30 years of economic reforms

On 24th July, India completed 30 years of economic reforms which were initiated by our former PM, PV Narsimha Rao, in July 1991. Those reforms put and end to license Permit Raj and promoted greater private ownership of enterprises. It helped to boost the productivity of the Indian economy and gradually, India transformed from an economy of scarcity to an economy which is currently confident about its present and future.

It didn't happen overnight and there were some useful contribution from our former PM, Atal Bihari Vajpayee who made important contribution in infra building that led greater industrialization.  However, it would be honest to admit that the leaders since 2004 till 2021 have lacked courage and wisdom and have deliberately slowed the pace of economic reforms.

India is still far away from its true potential and a long road lies ahead of us and it would be in the interest of the country to strengthen economic reforms so that we can fulfil the aspirations of its people. Our per capita income is just a fifth of China currently, when we were at the same level in 1980. The type of politics and the corrupt politicians have betrayed us in our pursuit of prosperity and that is one area that needs to change for the betterment of nation! 

IT Industry get a new beacon of hope

 The covid19 Pandemic has accelerated the digital adoption across enterprises. Many organizations nudged by the new norm of WFH are going for transformation of core IT infrastructure. It includes not only cost saving IT interventions but IT strategies which can amplify the productivity of the organizations. This include AI driven decision making process and migration of software applications to cloud to streamline IT operation. It is being perceived by industry expert as once in a decade opportunity that can drive the growth of  Indian IT companies going ahead.

The clear impact of the Pandemic can be seen in the size of deals being signed by IT majors which has shown significant increase over average size of deals signed over last 2 years. It gives a strong indication of the growth momentum expected among top tier IT companies. 

Though, there is headwind of wage hike for FY22 in coming quarters, it is expected that IT companies should be able to broadly sustain the EBIT margin seen in Q3FY21-Q4FY21 over FY22, led by positive operating leverage and admin and travel expense still in control.

Though, the valuations have jumped for all these IT companies, it is expected that the should be able to sustain  these valuation multiples, if deal win momentum remains strong. We expect that Indian IT companies are able to use this opportunity to develop cutting edge solutions that will lead their transformation into top tier IT companies across the Globe.

Why self discipline is the key?

We all have heard that talent is overrated. The statement is true as we know countless stories of people with immense talent failing to achieve anything in life. This is because in most cases, the secrets to achieving anything meaningful is revealed to us by the nature when we devote certain amount of dedicated hours depending upon the magnitude of the problem. All real events are complex at the core and yet government by few basic laws.  This is the ultimate law of nature.  Moreover, the key tendency of Universe is to achieve a state of higher entropy which has higher randomness. This increase in disorder can be stopped only by apply external constructive force which helps to maintain higher energy (or low entropy state) to achieve anything. This external constructive force is nothing but state of self discipline which helps to maintain a state of high motivation and pinpointed focus towards the target.

So, self-discipline is the the utimate success mantra in this Universe, through which a person can achieve his goal through consistent effort towards a well-defined goal. This quality was the one on which our ancient rishis focussed in ancient times. But with the advent of the modern age, our generation finds it difficult to control themselves and often find themselves indulging in gambling, Non-veg food, procastination etc. and its leads to massive failures in life. Remember, a high degree of self-disciple is required to use our brain consciously for our benefit.

Crusade against superstitions

It has been around 20 years since we entered the 21st century. It's high time that we analyze our different religious practices with a critical bent of mind to remove various superstitions. The main purpose is to target our energy towards productive and right things rather than devoting our time towards destructive thought process or useless rituals.

I would like to mention the recent incident where an 18-year-old Muslim student beheaded a French teacher for showing the cartoons of Prophet Mohammed. It is an absolutely condemnable incident and the boy fully deserved the punishment as he was brutally killed by French Security Forces. There is no place for blasphemy related views in a modern civilization and this current thought process among  needs urgent reforms.

Similarly, Hindus should abstain from useless rituals and focus should be on establishing connnection with the almighty through every day generous deeds. Our focus should be on helping needy people, being kind towards animals and preserve the pristine plant life of the mother Earth. 

The reform in our religious practices is absolutely necessary so that we live a more meaningful life in full harmony with other creatures and leave a better planet for our coming generations.

Advent of Artificial Intelligence

 Artificial Intelligence has become a buzzword in recent times and has the potential to transform practically all sectors leading to a massive increase in productivity.  It involves gathering a huge amount of data about the current behaviour of a system and utilizing algorithmic framework and probabilist thinking to make the best possible decision under given circumstances. These computations are quite complex and require high computing power. For Example, the use of AI can help to decide the best possible crop combination depending on price, weather and the nature of soil. Similarly, AI can help in the diagnosis of patients based on the results of certain tests. The possibilities are just immense and the capacity of AI can be enhanced with increase in our knowledge of the nature of real world situations and the best way to replicate them through our code. Nowadays, Python, a computer language is often used in the design of AI based tools

At the fundamental level, its about making prediction based on current data set. It can help humans to increase the effectiveness of decisions which are required to be made in tough situations that involve complex set of data. It involves the use of principles from other branches of science, as two events can affect each other only when they are within a given light cone as specified by the General theory of Relativity. It also indirectly implies that we live in a causal universe with a high degree of deterministic nature, and the outcome can be easily predicted if one knows the initial condition and the laws governing the situation.

Population control laws

India urgently needs laws to check the rise in the human population that has emerged as a sort of unmitigated disaster. The rapid rise in population has led to the division of farmland into sub-optimal plots which are unviable. It has led to large scale migration of people from rural areas to cities in search of jobs and livelihood. These migrants often live in slums and face numerous hardships in the cities

The continuous rise in population has also led to the expansion of our cities and villages through the destruction of forests for developing new human settlements. It has often put humans in conflict with other animals and the entire ecosystem gets endangered. The large scale deforestation has led to rapid extinction of several species over the last several decades.

The massive population also puts pressure on natural resources such as water, air, mineral resources, wood etc.  The rate at which we have been consuming several resources like coal and crude oil would leave them completely exhausted over the next few decades. Moreover, the rising pollution in our natural environment is also due to the fact that we have been unable to manage our population growth and it has put the lives of several innocent people at risk.

Covid-19 Outbreak

This Covid-19 pandemic has forced us to think about our relationship with Nature. The old idea that we can control Nature and exploit it to our advantage will no longer work. In our pursuit of wealth, we have caused large scale damage to the environment, be it through mass deforestation or burning of fossil fuels. The time has come to reimagine our existence on this planet earth and try to adopt sustainable methods of living.

The increase in the human population can also be interpreted as if we have infected the Earth with manifold increase in our population over the last century. The large scale mining of mineral resources has damaged the flora and fauna of the Earth. Our Earth is losing species at an extremely fast pace and its life producing ability has taken a hit due to our activities. 

One positive thing out of this ongoing lockdown across the world is that the Nature has regenerated to some extent and animals can be seen roaming freely in open places. The level of pollution in our cities has come down and our rivers such as Ganga has neven been so clean in the last 40 years. We have to learn the lessons during this Pandemic and apply them to avoid such mistakes.