MNIC could be around the corner

Finally with the new government in place, we see some additional traction on the question of a single national identity card.

Deccan Herald is running this story

MNICs to be issued to all citizens by 2011: Chidambaram. http://www.deccanherald.com/content/4584/mnics-issued-all-citizens-2011.html

Chidambaram has promised that it will be issued to everyone by 2011. Gave or take a few years given the complexity of the project and you still are looking at a dream come true.

Now if only they destroy that foolish Biometrics pan card idea I blogged about here

BMTC & Urban Middle Class

The Online version of Deccan Herald has a story on

“BMTC is planning to put up route information in all its bus shelters soon.” http://www.deccanherald.com/content/4557/route-information-all-bus-shelters.html

I have been using the BMTC bus services on and off and a few things I can tell you is that they have a good service and a good coverage, however with absolutely no information / help or support at the bus shelters it is simply not possible to make your way from around the city on your own.

To some partial credit BMTC has take some steps in the right direction. For instance

1. Most of the new buses have electronic display boards
2. The bus shelters along the central district have route maps similar to a London underground map
3. a few bus shelters elsewhere have started indicating the direction to the next big hop point like Shivajinagar, MG Road etc.

Unfortunately none of these options has helped the urban middle class city as a whole. You really need to be comfortable with the routes, local language to be successful in meandering a course.

Let me start by listing a few of my pet peeves.

1. The digital sign boards arent standardized. All the bus boards display information in there own sweet ways. Some of them constantly blink (making it very hard to read), while others use short names for stops and finally buses on the same route dont even show the same information. I saw this when I was taking a bus from brigade road towards bannergata national park.
2. The route maps wherever posted are of such poor visual quality that you really need to be standing close to make anything from it. It lacks information around the frequency of the services. The new bus shelters which have come up, dont really offer a great deal of protection to these maps and they have already started peeling off from the edges
3. BMTC’s central district services lacks credibility. While swanky Volvos ply with very distinctive colors (blue, orange) ply on these routes you really need to be lucky to get hold of them. The trouble is that I spotted them as far away as Agara lake in Koramangala plying on different routes all together. I would assume that BMTC decided to increase the load factor or replace a broken down vehicle. While it may be good in the short term, the fact is that if you want the services to be popular you just cant sacrifice frequency and punctuality. They go hand in hand.
4. The website. Dysfunctional at its best. It offers very little insight on the coverage let alone tools to plan a trip. What you are potentially looking for is a simple JourneyPlanner (ala http://journeyplanner.tfl.gov.uk/). We also an indian versions to talk about http://www.cse.iitb.ac.in/navigator/

I think BMTC has done a OK job so far. From being a public transport for the poor, the so called educated middle class has started openly embracing there services. You need to look at the popularity of route 335E to understand this for yourself.

There are still quite a few challenges before the middle class embraces this mode. Better communication, predictability and quality will the three stepping stones for success. I am guessing they never had a technology vendor who could educate and help them scale to the challenges. A decent partnership with a technology provider and commitment to improve, may mean this city doesnt even need a metro.

There is a scope for tremendous growth (volume, traffic, people carried) and improvement. It is only for them to loose.

Biometric PAN cards or national identification card

Biometric PAN cards could soon be a reality http://trak.in/tags/business/2009/04/29/biometric-pan-cards-could-soon-be-a-reality/

While I agree we need a more robust pan card mechanism I would argue that it shouldnt only be used for issuing pan card. The mechanism you have just described should be used for all purposes. It should be the ration card of a person, a voters identity card or just about any other card which our efficient administration can dream about.

A few question jump outright
1) The touts business is finished (assuming that they wont be able to imitate your retin). You will be forced to queue up to get your card. Now how will the highly educated and upper middle class react who have no interest in what the administration does (evident from the turnout)
2) While it is one thing to issue cards how will the cards be validated. If the cards do get used as an all purpose national identity card then you probably also need to start thinking about smart devices which can be carried by law enforcement agencies to book people
3) And finally I wish that our home minister decides to repeat on one his past favours to the nation by announcing one standard identification card. Chidambram had shown great foresight when he thrawted the effort of the mutual fund industry and perhaps his own ministries attempt to issue a Mutual fund identification number (MIN). http://www.financialexpress.com/old/latest_full_story.php?content_id=156419

Cheers
anand

Relative Security Perception

Over lunch our conversation slowly drifted to the Australian team refusal to be a part of the Davis cup tournament in Chennai. While I "kind of" / "sort of" agreed with the Australian decision, my colleagues weren’t so lenient and accommodating.

A short while after the causal conversation (still on the lunch table) grew more vociferous. One of them argued that India cant really be compared with Pakistan and what the Australians have done is completely wrong. My second colleague contented that, we aren’t a country where men roam around with AK-47's and blatantly open fire. Additionally he argued how many times sportspersons have been targeted in our country.

My views on this topic are straightforward and probably comprehensible.

It is a question of relative security perception. As an ordinary Indian citizen would you like to go on an all expenses paid trip to Iraq, Israel, and Palestine, Afghanistan? The answer mostly would be no. Ask yourself why that is the case. Don’t people leave a life there? They go around their daily routines as normally as they possibly can, albeit the numbers of disruptions (incidents) are way too high (again relatively speaking).

As Indians we have also seen a fair amount of turmoil in the recent year. Jaipur, Delhi, Bombay, Bangalore, North east all have been targets to such distractions. One could argue the extent of disruption hasn’t been on the scale noticed in other regions, but that’s just our perceptions.

Leaving within a system we don’t really understand the external perceptions and life continues as normal for us. Talking about disruptions how many of us continued to work during the 26/11 period.

The Australians and have applied their perception and decided to not to be a part of it. Why do we say, they are not correct

Apt message for this day and age

Spotted this on the way back home from work today. (On a side note this is o of the benefits of leaving when the sun is still around.)

What caught my eyes was the message "Each one teach one, Each one watch one, Each one catch one terrorist". Adapted from the popular slogan, "each one teach one", I am not sure the entire sentence makes any sense.

The fun doesnt stop here. A few more low fidelity snaps

The whole cab was plastered with messages in the local dialect. I dont know how to read Kanada and the one person who did know couldnt make much out of the low fidelity images

and finally when you wanted to find out who owns the vehicle, guess what even the number plate space has been occupied by more messages.

Polio rumours create panic..

Mangalorean.Com- Serving Mangaloreans Around The World!: "Polio rumors create panic in Karnataka"

I can confidently say that the Polio immunization drive is the best run medical initiative free India has seen in a long long time. The number of volunteers, the efficiency and the spread of the drive is for everyone to see. I remember a few years ago, many top celebrities were roped in get the initiative up and running. It took sustained campaigning, persuasion and vigilance to raise the awareness levels. Even if you didnt take your kid to the clinic, you can bet that a volunteer will come to your doorstep to administer the polio drops.

However the well oiled machine fell victim of a prank, especially in Karnataka. Hopefully things get back to normalcy as soon as possible. Perhaps time to rope in the celberities once again and start the propoganda machine (in a good way) all over again.

May the Indian Government run more of such programs.

anand

Janaagraha | Be the Change You Want to See

Janaagraha | Be the Change You Want to See

Ramesh you are right..

Getting the urban middle class engaged is like gathering sand through sieve (BTW nicely said). I am also a part of it. IMHO the urban middle class is a scared lot. They are the group of people who have dual perspectives. They know what it means to be poor and irrelevant. They also know the power wielded by the rich and wealthy. They desperately try to fight the poverty and ensure prosperity for their siblings. They would much rather prefer to slog their butts off on official assignments rather than working on a not for profit cause.

The whole scene and the question of involvement can be solved once and for ever if some politicial organization ensures that a profession and a sustainable living can be made out by contributing to social causes. In our society / cultural upbringing money has unfortunately been a bad word. Money has especially been a bad word when made through contributions to the public domain. This outlook needs to change first.

BTW I am sceptical and think that the candles and placards will fade away

anand