Infrastructure, Ecology and Urban planning

I had been to attend a research pre submission talk at SMS, CUSAT on 29th July, 2009. There were two. The first was on the problems of the textile mills in Salem. The other one was on the urban planning at GCDA. The second one was worth the time though none in the audience appreciated it.

Essentially it used the ratio HDI/Ecological footprint.

The HDI combines normalized measures of life expectancy, literacy, educational attainment, and GDP per capita for countries worldwide. It is claimed as a standard means of measuring human development—a concept that, according to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), refers to the process of widening the options of persons, giving them greater opportunities for education, health care, income, employment, etc. The basic use of HDI is to measure a country's development.

At the urban development level therefore the HDI can be summarised as infrastructure support for a physical and possibly other well being.

The ecological footprint is a measure of human demand on the Earth's ecosystems. It compares human demand with planet Earth's ecological capacity to regenerate. It represents the amount of biologically productive land and sea area needed to regenerate the resources a human population consumes and to absorb and render harmless the corresponding waste. Using this assessment, it is possible to estimate how much of the Earth (or how many planet Earths) it would take to support humanity if everybody lived a given lifestyle.

At the urban development level this would mean how well to utilise our resources especuially land to the benefit of all.


Urban sprawl

In India except for Chandigarh none of the cities are planned resulting in what urban planners call urban sprawl. Urban sprawl is the low-density expansion of an urban population away from a city center through unplanned, incremental development.

The phenomenon typically results from increased wealth and social desires to "escape the city" and lead a "suburban lifestyle," with more open space and isolation. Urban sprawl is often associated with cities of the western United States, but occurs in cities throughout the world.

In the case of Kochi the urban sprawl is a result of not people escaping the urban areas but people due to changed socio - economic considerations would rather come closer to the city form their traditional villages. The Malayali's individualistic strain viewed the apartments with suspicion and added to the unplanned growth. Kochi has the added feature of the backwaters too leaving it a very sensitive ecosystem.

The answer to the question of urban planning is counter to the way it is going now. Like most cities in India, the development is characterised by a phenomena called urban sprawl. Urban sprawl is a feature where the dwelling places are built with large areas of vacant land often in agricultural land, ecosystems or wasteland.

The trick in planning is to grade the land in sectors into agricultural, ecological and suitable for habitation and then restrict the habitation to the habitable third.

This leaves the agricultural land intact adding to economies of scale, the ecology in tact and more importantly brings human population and sypport infrastructure together. In this way the land which is otherwise left sub optimally utilised can effectively be used to include say a park, football and other grounds, shopping complexes and human habitation together so that even the commute time can be optimised thus adding to huge savings.

My own feeling is that we are past the tipping point in population to have any effective such planning though scientifically it makes sense. That adds all the more expediency to save the remaining before it becomes too late.

More about IOC

I had written earlier on life at Indian Oil Corporation. Upon leaving, the then GM, Mr. Anand Kumar had asked me to send him a brief write up on the experience at IOC. I did within a few weeks and here it is reproduced from a resurfaced draft without editing. It is left unedited to bring out many of my own prejudices and ignorance in hindsight. But it is not without some merit....

'It gives an inexplicable feeling that it is entangled in its own procedures. Imagine the frustration of a professional who discovers that most of the time is wasted in getting approvals, the more the layers, the more so and by the time the approvals are through, the original enthusiasm has died down and sometimes the situation and the priorities have also changed. This leaves the impression that IOC is best for people who are just capable such as those selected from the exisitng AMIEs and NIPM graduates.


Indeed if one cares to evaluate they are the ones who feel any sense of improvement once in the company because he gets a jump whereas the professionally qualified entry level officer has to slog at least 12 years to get to the next postion of any substance namely the Manager.

It is amazing how much of self deception is prevalent at all levels that we are No. 1 that we are Fortune 500 company in India and so on. The worth of a company is no longer dependent on such qualifications but on its capacity to adapt, change and charge ahead.

For the very same reason the size of the company will prove to be the single largest hindrance to its survival.

Brings us to the question why inspite of the excellent welfare amenities so many are frustrated and slowly leaving. I have felt hat IOC takes care of your future but at the expense of your present.There is a concept called inbreeding in Biology. This occurs when a species procreates with its own community and thereby lose the chance to get the genetic qualities of the other members and be resistant to diseases etc. The same happens if you look at IOC as an organistion. Every year new members are recruited but the enthusiasm soon dies out since he has to learn primarily from the boss who has gone through a similar exercise in his days with the result that the chances of any new ideas and radical changes befitting the times are stifled.


Recruitment of professional managers at higher levels is therefore a must for IOC. Imagine the break with the past that an ouside Manager can bring in . Today it is not the dearth of talent but the approval Raj that snuffs off opportunities for change. One would in a better position to help IOC if he is an outside consultant than being an employee. So much for waste of telent.

The exit interview format is the most unimaginative thing one can expect. Look at the rigidity of options. Moreover the instrument is to be filled in by the interviewer. Incidentally in an article that I wrote for a Management journal (JIMS 8M Jan - Mar 1999) I mentioned the fact which saw me through a lot in my final decision to leave IOC.

IOC can do a lot of justice to itself by being transparent right at the start at the time of recruitment by saying where exactly the postings would be and drawbacks of the place rather than just an 'authoritarian ' you are liable to be posted anywhere in India ' which sounds more like joining the military. Indeed one finds oneself in such an atmosphere without the discipline.

IOC can also mention before recruiting professional such as HR that 'you may be posted under such officials from streams other than HR who knows nothing about the function and whose qualification is just that they have been unsucessful in Project and Maintainance.......

I had often thought why I WROTE THE LETTER. I could have chosen not to write or may be a more polite one. It shows how one is surprised at oneself if able to go back and look at onself .........

Summary of TA

Ego states : Functional and dysfunctional

Nurturing parent (NP) Supportive vs Rescuing (Patronising)
Critical Parent (CP) Normative vs Prescriptive
Adult (A) Problem solving vs Task obsessive
Free child (FC) Innovative vs Bohemian
Rebellious child (RC) Confronting vs Aggressive
Compliant Child (CC) Respectful vs Sulking

Faith and doubt or faith and reason?

13th July 14, 2009 had been to M G University school of letters to attend the open defence of the Ph D of Beena Job. She is my aunty, my mother’s cousin and a faculty member at St. Theresa’s college.

The topic of her Ph. D was "Resolution and Irresolution: An exposition of skepticism and faith in the poetry of Denise Levertov and Emily Dickinson"

The main argument was in the case of Levertov there was a progress from skepticism to faith whereas Dickinson vacillated between the two never really resolving the same. Keirkegaardian and Hegelian matrices are used to used for further illumination.

In the course of the post presentation questions, it struck me that the antithesis of faith was given as doubt whereas the literary highlight is more between faith and reason as in the 'age of reason'. I raised the question that reason was not mentioned in the presentation.

The answer was that in the case of Dickinson, the use of reason was perhaps the cause of no resolution whereas faith demands an a priori acceptance even without evidence. Also that the reason- faith duality was first exposed by Thomas a Kempis and so on.......

Perhaps there was a little bit of enthusiasm in being in the teaching profession as the discussions were nore cerebral than the mundane as in a company job....