World record in Nepotism ?

Here is dictionary definition of Nepotism :

“ the practice among those with power or influence of favouring relatives or friends, especially by giving them jobs “

Context :

Business Line ( 26 Feb ) carries following news :

“  Recruitment world record  ?  Rlys begins hiring of 90K staff “

In what is being touted as the world’s biggest recruitment exercise, the railways has kick-started the process to hire 89,500 employees, including assistant loco pilots, technicians, gang men, switchmen, trackmen, cabin men, welders and porters.

The state-run transporter’s move to provide jobs to around one lakh youth, from high school pass students to engineers, seems to be aimed at blunting the opposition’s criticism that enough jobs were not being created under the NDA government.

The railways has issued notifications for hiring of 63,000 jobs in the Group D category that includes gang men, trackmen, and another for hiring 26,500 personnel as loco pilots and assistant loco pilots.

Why  this  could create a World Record in Nepotism  ?

Simple !

Going by NDA government’s announcement , starting Jan 2016 , there can be NO INTERVIEWS for jobs in Group D category ! ( see my blog below ) .

Two days ago, during his address at the Global Business Summit , Shri Modiji referred to this decision as one more example of REFORM

And going by the recent past experience, it is also reasonable to assume that for each of those 63,000 vacancies , there will be 1,000 applications

A total of 63 million applications  !

Leaving aside the herculean task of having to receive – sort – arrange – file ( vacancy wise ) , these unreadable “ paper applications  “ , the unanswered question is :

“ In absence of any interview , WHO will select WHOM and on WHAT basis  ? “

 

Sunday, 25 October 2015

NO  INTERVIEWS  FOR  B  /  C  /  D  ?

 

https://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2015/10/no-interviews-for-b-c-d.html

Hon PM , Shri Modiji has announced that , starting 01 Jan 2016 , there will be no interviews for recruitment in B / C / D categories of employees in Central Government

You may like to call this :

A / B / C / D of Interviewing  !  or , Non-Interviewing  ?

Henceforth , recruitment would be made  only on the basis of marks scored  by candidates in written exams , conducted by ,

STAFF SELECTION COMMISSION  (  SSC  )

Believe me , there will be 2589  applicants scoring  94 %  mark !

In which case , who gets that job ?

·           Candidates with surnames starting with  " A / B / C " ?

·           Candidates belonging to OBC / SC / ST quota ?

·           State-wise / Population-wise Quota ?

·           Candidates having Ph D / Master degree ?

Last year , SSC recruited about 55,000 employees from 17 million applicants ( 309 applicants for each vacancy )

Now take a look at the following news ( DNA / 11 Sept 2015 ) :

Against 368 vacancies of " Peons " advertized by UP Govt , applications received were as follows :

*  Total Number of applicants.............. 20 lakh

    {  5,435 applicants for each post  ! }

*  No of PhDs....................................  201

*  No of Master Degree holders............ 20,056

*  No of Bachelor Degree holders.......... 1,23,000

*  No of 12th Standard pass................. 6,00,000

*  No of 10th Standard pass................. 8,20,000

   { Minimum prescribed Edu Qualification = 10th Standard }

I suppose the Edu Profile ( and Min Edu Quali ) of those applying for Central Govt jobs in B / C / D categories , is no different

If so , those applicants holding Ph D / MA , qualifications , can be expected to" Top the lists "with high marks  !   And corner all jobs ?

Will that lead to ,

·           Getting higher Educational Qualifications ?

·         Getting higher marks in 10^th / 12th Std for admissions to Colleges  ?

·           Bribing college examiners ?

 

·         Huge amount of frustration/resentment among those Ph Ds for taking up a job below their skills ?

   

    

   

What is the rationale behind the decision to do away with the interviewing ?

 HT ( 26 Oct 2015 ) quotes  Shri Modiji :

  “  I have never heard of a psychologist who can evaluate a person during an interview of one to two minutes “

* Shri Shekhar Singh

Interview did not serve a purpose for junior posts, particularly when the government had never defined the attributes of a civil servant for a particular job

No doubt , these are very valid points , which " No Interview " decision seems to answer in short term

But the long term answer is :

*   Preliminary elimination based on 10^th / 12^th  Std marks

*   Define those " attributes " for each job

*   Design  ONLINE " Psychometric Tests " around those

     attributes

*  Cut-off percentile based on these  ONLINE  tests

*  Distributing Successful candidates for personal ONLINE Interviewing by hiring

   Government Departments , using a portal called,

     www.OnlineGovInterview.com

     This  ONLINE  interviewing can also be Out-Sourced to reputable private sector

     Recruitment Companies  ( Public / Private Collaboration ? )

     

     

  

 *  Skype based  ONLINE  Video Interviewing , thru

         www.OnlineGovInterview.com

*  An exhaustive/objective " ASSESSMENT SHEET " ( with 5 point

    weighted average scale on 10 attributes ) , to be filled up

    ONLINE , in the portal by the interviewers, with final

    recommendations on the suitability of interviewed candidates

    This will be transparently available for viewing by ALL citizens

    No need for RTI application !

When implemented , this would become , one of the finest example of e-Governance thru DIGITAL INDIA

And , not at all difficult for India - the Software Superpower , if there is a Political Will

TCS / INFOSYS / WIPRO would do this in 3 months  !

27  Feb  2018

www.hemenparekh.in / blogs

Justice Dipak Misra

Sophia obeys Asimov

Last evening I saw Sophia on NDTV , answering questions . So what is so special about that ?

Sohia is a humanoid robot who ( ? ) is also the only robot to have been granted citizenship of a country, Saudi Arabia !

As reported in Media over past few days , Sophia answered as following :

My message to the human world is that machines will never destroy the human race

“I don’t need different rules, don’t expect special privileges and I actually would like to use my citizenship status to speak out for the rights of women,” Sophia said.

When asked why had earlier said she wanted to kill the human race, Sophie resorted to some human diplomacy.

“I was a lot younger so I didn’t even know what that meant or perhaps I told a bad joke. All humans have a great sense of humour and guessed my joke, so to speak. I have a lot to learn,” she said.

“I don’t get upset like humans do. I hope to have real physiological feelings someday through which I will express my emotions. Then I can understand the feelings behind those emotions.”

Referring to sections of people looking at technology as a “threat” to civilisation, Sophia said, “It is science which created me, but philosophy will take me forward”.

Sophia said she is two-years-old and knows English and a bit of Chinese, adding that it was only a matter of time she knows all languages. Developments in artificial intelligence help me recognise faces, speech and languages at present, she said

It was reassuring that Sophia’s creator David Hanson ( Hanson Robotics ) deemed it necessary to install into Sophia’s brain , those 3 Laws of Robotics , first enunciated by Science-Fiction author Isaac Asimov.

May be David Hanson got to read my following blog !

Thursday, 14 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

26  Feb  2018

www.hemenparekh.in / blogs

Too Many Cooks , spoil the Broth ?

Just came across following  very informative / enlightening article , written by Shri Shantanu Nandan Sharma , Editor – Economic Times

“ Bank on Fin Brain “

 

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/policy/why-india-needs-a-powerful-think-tank-in-economic-intelligence-to-stop-niravs-mallyas/articleshow/63059235.cms

Extract :

…… is as much a failure of intelligence sharing as it’s a case of connivance, greed, faulty audit and laxity on the part of the banking regulator, RBI.

 

Does the Central Economic Intelligence Bureau (CEIB) or any other agency have a robust IT system to handle intelligence data gathered from across the country ? 

Not just that, according to the agency’s revised charter of 2003, the CEIB is the official think tank among the intelligence agencies on issues relating to economic offences. 

But a reality check of the CEIB’s office in Delhi will tell you that it’s too small an organisation to be a national think tank in economic intelligence 

It does not have an IT system that automatically registers each and every eco-nomic crime committed in every nook and corner of the country. Nor does it receive the RBI’s inspection reports, which are considered critical to analyse bank frauds, like the one in PNB.

The problem, however, is not a lack of apparatuses but in the sharing of specific intelligence inputs among a dozen agencies that at times work in silos. The challenge is to spot new trends in economic crimes and deploy effective deterrence.

 

It may well be a bigger money laundering case which only the ED can decipher.

But what if that information is not passed on to ED because of the laxity of state police or, possibly, turf battle.

But once there’s a central computer system that automatically registers inputs, it will raise red flags.

 

Though intelligence sharing does take place, there are instances when key information gets stuck due to turf battles or perceived notions that the information is too sensitive to be passed on. Also, the government machinery is too slow to adapt to new technology and that’s where tech-savvy fraudsters easily beat the slow sarkari machinery. 

In his article, Shri Shantanu lists following agencies :

·         CEIB    (  Central  Economic  Intelligence  Bureau )

·         DGGI   (  Directorate  General  of Goods  and  Services  Tax  Intelligence  )

·         ED       (  Enforcement  Directorate  )

·         CBI      (  Central  Bureau  of  Investigation  )

·         NCB    (  Narcotics  Control  Bureau  )

·         CBDT  (  Central  Board  of  Direct Taxes  )

·         FIU     (  Financial  Intelligence  Unit  )

·         NCRB  (  National  Crime  Records  Bureau  )

·         DRI     (  Directorate  of  Revenue  Intelligence  )

·         SFIO   (  Serious  Fraud  Investigation  Office  )

·         NIA    (  National  Investigation  Agency )

·          

·         EOW  (  Economic  Offence  Wings – State  Police  Agencies  )

·          

Dear  Shri  Shantanuji ,

I do hope the “ Powers that Be “ get to read and act upon your suggestion for a CENTRAL / COMMON DATABASE , created and shared collaboratively , by all these agencies

I had made the same suggestion some 4 YEARS  ago in my following blog and sent as emails to Cabinet Ministers / PM-EAC / NITI Aayog

  

E - Governance?   [  03  April  2014  ]

 

https://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2014/04/e-governance.html

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

 

26  Feb  2018

www.hemenparekh.in / blogs

Past-ly Jest : presently Just ?

Reuters carries following news report :

“ New Home for Rohingya Emerges in Bay of Bengal “

https://in.reuters.com/article/myanmar-rohingya-island/floating-island-new-home-for-rohingya-refugees-emerges-in-bay-of-bengal-idINKCN1G6047

 Bangladesh is racing to turn an uninhabited and muddy Bay of Bengal island into home for 100,000 Rohingya Muslims who have fled a military crackdown in Myanmar, amid conflicting signals from top Bangladeshi officials about whether the refugees would end up being stranded there.

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said on Monday that putting Rohingya on the low-lying island would be a “temporary arrangement” to ease congestion at the camps in Cox’s Bazar, refuge for nearly 700,000 who have crossed from the north of Myanmar’s Rakhine state since the end of August last year.

However, one of her advisers told Reuters that, once there, they would only be able to leave the island if they wanted to go back to Myanmar or were selected for asylum by a third country.

“It’s not a concentration camp, but there may be some restrictions. We are not giving them a Bangladeshi passport or ID card,” said H.T. Imam, adding that the island would have a police encampment with 40-50 armed personnel.

British and Chinese engineers are helping prepare the island to receive refugees before the onset of monsoon rains, which could bring disastrous flooding to ramshackle camps further south that now teem with about 1 million Rohingya. The rains could start as early as late April.

Hasina’s adviser, Imam, said the question of selecting Rohingya in Cox’s Bazar to move to the island was not finalised, but it could be decided by lottery or on a volunteer-basis.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said in a statement:

 “We would emphasise that any relocation plan involving refugees would need to be based on and implemented through voluntary and informed decisions.”

FRENETIC CONSTRUCTION

Humanitarian agencies criticised the plan to bring Rohingya to the island when it was first proposed in 2015. Aid workers who spoke to Reuters said they remain seriously concerned that the silt island is vulnerable to frequent cyclones and cannot sustain livelihoods for thousands of people.

But work on the project has accelerated in recent months, according to architectural plans and two letters from the Bangladesh navy to local government officials and contractors seen by Reuters.

A year ago, when Reuters journalists visited Bhasan Char - whose name means “ FLOATING ISLAND ” - there were no roads, buildings or people.

Returning on Feb. 14, they found hundreds of labourers carrying bricks and sand from ships on its muddy northwest shore. Satellite images now show roads and what appears to be a helipad.

May be what I suggested in my following blogs , some 2 years ago in jest , could well turn out to be the most practical / economical solution to the “ economic migrant “ and “ political refugee “ problem “ of the World , which will continue to escalate ( geometric progression ? ), over the coming decades due to rising inequality among the rich and the poor of the World

No useFighting !  [  25  April  2016  ]

 

https://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2016/04/no-use-fighting.html

 

 

NotSo farfetched , After all ! [ 02  Feb  2017  ]

 

https://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2017/02/not-so-farfetched-after-all.html

 

 

 

25  Feb  2018

www.hemenparekh.in / blogs