MEN's Rules

For the first time on political Sinner plagarism is taking place :)..a really nice video picked up frm FB :)

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/video/video.php?v=1268119589818&ref=mf

Abandoning Police Servces

Ever been fined for over speeding while your son was just about to miss his board exam while the ministers boy sped on the main road mistaking it for an A320 runway?Ever read the morning headline about a girl who just got raped last night could not even register a FIR in local police station?Ever read about the Gujarat riots and the role of local police in instigating communal violence? Ever had the odd police officer demanding a 500 ruppee note for verifying your credentials so you could get a passport?

The Indian Police ,an inheritance of Imperial Police of the erstwhile British Empire has become nothing more than licensed Mafia Raj.In fact if we consider the figures it would be the largest mafia force in the world.Its atrocities and activities would even make the Italian and Californian gangs look like peace forces.As per nationmaster India had 236,313 assaults last year making it the 5th most dangerous country to live in (even more dangerous than war torn Palestine).At the same time it had the largest police force in the 30 countries surveyed.India boasts of 1.7 m registered crimes ,making it 10th country in world affected by crimes (think what would have bent he situation had we included non registered crimes).So despite having one of the largest police forces in the world,we are still one of the most crime affected country.Add to this the fact that we are here despite having a relatively stable political and economic system.Compare this with a country like Switzerland which has no federal police structure and yet has much lower crime rates.

True,India is a different country with its own unique problems and comparing India and Switzerland is like comparing apples and oranges.Yet,the stats and data point out to such disparity that one is forced to question:Do we really need a police service?

The police force is supposed to assist a nation state in enforcing law and order,while at the same time ensuring basic tenets of democracy:equality and freedom are delivered to all citizens.Clearly the Indian Police has failed on all counts.The law and order situation is beyond the control of local police.We have to be dependent on the Army to control even the minor disturbances by the Maoists.The police is nothing more than a puppet in control of the "netas" at the centre when it comes to Godhras and Sikh Riots of he day.The crime rate in India is one of the highest in world and when any crime takes place ,the common man is rarely convinced that going to the police could be of any help.As per an estimate the Indian Police refuses to register more than 70% crime cases either to protect the powerful or to keep official crime rates low.Regular abuse of laws ranging from traffic to crime by rich and powerful is a rule rather than exception.Ex DGP Rathore ,Shibu Soren and Manu Sharma are just particles of dust covering the book of law abuses in India.

It seems quite logical then that since the Indian Police has failed on all counts,we can start replacing the Police by other alternatives.The advantages are two fold.One the state expends a huge amount of money on the police services.This money can then be diverted to other development schemes.Secondly,selective removal of police services would lead to lower crime rates and strengthening of the Indian state.So whats the alternative to a federal police.Here's what I feel can be a good alternative:

• LAW AND ORDER :Strengthen CRPF.The CRPF should be given the wholesome responsibility of maintaining law and order and crushing any uprising.The CRPF battalions should be stationed at key locations and be capable of being transported to affected areas within half an hour.Advanced training and proper air and land support be provided them.
• CRIME :At district level,the local communities can choose to outsource the police functions either to government or private security companies.Most of traffic policing can be automated with use of advanced technologies.Infact the ticket collection money would ensure negative bids for traffic policing project.
• FAST TRACK COURTS:A government maintained Police HQ be established in district.The HQ would act as a fast track court against private police agencies.
• MONITORING :A police monitoring agency be established to track performance of private police forces appointed by local communities.In case of any deviation this agency can over ride the local agencies
• The private agencies be allowed to charge for providing security and theft prevention services.Also multiple policing agencies be present in same city/district to allow free market competition.The agencies be given limited power to arrest people and required to get approval of local courts within 24 hours of arrest.
• The privatization be started in test phase and gradually be extended to whole of country.

The above might look outlandish and stupid to our mind which has long been trained to accept policing as a state function.However in Indian context ,the wider truth is that our feudalistic mindset makes misuse of power ,a rule rather than an exception.In this sense free market completion and Adam Smith can only help us in restoring civility in our society.The ordinary citizen has no hope from police.We are at rock bottom and privatizing in this revolutionary way can only make things better......

How an A grader kills his company

This summer while interning with a leading FMCG company globally,I was working on a project that required development of some new machines in house.As my internship drew to an end,the mantainace engineer who had tried unsuccessfylly designing a new machine asked me if I could approve his project ,as he was having his mid term review soon.His reasoning was simple and crisp.We both stood to benefit from commissiong and both wont be there long to see what happened afterwards.
The incident aptly sums the driving force behind the 2008 financial crisis,the BP spill and the unmatched risk taking across big companies globally.The short term manager retention is one common factor affecting companies globally from petrochemicals to investment giants.The average retention for mid level managers has dropped from 8 years in mid 1970's to just two years in the investment banking domain.The stats might be a notch better for other industeries but still grave enough to pose a new corporate challenge alltogether.
How smaller retention periods at mid managment level affect company performance and risk taking is quite easy to understand.Most of the companies,specially ones having a high performance culture put a large amount of focus on short term performance.Moreover,in a quest to make reviews more quantitative and increased importance of these quantitative performance matrices in determing mouth watering annual bonuses,managers are found to be fighting a constant race against time,in order to achieve high standards demanded by the company.The problem becomes even more acute at top managment level,with most CEO's under pressure to deliever spikes in short term performance to financial markets.Apple for instance tried to delay recall of its newly launched Iphone 4 not because it could prove to be a loss taking proposition but because of the impact of recall on Apples stock would have been disastorous.
The above is infact strengthened by a close analysis of the recent financial cycles,all of which seem to be shortening.The Oct 2008 financial crisis was quickly overtaken by a bull run the very next year.Only one year among the bulls and bears are already threatning us with the soverign crisis in Europe,the spill by BP and political fallouts across the globe.Compare this with average 6-8 years of economic cycle in the past 200 years.Clearly our increasing focus of short term managment performance is affecting our macroeconimics.
The crisis is infact limited not only to corporates but also extends to governments across the globe.The EU in order to keep its citizens happy in short run chose to forgo the harsh measures relating to foregoing of social security etc.While this helped to keep its citizens happy and better than other souls across the world,it now stands at doors of a soverign crisis and threatens to affect the whole global economy in a major way.Similarly China in a quest to mantain its high growth rates,is still not ready to make its currency free float.What looms in background of this short term gain is everybodys guess-political instability,economic downturn and regional fallouts.It seems governments today are more concerned about making their citizens happy rather than making a long term assesment and planning for the economy.In India for instance the 5 year plans have been reduced to mere draft documents.
Its clear that short term performances are far weighing long terms one and the implications for the same is going to be disastorous.Its about time we start giving proper weightage to long term measurment.Many investment banks have started introducing the concept of long term bonuses and deffered share allotments.However we need to move beyond that.We can begin by making changes at the top.The CEO's should be selected for a minimum of 10 years duration (average age of an economic cycle) and share allocations be defered for 5 years atleast.At the mid level manager level we should move away from short term performance evaluation method.Senior managment should evaluate the project in terms of its long term feasability .Also promotions should be deferred and compromise needs to be made between a spiky short term performance and a long term survuval strategy.A significant step in this step could be a long term strategy audit on lines with compulsary saftey and accounting audits done today.This would act as an internal watchdog and help in correcting any deviations
At end of the second World War both Japan and USSR were in shambles.While the visionary leadership in Japan helped in founding one of the largest econmies from the least of resources,a short term focussed policy framework in USSR eventually created a large political economic and social faliure.Today we stand at similar avenues...whether we decide to become Japan or USSR depends on us.