Toilet Seat Ideas

Really dead

2008-09-12T10:12:00.004+05:30

I had no memory of what I had said and this blog was almost abandoned, until a few moments ago I got an email with this message:

Trevor has left a new comment on your post ""De Parvis Grandis Acervus erit"":
"The next big step for Google obviously, would be a browser!"
Congratulations on making an accurate prediction nearly 2 years ago.

I guess nothing is dead until its really dead, Thanks Trevor!

Thanks, Janitors

2008-01-14T09:16:00.001+05:30

Sunday morning I ended up at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), considered as one of the best design schools in the US. I was in the reception area of their admissions building where they were running an exhibition on Building Design and Architecture. The exhibition consisted of multiple rooms, covering different steps in designing a building.

The room I was standing in was dominated by numerous architectural drawing pasted on the wall, and even some on the ceiling. There was also a large (garbage like) pile of drawing and designs in the floor with disposable coffee cups, empty cigarette packets, a sketch pen without a cap, and a mop. My first guess - obviously this part of the exhibit was not done yet. They must have taken a break for the weekend before they come back and complete it on Monday.

But, there was something meticulous about the room. I was troubled to accept my initial hypothesis about the room being work in progress. There was something logical about the piles of drawings on the floor, the coffee cups, the cigarette packets and the mop!

As I was stepping out, I noticed the words on the floor - "A room for mistakes".

Completely awestruck, I took a couple of more steps backwards, and noticed the words, again on the floor - "Thanks, Janitors"

What Matters

2008-01-01T04:10:00.001+05:30

* Disputed vote plunges Kenya into bloodshed * Bhutto's son, 19, chosen to lead Pakistan Party * The Issues in Iowa *

A sample of the front-page headlines on the NY Times over the weekend. First look, they may have nothing in common. When we take a closer look - the news is about elections, the political landscape and the democratic process. The stories also illustrate what matters in winning elections:

* In Kenya, it matters which tribe you belong to * In Pakistan, it matters who your mother is * In the US, it matters where you stand on Health care, Taxes and Immigration *

Am I over-simplifying the headlines? Probably.

But, you get the point right?

Young MPs = Better MPs?

2007-12-29T02:02:00.000+05:30

PRS Legislative Research is a Delhi based non-profit which "is an independent research initiative that aims to strengthen the legislative debate by making it better informed, more transparent and participatory. PRS is the first initiative of its kind in India"

They have been tracking parliamentary procedures pretty closely, and recently came out with Vital Stats in 2007 for the Indian Parliament. Interesting snippets from the report:

The total working hours of the parliament in 2007 was 40% lesses than that of 2006
In addition, fewer number of bills were tabled and passed in 2007 as compared to 2006.
Finally, Members of Parliament between 25 and 40 years of age, participated in far lower number of debates as compared to the older MPs (both in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha)! That goes against the premise that the 'young MPs' are out to change the world and the portrayal(by the mainstream media) that they represent the new face of Indian politics.

You can download the entire report here

Blogging from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

2007-12-11T09:26:00.001+05:30

I flew into Kuala Lumpur yesterday to attend the "Third Global Knowledge Conference". The conference is a annual gathering of folks interested in using information and communication technologies (ICT) to improve the lives of people in the developing world.
The theme of this year's conference is Emerging People, Emerging Markets, Emerging Technologies. I'm in Young Social Entrepreneur track of the conference, representing Profits for People.

So far I have been quite excited about things that I have seen here. I think we have reached a stage where ICT for Development is not just a buzz word anymore, but could actually help improve standards of living, even for the poorest of the poor. Below are some technologies, ventures and ideas that excited me in the first look. I hope to post more detailed posts on on each of them, in the next couple of days.

Intel's Classmate PC. I got a chance to try out this tiny Windows XP running PC, positioned as a competitor for the hundred-dollar laptop (which BTW is sold now for $200). Intel might be actually onto something here with this macine

OneRoof is an innovate franchising business, focusing on creating jobs and delivering information at affordable costs, by setting up a One Roof branded computer center. They are currently expanding in Tamil Nadu, India.
Microsoft Unlimited Potential Group, a recently formed group within the tech giant seems to have an interesting mission, creating sustained social and economic opportunity for the next 5 billion people

Little more than shopping malls

2007-11-19T01:05:00.000+05:30

The weekend edition of the Wall Street Journal has a front page on piece on three young men in India having a chance to escape out of Poverty by finding jobs in a mall in Mumbai. All three of them work in Pantaloons in Phoenix Mills - an old textile mill in central Mumbai redeveloped into a sprawling mall.

All three men are keen on being able to have enough money to be more like the 'middle-class' customers they serve in the store. There is a strong aspirational value here, which affects decisions made by the poor. For instance, one of the men in the story recently purchased a laptop! Imagine walking into a urban squatter in Mumbai - open drainages, unattended garbage, no water supply and even electricity - and you walk into one of the houses, and you find a guy sitting on his laptop. Am I the only one who thinks there is something not quite right about this picture.

I guess we need a little more than shopping malls to help us!

Funding Education through Lotteries

2007-10-08T22:54:00.000+05:30

I was in a discussion with my close friend Sara, when I was in India this summer. Sara is an extremely smart, witty and insightful guy who I love having conversations with. He was mentioning how the problem with public services in India(like education and infrastructure) is not just delivery, but also the lack of funding.

I’m taking a class with Prof. Paul Smoke which is titled Public Finance in Developing Countries. Over the course of my master's program, my focus last year has primarily been understanding the need for public services (focusing on market failure), closer examination of these services (like healthcare, education, economic development) and understanding the institutions involved in design and delivery (which in most cases is the state).

Now I feel I’m gaining a deeper understanding of issues like funding these services (and the role of public finance), design and implementation as well as evaluation of public programs. In some sense, this gives me a holistic feeling about my Public Administration degree, which (like an MBA) creates generalists.

Coming back to public finance, I was watching a recent NY Times video on using lotteries to fund public education in the state of North Carolina. Most of our discussion so far in the above mentioned class has focused on decentralization of fiscal responsibilities, in both the revenue and expenditure dimensions. In a fairly decentralized structure like the US, the states are primarily responsible for funding public education. On the revenue side, the biggest source of income for states tends to be usually property taxes. For instance, I was talking to my friend Vincent yesterday, who is from New Hampshire, which is also struggling with the problem of lack of funds for education. In such an instance, having federal control of revenues can lead to redistribution, where underfunded states can receive help from wealthier ones. This can also happen at the state level, where the state can be a redistribute resources to poorer counties (or districts).

I have very little clue on what are the fiscal structures in India. I’m eager to learn more and may be will write a paper for class, focusing on India. I also believe school funding is an dimension that is far less explored in India as compared to institutional problems with administration, teachers etc. It takes US $ 21 million to build a primary school for 600 hundred children in North Carolina! By the way, don’t even get me started on privatization of primary education.

Reproductive Value-chain

2007-09-24T21:52:00.000+05:30

I can give lame excuses to myself for not posting on this blog, like for instance, my laptop needing AC power (my battery was unusable). I threw the damn thing away and got a new one, which keeps me running, even in a remote corner in the Washington Square Park, for as long as five hours!

As I pretend to sit here and do work, what I actually do is to gape, sometimes with my mouth wide open. So was the case this morning, when I noticed a couple of professional nannies sitting next to me. I could not make out much of their discussion since it was in super-fast Spanish. My gaping led to reflecting, and got me thinking about a story on Onion about outsourcing childcare to India. The US couple in the story boxed their children up and shipped them over to India. For those who think Onion is a vegetable (or is it a fruit), it’s more like a fake news source.

Report: Many U.S. Parents Outsourcing Child Care Overseas

However, the real news I get from influential magazines like Marie Claire. A recent feature in the magazine highlights the new trend of outsourcing surrogate motherhood to India.

Customer service, tech support...these days we outsource everything to India. So why not pregnancy? Here is a report on the growing number of Indian women willing to carry an American child

Wow, looks like India could make a significant impact on the entire reproductive value chain. It’s no surprise, we have been the global experts in this industry for a while. I’m talking about the ‘making people’ industry.

You dont need it

2007-07-13T00:12:00.000+05:30

I had to find a place to hide since it started pouring. It doesn’t rain that frequently in Chennai, but hey, it’s the monsoon. So, I was standing at a Nattu Marundhu Kadai (a shop which sells traditional Indian medicines), and there was small bench outside, where I settled to enjoy the rain.

In the corner of the store, there was a old woman, huddled under a Umbrella (which seems to be more of a collection of patches), protecting her from the rain. She was selling Beetel leaves, and her merchandize was on a small shaky bench, and she was on the road. The rain was obviously not good, but she had no signs of leaving before getting her income for the day. I felt that one of the biggest failures of our time is our inability to provide old-age income security to millions of poor Indians, most of whom live in our streets selling everything from beetel leaves to bananas. Obviously, this was one of my intense ‘grassroots reflection’ experiences. But wait, I’m not a complete jerk.

So, I decided to buy some beetel leaves. I asked for beetel leaves worth Rs. 25. That was quite a bit, she almost gave me one-fourth of her merchandise. I obviously had no immediate need for beetel leaves. However, I thought, hey, this is not the only time in life I’m buying something which I don’t need.

So, the next time you are in Chennai, go to Purasaiwakam and to Tana Street. In the corner, you will find a old lady selling beetel leaves, most probably wearing a green saree. You cant miss her. Go up to her and offer to buy up her whole merchandise. It should not cost you more than Rs. 100. Of course, you don’t need beetel leaves worth hundred rupees. But you will probably get some good sleep that night, and I’m sure this is not the first time you would be buying something that you don’t need.

It is probably a mere coincidence someone anonymously left the following comment to my previous post:

What we think, or what we know,
or what we believe, in the end is of little consequence.
The only consequence is what we do.

Or may be its not a mere coincidence!

Collapse

2007-07-05T00:58:00.000+05:30

I recently had a chance to listen to and interact with Dr Craig Mello (This is where I met him), who won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2006, for his work on RNA interference, which is revolutionizing genetic biology and the scope for finding a cure for diseases like cancer.

However, Dr. Mello, during a Q&A session brought out an important point. He was questioning our belief in transplanting western models of development into poor countries around the world, which could prove to be disastrous. We may have to re-think development models, evolve local solutions, ideas which sound very familiar and close to home – the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. This was kindly reminded to us Gandhian scholar and graduate student at Oxford, Ian Desai.

To me, the current Indian development project, seems to be wonderful example of blindly transplanting western and models of development. It also feels very myopic.

The 1 lakh car, being developed by the Tata Motors, promises to put way more automobiles in Indian roads, than one could ever imagine. Cars and freeways are quintessentially American. However, Americans had the luxury of inhabiting a country twice the size of India, with hardly any people living there. Obviously, laying six lane freeways was quite an easy task. There are no worries of acquiring land from poor farmers (as is the recent case for the Nandi Infrastructure Corridor between Bangalore and Mysore, a classic example of transplanting western models). All I’m saying is that when you have a billion people, and three thousand years of history, unlike most other ‘developed’ countries and thus need to self-evolve models of development.

Gandhi, almost eighty years back probably had the foresight to see these problems and proposed self-contained communities. There is very little chance that the big-city model would work in India. If you don’t believe me, just try driving around Bangalore, Mumbai or Chennai. No amount of roads and freeways can support five-thousand odd families migrating to these cities in search of work, every day.

The answer I believe, lies in creating economic opportunities in small towns and rural communities. However, given our collective myopia as a society, favored by government policy and business strategy, I believe we are heading for a Collapse (which incidentally is the new book by Gared Diamond, strongly recommended by Dr. Mello)

Honestly, I wish I’m wrong. May be twenty years from now, I would live in a beautiful suburb near Bangalore, drive my convertible powered by hydrogen fuel cells, in gleaming six lane freeways, to the nearest Wal-Mart, and buy a carton of milk. Unfortunately there are a billion reasons this picture looks wrong to me.

Please Watch Your Back Dear Chief Minister

2007-05-29T19:18:00.000+05:30

I have in previous instances, clearly indicated my disillusionment with the competition between Indian states to build a Formula One track and bring the race to India.

I wrote an op-ed for the Politics of International Development class, which I took last semester, expanding the subject. Here it goes:

Please Watch Your Back Dear Chief Minister

Dear Chief Minister of Karnataka,

“Gowramma lives at a small village, located in the Muudebegal Taluk in Bijapur District in your state. Any agriculture in her village is dependent on seasonal rainfall and there are no irrigation facilities. The primary health center is never open. Her youngest daughter died a couple of months back of diarrhea. Her kids stopped going to school because the teachers are mostly not there and school building is expected to collapse soon. Her family hasn’t had three square meals in a long time. Oh yeah, her husband has a drinking problem and abuses her every night. She heard that your government is building a new Formula One track and she is really excited to see Michael Schumacher. Although she heard he is retiring soon”

The above story should not sound absurd to you, if you have been reading the news lately. Four major Indian states including yours and Maharashtra, Punjab, and Delhi have been competing for a Formula one track. It is expected that you need to invest US $ 100 million to host the race, and in return the you get back nothing. Yes you heard right, a big nice zero. I’m assuming you are already aware of these facts.

Of course, you probably believe the investment is justified, given that people like Gowramma, can enjoy the race, a source of quality entertainment to watch European drivers, in their billion dollar cars to go round and round in circles. Unfortunately, that seems rather improbable, given the tickets are not going to be afforded by Gowramma, when she is unable to buy simple diarrhea medication. You may of course ask, what about the trickledown effect. By hosting the Formula 1 event, surely more jobs will be created and significant boost in the local economy through tourists who come down to see the event (once a year!). Its surely a valid argument. For a moment, let us see what other things you can do with the 100 million dollars (this is not an effort to do a cost-benefit analysis, but just an effort to exert some common sense).

With 100 million dollars, we can create 4 new IITs, and 3 new AIIMS, or build one million new government primary schools, in the remotest areas within your state. Also with 100 million dollars, you can provide safe, sustainable drinking water for all families living in 6 of your biggest districts. You could even launch couple of satellites into space for communication and weather forecasting. Finally, with a 100 million dollars, you can distribute Formula ODS to virtually every family in this state (ODS stands for Oral Dehydration Salt, a simple medication to stop diarrhea among children) which could have prevented of the death of Gowramma’s daughter.

It is possible to understand your economic motivation, to build a Formula One track, given that you probably have a 100 million dollars lying around. Unfortunately, as you are aware, that’s not true either, all you are currently running on a significant budget deficit. Thus, you can be assured that you are making a conscious choice between building schools and building race tracks in spending in 100 million.

You may also argue the importance of improving sports within your state, which is essential for creating vibrant society. Again, that’s quite a valid point, except, we don’t really have a Formula One team, neither do we a have an Indian Formula One driver. Our only glimmer of hope, Narain Karthikeyan (who is not from your state) was booted out of the circuit last year.

What affects me the most is the glaring inequality, to which you are turning a blind eye. Imagine gleaming plastic world class roads in the race track as compared to bumpy roads constructed fifteen years back to the nearby village. How about tourists enjoying their Martini watching the race, when Gowramma cannot afford a simple diarrheal medication – clean water, sugar and some salt.

Growth is good for India, and the for the state of Karnataka. The past decade has seen phenomenal increases in income levels and living standards, especially in cities like Bangalore (where you live). However, I think you need to be more mindful of the state that head, a state where seventy percent of the population is still living in rural areas. And it would be great for you to compete with other states on improving literacy levels, providing safe drinking water, and eradicating diarrheal deaths, but not on building Formula One tracks.

You may not agree to any of my arguments above. However, I believe this last one should probably convince you. There are far more Gowramma’s in your state than Formula One fans. She and everyone like her around that state are really looking forward to the upcoming elections. So dear Chief Minister, you better watch your back.

Thank You

Santhosh Ramdoss

(Concerned citizen who votes from Ward No. 27 – Rajainagar Industrial Town)

The myth about private schools

2007-05-26T19:18:00.000+05:30

Two weeks back, the NYU Reynolds Program in Social Entrepreneurship hosted Dr. Paul Farmer. After his humorous and thoughtful speech, we had the opportunity to have lunch with Dr. Farmer at a very nice east village restaurant combined with an informal discussion. One of the issues that came up during discussion was role of private sector in providing basic services like health and education. Proponents of this approach argue that the poor are willing to pay for good quality services which they value (like educating their children). Dr. Farmer refused to accept this dominant view, and further stated that most people who put forth this argument have failed to understand the poor, and they themselves are not poor; India has a swelling middle class, and thus frequently emerges as a shining example in any discussion on private schools (as an alternative for public schools), the same is not true about Africa.

The very next day I boarded my flight to the country with a swelling middle class, scorching economy and the country where primary education can be bought for a price, if you are willing to pay for it. At my home in Bangalore, we employ a part time maid, Sujatha, and apart from paying her a monthly salary, my mother also supports her with educating her two kids. The older one is moving to fifth grade and the younger one is entering the first grade. The day after I heard Dr. Farmer speak, our maid came in with a circular from the private school where her children have been studying. Neither she or her husband could read the circular, given that it was written in (not so good) English. The circular stated that the school was increasing the fees by three times since they were moving on to a CBSE schooling system (administered by the Central Government) from the current system (administered by the State Government). Consequently, the annual fees now is Rs. 9000 (approx. US $ 250, excluding books, uniform etc), for her younger kid who is entering first grade. It was a challenge, even for me (a lucky kid educated in English all through my life) to decipher this information given the number of grammar and spelling errors in the circular. Turns out the school lost its permission from the State Government and thus decided to move to a Central Government administered system (which they also don’t have the permission for). This was uncovered after a quick visit to the school.

So we had to find alternatives for Sujatha’s children to continue their education. There were no public schools in the neighborhood, and she was clear she wanted to educate her children in English. We found another private school in the neighborhood with a precarious name – Madonna English School. I seemed little less convinced about Madonna, which also charges the same amount of money (around $ 250) for a year’s education.

It no surprise that the worst quality private schools are targeted at the poor. Typically, a poor uneducated parent who has high aspirations for their children, has limited information to evaluate school quality, both in-terms of inputs as well as outputs. Sujatha’s older son, who is entering the fifth grade, struggles with basic addition and can hardly read a sentence. In our hurry in endorsing private education, we are not only forcing the poor to make hard choices in spending their money, but also creating false aspirations about their children’s education.

Ignorance is Bliss

2007-03-30T21:36:00.000+05:30

This is the state from where Amartya Sen hails from. The governor of this state is the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi. This was also the state where 22 poor peasants and farmers, including women and children were killed in police firing.

The farmers were protesting the forced land acquisition by the state-government to build a special economic zone (SEZ) for the chemical industry. They did not want to sell their lands, and the CPM government (with a strong Marxist ideology!) was not willing to listen.

I listned to a talk on non-violence on Wednesday, by three prominent experts in the field. Of course, Gandhi came up in the discussion. I went back home and started reading a book by Anthropologist and Doctor, Paul Farmer, titled Pathologies of Power. Farmer talks about structural violence against the poor, and also talks about how governments and people in power suppress ‘rebels’, who are usually people demanding their social and economic rights. Just like the poor in Nandigram. And yes, Amartya Sen wrote the foreword to this book. We discussed it in my class, on Thursday.

On Friday, I watched this video.

I feel my graduate program is too practical. I really don’t want it to be this realistic. I really believe Ignorance is Bliss.

Aspiring Rag-Pickers

2007-03-14T04:43:00.001+05:30

I always believed that the workforce that added maximum social value in India are the rag-pickers. These group of individuals sort through garbage in cities and towns across the country, sort out the non-decomposable waste which consists of plastic, metal and everything else thats not biodegradable. One might argue that there is a economic motive, to make a living, by selling these non-decomposable material to a trader and make a living (if they can manage to make a 'living' wage). Given the unemployment rates and availability of abundant labor, the rag-picking industry has flourished in our country.

What we commonly ignore is the social and environmental value created by these individuals. Its probably one profession, where they are not just carbon neutral, but probably carbon negative (click here to read more about these emerging terms). Its the only group of people in our country I can imagine to be carbon neutral. With the lack of an efficient recycling mechanism in most cities, they essentially play the most important role in ensuring that out landfills are not hyper-polluted with toxic plastics and metal.

As I was sitting in a park bench this evening, behind a line of neatly covered garbage bins (could have been mistaken for R2D2 from Star Wars), I saw a two guys walking up to these bins, opening the cover and looking for something. Given that I have never seen rag-pickers in the US, and these guys did not fit the bill in terms of looks, I was obviously puzzled. One guy found a coke can, picked it up and put it in a cover they were carrying, filled with similar plastic and metals cans.

I could think of three plausible reasons why someone here in New York would do that:

Economic incentive. These guys were the US version of rag-pickers. Instead of depending on middle-men, most metal and plastic bottles carry a 5 cent deposit which can be claimed in redeeming the empty bottle. I would guess that for these guys, the economic incentive is negligible. They would make more money working in a restaurant
Helping a poor person. It could be argued that they were trying to help a poor person by collecting these bottles. Again, its easier to hand out a dollar to a poor person than collecting these bottles
Offsetting their carbon emissions. With all the talk about global warming, its not common to see people trying their best to become carbon neutral. You might be completely dependent on public transport, and never use lights during the night, but in the US, you still need heating to sleep. I see an emerging consumer market for selling individualized carbon credits. The market is big not just for companies, but even for these guys, spending their evenings sorting through garbage cans in the parks.

I see a huge market, by linking the rag-pickers in India (monetize the environmental value by converting them to carbon credits) and sell in to 'wanna be' rag-pickers in US and Europe, so that they can spend their evening peacefully drinking a beer (sorry no cans allowed!)

Poor People Photo Set

2007-02-25T04:20:00.001+05:30

For my Politics of International Development class, we write a group blog here. Below is my recent post:

I was quite intrigued by David Bromley's piece that was part of the readings couple of weeks back, which was followed by the discussion in class. Bromley believes that its time we shift our attention away from the poor as “objects and subjects”.

I had read a little while back, how a very smart non-profit in Delhi, offers tourists a tour of the worst living conditions that street children face in the city. In one's trip to India, the itinerary now includes Agra, Goa, a trip down south to Kerala and finally trip to the slums of Delhi. Although, it sounds dehumanizing, to make the suffering of these children a 'tourist attraction', I saw a strange connection to Bromley's ideas.

There could be reasons why we are eager to study the poor, just like the tourists pay money to see the suffering. I'm guessing the below motivations should be true to both scholars and tourists, given that by the end of the day all of us are human:

Studying the poor enables us to appreciate what we have in our lives. Once these tourists get onto their flights back home, after exploring the painful condition, they can better appreciate their SUVs and the large-screen TVs. It may even help them find some meaning in their lives

It enables them to sympathize. In many cases sympathy is mistaken for action. Thus, exploring the world of homeless kids in Delhi, taking a few pictures and handing out some candies may make them believe that they have done some good

It enables us to create artifacts of suffering through pictures and videos. Can you ever imagine a international development site without the pictures of poor, homeless children, usually malnourished and shirtless. This also holds true for presentations, journals, books and funding proposals. Let’s say for a moment, we take Bromley’s advice quite seriously and focus our efforts on studying the elites and the institutions they create, which eventually leads to poverty. That would imply that we would have to replace the pictures of the poor with the boardroom of Goldman Sachs and the poor country elites, with their bungalows and expensive cars.

Thus, Bromley’s piece also started me thinking about motivations. Do we, the people in the development community have a fetish with studying the poor? How are we any different from the tourists with their cameras?

The good economics behind pirated books

2007-02-04T01:10:00.001+05:30

I recently read from Ashutosh's blog that how he bought a not-so original copy of Freakanomics from India (for Rs. 40, list price ~Rs.500) and got it autographed by the author Mr. Levitt himself. He also argues how these books (published originally) in the US are quite overpriced for any normal Indian reader.

I agree, and problem is that there is no economics behind pricing of US published books in India. Most sellers (so called legal), fix the Indian price of US published books by multiplying the US$ price with the exchange rate. This does not take into account Purchasing Power Parity (PPP).

The only exception is when they publish Indian version of the book. The other notable exception is the Economist magazine, which ensures that its price, across countries is adjusted for PPP.
While the Economist is sold at 6$ in the US, in India it costs only Rs.100. We can assume that Economist knows what its doing (well, they came up with the Big Mac Index). So, using their prices a rough index can be calculated:

= 100/(6*44) = 0.37

In other words, ideally, taking into account PPP, Freakanomics should be priced at (0.37) *(US$ price)*(the INR exchange rate)

= 0.37*9.00*44 = Rs. 146

(9$ is the lowest price I found on Amazon for a new paperback)

Ashutosh must have done some haggling to reduce the price, before bringing it down to Rs.40. Of course, It does not take into account the margins for the publisher and the author. My argument is that even if those are taken into account, the book should be priced at Rs.146 and not Rs. 500. Obviously, the market participants ensure that such demand supply discrepancies are exploited for profits (obviously there are far more buyers at Rs.146 than at Rs.500).

Actually, it will be great if the book publishers and retailers dont realize this, and keep the prices high. Imagine the number of livelihoods created by people selling books in platforms across the country.

So, Mr Levitt of all the people should not be concerned about fake. Its simple economics and even a little bit of Freakanomics.

Hello Mister, you have to be a little more careful

2007-02-03T22:48:00.000+05:30

The little that I understand of the culture in the United States, I have realized that race and ethnicity are contentious issues. While most conversations are exempt from discussions about race, I feel an underlying sense of discomfort for all the external silence that prevails. Also, as a newcomer, its hard for me not to notice the physical disintegration and the divide.

For Instance, I was taking my normal train ride this Saturday morning, from Journal Square (in Jersey City) to the NYU campus in New York City. Journal Square is the last stop in the train network and also traditionally has been one of the most underdeveloped areas (probably next only to Newark). Thus, Journal Square is also home to a large immigrant population. So, as the train starts its journey, the occupants are extremely diverse. I could hear in the background many dialects, whether its Spanish, Russian, an African language (sorry about my ignorance), some Hindi and mostly a lot of broken English. I wanted to create a quantitative measure that can help you the reader understand the ethnic composition of that train compartment. I came up with something called the Cumulative Weighted Skin Color Index (CWSCI).

This is how I would calculate CWSCI:

(Skin color Value)*(No. of Individuals with that Skin Color Value in the Compartment)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Total Individuals in the compartment)

Skin Color Value is a number between 0 and 1, based on the shade, where 0.01 corresponds to Black and 0.99 corresponds to White (Please note that I'm not implying that one color is better than other, however, its just a simple mathematical measure).

So, at Journal Square my guess is that the CWSCI would be approximately 0.3 (again this is a intuitive measure, I have not yet devised a means to create a randomized study). As the train heads to Groove Street, CWSCI should increase to 0.4 and then to Newport, it should hit 0.5. I believe that the Index starts to show great increases as the train halts at Hoboken (the last stop before entering New York). As I observed at Hoboken today, most individuals who entered the train had a Skin Color value of 0.9 and above. Thus, the overall CWSCI reaches 0.75, due to the surge of White people (not only does the train become more noisier, a strong American and sparsely European accent takes dominance. Conversations mostly range from "Oh, I wore my number 2 jacket yesterday, when I should have worn my number 3" to "Did you watch the game last night". I realized most of my previous neighbors when I got on the train at Journal Square had probably only one Jacket and did much make much of the sports in America).

Thus, my thesis is that the index would go from 0.3 at Journal Square to 0.75 at Hoboken. An even more glaring example of such distinctions can be seen in a public ice skating rink, which I found out during my trip to Bryant Park at 42nd Street. Let’s assume for the sake of simplicity, that the skating rink is circular. Let us divide the Skating rink in to two co-centric circles (circles which share the same center). My guess is that CWSCI for the outermost circle would be less than 0.3 . The reason being most immigrants have obviously never been on the ice before (like me) and cannot imagine letting go of the railings. In comparison, as we move closer to center the CWSCI should increase drastically, getting closer and closer to one.

The skating rink is also an excellent example of the microcosm of US culture. There are people in the periphery trying to make their way to the mainstream both economically and socially. As I was cursing myself for trying this insane activity of ice-skating, I slipped and fell (although I was holding on to the railing). A little girl comes around extending her tiny little hand to me and says "Hello Mister, you have to be a little more careful"! That’s when I realized, what attracts so many people to this country, immaterial of whether you are a 0.01 or 0.99, you always have a chance to make it to the mainstream and eventually to the center of the skating rink.

Perfumes for the poor should save the world

2007-01-25T11:23:00.001+05:30

Chanel Develops Durable, Low-Cost Perfume For Third World

"Smelling positively bewitching should be the right of everyone, not

just a privileged few," said Chanel CEO Maureen Chiquet at the gala

launch for the new scent, Chanel 3rd, in Paris' Centre Georges Pompidou

Monday. "It is our hope and belief that this new fragrance will bring

much-needed panache to the Third World."

Read more from the Onion spoof

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/chanel_develops_durable_low_cost

If you think the idea is outrageous, then you would be surprised to know that one of C K Prahalad's case-studies in his book was Unilever selling face-creams in India. Hey, when they can do face creams, then why not perfumes?

Big Black Bold

2007-01-11T20:24:00.001+05:30

I was riding a Washington DC Metro train to work this morning. It is a train heading to downtown DC. At Clarendon, couple of stops before I get off, a lady entered the train. She was holding a fairly big white board in her hand. From the side I was looking, it was plain white.

She looked extremely sorrowful, immersed in her own thoughts. It was quite obvious that she was in grief. I wasn't sure why?

As I was getting off, I got a glimpse of what was on the other side of the board.

It was printed in big black bold letters, "No Escalation in Iraq"

Do you think I'm foolish?

2006-12-31T23:36:00.001+05:30

Little do we realize that development is a difficult paradigm. There are no straight-forward answers. You cannot adopt a business-like textbook approach to development.

I read a recent piece by P. Sainath, in the Hindu, about giving cows to poor farmers in the Vidharba region. These cows each costing Rs 17,500 are provided at a subsidized price. The high-yielding cows unfortunately eat a lot, sometimes feeding it for a day costs as much as Rs. 200. While the milk it provides, brings in an income of just Rs. 50 a day.

"I'm a poor farmer. I cant even make my living and my friends are busy killing themselves. I think about it sometimes. And then one day this government official/consultant comes in and says he has the solution. Then comes the cow, which eats more than my whole family and doesn't even bring me a decent income to break-even, leave alone profits. Do you think I'm foolish?"

Well, sorry poor guy, thats exactly what we think.

What works?

2006-12-23T07:40:00.001+05:30

I just completed my first semester, an interesting academic journey. I was prompted to look back and examine what I have learnt and to evaluate if this has been a valuable enough experience. As usual, I was prompted to articulate my thoughts in my final memo to Prof. Paul Light :

To: Prof. Paul Light
From: Santhosh Ramdoss
Sub: What Works

As I have reached almost the end of my first semester at Wagner, I have begun reflecting on the lessons I have learned. The experience has been rich and has offered me numerous interesting perspectives and skills. But, I have also realized that there are not straight-forward answers to problems. I guess I was wrong in seeking one perfect answer, to solve the world's problems and hoping that my graduate school experience would provide it to me......

.....So, I have realized that in this complex world, it is increasingly difficult to determine What Works? May be that's one of the reasons why I have avoided giving straight answers in the memos I have written to you, and instead taken the philosophical route. I don't really know what works. But I do know that that our intentions, motivations and passion matter the most and as we go on, trying and figure out these problems. I guess it's the difference between human beings and being human.

I also would like to thank you for offering this really enriching class. Listening to you, participating in the class, writing the memos has offered me chance to reflect, learn and think above and beyond a normal academic experience. Thanks!

F1 is Hot

2006-11-20T05:12:00.000+05:30

Thanks Vipul for that great poem, in response to my previous post on Parmareshwari and Formula 1. I thought it would be nicer to share it with the wider audience.

The stark reality
Of riches and poverty
I wonder if it ever go away?
It wont am assured each day

Its simple,as long as I think of only me
I will assure the poor live in poverty

Oh yes trickle down and multiplier
I don't know when i will see the lower getting higher
Hope they say is all we got
F*ck all else , Formula 1 is hot

Michael Schumacher

2006-11-13T02:53:00.000+05:30

My name is Parameshwari. It’s a barren village, where I live. Any agriculture is dependent on seasonal rainfall and there are no irrigation facilities. The primary health center is never open. My youngest daughter died a couple of months back of diarrhea. My kids stopped going to school because the teachers are mostly not there and school building is expected to collapse soon. My family hasn’t had three square meals in a long time. Oh yeah, my husband is drunk bastard who beats me up every night.

Couple of miles from my home, there are building a new Formula One track. I’m really excited to see Michael Schumacher. Although I heard he is retiring soon.

Here is the news:

Karanataka enters the F1 race

All the five investors Punjab/Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, being the others are aware of the basic investment needs, including $80-100 million for the Formula One infrastructure and 600-650 acres of land that will house the circuit, hotels and the multi-utility complex. However, with television rights going to F1 Management, there is not much to be earned from hosting the race.

Hey, Parameshwari can enjoy the race!

Credit Worthy

2006-11-13T00:41:00.000+05:30

It was a rather hot summer day in Salem. I was sitting in front of a manager in the main branch office of the Indian Bank. He was a typical public servant with a non-committed kind of a body language.

I had a spiral bound Areca leaf cup plate manufacturing unit project report in my hand. Velmurugan was sitting next to me. We needed 80,000 rupees as a loan to start the unit.

I explained him the fundamentals of the project, and how we could break-even within a year. I was all in the report. He was hesitating to open it.

“Do you have any collateral?”, he was pointing the question to Velmurugan.

“You see, we don’t want to give any loans to people in Samudram village. They have taken loans before and almost all of them have defaulted. They are not credit-worthy”

Velmurugan is from Samudram, which is where we were hoping to set up the unit.

We walked out of the bank. The meeting lasted ten minutes.

Its almost been a year and half since then. We funded Velmururgan from the prize money from winning the Imagine Cup. The unit is up and running.

I was in the train this morning reading ‘The price of a Dream – The Story of Grameen Bank’. The default rate among the borrowers of Grameen Bank is one percent. It is also true for many other microcredit organizations, through out the world, including rural Tamil Nadu.

P.S. I’m really looking forward to a panel discussion tomorrow with David Bornstein, the author of the book and other Reynolds Fellowship recipients on the topic of microcredit.

Being Human

2006-11-08T00:51:00.000+05:30

I take a class this semester with Prof. Paul Light, which deals with the emerging trends in the non-profit sector, including Social Entrepreneurship and Social enterprises. Part of the class, involves us writing a weekly memo, on a assigned topic by Prof. Light. The topic a couple of weeks back was 'What is Social Entrepreneurship' ?

I took the liberty of writing him a poem. I titled it 'Being Human' .

Prof. Light,

People say this is an important time in history,
Were they saying the same a hundred years ago? It’s a mystery,
The world is changing; it is different than what it was a little while ago,
Its true nobody likes to maintain status quo.

What has this got to do with Social Entrepreneurship you may ask?
In a changing world the reality is stark,
While human progress has touched the lives of a lucky few,
For the majority of the rest, a bright future is necessarily untrue.

While the governments don’t care and businesses are choosey,
Non-profits do intervene, but sometimes they are very lazy,
We can sit back and say, hey, let it be,
There are a few who imagine a better world they want to see.

It’s been around for years, the concept is not new,
But, the problems are many, the solutions too few,
‘It’s a cartel of good intentions’, but with an open membership,
Someone just ended up calling it Social Entrepreneurship.

The topic has been the hardest to define,
I wonder why, with so many people on the line,
May be because Social Entrepreneurship is very common,
If we look deep inside, we will realize it’s just being human!

- Santhosh Ramdoss
(With crazy intentions of one day becoming a poet)