moved to India.”

AMEN TO THAT

The end is the beginning is the end. The end of software jobs in the west is the beginning of those in India, but not for long, because this beginning will soon coin a new slang “China-ed”. This is where the Indian professionals get fired because his work has been moved to the Chinese. The Chinese are cheap, just like in their flesh trade and their quality is not Six but Seven Sigma … beat that Mr. Jack Welch.

What can we do? … we can only hold on to your “Swadeshi Tri-colored Knickers” to prevent the “Communist Bug” from getting up into our asses.

How does that feel !

READERS DIGEST - THIS

CATCH 22 – Joseph Heller
If you have the appetite to read some “humor in uniform”, then this is the book which will satiate this hunger. Acclaimed for its humor, this book has a backdrop set to the world war. It portrays the frustration and absurdity prevalent during the war with a touch of humor.

SATANIC VERSES / MIGHTNIGHTS CHILDREN – Salman Rushdie
This man is no stranger, the Islam clergy had a death sentence put out on him for his book Satanic Verses. “NO OFFENSE INTENDED TO ANY PERSON AND/OR RELIGION” ... The plot is developed around the life of 2 guys, the only survivors of a hijacked plane.
The second book is about INDIA. He talks about Indian states like Jammu and Kashmir, Goa during the hippie days, the Jallianwala Bag tragedy, the Indira Gandhi government. It’s a brief walk through our history at the time of Independence.

EATS, LEAVES and SHOOTS – Lynne Truss
If your English Grammar sucks, you better read this book. It’s a crash course in grammar with a twist. The twist being: HUMOR.

STRAIGHT FROM THE GUTS – Jack Welch
Jack Welch, the man that brought GE the glory it not basks in. It’s a kind of an autobiography. He talks about how he revolutionized GE’s process and style of doing business.

IACOCCA, AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY – Lee Iacocco
Like me, not many might have heard of this man. He was a VP at Ford Motors. Designed the Mustang. Fired by Henry Ford. Picked up by Chrysler, at the time when it was on the brink of bankruptcy. And the hero saves the world. All car buffs will enjoy reading this book. He doesn’t dwell into the nitty gritties of car design and engineering but colors a beautiful picture of the automobile industry and throws a lot of shit at the “king” - Henry Ford.

I, ROBOT – Isaac Asimov
I don’t know what the movie was all about, but rest assured reading the book and watching the movie will make you wonder if the movie was really based on the book. If you have read “Man in the Iron Mask – Sir Alexander Dumas” or “War of the Worlds – H G Wells”, you will realize that the book and movie have very few plots in common. This book can be viewed as 6 incidences. Each involving robots and the blunder built around them and how humans, the more intelligent ones, solved them.

HITCH HICKERS GUIDE TO THE GALAXY – Douglas Adams
Another humorous book you should watch out for. An earthling and an alien hitch hiking their way through the universe after the earth was destroyed to make a way for a pathway.
Remember the college days when most of us hitch hicked to college and meet up with some real “characters”?

DILBERT, THE WAY OF THE WEASEL - Scott Adams
Just read it.

Soham: give me my colors. Looking forward to for some book reviews