Dear Friends and Students
Finally, we crossed 75 years! Azadi Ka Amrit
Mahotsav is an initiative of the Government of India to celebrate and
commemorate 75 years of independence and the glorious history of its people,
culture and achievements. The first half of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav is a great
success!! These celebrations started on Fri, 12 Mar, 2021 and will end by Tue,
15 Aug, 2023. It has instilled Nationalistic fervor among the people. This
celebration is a form of respect for the Indian independence movement which was
a series of historic events lasting between 1857 and 1947.
Now time has arrived to examine the assets and
liabilities left in Independent India! Assets
have to be preserved and Liabilities are to be converted to opportunities.
There are many assets and liabilities but the greatest asset ever could be
the “Family and Culture”. The immediate question would be which asset is
at risk? In my view the answer is again “Family and Culture”.
Quantitatively I may not be able to write this
article but thematically I try to represent the situation.
75 years back a family means parents, their 5-6
children and their children together living in a single house.
Couple of them work, a couple of them serve, a couple study and you will see
all varieties of services available under one roof. This is called sharing
of wealth. Old age, illness, unemployment, loneliness, stress, divorce,
well-being of children, their personality development, marriage alliances
within family and friends, zero food waste and many more are under one-roof
managed! A small business managed by father and sons (backup plan, shift plan,
roster plan by father as Project Manager). Today we have to purchase every
piece in the above list as a service (SaaS or PaaS etc)? Is it an economic gain
or loss or Family & culture gain or loss or both? In my view, Loss!
75 years ago a piece of land was cultivated by a
group of brothers! Division of families is inviting
farmland shrinking. Part of the land is cultivated for rice, adjacent
pieces used for commercial crop, another brother mortgaged for educational
loan, another brother sells it for real-estate! One acre land is divided into
multiple shareholdings and multiple services are generated! (Today we believe
more in microservices architecture right!) Where are the economies of scale? Is
it not the cause for soil mismanagement? (Erosion, fertilizer mismatch, water
sharing disadvantage and field workers management)
75 years back mother-in-law was dominating and
controlling 5-6 daughters-in-law. Of
course, there were a few hiccups in those days as well. However, under the
joint family system mother-in-law was like a corporate program manager and her
ultimate goal was to execute the project (house) successfully. In the process,
a few ego exchanges (change requests) but they were not out of budget (family).
However, today the same project is divided into multiple projects (we believe
in agile methodology) leading to multiple project managers (wife/husband)
managing micro teams (managing their children) and finally trying to integrate
and deploy as a single project (Integration Failure). DevOps is invited
(automated services) but costing heavily to each micro project (nuclear family
issues). Due to overall project integration errors, finally the overall program
head (grandparents) laid off from the company! The Standish Group's 2020 CHAOS
report estimates that around 66% of software projects fail due to various
project management issues! Similarly, I am sure a large number of parents are
suffering in their old age!!
Unfortunately, 75 years back the mother-in-law/daughter-in-law
story was within the walls. When the occasion rose, they were
together. Keeping this weakness (this age-old issue exists from Satya yuga
onwards), a few investors are cashing in by creating movies, serials,
web-series etc. While this is fun and entertainment, it affects the individual
reticular cortex of the human brain. This seed slowly sinks in the human
consciousness and becomes like a plague in the society. This leads to family
breakup and disintegration of our culture. I am sure a few other cultures are
also suffering from this. 20 years ago I stayed in Singapore for 3 months.
Evenings I used to watch a Chinese serial (through English subtitles and
expressions). Theme was again the same issue! Now you can imagine how a few
invested in the cultural weakness! Any weakness in our family and culture leads
to another coronavirus! This is the most important economic principle.
The Indian population is crossing 138 crores or
1380 million. According to a Ministry of External
Affairs report, there are 32 million NRIs and OCIs residing outside India.
Overseas Indians comprise the world's largest overseas diaspora. Every year 2.5
million (25 lakhs) Indians migrate overseas, which is the highest annual
number of migrants in the world. Sometimes, we cannot stop this. Partly it
is healthy as well. We get a lot of FDI. Culture spreads across the
world. This is a good sign. However, among this 2%, we have a lot of
intellectuals and talented people who could have contributed here. This is called
opportunity loss. We all need to work innovatively to bring their mindshare
here while they reside out of the country (captive centre model). 75 years of
India is carrying this risk. I am sure a lot of these intellectuals are helping
in outsourcing of services back to India. However, more conscious effort is
needed (revenue sharing or profit-sharing model)!!
How much are you contributing and how much are you
withdrawing from our greatest asset- “Family and Culture”?
Ravi Saripalle
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