Category: Uncategorized

These IT guys..

I’m chatting with a friend from school who now works for an IT behemoth.

It’s extremely funny to see him use the words “abroad” and “onsite” interchangeably.

So he is asking me stuff like “where do you want to settle down in the long term? Bangalore or onsite?”

Another thing with these IT guys is that “onsite” is a huge prestige issue. And you’re a loser if you haven’t been there. Last April i was slated to attend a conference abroad but had to cancel at the last minute due to personal reasons. And ever since, whenever one of my cousins (who is an IT guy) sees me he doesn’t let go without asking me what happened to the foreign trip (he knows the circumstances under which I canceled it). And then proceeds to pat my back saying “don’t worry your chance will come sometime”.

Bah!

Improving umpiring

Just Outsource the front foot no ball

Takes a lot of pressure away from the umpire. Right now he has to keep looking down till the bowler bowls and then suddenly jerk his neck up and decide on lbws and caught behinds and bat pads. This jerk of the neck causes considerable strain, and can also present the umpire with a not-so-good angle and the probability of error goes up.

One reason us people in front of the TV get more LBWs right than the umpire is that we are not looking down at the popping crease waiting for no balls. Another thing is that there have been a number of cases where the front foot no ball hasn’t been given (notably in the barbados test in 1997, old trafford in 2001 when saqlain consistently overstepped, and last week when jaffer got out to lee) and outsourcing the no ball decision, either to the third umpire or to a computer would help immensely.

We can have special cameras installed in the ground which only provide a view of the popping crease at both ends. And while the ball is being delivered it’s the job of the third umpire to decide on front foot no balls. He anyways has? no work to do unless he is referred by the on field umpires.

That said and done, we need to develop technology for this soon enough. I suspect some variation of the cyclops used in tennis might come in useful here.

Anyways, I’m reminded of this quiz question in the Shaastra Main Quiz in 2002, where the question was about the inventor of cyclops sitting in his home and watching saqlain destroy England bowling no balls and wondering whether his invention would be useful.

Water privatization in Kundapur

A couple of years back, in a blog post (part of which also went into a project report), I’d talked about water privatization. I had said that it is a good thing even if it pushes up costs, because it now offers people the option to get piped water supply. The analysis went something like:

1. People who don’t currently have connections will now get connected. And once they are on the network, they have an option to get clean piped water.
2. For people who already have connections, their monthly costs will shoot up. Maybe double. However, given that the average water bill amount is quite low, and is an extremely small proportion of monthly expenditure. So small that even a 100% increase won’t have much of an impact.

It’s time to revisit that case, given that Kundapur, a coastal town in Karnataka has decided to privatize it’s water supply. To summarize, so far, this town was dependent on ground water. Now, they are getting water from the river Varahi. Residents have to pay Rs. 4000 for the connection (half of that refundable), and the monthly bill will come within Rs. 100, they’ve said.

There are two points to note here. Firstly, this is the first time that Kundapur is getting piped water supply. The second is that there is a huge up-front cost.

When I had talked about privatization giving the option of water supply to everyone, I had said that the costs should be structured such that the fixed charge is low or non-existent, and only usage is charged. This way, I had said, there won’t be any adverse impact on the poor (who are outside the system in the first place).

In this context, a financial restructuring of the Kundapur plan might be necessary. The TMC and the water supply firm will have to work out a scheme where they heavily subsidize the up front fee (to say about Rs. 500) in exchange for a higher per-unit charge for water. That kind of a structure would have several benefits.

Firstly, it would be far more inclusive and more people would be brought into the safe water plan. More people would be able to buy the option to get safe drinking water. Secondly, a higher variable charge will also result in more judicious consumption, which is critical for a limited resource such as fresh water. Thirdly, due to the changed payment structure, the heavy users of water (more likely to be the rich and upper middle classes) will end up cross-subsidizing the low volume users (usually the poor). Thus, the adverse impact on the poor can be brought down, and the people who wil have to pay more would be those who won’t mind paying a bit extra.

Of course, there is still a long way to go. The private partner who will handle the operation and maintenance is yet to be selected. There are also bound to be a large number of protests against the privatization itself. The TMC needs to get past that. Also, it seems to be the first time when such an exercise is being conducted in the country. So, other hurdles also can’t be ruled out.

Nevertheless, this outsourcing of operation and maintenance of water supply is a welcome concept, and if implemented and priced in the right way, might become a model to emulate in the rest of the country.

Cross posted at the Indian Economy Blog

Sugarcane Markets

Ah, no. Don’t get psyched by the title. This is not about agriculture, and will not be cross-posted on the Indian Economy Blog. This is more to do with the festival today. Sankranthi.

The basic activity during the festival is that you visit some N houses and give them a stick of sugarcane each (along with “side dishes” such as bananas, occasionally oranges, ellu (til i think it’s called; mixed with small cut pieces of coconut, jaggery, groundnuts, etc.) and figures made out of sugar). And you get back a stick of sugarcane in return (along with similar accompaniments).

Anyways, the point I’m trying to make is that there is very little chance that the sugarcane you buy will end up in your house. Unless of course you buy some “extra stuff” for yourself. And the market encourages recycling. Each piece of sugarcane usually changes hands at least four-five times. Thus, there is a very good chance that you don’t know at all the person who originally purchased the piece of sugarcane you are going to eat.

Another result of the high churn is that it’s difficult for people to keep track of the sugarcane pieces (they don’t have DHL stickers, do they?). There’s no way anyone can remember who gave them the sugarcane that they are now eating. And so there isn’t much of a reputational risk also, in giving poor sugarcane. The only thing is the size of the sugarcane stick. Since the “quality” on that measure can be measured easily. in one glance, as long as you don’t give too short a stick (you’ll definitely be classified as cheap then), you’re ok.

Ok, so, given that the nature of the market is such, what is the incentive to buy good quality sugarcane? What is the incentive to pay more to get better sugarcane? After all after you’ve given someone a piece of sugarcane it’s unlikely she checks for the quality of what you’ve given and then picks the stick to return to you based on that. So why should you even bother about buying good sugarcane?

The other day I’d been to the market, and most of the sugarcane on display seemed to be mediocre. And now, thinking about it, I’m not surprised. Unless you are highly ethical (and the proportion of such people is small, and falling) you’ll just buy whatever you can get cheapest. Simple. And the demand for good sugarcane is so low that the market itself doesn’t exist there, and so everyone is forced to buy mediocre sugarcane. Doesn’t this remind you in some way of the Tragedy of the Commons?

Our festivals should be better designed, I say!

Help me with some piracy

I realize that after graduating from IIMB I don’t have access to a convenient LAN from which I can download the latest hindi film music which someone else has managed to procure.

In the process i seem to be missing out on loads of recent music. Can someone suggest to me some site from which I can download stuff? And preferably something that I’d be able to access from my office, given that i have severe download restrictions in my home connection.

Thanks in advance.

Tomatina in India

Almost every other year, there is a bumper crop of tomato in Kolar district, leading to prices of tomato falling under Rs. 2, leading to heavy losses amongst farmers. It’s not uncommon for farmers to throw sackloads of tomatoes on to the highway rather than selling at such throwaway prices.

I hereby suggest that in such times of a glut in the tomato crop, someone should come ahead and organize a local version of Tomatina. It will be a whole lot of entertainment to our people, and on the other hand result in a one time demand surge for tomatoes, leading to stiffening of prices, and helping out the farmer. And valuable tomatoes which would otherwise end up under the wheels of trucks would be used to plaster someone’s face instead!

Some people might think it’s morally wrong to waste food like this, but I think it’s so much better than letting tomatoes waste under wheels!

Coffee segmentation and take away and food courts

I really like the way the coffee market in India is segmented. You have a clear distinction of cafe and coffee shop. If you just want a quick tasty caffeine kick, you just go to one of the cafes (Darshini types) and for some 6-7 rupees you’ll get excellent steaming and strong filter coffee. However, there is only standing room there and you can’t really hang around.

Continue reading “Coffee segmentation and take away and food courts”

Teaching Economics: Part Two

Madman Aadisht has extended my earlier post to talk about why Economics toppers from DU don’t necessarily need to clear in their concepts. He talks about the admission process and the internal examination process and the course content to arrive at this particular conclusion. So what could be done to fix it? There is no dearth of enthu for the study of economics in India. And I get the feeling that a lot of people are put off from it due to absence of quality colleges (apart from a couple of colleges in Delhi, and one in Bombay, nothing really stands out).

Continue reading “Teaching Economics: Part Two”

First Principles and Innovation

I think I communicate much much better when on GTalk than when I’m trying to write a blogpost. So henceforth, you’ll see more and more of my posts being copied from GTalk conversations that I’ve had. Anyways, this post is one such about this article in the New York Times which talks about knowledge stifling creativity.

I had to say this in conversation with Karthik Ashwin earlier today:

and i kinda agree about this other NYT article – on innovation
once you know some stuff, you get “conditioned”
your assumptions change
you so frequently have to use the “first principles” that you now start using “second principles”
and soon, if you’re really experienced, you’ll work using the “Nth principles”, and that will be your building blocks
you tend to think of everything in terms of these massive building blocks, and you are now conditioned against using smaller or more basic blocks – and are hence highly prone to missing out on stuff
Sent at 2:44 PM on Tuesday

Let me know your views on this.

As an aside, I consider myself to be a very “first principles” person. I try to remember things using only the very basic assumptions, and then derive everything else on the spot. I started using this strategy way back in 11th, and successfully implemented in the JEE despite the apparent lack of time. I had understood only the very basics, and ended up deriving some stuff on the spot in the exam hall.

A small story here. Back in 2005, in my fifth term at IIMB, I was teaching International Finance to a friend, who had earlier been a topper in Economics at St. Stephens (undergrad). As I tried explaining something that I thought was kinda complex, she asked me “what is the formula?”. I talked about the concept a couple of more times, but she wouldn’t relent. She just wanted “the formula”. Finally i just derived some stuff using the basics and stopped when I came up with some complex-looking equation, which she happily wrote down as “the formula” and went away.

Earlier: About the way economics is taught in India

please

i get the feeling that using the word “please” in certain contexts makes things less polite. it sounds as if it is imposing something on someone, or forcing someone to do something. especially in the formal/corporate context.

suppose you write to someone saying “can you do this?” you are just asking if someone to do something. And “no” is a perfectly okay answer for that.

however, if you happen to say? “can you please do this?” it’s that much harder for the other person to say “no”. and given that you have said “please”, you are much more liable to take offence if the counterparty says “no”.

please? tell me if i’m missing something here.