Programmed to Fail

10-May-2020 / Food for Thought:

Please consider these three things:

(1) We, in our country, have a so called very efficient system of governance which is programmed to fail. Some won’t like it, so they are indifferent towards it. Some will simply reject it. Some work overtime to see it fail, so that they can blame the govt. There are still some who half-heartedly carry out without any seriousness. So the result is anybody’s guess.

(2) We are very proficient in post-event analysis. We do a lot of research why this failed, why that went wrong. Very rarely we plan for success. And even if we do the above item no.1 happens.

(3) Convergence: We never work in unison, or to say for a common goal. All the Govt Departments / independent entities / groups / bodies have their own set of goals, which rarely converge. And even at times goals clash with one another. Here’s a classic example: A couple of years ago, when the GoI decided to launch bank FDs for Senior Citizens with an RoI @8% pa, no banks came forward. They said it is not viable. Later LIC of India took up with their own tenets.

If we have developed since independence, it’s not because of the system but in spite of it. We have fortunately a select set of individuals who carry forward the nation against heavy odds.

In A Lighter Note

26-Apr-2020 / In a Lighter Note:

What is a Musk Melon?

Musk Melon or Muskmelon, also known by its scientific name, Cucumis melo, is a type of melon fruit that belongs to the same family as pumpkins, squash, zucchini and cucumbers.

Now let's have some fun: just reverse the positions of the two words. Then remove the 'M' from the first word (after reversal). What did you get? Did it surprise you?

A great, highly successful and billionaire innovator, entrepreneur, motivator. 

Significant Digits

Things to Contemplate on 22-Dec-2019:

Saw a news headline about a trader got a GST reminder to pay Rs. 5.9858630140000004 due asap. Look at the ridicule- and let me explain: We Indians tend to do things which will complicate the existing pattern, thinking that it shows the genius, intellect of the person who does it. But needless to say it is pointless to be so accurate in the context. It may be pertinent to be very accurate in Rocket Science or Astronomical calculations, but silly for a person to pay that amount. We have very disproportional concept of accuracy. Many of us have heard of “Margin of Errors” or “Total Significant Digits” which will help in understanding why it’s nonsensical or farcical.

A small set of examples may be worth mentioning:

• For Accounting: no places of decimal, ex.- 23,76,548
• For measuring Height / Weight: 1 place of decimal, ex.- 171.1 cm / 68.3 kg
• For Rupee & Paise: 2 places of decimal, ex.- 23.82
• For expressing Total Units held in MF: 3 places of decimal, ex.- 879.354
• For expressing NAV in MF: 4 places of decimal, ex.- 15.4793
• For Forex conversion: 5 places of decimal, ex.- 71.62783
• For Dividend Declaration in MF: 6 places of decimal, ex.- 2.987654

These figures are conventionally expressed in these ways, but if someone says he is 175.456789 cm tall and weighs 74.98674 kg - it looks and sounds ridiculous.

A word about the “Total Significant Digits”: The bigger the number is, the less numbers appear after decimal. Ex.- Rs. 46.55 makes some meaning- say the price of any article, but Rs. 45,56,765.43 is meaningless- say the annual income of a small company, because 43 paise is insignificant at 45.5 Lakh odd rupees. Similarly for a Crore a few rupees are insignificant. The Total Significant Digits refer to the number of continuous digits before and after a zero- in this case we have 8 significant digits. The general norm is 5 or 7 significant digits Like 234.45, 2,344.5, 23,445, or 2,34,450 and so on.

Google Mail ID

15-Sep-2019: Food for Thought

Do you know that the GMAIL ID is NOT unique- what it means is the same ID can be shared by several people. You may wonder HOW?

Let me explain: If a Gmail ID is abcdef@..., and if you place a dot [.] anywhere in between, then for Google it will mean the same person. But hold on for a moment- the reverse is not true. If some other person registers an ID like abc.def@..., then it will be accepted and both will get the mail meant for either. In the first instance, putting a dot will not make the existing email different, but while registering the Gmail will think they are different and hence registers the ID.

And both the persons will be able to have their own ID only separated by the respective passwords. Think it, try it. Sometimes I wonder how a big & renowned eMail provider does this.