Education System - Today

I have been always thinking that the education system needs a major change. Recently, I came across a video animated by RSA Animation, a talk given Sir Ken Robinson on (posted here http://bit.ly/gRi2pP). The similarity of the present education system to Industrial manufacture (batches graded in terms of years [of manufacture]), the absence of emphasis on creativity and the systematic removal of divergent thinking is definitely counter-productive to humanity. While we spend a vast portion of time dedicated to education, the entire process would be wastage unless we correct it. The best way to start improving the system is to first understand it.

Watch this video - the animation makes it easier to stay with the talk.

Sachin Tendulkar, the Bharat Ratna or What?

As Cricketing nations celebrated in fervor, the grand finale of the ultimate championship in cricket, the ICC Cricket World Cup, in this year 2011 - fans had already started backing 'Sachin Tendulkar' for a Bharat Ratna.

The "Bharat Ratna," in India is given for exceptional contribution in the fields of art, literature, science and social service. The criteria does not have any mention of sports.

Considering the prior recipients of the Bharat Ratna are either involved in politics in the interests of the people or are exceptional in a form of art. Cricket, insofar is not defined as a form of art either.

The real question is whether a Sports Person should be bestowed the "Bharat Ratna". The tradition of the gems of India predate our colonial history. Not even in those ancient courts adorned by the Ratnas - was a seat reserved for a sportsman.

To get through the red tape, someone from the sports ministry will have to present a proposal to include sports  among the criteria for selecting candidates for awarding a Bharat Ratna. This proposal will have to accepted by the union cabinet. After this, a debate on which sport first, recollecting great names in sports, in much earlier times will definitely ensue.

So we are presented with a new problem; we seek new solutions. For incomparable commitment to a game, taking the game beyond its limits with performances that kept on eclipsing prior performances, an award that salutes the genius of the Cricketer that Sachin Tendulkar is, must be instituted and given to honor him, for he has already honored the sport, his team and his country. Looking at a Sports Award that indeed does some of what we've listed, the Laureus which has already been awarded to Rafael Nadal. All winners of this award seem to be European.

To recognize the likes of Bradman, Sachin Tendulkar, a new cricketing award can be instituted. It is most important that the award recognizes the team commitment and honors the person beyond borders. His achievements are jewels to his home nation and his team, never lesser. As a core cricketing nation in the world, we could institute an award that lauds exceptional achievement in Cricket. Should the award be given when the player announces retirement or prior should be decided. Sachin deserves a new award, one that will define cricketers and sportsmen of the future! At what better time can the ICC institute such an award?

FTA: EU & India -- Medical Impact

India is on top in manufacturing and delivering generic pharmaceutical drugs. India is also the world's largest democracy and the second most populous nation. The first HIV/AIDS case was reported in India in 1986. By 2007, over 23 lakh people are reportedly suffering from HIV/AIDS. Treatment of HIV/AIDS cases in India would be unaffordable if generic drugs were not available. Only 10% of these cases are provided "free" treatment by the government. This is possible only because of the availability of generic drugs.

The "Free Trade Agreement" (FTA) between the European Union (EU) and India has been pushed rather discreetly by the Prime Minister's Office.  Intellectual Property Rights on pharmaceutical drug manufacture has been interpreted correctly in India. This has given freedom to the pharmaceutical industry to manufacture medicines with innovative processes, while delivering them at affordable costs to the public. The situation insofar has favoured the citizens.

Patenting a mathematical formula is impossible. In simplistic comparison, patenting a discovery is also not possible. The discovery of Penicillin (the antibiotic) by Alexander Fleming and the X-Ray by Röntgen are attributed to be accidental. Knowing that discoveries cannot be patented, we could safely assume that neither Penicillin nor the X-Ray can be patented. A method or process or machinery to produce them can be patented, but the X-Ray itself or Penicillin (the molecule) itself cannot be patented. Our understanding so far is correct. Industrial production of Penicillin during World War II was critical. Rightly so, techniques for production of Penicillin were patented.

The advent of industrial biotechnology and nanotechnology would provide us with new methods to create substances that we have discovered. Pharmaceutical companies spend huge budgets in research. This research ultimately leads to the creation of new drugs that benefit people. The Pharmaceutical companies hope to recover the money invested in research when they sell drugs. However this slows down their ability to fund themselves. By licensing the manufacturing method they could enable multiple entities to manufacture and distribute a drug in return for a licensing clause-of-multiples. The volume of drugs produced could increase and therefore benefit both the company and the people. So Intellectual Property Rights on the whole seems good.

Now, if a company patented one method to manufacture a pharmaceutical drug and forced everyone to use only that method to manufacture a drug while imposing their Intellectual Property rights, they would (in an evil way) make more money. They would also stifle innovation, thereby preventing people from affording medicines that could save lives. This issue is certainly not new. Jonas Salk, during his famous televised interview with Edward Munrow quipped, "Would you patent the sun?"

Complying with a Free Trade Agreement with the European Union to permit a single manufacturing process to take over will inflate the prices of drugs, make generic drugs unavailable to the truly needy and ultimately hurt society. A "Free Trade Agreement" must facilitate trade and be mutually helpful to all people involved. Concerns on this FTA have been voiced several times last year.

They haven't reached the ears of the policy-makers though, until NGOs made a public demonstration to bring this to light. Let their concerns be heard and answered. While trade needs to be liberal, no policy should ill serve the people, and definitely not scourge those who are suffering from HIV. If we want to help those suffering from HIV let us not burden them, not by blindly signing policy in the name of development. We need to actively research and find ways to cure them. Such research and cure are truly not stifled in the absence of this FTA.

Bulldozing the Green Drive (Thanjavur)

"Going Green" has been a mantra, India seems to echo in every trend. The people of Bangalore want the Garden City back. The Government recently banned the use of plastic sachets for tobacco. Environmental initiatives have been aplenty. The impression that civic sense was returning, echoed through.  We have a cabinet minister, acting as an environmental crusader, Jairam Ramesh.

Living in Thanjavur, with 'The Big Temple', as a tourist attraction and UNESCO World Heritage site, I have been witness to the creation of new infrastructure. The National Highway links, have finally been made four-lane and bypass the city actually. Within the municipality, though, the roads next to my home have, for quite some time not been built (just after a starting a rain-water harvesting drive, and a proper sewer system that hadn't already been planned.)

The Green is gone!

Driving through the G. A. Canal road [google maps, satellite], a portion which had been made green and maintained earlier as an initiative of people with good civic sense; I saw all the greenery gone! Fences preventing people from misusing the canal as an open-air toilet, a garden that stood bordering the canal had been pulled out. This was no urbanisation, uprooting trees, but rather a misinformed and misdirected initiative. The greenery bordering the  road had all just disappeared! I had no idea, what strangeness chanced upon this place leaving it barren, devoid of all greenery.

I learnt later, that this was some urban development drive. "Some urban development drive," indeed. Is our sense of development so obscure and misdirected? Are people supposed to resume using this as an open-air toilet? (Shamefully, that was the case, at least two decades back.) On later enquiry, I learnt that the banks of the canal were being maintained as a garden by citizens of Thanjavur.

Once Green

A Saint once said, "It is impossible for us to sense God; for as human beings, we sense what is, and suddenly is not - like 'light' and 'darkness' (the lack of it); How can we know God, when he always is." That is wisdom indeed.

We ignore nature, and fail to notice initiatives that make our world a better place. It was quite difficult to find a photograph of the same, before this happened. As luck had it, I managed to find quite a few. The road, happens to be frequented by tourists as it is home to a hotel, and is geographically, quite close to the 'The Brahadeeshwarar Temple', our World Heritage Site (map).

Stranger, was the fact, that press had most ignored any mention of it whatsoever. Not a word had been published on any of the local dailies. "Free Speech" and "Expression" for the citizen, it seemed were blissfully forgotten.

The "Bulldozing the Green" drive

I inquired further, and found photographs taken when they had bulldozed through all this. They had done this on the 24th of January, 2011, just a day before the world's eyes trained on Egypt. I had driven past at least a dozen times, and had failed to notice all the greenery and the neatness with which it was maintained.

If they were planning an initiative to make the town greener, this definitely wasn't what I was expecting. Upon further search, I found that such urban "green demolition" (mumbai) was not uncommon.

To the outside world, Thanjavur is supposed to be the "rice bowl" of South India. Bangalore was the "Garden City". What is the legacy, that we can leave to the children of the future: Cars, Mobile Phone towers, Technology, Patents or the protection of nature?

The Patriot's Paradox

I had to wait a while ( just 3000 seconds . I love waits (they're wondrous, sometimes they get me wild enough to leave immediately and save my day) before the Guest turned up. The welcome programme began with the right rhythm - welcoming, keynote, honouring (the Chief Guest.) The next item was "Chief Guest's Address," given the absence of a schedule, my narrative should do insofar. The event started just an hour late. Punctuality is to be suffered by the few who choose it.

The Chief Guest took to the lectern, and opened out what seemed to a long written speech. He is a Software Developer whose entire career has been between a Large Township supporting a Factory and Academic updates at a Regional Educational Institution. Until then, he had not spoken a word, and we looked at him with reverence.

The floodgates of callous, anachronic, disconnected sentences poured open the most obnoxious speech, I have ever heard of my Nation. "India is a nation that has always been and continues to be slaves. We have been and ever will be slaves to technology, except for the happenings of the past 3 decades where some hope has dawned." he began, shocking though as it was. This was the moment, the idiom "empty vessels make more noise," had waited for. He went on, "Alexander, the Great (Alexandros Megasthenos) defeated an Indian warlord Purushottam because they had superior technological advantage in cavalry. Purushottam (or Porus,) was defeated by the supreme army because he had slow moving elephants, while Alexander's cavalry were swift and made quick work of Porus' defeat." According to the Chief Guest, this was a great historical example of how Indian technology has never developed and bowed down to western greatness.

Insulting the people who lived in that time (c. 326 BC) and attributing a reason out of nowhere, while giving the keynote address of a Scientific Paper Presentation discourse. He seems to have forgotten that Elephant formations used cavalry for protection. Agile archers wearing no armour using the thick forest covers easily ambushed him. Given the genius of Alexander the Great, he defeated Porus with fair strategy. For a strange reason, he let him live, and also let Seleucus Nicator venture South Westward to establish the later Seleucid empire. Alexander's battle troops were too tired to be trained for better tactics to face interior India. The Kingdom of Porus is within the territory of present day Afghanistan. Accounts cite that Porus, grieved at the loss of his son, surrendered but refused to accept Alexander as his Emperor. Alexander's teacher Aristotle once quipped, "The east has a way of swallowing its enemies." The visit proved that to be true.

Did he know that the Greeks rode all the way down across Persia, with a cavalry, riding bareback on horses that did not have a saddle? Did he know that the Indian cavalry of Porus had saddles, and armory for the horse?

More words, now came, in torrents with confidence on a subject with minimalist knowledge.
"Babur invaded India somewhere in 500 AD, or something. He had superior artillery power which gave him full advantage and some other King in India, who had not invested time nor effort to build technology. That is why we (Indians) are slaves to technology."

This was Babur's special mention in historical annals. A force of 10,000 defeated Ibrahim Lodi's stronger force of 110,000 (arithmetically equivalent to 1 averaging 110 kills.) Ibrahim Lodi, despite strategic advantage lost. Wait, where and how did Lodi come from? At least at that time, Lodi wasn't considered a native Indian, but a descendant of recent migrants. The battle also took place in 1526 AD (a frequent one in 'are you smarter than a fifth grader?' [India]) We have forgotten that this is one migrant attempting to thwart another.

Emperor Ashok became King in 274 BC and held what is probably the largest Indian empire for another 8 centuries. Let's ignore him, his technology, the Arthashastra. Politics is misunderstood as history. It is also recorded that Ashok was one of the earliest monarchs to have passed an edict that outlawed slavery. Most battles are won or lost the moment planning is done, execution at every level has its surprises, but the political gameplay controls (almost) everything. India had advances in politics and diplomacy at that time.

He continues to drum on, while I reined in my eagerness to chip in. He then went on to say, "SAP started in 1973, with founders who had left IBM. They believed in a new model, but held their resolve for two decades, only to reap one of the largest market rates in 1993. We, Indians are not resilient, and therefore do not achieve."

SAP, as a company has a history, quite unlike the garage startups which originated from the Silicon Valley. Was SAP too slow to deploy? Did they find too early a solution? In today's market no one can be resilient? If they had started two decades later, we wouldn't be referring t them here.

Are Indians Resilient? Historically, we have always shown great resolve. All cultures who invaded us, we have assimilated. India: "Resistance is futile, you will be assimilated." The ancient lifestyle is recorded in many books including the Arthashastra for a period 300 BC. After 12th Century AD, we have several documented examples to refer to and show our resilience. Indian software developers tend to develop a culture of sticking to a mother ship, rather than hitch hiking the galaxy on space trawlers. Yet, we are not slow, we are big, huge, larger than imagination might yield.

He tried his hand at humour, but that comedy is subject for another post.

He continued, "We Indians are still having the slave mentality. All the global companies I had worked with used to state that we are a nation of snake charmers. We do not want to start our own companies or build our own Intellectual property [snip] Indian Infotech professionals create IP and sell it cheap to big clients who make millions, if not trillions of dollars We are not patenting or creating new ideas and intellectual property. We must start creating at least now and not continue to slave and make products for big companies elsewhere in the globe."

Interestingly, he seems to forget that IP is not only created and monetized in India, but is protected by networks of law firms for the geographic region. Vinod Dham or Sabeer Bhatia probably aren't counted as Indians. All the technocrats who originated from here, what happens to them. India now has a TIE chapter (pun intended), several meets where VCs and Investors meet Sponsors. Entrepeneurship, IP creation, Originality, it's all here. Brand "Bangalore" has been made. No longer is India a land of Snake Charmers.

Can inventing, creating be given enough focus in college curriculum or should curriculum be shortened to teach essentials, allowing inventions and creativity to follow through in extended apprenticeships? That is food for thought. If what we are creating is invisible to the eye and intangible, and yet, we continue reaping fruits of our labour, we are creating, competing and getting better. Who owns land or the intangible is always debatable under legal jurisdictions.

Note to self: Next time you go to a function, take the last seat. If you are disinterested, leave the hall pretending to take a photograph. Run for some sanity cover.