Knowledge To The Rescue

Folks today's  post is about affirmative action (Reservation) in India and worldwide as well and some facts and my thoughts around it. This post examines the effects this policy has had on the Indian population in particular and globally in general. We will try to address this issue with data and algorithms and not passion as there is a great deal of distortion of this issue and there is a lot of baggage that many people bring to the table when this issue is discussed. I believe looking at data is the best way to make an informed decision and solve this important Social Engineering problem.

Background

At the stroke of the midnight hour as India awoke to light and freedom certain communities were considered backward and a young India decided to do something for her children. Dr. Ambedkar, a visionary leader of this community introduced the policy of reservation in Education to ameliorate these children of India. Being a visionary he naturally saw what the long term effects of this policy would be and warned that if this welfare policy was continued for more than 10 years the people would behave like parasites, Also he was strictly for reservation in education alone, not jobs promotions and such. These were introduced subsequently by weak and undeserving leaders who wanted to somehow keep winning elections by enticing the greed in the masses in exchange for votes.

Affirmative Action, The Broken Greedy Algorithm

Many still argue that Affirmative Action is a good thing. And even if it comes at the cost of the Forward Classes(Castes) it is worth it as it ensures Social Justice. I am not going to counter this argument with emotion but with facts and Algorithms. This is a classic case of a Greedy Algorithm that breaks down in the long term. A greedy algorithm assumes that what is right locally (reservation) would hold true globally(Social Justice) and that this algorithm of doling out engineering/medical seats would indeed uplift the masses long term. This does not happen for simple reasons rooted in Human Psychology. 

Imagine that you are a young couple if I told you: "Don't worry about your kids, they will have Food Security and a Right to a great Education, all of them I guarantee will become Doctors if they so wish". 

Q. How many children would you want to have?

A. As many as possible.

Now Imagine if I told you, " Your kids will need to be extremely bright to even get a decent education, you may need to pay your entire life savings as donation to get a seat in a Medical College and even after getting educated your kids may not get jobs. 

Q. How many children would you want to have?

A. 1 at most.

What is happening is a Silent genocide of the classes. The babies are not being born at all and the population of the classes is on the decline. Whereas the exact opposite is happening to  the masses. However resources (wealth) being limited, the inheritance algorithm is creating poorer and poorer masses and richer and richer Classes! The fact that there are fewer classes and that they are rich is leading the greedy leaders to use this as an excuse to increase the quota, which unfortunately is having the exact opposite effect.

I hope they see the light soon!

Psychology: Top and Bottom

The laws of nature say that if somebody is on the top somebody else will be at the bottom. This is true of society as well. The probability of one being on the top of the whole world is 1/6 billion and the denominator keeps rising, so we are all below someone or something. We need to learn some basic human psychology here. The people who consider themselves at the bottom, well that is all of us at varying levels, need to cultivate Humility in my opinion. Humility evokes Sympathy from those on top and makes them want to help us. However if we cultivate Arrogance, it evokes more arrogance and Aggression from the person in power, and we all know where that leads.

Fight or Flight

The classes are faced with great adversity at present in India and Adversity evokes the classic response. Fight or Flight (Immigration). How do we fight this system if we are an embattled minority in a large Democracy?

Flight is an easy solution, you can immigrate to a new country and thrive there.

However some of us remain here and decide to fight the system. Personally, I use knowledge to fight as I believe the Pen is Mightier than the Sword. And so I wrote this post. I hope to have provoked some thought!

Regards
Milind Thombre

(Comments Welcome)

Losing the Plot

Brain Drain

In the 70’s and 80’s and 90’s India made no significant investment in electronics (namely microchip manufacturing) technology. They made a half hearted attempt forming a company called Semiconductor Complex India which died out in the early 90’s. For a nation to be successful with technology it requires a sustained investment in constantly improving and challenging technical programs. The government simply refuses to see value in making these investments in technology in India.  At the same time the Govt saw value in privatising Engineering Education, a move that created a generation of several hundred thousand engineers. These folks naturally had no jobs as there was no significant Electronics industry in India. For want of jobs and a livelihood in India these bright minds went abroad (mainly in USA) seeking greener pastures. They went on to create great companies and products (e.g. Pentium) for their employers there. The government of India was indeed jealous of this success and went about (frustratedly) talking about “Brain Drain”.  But did not realise that Brain Drain was better than “Brains down the Drain”

Body shops

Some of these early successful folks wanted to return home after a stint and went on to form some “Offshore Services” firms in India. Euphemism for Body Shopping firms those days. Due to the exchange rates of the rupee and dollar as well as the wage disparity between India (land of supply) and USA (land of demand), they reaped huge profits. However, Success breeds greater Ambition and the early movers now want to create technology from the ground up. This will simply no happen in my opinion. As i said earlier, the United States is not about to give up its core technical assets as well as knowledge easily. This remains top notch Electronics and Telecom as well as core Internet technologies, of which India is merely a consumer.

   

Example in Failure

In 2009, a close friend and I decided that we would build a Social Networking Platform for Doctors in India and worldwide. We successfully built upon the idea and deployed it. However, we realised that the keys to our success were with the United States. From the start our platform was targeted first by Chinese and later American spammers. Our users quickly lost interest in the site and moved to other greener pastures like Facebook. Security is a key technology for the internet platform and the US again controls major Key distribution facilities.

What the Indian Engineers are destined for is a lifetime of following and servitude. The core technology is destined to be controlled by the US and other western Powers that be. During the Kargil war, Indian fighter jets initially dropped iron (unguided) bombs on the peaks occupied by the Pakistanis, a strategy which was completely non-effective. Thanks to last minute Israeli technical help, and a few dedicated and ingenious Indian engineers the Mirage fighter jets were fitted with laser guided bomb pods. These guided bombs made all the difference in the war and saved many thousand Indian soldiers.

Greedy algorithms

The government of India continues to work with the greedy Algorithms that it pursues. (Greedy algorithms assume that what is right locally will be right Globally) There seems to be no comprehensive strategy and (Knapsack problem) the country is left at the mercy of these babbling leaders and babus.  Manufacturing, Electronics and technology, Automation and Robotics, Life Sciences are not on the GoI radar. Instead we are focussed on a patent pending “Inclusive Growth” algorithm which is hithero unproven to this world!  I feel we have to learn to accept that if someone is on top, it logically follows that someone else will be at the bottom! The entire Indian Pyramid needs to move upwards a mile if everyone needs Roti Kapda and makaan (food clothing and shelter). Otherwise the government is simply taxing the rich, and doling the poor for votes. There can be no real progress if we stick to these losing Socialist Algorithms.