Make in India

I don't know if anyone can remember; but there was a time when Japan was laughed upon for its manufacturing abilities. It's hard to even find articles on the net referring to that period when Japan was notorious for cheap, badly made knock offs of almost everything under the sun from cars to cameras. Over time Japanese pride changed the image and soon "Made in Japan" stood out as a brand in itself. It overtook the world in technology and in the World War of economics; almost took over the entire world. Many smaller nation like Korea, Malaysia, Thailand and Taiwan tried to imitate the Japanese model but with limited success. China is probably the only nation that has succeeded in a variation of what the Japanese did by cloning and owning (as its own) ideas rather than coming up with path breaking new ideas. In time that too may change as is the fact that "Made in China" though not a brand in itself - is now a given for the entire manufacturing spectrum from bad to the best for everything made in the world.

India on the other hand; despite having a relatively freer economy as compared to the Chinese some 30 years back - lost out in the race to become a world manufacturing hub despite its so called low cost labour advantage. I have tried to search for answers and have come up with a conclusion (right or wrong) that India's failure stems from a lack of belief in the concept called "national pride". We are Maharashtrians or Punjabis or Tamil or Gujarati first - Indian second. Somehow; years of foreign rule has brainwashed us that "imported" is better and that has kind of become a self fulfilling prophecy. It's a different matter that the manufacturing policy is based on a system of entry-exit and operational hurdles that is the biggest put off for manufacturing anything in this Country; but those who do know how to bend the system and thrive in an environment that encourages evasion, cheating, sub standard and inconsistent quality among a list of several negatives. In general; being mediocre is fine - produce now and refine later is the manufacturing mantra - knowing well that the demand is limitless for the scarce goods produced as a result of which the consumer will lap up anything without recourse the very limited consumer protection systems in place.

The malaise is so contagious that even foreign brands that have set up shop in India are now getting used to accepting quality defects in their famed zero tolerance production lines as a part of life here. Consumers too for some reason have no will to complain about shoddy service or products being dished to them. Too busy to make the effort or too low down in the pecking order to be taken notice of.

Will a change of laws alone bring about a change in the Indian manufacturing context? Laws have no effect on the level of corruption in this nation and I am not referring to monetary corruption alone. Increase in productivity, management and labour attitude, adherence to quality standards, ethics, and a host of other measurable intangibles have to kick in to make "Make in India" a success. India does not lack in innovation or entrepreneurship - there are plenty of examples to substantiate it - right from our "Mission to Mars" to the several "Rags to Riches" heros. All we need to "Make ourselves in India" first and before you know it several Indian brands will be a household feature across the globe.

Shitty Shitty Big Brand

A couple of days back; there was a series of tweet from a prominent personality in Delhi on the trouble he was having with his super expensive Bavarian car, and the problems being faced by him with the dealership in resolving the same. All of a sudden there was a barrage of tweets in response to them by several handles echoing similar problems with their own branded dream machines that had turned into white elephants within a couple of years of ownership.

I was having dinner with a couple of friends a day after and threw this topic on the table for debate. Both my friends too had similar horror stories to tell and from them I learnt that it was not only my BMW that suffered from the symptoms of melting door handles and multiple electrical faults. It seems each time the car goes to the authorized service centre for getting an issue resolved it comes back with a couple of new ones. It got me thinking on why are these problems not brought out into the open? Afterall we buy these super expensive branded cars not only for the badge value but to get trouble free performance and great service in case - God Forbid -  there are any problems.

In most cases, the popular big 5 brands from Europe will sell the car with a 3 year service - "super" insurance - extended warranty pack with fancy names that costs nearly 5% to 10% of the vehicle's on road price depending on what one opts for. Most buyers acquiring such expensive vehicles do not really bother to even check what these packs really mean and buy them with the hope of sleeping soundly with the thought that their expensive acquisition will be well taken care of. Why? probably not worth their expensive time to get into all this investigation. As a result, they also discover that they have been "had" when their car gets into a sticky situation.

For those brave enough to go through the schemes and give them a pass to avoid paying what is really unnecessary extra costs; the car companies and dealerships have other surprises in store for them. A maintenance schedule that beats all logic. I was told that I must get the engine oil and filter of my SUV (from a famous English brand) be changed every 6 months irrespective of the milage it does - else the manufacturing warranty would be held void. I was certainly upset at the thought of paying for 2 expensives services a year. Forget the labour cost; the material cost quoted itself was at a 200% premium to what is available in the market. I did some research and pulled up the  manufacturer's recommended service intervals for the vehicle in different world zones and discovered that such short intervals were only reserved for India. Now why was I not told this at the time of buying the car that while it may meet Euro IV norms; the  fuel in India and other climatic conditions are corrosive enough to cause the oil to disintegrate as per clockwork even if the vehicle is not clocking serious mileage. When I took this up with the Company; I was told that based on my use pattern they would waive off the time horizon requirement for service as long as I serviced the car at least once a year for the first 3 years. Cost down to half but not my aggravation. Had I not taken this up, I would have paid up twice the servicing cost over the life of the vehicle.

I was told run flat tyres cannot be fully fixed if they suffer a flat. Cost of a temporary repair - Rs 5000 from the dealer or; as I learnt,  Rs 150 from a certified tyre vendor that sells the same brand tyres. Cost of a single tyre replacement at a dealer equals the cost for replacing a whole set of close to but good quality - branded - matching tyres from outside. I checked with the tyre dealer on why this difference. He said that the car company has forbidden the tyre company from selling exact match tyres in the open market if it wants to be an OEM supplier. So it's the car owner's choice to replace either one tyre from the dealership or buy an entirely new set of tyres from the tyre vendor. Smells of a burning rubber scam does it not?

I have taken up numerous battles with several car companies  from popular to expensive brands and I have only one conclusion to draw. There is no difference. The after sales service is pathetic across the board based on my own experience and from what I have heard from numerous car owners. Non availability of spares; no commitment on availability of spares for at least X many number of years after acquisition of a brand new vehicle from a certified dealership; disputes in resolving problems under warranty; and many such big and small issues are common with all types of cars.  Sorry there is a difference - the bigger the brand - bigger the grief in terms of cost and time. And to top it all - they (the brand car cos) don't really seem to care much either knowing that what they are really selling is an ego trip for which millions of rich and aspiring Indians are hungry for.

The sorry state of Indian roads and bad drivers are pretty much the lowest common denominators for all cars using what we call infrastructure as is the quality of fuel in driving vehicles to an earlier than required grave. The only way to protect a car from nicks and dents in this Country is to not drive it and sometimes even that does not work. Next one pays nearly twice the price for these fancy cars as one would pay in most parts of the world. Add to that there there is no real advantage in terms of build or after sales service quality derived from ownership of a marquee brand. Then my logic says depreciate your ego faster than the vehicle made by the "Shitty Shitty Big Brands" and say tata to them quite literally.

I am quite sure that the big car brands will actually be happy to note that I will not spend my hard earned money on buying one of their vehicles now on as I am probably nothing more than a tweeting twitter to them.

Hey! What's Going On?

Yesterday (4th Nov 2014); I came across this article where our judiciary overruled verdict of rape in the case of sexual assault on a 65 year old woman who died post attack. If the reason given is to be believed that non consensual - forceful sex with a menopausal woman does not constitute rape. Is the logic for this verdict that fact that such a woman cannot conceive? Then by that count the Court will also have to use the same yardstick for girls that have not achieved puberty. Is this what our "great" nation has come to - allow legal loopholes to sick degenerates to molest children below 9 and women past 50? Both age groups fall in a zone called soft targets.

Each day the newspaper is full of articles citing rape and physical abuse of women and children. Some of the victims have not even completed their first year in this world. Quite a few cases of incestuous rape. Just today there was an article of some thieves robbing a house and then recording the raping of the house owners wife in front of him and his mother as a means of insuring that they don't report the crime. I guess the death penalty awarded to the culprits convicted and in some the cases has had no impact and we are at a point where we may soon be called a land of "Mother-F@%king Barbarians" quite literally given that it's not a North India phenomenon anymore.

Who do we as citizens turn to? Politician? Well didn't you hear what some of this breed had to say on the subject? From saying boys will be boys to stop eating Chinese food to banning swimwear calling it inciting and to top it all getting into the act themselves -  this route is not much help. Police of course - right? Wrong. The track record in this department is also not clean either and some believe that rape is linked to " lack of entertainment". Well what about the Judiciary? First the existing laws are all loaded in favour of the rapist; second we have some smart Judges like in the case yesterday making it even worse for the victim; and third, it itself falls victim to those who feel they are above the law.

So what is the answer? Do the people affected take up the law in their own hands to punish the guilty? Wrong as it may sound - is not the system pushing society in that direction? We all read what's going on; offer a few words of sympathy and then what? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. When are we going to get mad enough and not take it anymore?

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-forceful-sex-on-menopausal-woman-not-rape-says-delhi-high-court-2031918Mulayam Singh Yadav: Boys make mistakes, death penalty for rape needlesshttp://indiatoday.intoday.in/video/No+bikinis+on+Goa+beaches,says+Govt/1/81679.htmlGirl files rape charge against Goa politician - IBNLiveHaryana khap blames consumption of chowmein for rapes ...Cops gang-rape woman inside police station in Uttar PradeshGirl in police protection gang-raped - The Times of India'Lack of Entertainment Options' Causes Rape, Say Uttar ...Analysis: How India's police and judiciary fail rape victims ...Now, a woman judge raped in Akhilesh-ruled UP | India ...Police: Indian father kills man over alleged rape - CNN.com

Times are a changing

My email; SMS; whatsapp; BBM and all form of messaging boxes have been inundated with hundreds of messages carrying best wishes and good tidings for Diwali and New Year. Honestly; apart from the few I really care about - the rest - mostly from marketing e-bots fed with big data about me will go directly to my trash box as they don't need any reply or acknowledgement.

It's only now that I have noticed that I haven't received a single card via the postal or courier service. Thankful I am, for a couple of reasons; - first, I don't have to open them physically to see who they are from; second, no waste of precious paper and printing ink; and third no guilt of responding back in kind. It always felt cheap to respond back to a physical card sender with some form of e-greetings or e-acknowledgement. From a thriving money making industry, conveying of greetings through creative, time consuming and expensive cards has become a virtually free and relatively effortless task. In this age of CCP (Cut Copy Paste) one does not even spend time looking for a great original creative piece of work - just take something cool received - edit it to make it look personal (if possible) and forward to your own mailing list or respond back with a template reply.

I cannot decide if it's good or bad. Thanks to technology I have mapped my friends' birthdays, anniversaries, and such important dates - even if they are incorrect based on data entered by the source. It's good to remember people even for a split second - but does that really translate to care? At times wishing someone on a social network results in acute irritation from the alerts when others too have greeted that person. Does it give us a high to receive greetings from tons of people - many who we don't even know?

I still hold on to a few physical greeting cards that touched me emotionally; but I don't recall holding on to or printing a single e-card sent to me. We now click and share more pictures and probably leave them forgotten on social sites. There are those days when I go through my physical picture albums, scrap books and cards - hardly ever through my cherished memories on any e-platform. Its either there in my mind or somewhere out there. Times are changing - but I do hope in this age of e-junk we are able to sift through and recognise the messages of real care and respond accordingly. May be even call for a conversation rather than send back words with one of the few billion emoticons.

Happy Diwali and Indian New Year

The elections in Maharashtra has given a cracker of a result freezing the BJP a few inches behind the finish line and the rest way behind. To form the Government and claim the Chief Minister's chair; the BJP has to kind of decide between the Devil and the deep Blue Sea - namely the NCP - a party it labeled as the "Naturally Corrupt Party" and the Shiv Sena - its former ally whose leadership has been washing dirty laundry in the public even after the results were declared. In a case of warring siblings, both are waiting for the other to blink. The NCP of course; irrespective of the final equation must be laughing itself silly. By offering outside support to the BJP; it has killed two birds with one stone - first; if BJP accepts - then BJP too is susceptible to tainting itself for good as an opportunist that will do anything for power; and second - it has ruined Shiv Sena's bargaining power to near zero making sure that the leadership ego is ground to dust.

There are two more improbable scenarios - one where the 20 independents help BJP cross the finish line - at a cost that would probably be more expensive than making up with the Sena; two - BJP decides to wait it out and hope for re-election - at a cost to the exchequer and the people at large.

A re-election will in all probability deliver BJP well past the finish line but having come this far - no party would have the guts to seek a fresh mandate - even if it is on the strength of a high moral ground. With its victory in Haryana; Delhi is all but certain to fall in BJP hands should elections be called for. Such a possibility is true in Maharashtra as well given that it won more seats on its own than it would have fighting alongside Shiv Sena. The Congress looks all but washed out but not finished. Maybe it will reinvent itself with or without the Gandhi family leading it. It's more of a family political party now and would probably be better off with a non-Gandhi leader that is not a puppet to the family. There are quite a few good men in there and it would be good for an alternative to be in place just in case Mr. Modi falls in love with his own story and self.

Politics is a willy game and not improbable for scenarios five - six - seven and more to emerge including all independents joining the BJP or the Sena seeing a third of its MLAs splitting and forming a Sena B (that supports the BJP). A solution will emerge - however strange it may be. In the mean time the financial markets are celebrating that the Modi magic is more or less intact and he will now get down to doing the business he was elected for; that is make the India Story a sexy story globally once again.

So; on the eve of Diwali and the Hindu New Year - India may once again be the toast of the G-20 summit. I have moved to a new office and hopefully I will be fired creatively to write down more than just my political views. Wishing all my readers the best for the festive season. Pray that Indian festival of light and New year ushers in a new world order where Good is Good and not Breaking Bad.

War Peace and Haider

While the Indian and Pakistani troops were shelling each other's borders in the Kashmir region last evening (9th Oct); I was busy watching "Haider" - a film by one of my favourite movie makers Vishal Bharadwaj. It's a screen adaptation of Shakespeare's "Hamlet" that's been very well melded into the strife of the Kashmiri disturbance in the 90's, to set up the Indianized plot and characters. I am not about to write this film's critique barring that each actor played his or her role to near perfection - with the moral of the story coming out quite clear that revenge begets revenge and not a closure to anyone's pain. I think the leaders on both sides of the border should pay heed to this as the only people getting brutally affected by the events on the border are innocent citizens.


I must praise the openness of my own Nation's people for the screening of this movie, as it has shown the excesses of the armed forces in trying to control a situation. Pretty sure that a movie like this would have been banned in Pakistan had a Muslim film director made it showing excesses by the Pakistani army against its own people in the NWFP and Baluchistan. The Indian armed forces too have taken a pragmatic approach in not censoring it, given the artistic license that a filmmaker has to tell his story as he interprets it. There were no demonstrations on the street either in Kashmir or any other State in India protesting on how various Indian communities were portrayed. In fact people have praised the movie on all counts.

Unfortunately, the army (armed forces)  does not receive praise that it deserves unless it fights an external battle. Unlike the police that battles internal elements on a daily basis, the army knows only friend or foe and when it is instructed that it's own are foes - it does not discriminate in its dealing with them. It is this same unidirectional machinery that unquestioningly puts every resource it has at its disposal including lives of its soldiers at stake in dangerous conditions that challenge even the might of nature to rescue and rehabilitate its own people - and many a times even those that throw stones and abuses at it. The army is not known to betray its own - it only follows orders.

But; Haider is a story of betrayal by his own and the exaggerated disgust that he felt by the same - enough for him to take harsh steps of reprisal. I think the trouble on the border is being attributed to the internal problems that the Pakistanis are facing with their own system and rulers and the situation with India has been "created" by the latter to divert attention. But politically, India is not too far behind Pakistan in this sentiment; even though the reasons may be some what different. The way Indian politicians have betrayed the trust of their own people - time is not too far when India may look like the streets of Paris in the French revolution. I hope I am as good in my prediction as Rev. Malthus was in economics.


Ironical as it may be - when the two nations are fighting a quasi WAR; it was fab to hear (this morning 10th Oct.) that the Nobel PEACE Prize 2014 was being shared by a deserving Pakistani and an Indian - Ms. Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi.

http://time.com/3489223/malala-yousafzai-and-kailash-satyarthi-win-nobel-peace-prize/

Jingle Poll Jingle Poll Jingle all the way

15th Oct. 2014; is poll day for the State of Maharashtra. A fortnight back the news was full of fracturing alliances. Parties that had worked together in happy - sad situations for 25 years or more decided to break away from each other and fight it on their own. The obvious reason being seat allocations and each of those parties thinking that it needed a better share than its partner. I could have understood if the tiff came about on ideological differences on how each one wishes to govern the State and make it a better - more progressive - less taxing place for its residents. Sadly, the electorate are of no consequence in such equations. And we claim India is a Democracy where it is rule of the people for the people by the people. This definition has to change or India has to coin a new word for the type of governance we have now become. Dictatorship elected by the people for persecution of the people by the Dictator and his cohorts.

Why do I feel that now? For one; the elected party is only interested in enriching itself at the cost of the subjects. All the major projects are dished out to related companies. the related companies do a bad job as they don't really have the expertise to carry out the works except believing in cheap is best as it delivers maximum profit - which of course is the motive - not to mention periodic price hikes which have an overall impact on inflation. Can I as a citizen complain? Yes of course I can - at the cost of facing the ire of the party leader and its members - who incidentally I help elect in the first place. If there is a process of election - can we have a process of de-election. NO. Because, a) there is no real process and b) all public servants have learnt the art of sucking up to the elected and make life miserable for anyone who dares to speak up about anything that is not a jingle to the ears of the Dictator.

As of now I am suffering from an overdose of poll jingles. It's uncanny how they stick in your mind and keep replaying again and again in silence. I am sure there is some psychology involved in creation of the same to have that effect - a kind of mind hypnosis. Anyway I cannot understand what message each one is trying to communicate. There is one that proclaims that it is time to end Mafia style rule and the severe level of corruption. Cannot figure is the Party hinting at the present State government being ruled by its adversaries or the Mumbai City administration being ruled by it along with its now splintered partner? The ruling administration's ad talks about putting Maharashtra first. Well if one goes by the State's economy (leaving out Mumbai) then it has probably ensured that the State would fall to some abysmal levels. The latest ad by that Party wants us to believe that it has been responsible for ensuring higher safety for women in the State and for implementing iconic projects like the Mumbai sea-link bridge; the metro and bridges to improve traffic conditions.  The jingle fails to say anything about 26/11; the numerous rapes in the State; farmer suicides because of incomplete water distribution projects; the over the top cost ( some Rs 16 billion) of the sea-link project (which was incidentally planned in 1968 from Bandra to Nariman point at a cost of some Rs 160 million back then) that has only reached halfway point; pot holed roads that can give the moon surface a complex; bridges that have collapsed and the list goes on.

Well for both of them; their partners in crime are now washing dirty laundry in public. But who does it help? All that the Jingles have done is pushed me closer to pushing the 49-0 button (which means I waste my vote on nominating no one). This election is probably going to be a waste of money as the votes will be divided 4 ways as each of the 4 major parties have their strongholds. I will be surprised if any party gets absolute majority. In any event - God help the State.  Will the results usher in new and more dangerous post poll alliances? Politics is like a soap opera - anyone can sleep with anyone; and it's not impossible to see sworn enemies share the stage together on the swearing ceremony day. Until the 14th then - it's Jingles all the way.