Month: January 2009

This weekend’s links:

• A fascinating collection of 75+ comments on my three [1 2 3] elections-related blog posts. I wish the Indian political parties would read this.
• What would Google do? An interview with Jeff Jarvis about his new book.
• The Big Fix: A New York Times Magazine article on the US economy. “While Washington has been preoccupied with stimulus and bailouts, another, equally important issue has received far less attention — and the resolution of it is far more uncertain. What will happen once the paddles have been applied and the economy’s heart starts beating again? How should the new American economy be remade? Above all, how fast will it grow?” Why can’t we in India do some deep and big thinking about the Indian economy?
• The Midas List: Forbes’ special report on Venture Capital.
• Positioning and Pitch decks for Start-ups: Advice from Ed Sim.
• Hiring as a core competency: by Seth Levine. “Most start-ups will tell you that hiring great people is one of the most important determinants of a company’s success. Why then is the process of hiring generally treated as a completely ad hoc exercise?”

I am on a panel discussing “Role of Business and Government” in the event tomorrow (Saturday) at Nehru Centre, Mumbai. Here are the details of the 2-day conference, hosted by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch (NEW). The context of the event: “Since 2002, the major impacts of these campaigns have been on criminalization of politics, and transparency in candidate and political party assets. Leaders of both the BJP and the Indian National Congress have made public statements that they would not field candidates with criminal records even if they were likely to win in the coming Lok Sabha elections. As a result of these campaigns, the percentage of candidates with criminal records has come down from over 20% to about 12% recently. However, a lot still remains to be done. In particular, the exponential growth in the use of money power is a major area of concern since it vitiates democracy.”

The focus of the conference is as follows:

1. A set of demands for improving elections and democracy. These include the option of “None of the Above” on the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), barring candidates against whom serious charges have been framed in a Court, disqualifying candidates who indulge in electoral malpractices, and striking off names of people with non bailable warrants from voter rolls. These have emerged from consultations around the country, and have also been endorsed by the Election Commission.
2. The need for a comprehensive Bill to regulate Political Parties. All leading democracies have such a Bill, we have none. The issues of inner party democracy in political parties, and greater transparency and regulation of political party funding is required.
3. Specific action plans for the coming general elections under the banner of National Election Watch (NEW), a campaign that is already under way.

I would love to get inputs on what topics to discuss in the panel. Some initial thoughts:

• the need for creating an information infrastructure (“infostructure”) on candidates, work done by elected representatives in constituencies. The RTI (Right to Information) Act has helped, but more needs to be done, and information needs to be made  more easily accessible to people.
• laying the foundation for two-way governance, where citizens can play a participatory role in decision-making.
• the need for businesses to be more proactively involved in good governance — how can this be done? For one, there is still a complete lack of transparency in how many decisions are made. Case in point: the complete mess with the telecom policy and 2G spectrum doleout, and the3G auction process.
• bringing in measurement metrics at every level of elected government – perhaps, this is easier said than done.

I strongly believe that the interactive tools now available with us (Internet, mobile) can bring about dramatic bottom-up change in the quality of people we elect, and the people-centricity of the government that we elect. This is the foundation for solving some of the big problems that we face in India – and driving smart, well-thought out development-friendly policies in disciplines like education, energy, urbanisation, transportation, and technology which cannot be reversed.

Any suggestions?

For the reasons expressed below, I have decided that being a silent supporter (and voter) for a political party is not good enough. Hence, I have decided to publicly voice my support for the BJP for the general elections to be held in April-May. I am also working together with a group of like-minded professionals to create a “Friends of BJP” group. We are having a get-together today evening at 7:30 pm at NSCI, Worli. Anyone can come and brainstorm with us. Here’s the gist of what I will share in my remarks at the event. 

I am Rajesh Jain, a serial technology entrepreneur and a citizen of India who has chosen to act.

I am one of us. Till some time ago, I assumed that my contribution to the 2009 elections and the future of India would be my one vote. But, somewhere along the line, things changed. Maybe it was 26/11 and seeing some of us out on the streets demanding action. Maybe it was seeing Obama become President, and see politics really change in America, bottom-up.  Whatever it was, I have woken up to the fact that we have to do more – much more – if we are going to rewrite our future and rebuild our India into the glorious country that it once was.

We know we are on the wrong track when security warnings sent on September 24 for the event that happened on 26/11 are ignored and not acted on. We know we are on the wrong track when we cannot provide adequate electricity 24×7 in our homes and factories – and yet for the sake of votes our political parties offer free power to millions. We know we are on the wrong track when we have schemes like NREGS and bank loan write-offs which create wealth for the entire value chain – expect for the one it is supposed to help. We know we are on the wrong track when we can barely add to the highways in five years.   We know we are on the wrong track when a mother says that her biggest challenge of parenting is finding a good school for her daughter.

We are on the wrong track. And it is WE who put us there. By our apathy, by not voting, by accepting mediocrity, by not being part of the political process. The best we do is show up at candle-light vigils when we are shocked from our smugness, but don’t we need something more concrete and impactful?

We are India’s educated civil society. If we cannot act individually and as a team, then we forfeit the right to complain. Democracy comes with responsibilities and duties. It also comes with a generation having to make some sacrifices so the Tomorrow for our children can be better than our Today.

We have 100 days only to the elections.  India has 2 national parties and a multitude of regional parties. We have to make a choice about the party at the Centre. We can wait for a utopian world and the creation of the Perfect Political Party. Or, we can pick the party with the lighter shades of grey.

A week ago, when some of us got together to talk about the elections and the future, we also made our choice. We decided to support the BJP – and work towards ensuring LK Advani becomes Prime Minister. The BJP may not be the Whitest of the parties, but in our view, it is by far, the better, cleaner, more democratic, less feudal and more promising of the two national options. More importantly, we also realised that in the 2009 Elections, the way things stand, unless the BJP gets 50-75 more seats on its own above the 130 it got in the 2004 elections, there is little hope of the BJP forming a government at the centre.

Thus was formed Friends of BJP. We are neither all signed-up members nor agree with everything and everybody in the party has always said.  But we firmly believe that, in 2009, the BJP and LK Advani are the best hopes for India. We have a clear short-term goal, and a grander long-term vision for Friends of BJP.

The 100-day goal is to get BJP to 200+ seats – in the 15^th Lok Sabha. This will mean a massive outreach programme through all means at our disposal to get the silent supporters to be more vocal, and the undecideds to be swung the BJP way. Bringing about a BJP government at the centre with Advani at the helm will then bring into focus the longer-term vision. That is about a government that is two-way, that listens to us, that we can feel a part of. Technologies like the Internet and mobile give us the tools to self-organise and make our voices heard. The India of 2009 is very different from that of 2004. The 2009 Elections will be the first where urban India can actually make a difference.

And that is why we are gathered here today. As citizens of India, we have a duty to help build a Better India. The 20 of a week ago are now 200. We need to become 2000 in another week, and 20 million by the time the elections are here. We have to become the Voice of India.  For 60 years, we have been Led. And for many of those years, Led down a wrong path. The time has now come for us to Lead.

The first step in that direction is Mission 200+ Seats for the BJP. Let’s get cracking!

PS: A vote at the ballot box is just a first step – and not the end goal. We need to – and have to – do more. I am not completely sure where this will lead to. It could fizzle out, or it could grow into something very big. I hope I can be a part of making a difference. The next 100 days will show us. This is a a journey we need to do together.  As a first step, irrespective of which party you decide you support, you can start by being vocal – so we can start a dialogue. India needs millions of such conversations happening every day. Out of that will emerge a New, Better India whose citizens are equal stakeholders in its future.

There are about 100 days to the elections in India. These will be be the 15th national elections in India’s history. I like to think that the 2004 elections were the last of the 20th century elections, and these will be the first of the 21st century. We, the People, need to give a decisive mandate in this election. India cannot afford another five years of fragmented, coalition politics. So, the question to ponder is: what can we do? How can each of us make a difference – besides casting our one vote?

India needs an engaged civil society. Politics cannot be bifurcated completely from our lives. So, what can each of us do? What can we do as a group? Is there a way to create a bottom-up, emergent organisation using next-generation community and interaction tools to amplify messages? Given than 42% of India did not vote last time, can these “non-consumers” create a decisive swing?

Only 100 days stand between us and a new government coming to power. Whom would we like to see form the next government? Given that the India of 2009 is very much different from 2004, can we really make a difference? Whatever our decisions and answers, we need to make it quick.

…Mint!

There is no shortage of business dailies: Economic Times, Business Standard, Financial Express, Business Line and Financial Chronicle, along with Mint. I like Mint for its news reporting and editorial pages. I think they have amongst the best journalists, and it shows. For scoops and exclusives, it is still the Economic Times. In their effort to make the ET a business daily with mass base, I think they have compromised on their reporting quality. The ET is of course the Intel+Microsoft of the business daily space. But somewhere, they have given up a lot to achieve this.

On Mint, I am not sure how much longer it can continue with keeping a low cover price and have few ads. The paper must be expensive to produce, and in today’s slow ad times, their breakeven period must have gotten longer. Being owned by the Hindustan Times is good, but they probably need to rethink their low cover price (subscription offers). I would be willing to pay Rs 10-15 daily for Mint (I probably pay Re 1 or so given the special offers they have for subscription). Yes, it will lead to a reduction in numbers, but it will also give them an exclusivity which would be very valuable — just like the Economist. And it will probably get them to cashflow positive much sooner.

Slumdog Millionaire: I saw the movie over the weekend, was underwhelmed. It may be great watching for non-Indians internationally, but for me living in Mumbai, it was a case of good-not-great.

PVR: The PVR multiplex that has opened recently at Phoenix Mills is excellent. Much better than Metro Adlabs and Inox Nariman Point — the seats are more comfortable, there is much more legroom, the sound and picture quality also seems to be better.

Strand Book Exhibition: Another couple days to go, and for those book lovers in Mumbai who haven’t yet been to Sunderbhai Hall, make sure you do! There is so much variety that one is bound to pick up more than a handful!

Given that elections are coming along soon, this paper I had co-authored in 2003 is worth a second read.

Poverty—income poverty as well as non-income poverty—is perhaps the most common characteristic that defines the populations living in the developing world today. Non-income poverty in terms of education, health-care, access to markets, etc., directly produce the income poverty that traps the average citizen of developing countries. The question of how to raise huge populations out of this poverty trap is a formidable challenge that governments, multilateral organizations and policy makers face.

Because income poverty is relatively easier to measure compared to non-income poverty, it is more commonly reported and emphasized. (For instance, about half the world’s population, or about 3 billion people, have an average income of less than $2 a day, and of that about 1.3 billion have a daily average income of $1 a day. For India, the figures are even more stark: about 60% of Indians, or 600 million people, live on less than $1 a day.) Income poverty and non-income poverty are closely related, of course. The problem appears almost intractable because the two kinds of poverty are mutually reinforcing. Any solution that does not address both kinds of poverty is unlikely to be successful in poverty alleviation.

In this paper we focus on two uses of information and communications technology (ICT) that hold the promise of immense benefit to the rural poor, specifically in India, and more generally in other parts of the developing world. We focus on the rural population because the incidence of poverty is higher there than in the urban population.

The first application is the use of ICT in providing education. Specifically, primary and secondary education, increasing literacy, and providing vocational education. The current system is unable to deliver due to number of reasons primary among which is its reliance on mostly individual content creation and delivery, essentially through the public sector. The economies of scope and scale attainable through the use of ICT tools would make education accessible and more affordable.

The second application relates to expanding market access for agricultural and non-agricultural products. This would increase rural incomes and thus alleviate income poverty. The internet can efficiently provide access to a vast market for traditional handcrafted goods which can be sold worldwide, for instance. This would be an effective way of integrating the rural population with the globalised marketplace.

This weekend’s links:

•  3G and Broadband Wireless Access in India: A BDA-FICCI Report
• Inside the GPS Revolution: Wired Feb 2009 issue cover story on 10 cool apps
• Great Entrepreneurs build “Tribes”: David Hornik writes about Seth Godin’s new book
• Microsoft’s Missed Opportunities in Search: A fascinating Wall Street Journal story. “Nearly a decade ago, early in Mr. Ballmer’s tenure as CEO, Microsoft had its own inner Google and killed it.”
• Google’s Missing  in the Real-Time Web: Bernard Lunn writes on ReadWriteWeb. “It’s the Real-Time Web that will unseat Google. This idea has been percolating for a while, but it took a plane landing in the Hudson River to make it obvious.”

I finally got the software upgraded on the iPhone I have been using now for more than 15 months. And it feels like a different phone! The most important feature is the access to the AppStore, and the ability to add new applications so easily. While I have always been a proponent of the mobile Internet, I have to admit that having an on-device app can improve the user experience dramatically. I used an iTouch over the past few months to check the AppStore, but not having access to the applications on the iPhone made the usage minimal. One device that does it all is definitely the way to go.

The other application I now look forward to using more is Google map which can identify my location using cellID triangulation (since there is no GPS on my old phone). That is still good enough to start to get a glimpse of the GPS-enabled future with Location-Based Service.

This is probably the longest I have used the same phone model in the past five or so year — having been used to changing phone models every year. It says a lot for Apple that the iPhone is, according to me, still the best that’s out there.

Two other phones I am looking to try out in the future are the Palm Pre and a device using Google’s Android. Hopefully, they will come to India this year.

Like probably everyone else, I watched the inauguration on Tuesday night on TV, and after I long time in recent times, I felt jealous of America – that they have  elected a person like Obama, who in turn has put a ‘dream team’ in place to lead and is bringing in a new attitude and mindset to governance. And here we are in India, where our politicians cannot articulate a vision to bring back the greatness that once was ours, cannot put the most competent people to lead the nation, cannot put in place the right policies. I feel sad because the problems in India are our own making, and we cannot seem to figure out a way to get out of the mess.

The next elections offer us a way out. It is a moment in India’s history where we the voters need to think hard about the kind of people we elect, the kind of party we put in the centre, and  the kind of policies we want. We have to be part of our own future. We need a government for the people. And for that, we cannot remain silent anymore — we need to use technology tools to organise and make ourselves heard.

Obama has ignited hope not just in Americans but many globally — a hope that a government may actually be able to do good. We need to turn the hope that lies within us to reality. We cannot afford to lose another five years. We deserve a better future. And, we have to be part of the writing of our own history.