It's the Habits, Stupid

Habits shape our lives and impact not only individuals but also organizations, communities, cities and even nations. Habits are influenced by one’s value system and impact how good or bad a life we live. We get our values from our parents, family, school, teachers, leaders, gurus, colleagues and friends. Simple things like being on time, not breaking traffic rules, studying, exercising, helping others etc. are good habits, Reverse of these are the bad habits. If we know good habits are good for us, why do we pick bad habits. Simple, bad habits often give temporary pleasure, expediency and short term advantage. Going through a red light may give you temporary time advantage. People dodge tax if they feel no one will catch them. Lost tax revenue is the cost everyone pays for this bad habit of few.  

Habits are formed early in life like our value system. Over time, habits become standard operating procedure (SoP) for individuals as well as communities, nations and even global ecosystems. Recent pounding of Gaza strip killing innocent citizens, reckless election rallies in India or using teachers on election duties started as bad habits, now are SoPs and have now hurt big time. On the other hand, discipline and courage shown by Indian Navy & Coast Guard in rescuing people from Barge 305 or dedication shown by the frontline workers during the pandemic are shining examples of excellent SoPs and the value system. 

Industries also create good or bad habits. Indian Software industry has been built on meritocracy by qualified and competent people with foresight. Results are there for everyone to see. On the other hand, public health infrastructure in India and its multidimensional failure due to low priority and negligence by politicians is also for everyone to see. Real estate and construction industry could have been lot better, had it not developed some of the bad habits. 

People pay a heavy price for their bad habits like not following Covid-19 guidelines has cost people their lives. Here are some bad habits (List can grow) that immediately come to mind:

1. Bribing. It is a bad habit one picks seeing other do it and get away with it. But it costs the character and does serious damage to the entire community. 

2. Ignoring safety norms by hospitals, restaurants, hotels resulting in fires taking lives of many people many times, not just pandemic times. 

3. Giving teachers election duty, causing damage to schools. This bad habit has become a SoP in India. 

4. Poor lifestyle habits increasing the intensity of the Covid-19 disease broke the national healthcare infrastructure and caused permanent loss of loved ones. 

5. Indifference to Covid-19 guidelines by people leading to super spreading of the disease. 

6. Voting along community lines by individuals and exploiting of that mindset by politicians. 

7. Announcing payment to victims of an accident, riot etc. but not paying on time is a bad habit of Indian politicians. 

8. Complex tendering process in India has caused delays in implementing Oxygen plants in hospitals. It is not just the Government but bad habits of vendors to manipulate tender specifications, choosing lowest cost bidder ignoring quality has cost serious damage.

9. Gathering sycophants may make leaders feel great for a while but it costs them their position 

10. Misusing permanent membership in UN Security Council in a biased and unjust manner by powerful nations

11. ++, many more!

In spite of creation of immense wealth and benefits of technology, there is restlessness around the world. It is time we take stock of all of bad habits that have caused this restlessness and get rid of the bad habits for the good of the humanity. 

 

It is breathing, people

Corona virus has brought out our strengths and exposed our weaknesses in a manner like never before. One of the weaknesses and should I call it a bad habit, is today’s lifestyle when even breathing, so fundamental to living has become an issue or a skill to be learnt. 

In India, if people who got Covid -19 knew simple breathing techniques and had sound breathing habit, many of them would not have required an oxygen concentrator or a cylinder. That would have eased the burden on the system across the country. My brother-in-law (Rajani’s brother) got Covid-19. He was in home isolation. His oxygen level dropped to 92 / 91. The doctor cautioned us that if the Oxygen level does not go up, he needs to be hospitalized. Being aware of proper breathing and other techniques through “Pranayama”, he got his oxygen level to 93/94 in a day and past 95 next day. 

If you do any form of exercise and / or housework you know how critical the ability to breath is. Breathing is not rocket science. There are few basic things. First, belly has to expand while inhaling and contract while exhaling. Secondly, breathing should be slow and rhythmic. Finally, chest up when inhaling and as said before, belly in when exhaling. People often do the opposite i.e. they contract while inhaling. In addition, we do shallow breathing most of the time. Our lifestyle makes us tense often and when one is tense, shallow breathing often takes over. Whether it is irritation with a small thing like 180 second RED traffic light or major issue like not getting a promotion or anxiety of new job or a life defining examination, shallow breathing starts. Over time shallow breathing becomes a habit seriously impacting simple act of breathing and the lung capacity. 

I am not saying the Government is not to blame for the current crisis. The Government has been careless, reckless and clueless to say the least. But we the people have made it worse through our habits – first ignoring Covid-19 guidelines, and then our lifestyle has made us weak. We ignore the fundamental of life – proper breathing.

State funding of elections - to stem the rot of unchecked corruption by political parties

If you ask anyone about the current fracas in Maharashtra about Rs. 100 Crore per month saga, most people will blame corrupt and greedy politicians. Media shows as if people are getting to know this first time, rather naive. If you speak with any traditional businessperson, you will realize it is common across the country and cuts across political parties What’s differentiating about MH saga is the, criminal aspect (with the death of a businessperson) and that a working senior IPS officer of the rank of Director General has officially complained to the Hon. Chief Minister. I don’t want to get into the whether it is true or the mechanics but want to ask the question, “Why is the fundraise for a political party so murky? And is there a way to solve this systematically. 

If one looks at political parties of today, they all need significant funds to run their machinery. Politicians senior or junior, good or bad in public eye have to ensure finances are lined up. It’s like CEOs and top team of a company have to ensure tanks are filled to take the growth ride. Life for a CEO is challenging but s(he) has access to legal money. What about a political party? Finances are often shrouded in secrecy. Consequently, these not so healthy practices have become common. A minister of a Government under Constitutional oath does not feel wrong or guilty of collecting funds through Government administrative machinery. It is alarming to say the least. 

Electoral politics is integral part of a democracy and it requires funding. Current ecosystem does not provide simple and clean way to raise finances. The system has become murkier over the years. People of India need to ask a question? Do they value democracy? And if Yes, are they willing to fund elections using State funding so that these murky practices are checked to begin with and are stopped subsequently. I reckon most people will react angrily to this suggestion. Why should I pay for a corrupt politician to fight elections? People are in a way justified in their opposition to the idea but see what has happened in absence of a proper financing mechanism. Rampant, unchecked practices to collect money! If we as people are willing to pay taxes that go toward armed forces, education and other national priorities, why have we left such a crucial aspect of our nation and democracy totally exposed to exploitation. 

A system is as good as the people in it. Politics had high morals, dedication to a cause (like the freedom struggle) when people in it had high morals. It’s not that they did not have differences. If one takes galaxy of leaders from freedom struggle era, they had their differences, but they had ethics and decency. Unfortunately, we have crossed all norms of decency and reached a point where unless this cancer is arrested, democracy is at stake. One can go into history and all reasons why we have reached this stage, critical thing is to arrest this rot and make systemic changes. We have stellar examples where a handful of good people have shown how good systems are created and take roots in India. Entrance examination to IITs / IIMs, IT industry, Election Commission, SEBI have over the years proven their mettle. JEE is considered one of the most prestigious examinations. Entire IT service industry has been built on meritocracy and global competitiveness, because early enough, good people started it. What’s unique about IT Services industry is that not only did India become a leader, but it also invented remote IT services that’s followed by the world now. Election Commission has gotten rid of a bunch of bad practices. SEBI cleaned capital markets. 

If people think these are from old times, Swachh Bharat mission by Prime Minister Modi caught people’s attention and imagination. India is much cleaner today in a short span of few years. Same can happen to State funding of elections. It is possible and doable. 

Though not having done detailed analysis (and at times feeling in capable of such an analysis), I wish to suggest the following: 

1. Let’s accept that like many essentials of democracy and Governance, funding support for elections needs to be considered. 
2. Whatever mechanics are decided, parties need to be funded prorate based on the popular votes polled in national, State and local elections. 
3. Let the practice of donations by businesses be above board. 
4. Election Commission plus parliamentarians, State Assembly representatives, Constitutional experts and even industry bodies like CII create a body like GST Council, Finance Commission to come up with details. 
5. Last but most important, this is a complex matter and will require time, patience and participation of the entire political establishment and most important people and will require new laws and possibly Constitutional changes. Therefore, Hon. Prime Minister of India as the leader of world’s largest democracy initiate the debate so that all inputs are brought in and people are on board for this important reform. 

We need to give 3-5 years for first version and another 5 years for its operation when one can hope to start seeing the benefits – cleansing of the system and good people starting to drive electoral politics.

“India has no business being poor.” - Dr FC Kohli, March 1924 – Nov 2020

2020 left its biggest blow for the very end. 

As I write this, it has still not sunk in that Dr. Fakir Chand Kohli (#FCKohli) has left us to be with God. My first boss, my mentor, the person I wanted to be every single day for the good part of 14 years. He not only created the Indian Software industry but literally invented remote software development. In the 60s and 70s, when most computer manufacturers were American companies and Software was written inhouse, he saw the potential of software as the driver and more importantly, the pivotal role India can play as a software powerhouse. He put together a few unrelated macro trends – rapid innovations in computer science, industries relying on software en masse, Indian kids being good at math, flexible hard working young generation – and was the first visionary to put a roadmap for building an industry that defined (and continues to even today) India’s prominent role in global business. 

After completing his masters from MIT in 1948, he came back and joined Tata Power. After nearly 2 decades there, he was given charge of TCS in 1968. TCS grew and its model was adopted by many others. In 2016, TCS was India’s most valuable public company with a value of 650,000 Crores. Leading IT services companies of India were created and followed TCS, giving rise to the industry that has given India wealth, jobs, global outlook and confidence. This software industry that Dr. Kohli pioneered also showed the way to other part of the world such as Ireland, Europe, Asia and Latin America. In a way, not just India but the world owes him gratitude for creating this massive industry. 

He embodied gargantuan intellect, a global outlook, vision for future, people development, focus on R&D and the confidence to do things ‘first time at global level’ against extreme odds. Problem solving and helping India were his denominators. Looking back, we didn’t much discuss topline, bottom line, targets etc. that consume most of the conversation in today’s corporate world. TCS was about fundamental intrinsics, cutting edge innovation, developing distinctive people, and serving clients with world class solutions. 

We didn’t differentiate between Indian and overseas clients. He once remarked, “Whether its Bank of America or Bank of India, our solutions ought to be top class”. We didn’t work on just writing code but owned the entire lifecycle of systems and operated those for clients. The foundations laid by Mr. Kohli are so strong that TCS towers over all others in the industry. That is the power of his leadership and the successors he carefully created. 

He taught us how to not worry about job titles and hierarchies, to work collaboratively and spend time on professional development of self and others. Led by him, the atmosphere was deeply intellectual and academic. LC Singh, Founder & Chairperson of Nihilent and a close friend from TCS says, “The intellectual atmosphere was intense, almost scary at times”. I agree with him. But there was amazing freedom, devoid of politics, focused on meritocracy. 

He was deep, intense, committed and set very high standards for himself. Nothing was impossible for him and he expected the same from all of us. Once you figured out that his often-unreal expectation was his way of showing confidence in you, it became a powerful motivator. If you took an initiative and led it, he would back you beyond your expectations. He took pride when people with management degrees were deeply technical and engineers excelled in commercial and managerial roles. He built some world class generalist talent. 

Mr. Kohli was an academic and a researcher at heart while he led TCS as CEO. He played a pivotal role in founding of IIT Kanpur. He believed that existing institutions like College of Engineering, Pune and NITs should be upgraded in addition to creating new IITs. His work with COEP is proof of this idea. Though not that well known yet, the ‘software for adult literacy’ initiative that he led post his retirement is a torch bearer on what computers can do for humanity. Every time we met, he would ask me how much time I was spending on teaching. Coming to TCS from IITB, academics never left me and Dr Kohli was the biggest reason for that. 

I was among four people selected by Mr. Ramadorai and Dr. Kohli to expand TCS in US in 1985. We never looked back. Once on a visit to Dallas, I told him about the research on object technology taking place at Bell Labs and Texas Instruments. When I returned to India towards end of 1988, he asked me to join TCS Research (known as TRDDC) to create Object Technology group. Later I founded AI group for which many ideas came from him. Imagine doing AI more than 30 years back. Many people who heard of AI in past few years can’t believe this. Prof. Kesav Nori at TCS Research had created vibrant research program on compilers, program understanding and automatic software generation. We created an interesting fusion of compiler tools and data models to give birth to new software development architecture that is still the genesis of some of the TCS research today. Dr. Kohli supported us to the point where we would feel guilty of using company resources for R&D. Imagine marshalling your people through hardcore business development and then into R&D. I was amazed by how well he balanced commercial goals and R&D pursuits. He could zoom in grassroot detail and immediately zoom out and think 30,000 feet – both with alarming clarity and simultaneously. His cerebral fluidity was majestic.

For me, the benefits of exposure to him after a college degree have been life long and immense. I feel equally close to R&D and business. Compilers technology and its application to software analysis and migration tools, technology for software lifecycle tools big data platforms, local area networks, cybernetics, concurrent engineering, software metrics, computer human interactions and AI are some of the areas in which TCS did significant and world class R&D. 

He came across as a tough and a demanding person. But underneath that tough exterior, Dr. Kohli was extremely soft at heart. One incident comes to mind, Our son Shantanu was born in Dallas in 1987. Dr. Kohli and Mr. Ramadorai were in US and had a meeting in Houston. My wife Rajani and I were in hospital post-delivery and suddenly saw Ram and Dr Kohli come in the room! Not only did they come all the way (a Houston Dallas detour in those days was not easy) but had a wonderful pram and some toys as a gift for us. Till date, Rajani and I remember how both Dr. Kohli and Ram both sat next to her on the bed and spoke softly and affectionately. Another incident comes to mind which I just cannot forget. I was 28 or 29 at the time and Dr. Kohli sat in on one of my presentations. This was one of our first interactions. After it got done, he asked me to see him and I knew it can’t be good news. I walked into his intimidating corner office. It turned out Dr. Kohli just wanted to get to know me personally! He asked about my experience till then at TCS, my family, where I’m from, what hobbies I had. Finally, he asked about my father and I told him I lost him at age 7. He asked me how old my father would have been, and I told him. After a few thoughtful moments, he looked at me and said, ‘I am the same age as your father’. He left it at that, and I felt the room fill up with his affection toward a young employee he was getting to know. Of course, he used the ‘Don’t argue with me, I am like your father’ argument often in disagreements thereafter, but one gets a sense of his empathy and generosity in a few words. 

Dr. Kohli had a great a sense of humour. During founding of the AI group, he once quipped, “While you build artificial intelligence, don’t ignore natural intelligence!”. 

 When I joined TCS in 1978 after IITB, I had no clue that I will get an opportunity to work with a global visionary, a top-class human being and contribute my tiny bit in creating a global industry. It is terrific luck. 

Dr. Kohli, Sir you have contributed immensely to the industry, to India and earned your place high up in the heavens. 42 years of knowing you, learning from you, and being friends – I could not ask for more. While I will sorely miss you, we will continue to relish your memories and carry forward your mission. 

Salute to a true leader who selflessly shaped our nation.

Making IITs even stronger for a prosperous India

Good education is the foundation on which wellness and prosperity of a society rests. Institutions of learning carry major responsibility for this. While many things have not worked in India, many have gone right and become globally recognized. IITs top that list. Some of us have been privileged to be in an IIT for our education and reap the benefit every day of our lives. I have been in IIT Bombay, an IIT that often leads in many areas. But all privileges come with responsibilities. Challenges have grown significantly for IITs in recent times. Funding from the Government is under stress. One can argue why funding is to bereduced when India is relatively prosperous today than the period when IITs werecreated. Many of us got our education relatively free though the Country was financially poor and suffered severe shortages of essential commodities. The Government needs to think hard before doing a funding haircut. However, even the most willing Government will not have enough resources. The solution requires creative thinking and collaboration. While IIT based entrepreneurs’ incubators have made progress, there is a need to take these to a different orbit if we want to see real impact. In spite of support these days, entrepreneurs suffer seriously in India. There is little understanding of the tough terrain that lies ahead. A plethora of competitions with not so great prizes attract inexperienced entrepreneurs but distract them from real work on their startups. Here, IITBwith SINE for example, can take show the way. I have been involved with SINE entrepreneurs for years as a mentor. It has big potential. Being a top brand worldwide, much is expected from an IIT like IITB in research and taking education to colleges beyond say its own campus. IITs are often called best for bachelors’ degree college but not good enough for research. When I asked Prof Abhay Karandikar, a Professor at IITB then, he shared the number of PhD students just in electrical engineering department, quite contrary to the prevalent impression. Even if one wants to hold say IITB to a higher bar, opportunity lies for alumni to help the institute get there. I have been involved in IITB eYantra program that has helped over 1300 engineering colleges in robotics education and trained over 35000 students over past eight years. The program is now extended to colleges in neighbouring countries and a couple of African nations. eYantra program has decided to make disaster management as its core theme. The idea to do something in disasters came when Professor Kavi Arya of IITB CSE and Founder of eYantra organized a workshop in Bhutan on entrepreneurship in disaste management. I was a co-faculty along with Prof. Vinod Jain (Founder member of NDMA) and Sumit Sen, Senior Scientist in GISE Lab at IITB. These challenges are worth taking head-on given our privileged position. In today’s time, we want our military to be strong and won’t want to cut the Defence budget. If military is security today, education is securing our future. Let’s make our alma mater strong.

Walking in Mahatma Gandhi's memory

Whatever be the situation with life with Covid19, exercise and eating regime has gone up several notches since the lockdown. Of course, working from home with no choice to travel has ensured regularity, a big plus. However, this ‘post’ is not about WFH or Covid19 and not even exercise. Its about walking! For Rajani and me, August has been an extra ordinary month. I clocked ~195KM while Rajani clocked 126KM. As a comparison, my score for 2019 was a meagre 600KM. Primary reason was we registered for Oxfam Trailwalker, 10-day 50KM for Rajani and 10-day 100 KM for me. We hit the target with a day to spare. August was a wet month in Pune, so it was “walking in the rain”. While getting totally drenched many times, I maintained an average speed of 6.6KM per hour, a satisfying score. Though I love walks, it has been an appetizer for me before the main meal i.e. a good run. The only exception is on October 2, birthday Mahatma Gandhi. I walk in his memory and in deference to one of the finest humans in the history of humanity. He was an avid walker. While his Dandi march is famous, he did many walks during his seminal work while in South Africa. I have been doing this since 2012 when I accidentally won 1st prize for 10KM in a charity walk organized by FootSteps 4 Good on Oct 2. Both of us registered along with Rajani’s brother Nishikant and his wife Amita. Nishikant won a special prize for walking with a blind person. And the tradition of walking on Oct 2 continues. Last year, my walk was a lonely walk of 45KM almost encircling the city of Pune, a day before as I had a social commitment on Oct 2. Many people told me; we will join you next year. The 30-day count down begins today for a walk on Oct 2, 2020. Family and friends have committed 5Km to 21KM. So minimum target is 21KM. I may do a walking marathon (42.2KM), subject to physical condition and the time available. Route will be decided along with fellow walkers. Many will walk around the world on Oct 2 for goodwill and in the memory of Mahatma Gandhi. 

My thoughts on the New Education Policy - Part I

Few things in the newly announced National Education Policy remind me of my time nearly 50-60 years back. There is resonance with the policy but lots of discordant notes with the current education ecosystem. 

5+3+3: Resonates with my schooling days, 1961 to 1971. First 5 years were in a ‘prathamik vidyalay / shala’ or primary school. ‘Prathamik vidyalay / shala’ was most popular. In Indore where I grew up, very few people used English nomenclature in those days. Next 3 were in a ‘madhyamik vidyalay’ or middle / secondary school. Finally, the last 3 were in an ‘uchhatar madhyamik Vidyalay’ or higher secondary school. My primary school was ‘Hindi Prathamik Vidyalaya Kramank 7’. From there, I moved to Vaishnav Uchhatar Madhymik Vidyalaya (aka Vaishnav Higher Secondary School) for 3+3. Primary school had no English, only Hindi. We learnt English from 6^th year onwards starting from alphabets. 

Languages: Three languages or ‘tri-bhashi’ formula was the talk of the town, resonates with the debate that is beginning now. A major anti English movement started in North India and an anti-Hindi movement in Tamil Nadu at that time. For the tri-language formula, it was mostly Hindi as the higher language followed by English and Sanskrit. There were few schools where either Marathi or Urdu were options for higher language. Options for French, German etc. didn’t exist in Indore in my time. Because of this, the MP Board removed English from the curriculum. Thus, the last year of 5+3+3 was Hindi, Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics, No English!. I learnt English as a secondary language partly in the school (0+3+2), learnt further in BITS including spoken English and developed it further in TCS! 

Interdisciplinary: In BITS, Prof. CR Mitra (then Director of BITS) introduced one of the most revolutionary engineering graduate programs. Some of the ideas in the policy interestingly resonate with the purpose of the program Prof Mitra and his academic colleagues implemented. I feel Prof. CR Mitra is most accomplished but unfortunately an uncelebrated educationist in India. He introduced a number of innovations. Humanities courses, a language laboratory where students could practice spoken English, a course in technical report writing etc were part of this innovation. Let me recall some of these courses - Philosophy, Symbolic Logic, Economics, Econometrics, Introduction to Political Science, Modern Constitutions, History and Music. These courses have helped me understand and get a better appreciation of:

1. Economists views on economy, its deeper aspects and day to day nuances 
2. Western and Indian philosophies
3. All ‘isms’ - capitalism, imperialism, communism and its derivatives such as Leninism, Maoism; forms of democracies etc. 
4. Fine elements of constitutions of India, United States of America, British customs and conventions, parliamentary and presidential form of Government etc
5. And more....

Even in the engineering curriculum, Circuit Theory and Fluid Mechanics was combined into a single course called Transport Phenomenon and taught by Prof Rathore, a young IITK PhD. 

Even in the school we had a course called ‘Manav dharma’ that was not part of the MP Secondary Board curriculum but to teach philosophy and values of humanity. The course was probably ahead of its time but timely. Ethics was a major thread that ran through the course. 

Flexibility: Prof. Mitra introduced a concept called horizontal and vertical mobility whereby one could take courses across departments and also accelerate finishing a course ahead of time. Formal dual degree program was launched. One of our batchmates whose primary degree was MSc Chemistry took courses in Chemical Engineering and requested for BE (Honours) in Chemical Engineering and was granted the degree. 

Practice: Practice School program of BITS was introduced in 1974. At the core was the practical training in companies. At that time, it comprised two summer internships and one full semester. In early times, many of us did internships in national research laboratories – NPL, CEERI, LRDE and many more. It was a powerful way to learn application of scientific theories and engineering principles. One long term impact on me has been that I take student internships very seriously. The student is with you not only to get practical training but also to strengthen and reinforce the degree. I have found many managers in companies see students as a cheap resource. Yes, they are cost effective resources. But organizations have to ensure that the work assigned helps embellish their degree. . 

Underlying all of above was the sincerity of the Institutions (right from Hindi Prathamik Vidyalaya Kramank 7 to IITB), of our teachers and the unbelievably low cost of such a quality education. 

One of the discordant notes is that the cost of education has skyrocketed. Higher education is out of reach of lower middle class today.  I was educated nearly free and reap the benefits every day. Education has become a business which it should not be. 

Despite success with IITs, IIMs, NIITs, IIITs, NIDs, Kendriya Vidyalay’s and many many more, Government has not asserted on the quality of institutions it has created and demanded the same standards from private institutions. There are more discordant notes of which I will write again. It is however my hope that the resonance continues as National Education Policy gets implemented and discordant notes die.