The goat-herd and its built environment

The phenomenon discussed in the TV show in the previous post is an increasing trend, and is worth taking a closer look at from the perspective of the built environment, which has a direct effect on the opportunities for cultural development. If the IT training methodology described in the video is true, it is unprofessional, inappropriate and brings in a 'goat-herding' mentality. The built environment, especially with respect to these IT companies, enhances the potential to bring in this mentality.

The common thread apparent in all these issues is that of a 'group' identity and the severe lack of an individual identity. The biggest testimonial to the 'group' identity is that no matter what the field of study during college was, everyone invariably ends up in IT! People want to embrace change, but change in order to relate to a 'group' rather than get themselves up to speed with the modern world. How is this different from the closed-culture society thats been the traditional Indian social organization? It started with the work performed in the society during the Vedic Age, and is regrouping to a similar format in the current trend. How is this modernization?

If IT companies are indeed pushing people to do things as portrayed in the show, it is clearly not modernization, but rather the practices and policies of goat-herding applied to IT professionals. How does one herd a bunch of goats? Tie their legs together and let them graze the field, and when they become fat enough take them to the slaughter house. Its not as if the goats have a choice, they just do what they are trained to do, get fed well and finally end up on someone's plate.

Consider the scenario in India today. A typical IT professional's daily routine is something like this - wake up, get ready in time to catch a bus, get to the business place, work, take a bus back home, eat, sleep. Nothing outwardly wrong with this scenario, except that this was the same routine to get to school, then get to college and now get to work. Life only changes in terms of the destination based on the current stage of life. Opportunities for cultural interaction are limited to the 'group' encountered each day.

How is the built-environment responsible for this? Unregulated and haphazard development in the residential areas with scant disregard for bye-laws and no semblance of a community concept, companies built way out in the hinterlands and a prevalence of automobile based development - all of them short-term profit decisions to maximize the cash flow for the goat herder who has no regard for the goat's development apart from the one that serves the herder's ultimate goal.

Such a scenario is leading to social isolation and increase in the trend of 'group' identity. More time spent in travel and at the workplace is eroding the quality of life and thus causing the increased trend in negative emotions ruling the roost. The lack of economic opportunity outside this herd and peer pressure created once again by a 'group' identity of a different kind among parents kills off majority of the individual spirits.

Thus, it is not the IT companies that should be blamed for this, but the lack of a vision and lack of planning the urban fabric in Indian cities that is to be blamed. Individual development must be emphasized, and the community must be designed to enhance this emphasis. Migration to cities and single economic sector development must be shunned.

At the end of the day, freedom is not about having lots of money and having loads of intoxicated fun, rather freedom is the ability to make a judicious choice in the usage of one's time without being a prisoner to circumstance. Freedom is the ability to forge an individual identity to enhance one's ability and character. Freedom is the ability to live and forge a livelihood in one's place of choice rather than be forced to migrate. Change must be sought to achieve this sort of freedom, and it is the role of policy and government to provide opportunities for such a change.

The 'Lost Generation'?

The following program is a Tamil talk show that discusses cultural issues arising due to the "IT work culture" in India. While it is unfair to single out IT as the reason and easy to blame westernization for this increased trend, what is significant is that the psyche of the current generation is a tailored fit to exploit the opportunities opened up by the "IT work culture" and westernization. These things have always been around in our society but they have always been instances that were few and far between to leave them aside as a blot rather than a trend.

Today's 'liberated' psyche combined with a misplaced sense of freedom, increased cash flow and access to 'fun' is all responsible for this trend. In previous generations the access to such opportunities were less, and with India being a poorer country money was always a deterrent to such attitudes. The most important trend is the sense of liberation and the idea of freedom without responsibility or restraint.

Generation theory is uncommon in India, but considering various aspects of the Indian society today this current generation could easily be termed the 'Lost Generation'. Misplaced sense of liberation, a confused sense of westernization, confused priorities, a general lack of discipline driven by a feeling of freedom without responsibility and gross under-achievement define the makings of this generation. (An anecdotal statement, but there are tons of examples that could prove it.)

This is not westernization in its real sense. This trend is eerily reminiscent of the 1960's western culture. This generation is very similar to the 'baby boomer generation' raised in the modern technological world. This is the generation that was so 'liberated' that it led to a President having an illegitimate relationship in the Oval Office with a 21 year old unpaid intern, and not feel guilty about it!!!

India still Asia's reluctant tiger - BBC

By Zareer Masani Presenter, BBC Radio 4's Analysis

With its economy growing at more than triple the speed of Britain's, India has become a global leader in information technology and other hi-tech products.

But how has this been possible in a country where poverty is so widespread and where more than a third of people are still illiterate?

In the words of Nobel laureate economist Amartya Sen, "the danger of India moving in the direction of being half California and half sub-Saharan Africa is a real one."

The contrast between hi-tech, silicon enclaves such as Bangalore and the primitive conditions of many Indian villages and urban slums strikes even the most casual tourist.

So is the dramatic rise of Indian IT firms just a Californian bubble in the sub-Saharan deserts of Indian poverty? Not according to Anand Mahindra, managing director of a family business, Mahindra and Mahindra, that has grown into one of India's largest conglomerates, producing everything from tractors to telecommunications.

If you want to make a million Barbie dolls, this is not the place to come Anand Mahindra

"The IT sector was a kicker to growth," he says. "Its impact was psychological. It signalled to the world that India was much more than its old historical stereotypes.

"It suddenly in an exaggerated manner, if you ask me, made the world think that every Indian was smart and could fix their computers.

"But that helped entrepreneurs in India from all industry segments, because it gave them a more receptive environment in which to do business."

The number of Indian IT professionals has leapt from 56,000 in 1991 to a million today. That's still tiny relative to a population of over a billion, but a rare achievement in a global market where IT has traditionally been the preserve of advanced industrial economies.

Reliability costs

But how do hi-tech Indian companies survive and prosper in an environment where even basic infrastructure like transport, power and water is so notoriously unreliable?

Phiroz Vandrevala, executive director of Tata Consultancy Services, India's oldest and largest IT firm, says: "What we've actually done is within our own environments created global circles, oases of excellence.

"So if we build any facility, we create a 24-hour power back-up," he says,"or if you employ x number of people, you actually transport everybody from their home to their place of work."

"But it certainly is a cost to doing business."

While IT firms are cocooned within their oases of excellence, poor infrastructure can be a crippling cost for other sectors, such as large-scale manufacturing.

Anand Mahindra, whom many consider the sub-continent's most thoughtful businessman, warns that India cannot live by IT alone.

"Even Bill Gates when he came to India said, 'IT is not the answer for employment. You're going to have to emulate China and its manufacturing sector, because that's where the jobs are and that's where the multiplier effect is the highest,'" says Mr Mahindra.

"So it was a nice, sobering thought to come from the Messiah of IT himself.

"If you want to make a million Barbie dolls, this is not the place to come. Then you go to China. This is not a widget-making manufacturing economy, and that is largely and possibly only due to our poor infrastructure.

"We simply don't have the power in terms of energy to meet such high capacities. We don't have the port infrastructure and the transportation infrastructure to ship out such a high volume of goods in a reliable and timely manner."

Education, education

So instead of making widgets, Indian manufacturing is currently building on its comparative advantages in engineering-intensive goods, which require versatility, flexibility and innovation.

One example is carmaking, with domestic and foreign firms now investing an estimated $6.6bn in new Indian factories.

But growth in these high-value sectors is also running up against a skills shortage fuelled by lack of what's called social infrastructure - primarily good education.

Although Indian universities churn out three million graduates a year, only 15% of them are suitable employees for blue-chip companies.

That's nowhere near enough for Phiroz Vandrevala of Tata Consultancy Services.

"We have a tremendous amount of availability, but the suitability quotient is slightly low. If you look at about a hundred engineers from different educational institutions, in a company like ours about 20% make the cut," says Mr Vandrevala.

"Every industry is going to have to make significant investments in training for their own skills."

Despite growing investment in education, India still lags way behind its Western competitors. Thirty-five per cent of its population is still illiterate; only 15% of Indian students reach high school, and just 7% graduate.

Change is messy

Privatisations, or at least public-private partnerships, are now widely seen as the way to open up essential infrastructure like education, transport, power and even water to competition and new investment.

But local delivery depends on the quality of local leadership and its willingness to cut back its own powers.

Indian democracy undoubtedly makes structural change a lot slower and more messy than in China, but there is genuine optimism among Indian economists that the system will eventually deliver.

"Our confidence in rapid growth is quite recent, because rapid growth itself is recent, and so for the state to gear up to provide the infrastructure that's appropriate for 8 to 9% growth is taking a while," says Suman Bery, head of a leading Delhi think-tank called the National Council for Advanced Economic Research.

"We're not one of these countries like France or China which does things in advance and pre-emptively.

"The shoe has to pinch before we get round to it.

"Infrastructure strikes me as an issue that will solve itself. It may hold growth back a little bit, but I don't think it's fatal."

BBC Radio 4's Analysis: India: The Reluctant Tiger will be broadcast on Thursday, 28 February, 2008 at 2030 GMT on BBC Radio 4. You can listen to the programme again after it is has been broadcast at Radio 4's listen again page or download the podcast here .

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/business/7267315.stm

Published: 2008/02/27 23:34:41 GMT

© BBC MMVIII

Challenges of urbanisation - The Hindu

The world now lives in cities. According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) report released recently, the world population has decisively turned urban. About 3.3 billion people live in urban areas and by 2030 that would increase to about 5 billion. This amounts to more than half of the world’s population. The level of urbanisation in India, in comparison, appears much lower. Urban India accounts for about 30 per cent of the total population and its share i s expected to rise to about 40 per cent by 2030. However, the absolute numbers tell quite a different story. At present, the urban population is about 300 million and it is expected to reach 590 million by 2030. Indian cities cannot take comfort from the U.N.’s observation that urbanisation is a positive feature and cities offer the best opportunity to escape poverty. Urban poverty, housing deficit, poor quality of city planning, and weak governance are challenges to be addressed. As of now, the list of unfinished and unattended urban agenda in India is long and daunting.
By 2015, about $90 billion needs to be invested in urban infrastructure excluding metro railway projects. But what would be available, on the basis of 2004 figures and projections, is only $10 billion. The national transport policy stresses the need for large investments in public transportation and the need to establish metropolitan authorities that will integrate different modes of transport and promote sustainable options. This still remains a far cry. In spite of a national slum policy and housing policies being in place, the housing deficit in Indian cities is on the rise. In 2007, the housing shortage was about 24 million units and it is expected to touch 26 million by 2012. About 99 per cent of this deficit pertains to lower income groups. The UNFPA report identifies urban governance as the key challenge in planning for quality cities. This appears to be one of the weaker links in the Indian urban context. The Constitution, through its amendments, has devolved more powers to local bodies, but they are yet to be empowered in full. Their capacity needs to be built and financial powers strengthened before we can expect them to adopt best practices in governance. Such issues are even more pressing in smaller cities, which are expected to take most of the growing urban population. Urbanisation may be inevitable but whether it will turn into a positive force or an environmental and social disaster depends on how quickly we put plans and governance in place.

What in heaven's name....................

Whats happening in Chennai in the name of architecture?




From being the cradle of Indo-Saracenic Architecture, and many other buildings that are elegance personified, this fall from grace hurts. The pictures that follow tell the entire story, better than a thousand words could explain.