T- Dimension......“Opportunities favour prepared minds”

(Co- Conceptualized by Vikrant Kishore and Nibha Jain; Writing inputs also from Mihir Gajrawala)

“I think there is a world market for may be five computers.”
                Thomas Watson, IBM Chairman, 1943

“640K ought to be enough for anybody.”
                Bill Gates, 1981

“Everything that can be invented has been invented.”
                Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. patent office, 1899

Even the great minds and the pioneers in their own fields don’t have that far vision. But, nothing is impossible. Technology creates opportunity. But, opportunity favours prepared minds.

Human mind, by nature, is progressive and growth oriented. It is this very instinct of the human race that has led to the stupendous technological advancements in the world. For any resource constraint society, the only way to optimize their resource utilization is by way of TECHNOLOGICAL Advancements.

The world today faces newer challenges like Environment, population rise, downturn in agriculture output and energy crisis. At the same time inventions like internet are rapidly changing the lifestyles of the communities all around. New businesses like social networking, m-commerce etc. are bridging the geographical divide of the globe.

Numerous technologies lie untapped in the laboratories around the world, which have great societal impact and are huge entrepreneurial opportunities. For instance, DTH is a technology which is in commercial market for last 5 years, but it is a 30 year old technology which NASA was using in space ships.

If we visualise the future 50 years ahead, we can foresee an altogether new world. With income distribution getting more equal, there will be huge consumption demand; so accordingly, societies will be producing on an unthinkable scale.

Consider this ….

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  100 years ago, who knew about industries like Automobiles, music industries, Aviation Pharmaceuticals and Management consultancy?
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  30 years ago, who knew about industries like cellular phone, biotechnology, express package deliveries, coffee house, snow boards, and home videos?
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  10 years ago, who knew about Mobile commerce, online gaming, virtual businesses,BPOs?

And the opportunities for the next 2-3 decades are mind-boggling.

People are going to build space hotel on moon and moon colonies as human residence may be possible in near future. Due to the advent of super computers and rapid development in telecommunication the concepts like smart homes have come into picture. Japan is building a 500 storey building which will house an entire city. Just think the various opportunities, it throws open and possibilities we even may not visualise. People are talking about releasing movies directly in homes and theatre via satellites. So delivery systems are changing with technologies.

Imagination about cities without cars, driverless cars, smart highways, is seemingly becoming feasible in near future.

With the speed of innovation becoming faster and world changing at a rate faster than ever before it becomes important that we sensitise ourselves to the technological developments that will shape the course of societies over next few decades.

The T- Dimension

“Technology as a dimension for businesses”

What’s T- Dimension?

Some societies like European and American, are more prosperous than other and when we try to see the reason, we find that they invested more in technological development than us and that gave them the edge over others.

In this era, technology has become most important dimension affecting every aspect of human lives, so enterprises are also not spared.

Big business and industrial houses like Birlas, Tatas, Bajaj etc. took two three generations to reach a level where as new generation of entrepreneurs like Bill gates, Azim Premji, Narayan Murthy, Shiv Nadar achieved heights in their own life time and the differentiator was the Technology as a source of business idea.

Let’s start understanding this, before we are left behind in the race against time. Technology has given us again a historical chance to regain our lost glorious past when our country was called a “golden Sparrow”.

We say time is changing, but that change is most visible through technological change.

New corporate Mantra is “WHAT NEXT”?

Let’s try to anticipate future societies which will be knowledge based societies.

Let’s try to appreciate the Schumpeterian view that why destruction is good and desirable.

Technology has brought human race so close to each other; no political system could do that in past. Who knows that one day it will make the whole world a border less unified entity?

Just imagine the ocean of possibilities when technology will enable us to communicate with each other without language barrier.

Event

A convergence of technology, stakeholder institutions, people, and entrepreneurial minds

Purpose

The purpose of holding this event is to sensitise the entrepreneurial minds about the technology as a dimension and its potency, to make them envision future possibilities in convergence of technology and business.

It will also showcase some opportunities, you can pursue at your convenience.

Vision

• To become a well recognized national platform for technology related entrepreneurially relevant information exchange.
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  Enabling, sensitizing entrepreneurial minds about technology as a big business opportunity

Who would come to attend this event?

• entrepreneurial minds
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  research institution
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  bankers, financers
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  companies
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  govt. departments
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  educational institutions

Need for this kind of Event

As a student community we feel that we are not being sensitized enough about the potency of the technology create an impact on societal level and optimizing resource utilization. But, complaining and waiting for someone else to solve the problem will not give us a solution. We believe that every problem should be looked as an opportunity. Therefore there is an opportunity to create a Platform where all the stakeholders can come together to have meaningful and result oriented exchanges and interactions.

There are indigenous technologies lying unexploited in the Indian labs with no takers because there is disconnect between research institutes and market. At first place laboratories are not able to see the market requirements and then they are not able to commercialize technologies that they build. Unlike western countries system, where there is quite vibrant connect between educational research institutes and corporate, such facilities in India are lying unutilized for lack of vision and lack of connect between industry and these institutions. That gives rise to lack of appreciation of technology at a society level.

It is also a known fact that people, who develop technology, are different from those who commercialize those technologies. Entrepreneurs are the people who organize resources to create value and deliver it.

This platform would address this gap and will bring together all stake holders namely entrepreneurial minds, research institutions, bankers and financiers, companies, government departments, and educational institutions to synergize their efforts in a direction to get results.

Issues to be addressed 

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  Technology Sensitization (Technology as Business Opportunities
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  Technology Adaptation
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  Rural Technology
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  Technology for Social Sector
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  Indigenous and International Technology Transfer Regimes and Institutions Involved
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  Technology evaluation process and its importance
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  Incentives and Benefits from National and International Agencies

Law of Accelerating Returns

Eminent inventor and futurist of 21st century Ray Kurzweil's ‘Law of Accelerating Returns’ explains the significance of the rapid pace of innovation:

An analysis of the history of technology shows that technological change is exponential, contrary to the common-sense "intuitive linear" view. So we won't experience 100 years of progress in the 21st century -- it will be more like 20,000 years of progress (at today's rate). The "returns," such as chip speed and cost-effectiveness, also increase exponentially. There's even exponential growth in the rate of exponential growth. Within a few decades, machine intelligence will surpass human intelligence, leading to The Singularity (marvel, miracle, wonder) -- technological change so rapid and profound it represents a rupture in the fabric of human history.

Rapid growth of technology creates an increasing demand and need for more entrepreneurs

If technology is increasing at such a rapid pace, then we're going to need an increasing number of entrepreneurs to bring these technologies to market. Otherwise, new technologies will sit on tech transfer shelves creating a loss of value for society. Ultimately, this can be considered a negative Return on Investment since we invest in the research and development of technologies, but don't invest enough in the commercialization process. Think of it as investing in a stock and the company going bankrupt. There's no value if employees (think of them as the underlying technology of a product or company) end up sitting around all day doing nothing.

Why you can’t afford to ignore it?

Convergence of computer & telecommunication has really impacted communication making it faster, wider and indispensable. World is global village now and businesses are glocal.

New technology enters and spreads so fast that one doesn’t realise when present technology becomes obsolete. Pager companies had no idea that cellular technology will all of a sudden arise one day; remember “creative destruction”. Similarly who knew that one day we will graduate from floppies with very small storage capacity to CD, DVD, pen drives and now to portable hard disks with capacities ranging upto one Tera bytes? Technology is so powerful that it can help create, sustain, and destroy businesses. As an entrepreneur one should better take care of technological scenarios or bear the brunt of being technology averse

Ignoring technology is a threat; threat of losing the existing business. It is also an opportunity lost; opportunity of creating wealth by cost advantage, optimizing operations to an efficient level, and having a competitive edge. When one realises this the world becomes the battlefield and all geographical barriers shatter & succumb to the entrepreneur. But, one thing is for sure that one cannot afford to live aloof from technology in this competitive era. There are many examples in the past from which we can learn. IBM, a pioneer in the computer field was a market leader in the mainframe computers till mid 1980s. But, just because it overlooked the entrance of Personal computers by some other players it slumped down very badly. But, later on IBM well exploited the disruptive technology, the internet by becoming a dominant provider of e-business solutions and services.

It’s challenging but attractively doable

It is essential for enterprises to not only integrate technology in their business but constantly upgrade their technological capabilities. Optimum utilization of the technology has created business empires. Solely technology driven business have changed the way we work, think, act, behave, and live!. Technology development, adoption, and adaptation require capital. On doing the Cost benefit analysis effective use of technology has broadly been less capital intensive and delivers to the max. Moreover, today capital is available in ample; what is apparently unavailable is a breakthrough idea. Idea along with the technology is a  combination which has transcended horizons in ways that has positively impacted the human lives. In 1970s Toyota which today is world’s number one car manufacturing company, realized that it need to change its philosophy of mass production of cars which was increasing its cost of inventory resulting in blocking of capital, had long production cycle and was not attending customers’ preferences. It was then when it developed a “flexible manufacturing system” which was solving all the above issues. This innovation enabled Toyota to produce a more diverse product range at a lower unit cost than was possible with conventional mass production.

These days Government is also helping entrepreneurs by bringing schemes for promoting technology transfer and R & D through subsidies and tax benefits. Unfortunately most of the entrepreneurs either remain unaware about it or they show negligence towards technology

Come, be the part of future that is rich with inventions. Envision future. Enrich yourself.

Come to understand the T-Dimension 2009-10, on 11th to 14th December 2009. This event gives a chance to entrepreneurs to meet people; they normally may not get a chance to meet.

“Speech has allowed the communication of ideas, enabling human beings to work together to build the impossible. Mankind's greatest achievements have come about by talking and its greatest failures by not talking. It doesn't have to be like this. Our greatest hopes could become reality in the future. With the technology at our disposal, the possibilities are unbounded. All we need to do is make sure we keep talking.”

Stephen Hawking

Event Format

• Aim of T-Dimension

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  Information Dissemination
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  Technology Awareness
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  Tools

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  Technology Demonstration
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  Interaction with research Institutions
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  Live Case Study Presentation
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  Entrepreneur Interaction
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  Expert Interaction
  
  

Donkey Personified

Hello readers, I’m donkey. I have a name which is used worldwide as a weapon for doing verbal assaults by this not very kind mankind. I could never understand the reason behind using my name for expressing anger and dissatisfaction and why does it connote idiocy. I’m a very innocent and quiet by nature; is not a good thing? I’m very affectionate and enjoy the companionship of people. I need companions; if I don’t get it, I would become very depressed. Unfortunately my masters don’t understand this. My masters leave me on the urban roads amidst of heavy traffic. Some would, even tie my legs and some would paint on me. I’m not as intelligent as them and therefore can’t think of their reason for doing so. On the roads, they all come rushing, riding on round devils that can crush anyone anytime; some, have two, others have three and up to four. My reaction time is very high, and that’s why I get frightened and get struck at one place.

I have five senses which are same in count as that of my masters. But, I don’t have a brain as sharp as them and power as great as them. God also has not been kind enough to bless me with some good features and colours; for that matter, my masters can’t even enjoy seeing me or adopt me as their pet. I think that is the reason, they punish me every time. This is so unfortunate that I can’t even celebrate what I have. I have the strength to remain without food and water for a long time; I can carry live weight of up to 30% of my body weight and dead weight of up to 20% of my body weight. It makes me a very choice for being used in the dry and tough regions for loading and transportation. My qualities still remain unnoticed to my masters.

My life is difficult and I have no idea when my sufferings will end. But, I will live it till its end as I have faith in God as he would have definitely thought of something to take care of his weak child. God won’t overlook me.

The Quintessential Indian Woman

One day while I was driving to my workplace, I saw a middle aged sari clad woman cycling to her work in the burning heat, wearing a cap. I wished I had digital box with me at that moment to capture the scene.  Nevertheless, I have the world’s finest camera with me; my mind. I have tried to recreate the picture here.  She is the Quintessential Indian woman for me.

1.       She is traditional.

2.       She is hard working.

3.       She can take pains for her family.

4.       She can take up any work.

5.       She is not afraid of the men’s world.

6.       She is no longer imprisoned in her house.

Importance of Radical Thinking

Gandhi was more violent than Hitler!!! Surprised?? Well someone thinks that way...

In the month of January I read an item in newspaper. There was something unusually interesting about it. Although, you may find it a raw analysis, lacking a good presentation. I still want to share it with you. Read on.

There was an interview published in TOI on 10th January 2010 of Siavoj Zizek, an American philosopher who was visiting India for the first time. I had never heard about him before. TOI interviewer Shobhana Saxena had introduced him as an unusual philosopher with unfashionably left-wing views. This man thinks that everyone supports violenence. When the interviewer asked him what is his stand on political violence, he answered like this: “In an abstract sense, I am opposed to violence. But nobody is actually against violence. Look at Buddhist. They say you shouldn’t kill, but then they have all the exceptions. During the 40s, one of the great Zen philosophers was writing articles not only justifying Japanese invasion of China but also giving advice on how Buddhist enlightenment allows you to kill without guilt.” When asked that he was also critical about Gandhi; why did he call him violent, he answered, “It’s crucial to see violence which is done repeatedly to keep the things the way they are. In that sense, Gandhi was more violent than Hitler. Though Gandhi didn’t support killing, his actions helped the British imperialist to stay in India longer. This is something Hitler never wanted. Gandhi didn’t do anything to stop the way British Empire functioned here. For me, there is a problem.”

My aim here is not to highlight the never ending debate of “means or ends”. I don’t have slightest intention to either invalidate Zizek’s view point or the opposite.

I was surprised; I was surprised to know that someone thinks so strangely. These are radical thoughts. However, later I thought that even Gandhi’s way of non violent fight was also very radical for the world. Gandhi and Zizek are the two extremes. One had a quest to find the holistic truth the other believes what he sees. Both were born in the same world without any prenatal understanding of anything.

If one analyzes, he will find that one extreme thought gives rise to its other end. Non-violence is there because violence is there. It was English rule that gave birth to a Gandhi. There was a Gandhi and there was a Bose. There are Gandhians in the society therefore, there has to be a Zizek. I think that is the reason for the existence of Maoists and Terror groups. You can think of many other extreme views existing about several other things.

Extremist thinking is important as its gives way to many middle thinkers who analyzes both the ends critically. But, when I say this it doesn’t mean that I support the activities of Maoists or Terrorists. The problem that lies with them is inability to express. Gandhi believed in practicing what he is preaching. He himself practiced non-violence. Imagine if he as an individual had continued doing that without telling anyone. His thoughts would never have had become public. We would not have got a leader like him; people would not have had followed him. It is very important that extremists to express. Today, we don’t understand the reason behind the terrorist activities because they don’t express. They don’t put there demands in front of anyone, what do they want from the world. When radical thoughts remain unexpressed they either get fade away or they give rise to turbulence.

Reference:

http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=VE9JQS8yMDEwLzAxLzEwI0FyMDE0MDA=&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom

Kindness Kind People Kindly Note is Not Always Kind

Something was going in my mind since a long time. But, I got a chance to write today because due to some fault in it, TV at my home has not been working since past two days. Also, I’m now free from the college things and as far as my new office is concerned, it’s a Sunday holiday for me. Writing needs sincerity and deliberation. Though I’m an amateur writer but, since I was editing my college newsletter till sometime back; I feel that it’s a great responsibility on any writer who wants to share his/her work with others. I was free enough to take that responsibility today. Other than that, something happened last week which strengthened the thoughts which had originated and were getting flourished in my mind. Read on.

My father went to meet his friend at his place. My uncle (my father’s friend) is a very kind- hearted and a noble person. He is practicing Yoga since past five years. Now, he also teaches Yoga and it is his part-time but, a prominent activity. My Uncle happened to visit a municipality school in a nearby locality for teaching Yoga there to school kids. When he met my father he narrated his experience and expressed his feelings. He told my father “students in municipal schools come in ragged uniforms; nobody looks at it, and this makes me feel very sad.” My father said “you are right and I understand your feelings but the fact remains that economic classes from which the students go to the municipal schools, it more important to see that they go to school, leave the uniform aside.” Then he told his experience of the Yoga class, “I asked the children in the school to raise their hands if they drink milk daily and I was surprised to see that they were very few hands up. On the contrary when I asked if students drink tea, there were majority hands up. I explained to the kids that tea is bad for health and they should drink cow’s milk every day.” He was seeking appreciation from my father but to his dismay my father said something else. “Do you know how much fee do the students pay in that school?”. He said, “It must be less than hundred for a month.” My father said, “Then do you think that their families would afford to provide milk to them; they were taking little amount of it in tea and you asked them not to take even that.” Uncle, little disheartened now tried to counter argue by questioning “Jain sahib what education the students get in municipal schools? What is so great about it? You don’t know when I went there I saw teachers scolding kids, punishing them. I felt very bad for the kids. I have decided, making a declaration he said, from now onwards I’ll go and teach to them in my free hours. I want you to come along. And I have also decided to assist at least one student financially for his education.” He further said making an indication towards my father, “I’ll also ask my some friends to adopt one such student.” With this Uncle had almost finished. Now, my father’s turn; he told uncle, “That’s a very noble idea of supporting an underprivileged student. I’m already doing that for an orphan child in MP and I would further like to do that for a deserving student without coming in the view of the student or others. But, as far as coming to teach the municipal school students is concerned, I don’t think that we should take up the work of teachers in our hands. It is not our job; it is someone else's job. When you saw a teacher scolding kids, did you try to understand at the teacher’s place? How much do you think the teacher there would be getting paid? Do you know the other work of elections and census surveys are given to them? What you should also think of doing is, motivating the teachers there to teach in a better way. They can reach to larger number of students than us. Giving a small gift like a pen or a book to the teachers in these schools would be great gesture to begin with. You can then organize a training camp for teachers.”

My father told me about this whole conversation with uncle. Then I thought over again about the bug that was biting me in my mind since a long time. Sometimes, we try to become so kind that we tend to look at problems from surface and not from the deep inside. And we end up doing wrong things or things with unmeasured results. We don’t uproot the disease but try to cure the symptoms. Many of my friends are associated with apparently a noble cause where they go to teach English to school kids in municipal schools. My question to them is if they have ever analysed the need to teach the municipal school students English? Students in these schools are children of mostly labourers. By teaching English are we trying show them the dreams of becoming “doctors and engineers”? Maid who works at my place has three children, two out them dropped out of the school after 4^th or 5^th Standard. Third kid is very small right now. But, he also seems to have the same future. All her three children would end up becoming labourer like her. We have no right to show them a dream that will shatter just because we want to show a kind gesture towards the underprivileged people. And if at all we want to do something, we should guide them towards a right path. Government launched a Skill Development Scheme in 2008. They have more than 40 courses in vocational training. We can give an orientation to kids in municipal schools, their parents, their teachers about these courses and mind it, not in English but, in the local language. We can finance their vocational trainings also. Because, the fact is that we cannot improve the lives of this generation which studies in the municipal schools. I feel sad about their conditions, about the fact that they are not very blessed. But, we should think about a broader, long term, strategic solution. If these students get trained in the vocational courses after their elementary education, they might not get in position as god as a “Doctor and Engineer” but, certainly their next generation would be.

My aim is not to discourage good work from happening. I’m sure all the kind-hearted people would be kind enough to take my criticism positively and would come up with better thoughts.

Being kind is not enough; kindness should be for a right cause and in a right direction. All we need to be doing is ANALYSIS.

Launch of "EDiOTS"

My friend Bhushan Bawankule recently got his Brand "EDiOTS" launched by Dr. Vijay Mallaya. "EDiOTS" is an up coming humor clothing brand. See http://www.ediots.in/ . The video has been shot and edited by me.

Karuna, compassion is the basis of morality.....

I was short listed for the Bharti best student award and therefore as one of judging criteria was extra curricular performance, I made this short film on the theme nature. This subject is very close to my heart. I was in standard 7th when I stopped burning crackers on Diwali. I educated my mother to minimize plastic usage. Then, I also wrote article about pollution in Roller coaster, Indian Express. This is a 10 minutes film which was made in a very less time (around 12 hours). All the pictures and videos are shot in and around EDI.