Learning from the Germans

This article I co-authored with Vasishta appeared in the Financial Express FE-Reflect Page on  18th Nov 2013. 

India should adopt the German Dual System for Vocational Education and Training (DSVET), ensure Industry bodies take ownership  and support practical experience. 

We need to capitalize on the ICT advancements like MOOC to support students.

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India's Skill Will Conundrum

This article authored by me appeared as a lead Editorial article in the New Indian Express on 1st October 2013.

 For India to benefit from the Demographic dividend, the combined "will" ( willingness!) of  the Goverment, Industry and the people  is needed.  

1) Government's "Will": Focus on improving quality of education at all levels. Can we use Food security to decrease drop-out rate?
2) Industry's "Will":  Can CSR be made effective?
3)  Individual’s Willingness :  Need to address the challenges of 
 "OVER-ENTERTAINED" youth

The government should come up with an ICT based long-term plan for addressing the skill requirements by involving key stakeholders.

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Realising India’s broadband dream

This article "Realising India’s broadband dream" that I co-authored with Dr V Sridhar appeared in the Financial express on 24th Sep 2013 under FE Reflect.

The article looks at India's current trend in Mobile Internet penetration.

Although the uptake of mobile internet usage is encouraging, India needs to push ahead with wire-line and wireless services with unbundling of the local loop, providing more spectrum to operators, refarming of the spectrum and look at adopting LTE+ technologies , maybe  MiFi for India to realise India's broadband dream.

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Status check : India's Mobile Internet

Finally TRAI( the Indian Telecom Regulator) has started publishing Mobile Internet data.
Found some interesting  stats. Indian states with low fixedline broadband connections have picked-up momentum on mobile internet.

 

 

India's mobile internet boom has begun, the smartphone users have increased over 50% in the last year, but the smartphone users as a percentage of total subscibers is about 6-7%

The current mobile internet usage is driven by paisafication of the data tarrif. But it is largely related to multimedia and entertainment. The next wave of internet-aware population could help in more meaningful use. We need to increase awareness of mobile internet and the true impact of the technology on the soceity can be realised only if we have localised content that can help in improving education level

 

A recent UN report states that over 9 million direct/indirect jobs have been created due to broadband.  India is ranked 122 and 106 on Fixed Broadband and Mobile broadband respectively.  

Five Key Considerations for Successful Project Management

I was invited by Suchitra to write a post on practical tips for project management on her popular "Five Key..." Happy In The Now Blog.

Here are the 5 practical considerations:

Consideration #1 - Forming the Right Team ( Never compromise )
Consideration #2 - Commitment to Customer ( Ontime delivery is sacrosanct!)
Consideration #3 - Dashboard driven ( aka Pilot cockpit panel!)
Consideration #4 - Never Surprise your stake-holders ( Never depend  solely on Email communication and never delay bad news)
Consideration #5 - “Thinking” Plan-B ( Always look for issues ahead of time and look for alternatives)

Please click on the link for the entire article - Five Key Considerations for Successful Project Management

 

Indifference is our way of patriotism

This middle piece appeared in the Daily Post Edit page on 22nd Aug 2013.

These days Independence day means holiday, discount shopping and we see Plastic flags being sold everywhere. Can we move beyond this ?

While we thank NRIs for helping with USD inflows , the desperation among people to go abroad needs to subside.

 

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Lessons learnt, time to act

This article authored by me appeared in the Hindu Business line - Opinion/Perspective on 10th August 2013.

It is an irony that ‘land of gods’ (Uttarakhand) had to witness nature’s fury,  grossly exposing lack of preparedness.  India is among the most disaster-prone countries in the world -Two-thirds of the country is vulnerable to earthquakes and droughts. 76 per cent of India’s coastline carries a risk for cyclones and tsunamis.  NDMA’s India disaster resource network shows the extent of unpreparedness!

Post the Uttarakhand crisis, interest in disaster management has suddenly increased. State Governments are setting-up disaster management funds, inter-ministerial group has been setup, conferences are being held. However, all these will be seen as a knee-jerk reaction if not for a sustained effort, with time-bound action plan on the disaster preparedness.

Even as we celebrate 66th year of independence, it is embarrassing to see such a primitive disaster management set-up in the country.
It is imperative that accountability needs to be fixed as the first step. We need  focused planning and implementation efforts  to minimize the impact of natural disasters and help in time-bound rebuilding process.

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Bangalore is swalpa kahi, jasthi sihi

This light weight article about Bangalore appeared in the Indian Express on 29th July 2013. The title translates as Bangalore being sweet city with a tinge of bitterness :-)

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India's sub-standard engineering colleges

This article authored by me , on improving Engineering education in the country has appeared in the Hindu Business line editorial page on 11th June 2013. About 7 lakh engineering graduates pass out every year, but less than 40% land in proper jobs. The article argues that the Engineering education is heavily tilted towards IT and an urgent need grow beyond , through a broader framework with Industry participation.
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And now paisafication of Data

The recent advertisment from Airtel -  1 Rupee Video download , perhaps indicates the moved among the Mobile Internet users. The Telcos are happier with much better data ARPU.

Reports suggest Mobile internet usage has increased over 80% in the smaller towns. The traffic is more on Search and Social Networking sites.  3G effect? Certainly not. It is the good old 2G ( Edge - 2,5G)

Sample this: India has over 150Million Internet subscribers.  Teh internet penetration is just about 12%. Compare this with 50% in China. So, it should not be long before we see video download for one paisa. There are two questions - (1) Will the Indian network be able to handle huge increase in  data traffic (2) Will 4G overshadow 3G
 

Wrist Watches - The next big gadget?

Wristwatches have been around for many decades now and there are niche segments for Sports, Youth, Luxury watches etc. But this market did not witness the unprecidented boom seen in the Mobile/Smartphone space as traditionally a watch is a watch!

All that is expcted to change with wearable gadgets as arch rivals Apple and Samsung trying to out smart each other in this space.

A recent report says that consumers expect the wristwatch to function like a phone -  read email,  text messages, Making/recieving calls etc.

Honestly, I cannot imagine all these multi functions on a wristwtach. But interfacing with the connected devices universe that we live-in ( phones/car infotainment system, Home entertainment etc),   may result in Smart Watches,  a new segment!!

 

Don't let Doordarshan die

This article authored by me appeared in  The Hindu Business Line Opinion page on 18th Feb 2013. 
 

The article tries to argue that India’s public service broadcaster DD is not  ready to embrace the BBC Model yet. DD must work towards winning the trust of its viewers. Government funding should be reduced, DD must find ways of generating revenue and sustaining.  Imposing annual TV Licence charge on households is not a good idea. Why should public pay for poor quality. Long term planning and execution need – Make it a Navratna company. Create an alternate Public service provider to intensify competition.

 

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China marches on

It is quite amazing to see how China is making huge strides in the Telecom sector and it has to do with the Government's vision. China has over 550Million Internet users with 75% accounting from Mobile users.  Close to one million Chinese mobile Apps were launched in 2012. Local Smartphone mobile brands are the Top selling much higher than the global brands. Not surprisingly China is also the largest mobile phone maker in the world.