Natural Language

Have you ever wondered about the variety in languages spoken across the world? According to Wikipedia - In the philosophy of language, a natural language (or ordinary language) is any language which arises in an unpremeditated fashion as the result of the innate facility for language possessed by the human intellect. A natural language is typically used for communication, and may be spoken, signed, or written. Natural language is distinguished from constructed languages and formal languages such as computer-programming languages or the "languages" used in the study of formal logic, especially mathematical logic.

In Computer Science students study formal languages and automata theory where they study the classification of languages given by American linguist Noam Chomsky as Type 1 , 2 , 3 etc. If the students are to benefit and gain insight they should be exposed to international literature on the subject. An interested reader might like to read on the programming language classifications here.
Why is the study of natural language interesting? Although there are a variety of natural languages, any cognitively normal human infant is able to learn any natural language. By comparing the different natural languages, scholars hope to learn something about the nature of human intelligence and the innate biases and constraints that shape natural language, which are sometimes called universal grammar.
In a sense, written language should be distinguished from natural language. Until recently in the developed world, it was common for many people to be fluent in spoken and yet remain illiterate; this is still the case in poor countries today. Furthermore, natural language acquisition during childhood is largely spontaneous, while literacy must usually be intentionally acquired. What difference exists in the thought patterns of an illiterate from that of a literate person? It is an area of research that holds huge scope. Path breaking work has been done in understanding how human babies learn language skills. Brain activity is being monitored to find regions where language processing happens. You might have come across news clippings announcing that in the near future it would be possible to connect a wire to the human brain and send or receive information directly. It is not science fiction and is very much a possibility.

(Source: Wikipedia, Category: Curated Content)

Aadhaar Roundup

The Aadhaar-UID project has crossed several hurdles in the past few months. The second anniversary of Aadhaar project launch saw launching of the aadhaar linked payment services from Dudu, Rajasthan. The second phase of the project is under way and enrollments have restarted now(Sept,2012) after they were stopped since February,2012 when UIDAI decided to take a break and refresh their strategy. There are several issues with the project that are discussed in the media and here is my take on some of them. I have given links to articles that i am speaking about wherever possible.

Facebook Id as a National Identifier

President Barrack Obama addressed the Indian parliament joint session and one brief remark he made was with respect to the Aadhaar project. People would have easily thought of that as any other matter. It is interesting to know what Obama thinks of the Aadhaar project. He even visited an enrolment centre. Upon return to US and at some other occasion, the US govt has made it clear that it would not get into the business of identity. US conducts punishing checks at airports and has a biometric database of all visitors of foreign origin. Instead of conducting thorough checks at airports it might be cheaper to invest in finding out who that traveller is. This investment in knowing about air travellers might pay for itself with an insider’s view of a person’s locations, travel patterns and life. People of USA despise any such effort at tracking and are very sensitive of their privacy.

US govt. is going ahead in its program for National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace(NSTIC)(Read More..). There are noises from people to make facebook account of people an official identifier for identification purposes. This innovative idea has not been thought about in India. What would have been the result had it been mandated that every citizen create an account in an official website of the government and keep their updated demographic (profile) info before enrollment. How would the program have developed? I feel the power of social networking could have been utilized in creating a mega citizen centric portal designed by the best brains in the IT world.

What may not work in US might work in India

Railways are interested in knowing the identity of people it carries. Airlines too may one day ask for the aadhaar number of travellers it carries. It would simplify matters if airlines collect this bit of information as it would simplify many things associated with law such as accurate identification of air travellers, taking punitive action against smugglers or customs evaders etc. An interesting point I observed in foreign media is a mention that in India where sometimes people live something like five in a room, concepts of privacy are unkown(Read more..). Here people might agree to prove who they are by authenticating without any worries of being tracked.

Things could have been better

The Aadhaar rollout has suffered several avoidable pitfalls if only it was better managed. There are reports of inexistent or fake people availing of Aadhaar number such as in the name of coriander s/o pulav. Aadhaar letters have been returned due to non-existent addresses. This is the result of enrolling economically weaker sections. If Aadhaar was rolled out for the economically well to do at least this problem of non-existent addresses and fake names could have been avoided with stringent identity checks. What could have been done was simply to mandate all bank account holders to compulsorily enrol for Aadhaar numbers. This might have hit several birds with a single stone.

Recently there have been noises from civil society to rid the country of black money. If all bank accounts are linked with the unique Aadhaar number it would have solved the problem of benami accounts in a short span of time. Secondly these rich classes are less likely to be unruly while standing in queues and more likely to book their enrolment appointment in advance. They might also be less likely to give out untraceable addresses.

Since, 20-30% of the citizens have bank accounts and some of these people would also have PAN numbers then, linking PAN numbers with Aadhaar would immediately solve the problem of multiple PAN numbers with a person. Aadhaar scheme is suffering from lack of immediate and evident results. Atleast some of it could have been avoided if the scheme was rolled out among the rich first. This initial rollout could have been done with help exclusively from banks only.

Once this category of people were enrolled it would have made sense, to then strengthen the post office network of 1,20,000 branches by linking them with core banking along with 40,000 rural branches of scheduled banks, in reaching out to the remaining unbanked sections. Some solution for dispatch of aadhaar letters was needed. Postmen are scratching their heads over (Travelling Salesman problem) delivering letters when they arrive by the dozen each located quite a distance from others. We have to remember that the aadhaar project is essentially a banking related innovation.

Some have suggested that UIDAI could have focussed on one or a handful of districts and experimented with various approaches to provide benefits to citizens. The early lessons learnt from such a saturation of aadhaar applications would have helped in making better decisions such as whether to go for offline smart cards or online biometric authentication.

There is unnecessary clamour among the wealthy to enrol for aadhaar. This seems to be unnecessary as the scheme is meant for the poor and they should be the first ones to enrol. This situation has arisen partly because of incompetent bureaucrats who have announced that aadhaar project will have an end. Enrolling the poor appears to me to be the present strategy. It is obvious that the govt. has 2014 elections in mind when it is speeding up the aadhaar enrolment and cash transfer schemes.

Some of the beneficiaries in kotkasim of alwar district, Rajasthan it seems have not received the expected cash in their accounts. Among those who have received cash the complaint seems to be that payments are irregular. Among people who have tried withdrawing small amounts from bank branches the complaint is that they are ill-treated due to their backwardness and have to visit banks frequently to check if money has arrived in their accounts. Clearly Banking Correspondents are missing in this district.

During initial phases of implementation of the project it was decided not to issue a card. Now Finance minister has sanctioned budget for the RIC. If a card was supposed to be given then on completion of enrollment itself a card could have been issued, loaded with encrypted biometric information. Ofcourse the Unique Identification Number would be needed to be generated after De-Duplication. This number could have been written into the card at a later date. This would make the card immediately usable esp in banking applications like operating of a Micro-ATM, and there was no need of waiting for aadhaar number generation.

Enrolments

UIDAI should be given permission to enrol the entire population for demographic and biometric information. Once UIDAI completes the task the NPR should enrol citizens for only collecting the other fields that the UIDAI did not collect. Once the Local registry of Usual Residents (LRUR) is created and public debate initiated as to who all are citizens those among Aadhaar card holders who are found to be non citizens should be made ineligible to get government benefits. This process of tagging non citizens might be politically sensitive and might cause lot of conflicts.The UID-NPR Debate(Read more..)

Will the tap be turned fully on

With aadhaar project the govt can potentially ruin its finances in trying to provide more resources for the poor. If citizens get benefits more efficiently the govt. might instead of spending less and benefiting the same number of citizens might try and turn the tap fully and include more and more people in the benefit schemes. The govt. is eying the 2014 elections and observers are commenting that this scheme is not different from bribing the voters.(Read more..)

With aadhaar consumers can be protected

Recently consumer protection organizations have come out in support of the project. They see potential in tracking sales of medicines to consumers. This they feel gives the consumer a way to prove that such a sale had indeed been made (If the consumer has paid through card linked with aadhaar no). The primary purpose of aadhaar project has been to have better accountability in sales of items sold in ration shops. This accountability need not be limited to sales through fair price shops only and can be used to track transactions at any merchant establishment.(Read More..)

Who is the originator of the aadhaar project in the ministry of information technology?

According to the documents in the UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India) website (http://uidai.gov.in) aadhaar project was conceived in the ministry of IT sometime in Feb, 2006. Then in June, 2006 the proposal to create the UIDAI was put forward. Many think that Aadhaar project is an evolved form of MNIC project of the BJP but that project did not have any provision for collecting biometrics. There are no accounts of anyone championing the cause of collecting biometrics and generating a unique identification number. If no one came up with the idea (In the ministry of IT) then from where did it originate? There might even be a remote possibility of the project being conceived in some foreign country. The NATGRID chief recently went on a pilgrimage to the CIA head quarters. Nandan Nilekani too has strong links within the biometric industry in the US.

Iris too to be used for Auth

Iris based authentication will increase successful auth rate to 97% or higher but there might be problems such as easier theft of iris image. It is much easier to stealthily take iris images than collecting fingerprints. The recent mysore study shows that authentication accuracy can be as high as 99.2%. The pilot study after giving feedback to the biometric industry hopes to achieve an accuracy of 99.5% (Successful authentication percentage).(Read More..)

Hybrid Approach should be adopted

The home ministry under Mr. P. Chidambaram had taken a view that authentication under aadhaar should be through a card and offline. They believe the mobile network would not spread to remote villages.

A hybrid approach of offline and online authentication looks to be an ideal solution. The home ministry wishes to give every resident a Resident India Card with 64kb memory which can store fingerprint images of two fingers. It hopes to make use of this card with aadhaar number embedded in it to provide a host of welfare services similar to mykad cards in malaysia. If aadhaar auth migrates to iris recognition the RIC will be useless as it does not have provision for iris feature storage.

Obviate Auth

Authentication is not so much necessary in PDS or LPG distribution. What is important is to have an electronic record of a customer requirement. UIDAI seems to be working on a process of order taking for PDS where IVR is used to take customer requirements. Once an electronic record of a family’s requirement of goods is logged, authentication while purchasing goods seems to be unnecessary. All that is needed is to service the request and the FPS owner just has to mark the requirement as serviced.

There is a possibility of corruption here when an aadhaar holder orders goods over phone and colludes with the FPS owner to allocate the grains to him without paying anything and then gets the subsidy benefit into his account. The FPS owner now is free to sell the goods in the open market. FPS owner does not gain anything. A possibility where an aadhaar holder who has intimated his requirement over phone is denied grains and grains meant for him are then sold in open market and record updated that the requirement was serviced then the customer gets benefits in his account but not the grains. FPS owner does not gain anything here.

If in case subsidy is credited into account of FPS owners instead of customers account there are again two possibilities. A customer colludes with the FPS owner raises a requirement and does not come to purchase the goods. The FPS owner updates the requirement as serviced pockets his share of benefits and sells the grains in the open market. Here the FPS owner gains considerably. Another instance where a customer raises a requirement and is denied the goods due to some reasons and subsequently the record updated as being serviced the FPS owner is again gaining both the benefits as well as the full cost of grains.

Hence in both the cases it is clear why FPS owners are opposing direct cash transfers to customers accounts and lobbying for getting benefits into their accounts only. It is noteworthy to note that we have avoided authentication.

UID linked temporary accounts

This might come up as a requirement when during enrolment a citizen has not mentioned his account but there comes a point when he becomes eligible for benefits. It is necessary to create dynamically an account which will hold money until such time that the UID holder does not link his actual bank account with that UID number.

Another Myth

There are several myths surrounding the project and some of them are proved unfounded here.

I recently met a friend who has already enrolled for Aadhaar. He was in great hurry to do so since he thinks that the earlier you enrol the lesser the chances of rejection and the later you enrol more the chances of duplicate being found due to larger number of biometric comparisons and number generation rejected. Read a list of Myths debunked Here.

References:

[1] Frances Zelazny. 2012. “The Evolution of India’s UID Program: Lessons Learned and Implications for Other Developing Countries.” CGD Policy Paper 008. Washington, D.C.: Center for Global Development. http://www.cgdev.org/content/publications/detail/1426371

Good News Trickling By

Polio Eradicated

Sweetest and the most comforting news to have come from india in the recent past is the successful eradication of polio. Rotary International and Bill Gates foundation had a big role to play. Pakistan struggles to do the same due to taliban opposition. There are rumors there about polio vaccine: that it is a Western plot to sterilize girls, that it is unclean under Islamic law, that it contains the AIDS virus. It pains me to read that visitors to india take measles vaccine before coming. That should be the next target.
Read More: http://rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/26/india-wins-while-pakistan-keeps-losing-in-fight-against-polio/

Fertility Rate sees a huge fall

38 years from now world population expected to be 9.3 billion(Now 7 billion, one billion is 100 crore or 1000 million). This is an optimistic projection. Actuals might be 11 billion. Under either forecast, scientists say, living conditions are likely to be bleak for much of humanity. Water, food and arable land will be more scarce, cities more crowded and hunger more widespread. In short life will be more difficult. I expect it to be something similar to going to hell. We would be lucky if we can manage to avoid mega problems. Inflation with water and land shortages are already staring us in the face. Why i classify this news as good is because Fertility rate in India now is 2.5 per woman down from 2.8. Fertility rate of 2.1 per woman is called replacement rate.
Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/population/la-fg-population-matters1-20120722-html,0,7213271.htmlstory

Poverty reduces, Progress in achieving Millenium Development Goals

If at all you didn't know about it, the Millenium Development Goals were set in the year 2000. There were totally 8 major goals and several numerical targets. Read about the goals and how much has been achieved in the 12 years since these were set in the article.
Read more: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3180952/

India to be largest economy by 2050

This bit of news seemed too good to be true. But on reading the following article it was clear that this biggest economy tag is notional as it is comparing GDP in PPP(purchasing power parity terms).
Read More: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/India-to-become-worlds-largest-economy-by-2050-Report/articleshow/12443185.cms

Inflation brought under control

Well this post i created over several months and the article on inflation being brought under control has been removed. Even otherwise i would say getting it down from 12% to 9.7% is quite an achievement and the press has not written about this yet.
Read More: (Dead Link)

Growth rate second highest in the world

Even this article post is quite old but never the less looks at the positive side of the story.
Read More: http://expertscolumn.com/content/indian-economy-posts-second-highest-gdp-growth-rate-globally

Roads sector is shining

When the going gets tough, the tough get going.... Roads sector is seeing infra companies making losses on projects due to delays in land aquisition and increase in costs. But a small statistical figure of number of kilomters added shows a silver lining in the dark clouds.
Read More: http://news.indiamart.com/story/govt-says-fy12-was-outstanding-year-indian-road-sector-166941.html

Electricity Sector to be better and better

Historically India has had high T&D losses in electricity sector. Powergrid Corporation of India Limited(PGCIL) has embarked on smart grid implementation. If this is successful then we would cross a milestone in Transmission and Distribution technology evolution in India.
Read More: http://www.infrawindow.com/news/pgcil-s-smart-grid-to-lessen-transmission-and-distribution-losses_771/
Read More: http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-03-02/news/31116912_1_smart-grid-pgcil-pilot-basis

Coal sector on the cusp of growth

This bit of international news from australia shows that there is nothing wrong in india. Coal demand is high. The only bottleneck as far as india is concerned is who will mine it and how much tax would they pay to do it. So this bit of news is positive despite the coal gate scandal.
Read More: http://www.ohsa.com.au/2012/08/coal-isnt-dead-yet/

Steel sees resurgence

India has largest reserves of iron ore and our coal reserves are not less either. Despite having both the ingredients to make steel we are importing some of it. Our exports of steel are nothing to write home about. What we do is exporting iron ore. It is time we stop doing this and move up the value chain. I found an interesting comparison of production of steel in India versus the world.
Read More: http://www.sify.com/finance/making-india-a-china-style-hotspot-for-steel-news-default-mioaOdaeaje.html

Telecom tangle to be resolved soon

This bit of headline i read someday and jotted it down in my e-diary. When i searched for it now there are no results to show. So this goes as just another hope. As timepass you could read a pro-congress blog just to get the other side of the story(Congress ki zubaani).
Read More: http://countryawake.blogspot.com/

Manufacturing PMI leaning on growth side

Manufacturing is a sector which is like the engine of the economy and the PMI(purchasing manager's index) measures the contraction or expansion of production. It is heartening to note that the slowdown is bottoming out and this index might improve in the remaining 6 months of 12-13.
Read More: http://www.firstpost.com/economy/stable-pmi-hints-indias-gdp-growth-has-bottomed-out-says-nomura-475948.html

Good governance expected in UP

Akhilesh yadav has an uncle by name of rajpal yadav whos a sort of drag on him and some sort of restriction on his freedom to formulate policies. His govt. is not regressive and has allowed the delhi-agra expressway to open. Akhilesh has even said the parks that mayawati built might serve as tourist attractions, a highly wise and pragmatic statement given the circumstances. Read a prayer for good future of uttar pradesh published in dainik jagran.
Read More: http://publicinterestfoundation.com/2012/09/21/mission-development-for-uttar-pradesh/

India manages a record 6 medals at olympics

We all know who won those medals and in which disciplines.
Read More: http://www.easternpanorama.in/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2116:london-olympics-&catid=6:contents&Itemid=10

Passport Seva Kendras a roaring success with help from TCS

Read More: http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/passport-centres-showway/488016/

Infosys helps IT department streamline tax filing

I really liked the way tax deducted from me was credited back last year. Tax filing has been made easy now. The inefficient officers of IT department are up in arms against the outsourcing of tax file processing. If only the government offices outsource their job it would be very good.
Read more:(infosys web site, horses mouth)
http://www.infosysbpo.com/offerings/india-bpo/case-studies/pages/online-tax-returns.aspx

Internet penetration at 10% of the population, expected to be 40% by 2015.

Read More: http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-04-10/news/31318824_1_internet-users-penetration-number-of-facebook-users

Internet replacing TV

About a year back a neighbor of mine reportedly told my father that TV is no more a necessity. She said she never watches TV anymore and browses net for news or for entertainment. My parents were, right from the start against going for cable TV and were never really glued to TV programs. This came as a god send and my father declared that we should invest in a laptop. So after saving from his pension for about two months he pulled out his never before used credit card and went shopping with me.

We never knew that most laptops come with TFT screens or that it was uncool to sport a laptop with a large screen. We settled for sony vaio black cover and brought home our prized possession very carefully. The laptop box now adores prominent place in our living room. The old TV has been unused since that time, parents happy about savings on the monthly cable bill. I am now showing them photos of my cousin’s children on facebook something they could not have done with a TV. They are yet to create a profile and are amazed to learn that most of our family members are on that site.

Something happened this may and the cost of a months’ 3G USB modem connection fell nearly 400%. With this we are able to use the internet daily at reasonable costs. I pay our house rent throu net banking now as well as recharge my mobile and pay my papa’s mobile bill. My friends are amazed to see me online at nights. I research on my PhD topic also. The best part of this laptop is it came with windows 7 Home Basic preinstalled but Office is pirated. We got Microsoft Security Essentials free as a bonus. It protects against viruses. I also have Ubuntu 11.10 running on another partition and I use it only for programming. Don’t know if this laptop will become outdated in a few years with newer OS from Microsoft.

My recommendation is for every salaried person to have a laptop or atleast a desktop with atleast 3G USB modem connection if not a DSL cable connection. Internet penetration in our country is now 10% with nearly 120 million internet users growing at 20% a year. Mobile is a new way of accessing internet. If net banking becomes prevalent in a mobile it would revolutionize e-commerce. I feel mobile banking is not going to catch on as much. The future is in smart phones with browsers. Tablets and E-Book readers would also be a good buy but I somehow don’t plan to buy them. I feel laptop is good enough for reading e-books.

Govt. plans of distributing aakaash tablets is stalled and we should see tablet or phablet prices crashing in a few months. The choice before a consumer is whether to go for a high end phone with large display or a tablet along with continuing using their mobiles the old fashioned way. Mobiles which scan fingerprints or iris prints of the eye are expected next year. There is talk of mobile phone replacing the cards. Our economy is cash heavy and when I wanted to make a fixed deposit recently my father advised me to withdraw all money I need to deposit from ATM and take the cash to the branch and make a deposit. I wonder in this age of net banking, e-commerce and m-commerce why do we still need to carry cash. Indians especially senior citizens are averse to using cards, mostly because they don’t know to use them or don’t trust them. Using cards is kids play but they don’t understand it. So our country will take atleast another decade or two to become a less cash economy.

Budget 2012

A look at the budget this year reveals pitiable state of affairs. One third of the revenues comes from borrowings. When Mr. Mukherjee became FM we expected him to have left behind the socialist baggage of the 80's. He seems to be the same old man passing strictures on tax issues in retrospective effect, raising import duties on gold and diamonds(thus causing the flourishing jewellery exports to be dented) etc. The markets and investors have reacted negatively to GAAR and i feel instead of postponing it for next year it should be completely done away with. What use is all that if you are not going to reopen old cases. While expanding tax slabs is welcome, the stick that comes with the carrot, i.e the withdrawal of stimulus and raising of excise and service tax rates would be a bigger burden. The 20k that could have ben invested in infrastructure bonds was expected to be raised to 30 or 50k but the benefit has been completely taken away. A new rajiv gandhi equity scheme which is meant to encourage small investors to invest in stocks is good but not that productive i believe.

In all likeliehood this year the diesel prices are going to be deregulated and hence raised. Petrol prices have been raised. This would fuel inflation. While crude prices are not under control of our govt. exchange rates have worsened undoubtedly due to policy paralysis. The economic survey admits that since agricultural growth has not been up to the mark and industry is growing at a slow pace all the growth is expected from services.

The expenditure target of 13 lakh crores last year has been breached and we ended up spending 14 lakh crores. This budget has been the least imaginative of all and does not even mention about GST or DTC. Pranab da neglected the SEZs and said that MAT will be applicable to them as part of DTC. SEZs were replaced by NMZs. This is policy flipflop and sends a wrong message to the investors. It looks like the minister is pleading for time and hoping that things will be set right on their own. Now from here there can be two ways we could go. A growth path of 7.6% as predicted for next year and higher the next year with inflation under control or a growth of 6% or lesser and uncontrolled inflation. The second path looks to be more probable among the two and the economy might languish at about 6% growth for many years to come.

The telecom mess caused by the supreme court verdict of license cancellations has spooked the investors. We are now viewed as unworthy of being in the BRICS. S&P has downgraded us from stable to junk. I feel pranab da should vacate his FM post for lack of performance and a suitable replacement found. May be he would do better in the rashtrapathi bhavan. It would be good for him. 77 yrs is a good age to say good bye to politics. Is sonia ji listening???

How do we learn IT?

It’s interesting to know how people learn to use computers. What is all the more interesting is senior citizens who have crossed fifties and have been introduced to computers for the first time, do not pick up the essential skills to survive in the digital age(I do not mean to disrespect them in any way, they were from a different generation). I heard from my parents who both worked in banks how computerization would make their life difficult. They were touching fifties then and have since retired. We now know that computerization in banks is near total and it’s been a great success but at first there were apprehensions. They did not know whom to approach when there were problems. They were jealous of the younger colleagues who picked up the skills fast. There were stories of unhelpful colleagues.

I recently was called to help my neighbor who had returned from UK. His son had given him a laptop to learn using internet. He showed me a memory card that contained photos of the places he visited in UK. Instinctively I plugged in the card into the laptop and copied all the photos into the hard disk. His next question baffled me as he asked “How did you get the idea to copy the images into the laptop”. Now I know the storage capacity of a memory card is limited and that on the laptop is relatively more and I thought images in the card can be deleted to make space for new ones. He seemed to understand that as he asked me if I have deleted the images in the card which I had not done. The question he asked seemed to go beyond just the photos and seemed to sound like “How do you guys get to know what all can be done with computers”?.

To confess in private I myself am curious to know the answer. I mean some people do great work and others fall behind. When social networking sites came about they caught on the imagination of the people. Before even logging into one we instinctively seemed to understand that we can search for our friends on the site and form a group. That idea comes to us before we log into the site for the first time. We all were interested to know whether all of our friends were there on the site and they were. It was a great feeling to be participating in unification of some sort.

Meanwhile in my neighbor's house, I was actually called there to help him play a DVD of sai bhajans. The problem was that windows media player did not play the DVD for want of some decoder. I assured him of getting FLV player installed in his laptop, something which I never did. He had lectures of swami nityananda, whom he regarded as a great saint, in his laptop, and they opened. He told me had plans of launching a website on spirituality and healing. I grew conscious using his laptop and turned it towards him and instructed him to open “my computer”. He asked me “should I double click or single click?”. Opening by single click or double click is something we learn't very early in computer usage. We know that a single click on a folder in the side pane of explorer would show its contents on the right pane. We also learned that an icon can be double clicked to open or launch it. The problem was he was asking me every time if he is supposed to single click or double click and is not learning from past experience at all. One more thing i would like to add is in retrospect i now know double click is way too taxing on the fingers and the more number of times you are expected to do it, the more the pain. Esp when you look at the time between two clicks in order to be recognized as double.

All this I had experienced earlier while teaching my father how to use computers. He somehow does not understand that he needs two things, his mail id and password to log into yahoo. I have to remind him both. It was a difficult experience to teach him to tap on our laptop touch-pad. He knows how annoyed i get when people play pranks with me. I must confess i was pissed off the first time he came with "Teach me this". We all immediately “get it” the moment we see the cursor moving while we move our finger on the pad and on tapping it when the cursor is on an icon or button. We all would have tested it to see how it distinguishes the two events of lowering the finger on the pad with intent to drag or to tap.

I was once teaching my mother the T9 mode of typing a SMS on the mobile. This I was doing purposefully to let her know that there is a dictionary of words embedded. She was spot on with the question “How did it know I wanted to type “and” when I pressed the buttons marked ‘abc’ ‘mno’ and ‘def’ ”. She was in awe of the advances in technology.

This of course is just the tip of the iceberg. There are many such devices like the TV remote, DVD player and playing music on mobile and others which have some complexity as far as their UI is concerned. Xerox Inc and Apple Inc have done some great work on more intuitive UIs. The technical jargon I heard about this is "Device Level Human Factors". We seem to forget that we were in the same situation before we learned how to use them. The question my neighbor asked me is not an ordinary one and holds relevance to everyone no matter what their skill levels are.

Is this what education is?

There is a famous quote by H. Narasimhaiah about quality of teaching. It is said that a poor teacher complains, an average teacher explains, a good teacher teaches and a great teacher inspires. There is one more saying which goes somewhat like a great teacher does not teach but raises relevant and thought provoking questions. He causes students to get interested in the subject at hand and makes them learn, often out of their own interest. A teacher with passion towards learning and original thinking lays the foundation for a student’s career. There are hundreds and thousands of topics in literature that can be called fertile and rich in which original research can yield great success.

It is unfortunate that our education system emphasizes rote learning. Facts are presented in a bland and tasteless way. Students are encouraged to reproduce sentences exactly the way they are in text book. This is different from teaching in some countries that emphasize contemplation and reflection on what is learnt and on original thinking. There is an alternate method of teaching that focuses on ideas and tracking their influence on newer ones. Such a teaching method actually is proven to produce thinkers who have gone on to enrich the world of science. While a little bit of history is involved in narrating sequence of discoveries, the subject matter is presented in sufficient detail for the student to relate to its importance and applications. South korea is a country that has made great strides in manufacturing. Companies like hyundai and samsung have brought fame to them. I find in literature that south korea invested heavily in heathcare and education soon after gaining independence. Education in our country comes nowhere to the international standards.

Often students are found lacking basic knowledge of the subject when advanced topics are taught. Sometimes students hate some subjects thinking of them as either theoretical or uninteresting. Sometimes students fear some subjects where there is a perception of them being tough and difficult to clear. Sometimes the students take up studies mearly for the sake of degrees. Half baked bread is as good as none. Apathy and disinterest is contagious. These are all symptoms of a faulty education system.

Students should have the freedom to choose the subjects they are supposed to study in a course. Imagine the strategies a student might choose to pick subjects. Some may try out most difficult first, some may go for the most interesting ones, while the careful ones might pick easiest first. Such active interest from the students in choosing subjects makes them think of the applications and the subject's relevance to their career. There should be a minimum number of credits that he/she has to earn in a particular semester. Each subject should have some prerequisites which the student should have studied. There is also demand from some to make the duration of a subject course vary according to the pace of learning. Students are made to choose their branch when they have very little idea of what each of them contains. The world over students choose their branch after one year of study. This can be inplemented in our case too. At least i can testify that i did not know what computer science is when i opted to study it. Most colleges do not give any options to the students in choosing electives. Such steps are taken to reduce work load on the faculty and also to ensure a minimum strength in the class. 

A class with less than ten students is awkward to conduct unless students show interest. On the other end of the spectrum the student-teacher ratio which should be 13-17 students for every faculty is sometimes as high as 20. Teachers face problems in controlling a class with huge numbers. Despite shortcomings bright students have gone on to rise above competition and get recognized. The other category of average students sometimes has struggled to be employed at respectable pay packages.

A small poem somewhere in the answer booklet of end semester examination fell upon my notice during valuation. Every post of mine has been inspired by some event or idea. This post is triggered by the angst in this student’s life. It speaks about the drudgery in education.

Lots to write, lots to read

This is the truth I accepted in deed

Word by word I write in pain

But as usual all my efforts end in vain

This is all I have to tell

For all I want to do is leave this hell

I must read, I must write

Till there is an end to this fight.

Poribartan everywhere

With women winning in WB and TN the country has voted against communists and corruption. The war cry of Ma,Mati and Manush has overcome the communists who occupied power for 34 long years in West Bengal. The whole country is awaiting the new cabinet there and the policies it will follow. Amit mitra is tipped to be the FM in WB. It would be interesting to see who will be the new railway minister at the center. After the decay which set in during the communist rule it would be difficult to repair the finances of the state. West Bengal was compared to Gujarat as an example of two opposites in development. Presently the country is savoring the extermination of the communists who had held many a governments to ransom at the center.

In Tamil Nadu the situation is much brighter. TN is a leading state in terms of development. The only problems it has have been in the power sector. The only hope is that the freebies to be given away by ADMK should not put the states finances in trouble.

Yeddyurappa seems to have overcome the danger to his seat the third time. the 16 rebel MLAs have agreed to support him again. This seems to be a good news to the BJP. The first BJP government in Karnataka will complete its full term. Political commentators have labeled his government corrupt but he seems to enjoy the support of the people as evident in the re-election results.

Today was a special day for Gujarat CM Narendra Modi as TOI columnist Chetan Bhagat wrote to dispel the negative image of him. What caught my eyes was the observation that Gujarat has been a developing state due to the entrepreneurial nature of its citizens and not due to Mr. Modi alone. This seems to be somewhat true but it takes away the credit for providing a stable administration conducive to industry from Mr. Modi.

As every one knows Bihar is going from strength to strength under Nitish. The only state yet to come out of problems and uncertainty is Rajasthan. Democracy has ensured that the best administrators among the lot are chosen to head the states. This portends good omen for the country and is an indicator of the things to come.

Three Cheers to INDIA

In the three month period since my last post many positives have happened for india. We won the world cup second time
and veteran gandhian Anna Hazare's war against corruption soon after the world cup victory gave the country some hope that corruption would one day go away from the country. The New Jan Lokpal bill is expressly created to bring to book the corrupt bureaucrats and lawmakers who are having a field day under the sun with their unchecked loot of the masses.This new law would create the same kind of revolution that was created by the RTI act. People started becoming activists and found huge amounts of corruption. Now such acts of omission and commission would become an offence that can be complained to the Lokpal which would bring the perpetrators to book.
There was one more reason to be happy because the census results showed the net addition to the population was less this decade than the last one albeit by just one million.Between 1991 and 2001 the population increased by 183 million and between 2001 and 2011 the net addition was 181 million. We are now 1210 million in numbers which was 1029 million in 2001 and 846 million in 1991. Decadal rate of population increase is reducing as its now 17.5% against 21.6% earlier. At this rate our population would be 1360 million in 2021(12.5%) and 1475 million by 2031(8.5%) and 1563 by 2041(4.5%) and 1609 million by 2051(3%) after which the population would stabilise.
Increased Literacy is a big positive to come out of the present census as literacy has increased from 66% to 75% nation wide. I expect literacy to come up to at least 85% in the next decade. On the flip side sex-ratio has reduced and this implies that female foeticide and infanticide continue unabated. India is now in much better condition than it was a decade ago. We are at least better than sub-Saharan africa in literacy now. Three Cheers!!!

Unionism in VTU

Before you consider me ultra liberal or neo liberal or a wimp or too condescending  i would like to make it clear that protest should be of a different kind and striking work should not be one of them.
It is unfortunate that valuators have boycotted the valuation of answer scripts in VTU. The results this time will be delayed and the valuations will continue even after the start of the even semester. While it is true that the pay in colleges in karnataka for lecturers is less compared to other states striking at valuation centers is a wrong thing to do. Fees in colleges will invariably go up if sixth pay is implemented and the demand for seats will reduce. Many seats are already vacant in smaller colleges and more will be left unfilled in the years to come.

Today the valuation work seems to have started and there is no guaranty that it will not be interrupted in between with more strikes. This Unionization in VTU bodes trouble for the teachers themselves. While higher pay will bring temporary relief ,it would be risky to the college finances in future as there will be uncertainty in admissions.

Some pending Reforms

The UPA-2 government has been branded as left-leaning despite the absence of left parties in the alliance. Dr. Manmohan Singh has been a man of great foresight and vision but maintained a stony silence in addressing urgent reform issues like retail and subsidies. The ideal case would be if Dr. Singh takes things in this stride and announces some hard nosed and urgently needed policy decisions. There are a host of sectors in which reforms are essential and some of them are labor sector, Multi-Brand Retail sector,Fertilizer subsides, Decontrol of Administered prices of petroleum products and decontrol of Sugar sector.

India has restrictive policies on hiring of labor. Industry experiences cycles of boom and bust. It is difficult to sack employees due to down turn in the industry. This has held back companies from hiring larger number of workers. Such rules which restrict companies from firing employees have to be relaxed.

Fertilizer prices in India are controlled by a strange set of rules which effectively restricts fertilizer supplies. It has been ages ago that a new fertilizer plant has been started and the existing ones are making losses. The government should allow differential pricing of fertilizers and allow two categories of fertilizer sales. One subsidized and sold only to poor farmers and other category of Non-Subsidized or commercial sold to larger farmers and in the open market. Also the government should allow imports of fertilizers and sale at market determined rates. Fertilizer is an essential ingredient of agriculture and adequate quantities of them have to be used in order to achieve higher productivity.

There have been discussions on opening up multi-Brand retail to foreign players.The government should go-ahead and open up the sector to large retailers so that the ensuing competition leads to lowering of prices. Presently the retailers profiteer when prices of some vegetables goes up. This is because there is little competition in retailing. Consumers are at the receiving end of all this. Kirana store owners are already so rich that they can support themselves without any earnings in the future. Opening up of retail sector to multi-nationals will not harm them much and consumers who are being taken for a ride will get relief.

Reforms in petroleum pricing is currently under way and petroleum companies who have been burdened with subsidies have to be provided relief by rolling-back subsidies completely. Simultaneously taxes on petroleum products should be reduced both by central and state governments to reduce price rise for the end consumer.

Finally farmers producing products such as rice, wheat and sugar cane should not be forced to sell their produce to government agencies, such as FCI and crushing factories, and the minimum support price should be just that, a recourse to be taken by farmers when market prices of farm produce is too low.

These are some of the sectors in which urgent reforms are essential to set right the wrongs that have been committed in the past.

A compelling case for the twelve digits (UIDAI, UID Project)

A unique identity number or aadhaar for every person in the country is expected to yield enormous efficiencies for banks and government departments. A recent McKinsey report suggests potential five-yearly savings of 1.4 lakh crore for the government. The report contends that people benefit to an extent of 14 lakh crore in a five year period from the government and a conservative estimate of ten percent savings is made here. Central to the project is the twelve digit Aadhaar and surrouding it will be a plethora of applications some of which are listed below.

1. There are clearly, immense benefits from a mechanism that uniquely identifies a person, and ensures instant identity verification. The need to prove identity only once will bring down transaction costs for the poor^[1].

2. A clear identity number would also transform the delivery of social welfare programs by making them more inclusive of communities now cut off from such benefits due to their lack of identification^[1].

3. It would enable the government to shift from indirect to direct benefits, and help verify whether the intended beneficiaries actually receive funds/subsidies. Among the merits and rationale of this project the most compelling one is the accountability in distribution of benefits whether it is discounts on grains, school fees for children under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan(SSA), pension payments for the elderly or Conditional Cash Deposits(CCD) such as the Janani Suraksha Yojana(JSY).

4. A single, universal identity number will also be transformational in eliminating fraud and duplicate identities, since individuals will no longer be able to represent themselves differently to different agencies. This will result in significant savings to the state exchequer^[1].

5. Several banks are trying to issue a customer ID so that they can track their customers interaction with the bank. Until now a customer can choose to apply for a new ID in case he wants to hide the fact that he has made transactions with the bank earlier. AADHAAR will clean up the customer databases of the banks and help in their marketing pitch. It is also going to benefit the credit information bureaus which can track a person’s credit history^[2].

6. When Aadhaar is linked with PDS and authenticated sale of grains is made, the fair price shop(FPS) during the replenishment cycle will be allocated an amount of grains equal to the actual sale made and not the planned amount of sales in the next cycle. The government is guaranteed to save at least a few tens of thousands of crores in PDS alone^[1].

7. A student tracking programme would help admit street children and destitute children into schools. Continuous assessment through UID linked score card would benefit children when they migrate from one school to another. A truly cumulative report of a students performance can be hosted at a suitable government portal^[3]. There are reports of a system where fingerprints are to be logged for attendance of teachers in schools. This is not a new phenomenon as most colleges have implemented biometric scanners to log attendance.

8. Issue of Aadhaar numbers is expected to precede rollout of a host of E-governance initiatives such as linking land holdings, PDS benefits and LPG and petroleum subsidy with Aadhaar and a nationwide rollout of a network of MicroATMs to perform cashless payments and banking services(Funds transfer, Micro credit, Micro pension, Micro insurance). The MicroATM network, estimated to be at least two such devices per village for six lakh villages, would mean 1.2 million branchless banking points. Add to this a few tens of millions of Point of Sale terminals at kirana stores and other establishments to service the purchase requests through cards issued by banks^[2].

9. In an increasingly cashless economy Aadhaar linked bank accounts could be used to promote cashless payment transactions thus aiding the capability of the government in monitoring money flows and resources^[2].

10. It was reported last year that Apollo Hospitals had written to the UIDAI and to the Knowledge Commission to link UID numbers with health profiles of individuals and offered to manage the health records (Business Standard, 27 August 2009)^[4]. It has already embarked on a project “Health Superhighway” that reportedly connects doctors, hospitals and pharmacies, who would be able to communicate with each other and access health records. With Aadhaar efficacy of medicines can be monitored real time whereas presently after human trials medicines qualify to be administered and there is no way a case by case report card could have been prepared. Medicines, once dispensed, such a note can be made in the person’s medical records and should be open for audits by other doctors. This might lead to evangelism in doctor profession where the brand of medicine prescribed will be openly known to the system and the doctor can be held accountable for any bias towards higher priced medicines. The government and health insurance companies can tie up to finance the cost of consultations and medical expenses. Government doctors could be paid through a system where they are expected to attend to a minimum number of patients.

Controversies are not new to the country and some of them have been successfully quelled by UIDAI.

1. When the controversy over whether UID is designed only for citizens of INDIA and is intended to throw out illegal immigrants arose Mr Nilekani categorically stated that UID is for identification and not as proof of citizenship, the first hurdle was crossed.

2. When the problem of enrolling infants without biometric details arose UIDAI chose to link the parents biometric details with a sort of shell UID with biometric details to be posted at a later date when the child is 5 years old or later.

3. When people whose fingerprints have worn out have to be enrolled and authenticated the use of demographic details to authenticate would have left a gaping hole in the security system of the AADHAAR authentication, Mr Nilekani and team chose to authenticate such people through passwords.

4. When people concerned about privacy raised doubts about the security of the database UIDAI dispelled all doubts by making it clear that demographic or biometric data will not be shared with anyone and authentication requests will be served with a ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ response only.

Criticism not yet addressed

There have been concerns from civil rights activists about surveillance that the government can potentially impose on the residents. Recently the home minister announced a project called NATGRID under which twenty one databases with the government such as ration card holders, Voter ID card holders, PAN card holders, provident fund accounts, Driver’s license holders etc will all be linked with each other with the help of the Aadhaar number. The reason this is done is to detect patterns, trace sources for monies and support, track travellers, and identify those who must be watched, investigated, disabled and neutralised. It is obvious that criminals and undertrials would also be enrolled under the scheme. Someone even suggested that a DNA bank of criminals will be created. The police under pressure to solve cases might impose needless authentication on the civilians. Anyone with Aadhaar would be a suspect which would be a serious breach of privacy.

Another serious issue which is yet to be resolved is the potential of internal sabotage or misuse and external breakin of the CIDR. The under discussion bill seeks to impose hefty fine on anyone who is caught with such a ploy. The fine is mentioned as upto one crore whereas the value of data in the CIDR would easily exceed a few hundred crores. With inflation eroding the value of the rupee one crore a few years from now would be next to nothing. Mentioning a maximum quantum of fine in the bill would invite periodic amendments, which have never occurred, for which we have evidence in other outdated criminal laws. Instead a fine amount should be decided by the courts on a case by case basis.

References:

[1] UIDAI Strategy Overview Document 

http://uidai.gov.in/UID_PDF/Front_Page_Articles/Documents/Strategy_Overveiw-001.pdf

[2] UIDAI Micropayments 

http://uidai.gov.in/UID_PDF/Front_Page_Articles/Strategy/Exclusion_to_Inclusion_with_Micropayments.pdf

[3] UID and Education

http://uidai.gov.in/UID_PDF/Working_Papers/UIDandEducation.pdf

[4] Apollo begins project to connect health players

http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/apollo-begins-project-to-connect-health-players/368246/

Charms of a Resurgent India

While it might have become ample clear reading all my blogs that I am a nationalist and most of them have a splash of patriotic fervour which never ceases to abate. All of my posts relate to the trials and tribulations our nation has faced and which has taken a dramatic turn towards the better in recent times. It has been a Topsy-turvy ride of sorts since the days of liberalisation and doordarshan. What I have set out to write is something of a feel good factor that sets in when the going gets smooth. The years of good economic growth such as '96,2003,'06,'07 had some charm in them. They signalled an India on the path to prosperity. The miracle economies of south-east Asia have experienced such times and passed through phases of blistering growth. It's now our turn and surely we will go the whole distance.

While officially we are growing at 7.4% last year(2009-10) and 8.8(target) this year our actual growth in inflation adjusted real terms is somewhere around 4-6%. The number of poor living below the poverty line of 2$ a day is nearly 830 million out of 1190 million. That leaves just 360 million people in the middle class and a small percentage of about a million people in the rich category. A poverty line of 1$ a day means there are 20% poor whose absolute number is about 240 million. These are large numbers of poor indeed and should have been a cause for worry in themselves. The silver lining is that these numbers are reducing steadily. Five to ten years of continuous 9% and above growth would surely make a large dent in the poverty numbers.

Our GDP in nominal terms is 1200 billion, growing at 8-9% we will reach 2 trillion by 2016 and 3 trillion by 2022. Per-Capita income of $1050 per year is going to double to $2000 by 2016 and treble to $3000 by 2022. This means that an average Indian will be earning about Rs. 90,000 per year in 2016 and Rs. 1,35,00 per year in 2022. Poverty has been so much a part of our existence that we stand as a benchmark for other countries. Perhaps when faced with the prospect of unbelievably low levels of poverty the developed countries were forced to redefine the poverty line to $2 per day from $1 exclusively meant to keep a large population in India below poverty. It is pretty much clear that when Mr. Obama exhorts the American students to study science and compete with Indian students, He is ignorant about the pathetic Indian education standards.

With more money in our pockets we Indians would splurge like never before on food, clothing, housing, consumer durables etc. Only sky is the limit for land and property prices. Population density of about 340 per sq-km will rise to 500 per sq-km causing huge burden on natural resources like water. Energy prices already sky high will rise further causing wide spread inflation and starvation. Petroleum stocks the world over are expected to end in another twenty years. Developed countries being more reliant on energy would be more impacted with reduced fuel. While this situation looks grim at the outset, there is lot of hope as renewable energy sources will save the day for the world and might circumvent a recession.

As far as India is concerned we sit in a pretty position as we still are not that dependent on petroleum products as much as others. Indians are lucky that our growth is peaking at a time oil sources are dying out. This will cause a shift in our growth to favour renewable energy.

Implementation of the Aadhaar would lead to prosperity among the poor. The UID project would then be copied by African countries and most of the countries will have biometric based identity systems the world over. Out of the entire history of India this is the best period to be born into as so many social and economic changes are happening and there is all-round development.

And now PCs from india

India was once a country renowned for a variety of products such as cotton,spices,textiles,gems and jewellery. A brief period in the history,when we were ruled by the British, caused a lot of suffering and misery in our country-men's lives. We came to be known as a third world country and our country was plundered and looted of the many riches that people owned. After about sixty years of independence we have now almost completely erased the memories of this brief episode of poverty.

It comes as no surprise that now personal computers are being assembled in our country not only for domestic consumption but also for exports. Indeed we have come a long way now that our country is in no way a third world country and on the way to get a developed status. The pace of development seems to amaze everyone. Our people were unsure of their next meal just a few decades back. It is with bated breath that i am awaiting to see the poverty levels fall below 20% in India (currently at 26%). Now we are self sufficient in agriculture. But we have a few issues that need to be tackled well. It will be a challenge to anyone who will be running the affairs to steer the country out of problems of inflation, food scarcity and law and order. It is also thrilling to see India making a mark in the computer field and also our country launching a mission to the moon which finds water there. Many predict that the world will have serious energy crisis with petroleum stocks ending soon.

World population is at a very high level and this might not be sustainable. Eight to nine billion people in the next ten to thirty years might be too near the tipping point for any comfort. There might be mass starvation and deaths in case alternate sources of energy do not fulfill the demand. Global warming in all likelihood is true and we are already experiencing the fallout of this. Sea waves are expected to eat away a large part of the shorelines of almost all countries. Acid rain will reduce fertility, depleting ground water will cause desertification and reducing forest cover will increase temperatures.

With such a bleak future humanity has to steer on a narrow path. A mistake will be catastrophic. Urgent action needs to be taken to save the forests. Developed countries have exploited forest cover in poor countries while keeping their own forests untouched. Developing countries should stand up to this exploitation and ban export of timber. We should also make efforts to reduce our population growth. We should reduce our reliance on ground water by conserving rain water. Electric vehicles should be encouraged. A planned phase out of fossil fuel should be coordinated worldwide. Rich and poor countries should unite in their efforts to contain global warming. One way for that will be to reduce demand for product shipment by locating manufacturing plants near to the market.This would have a side effect in reducing the income disparities between the rich and the poor. Mahatma Gandhi's vision of small scale industries might come true as transportation costs increase.

India has a great future because we are a country of hard working people. We have the demographic dividend of a relatively young population and we are going to be the second largest country in terms of GDP in the year 2050.