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

Sunday, 30 October 2022

My tango with Shortly

 


My prompt ( what I typed in this AI software ) :

 

" Would voters be enthused to come forward to vote , if  latest info about ALL of those candidates was available at finger-tips on his Mobile ( authenticated by Election Commission ), eliminating hours of " searching " on the Net and hours of " filtering "

 

Shortly lost no time to reply as follows :

 

“ By leveraging technology, including mobile phone applications and SMS messaging, the Indian Election commission can include SORA-like data for each candidate into Ballot papers.

The citizen seeking to exercise his / her franchise then is presented with a ready-to-go printout of all information about all candidates.

A similar idea can be taken up for the new generation Voter ID cards."

 

Hey !

 

This somewhat resembles my own following 6 YEAR old e-mail to Cabinet Ministers :

 

Ø  Filtering Candidate Information ? ………………………………[ 18 Sept 2016 ]

 

Extract :

 

#  If each voter takes a ONE page print-out of those 10 candidates , that will

    be 8,500 million printed pages

 

   (incidentally, how many voters have access to internet-connected PC and a Printer ? )



#  By the time, voter enters the Polling Booth , he would have forgotten what

    those 10 pages contained !

 

Would voters be enthused to come forward to vote , if latest info about ALL of

    those candidates was available at finger-tips on his Mobile (authenticated by

    Election Commission ), eliminating hours of " searching " on the Net and hours

    of " filtering "

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

 I believe Shortly is , right now , just an infant . It is growing

If it manages to outlive dozens of similar AI software currently jostling with each other, it may manage to grow into a beautiful damsel , with whom I may tango every week  !

info@shortly.com

 

With regards,

Hemen Parekh

hcp@RecruitGuru.com  /  31 Oct 2022

 

FAQ from Shortly website :

 

How does it work?

We are using OpenAI's GPT-3, one of the world's biggest neural-network powered language models to write with you. GPT-3 has been trained on a lot of text (nearly half a trillion words) in order for it to 'learn' how to write.

As part of our contract with OpenAI, using Shortly for 'backdoor' access into GPT-3 (instead of using it as a writing assistant) is prohibited.

What is it and why?

We are using advanced AI in a way that no one else ever has - to extend your creativity, to write for you. Just click the button and the AI will continue writing for you.

Imagine having one of the greatest writers in the world
helping you write, at the click of a button. That is what we are working towards and you can help support us on this mission.

 

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

Saturday, 29 October 2022

New AI Kid on the block ?

 


Hugging Face

I have no idea but it is fun – although I may not use it frequently

It is an AI application that “ extracts a gist “ or gives an answer, out of a long write up

Look at the following example :

 

Step # 1


Enter any long text here

GIMME STUFF TO STUDY 📚

I entered following :

For one of the largest deployment of smart meters in Uttar Pradesh, leading energy and infrastructure players including L&T, Adani, GMR have placed bids. Intellismart which is a joint venture of state-owned entity EESL and NIIF has also shown interest. The Rs 23,000 crore tender is to install 28 million smart meters across the state.

These smart meters will be installed in the areas of four of the five power distribution companies of UP, namely PuVNL, PVVNL, DVVNL and MVVNL. This covers the whole state except the area under KESCO distribution company which is Kanpur City.

UP till yet has 11 lakh smart meters installed across the state.

Recently, union ministry of power also issued country's largest ever tender for procuring 10 million smart meters. Close to a dozen meter manufacturers and leading power sector conglomerates have participated in the pre-bid meetings and are likely to submit interest for the same, this paper reported recently.

This includes infrastructure companies such as Adani, L&T, Robert Bosch, EdF, Tata Power, India Power, and Ashoka Buildcon. Leading meter makers such as Landis+Gyr, Schneider, Secure meters, Anvil Cables, Avon have also participated in the pre bidding discussions and are likely to plavce bids.

The smart meters roll out is part of the newly launched power distribution reforms scheme of the Centre. The Rs 3 trillion Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS) aims to improve the operational efficiencies and financial sustainability of state-owned discoms/power departments by providing conditional financial assistance.

The Scheme has an outlay of Rs 3,03,758 crore with an estimated gross budgetary support from the Central Government of Rs 97,631 crore. Out of this, Rs 10,000 crore has been allocated for smart metering infrastructure across the country. Government estimates indicate deployment of 25 crore smart meters for domestic consumers.

RDSS envisages smart metering on the OPEX mode and provides financial support to discoms opting for prepaid smart metering “

Click >  Study this

 

Step # 2


ASK ME ANYTHING FROM THE INFORMATION YOU HAVE GIVEN

So , I entered :

“ What is the advantage of Smart Meters to Discom ? “

Click  >  Ask

 

Step # 3


Here is your Answer

Hugging Face gave following reply :

 “ provides financial support to discoms opting for prepaid smart metering


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Not bad !

Of course, this App is far from perfect . I suppose it will improve over time

 

It could “ improve “ much faster if the developer were to make a provision for users to give feedback through “ Rating “ of the answers

 

CC :  Julien Chaumond – Co-Founder { julien@huggingface.co }

 

With regards,

Hemen Parekh

hcp@recruitGuru.com  /  30  Oct 2022

 

Friday, 28 October 2022

Amazing AI

 


 

I just came across an AI called Shortly

 

I used it to help me “ write a blog “ and the result is as follows :

 

Sentences in GREEN are my “ prompts “ ( what I wrote before clicking “ Write for me “ )

Sentences in RED are what Shortly filled in

 


For letting the politicians take us for a ride , we have no one to blame but ourselves  !

We have miserably failed in coming up with a citizen’s “ CHARTER  OF  DEMAND “,

which :


-  shall stake out the position of the common citizen in all public matters,

-  shall be as brief and lucid as possible,

-  and shall be binding on all sections of society.

 

The unwillingness of citizens to band together in this way is our own worst enemy. 

We must create a new set of standards by which our country will operate or it will surely fall apart.

 

Here are specific steps that citizen need to take before the election :

 

1. There must be a set of demands that citizens should put up when they go out

    to vote.


2. These demands shall guide their votes and should be binding on the politicians,

    who constantly in their election campaigns promise the moon and stars to get a

    vote.

    

3. If the politicians do not concede to these demands, it is perfectly alright for the

    voters to punish them by abstaining from voting or by voting for another

    party or candidate who does agree with    your demands.

 


    

Here is what citizen can do if political parties hesitate to commit to Citizen's CHARTER OF DEMAND :

 

The advantages of doing this are :-


-  It will give us a voice in deciding the direction our country should take.


-  It is a way of making politicians accountable for their promises.


-  We can be sure that we are being taken seriously.

 

The word "demands" is used in the title, but this work is not about the demands to

be made by various parties and the various platforms they have put up for the

coming election.

 


Difficult to believe that AI could write just like a human !

 

Absolutely – and here is why :

 

Some 4 years ago, I wrote following blog(and sent as email to Cabinet Ministers) :


Ø  Citizen’s Charter of Demand…………………………… [ 29 Oct 2018 ]

 

Extract :

 

Dear Voters ,

 

For letting the politicians take us for a ride , we have no one to blame but

ourselves  !

 

We have miserably failed in coming up with a citizen’s “ CHARTER  OF  DEMAND “,

which :

 

·         Lists our demands

 

 ·         Groups these into,

 

                 #  Urgent but not Important

 

                #  Important but not Urgent

 

                #  Both , Urgent as well as Important

 

 

 

·         Devise / launch a Mobile App to solicit citizen’s response to the above, with

          PRIORITY RATING for each  listed item ( 1 = Low  /  2 = Medium  /  3 = High )

 

           

·         Then arrange in descending order of priorities

  

·         For each item, lays down “ Quantified / Measurable “ targets , with target

          dates

 

     Send this CHARTER of DEMAND to each political party , insisting that the Party

     comes out with a public statement , accepting to implement the Charter ( if

     voted to power , of course ) and also publish this on its  web site

 

 

          Charter will begin with following “ Declaration of Intent “ :

 

 “  We the people of India , submit the following Charter of Demands to the

    political parties contesting 2019 General Election and ask them to accept the

     same for  implementing , if voted to power

 

  

   We will not vote for those parties which refuse to accept this charter

 

 

   However , if several parties accept this Charter , citizens will vote for those

   parties and their candidates , who will begin their every Election Rally Speech

   with re- affirmation of its acceptance

 

    Once a party has accepted the Charter prior to the election , it will need to

    publicly  confirm its support to its implementation , even if it fails to form the

    government  and sits in the opposition. “

 

   Using the same Mobile App, every quarter , compile citizen feedback on their

   perception of “ Actual Achievement %age as against Target “ and provide this

   FEEDBACK of People’s perception , to the  government

 

              

 

 

Dear Readers :

 

Our PM Shri Modiji has repeatedly urged our citizen to provide FEEDBACK on

various govt reforms and on things that will make their lives “ Easy to Live “


Here is your chance to take help from Shortly , to write down your DEMANDS and

e-mail these to our Policy Makers at :

 

CabinetJuly2021@recruitguru.com

chiefminister2021@recruitguru.com

bjpnationalexecutive@recruitguru.com

office@rahulgandhi.in

assocham@nic.in

info@cii.in

 

  

With regards,

Hemen Parekh

hcp@RecruitGuru.com  /  29 Oct 2022

 

Related Readings :

 

Congratulations, Anand Bhandare


Context :

Citizen groups begin drafting BMC poll manifesto; edu, water key issues  /  TOI  /  17  Oct 2022.

Extract :


Citizen groups, which have come together to formulate a citizens’ MANIFESTO for

the upcoming elections  , held the primary meeting to draft the policy on Sunday


The MANIFESTO will be declared on Nov 15, after the demands and issues listed by

the representatives of various organizations working in the field of education, water

transport and healthcare, among others, are examined by experts


“ Representatives of various organizations working in the field of water, education,

 transport , health, hawkers , roads, environment, and women’s rights among other,

 presented their views at the meeting


The views and DEMANDS will be examined by subject experts and then included in

the MANIFESTO. The manifesto will be published on Nov 15 “, said Anand Bhandare

from Nagarikayan Research Centre



CC:

Jalindar Sarode  (  Shikshak Bharti  )……………. sarodejalindar@gmail.com   /  sarodejalindar1@gmail.com  

Shilpi Syal, ( Centre for Promoting Democracy ) ……… info@cpdindia.org

 

 

Monday, 24 October 2022

Report Card for Corporators

 

Mumbai: Now, get ‘report card’ of your corporator on your mobile screens  /  Ind Express / 06 Oct 2022

 

Extract :

Ahead of civic elections, a Mumbai-based citizen’s group has designed a unique mobile application through which residents can request personalised report cards of performance of corporators from their respective areas.


Nagarikayan Research Center, a citizen’s representative forum, has designed the ‘My Corporator’ (Majha Corporator) app, which is available in Google playstore, through which a citizen living in any municipal ward can request for a report card of their corporators.


After a citizen flags a request, members of this organisation bring out information from the civic body by filing RTIs and other documents, following which a report is prepared.

 

Anand Bhandare, coordinator from Nagarikayan, said there are five parameters based on which the corporators are marked.


These are:


Ø  attendance in various civic committees and meetings,

Ø  number of questions asked,

Ø  number of motions filed,

Ø  amount of funds utilised and

Ø  how they are utilised.


This report card is prepared only after we receive a request from citizens. After we receive the request, we access the attendance logs and scrutinise the purchase document orders that reflect the expenses incurred by the corporators,” Bhandare said.


“Our volunteers also carry out a ground-level social inspection to check the quality of raw materials used for projects like road to check if same work is being implemented in a particular area,” he said.


So far, 56 report cards of 44 corporators have been uploaded on the app. Some of these corporators include Pratima Khopade, Sunil Prabhu and Geeta Singhan from the Shiv Sena, Kamlesh Yadav, Prakash Gangadhare and Neil Somaiya from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and Vinnie D’souza, Sonam Jamsutkar and Sneha Jagade from the Congress.

 

Bhandare said that besides marking corprorators, the application also evaluates independent experts that are inducted on various civic development committees.


“Based on the parameters, we evaluate the performance of the corporators and have specific colour markings to assess their performance. If the average marking or percentage is below 40, then it is highlighted with grey colour, if the percentage ranges between 40 and 70, it is highlighted with blue colour, and above 70 is marked with green colour,” Bhandare said.


Congress corporator, Jagdish Amin, BJP’s Geeta Kiran Bhandari and Sena’s Sandhya Doshi are some of the highest performers with scores above 70. On the other hand, Sena’s Dilip Lande and BJP’s Anita Panchal and Parag Shah are among the low performers.

 

RTI activist Anil Galgali [ a.galgali@rediffmail.com  ],

said it is time the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) come up with such mobile application on its own to disseminate information about fund allotment and usage.


“Usage of mobile application is the way forward. In this app, we are trying to track the actual money spent by the BMC during and after the pandemic which will give us the real on-ground scenario in Mumbai,” Galgali said.

 

My  Take :

 

Dear Shri Anand Bhandareji ,

 

Congratulations on this initiative . Unfortunately I just could not find your email ID anywhere . Is it > foundation@moneylife.com ?


I urge you to take it further as suggested in my following blog ( sent as email to all Union Cabinet Ministers ):

Ø  Filtering Candidate Information ? ………………………………..[  18  Sept  2016  ]

 

Extract :

 

BUT ,

Would voters be enthused to come forward to vote , if

 

#  Latest info about ALL of those candidates was available at finger-tips on

    his Mobile ( authenticated by Election Commission ), eliminating hours of

    " searching " on the Net and hours of " filtering "

    


 #  That info would comprise,


     *  Affidavit filed by the Candidates

 

     *  Police Record including cases filed / pending / disposed off , against the

         candidates


     *  Past political history ( no of political parties changed )

 

     *  Director-ship ( direct / indirect ) in private businesses and NPA of those

         businesses


     *  Results of open Surveys on " ROMP – Recall Our Member of Parliament "


     *  Whether the candidate has accepted to implement the " 
Charter of

         Demand " ( if elected ) , submitted  and uploaded by the Voters of his

         Constituency on the web site of the Election Commission

         


#  He can vote directly from his Mobile , without having to go to a Polling Booth

    and spend 4 hours


#  He can take 5 minutes to cast his vote, sitting in his bedroom , without holding

    up other voters in the queue


#  He can vote at any time of the voting day and from any place on the earth !


#  And get to know the very next morning , who got elected



YES
 , of course !


And voter turn-out would be 
95 %  !


HOW  ?


By implementing , " 
 " VotesApp "


( a Mobile App which , effectively shrinks a bulky, common , special purpose

  Electronic Voting Machine - EVM - into a tiny, personally-owned ,

 versatile Mobile )


ANY   BYE-PRODUCT   ?


Sure,

Central Government , can earn Rs 20,000 crores , by enabling 15 million

 Indian businesses to advertise to 850 million voters thru this mobile

VotesApp ,  sharply targeting by Gender / Age / Marital Status / City / Street /

 Education / Income Tax paid / Employed or Jobless ....etc

 

With regards,

Hemen Parekh

hcp@RecruitGuru.com

25 Oct 2022

 

Related Reading / Viewing :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cljxHmmGQoU

https://www.bmcelections.com/news/bmc-elections-this-is-how-you-may-monitor-the-funds-that-your-corporators-have-spent

https://theprint.in/india/mumbai-citizens-group-makes-mobile-phone-app-with-corporators-performance-report-cards/1147855/