Netizen: India

Showing posts with label India. Show all posts

Monday, March 09, 2015

Thursday, March 05, 2015

Energy Is The Missing Link

English: Citizens for Clean Energy Logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Clean Energy is the missing link to the world getting rid of poverty. China has showed the way. And now India is on a war path to double digit growth rates. That is bigger news than China getting there because, well, India is the largest democracy, and democracy is supposed to be the superior political system. Think of it, the problem in India has been not enough democracy. Corruption and democracy don't go hand in hand.

The political roadmap is clear. The economic roadmap is clear. The policy roadmap is clear. But you can't have India and Africa eat up the blue sky like China did. And neither are going to wait. They will pollute their way out of poverty if they have to. So the scientists of the world really have their work cut out for them. I don't care where they are. America, China, India. Does not matter. Clean energy has to happen.

The thing about clean energy is, not only will it give economic growth without pollution, it will give economic growth itself. In their rush to clean energy that makes economic sense, all countries from America to India to China will add a percentage point or two to their growth rates. So bring it on, scientists.

Microfinance Is A Huge Business

English: ESAF Microfinance Geographical Coverage in India (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I don't think of microfinance as charity. I think of it as big business, like a hundred billion dollar business. How many companies in the world are past $100 billion in market value? Exactly.

China grew at double digit rates for close to three decades, no recession, nothing. That is magical. Well, America could not do that because, when you are America, you grow by inventing the industries of tomorrow. And that is hard to do. But when you are China in 1980, you are not having to do that. You grow at double digit rates because all you are having to do is catch-up. And India is about to realize that. I hope Africa is next after India. As in, Africa also starts growing at double digit rates by 2020. Political leadership is key.

People who avail of microfinance are like China in 1980. Only these are individuals and families, not countries. They can do well as business entities. Investing in them is smart.

I am super interested in this sector. Entrepreneurs are my favorite people. I'd like to service a ton of them. Entrepreneurs at the low end stand to transform this world like few others.

Done right this is about getting the Aam Aadmi (the common "man") in the rich countries to contribute a few hundred to a few thousand dollars as investments and touching lives a few hundred dollars at a time at the other end.

A for profit company is not a bad idea. A for profit company with strong social boundaries. The goal has to be to keep the interest rate as low as possible. But the for profit part is it has to have the efficiency of a well run corporation.

Saturday, January 31, 2015

Constantly Voting People

English: Ballot Box showing preferential voting (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Recently Twitter bought a company in India whose key insight is the missed call phenomenon. I guess in India you buy a phone. And there is no monthly fee. And if you only receive phone calls, you don't owe the phone company anything. I still think the phone companies make a ton of money in the process because Indians are a talkative bunch. Indian take the whole democracy thing a little too seriously.

So this company mastered the art of customer service through missed calls. And it had an impressive exit.

This reminds me of the power of SMS. We are squarely in the era of smartphones at least in the rich countries and very fast catching up in the poor countries. But SMS is still the killer application. The most popular apps on the smartphone revolve around SMS. And I believe there is a message there.

Seeking out numerous voting opportunities for people would be an idea. Let people be constantly voting. SMS based daily voting, voting multiple times a day. On all sorts of issues.

Saturday, December 20, 2014

Can Poverty Be Cured?

Percent poverty world map (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I think it can. And the cure is within reach. We already have the know how.

A poverty cured world is one without hunger, because the world already produces enough food, but will now also learn to distribute. It is a world where 5% of the people are taken care of in terms of their basic needs, just because. 100% employment is actually bad. You need some churn in the economy. Another 2% might not even be in a position to work, and they are taken care of. And there is willful employment for the other 93%. Everyone has internet access through their cheap smartphone. The Internet is in the air.

Basic food, basic shelter, basic clothing, internet in the air, basic education, basic health. The costs are not that high. But it is we that are so disorganized. And the Internet itself can be that organizing tool, the best there can be.

Sunday, December 07, 2014

Chinatown: My Favorite Part Of Manhattan

English: Chinatown, Manhattan, New York City 2009 on Pell Street, looking west towards Bayard and Mott. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I was just there yesterday. I was in a no English zone for half an hour. Part of it was a woman patting on my chest while I lay in a reclined chair letting her look into my ear. Calm down, be brave, you will get through it.

I like NYC, period. I will walk any block in the city. Because I like it so. And I don't differentiate among the boroughs, except for Staten Island, that I think is a legitimate part of New Jersey, or even Delaware.

But Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan. These three are a cluster. The Bronx is a little off. It is not in my route. One day years ago I realized the borough I have walked the least is The Bronx. So I camped out at a college friend's place for a month and walked that borough out thoroughly, left to right, north to south, east to west. Walking is the only way to see a city. There is no other way. You have to see at a certain slowish pace. I realized The Bronx of the popular imagination is only the southern Bronx, right north of Manhattan. I got called upon around there for taking a picture. What do you think you are doing! Someone yelled. I don't know if I got scared, but I did get uncomfortable. Okay, maybe a little scared.

Manhattan, Brooklyn: I have walked everywhere. Queens is just so big. I have walked many parts of Queens. But walking everywhere in Queens is quite a task. I am on it. I have walked from Jackson Heights to Jamaica to Flushing and back to Jackson Heights many times. I call it a walking kind of marathon. It takes a good part of the day. At the end of it you are guaranteed a great night of sleep. You are so dog tired. Walking to Astoria, to Long Island City: no big deal. I once walked from Jackson Heights east all the way until I was in Nassau County. And then I walked back.

Chinatown in Manhattan is awesome. The British colonized us, and then they left. Otherwise India and China were the richest countries on the planet for thousands of years. Europe was barbaric people land. India and China might again get their act together this century. And I mean that in a win win way. America does not have to lose, Europe does not have to lose, for India and China to win. If it were not for the strong Chinese economy the 2008 recession would have become a global depression. So there's that. And it is democracy like in America that will help India realize its true potential. For all those centuries India was feudal. There were kings, monarchs, emperors, some good, most not so good.

Chinatown in Manhattan is so different from every other part of Manhattan. And to think I grew right next to China in Nepal. But the British left and left a whole lot of them behind. I had a British education growing up, at a British school too. And so I grew up in the worldview where the only place China was next door was on the map. Otherwise China was nowhere to be seen. Britain and America felt closer than China. It was in the education.

Dumplings in Kathmandu are the staple snack. And so in Chinatown I am in dumplings town. It is a treat. I got 100 frozen dumplings last night, to go. It was a feast.

Chinatown is big and unique. Not even Harlem has it. And Harlem is considered the black capital of America, rapidly becoming more Hispanic and white. But Harlem is still English. Chinatown has Chinese characters on all sorts of signs and boards.

I am a bargain shopper. I don't believe in buying expensive. The exact thing can cost you three times, five times more in the wrong location. I am not up for that. And Chinatown beats even Queens on prices. I don't know how they do it. Let it be their secret sauce. A 10 dollar haircut in Jackson Heights can be had for five bucks in Chinatown. It should have been the other way round. I hear you can get vegetables in Flushing for really cheap. Flushing is in Queens, and it is actually bigger than the Chinatown in Manhattan.

China is so flush with cash, it wants to build bullet trains in India, not as foreign aid, but for profit. I am all for it. China is better positioned than anyone else to engage in massive infrastructure projects in Africa. And Africa is the ultimate sleeping giant. I think most people don't realize the African economy is coming along really nice. By the end of the decade Africa will be fully on the global map.

Beijing has grandiose plans to become the capital of the world. You should be able to take a train anywhere on the planet and end up in Beijing. I would love a Lhasa to Lumbini railway that also extends to Beijing and Delhi.

The Chinese are doing something right. They are not a one person dictatorship. It is a dictatorship of a political party. Which means a lot of patriotic people end up at the top. It is an alternate system. China can teach campaign finance reform to America, for sure. The Chinese have pulled hundreds of millions out of poverty. India needs to. And now India is poised to become the fastest growing economy on the planet. It has trillions in catching up to do.