AAP and AK49

April 9, 2014 ~ Swapnil Garg ~ 1 Comment

I am not alone, who has been anguished. My elder brother is equally hurt. His email to our personal group … he did give his permission to forward this…

Why Arvind Kejriwal gets slapped often?

Let us start with a small story that most of us read when we were in school-some people may still remember it,but for those who don’t,I will rephrase it as I remember it.

Baba Bharti was an ascetic who had renounced the world,and was spending his days in pursuit of other-worldly activities-whatever they maybe and certainly unspecified.

He, however had a weakness, and that weakness was his thoroughbred horse,that was surely the apple of his eye and the Baba was loathe to part with him,either for money or under coercion-even to the neighbourhood (James Bond)-Dakoo called Khadak Singh.

Khadak Singh finally steals the horse by impersonating as a poor beggar in need of help.Baba Bharti realising the trick that Khadak Singh has played on him, calls after him not to let anyone know of the trick as people would stop trusting the poor.

What Mr.Kejriwal(AK from now on) has done, is what Khadak Singh did when he asked for help in the garb of a poor beggar.

Here was a middle class icon(rising star),who had fulfilled most of the aspirations of middle class parents and neighbours (3 Idiots)-passed IIT,joined IRS,married into ?IRS,spent more than 20 years till he was pensionable,abused the system,never produced anything but cribbed,cribbed and cribbed and then very conveniently become a messiah for all of us-fed up with a weak government(a lot of us on this forum are govt),corruption(hope that most of us are not),rising prices and being impotent to do anything about it.

I,for one was actually envious of him(and I am sure – a lot of us were),for here was this upstart who was doing everything that I wanted to do and was not able to do as the Army wouldn’t leave me.

He was the new Mahatma-(intelligent,articulate,middle class,smart,humorous,soft spoken,small and a Bania to boot,and someone who believed in the Indian Constitution and equality for all-with the Mahatma’s ability of convincing people,changing stands and justifying the same.

For a long time ,we were the lotus eaters-in a state of euphoria,eulogizing the David who destroyed the Goliath (Ms.Sheila Dikshit representing the Congress)and tolerated the fools he surrounded himself with – Kumar Biswas,Prashant Bhushan,Sisodia,their law minister and Shazia Ilmi(at least better looking then the run of the mill politicians).

But then the bubble burst-he did not do anything in his 49 days,except moving goalposts(his contention being that if he kicks the ball -it has to be a goal-even if you have to change the rules or move the goal post) till he scored a self goal.He started going around attending functions with Muslim leaders and wearing the skull cap(at least on 2 occasions) and spouting that communalism is a bigger issue than either development of corruption!!!!!!!

There is a feeling a Deja vu- a gentleman called V P Singh had promised us the same things and then divided the country hopelessly by introducing the Mandal Commission-at a time when the caste system was dying- and managing to do something that even the British,the Mughals or even Mir Jafar could not do.

Today,when you want to fight corruption or bring changes-everyone turns around and asks that that AK (Arvind Kejriwal) can’t or couldn’t,how can you?In future,nobody is going to going to trust anyone who wants to fight corruption-We have been bitten twice.

He has not failed-it is our hopes,our aspirations and our beliefs that have failed.

So,to my mind the question is not why he gets slapped – but why not often enough?

AAP and AK49

April 9, 2014April 9, 2014 ~ Swapnil Garg ~ Leave a comment

AAP and AK49.

What is wrong with BJP?

April 8, 2014April 9, 2014 ~ Swapnil Garg ~ Leave a comment

BJP has emerged as an alternative, and after the nanga nach of AK49, the only alternative…

I often wonder what is wrong with BJP…. OK lots. Then let us see what does that mean….

a) BJP is hindu — Let us believe it for once. But in a country with 80% hindu.. how is one categorized as hindu or not hindu… The only way I can think of not being hindu is by going to a mosque, wear a muslim topi, start eating goat… BJP is hindu as it is a main stream party of a nation with 80% hindus. PERIOD and there can be nothing wrong with that…..

What makes me wonder sometimes that while minorities rights have to be protected, no doubt, the majority also has a right. Any, an under lying assumption for minority rights is that as we live, minority rights get squashed in the natural process (democracy) so they need protection…. Unfortunately, the majority in this country (the so called majority) sometimes wonders if they would have been better of as a minority…

b) BJP is non-secular — For once, let us be in agreement… . There can be nothing better then the TOI editorial on date (8/4/2013), wherein secularism is defined. How does one become secular .. very similar to the answer above…

On the above two points— let me for once pickup Pravin Togadai and make him the PM, or take your pick on the most fierce HIndu you can think off… What will he do ….

Will he kill all minorities in India…., will he ban education for minorities……, will he give free food to hindus……., will he divide the country once again on religious ground….., Will India loose its secular status and declare Hinduism as the state religion, WHAT IS IT THAT IS BEING FEARED…. COME ON LET US BE LOGICAL.. each one of us will have a better world to stay in… and… probably a bigger pie to eat from….

For everyone else, if there are any… which I doubt.. INDIA as and always has been a better place for guests then for its residents…

c) BJP is corrupt .… As we stand today, it is a matter of opportunities. BJP has not had as many opportunities as CONGRESS… but what are we fearing… KYA yeh congress ke bhi baap niklenge… I donot feel so …. We have lot more conscientious people/organizations around….. Transparency international, something called AAP, hence fear not … if if they want they cannot be more corrupt then Congress..

d) BJP has no vision — OK, but who has a vision…

e) BJP has no leaders — BJP leaders are there own making, unlike born to big families.

Let us vote for BJP this time and give them a comfortable majority to show us their metal, and in the ensuring 4 years prepare a good enough replacement for them for the next term… not be in a hurry like what AAP did this time….

AAP and AK49

April 8, 2014April 8, 2014 ~ Swapnil Garg ~ 2 Comments

I HAVE BEEN DISAPPOINTED IN AAP AND AK.

Some thing that I wrote on AAP’s home page….

I am in complete disagreement with the contents of the original post and request the author to respond to my point by point rebuttal: (ref http://www.aamaadmiparty.org/why-i-no-longer-support-bjp)
i) You do not like BJP due to their affection for making alliances left or right without principle. SO, you donot like AAP which made an alliance in Delhi with Congress.
ii) NAMO success is due to 10 years in rule… Congress failure due to 50 years in rule… and AAP for 49 days not one decision which an Intelligent man can call out as GOOD and not political and a copy of something that this countries politicians have been doing for 60 years in looting the AAM admi.. So you donot like AAP..
iii) AAP formed a govt at Delhi against all odds and on a promise to deliver… nothing much happened after that. The odds with congress on their side were ODDS, and in delivery AAP failed … so what made you like AK49. You like him like a martyr, BECAUSE he fooled you into thinking that he a was a martyr… he had no right to be CM of delhi… and now he is ex CM of delhi and a martyr.. he sure is a clever man…
iv) Taken and given are different … hence tomorrow you not TAKE bribe, but accept it if GIVEN… WHAT……
v) AK is a like a bengali woman… na to kare ge aur nahi karne denge…. He is not a joker, he is a villain who has played with the common mans emotions by making false promises and running away….

WHAT would I have liked AAP to do and what it still can do if it wants aam admi support…
a) Field candidates where ever there is a chance for the corrupt to win….. coax voters not to vote for corrupt guys…
b) NO VOTE option to be educated about…
c) Decide ( and this time do it) give full support to who ever has the ability to form the govt at the center… force them to think clean from within the govt… and not be MAMTA didi or KAKAI…
d) Promise your MP’s will support the center for half term and then take a score of what all the center did wrong… witch hunting, post mortem, ambani in jail, is not what the aam admi wants… he wants to see NO MORE corruption, NO MORE SCAMS, fast progress, NO MORE CRIME…. he is not interested in you wasting your time on BOFORS…

PLEASE LOOK AHEAD AND TALK..

Let AK promise that the govt that they are supporting (not forming) at center will not have any scams… can he or he is too busy fooling his own ego….

AK has lost respect over time… and so will AAP if they donot reform….

Use of IT in Railways

May 11, 2013 ~ Swapnil Garg ~ Leave a comment

If Indian Railways is asked what it has done on the IT front, the immediate answer is Passenger reservation, and if one asks what else– there is silence.

The real situation is however very different. IR has invested huge amounts in IT, but the visible impact on railway working is just not there. Somehow, some of the key aspects of IT have not been addressed, as no one wants to bell the cat. Some instances and suggestions:

a) Every railway organization is still working either on the concept of a EDPM or IT officer. In today’s age, atleast with respect to IT, everyone is his own IT manager. It need be recognized that the use of IT will only come when people recognize its utility. Push from top is only one of the drivers of IT, pull also has to be there.

b) Railnet and railway email : Some of the most intelligent people run the railway railnet and email. However, every railway officer has a gmail or a yahoo id which he uses for his official work. This is the situation when email ids on linux platform can be made by a dime and dozen, at no cost. There is no place where I can complain about railnet, the helpdesk of railnet has ensured that it is a secret organization, and there are power seekers who distribute email ids on railnet — WHY?

c) Railways has a complete internal network, however providing access to information (train enquiry, PNR enquiry, railway codes and manuals, etc) on this network is seen as unnecessary and even if provided there is no cataloguing of the same to tell one — there is no google search engine on this network.

d) Internet access: Providing internet access to all, which should be a mission of the organization and also of the S&T and Finance wings, but is seen as a privilege which is to be selectively distributed. Railwaymen are overtly concerned about misuse of internet, pornography on internet, playing games on computers, etc, when the world has risen above it and made the individual responsible for it. The underlying philosophy that the organization needs to be controlled, like the British controlled the Indians, has to go. Trust your fellow citizen and let him work.

A lot needs to be done for IR to start leveraging IT, and many of these at a fundamental level

i) Empower

ii) Trust

iii) Free and open access

iv) Enable

SOMETHINGS SHAKE YOU TO THE CORE!

May 5, 2013 ~ Swapnil Garg ~ Leave a comment

The unfolding story of how Shri Mahesh Kumar(MS/RB) lobbied for ML’s post through bribe is one, which overtime is going to be identified, either, as a nail in the coffin of railways or the turning point (more probability of the earlier). This single incident is going to have very large ramifications on railway working, image of the railways, image of the railway men, morale of the railway men, funds made available to the railway men, and above all my career with the railways. This incident is hurting my insides so bad, that I have got shaken to the core and have lost orientation.

My school friends had always asked — When will you become a Member of the Railway Board?(ofcourse jokingly). There were keen on knowing WHEN, but never asked WHY? Now they know the WHY also?. As far as I am concerned, I now know why I donot want to become one!!

It is necessary for me to pen down WHY I feel so strongly about this incident, if nothing else then to unburden myself!!

a) Railway ministry is politically jinxed: At the political level nothing seems to be happening correct for the railways. First, for 10 years the ministry is with allied partners, secondly, when someone with courage takes over (Mr Diwedi) and tries something long required he is unceremoniously discharged, thirdly, when a supposedly Mainline minister comes in and with loud claims of being a clean guy, he is taken down by his ACE card of claim to position — Honesty.

Leadership!! There goes our wish of a competent and well meaning political boss.

b) Financial crisis: The biggest problem with railways is finances and we go to the government every year with a begging bowl, asking for money to fund our development. We never got it till now, and now we have lost the moral right to even ask for it……. So Indian Railways wants more money for its infrastructure projects so that it can squander it away…..

Development!! There goes our wish of having more money for development.

c) Honesty: We have been a relatively clean government department, and we used to be proud of it! With 15 lacs railway employees, every family in the country has a railway men in his near family or neighbours. We railway men (with the exception of the Railway TTE), were seen as hard working, honest people, who kept the wheels of the rail moving 24X7X365 without regard to self or family. Mr Mahesh Kumar just given a motive to our selfless service to the nation– Corruption

Honesty!! There goes our wish of being recognized as an honorable Indian.

Having lost confidence in leadership, development, and honesty, there is little that the organization has to offer now!!

For me, I have no opinion/view/fact/information about whether Rajiv Gandhi was or was not a beneficiary in the Bofors case. BUT for me it is a turning point, and it has harmed the country as none other. When I was haggling with a Rickshaw wala and cajoling him to take the correct fare from me over 20 years back, he had simply remarked that there is nothing correct in our country, as even the PM is dishonest. I had no defense for his argument and had simply paid him whatever he asked for and moved on.

Corruption that day for me had penetrated the arteries and veins of the Indian Society. On this day, corruption has entered the vein and artery of Indian Railways. Atleast each one of us will be perceived as being corrupt by the common men (truth, reality, personality, individual not withstanding). Our heads are hanging in shame!

Flushing cocks that we use in railway toilets

February 23, 2013 ~ Swapnil Garg ~ Leave a comment

Railway coach bathroom are a pain area, well recognized, a lot done, but not much final improvement visible.

A serious attempt is required to remedy the condition.

The flushing cock valves ONE of the items contributing to this problem. These get broken, stolen, or leaky and affect the bathroom condition. I am not ashamed to claim that 70% of the coaches maintained by me have no flushing cocks. The problem has been well tackled and solved by MANY, as I learn now. However, not everyone knows of it, ATLEAST I didn’t.

CONCEPTUAL SOLUTION

Have different kinds of flushing valves for different kinds of passengers.

Have brass valves for AC coaches, have cast iron valves for GS coaches, and where theft is too serious an issue use PVC flushing cocks. Better polymer options can also exist and need to be explored.

DETAILS

Conventional FLUSHING VALVES
ICF Drawing ICF/SK-6-3-425 Alt M-7 Col III

PL NO (NR) 36430250(Brass)

Cost Rs 337/-

PL No (ECOR) 30637120(Brass)

Get stolen during first trip from coaches. Have a nice look.

CAST IRON FLUSHING VALVES

ICF/SK-6-3-425 Alt M-7 Col III

30636267(CI)

Rs 182.98.

Do not look very good, Use metal springs which rust. Can be repaired.

PVC Flushing Cock

Rs 56/- approx

RCF Interface Drawing /WR/ADI Drawing

They break, cannot be used multiple times, and often leak.

Design of pitlines for maintenance of Railway Trains

February 23, 2013September 15, 2023 ~ Swapnil Garg ~ 1 Comment

My New obsession

Background:

Every pitline made for maintenance of trains costs about Rs 8 crores(2012).
Our existing pitlines are in a shabby state, and my wild guess but 50% of them are not usable.
Every pitline constructed lasts 35-40 years.
I have 15 pitlines in the division. Each has its own unique set of problems, besides a whole common set of problems across them. 1 new one has been constructed, 2 partially constructed, 1 to start construction, and 3 under sanction.
I have been crying hoarse on the pitlines which are being constructed. BUT, the irony is if a construction engineer asks me what I want, I DONOT HAVE AN ANSWER.
There are talks of new designs and concepts… but where are the specifications.

My attempt

To gather information, documents, and information and have an answer for myself — WHAT KIND OF A WASHING LINE DO I WANT?
To share all this information at one place for use by anyone.
To start with the latest RDSO drawing is enclosed (it is however a provisional drawing)

Next various Pitline designs exist..

EMD Loco (1)

Bhopal Pitlines with no catwalks

AN ALTERNATIVE

Anchoring – Why do we miss out on this golden opportunity?

November 20, 2012September 20, 2023 ~ Swapnil Garg ~ 1 Comment

Time and again I find my colleagues withering away a golden opportunity offered to them on a platter. The boss wants something to be done and asks a subordinate to initiate a proposal. As initiating a proposal takes a lot of time and energy, managers tend to postpone it for the second and third reminder by the boss, or till they are forced to initiate action in the subject against a deadline. When finally faced with a deadline, the manager misses out on the thought process which should have gone into it.

It is my belief (a theory Y believer) that managers often fail to recognize the full benefits of the initiating process, and hence miss out on the golden opportunity of initiating proposals. What is this golden opportunity? Initiating a proposal provides an anchoring point. Psychologists have long recognized the key role played by anchoring in decision making. Moreover, two Israeli professors Kahneman and Taversky have got wide recognition for their study on the subject, and Kahneman also received the Nobel prize for Economic Sciences ‘2002 for his contributions on the subject.

What is the role of anchoring in decision making? Anchoring is the bias towards the initial value, recognizing that different starting points in decision making may lead to different estimates. If the decision making can be logical, and unbiased anchoring would be of no consequence, however decision making suffers from biases. And one of these is the adjustment bias, wherein human beings tend to make insufficient adjustment, they get biased in their evaluation by conjunctive and disjunctive events, and further anchoring in the assessment follows a subjective probability distribution.

What we managers often miss is that initiation of a proposal provides the anchoring point and hence sets a reference point against which all subsequent evaluations are done. As the initiation process for any activity involves a lot of mental input, the manager has the advantage in logically creating an anchoring point which is most suitable to his requirements. It is quite obvious that a hurriedly initiated proposal against a deadline, will not only miss out on the quality of the proposal but also miss such features which the manager could have put in, which could have better suited him.

A simple recognition that the initiation process will be giving one the opportunity to anchor the initiative to ones advantage, and subsequently all adjustments will get biased by the anchor point provided, enables a manager in steering the future actions to his advantage position, a position in which every manager aspires to be in.

My Dissertation research — emerging relevance

November 19, 2012November 19, 2012 ~ Swapnil Garg ~ 1 Comment

Yesterday, I came across the ongoing dispute about the NH-8 Delhi Gurgaon PPP project (details can be found at http://www.nhai.org). Reading through the FAQ’s there, the letter for termination issued by NHAI, the revised MOU, the court orders etc, it emerged that a major part of the dispute can be attributed to the working of the PPP— which is what I study in my dissertation.

To cite a few things, NHAI has issued a 17 page termination notice in Februvary’2012, and this letter liberally uses terms like ” fundamental breaches to the concessional agreement”, “fraudulent nature”, “behind the back”, ” concealed and surpressed”, ” fraudulently concealing”, “gross violation”, “diversion of moneies”, “misrepresented” etc.

Now, what had I studied in my dissertation and why does it suddenly become relevant!!.

1) This case is of a PPP agreement signed in 2002, engineering work completed in 2008, dispute arisen in 2011 i.e., dispute during the working of the PPP.

2) As part of the contract agreement both parties had to fulfill their parts of the commitments. But, along the way both faltered, whereas the termination notices brings out that only the contractor has misbehaved and dishonored his commitments.

3) How was the PPP agreement to be worked? As per my dissertation PPP working is all about coordination of the activities between the agencies. And, this coordination could have been done simply by emphasizing the contractual elements, by proper scheduling and planning, or by social interactions.All the three aspects exist in every work, however the emphasis and the basis on which the work gets primarily performed vary from project to project and is likely to affect how work gets accomplished.

I go a little deeper, and donot make any argument claiming that any one of these methods of coordination is better then the other. It is not so! Instead, I argue that the method of coordination emphasized comes from the experience profile of the managers doing the work. My study helps us better understand how the work that is being done gets done.

Examining this particular PPP project ( NH 8 Gurgaon New Delhi) in the context of my dissertation research;

i) Emphasis on contractual provisions: While the final dispute gives enough evidence that contractual provisions have been violated from the contractors side, previous land availability problems in the project (project took 6 years for construction) and NHAI having only woken up once the courts forced it, are enough evidence that the government has also not adhered to the contractual provisions. This precipitated into the contractor, escalating the project cost from Rs 600 crores to Rs 1600 crores and seeking additional finance from financial institutions and also readily getting the same.

ii) Emphasis on planning: The project planning and scheduling has also run amock. For a project initially conceived as a 2 years project and taking 6 years to execute, the expectations have changed during the intervening period. However, transparent evaluation of this project planning emerges as the only possible solution to this issue.

iii) Emphasis on trust : Reading the termination notice, it emerges that the trust aspect has taken a summersault. Whereas, previously almost minimal things were being emphasized in writing, the same are being questioned. Here, I will like to digress a bit. In the Indian society, when we say work with trust and social connections, we mean ” violate all the contractual provisions and get your work done tactfully asking the other person to turn a blind eye”. This is not what I mean my social interaction in my dissertation. What is implied here is , ” contracts are primarily incomplete– so when there is nothing specified about an aspect resolve it with social interaction. Further, trust or social interaction no where conflicts with contractual provisions. Contract aspects have to be honored and followed by one and all.

The Indian understanding of social interactions needs to be modified , and emerges as the first lesson while carrying out this exercise of mapping theory with practice. I am sure many more will follow, as and when I get time to look them up.

Swapnil Garg