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Friday 15 April 2016

Vishal's Vision

In Indian languages , Vishal stands for :

Big / Huge / Enormous / Great

Some may even translate it as : Magnificent / Mind Boggling

That about sums up the vision of Vishal Sikka , CEO , Infosys

It was apparent in his interview in Business Line ( 16 April 2016 ) , which read :

Q :

... Indian companies acting as visa agents. What is the way forward ?

Ans:

" We are working on being independent of visas and it is possible because of advances in technology such as Virtual Reality and collaborative technologies through which we can do the same thing sitting out of any location "

Q :

What sort of impact will this have on your business model ?

Ans :

" Yes. Right now , I can't quantify the impact but it will take some time

Software is reshaping the world around us. The future looks entirely different - as it is being fundamentally reshaped by digital technologies

We have to re-imagine the notion of services

However we have to bear in mind that innovation is a need as much in good times as in bad times "

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I am tempted to send my following blog ( dt 09 Sept 2015 ) to :

Vishal.Sikka@Infosys.com

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" BACK FACTORY " OF THE WORLD ?

China is known as the " Factory " of the World

India is known as the " Back Office " of the World

Can India become the " Back Factory " of the World ?

Wrong question !

Right question is : WHEN can we become the " Back Factory " of the World ?

Answer is " hiding in plain sight " !

This week , an astronaut , sitting in a satellite 400 km above the earth and hurtling through space at 16,000 km per hour , operated a robot on the earth

Earlier , scientists sitting in NASA space centre or in Shri Harikota space centre , have operated Mars Rovers / MOM ( Mars Orbital Mission ) remotely

From a distance of millions of miles

And soon , astronauts will be sending emails to earthlings from millions of miles away , using " Space Internet " on their Mobile phones

Invariably , each such team of scientists , comprised Indians !

So , WHEN can our scientists - and software Start Ups - enable Indian workers ( sitting in Hyderabad / Chennai etc ) to operate / manipulate , machinery in factories of Europe / America / China ?

I believe this can become a reality by 2020 , if Central Government and State Governments , just get out of the way of our scientists / Start Ups and leave them alone !

Then tell them :

" You are our next generation of Freedom Fighters . Free our millions from

poverty / starvation / jobless depression / ignominy / suicides

Like war - ravaged people of North Africa , Indians cannot invade Europe / Australia / Canada , in search of jobs / better life

We depend upon you to bring the jobs to India - jobs such as ,

* Operating Machinery in Factories abroad

* Controlling Air Traffic at Airports around the World

* Operating upon patients in Hospitals , all over

* Teaching students in Schools , in remote Africa

* Any job that currently requires immediate presence of a

worker

And , if you set up a " Back Factory " , you don't need to pay Corporate Income Tax for next 10 years !

Simply register on web site of Income Tax Department as a " Back Factory "owner and file annual Zero Corporate Tax Return

When this happens ,

> Millions of skilled Indian workers will operate factories around the World ,

sitting in , internet connected " Back Factories " in small Indian towns

> Foxconn will not need to replace its high-wage Chinese workers with one

million robots ( as officially announced sometime back )

At half the wages of those Chinese workers , Indians will operate Foxconn

factories , all over the World , remotely !

> " Contract Labour Act " will need to be replaced with " Back Factory " Act

> " Minimum Wages Act " will need to be scrapped !

> India will not need to fight with WTO on " Manpower / Service Exports "

> " Make in India " will morph into " Make from India "

I hope NDA Ministers and members of NITI Aayog will ask , Narayan Murthy / Sam Pitroda / Azim Premji / Sundar Pichai / Satya Nadela / Ray Kurzweil etc :

" How soon can this be done ? How can you help ? "

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www.hemenparekh.in / blogs

16 April 2016

Thursday 14 April 2016

Training to Climb Everest ?

Just came across a news report ( HT / 14 April ) which says , parents of students of Vibgyor School ( Mumbai ), have opposed the decision of School Management to give tablets to Students of class 5

They are worried about continuous use of tablets damaging the eyes of their children - even as they are keen to reduce the weight of the school-bags by over 80 %

There could be other health hazards such as :

* Reduced alertness in the class rooms

* Diverting attention to online games ... etc

But , are these parents able to reduce the number of hours that their children watch TV / send text messages from their smart phones ?

Of course , not !

If anything , the trend towards watching some or other screen , is ever increasing , all over the World

This will get only worse with arrival of Virtual Reality ( VR ) devices , in next 2 / 3 years ! Expect all students to be walking around wearing Google Glass !

And when holograms arrive , we may look like zombies talking to unreal images flooding the living rooms of our homes !

And , lying in our beds and watching late night movies on our bedroom ceiling !

When these children grow up and take up jobs in offices ( no one wants to work on factory floor ! ) , they will be staring into a computer screen for 10 hours per day !

There is no way , the march of technology can be stopped

Either technology will find a way to overcome health hazards or over the next 500,000 years , humans will merge with computers , in what , Ray Kurzweil calls " Singularity " !

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www.hemenparekh.in / blogs

15 April 2016

Thou Shall not Kill

Leave that to me !

That is what some well wishers of humanity seems to be telling the robots

A report by Human Rights Watch ( along with Harvard Law School International Human Rights Clinic ) says :

" Control of critical functions by humans during combat, including the selections of targets, saves lives and ensures compliance with international law

Now there is a real threat that humans would relinquish their control and delegate life-and-death decisions to machines "

Human Rights Watch wants UN to ban such " Killer Robots "

Meaning ? Getting killed by ,

* a flying UAV is OK but not by a walking Robot ?

* AK 47 is OK but not by " Cluster Bombs " ?

* tanks is OK but not by an Atom Bomb ?

* rockets is OK but not by Chemical Weapons ?

What HRW seems to be saying, is :

Getting killed by a human is OK but not by a Robot ?

Who are we trying to fool ?

Passing resolutions in UN may not make any difference

Super Powers have been violating these with impunity for ages !

Humanity's only hope of not getting extinct at the hands of robots is some Computer Scientist , who develops a software algorithm , which incorporates Isaac Asimov's following " Laws of Robotics " and automatically gets embedded into all existing robots ( on factory floors / homes etc ) and infects all future robots :

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

2. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.

That is our only HOPE

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www.hemenparekh.in / blogs

15 April 2016

Tuesday 12 April 2016

Today's Science Fiction ?

Time and again , history has proved that :

Today's science fiction becomes tomorrow's science fact

To illustrate :

NASA is planning HERTS ( Heliopause Electrostatic Rapid Transit System )

Some 10 to 20 electro-statically charged aluminum wires ( 1 mm thick and 12.5 miles long ) , will radiate out from a satellite

These will repel the protons / electrons shooting out of Sun at high speeds

The resultant " reaction " will propel the satellite continuously / relentlessly

This " acceleration " will enable the satellite to exit solar system in 10 years instead of in 35 years

I have no doubt that one of these days , NASA ( or ISRO ? ) , will find a way to implement GEFEM ( Generating Electricity From Earth Magnetism ) , suggested in my following blog ( dated 24 March, 2014 ) :

Salvaging Life On Earth

The biggest cause for the degradation of environment is burning of fossil fuels

Burning of coal / gas / oil etc produces green-house gases , leading to global warming / floods / droughts etc

Everyone knows that the real long term solution is switching over to renewable energy sources such as wind / sun / tides etc

Can we tap earth's magnetism to produce abundant / unlimited / clean energy ?

I believe so and would request the scientists to consider my following suggestion :

Every school child knows that ,

* Electricity is generated when a copper wire is
rotated in any magnetic field

* Earth is surrounded by a very strong magnetic
field

* This magnetic field is generated by the rotation
of molten iron deep inside earth's core

* This magnetic field also protects us from harmful
ultra-violet rays / gamma radiations from space

Now , suppose we find a way to ,

* Construct a hollow cylinder of woven Copper wires
to envelope the earth , 100 miles above the
earth's surface ( like those thin rings of Saturn )

* Then , using small rocket thrusts , rotate this
cylinder in the direction opposite of earth's
rotation , to cut through its magnetic field

Will that generate electricity ?

I think so

With international co-operation such a project would take less time - and possibly money too - than the already successful international projects of the International Space Station or the Large Hadron Collider of CERN

It may be exciting to discover the God Particle and understand what makes up mass but I think , it is far more useful to find a permanent / clean source of energy to prevent the extinction of all life on earth by burning fossil fuels

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www.hemenparekh.in / blogs

13 April 2016

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Election Season is Rumour Season

You may also call it a season for cash-distribution !

Business Line ( 06 April ) quotes RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan as follows :

" Money in people's hands has gone up by over Rs 60,000 crore which is not normal and needs to be looked into

Around election time , cash with the public does normally increase ... You can guess as to reasons why ; we can also guess

You see some ( spike ) not just in the State going to elections , but also in the neighbouring states . There is something..We need to understand it better "

According to the latest data released by the RBI, there was a 48 % increase in the currency in circulation at Rs 2 lakh crore for the fortnight ended March 18

Now Times of India ( 08 April ) talks of a report released by the State Bank of India , which says :

" It is rumours of demonetization of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes that is possibly driving people to withdraw cash in order to deploy them in safe assets

There are suggestions in public domain and even analysis that are suggesting that higher denomination notes may be replaced

Demonetizing Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes will bring a huge amount of funds kept in these denominations into the banking channels and will facilitate a reduction in domestic black money transactions

But this would also be a headache when it comes to logistics "

MY TAKE :

* It is much better to have a headache than a heart attack !

* You can have the pie and eat it too , if , instead of outright

" Demonetization ", we just replace the existing paper notes ( of Rs 500

and Rs 1000 ) , with PLASTIC notes of same denomination , but embedded

with RFID micro-sensors ( 50th of a hair thickness ) , which can be tracked

through a GPS enabled technology platform ( consisting of a Mobile App )

* Any accumulation of Rs 10 lakh worth of such notes , within an area of

ONE square meter , will show up on a Google Map on the mobile app !

* This will not only allow people the convenience to continue using Rs 500 /

Rs 1000 plastic notes for their daily usage / purchases but it will, at same

time ensure that goods / services valued at a few thousands of rupees ,

will always get paid thru banking channels , since no seller of goods or

service would want an accumulation of even 1000 note of Rs 1000 , in his

table drawer / bank locker !

* And which candidate contesting any election would want his brief-case or

car trunk to show up on the Mobile App of ACB / ED / IT , as a red

balloon , with caption, " Find Five Crore Here " ?

What do experts have to say about CASH ?

* Mark Barnett, the boss of MasterCard ( UK ), believes that in five years cash will be practically extinct in Britain . At the Money 2020 conference in Copenhagen last week , he said :

" By the time we get to another generation , 30 years down the track, will there be any cash ? I very much doubt it . It will seem as antediluvian as carrying a pouch full of gold "

Marching towards the goal of a " less cash " society , yesterday , Shri Raghuram Rajan launched United Payment Interface ( UPI ) , which is independent of any payment platform ,bank or telecom service provider

One can use mobile based ( just one click ) UPI app for :

* Paying for delivery of goods from online shopping web sites

* Paying of utility bills

* Over the counter payments

* Bar code based payments

* Donations / School fees

* Any type of payment ! All without revealing your bank details !

But if Shri Raghuram Rajan wants UPI to catch like wild fire , all that he has to do is to replace existing notes ( not demonetize ) as suggested above

Sanjay Sarma ( MIT ) who has written 75 research papers on RFID sensors,

wrote to me :

" I think it is a matter of time before it happens

I do agree with your idea "

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hemenparekh.in / blogs

12 April 2016

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Make Yourself Heard

Dear Visitor :

It is time for YOU to speak up - and demand that YOU are heard

By emailing this suggestion - incorporating your OWN improvements - to the following Policy Makers

( Just multiple copy all the following Email IDs into the Recipient column of your Outlook and Copy / paste this suggestion in the Message Box ) :

Sunday 10 April 2016

Robots Robots Everywhere , not a Soul to See !

This may not happen anytime soon in India , it could soon be a reality in Japan

If in doubt , look at the following figures for Robot Population :

* Japan............... 310,508

* USA................. 168,623

* Germany.......... 161,988

* South Korea....... 138,883

* China............. 96,924

* Canada............ 18,387

* UK................ .. 15,046

* India............... 7,840

* Brazil................ 7,576

Read these figures in following context :

# In last 10 years , Japan's population shrunk by 1 MILLION people

# Last week , in New York and California , minimum wage for unskilled

labor was raised to $ 15 per hour ( approx Rs 1000 per HOUR ! )

# A fresh Civil Engineering graduate in India gets paid Rs 15,000 / month

( Rs 75 per hour ! )

# There are demonstrations by citizens in most European countries which

are trying to introduce " Austerity Measures "(aka " Employee Benefits ")

# My following blog :

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Monday, 21 September 2015

SECOND INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION ?

The First Industrial Revolution started in Britain , with the invention of steam engine , which multiplied human power many times

With help of steam engine power , one man could do the job of ten men

Human productivity went up sharply , enabling production of ten times more goods , in ten times less time

Thousands of factories came up ; first in Britain , then in USA and gradually spreading to rest of Europe

But it took over a century to reach the poor countries of Asia / Africa / China

Under colonial rule , these countries were forced to export own raw materials to industrialized countries at a very cheap price and import their factory-made finished goods at very high prices

But as poor countries started catching up on factory-based manufacturing using its cheap labour , the developed countries are now worried !

One time importers of finished goods are now exporting those very products to the developed countries , which are finding it difficult to compete with the emerging markets

An outstanding example of this is the rise of China , in the past 25 years as the , " Factory of the World "

But Western countries are not resigned to their fate of a lowered

" Standard of Living "

They are gearing up to usher :

The Second Industrial Revolution !

In the form of Robots :

Robots manufacturing cars / appliances / machinery / anything

Robots 3 D printing products from designs downloaded from Net

Robots managing health care in hospitals

Robots serving food in restaurants

Robots carrying out office jobs

Robots teaching in schools

Robots entertaining

Robots everywhere !

And these are :

Robots which work 24 hours/day and do not ask for a salary

Robots that do not " go slow "or go on a strike

Robots that do not demand " Quotas / Reservations "

Robots that do not take holidays or take " Sick Leave "

Robots that do not resign / demand promotion

Robots that neither envy other robots nor sabotage

Robots that do not complain against unpleasant work

Robots that do not get tired and need rest

Robots whose production does not drop after working for 8 hours

Robots that do not demand " Overtime Pay " @ 200 % of normal

Robots that perfectly co-ordinate their tasks with other robots

Robots that willingly " retire " at any age , whenever required

Robots that do not demand Unemployment/Retirement Benefits

Robots which may , some day , provide you with emotional support when you are sick / depressed !

And this Second Industrial Revolution is NOT going to take a hundred years to reach the shores of India

With spread of DIGITAL INDIA / Internet / Mobile Apps , it may take , no more than 20 years !

Question :

Fearing that it will create further unemployment , shall we try to stall its arrival ?

OR ,

Will our Self-Employed and Start Ups expedite its arrival and imaginatively use it to create 100 new jobs for each lost job ?

Let us stop tinkering with ,

* The India Aspiration Fund

* The MakeinIndia Soft Loan Fund

* The MUDRA Bank

Converting millions of Job-seekers into Job - Creators , would entirely depend upon Union Government quickly passing , what I earlier advocated as :

Start Up Act - 2015

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hemenparekh.in / blogs

11 April 2016

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Make Yourself Heard

Dear Visitor :

It is time for YOU to speak up - and demand that YOU are heard

By emailing this suggestion - incorporating your OWN improvements - to the following Policy Makers

( Just multiple copy all the following Email IDs into the Recipient column of your Outlook and Copy / paste this suggestion in the Message Box ) :