Digital Skills for India

Knowledge economy is not a new phrase. For long many countries have worked hard to increase their technological prowess. They have been able to generate a lot of economic success by doing so. Industrial growth is all about having skilled people who are ready to start working the day infrastructure becomes available. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi India has embarked on the path of creating sets and sets of skilled workers who are trained to work in particular sectors and not just rely on traditional knowledge of various low paying jobs.

Indian villages still are not part of India’s growth story mainly because people who live in villages have been disconnected from the mainstream development for so long. Although based on numbers you can go ahead and argue that they are the actual mainstream of this country. They are still forced to do what they have been doing for generations, the way they have been doing it ever since.

Under the purview of  #DigitalIndia campaign Government of India is trying to fill this gap. By taking the first world inventions to villages they are trying to connect the available knowledge with available workforce. Idea to train people with digital skills is going to be a game changer. People will be able to learn skills that will enable and empower them. They will be ready for the new world. One very important thing which will come out of this would be that they would get their voice in the increasing sphere of social media.

Intel’s (http://www.intel.in/) Digital Skills for India Program is a great boost for the vision of PM Modi. Intel has been a pioneer in computing field. They have taken an initiative to train 5 million people and take the technological knowhow to 1000 panchayats. I would like to thank them and congratulate them for their efforts and becoming part of our growth engine.

I was born in one such village and in my first 15 years of life I had not even seen a computer and did not get to touch one for another year.  I got to learn the use of a computer for the first time when I took admission in my under graduate course. That, if you think, delayed exposure to the rest of the world and technological developments by years.

This initiative by Intel is going to give people the kick start that they need in the villages. They will know that a smart phone or a laptop with a broadband connection is all that they need to stay connected with rest of the world.

There is one particular aspect that I would like to be included in this digital literacy campaign. We all know that when people get something new their hands they first learn to misuse it. In all the trainings and educational sessions, they must be taught what not to do as well. The growth needs direction and should be imparted from the very beginning.

Very best wishes to all the partners, especially Intel and BBNL, in this endeavour.

 

Spread Happiness with Coca-Cola

I live in Delhi NCR. If you ask people who reside in Delhi and work in Gurgaon one thing that troubles them most and would like to have solution sooner rather than later. It would be traffic jams. I understand that traffic jam is not one problem, it is manifestation of multiple problems acting together. Bad civic sense, little or no knowledge, or regard for that matter, for traffic rules, no sense of lanes and worst of all, attitude of daily commuters.

I do not know why, but in India everyone is always in hurry. People feel triumphant when they are able occupy the narrowest available place on the road between lanes ahead of everyone else. All this is still bearable. What makes this situation unbearable is when there are prolonged stares from angry people as if they have followed all the rules for all of their lives and today they have found someone who has scant regard for anything like rules. I get this urge of getting out of my car and thrash them in and out until they beg for mercy but then I realize that they too harbour similar feelings.  

Our intolerance for stupidity has made this world a worse place to live, people are scattering anger, frustration and all sorts of negativity all around when they should choose to spread love and happiness. I feel, very strongly, that any such incident can be avoided with a simple smile and a “sorry”. When you are getting stared at or you are staring at someone, it is better to smile and say sorry if you are in wrong than react to the situation. On the one hand where it protects you from any further provocation, it makes sure that your mood remains happy.  But it is easier said than done. It makes me happy when I receive a smile from a fellow traveller or an acknowledgement from someone for my good behaviour on road.

What is it that can help us achieve a world where people are always happy and they don’t react to provocations or stupidity committed by others on the road?

 I feel that Coca Cola http://cokeurl.com/96jnc can help in this situation by putting up makeshift outlets all along the national highways and at all traffic lights. At first they would have to identify situations where a “who blinks first” is going on, then rush to the spot with Coca-Cola bottles and give them to drivers and ask them to smile and spread happiness. It can be the next big revolution towards improving the national happiness quotient. Then once people are used to it, they should be allowed (made) to buy each other a Coca-Cola bottle.

Let’s make Coca-Cola a currency of happiness and let’s exchange it as much as we can.

 

 

 

Hum Hain to Kya Gum Hai!

I get bogged down by this consistently demanding universe.  Pollution, corruption, traffic jams, doubly getting taxed on expenditure from already taxed salary, vendors trying to extract every extra rupee from my pockets, politicians making absurd comments and everything else around these things are a constant source of frustration and despair.  Then there are middle class aspirations of owning a good car, having a good house(https://housing.com/), some bank balance and arranging for my retirement. All this sometimes feel so heavy that I feel like running away from all this and live a nomadic life. I believe this is the case for many people who are like me.

While all of the factors mentioned above keep pulling me down, there is one person who always makes me feel confident that all these problems are trivial and all this can be overcome with just a smile. That person is no one but my mother. Her strength in adverse conditions, her ability to manage situations and her way of solving problems makes me wonder about material that she is made of.

She makes me believe in a world where giving is more important than receiving. She makes me believe in transcendental love and complete devotion. She makes me feel that she will make things easy for me whenever I set out to achieve them.

I remember the day she set out to get our homebuilt in our ancestral village. There was a lot of opposition from neighbours and our relatives. I was about 5 years old. I do not remember the details but I know that she had to run from pillar to post managing finances, making sure that contractors were working properly, ensuring sufficient supply of building construction material, neighbours and relatives were in check and all this working full time as a teacher in the government primary school.

I get tired just commuting to my office and then surviving through the day while she did many times more than that and yet found time to be around me. This remains close to my heart probably because this whole thing gave me the home (https://housing.com/), where I spent all of my childhood.

She has managed every aspect of our lives and built her life around us putting us first, way before her own comfort, convenience or pleasure.

Even today when I am married and way older than what she was when she got built my first home, she still takes every step to ensure that I get all her help in fulfilling my aspirations.

Every time she sees me worried about anything she would always say “Hum hain to kya gum hai ?? (What’s the worry when I am here)” and that always cheers me up. I #lookup to her for courage and strength.

 

What I found in Goa !

I had just posted on my Facebook wall that I was going to be in Goa for the rest of the week and my close friend and former roommate Rajeew messaged me and asked when I was reaching there. I replied with my time line but I did not discuss it further on that day. I was very busy with office and planning for my trip so it did not cross my mind that he might be planning to be there during same period.

On the day I arrived in Goa I messaged him and asked what was his plan and if he was about to visit Goa. He informed me that he was going to be there in the same week and that gave us 2 days of overlap in our vacation.

Some background, Rajeew and I have been friends since our time in Noida. We had been roommates first in Noida and then in Bangalore until he got married and I moved back to Delhi NCR. We have had similar lives and almost similar aspirations during our days as flatmates in Bangalore.

Our lives have changed quite a bit since our time in Bangalore, thus I was really happy that we would be able to meet without any prior planning, out of sheer luck. Rajeew has played an important role in my life in the way that his experiences with jobs and handling matters of life have been good insights into future for me.

Goa was a refreshing trip. I had plenty of time to spend with my wife. I spent a lot of time on beach and driving along the shore from north to south Goa. Meeting Rajeew and his wife was a bonus.

I drove to Rajeew’s hotel and from there we headed towards beaches for an evening #together in the shacks built on the Baga Beach. It is obvious that meeting an old friend after 3 years in itself is a cause for celebration. We sat reminiscing, all the crazy things that we had done #together.  

During our conversation what struck me most was that, even he was thinking about the same things in life that I was planning for, for example investments,  retirement plans, job security and most importantly a house of our own(https://housing.com/). He had started planning for buying some land almost at the same time last year when I started researching for a good flat. We are in the same phase of life, so it was reassuring to hear his plans and find them to be similar to mine. His plans gave me some ideas and his confidence gave me some assurance that even I was moving in the right direction and most importantly all this, having a house and investments for retirement and maintaining a family with enough days for vacation in a year was really possible.

This vacation not only gave me plenty of time to roam around, see a new city, meet an old friend but also made me more optimistic for the future lying ahead. It made me believe that all that I want to do is, indeed, doable.