Hi Friends,

Even as I launch this today ( my 80th Birthday ), I realize that there is yet so much to say and do. There is just no time to look back, no time to wonder,"Will anyone read these pages?"

With regards,
Hemen Parekh
27 June 2013

Now as I approach my 90th birthday ( 27 June 2023 ) , I invite you to visit my Digital Avatar ( www.hemenparekh.ai ) – and continue chatting with me , even when I am no more here physically

Thursday, 19 October 2017

Adopt Innovative Ways



Hindustan Times ( 19  Oct ) carries following news report :




“ Adopt innovative ways to break silos in Govt : PM  “



 Bureaucrats should use technology for delivery of better governance; ministries should not work in silos and work as a team to realise the dream of creating New India by 2020.


This was Prime Minister Narendra Modi's missive to about 380 officials of the rank of director and deputy secretaries with whom he interacted this month.


“ The PM exhorted the officers to work with full dedication towards creation of New India by 2022.


He said that silos are a big bottleneck in the functioning of the Union government. He urged the officers to adopt innovative ways to break silos, which will result in the speeding up of various processes of governance,"  a government release said.


=======================================================


I suppose , by “ breaking silos “ , PM means :



Keep each other informed of what you are doing / working on , so that the “ left hand knows what the right hand is doing “ and you do not end up slowing down others’ efforts or end up working at cross purpose


Keeping each other informed about your initiatives will , not only avoid duplicate work but it will enable you to complement one another and synergize your efforts 



Here is how , we managed this ( breaking silos ) at the small Switchgear factory of L&T , way back in 60s ( call it V 1.0 ) :





·         Whenever , a manager sent out a letter ( to any outside party ) or a memo ( to an internal department ) , he asked his secretary to make a carbon copy , marked “ FOR CIRCULATION



Of course , he did this only when he considered that communication to be important enough for other Managers to know and felt that this knowledge would help the recipient to raise questions or guide him in his own decisions



·        
Despatch Mail Room attendant responsible for all outgoing and internal mail distribution , would remove the copies marked “ FOR CIRCULATION “ , bunch these together , attach a CIRCULATION SLIP carrying the names of 8 / 10 managers and deliver to the manager whose name is right at the top


·         When the first-named manager finishes reading all those copies , he will enter “ date read “ against his name and place the bunch in his out-tray . And more often than not , he will enter his own remarks / comments on any of those letters / memos



·         Mail attendant will pick up the bunch and deliver it to the next-named manager



Utterly , Butterly , Simple  !



It worked beautifully well and all of us were in perfect SYNC , at all times



No doubt , when the factory grew and we had more than 20 managers , this system broke down since it would take a full month before the last-named manager got to read what others had written !



But then , those were the days when :


·         Managers had secretaries ( who typed on typewriters ) and used stapling devices


·         Managers boasted of “ OUT and IN  “ trays on their tables !


There were no computers / no internet / no Outlook / no Skype / no Online Collaboration softwares / no project-plans / no smart phones / no Webex / no Whatsapp / no nothing !



To day , every private sector manager and government officer , has access to all the above-mentioned aids



What could be holding them off , from coming out with VERSION 2.0 of the 50 year old process described above  ?



It can be nothing more than cultivating an attitude which says :


“ If sharing this info with my colleagues will make us move faster in providing better governance , then I will share it . Of course , I will not share info which must be kept secret ( even for a short while ) and which cannot be leaked “



Dear Narendrabhai :





But how is a Govt Officer to decide : 


·         Who ( which officers ) need to know about my views / thinking on this subject / topic and therefore , must get a copy of my email ?



If you decide to appoint a Committee of Secretaries to come up with guidelines re this ( sharing of email info to other govt officers ), then very little is likely to happen !



They may end up setting up another “ Empowered Committee “ !



For V 2.0 of the process which L&T followed 50 years ago , please consider following approach :



·         Government is already working on a big push for data analytics , in order to improve decision making .


·         Why not ask some leading software company to analyse those millions of emails ( sent out by various govt officers over the years ) and come up with an Artificial Intelligence based software , which will ( after reading / interpreting the content of each outgoing email from an officer ) , decide , WHO all ( other govt officers ) should get a copy ( cc: ) ?



Let us call such software  : IDEAIntelligence based Delivery of Email Alerts  }



Google / Amazon / Microsoft / Apple / Facebook etc are already using / employing similar AI based software algorithms for delivering advertisements to millions of “ most likely interested “ people around the World  !



Let no one tell you : This is not possible for a software to decide



Google’s AlphaGo Zero AI algorithm “ learns from scratch and with no human help beyond being told the rules ……… because AlphaGo Zero learns on its own from a blank state, its talents can now be turned to a host of real-world problems

 “ ( source : Business Line / 20 Oct 2017 )



And if anyone needs convincing , CBDT has recently awarded a $ 100 Million contract to L&T Infotech to develop a software platform ( using Semantic Web ) , to capture “ Tax Evaders “ , by scraping Social Media sites  !



One more thing :



Do not expect the government officers to welcome the idea of IDEA !


Most of them still believe their POWER lies in being in possession of some such information to which , they alone are privy !






20  Oct 2017



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