Monday 31 March 2014

India Post: Thinking Out of The Post Box



A visit to a post office may not exactly be going back in time, but provides a glimpse of an institution struggling to maintain its relevance in an era of giant tech leaps in communication such as email and WhatsApp. Often the post offices are housed in quaint old buildings of 1960s or 70s vintage and surrounded with trees and moss ridden exteriors. The austere internal decor reflects the bygone era of licence-permit raj, when all signs of opulence were frowned upon.

The paint is either faded or falling off thanks to seepage during rains, ceiling fans hooked to longish rods whirr vigorously with a rat-a-tat sound. The window panes may either have cracks or even have few shards missing and ventilators often double up as long term haunts of homing pigeons.

As for office furniture - steel almirahs and racks as old as the office building grace the background. Files with lavish toppings of dust, lying undisturbed for months or even years, adorn these cabinets. The papers too have mellowed with age to off white colour.

As a semblance of modernity the computers have made inroads into post offices, but they too look primitive with boxy monitors, which the greying workforce handles in an ill at ease manner.

These offices had seen much better days in the past with milling crowds and constant hustle and bustle. Those manning counters selling inland letters and post cards had a tough time handling the rush and acrimonious exchange with customers over loose change. The sale of postage stamps used to spike during festival seasons as usage of greeting cards was very much in vogue.

Services like money order and telegrams were lifeline for transfer of money and urgent news respectively. Lastly, postal employees used to enjoy huge clout and any threat of going on strike used to rattle the government of the day and communication ministry in particular.

The coming of private courier services began proving a threat to its mail and parcel services. The proliferation of world wide web and email inflicted a body blow to mail services. It was just a beginning - later a torrent of other web based services like messenger, and fall in mobile phone tariffs pushed mail services to museum piece status and acquired a derisive sobriquet - snail mail.

Some of its services like Telegram had to be shuttered as they were no longer viable. The ubiquitous post boxes have now dwindled drastically. There are few takers for Money Order service as there are far better and faster options for money transfer through banks and money transfer firms. For the i-Phone and i-Pad generation an inland letter or a postage stamp is something to be procured for a school project. It used to be essential stationery for nearly every literate middle class household in the country till 1990s.

However it will be naive to believe that this 150 year old institution is now terminally ill and counting its last days. With 150,000 post offices across the country it is now trying to reinvent itself as a quasi banking platform especially aimed at those residing in small towns and rural areas. It is even angling for a banking licence.

The post office deposit scheme still commands great trust among traditional risk-averse investors. And government is making efforts to make them more attractive. However if it wishes to become an aggressive contender, it needs to drastically overhaul its technologically challenged set up.

It will have to replicate the modernisation undertaken by its close cousins - the PSU banks. While some of the old timers may be content with passbooks and paper certificates of National Savings Scheme, it will have to network its post offices and issue smart cards and other easy interoperability facilities to attract new customers. Competitive interest rates may not be enough. 

Also Read: Bangalore Beat    

Friday 21 March 2014

MH370: Flights of Fancy


The copywriters who penned the slogan and catch line of this advertisement may be ruing that their words have acquired an ominous Cassandra like ring for the ill-fated Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 flight number MH 370. It all happened on March 8 and this Beijing-bound plane with 238 on board and weighing more than 200 tons managed to fox the wired and wireless worlds and quite literally vanished in thin air. It continues to remain untraceable and like breakers hitting seashore, there is no end to conspiracy theories ranging from educated guesses to downright ludicrous yarns.

Broadly they can be categorised into two school of thoughts - mechanical failure and sabotage, with an overwhelming majority subscribing to the latter. After all who doesn't like some high voltage drama. Within the sabotage school there are two sub divisions. Those who believe that terrorist groups may have hijacked the plane to an unknown destination or carried out a suicidal mission. The others point their needle of suspicion towards the pilots' character.

The former group buttresses their argument by pointing out that the two Iranians with fake passports were present in the plane. However, the fact that Iranians have little sympathy for Al Qaeda, as they happen to be Shias, punctures this argument. Some say maybe it is the Hezbollah, but then this Shia militant group has little interest beyond Israel and the Arab world.

A tiny minority is floating the theory that the Chinese minority Uyghurs may be behind it. The theory seems plausible as most passengers were Chinese, but they have little wherewithal to carry out such audacious terror attacks outside the Chinese soil. Some even believe the aircraft may be lying tucked away in some Central Asian republic, though one wonders whether they have such long runways to land a Boeing 777.

All these theories fail to explain as to why no terrorist outfit has claimed credit or demanded ransom. Terrorist groups are as publicity crazy as politicians and hence it is inconceivable that they would let go such a temptingly high profile incident like this.

There are also legions of conspiracy theorists casting aspersions on the pilots. The fact that the transponder, which provides details regarding planes identity to radar operators on the ground, was switched off and the presence of a flight simulator at senior pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah's home has them in a tizzy. They think he had some sabotage plan up his sleeve and carrying out his homework, with many smelling terrorism link. The fact that he was a distant relative of Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim added ample grist for them to chew upon.

Then there is this small minority which believes it was a straight forward accident and discounts all conspiracy theories. The proponent of this theory is a Canadian pilot who wrote in Wired.com that an electrical fire accident may be the culprit. He claims that would have made transponder dysfunctional and the pilot may have veered off the normal course to reach the nearest available airport. It may be noted that the plane was carrying highly flammable lithium batteries. For Boeing this is something they can ill-afford as they had barely recouped from bad publicity over heating Lithium batteries in its 787 Dreamliners.

Now for the ludicrous - lightning, asteroids, alien attack, god's wrath and the like. But what takes the piece of cake is an explanation given by 'soul healing' expert which was even telecast on a Kannada TV channel. He had two people sitting on airplane type seats and hypnotised them into believing they were aboard MH370 and they uttered what they ‘saw’! I guess nobody can beat that.

Also Read: Bangalore Beat

Saturday 15 March 2014

Kejriwal: A Riddle Wrapped in a Muffler



This dapper man evokes extreme emotions and has stirred up the political cauldron much to the discomfort of the political class. He has his legion of diehard topi clad followers, while detractors equate him with a recent Bollywood movie title Nautanki Sala (a man high on histrionics but zero on substance). Before Delhi elections everyone wondered how he and his partymen are going to salvage their deposit, but after the spectacular debut he has been trending on all media platforms.

The free water and free power scheme made many snigger, saying it would drain the exchequer. Quite ironically this sense of alarm was more pronounced among India Inc, who have bled the PSU banks beyond redemption through loan defaults. Detractors called his party policies as povertarian socialism. But it did touch a chord among the Delhi's underclass, who either could not make it to the India Shining story or got crushed under its 'progress'.

Then came the street protests. The image of a Chief Minister wrapped in rajai sleeping on the Janpath footpath left the LCD TV owning class exasperated. He is supposed to govern and not protest thundered the shrill TV anchors. Even those who had praised his spectacular electoral coup at Delhi began shaking their heads in disapproval calling him anarchist. But again for those who sleep daily on Delhi streets it was nothing out of ordinary. Moreover later Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan too carried out copycat protests, but no one evoked the 'A' word.

The party's 49 days of power was nothing short of a political equivalent of IPL tamasha with the party's supporter base undergoing a wholesome churn. He endeared himself to much more lower echelons of the society, while some of his erstwhile upper middle class supporters recoiled in disgust.

During the last days in power he trained his guns on Ambani, something the political class of all hues and the media houses had always baulked at. Even his erstwhile guru Anna Hazare had kept the  crony capitalists out of his firing range.

However he seems to be a man in tearing hurry. After taking over power in Delhi, he should have tried to consolidate his base there and gradually spread his wings all over the country. It would have been ideal to aim big for 2018 elections than spread his organisation thin for pan India presence in 2014 polls.

The party is being perceived as driven by a single point agenda of fighting corruption. It needs to convey to people its stand on issues such as economy, foreign policy, judicial reforms and the like. In fact AAP think tank Yogendra Yadav had recently admitted that not much 'homework' has been done to formulate the party's economic policies. It is high time AAP did something on this front to remain relevant in the long run.

Photo courtesy: Tumblr

Also Read: Bangalore Beat