Electric Cars : Are they **REALLY** environmentally friendly in India ?

I thought I'd write about what I believe is a urban myth.
I'm told time and again how Electric Cars in India are environmentally friendly as against the regular petrol / diesel and CNG cars. However, I think this is a myth - especially in a country like India where power generation is so very inefficient ?

It stands to simple reasoning that Electric cars run on "stored" energy (batteries) that has undergone 2 transformations and in that sense is already subjected to atleast 2 levels of efficiency (or should I say in-effieciency as it is less than 1) conversion ?

The first conversion is when Coal and other fossil fuels (notwithstanding hydro - but that is altogether a separate blog entry) is converted with LOW efficiency. Then there is approximately 40% transmission losses, it then goes to charge a battery with low energy transformation efficiency (heat loss etc). Finally, when one gets motion out of the motor, I'd hazard that we'd probably not even recover a tenth of input -> output energy efficiencies ?

In short, are electric cars really environmentally friendly ?
IMHO - Absolutely not.

I'm sure someone is going to argue that if coal were to be replaced by Hydro, Solar, Wind (and even Nuclear), then, automatically electric cars could be classified as environmentally friendly - but, even then, I'd retort (very easily proved) that given the energy shortage that India faces, having more motors to drive is clearly not going to be efficient ?

IMHO we should be using only ONE major criteria for environmental friendliness and that is "Energy efficiency".

Think before you act - Why is it so difficult to enforce this maxim ?

I think we Indians have been "directed" for so long, told what to do and instructed on action being the best policy for so long (primary education to choice of career are all dictated in most cases) that we seem to have lost the ability to think for ourselves. What does it take for us to get to a mode where an individual thinks - one as himself (detached from the problem) and two, as a customer (as a recipient) ?

In my opinion, this will change India to be the leader and not be led.

I was THRILLED when I was told that in my child's class - 6th Std, they introduced a rule that the student is not allowed to start answering immediately after the question paper is distributed.
This is the best thing that I can think of for instigating the thought process ??
How I wish people in my school were forced to do this. In those days (and I'm sure in pretty much the whole of the country today), there is a mad rush to start answering the questions before even glancing through the question paper.

There have been numerous occasions when I was told by individuals in my class that they have answered ALL the questions (including the choices !!!)

This trait of acting without thinking is spilling over to the work arena with disastrous effect. We are fulfilling the prophecy made by a few newspapers / analyst about a decade ago that India was a nation of "Tech Coolies".

It is time we stopped and thought ...
Ideas as to how ?

Urgent and Important : Managing the difference

I thought I'd put up a couple of posts that try and elaborate the Indian difficulty in understanding key differences.
The first one is the difference between what is Urgent and what is important ?
This is a typical issue with the folks who work in an onsite-offshore model. While the person is working on a priority list, the assignments of priority themselves seem to be out of a hidden agenda from the perspective of the onsite person.

While some of this can be put down to communication gaps. I personally think that there is a more fundamental issue related to prioritizing.

There seems to be a mixup in priorities as the individual concerned cannot differentiate between the two. While one requires a response, some acknowledgement that the issue has been picked up, the other requires action.

This invariably leads to the constant Onsite complaint that whatever has gone offshore seems to have gone into a "black hole"

This leads to a post in the near future - one related to "response .vs. reply"
:-)

SaaS / ASP model : Is it for India ?

I think over the next few months / years, Software as a service / the hosted Application model is going to get to primetime in a few markets.

The question is, is it the right model for the new "growth" markets in India and China ?

I, for one, think it is. Especially for bits like ERP / CRM and business applications.

Infact, I'd wager that this is the "real" market for such a deployment. There is not enough of process maturity to have implemented differentiated process, but, with sufficient setup on the ISO base to get to a common application process model to be able to share the application set.

In terms of processes that I think is going to go over first.

- SSC components like payroll, GL consolidation / reporting, procurement etc.
- ISO documentation components
etc. etc.

One of these days, I think I'll put in some more thought on this and list what I think is going to work....

As usual, one more TO-DO ;-)

A device to record verbal commitments / add onto mobile phones

Today, again, I have had to control my temper when faced with a set of unkept promises. Maybe I did not get people to take a oath on Gita or Bible or some reference point before I let them get away with a verbal committment - but, you get the picture ?

It seems to be one more of those "Indian" things.... where someone states that they will get back today / tomorrow of next monday with absolutely NO mechanism to follow through !!

I think it is time someone built an application onto the mobile phone. The moment someone commits a deliverable, it should be recorded (voice recording is a standard feature) and then we should assign a date (default to 24 hours reminder). This way, these reminders can be sent across either as an sms or a voice reminder.

If this does not work, then, there should be a cattle prod kind of jolt that goes to the individual ;-)

If anyone were to come up to me with the statement that this is far too harsh, then, I'd be willing to tell them that on the reverse, am happy to get them a "electronic / electric massage" for every promise kept.

That should be an equitable carrot-stick policy ?

Tourism in India - what ails the industry ?

Yesterday, I was in Savandurga with the kids trying out trekking, cave exploration and rappelling.
While the whole tour was a great success and everyone had a whale of a time, some of the sights / things that I saw made me think of current issues with tourism.

I'm told that the domestic tourists going out of the country has been the highest and growing at a tremendous pace, as is the influx of external folks. However, I do think that we should get to more domestic internal tourists interested. Things that I think are low hanging fruits

- Visibility and access to information
I'm sure it is quite easy with the current information base + technology to provide a very factual and up-to-date information about the tourist spot. Simple tips like the best route to take (given the pothole / roadworks situation), what to watch out for (eg. No water source / shade all the way up the hill), where to park a vehicle (even if there is no separate parking area marked) etc. Other than this, it will be good to get some local weather, nearby places to eat etc. info. I'm sure someone will state that this is what blogs are meant to do - but, that is not the point. These cannot be a "voluntary" bit that has no throat to choke / nobody to hold responsible

- Civic amenities
Given the footfall / number of visitors, I'm sure places like this will sustain (or better even, provide a sustainable employment) local participation in civic amenities - eg. Garbage clearing, distribution of local information pamplet (even if charged on a individual pamplet basis / paid for by local vendors like restaurants etc), manned toilets etc.

- Clear markings
I've seen some boards up in a few places, but, this is another piece I think, that is easily done. Markings for trails, directions, historical significance etc. Simple bits that can be put up without too much of an issue and also linked to a locally available facility / public building. Eg. in this case, there is a temple that seems pretty well attended / taken care of - except the premises outside is under nobodys watch. Even if there were to be resistance in putting up this info board within the temple premises, I'm sure it would stay as long as it was put on the outer compound wall ?

Maybe the start is to come up with a "model" that is clear and replicable. Again, when I have the time, maybe I'll start with a info portal ?

The rain tree : Uses of the fruit

The best view from outside of my window is the hugh canopy of a raintree. This is IMHO one of the best trees to be found in Bangalore.
They are shady, spread on the top as much as spread below the ground (I always visualise this tree as having roots on top and below !) and very efficient in coverage. Not sure if people have noticed, but, there is almost a "cap" like quality in the foliage. There is almost ZERO foliage that do not receive sunlight !!!

As a kid, we used to collect the fruits of this tree when ripe. They are black / dark brown, the size of a small drumstick and slightly flat. Each fruit has about a dozen seed / bean almost like a giant sized bean.

We would strip the edges of the fruit, remove the seeds and then pulverize the fruit while adding some oil (typically the cheapest oil - used to be the oil that my mother used to ask me to throw out post a couple of fry-ups) and then make balls.

When let to dry, these balls were very hard and would substitute for an "expensive" cork ball during our summer vacation.

The balls were rock-hard and were more akin to cannon balls / missiles !

Change in subject - I've been of the opinion that we should be able to use the pulp as a binding agent while preparing tarmac. The reason I say this is - it is excellent in stickiness and binding properties (In my childhood days - I'd be able to show a couple of shorts / shirts as proof). They are also very hardy on wear / tear. The fact that these would dry up quickly was the reason we'd use oil during the process of pulping. I'm sure the heat / oil in the current road laying process will help. More importantly, this fruit pulp used to bind even plastic waste and I'm sure we can certainly use this property today.....

I guess this is one more of my discoveries that will not see the light of a patent until I have more time for myself :-)

Flowering trees of Bangalore : A great sight every year

Just like mary parts of the world have he cherry blossom festival, Bangalore should have a festival on it's flowering trees. I think it is unique in the number of varieties of flowering trees and the colours.....

Just this morning I counted quite a few
The red Gulmohurs
The purple Jacarandas
The yellow Tabubias
The white Frangipanis
The light green Pongamias
The orange / pink Rain Trees
etc etc.

However, I still miss the fragrant roads that Bangalore used to have. There were a few roads (eg. Sampige road in Malleshwaram with the eponymous Sampige trees), the road near Ulsoor lake with the Akash mallige (a tree that, as kids, we used to call - Peepi mara : Peepi being a whistle in Kannada) that used to smell like a treat whenever one'd go past.

Now, I guess the only tree that I've smelt while driving is probably the Neelgiri (Ecalyptus).

Maybe we shoud get a "tree walk" organized where we can go into say Cubbon Park, Lalbaugh and be able to see all flowering trees in a row ?

A throwback on that old rhyme - Mary, Mary, quite contrary....

Ugadi : The start of a new year

Today is Ugadi (or should I write Yugadhi ?) the new year for people from Karnataka and Andhra (primarily the south Indian / deccan lunar calendar followers). It is the day when we mix the bitter and sweet combo (Neem buds and Jaggery) as a symbol that life is full of ups and downs and we need to face both with equanimity....

While all this is fine, I wonder about the new-year significance and it's origin. The reason being, this day is a new year for a few other far-flung communities (eg. Sindhis ...).

Is this just a coincidence ? Or is there historical reference that we have not figured out ?

Neighbouring states in India (eg. Tamilnadu) follow the Solar new year and this is usually a week later ? How come there is this level of diversity in a few hundred kilometers, while there is equivalence in communities far spread ?

I'm told it is also celebrated as new year in a few eastern european communities ?

Maybe it cab be traced to tribal origins before religion(s) were born ?

Education standards : How can we get the State model inclusive ?

This post is more a reflection on the essential issues we face in the areas of primary education.

For those who want an overview of the current model in India, you have to start with 3 major bits of the process
1. Primary Education is a State issue and responsibility and not a central (federal) issue / responsibility
2. Primary Education has a state allocation of budget - mostly in the form of wholly "owned" / run government schools and partially aided other schools (aid is mostly in areas like mid-day meal, examination process etc). However, this is only for the state run syllabus schools ?
3. Outside of the state syllabus - India has 2 main (not counting the elite education models of IBC) syllabus models : The ICSE and the CBSE

The question I have for myself is...
Can we ensure that the state model (for example SSLC in Karnataka) has common bits that is borrowed as mandatory in the structure.

Things that I'd like to see
- Focus on India as a country and culture with the state covering **ONLY** the local bits
- Inclusion of topics like "Civic Sense" instead or as part of Civics
- History that covers local regions while dis-passionately describing the caste issues ?
- Science that includes environmental science related to conservation (Energy, water, power etc)

I'm afraid that unless we establish a common national "minimum" structure for coverage, we'll continue to talk about the north-south divide etc.

The basic process should be to bring in more PRIDE into the system both as a nation and then as a local community ?

Maybe the pride will help people improve (and want to improve) their own backyards ?

Adrenaline level : Post go live "downs"

One of the largest US implementations on ERP done by Inatech just went live over the weekend. It was good to see the various aspects of people behaviour over the last few days.

There were the usual split in individual reactions (What I call as the BELL curve set). There were individuals who were very proactive and prepared to do anything to take the system live. There were the middle players who went with the team spirit and chipped in with whatever they could. Then, there were the few (fortunately only a few) who were waiting on a reactive mode to be told to do things.

More illuminating was the post go live structure.
The former set (the extreme chaps) were actually the ones who were beavering away at the system to ensure all issues were closed.
For some reason, the middle bits tend to drop back and this is I think primarily to do with the Adrenaline levels.
The folks at the end of the curve dropped even further back.

The next challenge is going to be to establish the post go live team. This will almost need a different set of skills & people. What is the next target ? How can we set new goals that are focused and progressive ?