A Sensible City is a precursor to be a Smart City……

Last week I participated in the eGov symposium at Tirupati, hosted by the Government of Andhra Pradesh. As part of the program, I listened to several speakers on the subject of ‘Smart City’, where the common theme was deployment of sensor-based technologies for predictive smarter solutions. Anyway, ‘Smart City’ is now a well-accepted jargon in India and more so through the recent selection of first 20 cities for investing into Smart City concept, by Ministry of Urban Development. Next day was Saturday and I visited Tirumala, a city on top of the hill, known as ‘Devasthanam’- abode of Lord Balaji; the most visited religious place in the world.

The visit to Tirumala city is an experience apart from ‘Darshan’ of Lord in the temple, that shows you how the city is kept spick and span with no spitting and smoking; how the transport and parking bays are managed reducing pollution; how the speed of vehicle is regulated both climbing up and down the hill; how the crowd is managed with amenities providing convenience and comfort to the visitors. Even the local citizens participate in voluntary services. The Trust (TTD) has deployed technology including online facility for several services including tickets, donations, and accommodation booking to tackle the volume and velocity of visitors. One can easily see through the underlying mission of the city, which is to be a sensible one where all economic, social and cultural activities converge into a single vision ‘Darshan’. Tirumala city is a ‘Sensible’ city more than a ‘Smart’ city, and thanks to the administration and governance of the TTD Trust. And that should be a lesson for the selected Smart Cities to endeavor to become sensible ones first before deployment of any IOT sensors and big data analytics.

Only one thing that pinched me personally is that too many VIPs and VVIPs in shorter queues. Tirumala should have only one VIP, i.e. Lord Balaji himself and rest others, whoever they may be, should be treated as ticket holders, maybe of different denominations and queues. I am sure that with the forward thinking TTD Trust, this will also change soon. 

Tourism: A select poker chip to bet ……

The Tourism sector in India is one of the most promising ones in the services industry segment with its contribution to GDP (more than 6%). The annual growth rate for this sector is projected to be more than 7.5% with a promise to generate employment at a faster pace.  With an upswing of foreign tourists (7m in 2015), India is now ranked 52^nd by Tourism and Travel competitive index and the Ministry does not miss the opportunity to pat its own back for introducing e-tourist visas for 113 countries. The analysis of foreign tourist arrival last year  (UK 23.81%, US 19.59%, Russia 9.33%, Australia 5.44%, Germany 4.86%, France 4.44% and Canada 4.4%) throws one common denominator that currency of each one of these countries, apart from Russian Ruble (devalued in 2015) has a conversion rate of more than Rs40 and that reiterates the fact that India is still a cheap tourist destination, apart from its gorgeous sea beaches, warm weather, a plethora of local cuisines and great historic monuments spread all over the country with added convenience of e-tourist visas. 

At the same time, one needs to take note of the footfall of foreign tourists and it is limited to only few cities like Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, Mumbai, Goa, Kochi, Chennai and Kolkata whereas every state in India is blessed with more than a dozen pristine spots worth visiting to cherish the beauty of nature in bucolic setting, for example, sea beach at BaliHarChandi, around 20kms away from Puri town in Odisha. The question to the Ministry is: what are we doing to identify such spots and promote tourism? Tourism promotion comes with providing surface transport connectivity and infrastructure comfort. An investment in these two alone will create employment opportunities where direct employment in Tourism (currently approx. 40m jobs) will double with the possibility of creating local entrepreneurship. The Ministry can support these local entrepreneurship through Govt’s ‘Start-up India’ platform while facilitating advertisement, networking and theme based marketing.

More than convenience and comfort, the other factor that the Ministry must give attention to, is confidence. Recent news of India being stuck off the list of safe travel destination recommended for Russian tourists (News agency- Interfax) is a noise that might have emanated from local issues in Goa and such dampers can certainly be avoided through inclusive partnership of local youth as entrepreneurs.

Tourism sector can turn out to be the next big bet in services industry provided the Ministry takes a holistic approach of convenience-comfort-confidence.

Better days from better ways ….

Today is the 2^nd day of the year. After almost two days of fervor of New Year wishing, emails, chats, sweets and sporadic noise of firecrackers, the air seems to have calmed down to catch up with the mundane world. Life trudges along with a small change of a new page on the calendar.

Anything new brings in hope, a desire to have better days - days to be filled in with health, wealth and prosperity. Optimism is sparked within the heart to start afresh, washing away any gloom of the past. Resolutions are thus made and slowly forgotten in the drudgery of the days as they progress with their own ups and downs, wins and losses, victories and defeats.

The vision of the beautiful promise that future holds onto comes from within. And it comes with a desire to exfoliate the ways of living, pruning and plucking the ways of thinking, learning new ways to live and not survive; thus paving the path for better ways to have better days that we desire.

Caprese Salad in Lord Krishna's land….

“Should we order a plate of caprese salad to start with?” asked my wife, when we went to a local Italian restaurant for dinner, and placed the order when the waiter came forward with a smile. Soon after the waiter left, both of us started talking about this dish that we had in a restaurant in Vienna market place, when we went there on a vacation almost five years back. We talked about the quaint restaurant with seating places outside, under colorful awnings next to the cobblestoned pathway in the busy market place. More we talked about the caprese salad that we had; full of vine-ripe tomatoes, fresh basil and fresh mozzarella cheese, quite mouthful chunks sprinkled with olive oil; more we reminisced about our tour and started building up our appetite, eagerly waiting for the dish to arrive.

And when the dish came to the table, it was complete damp on our expectation with only three pieces of tomato and cheese on quite a large plate compared to the food on it, garnished with a small piece of sundried tomato – a ridiculous sight. The cheese was a rubbery pellet on top of the over-ripe tomatoes layered with some no-name oil. The most important ingredient of a caprese salad dish is the mozzarella cheese. And the one served was no way comparable to the fresh and moist ones that we had in Vienna, the taste of which still lingers in our mind and mouth.

When we brought our discontentment to the notice of the waiter, the answer was “we do not get real mozzarella cheese in India and the imported ones are pretty expensive” putting the blame as usual on a grander issue, which no one can reach. It was a real surprise to hear that in the land of Lord Krishna where milk and milk products flow in the name of Operation Flood and we call it a white revolution here. Also our land is swamped with quite a number of mythological stories narrating childhood banters of Lord Krishna around butter, buttermilk and cheese. And I believe, we have at least the same number of cows and buffaloes in this vast country, if not more compared to that in Europe. Maybe we do not know how to make good quality mozzarella cheese or we in India have not developed a taste for the same and I am not sure whether Lord Krishna ever tried. Better we start learning how to make high quality mozzarella cheese so that gourmets like me who love to try cuisines from all over the world, especially mouth savoring ones like caprese salad, can relish, here in our own country.

No Excuses

We all do start something with an intention to continue as a habit, as an inherent discipline and somewhere on the way we do fail to continue the same with equal zeal and fervor; be it going to gym, or doing yoga or writing a blog. It may not be true for all, but definitely for few folks; and am one of them.

I started a good practice of blogging and must say that I was enjoying to post few thoughts every week, without much caring about whether I was picking up an audience or not. It was an activity truly self defined to create an ounce of satisfaction for myself only. Something went wrong with my discipline and it is more than a year now that I did post any. And I really cannot attribute a single reason for this lapse.

It is not that I did not do any writing all this time. I did write a lot along side my hectic job and travel; but I failed to post any in a disciplined way. No excuse can suffice to justify and hence let me not try to hide behind any excuses. As they say “ If you really want to do something, you’ll find a way. If you don’t, you’ll find an excuse.”

Let me try again to start from today and keep my commitment to post at least once every week. Hope this time I will not fail……..

Lending an ear…………..

I mentioned in my last post that from time to time we need to find a pair of ears to listen to; listen to our feelings with a deeper heart that truly cares.  We seek advice, suggestion and mere opinion, when we come across crossroads, where our mind gets cluttered to make the right choice. Maybe just to reaffirm our own convictions. And we do come across these crossroads now and then.

And it is not easy for one to put forth his two cents, when one choses not mere words to soothe the heart, not simply to make the other person feel better, but to really help with a bigger and deeper heart which truly cares for the other person and does not mind if it sounds even bitter. And it is more difficult, when one has not been in same shoes before, not come across similar crossroads, not experienced the doubtful moments.

Even one does not have any words to offer, one can still help by sitting next holding the hands and lending the ear. Merely saying, “I feel for you” has more impact on the tormenting heart at that moment as it shows a sincere heart that truly loves and cares. More so, when one sends a note later, saying “thinking of you”.

True friends may not always be of help, but certainly be there, lending their ears filing the void of silence with their thoughts for you. And these thoughts are the priceless pearls in the sands of our life that we do cherish and live for.