Business & Investing — No comments
11
Dec 11

The Paperless Office

During my working life, I realized that the promised grail of a paperless office is a myth and not achievable – in my lifetime at least. You can reduce paper use however, though it will entail a complete change in thinking and habits.

In the US, paper use peaked in 1999 and has been in decline ever since, albeit at a very slow pace. Emerging technology has certainly helped. The advent of the duplex printer (allowing printing on both sides), high capacity and cheap storage devices, scanners and optical readers have certainly made a dent in the use of paper. Book readers like Kindle are already starting to revolutionize our reading process.  There is a hard core of paper use however that cannot be eliminated.

Authors  Sellen and Harper, published a book called ‘The Myth of the Paperless Office’ in 2001.  From their book:

The paperless office is a myth not because people fail to achieve their goals, but because they know too well that their goals cannot be achieved without paper

Paper is ubiquitous and essential in our work and private life. It is convenient, fold-able, accessible and even, smells good.  There is a feel-good factor about paper and books that is ingrained in our psyche.  In the workplace however, it is a monster, filling up files and folders and occupying a sizable area in every office. It is easier to invent the ‘paperless toilet” than set up a ‘paperless office’.  Sometimes, cutting out one process generating paper, leads to an increase elsewhere. Take the example of Banks and utility companies who now send us statements online. The end user (you and me) now print it out for filing and record.

It is expensive. A JP Morgan study in the US in 2001 claims on average, the cost of filing and maintaining 500,000 sheets of paper can cost a company as high as $515,000 a year.  Many organizations have made determined efforts to cut down paper use but it is hard going. A major problem is the requirements of regulatory and statutory authorities to maintain written records. Tax authorities are the biggest problem – requiring records to be maintained for seven or more years.

Equally, it is difficult to change ingrained working habits. Let me give you two extreme examples from my work life.

My boss, bless his soul, was ‘old-school’ and the advent of email completely flummoxed him. He would have his secretary print out each email for his review. He would then comment or reply on paper – for his secretary to reply back to the sender. There was barely room in his office for anything other than filing cabinets.

Our Technical Director however, was a paragon of efficiency and his desk was spotless. Any piece of paper brought to him would face one of two treatments. If it deserved merit, it would be commented on, delegated to, approved, or forwarded.
If the paper lacked merit, or was just a copy for information – he would read it, and then feed it through a shredder machine, kept near his desk.  Our annual budgeting exercise was particularly paper intensive and we would have side bets on the fate of our innumerable submissions.

Personally, I have intentionally gone without a printer for the last two years. When you have to dress up and walk a kilometer to the nearest cyber cafe for a print – one tends to think twice!

When politicians start talking about the paperless office however, you know there is a scam or a freebie involved.

 

Religion (or not) — No comments
12
Nov 11

Banking on Islam

My last post touched on a subject, dear to my heart. How religions cope or adapt their rules and structures, received or developed centuries ago – to modern technologies and practices. Some prohibit ALL changes while others, try to get around these restrictions in complicated ways.

Consider these two examples:

1. Person ‘A’ takes a loan from a Bank to purchase an asset (say a motor vehicle). The Bank exacts a risk/profit surcharge on the loan, until it is repaid. This risk premium is normally recovered in installments over the duration of the loan period. The Bank has the right to take over that asset in case of a default by Person A

2, Person ‘B’ wants to purchase an asset. The Bank buys the asset on behalf of person “B”, and then re-sells it to him, adding on a profit margin. Person “B” then pays the sale price (+ profit margin) over a fixed number of installments.

The end result is the same in both cases. The borrower pays a surcharge or risk premium or profit to the lender, over a fixed number of installments .The borrower gets full ownership of the asset only after the loan principal and the profit or risk premium has been paid. The lender – receives a profit or risk premium for making the funds available. In case of default by the borrower, the lender has (or can take) possession of the asset

Scenario 1 is your run of the mill loan that is common in modern day banking.  Scenario 2 however is called ‘Murabaha‘ – or Islamic Banking.

Islamic Banking is big; is one of the fastest growing banking sector, and will be for years.  The global assets of institutions offering Islamic financial services is now $1 trillion and is expected to reach $1.6 trillion by 2012.

The overarching principle of Islamic finance and banking products is that all forms of interest are forbidden. The Islamic financial model works on the basis of risk sharing. The customer and the bank share the risk of any investment on agreed terms, and divide any profits or losses between them. In addition, investments should only support practices that are not forbidden – trades in alcohol, betting and pornography are not allowed. Moreover, an Islamic banking institution is not permitted to lend to other banks at interest.

It is not easy running an Islamic Bank or offering Islamic products. Consider the case of a commodity Murabaha – the sale and subsequent re-purchase of a commodity. The Islamic bank must maintain relationships with commodity brokers, take title of the goods temporarily, and shepherd each purchase and sale.
The formal documentation is longer and more complex than it is for a conventional cash loan, and frontline employees and the bank’s advertising must explain exactly how the product works and show that it meets Sharia law. And finally, managing credit risk is more complex because the bank needs to estimate not only the expected losses from defaults on the loans but also the real cost to the bank of delayed payments, for which conventional, off-the-shelf risk-management tools aren’t useful. Complexities arise in a wide range of Islamic products, from savings accounts (which use a profit-sharing formula, rather than a fixed interest rate, to pay depositors) to takaful (meaning “mutual support”), a product (similar to life insurance) that works on a strict shared-risk system across policyholders.

Islamic financial products must be approved by a Sharia committee, an independent panel of scholars appointed by the bank that issues fatwas on whether an offering abides by Islamic law. The Sharia committee exercises tremendous power by underpinning—or undermining—an institution’s credibility with the Islamic community. Further, the Sharia committee of one bank may reject an innovative product offered by another Islamic bank

Yet, the number of reputed western banks offering Islamic products are increasing daily. Despite the complexities and the lower margins, western banks are desperate to get their hands on the trillions of petro-dollars sloshing around in the system

Why is interest forbidden in Islam? The Koran prohibits the practice of “riba” though it offers no clarification on this 7th Century custom. Whatever it was, the Jews were doing it! It is safe to assume that “riba” referred to the practice of usury or cut throat money-lending – which is banned in most countries.

This ambiguity was a practical problem for the early Muslim jurists, who formalized religious rules in a code called sharia. They were divided on the subject, but as time went on, the weight of consensus came to rest on the side of prohibiting all interest collection

In the meantime, the development of modern banking evolved at the same time as the unprecedented economic growth in Europe over the past 500 years. That growth was made possible in part by the codification, in the 12th Century, of a distinction between usury and interest in the Christian tradition. The Muslim trade system made do, with a mixture of traditional instruments and imported western practices. It was not until the 60′s that attempts were made to combine the two – leading to the current concept of Islamic Banking.

Coming back to my religious theme at the start of this post:

Here we have a religious edict in the Koran, banning the practice of usury as applied in 7th Century Arabia – the time the Koran was written.

Here we have well minded interpreters of God’s word, embodying in sharia law, the extreme concept that all forms of interest is ”haram’

Here we have modern day imperatives intruding into religious practice, creating an entirely new and convoluted system to get around the man made restrictions in sharia law.

The Islamic banking concept in my view, only replaces the forbidden term ‘interest’ with ‘profit-sharing’. Technically correct, but practically 100% wrong.

 

Religion (or not) — 3 comments
14
Oct 11

Literal Religion

One problem with religion is that it comes to us indirectly. First, there is the original receiver of the divine revelation, who unfortunately, is often derided as a kook or a trouble maker by his peers. Second, by his eventual disciples or adherents, who add on sayings and strictures, based on their own recollection of events. These events may have been mundane at that time but takes on a whole new connotation or aspect, colored by a subsequent event. Finally, you have their successors, be it the priestly class or earthly rulers, revising these edicts or de-emphasizing certain aspects.

One significant example would be the establishment of the concept of ‘The Trinity’ in christian doctrine, at the First Council of Nicaea in 325. The Bible never mentions this concept.

Another problem with religion is that the original proponent of the religion is influenced by the contemporary customs and moral codes of that day.  They also had to relate their revelations from God in a language that people would understand in relation to their current environment. That is why, for instance, the christian ‘Ten Commandments’ did not include injunctions against spending too much time on social networking sites or why current ethical issues on abortion, cloning etc. are not covered.
Conversely, it also means that traditions practiced at that time tend to become suddenly – God’s word or edict. Thus, the initial concept of protecting women from harm by way of a decorous dress code, is translated though various modern interpretations into preventing them from driving a car.

How do you change God’s word? Would you want to change God’s word?  This is the problem that has plagued reformers through the centuries. You question one part of the teaching – and suddenly, you are denounced as a heretic and you and your adherents are burned, flayed or otherwise terminated. The establishment brooks no dissent.

You also cannot pick and choose. Either you accept the holy book as God’s word in its entirety or you do not. However, this does leads to some absurdities, as illustrated in the video below.

One of the best political drams that came out of America was the long running (1999 to 2006) TV series called the “West Wing”. It depicts a fictional president (played admirably by Martin Sheen) and his team. Faced with a vicious re-election campaign, he digresses to put a bible thumping talk show ‘doctor’ firmly in her place.

Now, that is the type of President I would like to vote for.

News and Politics — 2 comments
03
Oct 11

The Starvation Line

We bean-counters are prone to a defect called ‘spreadsheet-error’ or even an ‘excel-error’ – a very unfair aspersion on my favorite Microsoft program. This arises when a broken link or a wrong formula in one cell (within a complex multi page worksheet file) can give you an outcome which is ridiculous or utterly wrong.
My mentor had impressed upon me several times, early in my career, to build in control checks at each level of my work sheet, including common-sense checks on the outcome.

Which brings me to a snafu of monumental proportions by the elite Planning Commission of India no-less. Asked a simple question by a court as to what is the baseline income for poverty in India – they came up with the indefensible calculation of Rs. 32 for urban and Rs. 26 for rural (per day). This works out to US$0.65 and $0.53 respectively.

You would be justifiably outraged that this low threshold for food is ridiculous. Ah, but no – the Planning Commission includes all other non-food costs like health, rent, education etc. into their calculation. The split in urban areas is Rs. 18 for food and Rs. 14 non-food. Unbelievable!

Now, it is difficult to define poverty. One man’s poverty could be another’s riches. It is all subjective and relative. Out of the many methodologies –  establishing base poverty thresholds for food on nutritional requirements is one of the better ones.

Professor Utsa Patnaik, writing in the Hindu dated 30th September, explains the background clearly.

As early as 1979, based on National Sample Surveys, a minimum nutritional level of 2200 kilo-calories a day in rural and 2100 kilo-calories a day in urban areas was established. The Planning committee accepted these figures but applied them only ONCE, to the index 1973/1974 data. Then, the Commission, for reasons unknown, changed the definition in practice, and never again looked at the baseline nutritional requirements. Instead, they have been indexing the 73/74 numbers on a ‘price-index’ for the last 30 years. There was a de-link therefore, from using the base nutritional requirements as the over-riding criteria

The numbers derived from applying a mechanical indexation over 30 years is extremely precise and absolutely wrong. The Planning Commission is staffed by the academic elite of India, as was the Tendulkar Committee, set up to review the poverty line.  Why then this absurdity?

I would guess – political compulsions. When such low numbers are used as the base for policy decisions and statistics, it makes the Planning Commission look good; it makes the Government look good. It hides the unpalatable fact that poverty numbers may not have decreased much in percentage terms and more worryingly – that the absolute numbers have been growing each year.

Remember that  the base poverty line number is bare minimum to support the food requirements and does not provide much for the other basic essential items like health, education etc. That is why some times the poverty line has been described as a starvation or destitution line.

Interestingly, it appears that India is not alone in ‘massaging’ poverty figures. China is another prime example. Unfortunately, their erroneous numbers are legitimized by no less an apex organisation than the World Bank. Their own estimates of global poverty (which is shown declining satisfactorily each year) is based on these same spurious calculations of poverty in the developing countries – then converted to US dollars, using ‘purchasing power’ parity index.

Going back to the base nutritional level requirements – Professor Patnaik estimates a figure of Rs. 180 per day in the urban area and Rs. 108 in the rural area – just on food alone. On this criterion, over 75% of India’s population is below the poverty line.

A shocking indictment of the ‘India Rising’ story.

News and Politics — 1 comment
24
Sep 11

Mad Tea Party

Consider a political party that

  • Has a fanatical, fundamentalist and militant view on their religion
  • Its adherents are in a majority in every sphere of cultural and political life – yet, feels oppressed and victimized.
  • Harks back to a nostalgic period of yester-year.
  • Has  insular and extremely nationalistic views

Bear with me… I am not talking of the RSS or the BJP in India – though the similarities so far are uncanny.

Consider further that this group or adherents

  • Are extremely protective of benefits they receive from the Government but labels all other recipients as bums, shirkers and the undeserving.
  • Have very rich and shadowy benefactors  who finance the movement
  • Have as their spokespersons, people with some rabidly insular views, or at best, little or no knowledge of the world around them

Yes indeed, I am talking about the Republican Party in the US and in particular, the Tea Party members who seem to exercise an inordinate amount of influence.

An outsider could be forgiven in thinking that the three main tenets of the current GOP are:

  1. Extreme religion. Religious nuts and televangelists (America’s equivalent of our swamis and god men) have been brought into the forefront now, their quaint reactionary views (some evangelicals thought Saddam was the Antichrist, and therefore a suitable target for cruise missiles), have been normalized. Their views are not only directing American foreign policy but also, American thinking. That is the reason, why American’s polls on evolution, creation and science resemble views of fundamentalists in Iran, rather than in the rest of the western world.
    Politicized religion provides a substrate of beliefs that rationalizes — at least in the minds of followers – the other two tenets.
  2. Extreme nationalism. America has never been shy of interfering in other nations and governments (see this report), either toppling governments inimical to their interests or supporting despots, tyrants and dictators for a short term geopolitical or business advantage. Under the neo-cons however, the Iraq war was undertaken purely because America could and can.
  3. Extreme anti-socialism. Protect the rich and the American plutocracy and to hell with the unemployed, the poor, the immigrants, the gays, the abortionists etc.  Organised trade unions seem to be the latest on their ‘hate list’. Televangelists have long-espoused the health-and-wealth/name-it-and-claim it gospel. If you are wealthy, it is a sign of God’s favor.

How is it possible in progressive America, which has been in the forefront of learning and innovation for several decades, that a party of war mongers, flat-earther’s and, gun worshippers, could very well come to power in the next elections.

The rot in the GOP started in the Goldwater era (1960s) when the idea that extremism, jingoism and incitement to violence were justified in the interest of ‘liberty’ was first espoused. Moderate elements in the GOP were gradually rooted out.

“The GOP could always count on one third of the electorate — by and large, the fundamentalist, anti-science, anti-change, more authoritarian base — and were able to lure a goodly number of independents and libertarians to their cause on certain issues, aided by an increasingly badly-educated citizenry easily influenced by the mass-media’s emphasis on fluff and nonsense and biased reporting”

Wealthy conservative supporters(the Koch brothers for instance)  have been buying up media outlets, setting up think tanks and directly funding extremist candidates. Some are obvious like the blatantly biased, facts challenged reporting by Fox news. Some of it are more insidious however. Consider the otherwise excellent think tank  Cato or the insightful Ethnographic, delving into culture and anthropology. The shadowy owner is the same Rupert Murdoch, of ‘News of the World’ infamy. The articles and thoughts ‘sound right’ to intellectuals and the non-committed.

The flag bearers of this movement range from the insular…

….to the insane. See this video below where Glenn Becks launches a totally unprovoked attack on Indian health care and doctors.

http://www.youtube.com/user/TheYoungTurks#p/search/2/A7NUQZiWl6w

I know it is cool now for bashing Americans for all the real and imagined ills of the world. I have a soft spot for them however. I believe that at heart – they are good, reasonable people – like you or me. If the world needs a superpower, then I am glad it was America and not competing ideologies like Russia or China.

If, as I suspect, the GOP will win the next elections – then this world will definitely become a scarier place.

Business & Investing — 1 comment
13
Sep 11

Air India – Spiraling Down

In the dreaded days before Indian skies were opened up to competition, I remember many an hour spent in Air India’s grotty booking offices, served by surly and arrogant staff. Thankfully, the Indian traveler now has a multitude of options available.  Air India (including the recently merged domestic Indian Airlines ) is a government run behemoth, overburdened with militant unions, venal government interventions and lack of investments.

An article in the Economic Times on the 17th August claimed that the nationalized airline needed a stupendous US$8b over the next ten years, just to survive. A recent CAG (Comptroller Audit General) report has been pretty damning on the airline and government policies in particular. The useful platitudes of Air India being a national strategic asset, serving the Indian people etc. have been rolled out.

Let us be very clear on this. Air India is being run for the benefit of the following people:

  1. Its unionized staff – one of the most militant and overpaid employees in India.
  2. Politicians – for free travel and parking relatives and friends in cushy jobs.
  3. The Civil Aviation ministry. Air India is the raison d’être  for its very existence.
For pity’s sake – just kill it off.
Religion (or not) — No comments
10
Sep 11

New Moon Rising

Some religions have significant dates set or determined by the stars or the moon. You would think, in these modern times, that the sightings of these heavenly bodies could be done with some level of precision. Not so!

The Muslim fasting month of Ramadan is a case in point. The dates vary each year, moving backwards about eleven days each year. Ramadan starts officially on the sighting of the ‘Hilal” or crescent moon, and ends when the Hilal is sighted again, 29 to 31 days later.

What may have been a simple edict in the Koran to enforce the full 30 to 31 days of fasting has been reinforced by human rigidity to the following practice :

  • Visibility of the moon is the only basis to begin an Islamic month
  • Muslims in a place “x” cannot act on the sightings from a place “y”, however close the proximity, if they themselves cannot see a moon on a clear horizon

This has caused a lot of confusion. Consider the following:

  1. Hilal, an Arabic term, refers to the bright waxing crescent when it becomes visible to a normal observer by naked-eye
  2. The New Moon is a modern astronomical term. It refers to the completely invisible moon at the start of a synodic cycle (29 days 12 hours, 42 minutes and 2.8 seconds).  These two are NOT the same.
  3. A moon visible only through telescope and binoculars, but not to the casual observers by naked-eye IS NOT the Hilal.
  4. Nigeria is known for starting Ramadan and fixing Eid Al-Fitr dates a day or two ahead of others.
  5. Saudi Arabia and Egypt agreed in 1999 Jeddah Conference to fix the Islamic dates by “Moonset with or after the sunset.” Most Middle Eastern states follow Saudi/Egyptian dates.
  6. Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan still follow the Hilal (actual sighting) generally.

The close of Ramadan therefore comes on different days across the world. In my own Kerala, still reeling from a surfeit of working days after the last election – Eid was declared in advance on Monday/Tuesday (29th & 30th) September, with an extra day holiday given on the 31st (as the moon was officially sighted on the 30th evening). The rest of the country, sufficed with just two days off.

The Arabist reports that this year, Saudi Arabia and westwards, may have sighted Saturn instead of the moon and hence, declared Eid at sundown on Monday. “Saturn is the planet of the goat-horned devil in many mythologies – something that religious-minded conspiracy theorists will be sure to point out”

Earlier anecdotal evidence points to an unusual number of moon sightings made – conveniently timed to allow for a longer weekend break.

In this day and age, why go through this rigmarole? It is not that the solution is hard. The Islamic moon website has a number of excellent suggestions on how to standardize this process, using available technology. All it needs is a change mindset.

This brings me conveniently to the theme of my next post on religion – why is religious practice so incompatible with science and modern thinking.

Other — 2 comments
08
Sep 11

Celebrity Escapades

Strong language warning:

I may be the last person to hear about this but it is so good – I just need to blog about it.  A bit of silly fun (over 2008/2009) involving the talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, his girlfriend Sarah Silverman and his celebrity actor friends Matt Damon and Ben Affleck

Jimmy has been teasing Matt Damon for ages, announcing towards the end of his show that he has run out of time, so sorry Matt Damon. In one episode, he actually has Matt Damon on his show. Well you can see what happens…

Matt Damon plots his revenge, eliciting the help of Sarah Silverman, who presents a video at one of Jimmy Kimmel’s interview.

Then Jimmy Kimmel retaliates by making a similar video with Ben Affleck – a good friend of Matt Damon. Keep an eye for the Fedex delivery guy – yep, none other than Brad Pitt.

All done in the best possible taste…

 

 

Arts, Culture & Entertainment — No comments
04
Sep 11

Writer’s Lament

I came upon this writers lament during one of my late night ramblings on the internet. With the blog now 2 months old and with all but two full time visitors – I felt it particularly apt.



“I write these words knowing that no eye will ever read them and no ear will ever hear them. I write these words for no one but myself. These words will never be published, read aloud, disseminated, distributed, circulated or shown. These words are a secret between the ink that forms them and the paper on which they are written. I write these words from a place of utter security, knowing that what I say here need not impress or persuade, charm, amuse, uplift, comfort, move, or heal anyone anywhere, for no one but me will ever know they were written. They need rise to no standard of quality or art. These words serve no master but me, and convey no meaning but that which rests lightly on the surface of them, an ephemeral ripple moving vaguely across my consciousness. These words carry no responsibility and no agenda. They feel no pressure and honor no duty. These words will go into the wastes of time unregarded, unconsidered and unremembered. These words are free to be exactly and only what they are, what they were, what they will be; and then to evaporate, erasing themselves in their destined transcendence, returning to the original long word that contains all the other words, and from which they but briefly imagined themselves to be separated.”


 


The Writer’s Prayer
© 1999 Dave Awl

				

				


			


		
			

			Arts, Culture & Entertainment —   No comments

			    01
Sep 11 
				
Eliza Doolittle – A very fair Lady

				
				

				

					
I was going to write about Amy Winehouse, but then she joined the infamous circle of talented singers who died at the age of 27.


Eliza Doolittle (born Eliza Sophie Caird) is only 23 years old and has not exhibited any of the physical excesses of Amy Winehouse or the rubbery gyrations of Lady Ga-Ga.  Born in a musical family (father is a theatre director, mother an actress and singer), her precocious talent was evident from an early age. She chose her nickname from school as her stage name.


A name like Eliza Doolittle evokes memories of My Fair Lady, Sesame Street and movies for children. At first glance, her songs and music are very simplistic. She grows on you however, and you will be humming her songs for days to come.


Her genre is clearly pop but with a mixture of Creole percussions, jazzy licks and bubbling lyrics. Breezy, upbeat, catchy chorus are her hall mark. Her debut album – ‘Eliza Doolittle’, made waves in the English music scene with two of her songs ‘Skinny Genes’ and ‘Pack up your troubles” featuring in the Top 10 charts.


With only one album to her credit, there is nothing much else you can talk about – so let us go straight to her music.


Skinny Genes – a naughty raunchy song, complete with whistles and giggles – is all about the many faults of a boyfriend, compensated however, by his expertise in bed.


I don’t mind it when you,

 Bring out the best in me, when you,

 Show your expertise,

 When the night always ends in a fight, I’m excited,

 When you wind up next to me.




Her effervescent “Pack up your troubles’ is a mix of original lyrics coupled with the chorus lifted from an old George Henry Powell marching song ‘Pack Up Your Troubles In Your Old Kit Bag. She has re-worked the chorus beautifully though, giving her own take on being the eternal optimist.


You gotta pack up your troubles in your old kit-bag,

 And bury them beneath the sea.

 I don’t care what the people may say,

 What the people may say about me.




I like her “Moneybox song too” – the typical teenager cliché anthem, railing against the material world when ‘all you need is love’.


 


She has recently signed a modeling deal with ‘Select Models’ – the same agency that promotes Selena Gomez and other big name stars. I look forward to her next album from this talented, intelligent singer with  high expectations.


You know what else is good about this level headed lady? She supports Arsenal Football Club. Yay!

				

				


			


		
		

			
← Older Entries