Westworld is seeking new borders

 

The HBO show Westworld is now running it’s second season on TV. Its got critics and fans hooked, as well as I think the makers of every other TV show out there. Ambitious, and growing with ideas, it seems the creators are surpassing their own limits of creativity. Although it still says it is inspired by Michael Crichton’s movie, that is where the current similarity ends. It has left the premises of the original movie script and is now going where no other TV show has gone before.

Awesome !

I was a little dissappointed at the end of the first season, when the show decided to kill off Robert Ford (Antony Hopkins),  the park’s surviving original creator. I took it as a sign that the writers had run out of ideas, and found this was the only way to shock the show’s viewers. Also, that turn was faithful to the Westworld movie. But as the majority of fans predicted, the show has decided to bring back Ford, in a new , much more powerful meta form. Add to it the presence of many other parks, including the Shogun world, and now the possibilities seem endless. I am sure even Michael Chrichton could not have predicted how these new generation of writers could have built on his original idea of broken-theme park. 

With every episode, the show not only puts forward new twists and spectacular acting, but also asks deep questions: on artificial intelligence, conscience, about playing god. The greater context of right and wrong, and cause and effect. And about life and death. I caught myself thinking if our world was also some kind of simulation controlled by a higher power….Bah ! Humbug !

The first season talked about conscience and becoming self aware. It was centered around Dolores, the oldest host in the park, and her attempt to understand her artificial world. But now the second season discusses artificial life, and life and death. The park creators are trying to come up with a way to beat death, by moving people's consciuosness into a sentient being, allowing the mind to live forever in an artificial casing.

These are not new ideas. Ever since sentient beings have died, others have wondered if there is way to beat death, and gain immortality. There are numerous legends of waters, fountains and prayers which provide immortality to the consumer. It now seems that modern and future technology could provide a way out.  Current technology can build the exoskeleton so simulate a human being, but without an intelligent mind with a personality, it is just a shell. Pretty sure somewhere out there , right now, somebody is investigating how the human mind can be captured in code.

I am hooked ! Looking forward eagerly to what new ideas these writers are going to through at us in the coming episodes. And what how far it’s new borders are.

 

 

GMail’s confusing icons

 

For a long time now, I have hated GMail’s icons on the main toolbar. Specially on the app. It doesn’t make sense, and they are confusing. I wonder who are the numbnuts who came up with them, and on what basis.

Thankfully, others too have felt the problem. And somebody else wrote about it. Read on.

India’s education mess

Today I saw a full two page ad in the national newspaper from Byju, the online student’s coaching startup. A full two pages about their free conselling session at home. This is despite the fact that their ads were recently blocked by ASCI in January this year for un-substantiated claims.

The Indian education system is a collage of contradictions. Its surprising that the world's largest democracy does not have a stable, self-sustaining system of eduction which can cater to the needs of millions of youngsters seeking education in the country. Successive governments have tried to 'reform' the education scene, whatever that means, but every time they have attempted so, something else has been broken. I  have been reading all kinds of news relating to India's education these past months, and they remind me of the hurdle I myself had to go through to reach where I am today.

These are the weeks of student winners, it is the time when various education institutions in the country announce the results of the 'toppers' in their examinations. It starts with the central government's CBSE announcing the names of students who scored highest in each of India's 29 states. There are two sets of exams, for 10th and 12th grades. I never understood why the 10th grades are so important, seeing that it is the 12 th grade marks which act as the qualifier for college admissions.

But wait, these are just central board. Every state has their own 'board' of education, and have students enrolled for 10th and 12th grade exams. And with 29 states, that is a lot of student toppers ! And then there is one more private, central school education board called ICSE, but no one seems to care about them.

Admissions to India's public colleges are based on the marks students score in these 'board exams'. Arts, science and language colleges setup a cut-off mark as the minimum marks required to gain admissions to their subsidized education courses. But simply scoring these minimum marks does not automatically guarantee admission, frequently parents arrange 'recommendation letters' from ministers and high profile officers and even religious heads as additional assurance. colleges also arrange for their own admission tests inorder to screen candidates. And some of those screening test are the toughest to crack in this country. 

The two streams of education most sought after after 12th grade education are Engineering and Medical courses. Students who pass out of these courses are trained engineers and doctors. And because of the demand and the overwhelming population of students applying,  the central and state governments have been organizing these 'entrance tests' at central and state level. Objective style reasoning tests with negative marks help screen the best of the best of millions of science graduates attempting to gain entrance to subsidized education. And there are so few seats up for grabs that there is immense competition.  For instance, only 4 of the 100 candidates attempting The National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) for medicine will win a seat. It is a little better for engineering seats, but that is only because there are more seats available.

And so, when the results of these entrance exams are announced, the toppers are again celebrated in the media. There are long interviews of the students, with their families and teachers, to understand how they cracked the system. And what are their tips and tricks to similar students who are attempting these tests in the future. Hell, some even appear on national TV, speaking about their experiences and giving out advise. Probably no other country parade their top scorers in TV like India does. In India, toppers are celebrities !

But again, these are the subsidized education seats we are talking about. The mafia in the private colleges are at an entirely different level. Education has turned to business in India, and if you don't have the wits to get a seat, you can definitely buy one. This is where the picture starts to turn bleak. Anticipating huge number of students who will not be able to clear the national tests, private colleges have mushroomed across the country, offering the same courses for a much higher price. In a way, private education is for the rich, but not academically gifted. The fees being charged at some of these institutes is so high that in recent years, majority of the seats remain unfilled.
Recently there was a directive to shut down as many as 150 colleges across India how had less than 50% of their seats filled. Just let that sink in.

Instead of trying and subsidising these additional seats in some way for the poorer students, the government simply wants to shut them down. Amazing governance.

But no test, repeat, no other is as tough and prestigious to crack as the Indian Civil Service exams. IAS exams. These are not education courses, but actual jobs people are applying for. Candidates need to have college degrees, and have to study additional subjects which are not covered by their college education. The civil services exam has among the lowest success rates among competitive examinations in the world, with a success percentage of less than .1 percent. Less than .1 percent of the applicants will land a job. Only one in every 10 candidate succeeds in the first attempt. There are people attempting upto 6 times, and some candidates can keep on trying until age 37 ! 

And as always, the IAS toppers are the media's favourites. The sheer prestige and security of the jobs means that anybody IAS topper is seen as the hardest, most hard-working and able minded of students. I think the assumption is that they will never have to face any problem in their life from that point onwards. They have cracked the system. Now they can sit back and reap the benefits, while the rest of us fight it out among ourselves.

The tale of getting into the civil services is one of hard work and dogged perseverance. That’s why it is all the more baffling how the Indian bureaucracy, which comprises such hard-working and committed people, earned the disrepute of running what is considered an inefficient government machinery.

They say history is written only by the winners. And this is in fact , true. Nobody talks about the trials and tribualations of the losers. Those who put in whatever they could, but failed to clear the system. Despite all these ‘free seats’ or subsidized seats, millions of students fail to get a chance to pursue their choice of education in this country. India also has one of the highest suicide rates in the world, one student kills self about every hour in the country. 

Yet, no one talks about them. They are just the collateral of having a skewed public education system, one which relies on intense competition. It is a broken system, and somehow the authorities have managed to make it even worse everytime they try to change something. I had it much better and easier 15 years ago. The future generations are going to have to struggle very hard to just maintain the pace.

It is case of textbook Darwinism: survival of the super-ultra-mega smartest.

India’s middle class has no spare money to spend

I love reading the economist, when I get the time, that is. Too bad they don’t cover India very often. But when they do publish something, they offer a new perspective to look at things. An outsider’s prespective. So I was a little surprised when they published not one, but two different articles about the Indian economy in January this year. Revealing and thought provoking, the articles where like migthy sucker punches. What was even more hilarious was the war-of-dumb-words going on in the comments section of both those articles. Patriotic Indians debating both sides by offering proof citing other media articles. I resisted the temptation to join the cockfight. Pretty hard to do when the articles were spot on.Before we proceed, please read these articles on how the magazine works internationally, and why their writers are anonymous.The two new articles about India basically say that the Indian middle class has no spare money to spend on world-class luxuries, as they are getting poorer and poorer. And the whole idea that India is the fastest growing economy and the next place for international brands to set shop is a sham. Something I had long suspected. Most international brands like Apple , Amazon and Google have already learnt this truth, and others are catching on. The articles then go to explain as to how this happened and why the trend still continues.
Why is the middle class of the economy important ? These would be the people whose income is increasing and are more likely to purchase more products and services, specially from new gen companies , probably international markets. The upper class can be considered saturated, they might have already purchased luxuries. And the lower class, well, they can’t be sold.Go over to wikipedia’s article and sort the list of countries according to income classes. India has the lowest percentage of middle and upper class.Other points which stood out.
Ouch !The truth can be distilled out easily, even after becoming the world’s fastest growing economy, Indians do not have the purchasing power that their counterparts in other developing or developed countries have. Indians are spending, but they only buy the cheapest options in every category. Not because they are saving the rest, but because that is all that they can afford. Indian customers buy the cheapest chines manufactured phones and tvs, instead of those fancy western brands. They buy made in India apparel and eat at low cost restuarants, instead of shopping from international brands and eating at international fast food chains. If a middle class family’s bread earner gets a promotion or comes to any extra wealth, they would rather invest that money in better healthcare or save it in a long term account , instead of purchasing non-essentials for the family. They see every expenditure as a liability, and every opportunity to save as a chance to grow. This is not the kind of market which would upgrade their smartphones every few months, or would eat at a five star restuarant to celebrate occasions.But we have known this for years. This is the very defnition of the Indian middle class. Spend only on needs, not on greeds.Some other eye openers: Apple made 0.7% of its global revenues in India in the year to March 2017.Facebook, though it has 241m users in India, probably the most in the world in one country, registered revenues of just $51m in the same period.Google is growing more slowly in India than in the rest of the world.Despite two decades of investment McDonald’s has hardly any more joints in India than in Poland or Taiwan.Starbucks says it has big plans for India but has opened about one new coffee shop a month over the past two years, bringing its total to around 100—on a par with Utah or the United Arab Emirates. A new Starbucks opens in China every 15 hours, adding to 3,000 already operating.Inditex, Zara’s parent firm, has 46 clothes shops in India, fewer than in Ireland, Lithuania or Kazakhstan.Hindustan Unilever, which purveys sachets of shampoo for just a few rupees, has seen virtually no sales growth in dollar terms since 2012.Even after years of enticing customers with heavily discounted wares, perhaps 50m online shoppers are active in India—roughly, the richest 5-10% of the population.India is now the fourth largest auto market, having overtaken Germany, but 80% of those sales was to Indian company Maruthi, which makes the cheapest, or most affordable vehicles in the country. So in terms of money, this is still among the cheapest markets.  International brands have not succeeded in India.Even for someone in the top 10% of Indian earners, an annual Netflix subscription can cost over a week’s income.Apple ads may plaster Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore, but for only one in ten Indians would the latest iPhone represent less than half a year’s salary.On and on..The reason for this downward spiral are many. First is the bureacracy. Or should I say bureacrazy.Another is the informal industry. 93% of Indians work in the informal sector, earning less than 10 dollars a day.Then there is the education, or lack of.
So, whats the takeaway. The illusion is wearing off. Soon international brands will realize that the only way they can cater to this dissiappearing market is to offer localized, cheaper and affordable options. They may get the market in term of units sold.But not for value earned.x
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Nature’s fury continues

 

 

 

 

 

Whats outrageous is that idiots at the MET department still insist on calling these ‘pre-monsoon’ showers !