Business, First & Economy tickets for covid19 vaccine

 The Rafael deal was for Rs: 60000 crores. No one has discussed about economic depression that could have happened then. Today when the whole country is suffering from covid, govt says the economy will suffer if the vaccine is provided free of cost.  Do they want to give it based on classes so that there won't be any crowd on the first-class vaccination centres? That reminds me of a scene from the movie Titanic when Ruth DeWitt Bukater's ask - "Will these lifeboats be seated according to class? I hope they're not too crowded." And many are comparing this to ration card colours. It is an emergency and not an economic situation. 

Yes, everyone knows that it is difficult to provide a free vaccine. Look how the state of Kerala is dealing with it. The ruling government is urging people to donate through CMRF. Govt can give tax exemptions to hospitals that provide the vaccine for free. 

We are a nuclear power. That is enough to confirm our national security. We spend thousands of crores on statues, new parliament building & for weapons. Instead of the unnecessary expenditure, we could have invested more in health care systems. 

BSNL broadband application through crowd sourcing

There is a gap between the firm and the applicants due to obvious reasons. The purpose of this scheme is to assist a user to put up his broadband application hassle-free and enable the BSNL to see location-wise applicant density. With more applicants from a location, they can prioritise the deployment or instruct the franchisee to expedite the deployment before some private ISPs allure the applicants. 

It has two interfaces:

1. A mobile/web app for the applicants
2. Dashboard for BSNL

Mobile/Web App

The authorisation is based on Aadhaar number and OTP. The user can select their building location, provide the details and apply. A single Aadhaar user can apply only once. They can edit or delete their application. They can also see the status of the application. 

Dashboard for BSNL

With the dashboard, the firm can get insights on the applicant density in a locality/region/state, the status of a specific application, etc. 

There can be red, green and yellow dots for pending, provided and issue statuses. A map layer of the existing connections may be useful. The UI should be intuitive. 

2021 resolution

My last year's resolution was a simple one. "No clothes purchase for a year". I was well stick on that resolution. 

This year I am going to focus on my health. We need to be more conscious about health as we get older. I have issues with my sleep. My cholesterol levels are slightly high. Obesity is another issue for me. I'm been exercising for a while but I have not been able to make it a habit yet. I have a plan for that. Do not take off from exercise for two consecutive days.

In a couple of weeks, I will be leaving Chennai for Trivandrum. Hope I could follow good health habits at my home state. 

"Happy New Year"

My journey through Minimalism

When we think of minimalism what usually comes to our mind is a clean white dining table, a white wall with an expensive Sony smart TV,  an iPhone & a book ( that is not opened yet ) on top of a black wooden teapoy, a big wall shelf with almost nothing in it, another table for a MacBook. These are the pictures that immediately materialize in our minds when we think of minimalism. All the gurus who preach minimalism shows them in their marketing videos.

This is far from the reality of minimalism (at least for me). Living like a minimalist in those ways, we will end up our life not as a minimalist but as an interior designer. There is a purpose to everything. The sole purpose of minimalism is to buy extra time for ourself so that we can focus on things that matter most and which is top in our priority list.

my 600 sqft apartment

I am practising minimalism for a while. In the beginning, like many, I was also embarrassed because I was comparing my way of minimalism with the leadership guru's lifestyle as seen in their youtube videos. Slowly I started defining my own minimalism and the dots began to connect. I reduced my intake. I simplified my financial goals. I am now at my thirties. Rather than taking the burden of a huge loan, I rented a house for now.

Minimalism is also not about living cheap. I too have a MacBook pro which I need for my work. The first step in this journey was to declutter my life. Get rid of the stuff which doesn't give any value to my life. I had a shelf full of notebooks, Many utensils in the kitchen which I haven't touched for years, two stoves, many many clothes.

Minimalism can be applied to many dimensions of life. Minimalism is more than just reducing the intake of stuff. There is thought minimalism, financial minimalism, conversation minimalism (what we learn, say, hear), digital minimalism, health minimalism, control intake of news,  etc.

Statutory warning: Don't force minimalism on your partner. You will be in hell.

Covid 19 tracking

Creating a route map of the identified covid-19 patients is a big issue now with many not revealing correct details to the healthcare department. Can't the governments collaborate with Google and Apple to obtain the location history of the patients from their smartphones? CellID information is available with Mobile Service Providers. With all these details the exact route map and even the people who came close to the positive cases can be identified and alerted. Big data analytics can be utilised here. 

The fruitless plastic ban

The imposed plastic ban is effective only at banning the thin plastic covers which contributes to a small percentage of the total plastic production. Shampoo bottles, paste tubes, powder tins, bakery items, etc. are packed in plastic bottles. Many of them can be made reusable.

A system comprises the collection of reusable bottles, sort it by companies and transport it to the manufacturers can be envisaged. Government, companies & people have to work together to achieve this.

Many cities have implemented the two bin one bag system. A green colour bin for biodegradable wastes and a red one for hazardous wastes. Along with this, a separate reusable (maybe yellow) bin is suggested. The reusable bottles can have a reusable emblem so that people can identify and put it on the reusable bin. Corporation department can then set up a procedure to segregate and bring it to the companies.

In this way, we can make plastic production to the minimum. For example, instead of using plastic covers to pack washing powder the manufacturer can sell it on a plastic bottle. This plastic bottle can be reused if properly recycled. There is an inevitable onetime production. After that, the production is only when there is an increase in demand.

The right time to put nose-string to corruption

With this spectacular win in the Delhi election, AAP has a more serious responsibility of preventing corruption from root squaring in the party. Two consecutive wins increase the probability of corruption.

The popularity of AAP is going to skyrocket in the coming years due to the novel administration put in place by Kejriwal and his party. Unlike others, they focused and spent their time more on the people and their problems than blaming other parties. While Modi was boasting about the new endeavours that he inaugurated in the media as if it was his mercy, Kejriwal treated them as his duty. In all of his actions, Kejriwal tried to fend off corruption even though few incidents were reported.

He had a clear plan and a professional approach (thanks to his education) of what he wanted to do since commencement. His media presence was minimal compared to other party heads (This may be attributed to the fact that many of the major news media are allies of the ruling party). And whenever he confronts the media, it was mostly to discuss his plans and new initiatives. Modi & Rahul comes to media only to calumniate others.

But with all of AAPs services they should seriously think of envisaging novel practices to reduce the in house corruption. Delhi Metro is an example of how such a system can be implemented and put in place where there is no scope for corruption. The credit for that is attributed to only one man the karma yogi, ‘E. Sreedharan’.

BJP has won in 2014 not because they have done something useful to the country. People were desperate about Congress' countrywide corruption. Now they are becoming hopeless with BJP. Kerala is going through the same situation. The politicians are mocking at people. They know that people don't have a choice other than LDF & UDF. So anyway they will get a chance to ravage in every five years. It is the same situation in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana and many other states. The politicians reach an agreement with each other. This is what has to be changed. 

We should have at least 5 major parties. Then there will be a tight competition. See what happened to taxi services. With the advent of Uber/Ola, the Taxi/auto services were forced to charge nominal rates. What is happening on Internet & Mobile service industry. JIO, Airtel, Vodafone, BSNL, ACTs,  Hathway - there is competition.