India Elections Tidbits #2: Margin of victory

Psephology in Indian elections of always interesting. Television commentators and professors from some mathematics istitute discus on television as if what they discovered is a forgone conclusion. I have heard statements like "Now that congress has lost it, what next for them?".

Winning margin for constituencies with less than 5% margin

Following is the list of constituencies with the winning margin.

Constituency No	Constituency	State	Percentage Margin
5	Zahirabad	Andhra Pradesh	1.71%
6	Medak	Andhra Pradesh	0.57%
10	Chelvella	Andhra Pradesh	1.60%
11	Mahbubnagar	Andhra Pradesh	2.43%
12	Nagarkurnool	Andhra Pradesh	4.66%
23	Kakinada	Andhra Pradesh	3.53%
24	Amalapuram	Andhra Pradesh	3.91%
25	Rajahmundry	Andhra Pradesh	0.21%
27	Eluru	Andhra Pradesh	3.97%
28	Machilipatnam	Andhra Pradesh	1.19%
29	Vijayawada	Andhra Pradesh	1.17%
30	Guntur	Andhra Pradesh	3.77%
31	Narasaraopet	Andhra Pradesh	0.15%
37	Hindupur	Andhra Pradesh	2.22%
40	Tirupati	Andhra Pradesh	1.82%
42	Chittoor	Andhra Pradesh	1.02%
43	Arunachal West	Arunachal Pradesh	0.46%
45	Karimganj	Assam	1.16%
50	Barpeta	Assam	3.38%
51	Gauhati	Assam	1.07%
53	Tezpur	Assam	3.58%
54	Nowgong	Assam	4.54%
57	Dibrugarh	Assam	4.68%
58	Lakhimpur	Assam	4.90%
69	Katihar	Bihar	1.88%
74	Vaishali	Bihar	2.70%
79	Hajipur	Bihar	4.45%
89	Pataliputra	Bihar	3.75%
100	South Goa	Goa	4.60%
102	Banaskantha	Gujarat	0.84%
105	Sabarkantha	Gujarat	2.39%
118	Panchmahal	Gujarat	0.19%
126	Valsad	Gujarat	0.51%
129	Sirsa	Haryana	2.41%
147	Chikkodi	Karnataka	4.42%
149	Bagalkot	Karnataka	2.47%
157	Dharwad	Karnataka	3.70%
163	Dakshina Kannada	Karnataka	3.22%
167	Mysore	Karnataka	1.70%
170	Bangalore North	Karnataka	3.62%
172	Bangalore South	Karnataka	2.90%
180	Malappuram	Kerala	0.00%
183	Alathur	Kerala	2.53%
184	Thrissur	Kerala	3.20%
186	Ernakulam	Kerala	1.58%
196	Bhind	Madhya Pradesh	4.38%
203	Satna	Madhya Pradesh	0.44%
209	Balaghat	Madhya Pradesh	3.82%
216	Ujjain	Madhya Pradesh	4.48%
218	Ratlam	Madhya Pradesh	4.65%
222	Khandwa	Madhya Pradesh	4.28%
224	Nandurbar	Maharashtra	3.97%
228	Buldhana	Maharashtra	3.29%
253	Mumbai South Central	Maharashtra	4.93%
264	Latur	Maharashtra	1.51%
276	Mizoram	Mizoram	0.00%
286	Dhenkanal	Orissa	2.17%
287	Bolangir	Orissa	4.82%
289	Nabarangpur	Orissa	0.00%
295	Bhubaneswar	Orissa	1.46%
303	Hoshiarpur	Punjab	2.93%
308	Ferozpur	Punjab	2.20%
339	Chennai North	Tamil Nadu	2.90%
340	Chennai South	Tamil Nadu	4.52%
342	Sriperumbudur	Tamil Nadu	2.23%
344	Arakkonam	Tamil Nadu	1.41%
350	Viluppuram	Tamil Nadu	0.35%
360	Karur	Tamil Nadu	3.12%
362	Perambalur	Tamil Nadu	0.95%
368	Sivaganga	Tamil Nadu	0.43%
370	Theni	Tamil Nadu	0.41%
380	Kairana	Uttar Pradesh	3.10%
381	Muzaffarnagar	Uttar Pradesh	1.60%
401	Badaun	Uttar Pradesh	1.96%
408	Sitapur	Uttar Pradesh	2.79%
423	Jalaun	Uttar Pradesh	0.91%
433	Ambedkar Nagar	Uttar Pradesh	1.87%
437	Gonda	Uttar Pradesh	1.37%
449	Salempur	Uttar Pradesh	4.64%
480	Jadavpur	West Bengal	4.54%
483	Howrah	West Bengal	3.75%
484	Uluberia	West Bengal	4.64%
509	Mahasamund	Chattisgarh	4.11%
523	Lohardaga	Jharkhand	1.45%

In summary, based on last election, there are 149 constituencies which were won with less than 5% margin.

• Less than 1% margin  -- 16 seats
• Between 1% and 2% margin -- 19 seats
• Between 2 % and 3% margin -- 30 seats
• Between 3% and 4% margin -- 36 seats
• Between 4% and 5% margin -- 48 seats

With such a large number of seats won with so low margin, how can these television commentators be so confident of seats won. Also how can they take the margin of error in votes polled and extrapolate that to number of seats.

Nehru and Patel communicate about Gandhi Assasination Investigation: Patel clean chits RSS (almost)

New Delhi

26 February 1948

 My dear Vallabhbhai,

You are so terribly busy, and I am pretty well occupied, that I hesitate to add to your work. I feel however that I must tell you what I have had in my mind for some days
.
While the investigation about Bapu's assassination by Godse is proceeding here and [in] Bombay and elsewhere, there appears to be a certain lack of real effort in tracing the larger Conspiracy. More and more I have come to the conclusion that Bapu's murder was not an isolated business but a part of a much wider campaign organised chiefly by the RSS. A large number of RSS men have been arrested, probably many of them more or less innocent. But a considerable number of their key men are still abroad or underground or even sometimes flourishing in the open. Many of these people are in our offices and in the police. It is hardly possible to keep anything secret from their group. I was told the other day by a responsible police officer that no search could be conducted in secret because previous intimation always reached the parties concerned.

The Delhi police has apparently a goodly number of sympathizers with the RSS. It may not be easy to deal with all of them. But I think something more than has been done can be undertaken. I have little doubt that the RSS organisation is still fairly active in many ways and will hit back when it can. To be complacent about it might lead to fresh disaster. I am told that they have taken to a number of apparently innocent activities and are utilizing them to keep their organisation in proper trim.

I do not know what exactly to suggest to you. But I have a feeling of uneasiness about the situation in Delhi specially. I think the police and the local authorities have to be kept up to the mark. They have a habit of slackening off after the spurt. What is more dangerous is that a number of them appear to sympathize with the RSS. Hence an impression is created that nothing very effective is being done. Effectiveness does not mean mass arrests but the singling out of people who count and whose potentiality for mischief is great.

Yours affectionately,

Jawaharlal 

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel

New Delhi 

27 February 1948

My dear Jawaharlal,

Thank you for your letter dated 26 February 1948 which I received just now.

I have kept myself almost in daily touch with the progress of the investigation regarding Bapu's assassination case. I devote a large part of my evening to discussing with Sanjevi the day's progress and giving instructions to him on any points that arise. All the main accused have given long and detailed statements of their activities. In one case, the statement extends to ninety typed pages. From their statements, it is quite clear that no part of the conspiracy took place in Delhi. The centres of acti­vity were Poona, Bombay, Ahmednagar and Gwalior. Delhi was, of course, the terminating point of their activity, but by no means its center; nor do they seem to have spent more than a day or two at a time, and that too only twice between 19 and 30 January. It also clearly emerges from these statements that the RSS was not involved in it at all. It was a fanatical wing of the Hindu Mahasabha, directly under Savarkar that [hatched] the conspiracy and saw it through. It also appears that the conspiracy was limited to some ten men, of whom all except two have been got hold of. Every bit of these statements is being carefully checked up and verified and scrutinized, and where necessary, followed up. San­jevi devotes a considerable time every day to it. Senior officers of Bombay and GP are in charge of the investigation. Delhi police hardly comes in the picture.

Of course, it is impossible for us at this stage to publicize any of these things or to say anything publicly about what is being done to unearth the conspiracy. Every item of information that is being communicated to us through sources, known and unknown, real, anonymous or pseudonymous, is being investigated. More than 90 per cent of these have been found to be just imagination. Most of these have been directed to the activities of RSS men in various centers. We have followed this up, and except vague allegations that sweets were distributed or joy was expressed, hardly anything of substance has been found in them. After having dealt with these matters at first hand and discussed these matters in detail with Sanjevi and other officers who are in charge of this investigation, including the Public Prosecutor of Bombay, Mr, Pettigarah, who has been advising the investigators on legal points, I have come to the conclusion that the conspiracy of Bapu's assassination was not so wide as is generally assumed, but was restricted to a handful of men who have been his enemies for a very considerable time:—the antipathy can be traced right to the time when Bapu went for his talks with Jinnah, when Godse went on a fast and some others of the conspirators went to Wardha to prevent him [Bapu] from going. Of course, his assassination was welcomed by those of the RSS and the Mahasabha who were strongly opposed to his way of thinking and to his policy. But beyond this, I do not think it is possible, on the evidence which has come before us, to implicate any other members of the RSS or the Hindu Mahasabha. The RSS have undoubtedly other sins and crimes to answer for, but not for this one. If you have any time, I would be glad to send to you Sanjevi and Rana, DIG, CID, Bombay, who are here. They could explain to you the whole case as it has emerged from the investigation. They say they will take another ten days or a fortnight, at the end of which the case will be ripe for being placed in the hands of the Public Prosecutor. As soon as the Public Prosecutor is ready, we hope to appoint a Special Judge to try the case in Delhi.
As regards the RSS in Delhi, I am not aware of any prominent men or active workers whom we have left out. We hear all sorts of reports from somebody or the other regarding a certain person being an active member or not. In some cases, on such reports, arrests were made, and we soon found representation coming from Congressmen themselves testifying to their Congress sympathies and anti-RSS views. We had to release them. In other cases, on arrests of RSS people being made on similar information both we and the Provincial Governments are being accused of rounding up innocent people. In, the case of a secret organisation like the RSS which has no records of membership, no registers, etc., securing of authentic information whether a particular individual is an active worker or not is rendered a very difficult task. Nevertheless, I am assured that practically all the important workers of RSS in Delhi have been rounded up. Indeed, some knowledgeable people tell me that we have rounded up more than necessary. I have already asked Provincial Governments, including Delhi, to let us know what has been the result of these arrests, how many have been arrested, how many have been released, what has been revealed in searches, etc. As soon as these reports come in, we shall have to consider our next step. If there are any key men who are still at large, I should like to know their names, so that we can follow them up.

I quite realize that police and the local authorities who are in Delhi or elsewhere have an appreciable number of RSS sympathizers. Here again, however, the difficulty is to locate the men. Whenever I have received the least information about the names, and particulars of any RSS men in Government service, I have communicated them to Sanjevi or Mehra. In some cases, Government servants in Delhi have already been arrested for RSS activities. Delhi's quota of RSS arrests compares favorably with that of any other place or province. I doubt, therefore, whether the accusation can be substantiated that Delhi police or local authorities have been inactive on account of RSS sympathies. However, I shall again have a discussion with Mehra on the particular problems which you have mentioned and see what further action could be taken.

Yours sincerely, 

Vallabhbhai Patel

The Hon'ble Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru
New Delhi

Mahatma Gandhi Assassination: Excerpts from case diary

Interesting, even in the aftermath of Mahatma's assasination, the police departments seem to be fighting turf wars.

I again explained the full facts of Karkare before Mr. Nagarwala, and also I told Mr. Nagarwala that Madan Lai accused had stated that one of the ac­cused was the editor of the Agirni or Hindu Rashtarya newspaper, he was of sallow complexion aged 33/34, 5/6" in height and it is not known to him whether he is of Bombay or Poona. Besides these two, I had stated the des­cription of three Maharatas and one Raja Sahib. Their description was explain­ed by mc to Mr. Nagarwala. About the editor Hindu Rashtarya or Agirni and Karkare, special request was made that they have been named by their co-accused, therefore, they should be arrested first so that we may be able to get the clue of the others from them.

22-1-1948, 11.30 a.m. : Mr. Nagarwala stated that his information is that there are more persons in this party. This party is of about 25 persons, all are responsible for this conspiracy. Special arrangements for the arrest of Karkare have been made in Bombay and in Poona [and] Ahmednagar. About the other suspects, they have located three or four at present, but our scheme is to first locate all, and then their arrest will be carried out. If at present we will arrest three or four from them, by doing this we will not succeed in the arrest of others.
About Ahmednagar, he said that he will accompany us, when he will get the information, but you should not go there now. He then sent for Mr. Kargaonkar, Inspector CID, Bombay, who came inside his office. He ordered his Inspector to arrange for our lodging at a place where nobody can know about our arrival. He also instructed us not to give our Delhi address in the hotel's register and in our presence, he contacted one police officer on phone at Ahmednagar and also got New Delhi. Immediate trunk call booked, for DIG, CID Poona. He also said that he would first consult the H.M., Bombay, and then he will take further action against the accused.
22-1-1948, 2 p.m. : At this time we reached the house of Inspector Mr. Kargaonkar, CID, Bombay, with our kits, and stayed in one room in the said Inspector's flat.
22-1-1948, 4 p.m. : At this time we reached the CID Office, Bombay, and Inspector, CID, Bombay, said that your presence here is not required; so we returned to his house and reached his house.
22-1-1948, 7.30 p.m. : At this time, Mr. Kargaonkar, Inspector of Police, CID, Bombay, with Deputy Inspector and Sub-Inspector came back to his house and he said that they had located few suspects, and had deputed their police for the other suspects, who are not located as yet. He is definite that they will succeed in tracing all the suspects.
For Karkare and the editor of Agirni or Hindu Rashtarya newspaper, he said that one Inspector of Police from Ahmednagar is coming tomorrow and will come to know about those two and then will arrange for their arrests.
22-1-1948, 8 pm.: We slept at Inspector CID** Bombay house. Case Diary prepared and kept.

Sd. Jaswant Singh DSP 

Attested : True translation ot CD. dated 22-1-J943.

Jaswant Singh DSP

FIR No 40 dated 20-1-1948
U/S 4/5 Explosive Act, P S Tughlak Road.
Writer : DSP Jaswant Singh.
Written at : Bombay.

Sir,

Reference Case Diary dated 22-1-43, I submit that at this time I with Malik Bal Kishan, Inspector, Delhi, and Mr. Kargaonkar, Inspr. CID, Bombay, reached the CID Office, Bombay, and met Mr. Nagarwala who gave lists of passengers who left Bombay for Delhi From 13-1-1948 to 20-1-1948 and said that he was going for an urgent work, he would be coming back within no time and would give further instructions.

I have gone through thtse statements and nothing fruitful comes to my notice at present.

Mr. Kargaonkar, Inspr. CID, Bombay, informed us that Inspr. of Police from Ahmednagar had arrived and he had been sent back again, by the D. C. Mr Nagarwala with special instruction. Karkare is not there. Inspector of Police, Ahmednagar, has been ordered to search the editor required in this case; CID, Bombay, has also received similar orders about the search of editor of Agrini or Hindu Rashtarya newspaper.

At this time, I enquired about the previous history of Karkare from Inspector of Police, Bombay, and requested him to give me some idea of his information about the culprits of this case.

On this, Inspector CID, Bombay, said that Karkare's full name is V. R. Karkare who is a proprietor of the Deccan Guest House, Ahmednagar. He is a prominent worker of the Hindu Mahasabha and a social worker. He used to go to refugees in Chambor Camp. His connections are with the big leaders or the H M.S. [Hindu Mahasabha]

The following arc his co-accused and associates :

1. Mr Badge of Poona, a worker of the H.M.S.
2. Autar Singh, Punjabi Sikh of Amritsar (now proprietor, Sher-Punjab Hotel, Bombay). He is the man who supplies arms and arranges for the collection of arms. He is under arrest and was in jail before this occurrence.
3. Mr. Talwar of Karachi now in Bombay.
4. Mr. Balraj Mehta of Lahore (now Shivaji Park, Bombay).

All the above persons are workers of the H.M.S. and they often work with Karkare in such matters. And the Inspector hesitated to give further details.

23-1-1948, 12-30 p.m. : At this time, D.C., Bombay, arrived in the office, and he said that he is doing his best for the arrest of these suspects, and further remarked that I am not required here at present; when required, he will call me, and he ordered that I should go back to Delhi. At this stage, again a request was made that according to our accused's statement, Karkare and the editor of Agirni or Hindu Rashtarya are named in his statement, and if they are arrested, they should be sent to Delhi. He agreed. Further the D.C. Bombay instructed us that at our arrival in Delhi I should inform the Bombay Police about the further development from the statement of Madan Lal accused.

At this time a brief note on this case with the name and description of the accused wanted in this case was handed over to the Inspector CID, Bombay. A request was made again that he should inform us about the arrest of Karkare and the editor of Agirni and he will arrange to send them to Delhi.

23-1-1948, 3 p.m.: We left Bombay by train.

Sd. Jaswant Singh 

DSP

Note: 24-1-1948: Arrived at Delhi. Case Diary prepared and kept 24-1-1948.

Jaswant Singh 

DSP

Attested : True translation of CD. dated 23-1-1948.

Jaswant Singh 

DSP

Letter from Sardar Patel to Rafi Ahmed Kidwai

While I was reading through letters of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, here is an interesting letter that he wrote to Rafi Ahmed Kidwai.

New Delhi

25 July 1948

My dear Rafi,

This morning a person entered my house in the dirtiest clothes possible and looked like more of an intruder than any-body else. My peons and my guards took him as such and would have also dealt with him as such had he not announced that he was a telegraph peon and had telegrams to deliver.

I am sure that you will agree that it is a disgrace to us all if telegraph peons, or for that matter other peons, go about in such filthy condition. The telegraph peon have to go to embassies, consulates etc. I wonder what they must be thinking of the standard of the cleanliness and smartness of our postal peons when they see them in this condition. I think in the capital city of Delhi we must insist on better turnout of our staff. I suggest, therefore that you may issue instructions that in Delhi every telegraph and postal peon must be properly dressed and must be in clean clothes. I see no difficulty in regard to the issue of uniforms. If there are difficulties, they must be overcome in the fair name of this country.

Yours sincerely,

Vallabhbhai Patel

The Hon'ble Mr. Rafi Ahmed Kidwai

Minister for Communications

New Delhi

Fact checkers in India

Finally somebody has taken it upon themselves to start fact checking the claims made by politicians. Just read an article in Mint about claims made by Mr. Narendra Modi in a speech yesterday.

Here is the summary.
Mr. Modi made two claims, 1) only 23% homes have latrines in Bihar 2) 16% homes have electricity in Bihar. Both facts are right from the census data.

What is bothering me is the fact that Mr. Modi is truthful but is being economical with truth. Have a look at chart below.

As we can see Mr. Modi is right about Bihar, it is really at the bottom of the ranking, but I have two questions in my mind. Mr. Modi's party was ally of Mr. Nitish Kumar till few months back and why did they not do anything about it and Mr. Modi is running Gujarat for last 15 years and why did he not do anything about it there. To put it is perspective, as per 2001 census data, Gujarat was 18th in the list and in 2011 it is 21st. So I would say it is hard to believe Mr. Modi when he claims that he can fix the problem in Bihar.

As we can see from the chart above, Gujarat ranks 16 th in Electricity availability as per 2011 census. The same census data suggests that it ranked 11th in 2001.
So, Mr. Modi is right when he claims that Bihar has not progressed enough under the government of Mr. Nitish Kumar. It still lies at the bottom of the pool along with UP. He should take the share of the blame since his party was running the government with Mr. Nitish Kumar till some month ago. Mr. Modi is not so right when he claims that he can fix it because on these two accounts, Gujarat has gone down in the ranking of states.

Dogs and People

Saw this notice in the elevator of one of the Luxury apartment complexes in Bellandur. The question arises, who is the notice for. If it is for dogs, they seem to have very educated dogs who can read and understand english. If it is for people, the picture is less than accurate and what kind of idiots these people are looking for.

India Elections Tidbits #1: Why I think parties are looking at the wrong place for votes

Since the biggest entertainment of India i.e. parliamentary elections is just around the corner, I thought to understand the last parliamentary elections little better. As a researcher, I have learnt that the best way to understand any event is through the telemetry that it generates. So I decided to look at the data.
First my experience, even though election commission puts all the data on their website, it is extremely difficult to use in any meaningful way. They put PDF files for everything and the PDF files are also generated through bizarre set of input document. It required lots of hard work to get the data into a database so that one can make some sense out of it. This is first in a series of (hopefully) posts related to parliamentary elections 2009.
Now to answer the question that is mentioned in the title, why I believe political parties are looking for votes in the wrong place. A primary look at data suggests that many of the winners in the election don't represent anybody. Just have a look at the table. The figures in brackets in third column are voting percentage in the constituency.

Winners with low voting percentage

Winning Percentage (of the total electors)	Number of seats	Total Voting Percentage
10%	2	Buxar,BH(46.51%) Nawada, BH(38.13%)
11%	2	Salempur, UP(39.21%) Chatra, JH(45.67%)
12%	5	Madhubani, BH(39.83%) Pratapgarh, UP(44.66%) Phulpur, UP(38.69%) Gonda, UP(45.12%) Palamau, JH(45.95%)
13%	11	Jamui, BH(38.13%) Anantnag, JK(27.10%) Bhiwandi, MH(39.39%) Jalore, RJ(37.98%) Lucknow, UP(35.33%) Farrukhabad, UP(46.78%) Baharaich, UP(41.12%) Sant Kabir Nagar, UP(47.27%) Machhlishahr, UP(40.99%) Chandauli, UP(46.39%) Bhadohi, UP(43.35%)
14%	17	Begusarai, BH(48.75%) Banka, BH(48.74%) Arrah, BH(35.78%) Sasaram, BH(42.70%) Srinagar, JK(25.55%) Rewa, MP(48.34%) Kalyan, MH(34.30%) Mumbai North East, MH(42.46%) Agra, UP(42.03%) Akbarpur, UP(43.62%) Hamirpur, UP(48.40%) Deoria, UP(45.26%) Bansgaon, UP(39.02%) Lalganj, UP(43.62%) Ghosi, UP(45.23%) Varanasi, UP(42.61%) Godda, JH(56.48%)
15%	16	Mujaffarpur, BH(46.41%) Gopalganj, BH(37.40%) Ujiarpur, BH(45.89%) Karakat, BH(41.61%) Palghar, MH(48.10%) Aligarh, UP(51.44%) Kheri, UP(54.58%) Misrikh, UP(41.48%) Fatehpur, UP(45.19%) Faizabad, UP(49.94%) Kaiserganj, UP(41.10%) Shrawasti, UP(43.06%) Rajmahal, JH(55.18%) Kodarma, JH(56.14%) Dhanbad, JH(45.03%) Lohardaga, JH(53.21%)

As we can see in the table, except for couple of constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir where the voting percentage itself is very low, other constituency have not so bad voting percentage. Bihar, UP and Jharkhand seem to be states where this trend is prevalent. Also these constituencies are not obscure constituencies, these are represented by Meera Kumar, Murali Manohar Joshi, Salman Khurshid, Lalji Tandon among other candidates.

So, what is my point here. I think that political parties are just not paying attention to the the block of voters that doesn't vote. That is more than 40% of voters who have not voted and can tilt the election in each of these constituencies.

That's where parties like AAP are more successful. Because of their design, they seem to be easily able to attract non-voters. I think new parties like AAP need to get their message out to these non-voters and get them out on voting day. Old parties, need to put candidates that can inspire non-voters to come out and vote. That's why I believe old belief of "winnability of candidates" is a wrong approach. If parties put candidates that can inspire people to come out and vote, they can easily get a positive result in each of these constituencies.

The Samurai Revisited: Theoretical to Theatrical

“What NONSENSE!” thunders Vinay Avasthi,

These morons have made e-business a travesty,

Idiots are running all the Internet business,

None with intelligence, it’s plain craziness.

What I’ll do, I’ll finally start ARRIVING,

Gonna stop my mindless cross-country driving,

Will set up my new business, with new criteria,

You guys want in? Have any good idea?

Milind: Yes, Yes. Washington taught me many new skills,

With these stupid environment laws, you can make a few kills,

Though my business acumen makes my family go pale,

My only real problem is- I don’t know how to scale!

How market leaders take the monopoly way,

Shiva got business ethics from MS the hard way,

In competitive marketing, I can show you the way,

Boycott canteen, eating out daily is the only way!

Swapnajit complains, yaar this is simply not fair,

I just want a Thesis idea, and no one seems to care?

I will join as soon as my proposal is finalised,

And will ask the prof how yours should be crystallized!

Srini grins, Sorry guys, I woke up late,

Yes, social media, twitter can open up a floodgate

Intel from fourth estate to data mining can be our spectrum

And ‘Early to bed early to rise’ should be our dictum!

Vinayan: You see, just what I was afraid of,

Corruption! Even before your business has taken off!

You are already following a corrupt method

All this estate, mining, spectrum, will go the Vigilance road!

Habeeb: So So So and So, whatever it is that you wish,

Tell us in two lines; don’t beat about the bush,

I can well be a part of your paraphernalia

As soon as I sort out my Europe and Australia!

Rohit: It’s just a problem of project management,

Put it all into a PERT/CPM arrangement

I don’t mind becoming your consultant,

As long as my profit is a sure resultant!

Getting rich is what sets Tarit on fire,

Other than jalebis I have just one secret desire,

But surely I’ll join your Corporation,

If for the above secret desire, I get your cooperation!

What nonsense! Avasthi thunders,

How can I work with these idiots, he wonders,

They don’t have even one chance out of five,

Hell with them, I’m going on a cross country drive!

Written between 1100 and 1140 on 4^th Dec 2013 in Room 213 IIM Indore

(Thesis presentation of the FPM I Guy)
By Vinayan J

Class 1 Officers

I am currently at one of the "premier" management institutes of India doing my course work. Yesterday, late night, I was sitting in the lobby of the places where I am staying, three elderly gentlemen walked into the lobby and an interesting conversation ensued.

Elderly Gentleman 1 : Get me some tea!
Reception Man: Sir, this is late at night, almost the dinner time, there is no tea.
EG1: Tea has no time!
RM: I am sorry sir

EG2: क्या यार, क्लॉस वन ऑफिसर को चाय कैसे नहीं मिलेगा। (How can a class 1 officer not get tea)
RM: Nobody is there in kitchen, you can get tea only in the morning

EG3: At what time will I get tea in the morning
RM: Between 6-7 the tea is served in cafeteria

EG1: रूम में नहीं मिलेगा। Won't I get it in my room
RM: No sir, the team is served in cafeteria

EG2: क्या हाल है, क्लास वन ऑफिसर को चाय के लिये भी इधर उधर भागना पड़ता है।

At this time I had almost had enough of this class one officer business when one of those gentlemen turned towards me. From my dress, I looked like waiter of a highway dhaba.

EG1: पेपर किधर है।
Me: मैं तो पेपर को एक महीने से ढूँढ रहा हूं, आपको मिल जाये तो मुझे भी बता देना।

At the end of this conversation, I am thinking why have these guys been sent to a management school by the government. I am sure they have no interest in learning anything here. They are already missing their class 1 officer status. Let them enjoy it in their place of work and leave this management institute alone.

Food security bill and middle class hypocracy

Off late I have decided to disengage myself with political conversation because the political discussions are so polarized now-a-days that any time you express you view which does not tally with somebody else's view you hear back abuses rather than arguments.
Today being the day when Lok Sabha passed the Food Security Bill is another such day. The argument went something like below.
A Gentleperson: Why this UPA government is destroying the country, now this food security bill, 2G, Coal Scam...
Me: I think we need food security bill because there are people who don't have food and it is a shame that in this country people don't get sufficient food.
AG: This is all for corruption, what good has come out of the PDS system. Whole of the food is diverted to blackmarket. It is our tax payer's money....
Me: Those need to be fixed, but somebody who is not getting food, if he has better chances of getting food, I think it is worth it.
AG:No, we need to stop all these things, till the time we fix corruption, we can not give these subsidies, all the tax payers money....
Me: Ok, so since there is black market in gas cylinders, should the subsidy be stopped there as well. Let's stop that subsidy as well and when we can build a corruption proof system, we will give gas subsidy.

At this point, the discussion turned into an abusive slanging match which I had feared to start with. I think I will stick to my stand of now having political conversations.

Aadhaar card enrolment, an experience

Since the day GoI declared that in not so distant future, the cooking gas (LPG) subsidy would be delivered directly to the customer through a scheme called direct benefit transfer (DBT), Whole of India is running after getting an elusive piece of number called Aadhaar number. I never bothered to go for it, because it involved standing in a line for hours.
Yesterday, I saw this website that had a method where I could get an appointment online, fill the form online and then only show up at the enrolment center for document verification and biometrics, so I decided to give it a try. Here are my experiences for getting enrolled for Aadhaar.

• Getting an appointment was easy, may be because the website is new and not many people are aware of it. But I could get the appointment for next day and there were many slots open till the evening.
• I also filled all the forms online but since I was not certain of how the data would be made available, I also took physical forms and filled them and carried them with me.
• As I reached the enrolment center, I was pleasantly surprised to find a person sitting there with a list of people who had taken the appointment for document verification. He verified the documents and asked me to go to the adjacent room which had the setup for enrolment.
• This is where proceedings took a turn for the worse, The guys who were actually doing enrolment, had no clue of the appointment system. It was every individual for him/her self. The person with the loudest voice was the next person in line.
• We waited for an hour hoping that somebody would call us but nobody called up.
• To make things further complicated, there seems to be another system at http://appointments.uidai.gov.in which is also issuing appointments at the same center with same timings. The center does not have list of people from this system. They only have list of people from the system I mentioned earlier. This is resulting in the people at the center getting overloaded since they have twice as many people showing up.
• Anyway, we also used the loudest voice method to get ourselves scanned for biometrics and got our enrolment done.
• The data that we entered online, is not available at the center so it has to be entered again and that is extremely time consuming.

In nutshell, like most of the other ideas of GoI, it is a brilliant idea gone horribly wrong in implementation. I only hope, as time goes along they fix it.

Logistics: Why we suck

I needed to buy two components that go inside of a PC. One of them was available with IT Depot which is based in Chennai. Other item was not available with any retailer in India, so I decided to order it with a vendor in US.
The vendor in US (Amazon) did not ship that item to India, so I decided to use one of the address forwarding services (Borderlinx).
Both the orders were placed one after another on June 06, 2013 around 1:30PM. Today is June 12, 2013. I already received the order placed with US retailer yesterday night, while the order with Chennai retailer is still showing a status of "Ready to Ship".
How is it possible that these online retailers based in India can be so pathetic for an item that they claim is in stock and was paid for so long ago.