Brij’s One More Idea

“Think big, think fast, think ahead. Ideas are no one’s monopoly”
- Dhirubhai Ambani

I don’t know this fellow but considering the amount of comment and interest his post has generated I am getting tempted to add my own 2 cents to the debate.

I love the economics of 2 cent based intellectual debates. You just have to throw something out there - if it sticks good, if it hits somebody good, and if it hurts somebody all the more good. In anycase you wont loose any money. ROI on 15minute fame is pretty good.

See the important thing is to throw. Throw at the meta level since mark of a smart fellow is to sit one level higher as far different layers of abstractions are concerned. Sample this:

Consider how many of Hollywood\’s great actors and directors aren’t American. Consider the fact that Hollywood’s blockbusters, for the last ten years, have been essentially European (or Japanese) exports. Consider how many great fashion designers are American (no, Ralph Lauren and P Diddy don’t count). Consider the fact that reality TV - the present and future of TV - is a European export.

But why do they all end up in US? Why not settle down in Monaco or Paris?

Galloping stereotypical horse -

Is that what India and China want to be? Are they willing to pay the price America is paying - a society fraying at the seams? Anti cultures, where the life revolves solely around consumption and production? An economy where the market is chewing up and spitting out every form of capital, in the insatiable quest for near-term returns, and so the center can’t hold?

What price we are talking anyways? Are we supposed to read Das Kapital again or what?

I am all for culture and social order but when given a choice between poverty alleviation and cultural values I know where my loyalty lies. India and China want growth, unrestricted entrepreneurial growth based on ideas, merit, responsibility and capitalism. Growth is a best prescription for social dynamism. Inertia breeds culture worms.

Have been to many New Delhi art galleries where nice manicured hand touch those black and white village pictures in the name of preserving culture. Culture is many thing to many people. For the contemporary definition go ahead and play this song “Meter Down” on this site.

For me society’s culture need to be judged on it’s capacity to serve its weakest and poorest. Does culture allow every one to dream big, everyone to pursue happiness, everyone to pursue their own path in life. To me that’s where US scores and will continue to do that for many years. India and China would be lucky if they can get that kind of culture in their DNA.

I can already see signs of that in India and that is a good reason why majority of urban Indians have huge respect for American entrepreneurship. On my recent trip there I saw rapidly evolving democratization of aspirations.

And that is a very good thing. Culture or agriculture I dont care.

Bangalore

Originally uploaded by Brij.

This is as per WP(C) No. 72 of 1998 (Supreme Court Of India).

That’s why startup world is exciting. First we had flickr who changed many things with the introduction of tags and tag-based folksonomy. Now we have another exciting startup - Riya, which claims to have solved the face recognition problem. This is one problem all the average digital camera users must have complained about and all serious geeks must have drank plenty of coffee discussing how to solve.

Alpha testing shows results are encouraging. I hope Munjal and his team will very soon provide API based access which can really open this technology for mass adoption. This is a platform opportunity not just a nice photo management. You just can’t imagine all the possible ways this technology can be used.

Good stuff. Once again this proves that you can innovate yourself ahead of a crowded space.

Can health education really solve the problems related to affordable healthcare ? Infothela, project started by IIT Kanpur computer science department, attempts to find that out in a very unique way.

Rajesh points to the education system crisis as it exists in the primary sector in India. Though much is written about the vast pool of engineering graduates but  picture at the primary level is embarassing and shameful !

According to Rajesh :

375 million. That is the number of Indians in the 6-19 age group. As
they grow up and enter the workforce, they are bound together by one
need - education. And by all accounts, they aren’t getting enough of
it. In an article, Business Week (Jan 31, 2005) called India "a nation
of dropouts." The facts bear out the stark reality. "While 96% of
India’s children enroll in primary school, by the age of 10 about 40%
have dropped out, says the education department. Just over a third of
high school students graduate."

Educating India’s young is a problem that needs immediate attention.
Every year, we are closing the window to a better life for tens of
millions of Indians. At the same time, it is not an easy problem to
solve. India has a million schools. Most of them are in rural areas and
government-run. Teachers and teaching leave much to be desired across
most of them. Unless we come up with innovative, radical solutions
quickly, we will be squandering India’s greatest asset.

On a related note I asked Atanu on  how to make people attend to a crisis  by constantly 
emphasizing that problem as a crisis.  His suggestion :

Awareness of important issues requires two things: one, information,
and two, the capacity to internalize the information and become aware
of the issue, which could then lead to some sort of action related to
the issue

Can this capacity be increased by some intervention ?

In a deterministic society its very hard to attend to one problem at the expense of others but I think in some social contexts attending to one problem by treating as a calamity will result in  better results overall  versus giving a piecemeal solution to many problems.

Primary education is a disaster in India and I don’t see any sign of that improving dramatically.  Country is enjoying some attention at the top level but the basic seeds which make any society strong and responsible are not getting proper education.

I believe corporate sector should step in here and have a ownership model where certain tax exemptions will be tied to their contributions at the primary education level and not just at the vocational course level.  Some form of social rebate model can be introduced which companies can avail by owning the resource welfare of  primary schools.

It’s no brainer to extend the theory this  segment once educated will have better sensibilities towards future global issues such environment and energy !

Today I bought a newspaper - physical one ! Sunday Edition of Mercury News.

Motivation was not the news, I wanted to study it’s form factor and to verify that there is still value from the ad prints. Very much like a trip to zoo to visualize how the dinosaurs once lived and how their enormous physiology led to their extinction.

Thick, bulky, full of promotional material, newspaper looked like a dying patient. In this age of digital renaissance why are we still killing trees to push commercial products. If size of the newspaper is a sign of development then we better have few more Amazon forests in the back-pocket.

It’s about time Government imposes environmental tax on print media in certain economies (like Bay Area).

Tip Jar - A type of open source business model, originally uploaded by Brij.

Oldest business model, works best when the service offered matches the emotional needs of the donor.