Month: April 2009

Elections 2009: Voting Day

Even as Mumbai goes to the polls today as part of Phase 3 of the five-phased election process, I was thinking of why urban Indian doesn’t vote in larger numbers. (For the record, I have voted in every election in India since my return to India from the US in May 1992.)

There is a significant apathy that is there in urban India. It is a combination of the quality of candidates, the disenchantment with all political parties and a general distaste with all things political. There is a feeling that one’s vote will make absolutely no difference. This apathy is complemented by the cumbersome voter registration process. There are many I know who won’t be able to vote because their name is not on the electoral rolls.

Even while there needs to be a simplification of the voter registration process, we in urban India need to get past our apathy and start engaging with the political process. That is a small and necessary first step towards a multi-year effort reinventing India’s political process and governance. Participation, and not Abstention, is the Solution.

UPDATE at 9:45 am: I guess I spoke too early. My name was missing in the Voter list in South Mumbai. All other members from my family (father, mother, wife, sister) were listed – but not me. So, I couldn’t vote. I checked another adjacent booth, but no luck. I think what has happened is that my wife’s and my electoral records have gotten merged — her middle name and first name have gotten interchanged (so it reads as Rajesh Bhavna Jain), my age has become her age, and the gender is shown as female. Considering that both of us have voted in every previous election with our Voter ID cards, this was a shocker. One of the persons at the booth said I will have to go through the whole registration process again. So, this is a complete anti-climax and a big disappointment. Something seems wrong in this voter registration and list management process. Little did I expect that I would be among the non-voters today!

Push-based Customer Communications

An interesting idea that can emerge is the ability to let a business communicate effectively with its customers (present or future) via push-based channels. After all, it is customers that generate the revenue. This is what Google enables a business to do – get new customers to a website. Google does it for businesses that have an online presence. But it does nothing for businesses that may not have an online presence – and that is one of the opportunities that we can tap into. It can also work well as an awareness spreading tool.

Here is how it would work. A Customer is identified by an Address — either an email ID or a mobile number. These two may or may not be linked. The customer address (email ID, mobile number) may also have certain Attributes linked with it. In addition, a customer can also be given an opportunity to enhance their profile. <any such Customer Addresses make up a Database. A database can be created for a business in one of four ways: existing DB (semi-opt-in), future DB (built around opt-in), dynamic DB (built via queries run on a set of Addresses), media DB (like MyToday SMS).

Communication to this database happens primarily via Push-based channels — email and SMS. This is perhaps the biggest change in India in the past five years. Today, over 350 million Indians have mobile phones and 75 million Indians have email addresses — both these numbers are many times what the equivalent numbers were in 2004.

The key question: how to make this Push-based Customer Communications a reality? This is one business that could scale well globally, with India being the first market.

Corporate Governance Quote

I was part of a panel on Corporate Governance organised by India Knowledge@Wharton last week in Delhi. Paul Beckett, the Wall Street Journal’s bureau chief in Delhi, was part of the editors’ panel which did the questioning. In an article on the Wall Street Journal site, he quotes me:

“Even as we talk about corporate governance, people feel they can get away with corruption at multiple levels,” said Rajesh Jain, chief executive of Netcore Solutions, at a discussion Friday organized in Delhi by Knowledge@Wharton. “If the King is bad, the people think they can get away with it.”

I am hoping IKW will put up a transcript soon of the engaging discussion that took place.

News and Current Affairs Magazines

India has a variety of current affairs magazines which make for good reading to get the background into the political landscape. There are the market leaders, India Today and Outlook. Then, there is The Week, with its more youthful tinge. I don’t get to see Frontline much in Mumbai. Two interesting ones are Tehelka and The Caravan — they tend to have stories one is not likely to read elsewhere. A new weekly has joined the crowd, Open.

I like the magazines because they tend to give more perspective into the happenings. TV has become too soundbitish and repetitive, while the newspapers have to focus on the here and now. That leaves magazines with a good space to fill.

I don’t have favourities in this lot — there is no standout. What I like is the diversity of options available.

Blog Past: City Wi-Fi Networks

This idea from 2006 to unwire India will probably get done in a different way (3G, WiMax): “One of the challenges facing India for last mile connectivity to homes and offices is the stranglehold that the government owned telcos (BSNL and MTNL) have. While both are now pushing DSL to the home, the pace of deployment is not as rapid as India needs. In this context, what is interesting are the plans by many cities in the US to deploy wireless networks to provide a blanket of connectivity. This has two implications for India: first, we should be looking at similar technologies and plans; and second, the US deployment (along with usage in other international cities) will drive the cost of equipment lower making it much more affordable. Given India’s lack of legacy network infrastructure, city Wi-Fi networks make a lot of sense.”

In emerging markets like India, there are five elements that need to come together to provide an end-to-end solution for computing and connectivity.

First, build a city-wide wireless mesh network. This will provide the connectivity fabric and provide an alternative to getting DSL or cable (or waiting for WiMax). The key price point for this connectivity needs to be around Rs 200-250 ($4.50-$5.50) per month.

Second, use a variety of access devices to connect to the network. These could be PCs or network computers. (One of the companies I have helped co-found, Novatium, has just such a solution – the Nova NetPC.) We will also see mobile devices like the Nokia 770 and phones with Wi-Fi built in connecting to the mesh network.

Third, provide a backend computing and storage grid. This helps centralise computing and provides for seamless mobility for users. It also makes computing much more affordable and manageable.

Fourth, provide applications and content from a centralised grid to users over the wireless mesh networks.

Finally, use advertising to reduce the price that users have to pay for the service.

The key is to be able to offer the base service for no more than $10 (Rs 450) a month for the entire solution (device, connectivity and services), with additional revenue possible through value-added services.

Elections 2009: A Unique Experience — Part 5: Optmism Ahead

Over the past couple months, I have got an opportunity to interact with many senior leaders in the BJP. Few have fitted into the classical, negative impressions that we have had drilled down about politicians in India. Maybe, I was just lucky. But I do believe that India has hope – and the worst of our governance nightmares are behind us. Politicians work under a wide array of conflicting expectations. There are many who are out there to do genuine good, and who have dedicated a lifetime to being in politics.Maybe, the bad of the breed still out number the good, but I do think the tide is shifting. And that is a good sign of India. Good Governance and Development is rapidly replacing caste and votebank arithmetic as the way to success in elections. In that sense, accountability is already coming in. Just like employees who fear being fired, politicians in power cannot do without it – so they are quickly realising that delivering on promises and improving the lot of people is the only way to get re-elected. And if Bihar can do it, so can any state in India.

We still have a long way to go. And this is where we in Middle India have to rise to the occasion. We need to be ready to devote 1-2 hours a week to engage with the political system. What is needed is a framework to make that happen at the local level across the country. We have to participate in nation-building because India cannot lose more time. And this is what I have been brainstorming with my colleagues in “Friends of BJP.”

Elections 2009: A Unique Experience — Part 4: Memories

There are a few memories that will stay on with me long after the elections are over:

  • The first 30-person meeting with we had in late January at the residence of Piyush Goyal from which the idea of “Friends of BJP” emerged – people spoke up openly about what they thought India needed. The passion that came through that India made me believe that there is an energy that needed to be channeled.
  • The first Friends of BJP event that we did at NSCI on Jan 29 – and where I started proceedings by speaking passionately on why I had decided to be vocal and speak up in favour of the BJP. It was my first semi-political speech!
  • The satisfaction on seeing a full Ravindra Natya Mandir in Mumbai for the first public meeting that we did on Feb 28, with Arun Jaitley as the main speaker. Till people actually showed up, we had no idea how many people would come as a result of all our outreach activities.
  • The first Delhi event we did in Mar 26 had an overflowing FICCI Auditorium. Everything was just about perfect – the venue, the audience, the speeches, the ‘atmosphere’.
  • The Goa event with Ravi Shankar Prasad was a delight – because of the interactivity we had. It was a lovely open-air setting, and Ravi Shankar Prasad answered every question. It would have been hard for an undecided voter not to have been swayed.
  • Our small, informal core team meetings – with their fair share of banter. A group of people who didn’t even know of each other before started bonding and working together as a team.

Reading the comments that have come in from readers on the Friends of BJP website. The question for us now is: how do we tap into the energy that is out there, and sustain it beyond May 16 to create something more substantial?

Tomorrow: Optimism Ahead

Elections 2009: A Unique Experience — Part 3: Writings

During this period, there were a number of posts that I wrote related to the Elections. Here is a list of all of them. (In case you missed them, I would especially recommend reading the ones prefixed with an asterisk.)

Tomorrow: Memories

Elections 2009: A Unique Experience — Part 2: Friends’ Progress

What were our beliefs in “Friends of BJP”? Here is a summary:

  • Activate and Engage Educated Civil Society
  • Middle India is India’s largest votebank and the most neglected “minority”
  • We do not support or agree with the party line on every  issues
  • Over time, we can make a difference in 120+ urban constituencies
  • An opportunity to “Reclaim the Successful” and Modernise the Party
  • Beyond the Elections: Thought Leadership and Watchdog
  • Bring about change, not over generations but within a few election cycles

How has our progress been?

  • 20+ public meetings attended by over 25,000 people across India
  • Another 15-20 meetings planned in next 3 weeks
  • Our Website is the second largest political website in India after LKAdvani.in, in terms of traffic
  • More than 50K people have visited the website
  • Over 50K have opted in to receive updates on SMS and Email
  • Website gets 100+ comments daily (with a total so far of nearly 4,000)
  • Website has 2-3 new articles published daily
  • Over 5,000 have volunteered through website and the public meetings
  • Links to articles, SMSes and Emails are constantly being forwarded
  • Also present on Facebook, Orkut, Twitter and YouTube
  • Almost all growth has been viral / word-of-mouth
  • Hundreds of small meetings being organised nationally
  • Manifesto inputs provided (and some incorporated)

Not bad for what started out from a conversation between a couple people just about three months ago.  hmmessage P { margin:0px; padding:0px } body.hmmessage { font-size: 10pt; font-family:Verdana } We may be able to make only a small difference this election, but I think we have set in motion a movement that will be unstoppable – and can make a fundamental difference in improving India’s polity and governance in the next decade.

Tomorrow: Writings