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Pandeconomics Series

Pandeconomics-1 29-4-2020

While the whole World in general and the country like India particular are nearing to only certain ultimate soln against this contagion ie herd immunity, don’t you think the whole economic cost being incurred now for the  national pause will be fast converted into sunk cost.

The fact remains that the northern hemisphere can afford it but not the southern one.

 What we   had comparative advantage like younger population and warmer climate could have  used to grow the antibodies inside stratified layers of demography ( somewhere caution somewhere trust) rather than moving towards a wholesale  copybook  solution(read it pretext to solution) borrowed from west of lockdown which apparently has no exit route.

Pandeconomics-2 01-05-2020

Did the corona give lee way to the autocrats ?

The corona contagion  and the unique conundrum  around it gave a very fresh lease  to the power grabber autocrat to suppress the fact(even the infection statistics  or so also  strategy of health care against it) , to reinforce their rule  being bestowed  the supreme power to decide  in such time of national crisis by the law of land where the opposition  gets literally pigeonholed or the  media which are just forced into embedded journalism publishing with Govt directives rather than free press. Lastly they just find their easy surrogate of political overtone under the apparent statesmanship. This type of eventuality just gives the unique chance to the  otherwise paranoid, perplexed  today’s citizen who surely be tomorrow’s electorate  to forget and forgive the other discredit or decadence of their Chief’s  past rule. And this opportunity just have so much leverage getting further extended as the confusion of any forthcoming solution simply lingers. Under the garb of quarantine , lock down , national pause  etc the democracy , the rights and privilege all these  just took the back seat while personal agenda, political undertone (even political vendetta to imprison for breaking the rule) etc prevails as the whole world keep engaged with the battle with invisible and uncertain.

Pandeconomics-3 09-05-2020

The issue of the day is how market will behave after the lockdown whether it gets revoked straight way or staggered way. In one side the sudden lockdown for one and half month just put the producer specially apart from essential goods with huge inventory trap which have been too overbearing to carry on any more so big discount , stock clearance and so also supply surplus is in the waiting. In other way huge slump of economy , overshooting ,unemployment, bottomed out liquidity all will  dent a big hole in purchasing power so complete downward spiral is just breathing on every country’s (so the corporate’s)shoulder. A third angle is that due to national pause there is complete impasse in manufacturing , service and all allied jobs so  there is chance that huge supply problem will be created as any company in such start-stop rhythm(only certain module existing these days of uncertainty) of economy  needs so many months to come to its full productivity. The whole problem of production and also productivity will be hampered due to restricted , regulated supply of labour(some went home , some allowed with fix numbers).And the list of variables(some tested some untested) keep increasing .

So being trapped under such divergent pull how market will behave post lockdown period?

Pandeconomics-4 10-05-2020

In climate issue we see lock down is bliss in disguise . The nature is recharging itself after a long time. 

The bigger picture what we are missing that till the other day every  congregation , covenant , conference on climate kept on coming to an unanimity in thinking , there is no such market mechanism(promote some and proscribe other) like carbon credit or state mechanism (taxing you material which contains ) too proven to itself to be monitored, as in aggregate the waste gas never falls short. Recently all the upcoming nations in the name of developing and underdeveloped just got too reluctant to trade of their growth(rate and real both) with the climate by measures like alternate but costlier energy than coal burnt power etc with its excuse that developed reached its state today by doing just what developing are doing now growth buoyed  on  giga gallon of waste gas. So the argument  kept continuing from Doha to Uruguay to Copenhagen to Paris to Morocco and minds gets changed , measures  not  cared dragging the earth in the spiral of climate  got sucked , celsius got soared  ,  disease  got spread. And somebody’s action is always offset by other’s inaction. 

But the corona virus just leave no space of discontent. It made everyday suffers irrespective of developed , developing , pretentious and pure heart , rich and poor or south and north. All came to standstill , all got its own pause . All are too coiled in uncertainty to burn the  fossil fuel beyond the bare minimum , all stopped ravaging the earth at the name of development .

 And we are in regression mode in civilisation and so also climate.The whole world is getting cooled  and nourished back to its past, refreshed. It is the first time in human civilisation just a microbe , an invisible organism , a worm not any war  brought the burning of fossil fuel  to its lowest level. 

Pandeconomics- 5 16-05-2020

The time was never been more right . Blame it on Covid Crisis, Indian economics toeing the global economical cataclysm  nosedived so much eroding the wealth created for last four decades (assume the USA rise till 80s then   Singapore , South Korea  , China then others ). 

For India in these days (PreCorona and Post reform)along with its economy , democracy got further matured and so also stiff resistance to big ticket reform , like changing labour law, revoking coal nationalisation , merging banking and opening up private participation in all those  sectors which were either losing or  profiting at suboptimal level.In our parliamentary democracy where local leaders’ agendas always triumph over the national interest , every bold step forward got two steps backward , the phenomenon where even majoritarian Govt also could not help. And nobody could escape its ultra protectionist approach to market in the garb of patriotism and nationalism , even not the party which backs this Govt these days.

Corona suddenly upended the situation and presented some rarest of the rare scope to push forward all those reform overdue  for so long and that also at one go. And this time without any any single resistance as sloganeering mind and agitating lips all are kept shut under the confinement of lockdown. In the crisis time only voice gets heard and which is of the supreme leader or the head of the state and nobody else.

So time is ripe to repeal nationalisation act of coal, reform labour laws to induce the agility as well as mobility  and so on.

Yesterday you saw UP and other reformed the labour laws, today GoI pushed for freeing coal market (produce and sell for Pvt) allowing 500 players!  You saw MSMEs are  being geared  up with soft loans and strong support to flourish . Not to forget , Chinese  Corona Conundrum  just trafficked the big multinationals shifting their base towards India And the list  is just getting longer.

So fasten your sit belt  and embrace for New India which may be not same as before  but surely not always poorer in every count be  rest assured.

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So many lanes of audiences in Doverlane


The lanes arrangement of Doverlane Music Conference : Every lane speaks a different language. 

The Second lane filled up with the legacy. The old , the finest listener of classical for last few decades , even half century , some witnessing the legends since the first time he or she came to this event of high indulgence of classical music , some  just still live to tell those best stories of the yesteryears while many of their co visitors expired, they all came to be witness the rendezvous of music 2020. The octogenarian came with his grandson, the old mother who last year severely clogged her heart never wanted to miss this chance which might be her last one to witness the classical extravaganza,so came accompanied by her only son. The blind daughter came holding the caring hands of his father as every year.And all three friends also came this year’s show which are their 22nd since their first coming and 10th since their retirement. The young lady who came with the best attire and keep glowing the surrounding came in gorgeous red silk as every year. The man with shoulder bag and thick eyewear just wanted to listen every single bite of the instrument and vocal right from the beginning, so he took his sit in the first row well in advance. 

The first row is with the very Important persons so called VIPs  and reluctant viewers like any other show  where the occupants keep on exhibiting by their very attention disorder problem which simply and stupidly exposes that how accidentally they come in wrong place altogether just to borrow some identity from everything with some class (of which Dover lane is definitely one) attachment more to exhibit and less to enjoy the finest music ever. They are the noise maker by everything doing in the wrong time, while clapping, walking in  and out  of the front rows to much distraction and disgust of everybody ,to the serious audience and to the sincere performer  

The third row just filled up with those very youth who are trying to love the classical most time but find its hard enough to get engage with its grammar. Still they never give up and try their best to understand the rag , tal, lay as dedicated apprentice and enjoy instant enlightenment once touched by the spirituality ,however momentarily it may be. They are the future bearer of the legacy of audiences who are confident to pick up few lessons every year to train their ear with the fine skill to understand different Indian classical music  with its inherent philosophy and physical being (the structure , the status, style of rendering ) 

Fourth and fifth row normally filled up with the aficionados of classical music ,very sharp and very alert , but too obsessed with grammar to let its feel  or pleasure to overwhelm their amygdala full of fastidious , fussy and finicky in nature. They are another group of people who lends the class to this programme(instead of borrowing it like first row’s VIPs, the pseudo fan of classical music). If Doverlane music conference since its inception six decades ago could bear the burnt of so called onslaught of instant gratification by light music or contemporary music  and still commands one of the best congregation of maestros in every classical music form whether instrumental or vocal it was because of these very informed audience amongst whom there are enough experts and skilled singers apart from critiques who are extreme puritan by education and highest cheerleader for the best in this exclusive genre of Indian music. Once entered the hall they just took the position as very professional but purest listener , they simply command the whole show passively but passionately. They are people whom the performers just felt awed with their depth of music sense or taste of elitist musician.  

The next few rows just never allow the fineness of music get overtaken by the focus on grammar or puritanism. Instead of having every bit of knowledge about what’s being played on the podium , they simply stay away from interfering ( with any extra cheering  for good performance and equal jeering for bad one)  or even interjecting while the artist performs . In deep emersion in themselves they just developed their very best acumen to listen and learn again learn and listen the best music in classical. Sometimes just get too immersed to clap or cheer the performer, they look like very highly knowledgeable artist themselves(and so many of them actually are ) who took the music to their heart to play  to themselves but never to the hall to perform for others. They are the music listeners for who Dover Lane just can forgo numbers, sponsors , financiers . They are the gems of audience whom the organisers  just cannot afford to loose at any cost. The cards, and passes are being just tendered to them as an honour , the same honour what the artist feel while coming to perform on the stage called Doverlane Music Conference. 

Rest of the rows of DoverLane are completely heterogeneous and hardly can be  identified them with very straight trait as we always observe for the above front rows. There are  literally n number of people in audience , some are just the first timer who came to see taste the magic of classical music after listening so many times from the neighbour’s daughter (who incidentally a classical apprentice) how mesmerizing the rag Malkosh when played by Sujat Khan in Sitar or  being sang by Aswini Vide in vocal at the dead of the night. Some just came after reading so many reviews every year in the Bengali Desh Patrika how a  rag called Multan if you listen in the mid night will sound like an artisan just finish his art work in the Jamdani saree by weaving a story from the Mahabharata all over the body. Many came who believe listening classical music will fine tune your creativity ,trigger so many art of improvisation, the art or skill  they can lend  it to their other field of work whether its teaching or consulting , running administration or executing big project. Afterall mastering in classical music whether playing Sitar , sarod or rendering bhajan , Thumri all are about how you are  mending your speed and  scale ;swag and submission  while getting into your rendition of any raga  by strategizing , restratagizing  with continuous improvisation where keeping the destination sacrosanct and sacred which is presenting extremely pure , pristine yet fine music. And for me the whole academic as well as organisational management is just a state of such continuous improvisation, innovation and if needed invention of your way of making everything possible in world of crisis, chaos and clumsiness whether it is about resource mobilization or stakeholder motivation. Infact there cannot be found any closer example to describe how an organisation should be run than to observe how a concert being played by different players in complete synchronisation where the individual plays his individual talent being part of a single entity . Where being from difference or diversity in style keeps adding the fineness as well as fullness of the musical journey merged into a single entity they took together .  

And we in the rows behind are just that .To sit and see the whole programme from behind is just as enjoying a bioscope or movie in your study room. In your full comfort sometime too laid down in almost empty cushions in the back benches of the concert , the challenge was always there to get you awake whole night . But thanks the continuous ,I repeat continuous improvisation of the singer , the maestros of music just can make dead man alive . You simply cannot afford to even close your otherwise tired eyes by its natural time cycle of night. Every moment is precious as every twist and turn you are being walked through in the journey which brings up new rendition, so new resonance. It is all about how we can just take everything in our own stride. Sometimes assertive, sometimes submissive, sometimes dozing it sometime dominating it, life is what you believe to be or belies to be. It is never synchronous and so not expected to be also. The challenge is in its asynchronous functioning and so taking those challenge fully frontal. When a percussionist challenges the raga singer , when a flute’s soft melody just trump over baritone beat of pakhawaj , when two violin gets crush amongst each other , when a vocal simply creates a new rendition of old raga , innovation , creativity , imagination all just go full throttle. Spirituality, divineness suddenly descends on the earth. You will find your lost path , he will find out that life is much more voluminous than he would have thought , she will touch the cord of eternality. Its deep immersion inside the world of heavenliness ,truthfulness, self consciousness . It is about to searching you inside yourself, extracting the life out of living .

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ফৈজ আহমেদ ফৈজের প্রতি আগাহা শাহিদ আলী (অনুবাদ পার্থ মিশ্র)

তুমি  যখন এই কবিতা লিখছিলে তখনো সাব্রা সাতিলার নৃশংসতার দুবছর বাকি ছিল ,

বেইরুটের উদ্বাস্তু  ক্যাম্পে  খোলা আকাশ তখন ভাগ করে নিয়েছে ইসরায়েলি বিমান আর খবরের কাগজওালারা,

তুমি মূক সাক্ষী ছিলে সেই পাথর  ছোঁড়ার ,

তোমার শহর  থেকে অনেক দূরে ,

পাকিস্তানের উদ্যত  কৃপাণ থেকে অনেক দূরে,

নিজের হাত ও কলম দুটোকেই কোনমতে বাঁচিয়ে ।

অথচ এই উপমহাদেশ তোমাকে ছাড়তে চায়নি কোনদিনও,

গালিবের কবিতা , মৃত কবিদের  সান্ধ্যগীত ,

সব সময় তোমার আশেপাশে থেকেছে সেই নির্বাসনে।

১৮৫৭ সালের যে ঝোড় হাওয়া দিল্লির  কোন এক সকালকে শেষ রাতের ঘুম থেকে টেনে তুলেছিল সারিসারি সিপাহীর ঝুলন্ত মৃতদেহ  দেখাবে বলে,

যখন গালিবের সাথে তোমার  কথোপকথন আরও সোচ্চার হচ্ছিল ,

যখন একে একে বিষণ্ণ কবিরা তুনিশিয়া , বেইরুট, লন্ডন বা মস্কোতে

আড়ালে আবডালে নিরব শোক করছিলো

তোমার কবিতা তখন আরও বেশি বাঙময় ।

এক ভঙ্গুর সময় কে , এক বিষণ্ণ সময়কে ধরে রাখা তোমার শব্দগুলো,

তখন চোখ বেয়ে ঝরে পড়া রক্তের স্রোতের সাথে ছড়িয়ে পড়ছিল ওই সব শাপগ্রস্ত আর যুদ্ধ বিদ্ধস্ত শহরের অলি গলিতে।

২

সেই ছোট বেলা থেকেই বাবা তোমার কবিতাকে চেনাতে চেয়েছে বারবার,

আমরা চিনতে চাইনি।

তোমার কবিতা বন্ধু , নারী ,নাকি  নিষ্ঠুর   প্রেমিক  নাকি  ঈশ্বর , তাতে সেই ছোট্ট শাহিদের কিই বা   যেত আসত।

যতই তোমার কবিতার ঠোঁট রাঙ্গিয়েছ , রুপোলি হাত দিয়েছ,

বিষণ্ণ প্রেমিদের দিয়ে তার জন্যে রাত জাগিয়েছো ,

তবু আমরা তখনো তোমার কবিতা , তোমার বিপ্লবকে কোন দিন চাক্ষুষ করলাম কই ?

আর সত্যি যেদিন তাকে প্রথম দেখলাম ,

ততক্ষনে তোমার ভাষাটাই চলে গেছে , গানের আর সুরের দখলে।

বেগম আখতার বুনে চলেছেন তার রাগ ও সুরে তোমার শব্দ গুলো নিয়ে এক আশ্চর্য মায়াজাল,

আর সেখানে তারা যেন আরও,বেশি ধারাল, আরও বেশি উদ্যত হয়ে উঠেছে

ভালোবাসার আর কারাগারের কথা একই সাথে বলবে বলে।

সেই আমার প্রথম হাতের এতদিনের শৈশবের মুঠো খোলা , আর হস্তরেখায় শুধু ই রাত্রির হিজিবিজি লেখা দেখা।

৩

তারপর…

তারপর যখন তোমার সম্মতি পেলাম তোমাকে আমার মত করে পড়ব বলে,

যখন প্রস্তর ফলকের দিকে  চাইলাম , তোমাকে পড়ব বলে ,

কারাগারের গুমোট দেয়ালে ,

টুকরো টুকরো খামে ,

যখন আমি তোমার কবিতাকে হন্যে হয়ে খুজে বেড়াচ্ছি ,

তুমি তখনো ছিলে আমদেরই রক্তের  মধ্যে , উষ্ণ , বহমান আর ঘোর রক্তিম,

আমারি  শরীরে তারা ছিল অন্তরীন ,আমার স্বেচ্ছা নির্বাসনে আমারই মত আরেক কয়েদী হয়ে।

তখনই , ঠিক তখনই তোমার মৃত্যু সংবাদ এল সেই উপ মাহাদেশ থেকে।

তখন সেখানে তোমার ভাষায় আর কেউ কথা বলত না।

যেখান থেকে ঠিক কুড়ি দিন আগে তুমি জানিয়েছিলে

বেইরুট থেকে বিতাড়িত হওয়ার পর তোমার তো ঠিকানা শুধু কবিতায় ,শব্দে আর স্বগতোক্তিতে।

বন্ধ দরজার পেছনে সব মোমবাতি গুলো তুমি নিবিয়ে দিলে ,

একেক করে সব সুরাপাত্র গুলো ভেঙ্গে ফেললে ,

 যদিও তুমি জানতে কেউ ফিরে আসবেনা , কেউ ফিরে আসেনা কখনো, তবু  ফঈজ

তুমি তো তখনো অপেক্ষায় ছিলে,

সেই ঈশ্বর , নারী, আর বন্ধুটির জন্যে

যার নাম দিয়েছিলে তুমি বিপ্লব নাকি  অভ্যুথান ।

আর আমি শুনতে পাচ্ছিলাম

তোমার অপেক্ষার মধ্যে কড়া নাড়ছিল

সেই সব কস্তূরী গন্ধের আশাগুলো , কিছু বিক্ষুব্ধ মুখশের আড়ালে।

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The letter “S” makes a lot of difference, we public servants are “S”elected not elected.

 They never be Us nor We ever want to be Them

 
It’s a common fallacy , the  man in  the chair specially in the political arena confuse with power of chair and the process of ascending to that chair. These confusions get multiplied when they just could not find the enough bold line drawn between the chair by politics and chair by constitution. One is legislative and another is executive. Either we should be very alert to the clear cut exclusivity  of the this apparently transcending position(from legislative post to executive one) or just never aspire for such dual post anyway which got its huge potentially enough harmful both for the party and post and so also its prospect anyway. 

Then why such difference between two processes and  so the people who are gets  to the position from such two different processes. To begin with when a bureaucrat or a technocrat gets selected she or he gets by virtue of his or her worth , credential , past experiences and expertise developed. His or her qualification and quality both matters to make him eligible for the job. The interview takes from few hours to days long supported with recommendation if needed . Every selection is with a purpose and the output of backend planning for some goals to be achieved which is retrofitted in the interview or credential check of the incumbent rather than recruiting him or her randomly. 

Just opposite happens in the election process which is more cult based rather than quality dependent and that too also keep changing with the party, ideology, personality , issues etc. Neither the underlying qualification be judged of the people who asks for election (or stand in husting) nor his worth , past experience or exposure to particular issue are under the scanner before stamping on his symbol. At best the instant oratory or impromptu on the subjects mostly criticizing the opponent rather than correcting their own and in rarest occasion communicating on solution or ideas proposed if given chance, all these names in election fray just keep playing to gallery all along. Some self  glorifying agenda by either miming the other sides’ narrative  by force or fear , some well rehearsed and top quoted diatribe to captivate the humor  of the audience rather than their heed  or attention , these leaders on dais are more obsessed with style of communication rather than substance to connect or cater solution to the people. And the election process also never demands his credential as any legislative member which is itself very broadly or vaguely defined with main focus of eligibility rather than his or her eloquence  on any issue so also expertise or efficacy  to solve it. So  he gets  elected more on experimental basis  and less on expertness by the electorate  mostly out of repulsion to other alternate and very least on resume of the candidate. You never see any antecedent of the candidate, you never ask a single question (which will not be  fielded  neither fixed by ) , you just elect him as to give a chance as you give to any of those uncertain tour or unchartered territory to try with . Your individual risk here is very low (although collective or institutional risk is too high) as you are not personally invested to elect that person where the only diligence you do is stand in the line and cast your vote . Even most of the time you simply never do your due diligence to choose the best one or compare the man you are going to vote for , with others in the fray, at least with any intense rationalization . In any case if you would have done your part of fact check , there are very little chance  that the best candidate will win the seat.  

And with all these blurred credential, the man with the mike keep promising the moon without even understanding the moon is either planet or star. And while promises and pledges obeys no bound before the count of ballots, it all simply and very succinctly disappear and die out once he wins. An elected member , as he is he just keep breaking all those promises  in the same pace as he built up thanks his complete nativity to execute or plan any thing which  technically or economically too complex(and the running a country is just that) for him to even appreciate it. In a constant denial or consistently distracting the issues , a legislator turned executive(whom we tell minister)  just keep rearing an illusion for himself  or herself  with an false notion that everybody , the people who elected him and  the other who did not vote for him/her all are too idiot to understand his ignorance ,  naivety and laggardness or lack of knowledge to tackle any issue upfront. 

While like the king without any cloths whom nobody dares to tell the truth that he is naked , the man there just got too exposed to everybody who simply gives a damn to what these elected figure makes or breaks. Irony is that while Selected numbers moves with responsibility and role s/he is bestowed with , the Elected one just does opposite , disowning and defying every thing he fails to appreciate , the nation , its  embedded guiding force ie  Constitution , its economy , its development everything which needs the technical insightfulness not any rhetoric or regressive dialogue.

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Every war starts with single ego(aspiration sans competency) and ends with so many lives(just absolute lives). We saw it before and we will see it again

 


The man got killed in Bagdad Airport, Major General Sulemani of Republic of Iran just played some roles which could be called easily terrorism  in other country but patriotism in his own thanks to his big lineage celebrated army badges and deep relationship with  Religious Supremo of the country Ayatollah . But that is in apparent meaning which is very misguiding. In real sense the man was too stupid to provoke regional imperialism of Iran in the war trodden, already chaotic nations with ruins and rampage either by their own ruthless rulers(like  Asad’s regime in Syria) or the Monstrous invaders (ISIS in Iraq, Syria, Yemen). Just taking the same divisive lethal politics between Shiaites and Sunnis by which he sowed the first seed of  ISIS which the whole Iraq and other forces had to be deployed to decimate with much bloodbath, the same man started another imperial quagmire between the two ethnic Islamic nations  to create unrest and coalesce its power in both the nations (Iran and Iraq) very fast ,a direct threat to the west in any case. Basically a war monger leader of army faction which acts outside the Iran just got his very timing so wrong in his all  these missions because of the very existence of another man in the earth bestowed with two super power at a time of which one is extremely developed air attack with unmanned drones, precision ammunition and  the other is excessively accumulation of  individual discretion in post of president even as raging the war against any nation post 2001 attacks on ATC.Added to the two power , the man in charge got third super quality which is also unparalleled in the world and ie extreme level of eccentricity , an outright crackpot, screwball the world has ever seen in the hot seat in America. Donald Trump and Suleimon just have enough similarity in two counts , both have been war hawks for nothing  just enough stubborn (and equally stupid) to reach the brinkmanship , and both were imperialist for nothing (just to stick to their status of power). Now while with allies and other base except East Asia warpower of America is unprecedented and unmatched, but not to forget Iran with its so many covertly built up nuke and other strength(too hard to keep vigil for the world) have equal power of creating chaos and crisis to fish and foster one’s own agenda in the post war countries like  Iraq , Yemen, Lebanon and Syria the hotspot with enough combustible issue. So it was hardly at anybody’s loss or gain other than their own individual egos and eccentricities which clashed in the veil of broader and bigger excuses of which one is prestige (for Iran to brave the western power against all those demeaning sanction and scary threats )  and other is protection(of American interest and identity of superpower in the battle torn zone which they first destructed and now constructing))of Iraq-Syria-Yemen-Lebanon. The weaker got torn into pieces and the stronger one does not have enough clarity to celebrate. But in one thing world should not be in confusion that it is braced with immediate retaliation with more vigor and vengeance and above all another spiral of conflict and confrontation tacked with much more destruction is on the offing.

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The new regime unleashed : the regime of discipline , organizing and structuring the processes . The redesigning the hearth of baking those processes and then feed them with pure fodder ie the information. Welcome to world of SAP

In the post Marx world the type of addiction  and their turf  of controls are unlimited. Gone are those days  the intellectual , the common, the  educated , the emancipated  or the endangered and the enamored all were   under the booze of the most prevailing drug  (more than Marijuana ) in the world  and i.e. Marxism. Now anything and everything just take control of  your grey cells, make you think the way it designed its content,   make you speak the way it writes its  script or sing the tune it created and composed of its own. It may be the smart phone , it may be the hot money , it may be the rare bred racing horse , it may be the deep attachment to collection of antique, connection with celebrities . It may be the weed , work or the word jugglery . The addiction  is no longer a bad word neither creates any inhibition to be accepted in greater stretch of modern society . But overwhelming the all pervasive addiction across the community , country and so corporates is the addiction to chaos . An unadulterated , pure and pristine chaos. Defined , distinctly identified the chaos just runs its magic once it take its stakeholders in its ambit. The greater world has always  its part of chaos in very functional condition , but never contemplated seriously . The corporate ,the company the community or country every entity in fact comes sometimes in near or future under its(the drug called chaos) long protracted spell. Specially more in eastern side than its western counter part where organization , management or science  could easily connect the bigger mass . But the developing world , the emerging world or the recently upcoming world eagerly to be clubbed inside the elite group developed ones  are anyway never falling short of chaos. Somewhere the chaos is by product of functional anarchy , somewhere it is just the direct result of deeply flawed system intelligently and intentionally developed  with so many grey areas over the years with unscrupulous stakeholders. Chaos with its complementary components of crisis just work to the interest of a very small part of  any entity(whether its company, corporate or community) while forcing the most of the other part to work at suboptimal level. And the most irony is that being inside the chaos for so long , the  residents inside simply got used to it , start enjoying it and then entrench it further in their system with a very strange type of skills developed to thrive on it. While being exploited at day in , day out the whole population just forget its true worth yielding to an illusion of exploiting it to their interest instead of being exploited  themselves by the wrong system. 

A company like ours also was not an exception to the above anyway. With its genesis deeply rooted to a transition from a litany of ownership  companies very much characterized by out and out  private , professional and profiteering motif to a nationalized coal behemoth where all those feudal and autocratic psyche been inherited sans the ownership the same entities always cherished in their heart in those pre-nationalized era. The power got shifted (from owners to the their managers) not the sense of belongingness. The pay roll got changed from ownership company to the public sector of semi Govt company without any major change of governance pattern. Yesterday’s employee cum manager became today’s project officer cum owner which simply created a huge churn in the psyche of the organization. The complete control over the  assets created over the century whether the mine , mechanism or machine all just were not only pampering but also unprecedented wind fall in the hand of those transition force who were subordinate to ownership (which were disciplined and organized by default to skim the optimal gain from their assets).a just a few years ago. Added to it the exponentially increasing demand for power and so the fossil fuel along with consecutive five years plan to build a new India (specially reemphasizing the energy sufficiency after the great oil shock) suddenly take over the competitiveness , efficiency or efficacy of our work force. The almost fully protected market with price leverage in its disposal , a sedentary  monopoly circumvent its imagination or innovation , confine its mobility and create a situation where every thing could be taken as granted. And till the economic liberalization got kicked off in early nineties , the productivity as well as production both were just  company set target rather than demand driven vision. Undercutting the production target and overpricing the product was just complementary twin to give rise to an obese , outmoded organization overtly indulgent in everything a monopoly  detests , competition, efficiency, innovation. While we were feeding on our own complacency , and the energy value chain were trying to find its way out of the confinement of overdependency on us. Thanks to our overindulgent ministry we just got sometimes fell short of production but never of profit. With liberalization came up the call of captive route , decentralization of coal blocks, a restricted and regulated path of opening up the sector too half hearted in prosecution  and half baked in policy formation, the real challenge never took off. The organization just kept growing in isolation inspired by huge push for production but never any pull for productivity. The corollary :we kept crossing the milestones of achievement, moved from one number to next higher numbers whether coal production , coal sales or profit booking , but all were in absolute number , not in those indices which could speak of our  professionalism or sprouts our efficiencies . The perception simply never changed of the outer world , specially the whole energy value chain members(customers , consignees, and other stakeholders) although we got changed from one laurel to another . While we became from just PSU to Navartna and post market shoot out with block buster IPO, Mahartna with touching all time high market capitalization and reigning top players in the year 2013 , the financial benefits we could skim never gets reconciled with the economic benefit the nation aspired for. It was sometimes win-loose situation  normally yield to a zero some gain , making profit at the cost of somebodies revenue loss , were never revered as a great company.  

As mining company we grew much more laborious, chivalrous , expert  , but managing the same we just never grew in real sense. It was always an absolute growth on production , never ever on productivity as thanks the overemphasis by GoI on numerator (how much tons produced)  rather than denominator (how much cost incurred) to put a check on forex hemorrhage through the widening fissure of coal import  just picking up its third position after gold and oil. And that also while India can easily boasts of third richest in world in coal reserve  , to feed our turbines for next few hundred years. As the best cash cow with huge dividends , exchequers and off-loadable or buy back share value , contributing  almost half a lakh crore annually we have just been let on our own sans some occasional rapprochements mainly on production quantity rather than cost  incurred. 

And just in such stage when we keep growing like hydra more on size less on suppleness , when we need badly to shed the extra fat or shred the extra flab, to keep our shape better rather than bigger to accommodate any forthcoming churn or change in the market (like shrinking fossil fuel bucket and swelling alternate energy stocks) we are hailed with the new messiah in our system  and that is SAP. 

Suddenly regime of departmentalization, domain domination or functional supremacy in isolation and individualization just got threatened and rule of integration along with process raj with an institutional logic rather than individual one just took to center stage. The data will no more be captive to so many bastions of interest who keeps on manipulating them to their convenience . Like quark in quantum theory data starts moving thick and fast before getting processed as an information. With its emancipation of dubiousness and captivity to plural and duplicity , data starts speaking the truth ,the single truth powering it as the most potent decision maker in the organization  when processed and placed with others in different control table. The planning for processes , sequencing them and assigning its each components with its resources (whether man ,material, machines or marketing) along the cost incurred and time engaged , the system never been so smarter , so sophisticated to capture every detail of the operational efficiency , the variance between what we aspired for and what we achieved. Benchmarking against standard cost parameters suddenly we will start discovering our lethargy and laggardness  in the system  where whole focusing on the denominator in the indices the cost which was long overdue. Realtime delivery of information  with much more realistic figures will just keep us alerted 24X7 hours , 365 days ,  every moment across the nook and cranny of the organization. With a panoptic design, the organization will take the view of each and every process from , keep vigilante on its all operations not in isolation but in totality or holistic way to facilitate its decision making process from an integrated , informed rather than intuitive or instinctive approach. 

 Welcome the world of SAP , single source of truth nothing else. 

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infiltrate inside the conventional like Sachin , the consultant undercover and burst the resistance…….


SAP is a deep state (inside state ). It always mutates  towards a whole new state. The best part of the implementation is to infiltrate inside the reigning organisation so that change just gets deep into the veins and arteries of the organisation.

The example never been so obvious. In management we always defines strategy which never stays strict or stringent rather keeps snaking across the rough terrain of uncertainty with its natural fluidity .You simply cannot execute anything (specially new age initiatives) with any prejudice or preoccupation of your mind.So winner is he or she who can cope up with its continuous change according to the surrounding. And the example of such cruising through rough water may be coming of anywhere , not necessarily from your own cahoots or cohorts but also from outside also. What we need that to keep our eyes and ear open not to miss any such signals erupting from process ,people  who owns or does it or places where the events are occurring. 

Amongst the lot of naive or novice consultants CIL has been bestowed with while implementing Project Passion Sachin is one who has equal level of commitment and candidness in his work and thought process and also a little top up of clumsiness in articulation which in fact made him more interesting anyway.Now while being in the same lazie faire and laggard bunch of colleagues , he developed very interesting panache to get inside the mind of the people by his intense engagement as well as innocuous candidness. The process he developed to drill down the apparently rigid mindset of coal people is surely strange enough and deserve special attention of any high class sleuths to know a few tricks on how to infiltrate into the enemy camp. Sachin does his job very subtlety and surreptitiously. In fact he starts his ordeal in a very informal and innocuous manner. And while in his journey he never misses his destination , he keeps improvising his mode as required. Sachin indoctrinated our people with SAP style of working , he instils the new environment, introduces the wonderful world of enterprise solution to his clients(CIL people of MM cadre) in such a surrogated version of conversations with its undercurrent of transformation that the guy on the other side , so called audience of CIL MM managers just got changed without their knowledge. While trying to find the secret behind his style of intrusion in mainland of resistance of change in our company , I discovered he approaches the officer on the table in its most recess or leisure period , starts conversation mainly on his apparent curiosity and inquisitiveness about different aspects of process our people followed while procuring spares, pursuing contracts or penalising defaulters. While our MM managers starts obliging with their explanation what they do and why they do , Sachin simply in incepts their minds  , invade them and then slowly but steadily instil the redefined processes embedded in enterprise solution with its underlying strength of tight integration across the stakeholder functions , seamless  communication between them and then with huge global visibility doze where every information saves their extra cost of stock plus or forgone revenue or return on stock out. If the former saves the company to reduce the inventory cost the later retain the customer from returning empty handed thus reducing the down time or idle time to a great extent. 

In the yet to kick off full fledged organisation change management which could have been precursor of SAP implementation in our company had it been implemented long before we initiated our implementation process the whole approach of Sachin to orchestrate change was just eye opening  for all of us. The whole episode when got validated by many of our WCL MM colleagues, the so called Sachin’s audience who after talking to him got enough impressed with new tools on the block just made us felt that change cannot be managed rather needs to be mingled into our faculty of thought process in such a way , which will make us awaken to the new vistas and enlighten with its new possibilities and potentials.The need for such change should come from the minds who themselves will define the way they want this change should be and while articulating this in their way they can easily associate to the solution on the offer . What a consultant does is to facilitate all this processes in a very smooth and subtle manner where the client never feels the newer dimension being imposed on him rather he invoked from his own thought process. The ownership of such change is tremendous and the engagement are simply so intense. Its like a RAW agent just gets melted into the enemy bastion , starts dwelling in the grey cells of its bearer cells, mutate the cells thus creates a new tissue or organ. 

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unmaking of a movie , “Timeless Havana” a director’s abortive attempts to capture the change in Cuba(from communism to capitalism)

Here is the movie which spoke of the past but stumbles with present and completely silent on future. Here is the movie just not enough comfortable to deal with the change. Transition just could not be captured in its frame, script simply failed depict the moving over from one era to another era. And the director is at a loss. , at its wit’s end. The result a complete black out, a repetitive takes on each and every scene. A normal chasing scene never gets completed. The friend never find her old buddy, the comeback woman never cleared her dialogues to her native guide. And while kissing was not convincing, the intimate scene simply did not go right. It was too simple, too straight in the age of chaos, crisis and change. And lastly being frustrated the director gave up and told the actor and actress to get out of the frame , run out of scene and move out of the movie. It was the unmaking of a movie to capture the transition. It was the mirror of the past which shatters the present reality and shadowed the future completely. The memoir of the age bygone just overwhelms the recent time such a way that present simply cannot be framed anyway. The true story of the past which existed so pervasively, just did not allow the present to crystallize , stripping of the least cognizance the new age deserves. It was the shadow that kept looming larger and larger that the reality which never got or gained its due shape or size. It was the movie of failure of the people of Cuba to understand the transition from communism to capitalism; it is the post Castro aspiration and ambition of the people there in Havana and so Cuba which simply kept elusive even in celluloid. It is the unmaking of a cultural shift , a real life dilemma being captured with same confusion in the reel also. It is the anger, anxiety and hopelessness well tied and untied and then simply abandoned by the director in the movie Timeless Havana, a movie which captures a director’s dilemma rather than his cut or astuteness. The movie is more about Director Jeissy Trompiz , his helplessness , his submission to his inability to capture the time of turmoil from socialism ,  regulated , regimented society to a chaotic and confused country infested with initial euphoria and so embedded chaos of capitalism. The country which never spoke out its mind in open , the country which believes in shared purpose , shared wealth and shared progress suddenly got its kick of liberal , free flowing endowment not as entitlement fixed and formatted by the country but endowment and earning derived and decided by the individual.The movie tried to showcase this abortive attempts to make a movie on this transition with calculated obliteration of clarity with its two manifestation moving in parallel .One  is  about so many decades of conviction and so codification (hard) with socialism and communism and the other is about  the undercurrent of greed, garishness and gaudiness of capitalism. 

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Hard landing on moonland voyage could hardly dent the success story of Vikram but hard landing on homeland reforms can severely damage the image of Govt …..

A project once takes off could hardly be said failure or success in absolute sense as it defines (and redefines when needed) its narratives which are always function of three things which are time (which speaks of milestones on its timeline)cost(the efficiency , innovation ) and deliverable(quality, scale of achievement etc ). And the best part of any project is that at every point of time it gets its conclusion according to its milestones set. The smart project never gets frozen or gets sacrosanct once taken or set forth as it happens in any traditional project management rather it moves from automation to autonomous in its stage of criticality which could be best showcased by our Vikram’s ambitious voyage to moon. 

While ISRO’s precision of project management rightly be the best case study (even in the world benchmark)of near cent percent accuracy in every project it takes indisputably be best coordinated with least cost , best deliverable and on most accurate timeline, we wish the GoI takes a cue from its success stories while it does its own calculation or calibration of time , deliverable and cost of economy while it designed its project called “demonitisation” , “abrogation of article 370 the instrument of accession of Kashmir “ or by latest “NRC , Assam”. While in one deliverable (the black money expected to be blocked not back to economy) just ended with damp squib , in the other it created its own entrapment with no exit route in sight to get out of the over militarized zone called Kashmir in near future. In the latest one of Assam Census out of 4 million, 2 million are just put in suspended animation on their future citizenship with a long process of appellate and courts with indecision perpetuated so also their voting right and other entitlement. Added to it around 3 lakhs names had gone missing from any list(exclusion or inclusion) which means these guys in apprehension of not making to the list just went underground and resolved to stay without citizenship in the country!!!

In all these three projects showcased as achievement in first 100 days of the government the problem is not in intention(the causes for which they were proposed) but implementation (the way they were planned or performed) as with every project one exit route or scope of scenario planning is embedded which is expected to be activated once the conventional route is closed or gone barricaded. 

The Hon’ble PM’s assertion amongst ISRO scientists a couple of days ago could not be better timed when he said that he did not come to them to motivate them rather to get inspired himself by them. GoI , NITI every body must take the lesson from ISRO while unleashing the next big reform to understand how any project can never fail provided you put it in triple axis of time line precisely calibrated , cost diligently calculated and lastly deliverables clearly planned at different phases of it which need not necessarily be conclusive or christened with nomenclature as success or failure to fit or fire poll campaign as our politicians normally do.

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Rampant Logging in Amazon Basin in the name of development : How human kind are volunteering to do Climate Kamikaze , Japanese style suicide by gassing themselves

The earth has never felt such bankrupt before .Logging certainly got its traction being wrongly traded off with development. The irrational exuberance about affordability of global pollution but not local underdevelopment just pushing the climate to its edge again .These days the lead to squeeze out oxygen and stuffing with waste gas in our air has been taken by nobody else but the custodian of the widest amazon rainforest narrated as global lungs , the Brazial Prez Mr Zair Bolsonaro who is just ranting and roaring everyday to cut the rainforest to clear the path to development in the vast amazon basin. While it adds to already beleaguered nation with draught ,poverty recession in local level in globally it will add another notch spike in temperature by adding 0.1 degree more to already soaring Celsius. Being the lab for photosynthesis for 40% of earth , the amazon rainforest just supply the lifeline of oxygen to the asphyxiated world with choking growth spearheaded by different statesman with different excuses at different phases. So day before yesterday it was west , yesterday it was middle east , China and today it is Latin America everybody just extracts its share of allowance to precipitate the killing PM in our already stressed lungs to get it punctured and expectancy punctuated with every passing generation. 

Surprisingly while deforestation perforates the air by 8% ozone depleting greenhouse gas amongst all other human misadventures, the aid to replenish it attracts is just 3% among all climate coffer. So defense of tree against logging is itself much weaker when countering the logic of development anyway. Until we get suffocated with pulmonary malfunction of these development logic, we simply cannot give up this path of self destruction. It is simply Climate Kamikaze in Japanese Style of gassing your own car and chamber to commit suicide and take glory in it. In fact the history of civilization got enough scope of getting obliterated once the voice of some idiots like Mr Trump to trumpet his idiocy to reverse the climate commitment of his country or Mr Bolsonaro to bluster his idiosyncrasy to destroy the respiratory balance of the world are being allowed to rant. The extreme zeal to woe the electorate and win the crown at any cost without caring how much stupid and self destructive they might be , the loud and lousy voice of these type of statesmen are now all out to gas and gag the earth with unprecedented speed. One is still hell bent to bet on to stuff I our air by gases of fossil fuel by reopening its closed mines and false sense of creating another spurt of already disabled miners’ job or employment and the other is squeezing out the residual oxygen by downing all shutters of lab of photosynthesis by wiping out greenery of amazon basis. It is nothing but we are in the race of outcompeting others to hasten the Climate Kamikaze for the earth with suicide a note on “development”. After all a tree or its green trunk is very weak to fend and fight its own case against these words development , employment, economy and such others.