Ordinary routine

Today I decided to write on a rather mundane, simplistic topic which many of us (at least in my network) wouldn’t think of in our routine lives.

I think I might have written about this topic in the past, but not sure. My regular audience will surely know of repeatitis (!), though the language could be different this time.

The other day I decided to take a bus to my eye clinic which is located just less than 3 KMs away from my home. I debated about driving and parking nearby, which I would have normally done, but ultimately decided to save the earth from climate emissions from my car (!). The actual reasons for not driving to the eye clinic were: (1) you got to wait for a possible indeterminate length of time, though usually it would be around 30 minutes or less; (2) they would surely dilate your pupils (so that the pupils expand) in preparation for eye scanning; and (3) of course, it may not be safe to drive on the way back home, which will then force me to spend time and money on nearby shopping waiting for my eyes to clear up fully.

So, I took the bus. All public transport buses in Singapore are air-conditioned (as are the MRT trains), and so one cannot complain about the heat from the tropical sun. Neither can anyone complain about rains as almost everyone carries a sometimes hidden umbrella. And as a senior citizen, I enjoy concessionary rate for all public travels (around one-third cheaper). The bus stops are situated just at the doorstep of my condominium building. So, there is really no excuse.

The bus rides in Singapore are always smooth (VOLVO buses) as the roads are very good and the drivers are cautious. I have never seen an instance of the bus driver trying to move away when the boarding or de-boarding is not completed, or he / she not stopping at a bus stop when you wave at the bus to stop. The bus bays are clearly marked, so the bus stop does not hold up any traffic on the road.

I went to the clinic, and was handled with clinical precision (!). This blog post is not just about public transportation, but also about eye care (!!). Apart from the usual tests (when the nurse asks you to read the letters), the clinic conducted three scans on three different machines. And, surprise. Everything was over in less than 45 minutes.

At home, we always discuss about the possibility of returning to India at some time in future. That future never seems to arrive, rather it keeps getting postponed well into the future! The issue for us has always been the necessity for good public infrastructure and high efficiency in delivery of public services. I am yet to meet any government official or bureaucrat in Singapore in the past 25 years (before that I did as I had to visit the Immigration Office).

I believe India is well on its way towards the Singapore model, though it might take around 10 to 20 years in my considered opinion. Comparison with Singapore is mostly inappropriate because India is huge and Singapore is just one city-state.

The positive ability to leave one’s car at home and take public transport has immeasurable benefits, though I have to complain that Singaporeans are more prone to drive out at any and every opportunity. Even if the bus stops are just located outside your own building or the MRT station is just a couple of hundred metres away. Government here has been trying hard for a long time to move people away from personal transportation, but I guess it has failed. The result? Huge cost for anyone willing to spend on a car in terms of the CoE (Certificate of Entitlement) which is a monthly auction based determination of the cost of a piece of paper allowing one to drive one’s own car. It is not the price of the car itself. No wonder even CNN Global wrote about the price of CoE recently (just google or bing it).

There are over 650,000 cars and nearly a total of million vehicles overall in Singapore, in a land area of 800 Sq KMs. This density is not sustainable for the long term.

People have to change their routine. But even I am not prepared fully to do that, though I am all for climate change restrictions. If I need to drive 20 KMs for some work, I prefer to drive as it would take me not more than 20 – 25 minutes, compared to nearly an hour on public transport using a mix of bus and MRT. The latter is still a better option from the cost point of view.

I made a decision not to continue driving in couple of years when my own CoE expires, which means I have to scrap my current car (you can own the car only for 10 years, unless you are in “love” with your car and decide to do a final extension of the CoE by another 5 years). I think it might be more prudent to use a mix of taxis, buses and MRT trains for almost any destination in such a small city. Why bother to pay a sky-high auction price (current month’s auction exercise dropped the prices, though it would still be around US$ 100,000 for engine capacity of 1,600 cc or more – not the car price, but the cost of the piece of CoE paper) combined with the car price, on top of which we have to pay insurance and road tax every year, and on top of which we need to pay tolls and parking fees?

It just does not make economic sense, especially in a city with such an excellent public transportation and public infrastructure.

So, life’s routine has to be prepared for a drastic change. It would be drastic as the convenience factor plays on your mind. There is no “status” symbol in having a car here as it was some couple of decades ago. The youngsters are moving away from the 5C principle (Car, Condo, Country/Golf Club, Cash and Credit Card) which was a very popular materialistic dimension of success in the Singapore city. Now, young people are worried about the one C which matters most in a small island with sea all around – it is Climate Change.

Well, I better get ready with two years to go, after which I will have no personal car. Imagine taking on that kind of commitment in a larger country. But, I think younger generation has already moved on.

We all should be better prepared. Electric Vehicles (EV) are not the answer because their batteries deplete critical minerals from the earth, and they, in any case, occupy the same space on the road.

Think of your life without a car.

Have a good weekend,

Cheers,

Vijay Srinivasan

25th November 2023

Mass Transport

I always thought that for the population and population density of India, it is imperative that infrastructure now should have been at 100 times what was the case at the time of India’s independence (when the population was less than one-fourth of what it is today).

But Indian policy makers rarely acknowledged the critical importance for over investing in infrastructure. The idea was if India already had one of the most extensive rail networks in the world (mind you, that was built by the occupying British), then what else needs to be done. Even when Bechtel came knocking on India’s doors in 1953 offering to build a vast network of expressways similar to what had then been accomplished in the U.S., India did not take action.

The result? Perennial shortage of motorable roads, capable of carrying heavy equipment to and from sea ports, interminable traffic delays in every part of the country, lack of coordinated road/rail networks, a complete ignorance of what should be the infrastructure policy for such a major developing nation, and a total reluctance to learn and adopt from the successes of other nations. I have not listed all the ills which plagued (and still plaguing) our infrastructure, but not a day goes without hearing of some road or traffic problems in some cities, sometimes as important as Bangalore.

So, I was absolutely pleased when I took a metro (we call that as MRT or Mass Rapid Transit in Singapore) ride in Chennai yesterday along with a school classmate of mine. The stations were unbelievably big and impeccably clean. The trains were new and very clean. The frequency of the trains was excellent. There were constant announcements both on the platform and inside the trains, both in Tamil and English. There were separate carriages for women.

Can India do this in every major city (imagine the market size for everything that has to do with such a massive infrastructure investment)? I heard that many cities are clamouring for metros, seeking budget outlays from the Central (Federal) Government.

I forgot to mention that every side of the station, including multi-level platforms, was covered by long escalators (there were lifts available as well). Very clean, nobody dared to throw even a paper on the ground, or spit. You can get into the platform only by automated entry gates, and you can make payment for tickets in a multitude of ways. You can cover decent distances for just INR 30 (S$ 0.5), and longer distances for just double that amount. But looking at the crowd, two thoughts struck me – the investment will be recovered probably in less than 10 years, and vehicular traffic on the roads should somewhat reduce as one can reach a destination some 10 Kms away in less than 20 minutes. On the road, it will take not less than 60 to 90 minutes, and one has to pay a high price for petrol or diesel, apart from cursing everyone else on the road.

I heard from my classmate friend that Chennai had received approvals for three phases of the metro project, covering almost every part of the sprawling metropolis of more than 8M residents. The Chennai Metro conveniently connects to the International Airport, and can take you to whichever direction you are headed. Of course, your home or office may not be located next to the station, so you might have to then take an auto-rickshaw for a much shorter distance.

I only hope that the tickets would eventually be issued in a card format instead of the paper format, or the system should allow me to tap my mobile phone (with a credit card wallet) at the entry point and then exit by tapping again, like what we have in many other countries. There should be no need to buy a ticket in advance. If this functionality exists already, then that is great but I was told it doesn’t as yet.

Metros reduce road traffic congestion and air pollution, apart from their primary function of transporting hundreds of people at one time at an affordable fare. I think Chennai has achieved the primary function as the metro ride that I took was crowded – I had to stand like many others. But the road traffic snarls still continue, though at a much less scale than Bangalore.

I am now thinking that I should take the metro to the airport when I catch my next flight as long as I have just a hand baggage (my apartment is some 300 metres from the nearest Metro station). Why take the Uber or Ola? I should have done this some 3 years ago when the airport metro line was commissioned!

Well, we can conclude that in the next 20 to 25 years, the face of every major Indian city would undergo a phenomenal change for the better. Combined with the adoption of EV (Electric Vehicles), we can forecast that people would indeed have a smoother, less polluted life with a far better infrastructure, while at the same time heavily contributing to sustainable climate initiatives such as huge reduction in fossil fuel consumption.

I would argue that Metros (which are all electric) contribute to a much better healthcare for the people!

Have a good weekend,

Cheers,

Vijay Srinivasan

30th September 2023

The beauty of inefficiency

This is not a thesis on the above topic, but just a recap of my latest travel experience.

I landed in Terminal 4 of Heathrow few days ago, and had to get to my daughter’s home, which required me to reach Paddington Station in central London. My previous trip was 4 years ago, and I hoped that Heathrow would have improved its logistics (unfortunately, I come from a country whose only civilian airport has been almost consistently, if not always, ranked as the #1 airport in the world). Heathrow is not a bad airport, and Terminal 4 is relatively new which means it is some 3 decades old.

The thing that surprised me the most was the immigration efficiency – I was out in exactly 2 minutes since I used the automated machine which looked at me kindly and determined it was OK for the United Kingdom to permit me to enter the country. It was as fast as Singapore, and better since the U.K. combined two steps into one single step – in Singapore, you insert the passport into the machine first, then the first door opens; and then you look at the camera and it opens the second door. In the U.K., it is one single door with passport reading and face scanning integrated into one step. So, I thought, that was a big improvement, even over Singapore’s sleeker airport’s immigration system.

The rest of the airport experience was mundane. The baggage collection definitely took longer than Singapore – it was 15 minutes for me as compared to the average of some 6 to 8 minutes in Singapore. And the baggage reclaim area looked very much like what one would encounter in a third world country’s airport. Even Indian airports have improved dramatically, especially in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad.

No one from the U.K. Customs even bothered to look at me as I passed through “Nothing to Declare” doors (I actually did not see anyone). Once I was out of the Customs area, the look and feel was very ordinary, not befitting one of the most travelled airports in the entire world.

Now comes the interesting part. Even before arriving in Heathrow, I had decided to take the “new” Elizabeth Line to Paddington. So, I followed the “Trains” sign board, even checked with someone from “Transport for London” on how to find the Elizabeth train line. He gave me a card to open the door to the train platform (which is free) and I used it. Then I reached the platform, wherein I enquired with another official helper who was kind enough (they are all kind, believe me) to explain how to reach Paddington. But, she gave me a wrong advice – she asked me to get off at Terminal 2/3 which is the very next station, get out using the same card, and then come back in with my contact free wireless credit card embedded in my phone (which I had told her was the way I was going to pay for my train ride). That was because Terminal 4 train entrance does not have a wireless payment machine! So, she wanted me to make a circuitous route back onto the same train, which incidentally runs only twice an hour.

That looked unimpressive to me and with no one else to check with, I boarded the purple train (Elizabeth Line), worried that I might be caught for ticketless travel. But nobody seem to be bothered, and I thought “let us figure it out after reaching Paddington Station”.

Lo and behold, two train inspectors got on to the train almost immediately and approached me. One of them asked me “how am I going to pay for the ride” – he assumed that I haven’t paid, which was right. I explained my predicament, and he was surprised that there was no wireless credit card reader at Terminal 4. Then I looked at his name badge and he was indeed an official from the train service, no doubt. I asked him what to do, and he provided the most valuable advice that I was hoping for.

He said that “get down at Paddington and follow other passengers – if the gates are open, then walk through – nothing to pay. Or else, ask the helpers there to provide assistance – they will assist you once they understand your problem”. It was not my problem actually, it was the train service payment collection mechanism’s problem, but who am I to question the wisdom of Transport for London.

The train took some 40 minutes, and I followed the above advice diligently. After I explained the problem to the service helpers at Paddington Station, they decided that the best resolution was to let me go for free, as if I used my Credit Card for exit, the system will think that I was trying to enter the station, rather than exit !

So, I ended up travelling for free from Heathrow to Paddington. It is not much of a cost (I did not find out the cost) I guess, otherwise they would have taken me to an actual cashier with a credit card machine in operation.

So, I experienced the inefficiency of the payment mechanism and the kindness of TfL (Transport for London) helpers, who I think were practical in their approach rather than trying to take me to court.

That was the first travel experience this week for me, and I truly enjoyed it.

The second part of the experience was of course, the cold weather. I travelled from Singapore with its 29 deg C weather to London which was ranging between 9 and 11 deg C. It was really cold, but it was something that I always looked forward to – it is not possible to get this kind of weather (usually) in Asia – except in North Asia. London is always a bit gloomy with its rainy weather and lack of sunshine, but I ignore that description – days are shorter of course, but it is just a different kind of experience all of us should have sometime or the other.

I travelled to Whipsnade Zoo outside London (I think it was nearly 40 miles drive) along with family yesterday and it was real fun, though my Singapore mind thought that “this Zoo looks bigger than the entire Singapore island”, and “what would Singapore have done in monetizing this kind of vast expanse of a zoo”, and so on and so forth. I should write about this wonderful zoo sometime.

Have a great weekend, while I chill in some 8 deg C weather with intermittent rains,

Cheers,

Vijay Srinivasan

19th November 2022

The Indian Cacophony

The moment you board a flight to India, you experience something which is not usual in flights to other destinations.

And, that is…………the inevitable noise people almost seem to make continuously and the non-stop chatting that some people engage in. During my flight yesterday, I heard a guy behind me talk almost non-stop for the entire duration of the flight – almost 4 hours, with his neighbour. I did not understand how he could manage to do that. The others kept constantly moving around the cabin up and down (don’t know for what), and opening and shutting the baggage hold. Thankfully, the two guys next to me were glued on to their videos (on their mobile phones) which made me wonder if I have any storage left on my phone to download movies like what they had obviously done.

Once you land in India, the decibels increase as people rush towards the immigration counters, and then on to the baggage claim area. Singapore Changi Airport claims (almost) that you can get from the airport exit gate to the taxi stand in less than 20 minutes (I don’t know the exact figure, but I have achieved this many times in less than that figure especially with a hand carry bag). Plus, the conveyor belt system for baggages is so efficient that even before you reach the baggage claim are, the first bags are already on the belt!

Not so in any airport in India, I would guess. Yesterday, it took a full 30 minutes to get my baggage, and then another 15 minutes to get the taxi.

This blog post is not however on a comparative study of airport processing efficiencies. It is more about how the Indian environment is affected by a deluge of cacophonous noises emanating from countless sources, impacting the ordinary man trying to do his work or get some sleep.

A couple of years ago, religious songs would be broadcast on powerful speakers in residential areas starting (could you believe this?) at 4:30 AM. I am speaking for my locality, and this need not be generalised. At least two religions will be involved in trying to entice you to get up and join the prayers. Obviously, there were a multitude of complaints. We can only pray if we had managed to get some good sleep, right? So, the above practice was discontinued, not totally however. Today, I heard the songs at 6:00 AM, and they were pretty loud and clear. It was obvious that the purpose was to wake up the late sleepers, but then the sources have always underestimated the will power of the sleepers.

I was shocked even earlier than 6 AM (sometime around midnight, I think) when a heavy boring machine drilled into my head. I dismissed the possibility for sure, but the sound kept increasing though my head was intact. I wondered if this was the outcome of any dream that I could have stumbled upon, and in order to be sure, woke up to check. There was no dream however, and after checking that my head was in place, I realised that the boring machine sound should be emanating from the Metro Rail construction works being carried out some 150M away on the main road (thankfully, my tower happens to be the innermost building in the apartment complex, well away from the road). Then I started to wonder if Larsen & Toubro has been given an impossible deadline for finishing the metro construction work, so much so that they had chosen to disrupt all the sleepers lining across both sides of the road in multiple apartment blocks. May be that assumption is possibly true.

Of course, I don’t have to say much about the daytime noises. India loves noises of a wide variety – the vehicles on Indian roads comprise from A to Z, each variety emitting a unique sound depending on the make and model. You should not be shocked out of your wits if you happen to see a tractor (which belongs in an agricultural field, but has chosen to do some shopping during this festive season in the city), or a bulldozer (yes), or a container lorry (I am always worried it would slip off the lorry due to the heavy bumps on the road), and so on. There is no dearth of either the varieties or numbers of vehicles in any city thoroughfare in India.

Forget even walking into a large mall unless you are prepared for a sudden increase in the decibels.

However, all this makes India an interesting experience, especially for folks who are new to India. I, of course, ignore all these stuff and carry on with my work. But even I could be flabbergasted if something very unusual such as the boring machine starts to drill my head.

I took a walk in the garden around the apartment in the evening, and I could not escape the devotional songs. Then I realised it is that season of the year when we are supposed to be more religious than during the rest of the year. A series of festivals combined with hearty festivities clogs the calendar of most of us, though I hardly pay any attention. I do not even eat the sweets or savouries which every home gets. I regretfully decline to partake in eating.

But then, life goes on in India at a super speed, compared to that in Singapore (the only comparison I can rightfully make) which seems to be slow and methodical. The palpable sense of fulsome life in action with a full dose of cacophonous noise flavours is sure to impress any visitor (I am not even counting on the various smells which also manage to overcome your nasal capacities).

If someone calls you on your mobile, you would struggle to hear the other side clearly when you are outside your home. Even within my home, I had difficulties some time in deciphering what someone says over a call, as my control over the sound airwaves does not exist. My mobile call is part and parcel of that cacophonous environment that all Indians seem to have accepted as an inevitable part of their glorious lives.

Well, here I am, as one of those participants,

Have a good weekend,

Cheers,

Vijay Srinivasan

15th October 2022

Gross lack of Sensitivity

I could not write and publish my customary blog post yesterday (Saturday). After a very long day, I went back home (at Chennai) late in the evening, but had to draft a technology partnership agreement for a new partner which turned out to be urgent. So could not write the post.

In any case, here I am back at the hospital this Sunday morning. Found some time, so I thought let me write, if only to relax my mind out of its stresses.

Almost everyday, I take walks several times – to the breakfast place, to my apartment, to the nearby mall, and back to the hospital. I am sure I see things which other pedestrians don’t see, or just choose to ignore (the principle of “contempt of the familiar”).

Chennai, in many ways, is a city better than many others in India, though its hot weather makes it unbearable sometimes. The traffic is more or less controlled, though it appears as chaotic as in Bangalore. Having been to Bangalore a few weeks ago, I am in total disbelief as to the traffic lows of that otherwise beautiful city – the curse of IT and development.

The points I am going to make in this blog post apply equally to Chennai and Bangalore and it is based on my recent experiences of walking on the pavements in both cities. I may not have walked in the “best stretch” of pavements in either city, and my derivations are based on a small sample of the pavement infrastructure, but nevertheless I believe the experiences that I had are emblematic of gross negligence of successive city administrations going back several decades.

Let me take the experience of walking on a small stretch of some couple of hundred feet in Chennai in a rather busy locality. To be fair, the whole arterial road has been out of shape for the past year or so due to construction of the Metro Train Line for which Larsen & Toubro (the engineering and construction giant of India) had to dig deep and use tunnel boring machines. Forget about noise and inconvenience. The busy road’s width became one-third of its original width. And the beauty? No one cares. City Buses, Lorries, Cars, SUVs, Bikes, Scooters, Auto-Rickshaws and Cycles compete with each other even on this narrowed road, and on one side of the road, the pavement was demolished, leaving the pedestrians at the mercy of speeding vehicles.

Due to the lack of road space, the drivers of Bikes and Scooters decided to drive on the pavement (which, luckily, still exists on my apartment side of the road). Since the road had been converted into a one-way traffic, as you walk in the direction of the traffic on the pavement, don’t be surprised if there is honking at your back – these are the above drivers who find it is easier to drive on the pavement rather than on the road, and you see, they are in a tearing hurry and cannot be bothered about the safety of the pedestrians who should know better to give way, though they may not be able to see the vehicles coming behind them.

Then there is a new dimension – drivers hate the one-way traffic as they had to make a long detour to reach their office or home. So they take dangerous shortcuts which endangers not only their lives but also those of other obedient drivers and the pedestrians still walking patiently on the pavement. What gives? The drivers of Bikes and Scooters (forget about Cyclists), and sometimes even cars, come in the opposite direction. So if you are a poor hapless pedestrian, you not only have vehicles trying to come behind you, but also facing you, and should you be shocked and unnerved?

And then there are these cars parked on the pavements and auto-rickshaws taking up space on the pavement since they don’t have parking space on the road. These guys happily reverse their vehicles on the pavement and you, as a pedestrian, have to be extra careful to avoid getting hit.

Apart from all these vehicle-related issues, as a honourable pedestrian, you need to contend with electrical cables hanging on top of you, and as I found, lying on the pavement – these are high-tension cables which are thick and running from an industrial operation or office to the HT Switchboard which also takes up space on the pavement. Be very careful while walking, and not only have a 360-degree watch out, but also keep looking up above and down below. There were two big open manholes on the pavement between my apartment complex and the ATM / Bank Branch, located some 200 metres away. So, I have become an all-dimensional, multi-angled professional pedestrian who knows how to avoid the perils of simple walking.

Well, if you have overcome all of the above trials and tribulations, you have also got to contend with the small cart-driven shops on the pavement (these take up more than 60% of the width of the pavement), which serve cheap hot breakfast, coffee, fruit juices, and snacks to the innumerable folks who always keep streaming out from wherever they live or work to the pavement under the glare of the hot sun. Surely, these are unhealthy operations and not under the watch of any health or food monitoring agency of the government, remaining unregulated. But the problem is that as a honourable pedestrian rushing to your apartment or ATM or mall, or medical shop, you got to navigate the narrow space in front of these carts and also avoid the people who crowd around these shops.

Bangalore is no better. All of the above exist even in the very heart of the city where I took up a hotel stay. There is no proper parking even in hotels (I stayed in a 3 Star hotel located opposite to one side of the famed Cubbon Park). Electrical cables are hanging everywhere, roads and lanes are very dusty, traffic is horrendous and people are insensitive.

Yes, that is the point of this blog post. Educated people everywhere, but they do not care about the extreme deterioration of their own prized city. Even people who have travelled or lived in Western countries do not think twice about the dust, dirt, indiscipline and the lurking dangers on the roads and the pavements. It appears that their persona changes the moment they step on Indian shores.

I feel bad and continue to worry about the future of infrastructure and safety. I know and have seen the optimism of India on the other hand. If only the administrators do the walk on pavements every day, things are likely to change for the better.

Have a good rest of the weekend,

Cheers,

Vijay Srinivasan

14th August 2022

The farce of COP26

COP26?

Do people around the world even know what this acronym stands for? I doubt if a person who you stop on the road to seek an answer will know.

COP26 is the U.N. Climate Change Conference currently in session at Glasgow. COP stands for “Conference of the Parties” and “26” stands for the 26th such conference.

Hundreds of world leaders gathered for a generally useless exercise of proclaiming the criticality of climate change and actions that they need to take urgently to stop the planet’s temperature from increasing any more. It was ironic that almost all the heads of state used their own private jets to land in Glasgow, thereby emitting huge amounts of Carbon Dioxide, the very thing that they said they wanted to reduce. CO2 is a greenhouse gas in the atmosphere and its quantity is increasing day by day because we are burning more coal and oil, and it traps the heat emanating from the planet resulting in a warmer planet. What is the impact to the people living on the planet now? Huge climate-caused disasters like icebergs melting faster and causing floods, rising levels of sea water, forest fires like what we see in California, Russian Tundra and Turkey, massive rains and storms, and so on and so forth.

Do the biggest CO2 emitters in the world really care apart from emitting shenanigans?

No. They do not.

Look at U.S. President Joe Biden. He obviously flew in on his gas-guzzling AirForce One, and brought along over 80 vehicles with him to ensure his safety. Is this a responsible action? The same comment applies (to a much lesser extent) to those Presidents and Prime Ministers who flew in on their CO2 emitting big planes to Glasgow.

Could this meeting have been done over video links? Yes, it could have been done, but sometimes the impact is not the same. Face-to-Face commitments can be followed through more aggressively than a remote speech delivered without any emotional or even logical appeal.

Two of the biggest emitters – Russia and China, absented themselves from the Conference – meaning that President Putin and President Xi Jinping did not come. They sent in their delegations, but it is not the same level of commitment that the other world leaders expected of them.

It is really funny that President Joe Biden is actively pushing for increased production of oil by the oil-producing nations at the same time that this COP26 conference is going on. Why? Because global oil prices have gone up significantly, and the pump prices in the U.S. have risen alarmingly. Is it not totally out of line? On the one hand, you push for aggressive climate change goal timelines by other nations; and on the other hand, you are pushing a select group of oil producers to produce more and more oil and thereby bring down the prices, adversely impacting the very same climate change goals.

When will nations become responsible in their approach towards global problems affecting the entire planet and future generations of people? The timeline that many nations are committing for carbon neutrality fall beyond 2050, which means at the minimum it will take more than 30 years provided there are no slippages. Will there be defaults? You bet.

Coal and Oil are here to stay for at least another 50 years or so (nobody can forecast). The next Republican President of the U.S. is going to abandon the commitments made by Joe Biden, and walk out of the next such conference (like what President Trump did). So, global initiatives critical for the survival of the planet are going to be beholden to the whims and fancies of politics. And if the U.S. does not keep its word, it is very unlikely that the other major players will keep their word either.

What we lack is astute and strategic leadership.

One country which clearly laid out its Climate Change goals was India. While there was some disappointment on its timeline to become carbon-neutral (2070), the other commitments were meaningful and appear capable of being achieved. For example, India committed that 50% of energy consumption will be from non-fossil fuel, renewable sources of energy by 2030 – a hugely commendable goal. India is investing big on solar power, wind energy and nuclear power.

Big protests by young climate change activists led by Greta Thunberg have become the norm at such Climate Change Conferences. While protests are welcome in any democratic exercise of rights, I am yet to see concrete proposals from Ms. Thunberg apart from vitriol directed at the leaders assembled. I can understand her anger and frustration, but world politics inevitably moves in incremental steps. Not everyone is aligned even on the basic goal of stopping investments in fossil fuel fields. Powerful economic forces and business lobbies will obviously exert huge pressures on political leaders to defer climate change actions. Business comes first, right? Profits before climate, right?

It is going to be a difficult balance. Unless there are huge incentives given by governments to promote renewable energy sources and support the gradual elimination of the more than 100 year old petrol engines for automotive transportation, the progress towards arresting the rise in global temperatures is going to be painfully slow. It could turn treacherous, as any further increase in temperature is going to unleash climate effects which could destroy livelihoods and submerge island nations.

I live in one such island nation.

What can I do? Stop the air conditioners at home, and reduce car usage. Small and simple steps can help in reducing CO2 emissions. I always liked travelling in public transport because I get to observe what is happening around me! And, it is always cheaper.

It is time to take concerted actions by countries which could be most impacted by climate change. Let us not ignore the fact that “countries in the South” are going to be affected more by climate change, and these happen to be the poor nations. The wealthy countries have to transfer funds to help these poor countries cope with unemployment which could result from the shuttering of coal mines and oil fields (for example), and assist in re-foresting / increasing the green cover. Huge investments are also required in no-carbon/very low carbon energy initiatives.

Have a good week ahead, and you can forget COP26 for the time being – you will not hear about it anytime soon!

Cheers,

Vijay Srinivasan

7th November 2021

WFH is more intense

WFH stands for “Working From Home”.

I am going to share some of my experiences working from home over the past 5 weeks or so (another 4 weeks to go till 01 June in Singapore, which is the official extended date for the partial lockdown).

Almost everyone in the corporate world is WFH now, and even political leaders have adopted the practice. Educational institutions have taken to educating their students WFH all over the world. Housewives are getting together on a Zoom video conferencing call every week, which is not something that I have ever witnessed. Social groups of all hues are getting together at their usual periodicity of physically meeting every month or whatever. And so on and so forth…….Can you imagine the consumption of broadband bandwidth shooting up? Most people are at home so the assumption here is that usage of the home broadband, rather than mobile broadband is going up dramatically. Though I have a 1 GBPS fibre broadband at home, I could see disruptions and buffering sometimes as the broadband is subjected to intense use for Zoom video calls, Netflix/YouTube movie streaming, online courses such as Coursera / edX and other activities which consume significant bandwidth. Additional infrastructure might be needed in most countries if this way of operating from home becomes the “new normal”.

On an average I have 4 to 5 conference calls with my team every day, some which stretch for over 60 minutes. I do not use Zoom for business conference calls, I use the Microsoft Teams (which is business Skype) calling facility which comes with the Microsoft Office 365 subscription. So far, it has been working well even for external folks who do not use Office 365 or Teams – they can just click the link I send out and join the Teams call. The video quality could be better however, but I am happy that I can have many simultaneous participants without much constraint. If there is problem in video conferencing, we just shift to audio. I am sure smart companies are working on better and faster video conferencing solutions, given the business opportunity for decent subscription revenues.

I found a few interesting things while engaging on my business video conferencing calls:

1. It is a more intense conversation than we do in a face-to-face setting in the office, as there is total focus on the person talking, there are not many distractions or interruptions, people are taking down notes, and questions are being answered without dilly-dallying as the intense focus forces the speaker to demonstrate a clear logic and solutions to the problem on the table;
2. There is some initial banter or small talk when starting the call but there is not much wastage of time as everyone is conscious of the actual work that they have to do after the call, and the time pressure of the next call is always hanging on one’s head. People also realise that they have to complete the work that they are being assigned before the next similar followup call comes up in the next day or two. There is not much scope for slacking;
3. People come better prepared for the call, unlike in the office. I do not know the reason, but I guess it is because of the more intense scrutiny that they will be subjected to in front of others in a video call where it is hard to pick the body language (as you are able to see only the faces), and the notes being passed to other people via the chat facility probably critiquing the person speaking;
4. There is scope for a better thought process while engaging in such a call. You do not have the friendly nudge from the next seat neighbour in the office meeting. There is total concentration on the matter at hand. I am seeing better quality decisions coming out of these calls than I have seen coming from the usual conference room meetings at office;
5. If you operate in a quiet room with the aircon running (it is hot in Singapore!), the external noises filtered out, and your family members are informed in advance about the DND (“Do Not Disturb”) condition that you have imposed, the quality and quantum of work that can be performed and accomplished in a day is more than what can be done back in the office; there is not much need for office space anyway, as most of what we discuss or do can be done via a video conferencing call; there are even options for writing on a white board!

Of course, you get bored many a time like what happens to me. I frequently get out to have a drink or eat a snack, or to have a chat with my wife. Such distractions are welcome as they give a sort of relief from the loneliness which otherwise pervades the quiet room I mentioned above. There is no “physical” meeting with the folks that I am seeing almost everyday on my calls. There are no joint lunches or coffee sessions. There is no joke session (however this is strongly replaced by WhatsApp). There is no casual pantry talk. There is no “reading” of others, which is especially useful in deciphering how the human mind reveals itself via various body non-verbal cues. There are no team-oriented physical activities like sports, etc., During the current lockdown situation, the loneliness (in between calls) can only be replaced by wanton distractions such as the above walk out of the room. May be it is lunch with wife! May be it is for the much-needed kitchen assistance which can be delivered while waiting for the next call!!

Sometimes, while waiting for everyone to join the call, I indulge in serious small talk about the pandemic or global affairs, or I show to the one guy who came in early on the call the view from my balcony which faces a water reservoir (looks like a lake, but it is a water catchment area – a rather large one). I like when it rains heavily and the air becomes misty, it kind of enhances my mood. The other guy shows me his paintings on the wall behind him, and explains each one to me. So, we do get to learn what each person’s interests are.

In between calls, I send out number of emails both to internal and external parties. Last week, I sent out an email to everyone in my startup on the Covid-19 situation and how the company stands ready to extend any kind of help that any one of the employees might need urgently. I do some market research on our competition and send out my analysis to the team. I keep revising our corporate overview deck in consultation with my co-founders, and so on and so forth.

There is no doubt that life has become more complex and more challenging for everyone in the world – not just for the business people. However, we have survived as a species in this world over hundreds of years due to our ability to think and devise contingency plans, due to our ability to team together and launch a battle, due to our creativity and innovative approaches to solving intractable problems, due to our intensity in sustaining life on this planet of ours. Covid-19 does not change any of this, and is only the latest challenge in the pursuit of mankind’s progress.

WFH is mankind’s latest approach towards delaying the impact of the pandemic (it is not a cure!) on the common man, but it is going to become the new normal. A very large IT organization such as TCS (Tata Consultancy Services) has made a daring decision to adopt this new paradigm of WFH extensively across their company by planning to move 75% of their 400,000 people workforce to the WFH model (from their original plan of just 15%). I am sure more such large organizations will follow suit very quickly. The identification of roles requiring real office space is in progress everywhere, and this is going to result in releasing huge amounts of real estate into the marketplace, depressing commercial real estate prices almost everywhere. No wonder REIT prices are going down.

In a nutshell, it is more energetic to adopt the WFH practice and go to office may be once or twice a week for a few hours. This will save congestion on the roads, reduce consumption of petrol, help in tackling the spread of coronavirus, drastically reduce office space requirements thereby improving bottom-lines (which are hit due to the pandemic), reduce the number of diesel-guzzling buses on the road, and enhance the response time of companies to their customers.

Think about it. It is not a bad thing. Your spouse might complain about your constant interventions, complaints and lack of cooperation. Then you got to take some much needed actions! Otherwise WFH is a great thing. It might be boring but it is safer and more effective.

Have a great week ahead, WFH…….

Cheers,

Vijay Srinivasan

3rd May 2020

How to make drivers stupid?

My observation of driving in a developed country like Singapore is that roughly half the drivers on the road do not understand defensive driving. What do I mean by defensive driving (there is no such concept in India, I am 100% sure!)? It is the careful steering on the roads, even when the traffic is light, not jumping lanes and indulging in sudden acceleration or deceleration, following all the traffic signs, not beating the traffic lights, and in general it means cautious driving to avoid any kind of even minor accidents. Defensive driving means that you do not speed up or beat the speed limit, and you are very, very careful at pedestrian crossings.

So, consider half of those drivers on the road who violate most of these principles of defensive driving. Add GPS-based driving habit, add new drivers who just got their licenses, add app-based car drivers who drive to pick up customers for the first time in their lives and so very much dependent on what the Google Maps tell them to do………there you have a combined mix of stupid drivers (not all of them, of course) trying to figure out their way on the roads. Given that they do not understand defensive driving as well, the other defensive drivers (the well-mannered, courteous ones I mean) are in for some trouble – may be some rough rides, I guess?

Singapore driving conditions are not bad, except when the rains are intense. However, the above-described set of drivers combined with some speeding delivery vans and heavy vehicles bearing down on your lane, leads to some scary situations. The only thing which will help you is defensive driving. It was difficult for me to let go of other stupid drivers at first. I was also not happy with those traffic violators who beat me from the left side when two lanes are merging and you are supposed to go single file. I was totally unhappy (and still I am) of those high-speed motorcycle riders (mostly from Malaysia) who weave their way in between two high-speed lanes on the expressways. Sometimes, I have no choice but to accelerate to avoid potential accidents.

Coming to the matter of GPS, all drivers have now becomes slaves of GPS-driven driving! I can rightfully claim that I know most of Singapore, and I used to drive around in the Nineties with just a printed map book. No problem, except that sometimes it would be best to have a navigator to help one drive! On most occasions those days, I had to pull into a bus stop and check the map before proceeding. The advantage of that kind of driving is that you actually learn the topography of a specific locality with a clear idea of how to reach that locality from your own place.

With GPS, you just obey its orders. Google has perfected the art of making slaves out of normal folks, who just turn left or right or drive straight ahead based on what Google Maps instructs them to do. Even while walking, we follow what Google Maps tells us to do. Are we not slaves in a sense now?

The downside of such instruction-based behaviour is that it avoids thinking on the driver’s side – there is hardly any need to think, or even be environment-sensitive as the driving is guided mostly by Google. There is no “alternate” route, though I have taken a route which I know for sure will lead to my destination quicker, and Google Maps will then adjust its guidance to the new route dictated by me. Many a time, I have been puzzled by its guidance towards taking a longer route when there is a more straightforward route which exists.

After driving now for many years under the eminent instruction-based driving guidance of Google Maps, I have come to the conclusion that I could simply dismiss it whenever I wish. That is because I want to enjoy the driving and the environment around me while listening to some good old songs on Spotify, rather than getting interrupted every 30 seconds by a metallic voice on the road navigation.

But then, I am always interrupted by the stupid set of drivers that I talked about earlier – I have to continuously watch all my three mirrors all the time for funny drivers who do not give two hoots about defensive driving methodology, even for ensuring their own safety. The newly minted drivers are surprisingly more careful, knowing full well the tough Singapore traffic regulations, having just passed out of the driving test where defensive driving is assessed. The more experienced drivers with a few years of driving are the ones who throw caution to the winds as they think they can beat the odds and get to where they wish to go.

They better be not so sure always.

With the high speed possible on expressways (speed limit in Singapore is 90 KMPH, which is mostly violated by car drivers who easily cross 100, and by motorcycle drivers who cross 110 most of the time), it is imperative that good driving manners devoid of the stupidity which is inherent in at least half of the drivers, are adopted forthwith. The number of speed cameras need to be increased, and the number of speed breakers also need to be increased.

All this is despite being one of the most regulated traffic that you could see anywhere in the world! Traffic violators are punished with hefty fines and / or demerit points – everything happens automatically: you will hardly see a policeman or policewoman on the roads!

Follow the edict of defensive driving folks,

Have a great week ahead,

Cheers,

Vijay Srinivasan

22nd December 2019

Public Transport

Singapore has an outstanding public transportation system, only rivalled by Tokyo. I would have also mentioned Hong Kong in parallel but for the current mess plaguing that city, disrupting its famous MTR system.

There is, of course, no city in India which can compete with Singapore on public transportation. I have to also mention that the U.S. is no great shake when it comes to really “public” transportation, as car remains the primary mode of personal transport, and as they say in the U.S. – “without a car, you’re dead”.

I drive in Singapore, but I also occasionally use public transport, such as the bus or MRT train (same as Hong Kong’s MTR and Tokyo’s huge, very extensive subway system). My use mostly is for the purpose of going into the CBD, or Central Business District, which has an entry charge for cars driving in, compounded by big parking charges. If one uses public transport, the % saving is quite substantial, so it is just common sense to use public transport, unless one’s place of regular work is located within the CBD, in which case one would be using monthly or quarterly parking deals, but still paying for both high way tolls and CBD entry charges, depending on the time of travel.

Baffling at first sight, right? It was like that for me as well, but then over the years I got used to it. Many regulations control vehicular traffic in Singapore, not unlike most developed nations. However, the uniqueness of Singapore’s traffic rules lies in its implicit drive towards moving the car drivers to gradually adopt public transport, by hitting them where it hurts most – their wallets.

A stringent, demand and supply driven system controls the car population on Singapore roads by a monthly auction mechanism which is complex for outsiders to grasp. Combined with a high customs duty, the auction system makes cars the most expensive in the entire world. The whole idea of the government seems to be to move drivers towards public transportation.

In my case, apart from my use of public transport to get to meetings in the CBD area, I also built up a new kind of rationale: the public transport experience accords to me the “feel” of the local population and how they move about or behave. I do not use my mobile phone on public transport, unlike more than 90% of other users who appear to be fixated on their phone screens, mostly watching videos. I think that phone use should be private and I should not permit others to view what I am up to; more than privacy issues, I grasp the opportunity to observe the environment and the people around me. And what I witness informs me a lot to derive meaningful opinions about the world of Singapore.

The clean, prompt and efficient public transport system in Singapore has never ceased to amaze me. The buses are air-conditioned and absolutely clean. Passengers cannot consume food or drinks. The buses run like clockwork and almost accurate to the minute.

I do believe that Indian cities have a lot to learn from the 35 years of Singapore’s experience in developing and running a world-class transport system. The West is on a decline when it comes to infrastructure maintenance and investment. The East is on the ascendancy.

Have a good weekend folks,

Cheers,

Vijay Srinivasan

16th November 2019

Enjoying Public Transport

I am still driving my socialist car as though it were a Porsche or at least like a BMW or Mercedes Benz. There is no harm in that because almost all cars on the road behave in the same way in a traffic-clogged city, irrespective of the specifications of the car – whether high-end sports car or mid-range socialist car, right?

In Singapore, most cars behave in a specific manner, due to very tough law enforcement mechanism and severe punishments meted out in a consistent way. So it does not matter what car you drive.

Of late, I have started using public transport systems which are of high quality in Singapore, as most of you know. Whenever there seems to be high parking charges imposed (especially in the CBD, or Central Business District area), I tend to reconsider my options, weighing convenience against cost effectiveness. Most times, convenience wins hands down, but there are days and occasions when using public transport makes eminent sense. For example, I use public bus to reach my gym on weekdays as the parking is expensive and bus costs less than one-third of the parking cost, whereas during weekends, driving is a better option as the parking cost is similar to the bus cost, and the car allows me to buy a few things and bring back to home. Driving into CBD during weekdays is definitely not a good idea as apart from the exorbitant parking rates, there is an ERP (Electronic Road Pricing) charge to enter the CBD which varies depending on the time of the day.

Recently, I used a combination of bus and MRT subway system, which facilitated reaching the heart of the CBD in less than 40 min at a low cost. Then I started wondering – why do people still want to stick to their cars instead of enjoying the air-conditioned travel comfort in public transport. Apart from the comfort and timeliness, the other thing is the lack of traffic congestion on the MRT except, of course, of the commuters themselves who clog the stations in big numbers right through the day, more so during the peak hours.

One thing that I really enjoyed is watching the commuters and their behaviour without being obtrusive. 90% of the folks were totally fixated on their smartphones, many watching TV serials or videos, others reading news, etc., There was hardly any conversations going on, except amongst school going children and teenagers who mostly giggled about something. I expected at least some love birds, but I hardly saw anyone. This experience told me that Singaporean public transport commuters do not use the “public” opportunity to seek out potential new partners or business associates. They appear to be living a solo life in their own respective glass bubble, with hardly any interaction with other strangers. In fact, I noticed some couples did not even engage in any talk, but once they settled in, almost immediately whipped out their respective smartphones and started doing their own thing.

I noticed that government education on public orderliness has percolated and embedded itself in the psyche of people so much, that they always form a neat queue on either side of the opening doors of the MRT coaches, and try not to get pushed in as happens in Hong Kong or Mumbai.

Well, what I can say is that you save enough money in a five day week to have more than couple of meals if you use public transport as compared to driving and parking your own car. Though I sometimes wish to give up my car for good, the convenience factor nags me – I have to walk only 5 minutes to the bus stop right outside my condo, but have to walk some 12 minutes to the nearest MRT station. I have to wait for the bus, or use the several bus apps to plan the departure from my home to sync with specific bus arrival. And so on, and so forth. I was thinking today that such precise timings and definitions would have hardly mattered in India, for example, but in a developed country, our sensitivity goes up! We become extremely time conscious and want to plan our journey to the very last minute!!

However, in a nutshell, I have started enjoying at least the little bit of public transport that I am using. I wish the bus driver when I board the bus, and mostly the drivers respond with a big smile, as it is very apparent that no commuter bothers about the driver. Drivers of public transport in Singapore are not used to greetings coming from passengers, it appears! Everytime I get into a taxi, I greet the driver with his name as the app shows his name, and almost everytime I get warmth back. For me it is not unusual way of operating, but for the driver it is an unusual experience, a pleasant one to be greeted from out of the blue. Many a time, a suitably warmed up driver is a better alternative as he or she engages in small talk afterward which is a good experience.

So, here I go – for my next ride using public transport, which for me involves a fair bit of sociology reading as well, apart from getting to my destination on time!

Cheers, and have a great week ahead folks,

Vijay Srinivasan

24th February 2019