Building Quality into an Education System

Education will be a key concern of many a parent as far as children are concerned but more than often parents make wrong decisions about education to the discouragement of the child and a possibilty of parent-child coflict at home. Very often the child is at the receiving end sometimes for the right reasons and sometimes not.

To the scourge of our educational system it may be pointed out that the education system per-se treats its receipients using a microscopic view of educaion in particular and life itself in general. That, we base our people decisions in Business organizations to a large extent to educational indices is fine but not completely incongruous. Well using such a format creates a system which might be working well but there is need to investigate if anything is amiss.

Many things are defanitely amiss if QUALITY is not maintained by an Educational enterprise. The fundamental mistake many time parents do with the process of education is to go with the brand of an institute- how foolhardy. Just because an institution is in existence for many many decades it must be good is the premise and this need not be true. Students simply drag on through these enterprises and get the education of experience and not the education of learning that they so eagerly desire. They might be better and skewed when they come out of the enterprise but have missed many things- they know: they feel: they comprehend and the dissappointment can last a generation.

How then can Quality be built into an educational process and what is quality? What is quality is largely what the student talks about the institute when he is out of it. What he talks depends on what he was looking for. But the index in all such situations is not the performing student but the student of an average kind who was not so good or not so bad but had crystal clear and lofty intentions from the institute and the question is Were they met! The average student is also called the reasonable individual and he is not highly motivated for anything but learning and is characterized by an above average attendance to the classes; good conduct and is in right company during his stay in the institute. The fact of the matter is that if an educational enterprise does not maintain and stand for quality it becomes a teaching shop and many a mediocre student will walk with laurels that he simply didnt deserve- he knows it very much to the possible dismay of the many who were and could have been the right choice. The system of education must always study the man it portrays to be its best and there could be nothing partisan or unequivocal.

No educational system anywhere in the world is of quality or strives to be so if it does not let students evaluate the faculty however erudite or qualified; I have seen serious confusion and mis direction on this front. The process of evaluation must be simple with possibility of one comment and the result says it all. The biggest mistake any educational institution however exalted does is not to have a semi-formal procedure for this purpose.The procedure can be dichotomous or trichotomous in its execution. Dichotomous means asking the student through a poll if the faculty is GOOD or BAD and adding a trichotomous would be to add an AVERAGE in between. This poll must be essentially conducted at the end of a session and not anytime in between the session. Student needs to study a faculty weeks together to get a right opinion. To prevent any form of manipulation in these procedures this test must be undertaken all of a sudden and with little or no prior intimation. Teaching and its various forms is the figure of an institute and it must be set right before anything else is attempted at. Whayt do we do with people who fail this test. Send and try the faculty at Administration and never ever let him in front of students. This rule must be followed as much as the situation permits.

The next step in the acievement of Quality is the so called Ground of the institute. Ground means the setting. The biggest problem in the setting of institutes is Co-education because it largely veers the imagination of students into not so imminent kind. If we could do away with co-education many of the ill on the floor of educational enterprises can be done away with. But the demand for education is so high such an approach would be far from practical and a co-educational institute must form the right kind of ground rules in the way the educational enterprise functions. For example full fledged uniform for men and women and at the same time strict rules regarding acculturisation and seating in the classes.

To make the ground well tuned the educational institute must be designed with some professional principles. It must have a garden and all the paraphrenalia that goes with education well placed and oriented. If proper planning is not done on this front adhocism will result which in turn creates confusion in the human populace. With appropriate effort a person must be able to move from one entity in the institute to another.

To make the ground progressive and give students the right verve in life all educational establishments must have a vision ; mission and operational statements. Nothing motivates any human being better than leadership. With a proper V M O statements the organization becomes well oriented and motivating. I have personally studied the vision and mission statements of various institutes and find them wanting in their fundamental content and context. These statements must have the capacity to fundamentally lead the student. They should be by the student; for the student and of the student.

The ground of an institute must be aligned vis-a-vis evaluation procedures. How to evaluate students ? It is in this context that a major confusion exhibits itself. Note that this question can best be answered by figure of the institute namely the teaching. If a faculty does not teach to the satisfaction of the student his evaluation is also likely to be erroneous. Assuming that the academician is doing a well informed job he must be given the autonomy of choosing his own methods of student evaluation and this procedure should not be questioned by administrative authorities by and large. The procedure must not only be fair but also must have subjective and objective content.

There is no doubt that the ground of an educational institute is better strengthened by high qualification and experience profile of its various staff and also the correct creation of organizational structures and designations. It is a collosal mistake if faculty are promoted solely based on qualifications and it must be a judicious combination of qualification, experience and the ability to teach. Acadamecians must concentrate on obtaining higher qualifications largely through a non-time bound procedure than strictly from a time bound one. But the greatest hindrance in creation of a good ground is the promotion of faculty based on academic qualifications alone to the exclusion of many other skills. This creates a wooden and non flexible structure to the disadvantage of the basic activity that builds spirit into the institution namely the teaching process. The economic heads of institutions where ever feasible must take multiple indices into account in their compensation procedures; age being one of them and so also the ability to teach and the academic and experiential components. Faculty must attend conferences too during the course of the year to get inputs on upcomig sectors and also the systems and procedures adopted by other institutes. I beleive at the end of the day any professor who is consistently performing as a teacher should never be designated and treated as anything below a Assistant Professor if not slightly more and this is the worst cut of all to the process of education and its stake holders.

The ground of an institute is propped by better IT infrastructure with control on its use and so is the high behavioral standards for all ; namely the students staff and support staff.

Together I think the world must look for creating the right kind of educational set-ups and systems for the many generations who would invariably embark upon the education process and remember as I read some where Education is for life and not just a passport to some kind of living.

LAYOUT FOR BMTC BUSES AT BUS-STOPS

BMTC would gradually become a key mode of transportation for the populace of Bangalore. How the growth of METRO (Namma Metro) would influence BMTC is to be seen. The services of BMTC is by and large good and professional but needs improvement during peak hours where responsiveness of the entire network is put to a test on a routine basis.

What should be the aim of BMTC ? Basically it must be two fold. One; no commuter must wait more than five minutes at any bus stop for a bus. He may not get a bus precisely to his destination but must get one that takes him logically to a nearest node from where he must get a connection bus. Two; he must get a seat in the bus to sit down within five minutes; This means zero standing in the buses as much as possible. Well these might be ideals but this is where the system should strive. Bangalore unlike or like many other cities has tremendous collective potential that can be unlocked in many ways.

I find basic indispline at the bus stops itself with the drivers of buses not very clear where to stop the bus at a bus stop. More than often more than one bus vy for a parking slot with commuters being confused in the bus stops. This needs to be managed. Some times BMTC buses try to over take each other at the bus stops.

This situation can be managed forthwith if lay-outs are drawn at the bus stops for three buses to park themselves at one time in a queueing fashion which means buses have to invariably move into the slots marked for them at the bus stops which would clearly create parking boundaries for the BMTC buses on the roads and commuters know precisely where the buses are likely to halt themselves; I think this discipline is long over due at most bus stops of the city.

The traffic police of the city are doing great service; but traffic jams need management. A proper statistical study must be conducted to identify the pattern of traffic jams and the places where they occur; the time of the day when they occur; reasons for occurrence; days in the week when the traffic jams are due and possible suggestions of some simple solutions that can be implemented and also long term remedies.Some kind of proactive remedies must be undertaken to manage jams.

B School student and choice of mid-term summer internship

A very important aspect of B school training is the "summer placement" also termed as "mid term placement" and is a unique aspect of a Business school.

What is the purpose of summer internship? The basic purpose is to withdraw a student temporarily from the class room format into an open learning format of an organization. During his or her short duration within an organization he gets a feel of the practical aspects of an organization in relation to the class room inputs during the first year of training. The student is expected to make a report of the training along with a certification from the organization to which he had been attatched.

One of the key espects of internship is that it generally ahould follow the following principles so to say for internship to be truly fruitful. When a student chooses summer internship he should do so with an open mind meaning;

• place open
• organization open
• specialization open
• methodology open

A student seeking internship should generally not have geographical fixation which means that I will only do internship at a particular place. It can technically mean anywhere around the country. Geographical fixation can be a characteristic of final placement and makes sense but not during summer internship. The best summer internships have been done by students from a place or town to which they were totally new and the experience so obtained is rewarding for all time.

Summer internship must be "organization open " which means the student must be willing to work in any kind of business organization. It could be retail; cargo;manufacturing; supply chain;banking; insurance etc as each of these sectors by itself can give a learning experience of a special kind to the student. In the present world it is an asset to work and get experience and learning from across various enterprises and the learning is priceless and applicable to situations in the future.

Summer internship must be " specialization open". There is and should not be a relation between the specialization what a student is likely to take and choice of internship. In fact the choice of final specialization is best done after the course of internship.It may not be the best of approaches to say that I would do work only in a specific area like marketing; this is counter productive. Be open to work and get exposure into various sectors of an organization.

And finally summer internship must be "methodology open" which means that the process of internship need not be tied-down across the board to any particular format and the methodology can be changed en course if need be. What this really means is that the frame work of training need not be rigid. What starts as a training on a rotational basic can be discontinued en-course if need be and made into a focus mode. Even if the training is of a rotational kind the duration of training in the various departments can be modified if need be.

Student must have a precise idea of what is expected of them during internship and the truth of the matter is nothing much. At a basic level spend eight hours every day watching the various activities of the organization. Also do not expect to be placed in the organization where you do internship and never show any inclination what so ever. It rarely turns into reality. You need not go overboard to do any tough work and prove your self. Summer Internship is not a platform towards this end.

Making the final report of the training can be better managed if the student types one page a day into a MS Word file about the activities on a daily basis. At the end of training this will turn out to be roughly 50 pages of written matter. Once you complete training on-site edit the text and create a front end and a back end. Front-end is you make a detailed description of the organization and the industry. In the back-end include findings of the study and conclusions. Use matter from the internet wherever feasible. Edit the final report in the final form in the way the institute to which you are attached would like to see it and interact with your faculty supervisor to achieve this end.

A word of request to organizations. Make use of your interns purposefully and your most important task is to watch them and not use them. Always treat them with the respect due and note that if you can leave a good impression in the mind of trainees you have possibly found a very ardent future employee. When the student finishes the training give an un-obtrusive and un-offensive feed back of what the person is all about and that would make a world of difference.

Finally, students should note that finding internship is not a difficult task. Enable yourself on this activity during the last month of your second semester and write and meet atleast ten organizations and lo you will find that you have atleast more than one internship to choose from.

Placement; Re-placement; Mis-placement and Mal-placement of a B School product

"Placement" is one of the key concerns of students of B Schools and other professional schools and not without reason not only in India but around the world. B schools strive to give student an apt placement and students themselves do their best to get placed through their institutions or on their own. But note that there is a lot of difference between finding a job and being placed.The fundamental difference being that an educated and professional person is placed and has to be concerned about being placed and a person who does not have formal education or more than anything a professional education finds a job and there is a wide difference when translated into reality.

To come straight to the point; How can a B school product be placed well and what does that entail. Note that working career is a key component of life and influences the economic and psychological well-being of a person in the long term. A mid-career blue is when a person at a fairly advanced stage in life is yet to find something he can do and do well on a continuous basis.To overcome such a situation is a difficult and straining activity and students must start on the right note to be placed in a niche groove and dimension wherefrom he can derive long term benifits and at the same time diversify into related areas on demand. The modern day business world is poised to develop into a more formidable employer with time and there could be many companies started and operated from around the world in the years to come.

To be placed well somewhere follow the following guidelines;

= At a B school do not be worried about placement during the first year of study but build a fairly strong academic base on the various subjects studied.

=At the end of the first year take a good stock of your skills and abilities as they become evident from academic performances and choose specializations around areas of strength.

= Build skills around these areas of speializations and have a fair exposure of cases in your chosen field of specializations.

= Attend all interviews as a matter of experience with an open mind. If rejected by any organization there is nothing to be diassappointed about; your skills have market value.

= It is the job of interviewers to do a very well informed and thorough and professional job about the recruiting process. They should send people who have vast years of experience and maturity.

= When made offers please clarify with the interviewing team about the location; package and the nature of work and training. Do not accept offers instantly. Always take some time to evaluate the offer and respond.

= Study the web site of the company; evaluate the professionalism of the interviewers and talk to atleast two present employees about the general state of affairs of the organization.At any stage you find the organization is not good think twice before joining the place.

=Always bargain for the correct kind of designation otherwise you will find yourself in a lop-sided situation. If you have two years of experience before your B school course always ensure you get the right kind of designation vis-a-vis your experience.

= Never pretend during the interviewing process of any skills or abilities you do not possess. This can lead to serious difficulties in the future.

= When young volunteer to go and stay in far-off places. Such experiences can be of help in the future. Do not always follow the home-town syndrome.

Placement is a matter of trial and error and is iterative in nature over a period of time. This means you start around some logical point and improve upon it over time by capitalizing on your skills and more than anything your strengths.

What is mis-placement ? Student had taken both Marketing and HR and appeared for both the interviews on these streams; The student liked HR more than Marketing but landed at a Marketing job and gets to know over a period of time that he would have enjoyed HR better and is struggling to take a lateral shift. Here there is likelihood of a long term crisis.

What is Replacement? Student did not do proper research and landed up on some vocation and understands there is an immediate crisis arising from cost-of-living issues or cultural issues and needs to be replaced on an urgent basis. Re-placement is worse than mis-placement. It is a short term crisis.

What is Mal-placement? This is a situation where the employer has to be blamed. He appoints the son of his friend who has just passed out of B School on some job to the detriment of both the lad and the organization. Getting into some position using influence-- a very dangerous thing but very much in vogue across the world. The pay is good and the environs are right but the lad simply does not perform from the huge responsibility shouldered on him leading to various conflicts.

The answer to all these situations is care ; preparation; self-profiling and astute understanding so that B school students build a long term career adding value both to themselves and the organizations they work for ,and the economy of the nation in the larger context.

Re-Manufacturing as an option in modern Production and Operations

I happenned to be a participant at a seminar on "Remanufacturing" conducted by CII(Confederation of Indian Industry) at Hotel Leela Kempinsky in Bangalore some where in the year 2010. Ganesh Iyer the ceo of Caterpillar gave a spirited talk on "Remanufacturing" and ever since I have been enamoured by the various possibilities such an approach should throw up in a resource constrained world.

What is Re-manufacturing ? The answer some where is simple. Take a 20 year old vehicle and re-manufacture and transform it into a new one and it should work for another 20 years as a new one. This activity must be taken seriously by manufacturers because some-where hidden in this concept is the ability to manufacture low cost products of tommorrow.

Across the board and across all product sectors we come across products at the end of the product life cycle with increased maintenance and operating costs with an inherent in-ability to perform; but the truth of the matter is that barring few components the rest of the product is in-tact. Take a car- the engine life is much much larger than the life span of few other components that might be inhibiting the proper function of the car. Note that it needs large scale effort to make an engine and to render the car as "unfit" for further use shrouds within itself large-scale and mind-less waste and some kind or pernicious disregard of various resources and capabilities that went into manufacture the product or car or whatever it might be.

The globe can be linked through re-manufacturing; the fact of the matter being that this concept may be irrelevant for certain classes of products and societies which is understood but a re-manufactured and re-configured product would defanitely have use some where in the world. The common man can contribute to remanufacturing by possibly sending back a product back to a re-manufacturing facility. All that is the need of the hour is understanding the importance of re-manufacturing both at a producer and user levels.

Re-manufacturing needs advanced engineering. I feel manufacturing needs engineering and re-manufacturing needs advanced engineering. Manufacturing happens as a matter of habit and flow in a conventional methodology with minimum deviation and you get a standard by-product from a system that gives scope for minimum and predictable quality problems; On the other hand re-manufacturing gives un-predictable situations and taking a used product studying what is weak and giving fool-proof solutions and making the product work is truly Engineering and a task which society at large must be thankful for the large scale less conspicious saving that happens through this effort which would run into millions of dollars when embarked around the world. The environment and sanity would be thanful to mankind that human beings are truly evolving in the right way and inventing methodiologies of conservation and use to the benifit of man-kind. Let us identify ten approaches that could make re-manufacturing a success;

1. Every individual must take into cognizance the effort needed to manufacture a product, all the time ;energy and manpower.
2. Theoretically all products can be remanufactured.
3. Before throwing away a used product ponder its possible re-use by some one and clearly brief him about the problems to be overcome.
4. Like we have the word servicing it is time we recognize rhe word "Remanufacturing" too around the world.
5. Equipment manufacturers should create re-manufacturing facilities.
6. There should be wide-spread research on re-manufacturing- its unique problems, challenges and constraints.
7. Re-manufacturing must be made a cost-effective proposition.
8. Re-manufacturing should cut across brands that originally made the product.
9. Re-manufactured products must be put though stringent quality and reliability tests.
10. Universities must incorporate Re-Manufacturing as part of their sylabbi to create awareness of its vast potential and possibilities and the realities that are likely to unfold in the economy of the globalized generation.

Telephones and Telecommunications in Bangalore City

I happenned spend my childhood near a major Telecommunication giant in ITI but the telecommunication scenario in Bangalore was as good or bad as any city in India of that time. Having a telephone at home was a matter of great prestige and only very few had it- less than a hand full. To get a telephone one had to wait years on years so much so that no one applied for one until he had some very pressing reason. Iam talking of the era between 1970 and 1985.

In the entire area of Durvaninagar I think the Panchayat chairman by name Sreenivasa Reddy had a phone with number 58702. Even he could manage a telephone only in 1982 or so or may-be slightly earlier. When I was at Calicut I used to very rarely call up this number and send message to my home. The sons of Mr. Srinivasa Reddy by name Raja and Babu were kind enough to come all the way and inform my father or mother - and Iam thankful today for the trouble they used to take. Note that strowger exchanges were the order of the day making it impossible to expand the telephone system beyond few connections.

Things began to change unexpectedly and drastically in the early 1990's and during the era of Shri Rajiv Gandhi. Sam Pitroda and his organization called C-DOT made sweeping cjhanges on the telecommunications horizon of India overnight forcing the country to shed its tag of a developing economy to atleast a quasi-developed one and the city of Bangalore has gone through these stages and adjusted to them very fast. What c-dot possibly did was to create electronic exchanges and with that exploded telephone connections to the surprise and surmise of all around. Every single nook and corner of Durvaninagar has a telephone connection and land-lines have become a thing of the past and might be getting fast discarded for mobile and wire-less telephony.

The interesting juncture in this metamorphosis would be the year 1997 when both the internet and Mobile telephony made in-roads almost at the same time or simultaneously. The mobile companies to start with were JT Mobiles and Spice telecom. A call from a mobile of that time was costly by any standards - around eight rupees for one call. Gradually companies like Airtel and many others hold sway over telecom all over India and Bangalore. The chaotic growth of Bangalore over the past decade can be attributed to the growth of Mobile telephony.

Compared to what it was......Telecommunications should be anything but world-class today in Bangalore and possibly sets standards for the world. Anywhere you find a coin booth from where one could make a call to any land-line or mobile anywhere around the world for a few coins. This developing country of one time must have developed and grown very fast when the world was asleep and its own constituents like me aghast at the churn; growth and change a swift and virulent pull which might make many cities and communities follow suit.

The Pondicherry Central University at Kalapet Pondicherry (Puducherry)

I was associated with the PCU for some time in my life and I find it worth mentioning. PCU called Pondicherry Central University is an university operated by the central Govt in the union territory of Pondicherry. I did a masters degree in Management from this university.

Firstly, something about Pondicherry. Pondicherry today has an official name Puducherry and is around 8hrs journey from Bangalore through Tiruvannamalai. Pondicherry must be three hours drive from Chennai/Madras on the East Coast Road. Mahe a place presently in Kerala also comes under the fold of Pondicherry and was basically a french territory all along until independence.

I did a Masters degree from the Pondicherry University and my good experience with the University is worth mentioning. I found the university new fangled and the educational processes adequately challenging. The Masters program was a two year program with assignments and contact classes. I wrote the first year exam at the university itself and the second year exam at the community college in lawpet.


The general ambience of this university is genuinely fascinating and is on the sea-shore at a place called kalapet from the Pondicherry town. The evaluation of the exams were done very professionally and any student would be delighted at the good work of the University. I could not attend my convocation in person and accepted the degree from the University in absentia. As a aluminus of this organization I would recommend the same to any aspiring student eager to get some good education and I sincerely hope the university continues to do its good work as ever.

Something about Pondicherry town. I found it a fairly refined place. There are many hotels in the vicinity of the bus stand; many of them not so good and some of them worth a stay and any traveller to this place must make the choice carefully. For Rs. 300/- some good hotels are handy round some corner. Food is avaliable cheap at many eat-outs and are worth trying for a few days. At the pondicherry bus stand itself there is a full fledged south indian restaurant. As mentioned earlier the University is 14 kms from this point and there are many city buses that ply from the town to the university and should take some 45 minutes.


 I found something very fascinating at the Pondicherry bus-stand ; a one rupee pen ( something like a one lakh rupee car). This pen caught my fancy and note that I wrote all my ten exams of the University using the One rupee pen and found to my assessment that using a one rupee pen I could write two examinations of three hours duration. India seems to set many standards for the world it appears. I have Parker pens and many other such higher end pens but the flow and writing satisfaction that this Pondicherry pen gave me was without parallel. I used to go searching for this pen for an ensuing exam at Pondicherry.

There is a Tsunami connection between me and Pondicherry. In 2004 December I was travelling towards the university to write an exam and has seen the sea from the bus barely 15 minutes before the tsunami. People were rushing helter-skelter and many of them rushing into the vast boundaries of the university in panic as a result of the tsunami. One of my examinations were re-scheduled on this count. Some people told me that water from the sea had rushed in-land. I could not believe this because I had no idea of a tsunami hither-to. It is only the following day when I went through the news papers I understood the enormity; gravity and the transnational nature of the tsunami. Note that water from the sea had travelled almost two kilometers inland at places close to the university marooning the main road and crushing through earthern barricades in the process. I was oblivious to all these as I was closetted within the exam hall unaware of the catastrophe around.

In 2006 I had visited pondicherry university again as a delegate of an International conference of SOM (society of operations Management) where I spoke about artificial intelligence. It was in December 2006 to be precise. The university had organized a demonstration of Yoga by the students of the University in the auditorium for about an hour and the display was truly awesome the least said. During the inaugural function of the conference I had the opportunity of interacting with Dr. Bhatnagar the vice-chancellor of the university at that time and Lt. General Madan Mohan Lakhera ( M M lakhera) the Hon. Lt. Governor of Pondicherry at that time. I stayed at the university guest house and my room mate during the conference being Dr. Anil Kumar of "College of Engineering Trivandrum". There was something mutual between Dr. Anil Kumar and myself we discovered; Mr. Devadas Menon now at IIT Madras who used to teach at NITC. I did meet Pankaj chandra the present director of IIM Bangalore at the conference and Prof. Devanath Tirupathi a senior faculty in of Operations Management at IIM Ahmedabad.

Pondicherry and its environs has created in me a small desire of serving as Lt. Governor of Pondicherry for few years some time in the future. I dont know what I will do from the post but definitely I could leave a mark on the polity and land-scape of this relatively small place that conferred on me a Masters Degree to joy and delight of my father.

MANAGING AND MAINTAINING ELECTRICAL NETWORKS IN INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS

I have always liked Electrical Engineering for various reasons and may be to a large extent to the complexity it involves and the wide variety of areas that come under its ambit and also because of the huge possibility and a never ending scope for increasing refinement in this area. Practically nothing works today without the aid of electrical power and also add to it the possibility of next generation cars and buses fuelled by electrical power through solar energy or what so ever. Electrical Engineering I have found is a complex science and to a large extent drawn directly from many principles of basic sciences. Modern day electronics and computers can be seen as some kindly of off-shoots of main stream Electrical Engineering.

Maintaining electrical networks can be a difficult and dangerous activity the least said and a preventive approach and also a pro-active approach must be adopted as against an approach of fire-fighting. Trouble shooting electrical networks is time consuming with minimum possibilities for short-cuts and temporary solutions and any mishap leading to irreversible consequences like fire and other damages. Maintaining electrical networks needs management and analysis to prevent crisis.

The glare; blur and confusion around Electrical maintenance need to be cleared in some form so that the entire activity can be seen from a simplistic view-point. Added to the confusion is that very often than not Electrical Maintenance involves trouble-shooting networks that were principally and initially fixed by some one with little or no traceability to the original designs and manuscripts. It needs years of experience and grooming to really put things in place and be a good trouble shooter of electrical problems in large and medium scale organizations.

In its simple form Electrical networks can be classified as three principal entities. The source; control system and the contrivance. In the best of electrical networks these three dimensions must be visible traceable and conspicuous both to regular maintainer and to one who is there out of spite and any other contrivance present be properly classified along lines. I think the clutter in the problems of maintenance is the inability to see a network from simplistic angles.

The source is the source of power. It could be a transformer in an AC system or a DC battery in a DC system. At the exit of any source is some kind of control system that protects the source which could be a fuse which is an un-bounded control system or a relay which is a bounded control system. Both of them act as switches on demand and add to it the manual switches that operate along the system. The final entity is the contrivance is the final device that uses the electrical power. I have found that learning electrical engineering at some level alone is inadequate to be good as a practitioner and some kind of an approach must be indoctrinated to the practitioner of maintenance. Maintenance problems can arise at all of these stages. I think a transformer can be seen as an control system because it acts as a barrier between two voltage levels ; Transformer is also a source and under what classification a transformer would fit depends on the location of the same vis-à-vis electrical networks. A transformer in the field would be some kind of a control system and a major transformer supplying power to an industrial set-up seen as a source.

Control systems as defined above though might differ from the fundamental principles as outlined in “control theories” today come in various forms and has a large involvement of electronics and power electronics. See the dynamic nature of Electrical Engineering. Today we have Power Electronics which is nothing but electronic devices that work under higher voltage levels. Next generation electronic systems used along side electrical systems would involve many kinds of IC’s and embedded systems. This approach could make maintenance both a simpler and complicated activity.

Managing Electrical Maintenance properly is a very significant activity and could reduce the occurrence of maintenance problems along electrical networks. Most maintenance problems occur from frivolous reasons so to say but a wrong judgment of the situation can lead to regret. A frivolous reason could be wrong setting of a relay to some weather related nuisance- tripping. Because of one small cause an entire manufacturing system is down leading to loss of an economic kind every second. Some of these problems cannot be explained by any as to why it occurred but one has to take solace in accepting them and preparing for their recurrence but this time with sure-shot solutions or taking preventive steps by predicting their recurrence. The heroes of electrical maintenance every where are fire-fighters as against the preventers. Such an approach can be dangerous the least said. Managing Maintenance could be creating a record of all problems of the past and the entire scope and spectrum of solutions tat came to the rescue of such situations and the ability to prevent and implement efficiently the key corner stone of Maintenance. The best maintained systems are the ones that have zero break down over a reasonable period of time and any break down that occurs were predicted -other wise maintenance is mindless, confusing and exasperating.

I find as a rule a majority of maintenance problems arise in the Control Entity as enumerated earlier. This is an important and possibly a generic rule of Maintenance. When there are problems the control entities associated with the system must be investigated first before any other entity is suspected. I have myself seen an absence of such an approach leading to huge economic losses to organizations in the form of unnecessarily replaced spare parts out of suspicion only to understand later that the problem arose out of some simple fault some where in the control sector. Maintenance training must be periodically accorded to staff from time to time where largely control devices like relays and breakers are dissected and all the constituents and their role understood by practitioners of maintenance from the ordinary maintenance technician to the chief engineer so that early on the right kind of components are suspected well in advance.

Out of conjecture I would put 60% of maintenance problems arise from the control entity; 30% from the contrivance and a 10% from the source. Such an approach would prevent panic in the event of a maintenance exigency.

Before I conclude to the aid of Maintenance practitioners around the world may I lay a ten point program so that Maintenance staff around the world could use to make maintenance and more so electrical maintenance is made a smooth and hassle free activity;

==Always understand the key skills of your people with regards to operational and working skills.

==Always maintain a log-book of past maintenance issues and especially with regards to preventive procedures need to be taken from time to time.

==Always keep relevant drawings handy. Scan the drawings and save them on the internet or the computer for reference and easy trouble shooting.

==Whenever preventive maintenance work is embarked upon ensure that all the key people needed are present and do not embark upon a preventive maintenance work without proper briefing and understanding of all the necessary tasks to be undertaken. Never let any staff go until the entire task is completed and the system charged and working for at least an hour.

==Always be careful when leave is sanctioned to staff involved in Maintenance especially the more skilled one’s. Ensure that the more skilled ones are paid well and better.

==Best maintenance people are more than anything good managers and get their people to perform from friendly persuasion.

==Always suspect control entities in the event of a break down. It could be a relay or even a simple switch.

==Exercise vigilance to ensure that there are no saboteurs who willfully damage the system or components.

==Never panic in the event of Maintenance problems. This is a sign of lack of experience or competence.

==Note that Maintenance especially of the electrical kind can be dangerous at times. If you know it – then do it. If you know it but cannot execute – then get it done. If you don’t know it with going in circles and cant get it done ----GET OUT OF ELECTRICAL MAINTENANCE FOR GOOD.

FINE-TUNING EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS

I have always held the activity of "education" close to my heart. In the modern world education is the panacea for all problems that social settings of the world face. Yet there is education and there is mal-education and it is probably difficult to differentiate between them. However education of some kind benefits society both at a personal level and at a collective level.

The problem of education and its limitations commence from the heterogeneity of the human input and its vagaries. Had human populace been identical in intellectual and moral configuration it would have been much easier to configure education for the collective; but this is not the case. The forces of education coerce people to conform into some pattern to the permanent exclusion of many other possibilities which is a negative aspect of education of modern times. Well; can we tide over such a malady- we should is the answer . But how? The focus must be invariably in the proper administration of education drawn from a wider perspective than just from some immediate objectives as seen by many. These problems are rampant around the world from the best B Schools around the world to the government primary school functioning from under a tree. This lack of synchronization is a perennial and persistent issue and would be of concern across centuries ahead.

To me Bill Gates is a classic case study of the ills and blessings of modern day education. It is very easy to say in the passing that he dropped out of Harvard. This indeed must have been a painful experience for him as well as his family. Harvard had to concede and call him back to confer a degree on him years after he became a distinguished person in his own right. What Harvard did with him whilst he was a student is un-clear but there is something amiss somewhere when a person of his intellectual caliber has to drop out of the system mid-way . May be more than a personal decision circumstances forced Bill out of the education system - it appears. Is our system of education around the world largely cut for the dullard and has it got no avenues for the intelligent. Has it no scope to accommodate stalwarts and possible pioneers? There must be many such people trapped in our education systems around the world with no help or succor forthcoming and the least no one understanding their predicament.

What are the ultimate aims of education? We better address this issue and question to some level of profundity. When the aims of education are singular—there arises the problem and the demands of conformance on the recipient as against many other possible factors that should run alongside and must be seen distinctly but are simply not. Let us try to crystallize some possible aims of education no matter what the level, must be adhered to and seen in the course of educational transactions;

• The main motto of education must be development of the individual

• Education must lead to psychological transformation

• ‘Education must help people to build a long term vision

• Education must build faith

• Educational procedures are a means to an end and not an end in itself

• Good teaching is the most important ingredient of education

• All education must have more than one purpose

• Education must instill a culture of collective work

• Education must lead to collective and self actualization

• No one must feel stifled or marginalized by any process of education

• Examinations are important but should not be the only decisive factor

• Character of a student is more important than any other parameter and must form part of evaluation procedures.

I have seen vision and mission statements developed and instilled by industrial organizations around the world – and very significantly so a post 20th century phenomenon. They are supposed to guide organizations and be the watch word that guides actions. Though they may not be followed but the very fact that they exist suffices in itself to provide some long term direction for organizations. All educational institutions must primarily develop lofty aims for

itself and display them conspicuously other wise all educational activities of that system are merely farcical and do not serve the purposes they simply are meant to both in the sort and long terms. I had visited SMU Singapore Management University some time back and was impressed by one of the statements displayed at the outset. It said “Education Re-defines Destiny”. Definitely something purposeful must be happening at this place.

I have always disliked the modern way of teaching which involves the use of lap-tops and presentations. Though it serves some purpose and aids the teaching process it inhibits right teaching and education. The fundamentals of education simply do not rest on such practices. The fundamentals of education are always fundamental and the fundamentals of the fundamentals of education are eternal and would not change for centuries and when educational systems constantly veer from these fundamentals educational systems have to be reviewed , examined and corrected. I feel that the greatest malady of education as it stands today is its focus on what a person cant do as against the focus on what a person can do. What a tragedy ? In spite of the best intentions the matter trickles down to such a situation; this is fundamentally that so many people who are self-educated do better sometimes in life than the university educated primarily because self education does not create such binds but self education has its larger limitations and ramifications. When I was studying law at NLSIU I used to like the traditional chalk and talk approach to teaching adopted by Mr. M P P Pillai who used to teach “Company Law”.

Educational systems must take a broader view of the individual and must not be a policing act. At various levels of education the apt approach must be undertaken. I am largely overwhelmed by the increasing and ever increasing costs of education ; There might be economic reasons for being so but there must be some ceiling and limiting factors so that such situations around the world do not go aghast; and some kind of an alternative educational options created that may not be over-bearing on the student.

Eeducational institutions worldwide have one balancing act to do - namely balance the requirements of education and the institution. If this focus for any reasons is lop sided or incorrectly drawn it results in mal-education the side-effects of which will be for-bearing on the individual at some future point of time. Educational systems must be an elastic system that can wax and wane within reasonable limits according to individual and collective demands and must not be a rigid plastic container where few force-fit themsekves into some kind of comfort and others feel stifled, miffed and resigned. It must have the composite ability to accomodate pretty well a wide set and spectrum of individual talent and psycologies.

In the ultimate analysis education revolves around three T's namely Transmission; Transaction and Transformation in that order and the most important end-result of education is "Transformation". Transformation can be for the good or for the worse and let the process of education around the world take a turn towards good for the good of education; the receipent the system and the institutions that are constantly involved in the educational process

FILM SHOOTING AT REC-NIT CALICUT IN 1983

When I was a student at NIT there was an attempt to shoot few scenes of a movie at our institute. What a confusion and flutter it created.

The movie was Kattathe Kilikoodu which was released during the same year. It was a malayalam film and had Mohanlal; Gopi and Revathy in its cast. They were basically looking for a class room session to be shot at our place. As the news about the proposed shooting spread many of my immediate senior students were the more enthusiastic ones keen on taking part. All that the movie team wanted was some thirty students in the class for the scene but nearly 200 of our boys landed up in right earnest to be students in the class. Many of them had a bath and put all the powder and make-up possible to look presentable and some of them already began to look like heroes with the extra make-up on their faces.

The director was amazed seeing the large crowd of prospective actors each vying with the other for a place in the hall- that too for a single scene. They had to call off the shooting of this scene on the day because of the melee and had the scene shot in the Providence women's college instead.

I think they shot a scene at the valley and I happened to recognise our valley when I got to see the movie myself.

THE FALLACY CALLED PER CAPITA INCOME IN A GLOBALIZED WORLD

The fallacy called Per Capita Income in the Globalized World

For long economists considered per capita income as the be all and end
all of a country's economy...but there must be some thing more to it in a human
perspective.

THE FALLACY CALLED PER CAPITA INCOME For long economists considered per capita income as the index of human development and a countries growth. GDP might be an index in that direction but in the globalized world the view of per-capita-income has to be changed. I have always beleived a single pivot evaluation of any economy is in-correct and mis-leading. Multiple indices must always be developed.For one the concept of per capita income is rooted in want and not in the setting of plenty. There can be startling exceptions under steady state of the economy. Per Capita income by itself is inappropriate in a knowledge economy. Per capita income was an appropriate index in the labour dominated organizations of yester years.

Just evaluating countries and economies on this basis is misleading.What then should be the index of measuring economies and their standing?Well it is important to understand that human beings are more human than a resource. A more broad based index must cover various aspects of human life and existence.

Firstly communities must be judged based on a relation ship index which largely revolves on the ability of various individuals to maintain the kind of relationships they are supposed to under normal circumstances and an example of that would be family relations. Any economy incessantly at strain on such issues can never be a developed economy leastly said. This would also encompass relationships at the work place and other social settings. Creating high relationship index is key to a better economy. Various societies vary in this context. Such an index tries to measure the level of conflict in social settings. Relationship has economic moorings; which means better the relations better the ability of communities to create and distribute wealth.

Secondly any community must be able to monitor the health index of its individuals not from the stand point of cure but from the intrinsic ability to avoid ill health. Ill health has its roots in wrong living simply said. The ability to mitigate the number of unwell people is key to a developed community. There are many fairly well to do communities in the world which may not be well off but well set on such fronts. The countries of the world which enjoy a high per capita income are not devoid of sick people of varying kinds. No particular reason can be attributed for such issues but adequate research must go in from time to time to evaluate overall causes for human being not fully well or totally unwell. Such instances on the rise increase costs and diverts attention which could have otherwise been put to constructive use.

Thirdly far from mere employment any society must be able to give its people occupations and not jobs. Income generated by individuals from vocations which they think need not have been fundamentally theirs is no income at all. Vocations must give a community psychic income to a large measure. People must not feel trapped in some form of vocation or occupation. There must be sufficient lateral ability for an individual to move to vocations that give him long term enrichment and development. This would mean many things. Constant innovations and definitions and creation of fresh oppurtunities of various kinds both by the state and individuals should be a top prerogative of planners and executioners of the economy.

Lastly any economy must have large scope for the creation and maintenance of micro enterprises as against the creation of large enterprises. The ability of so called developing economies to create and sustain such enterprises is what is making them note- worthy to the world. Micro enterprises may not have sustenance under several kinds of settings in the world. A large number of such enterprises spread over a vast geography has potential to contribute what an economy calls for. Through governmental lending or otherwise such enterprises must be encouraged and recognised. A country is not poor as long as the people see and feel the winds of policies breezing in the correct direction. A largely populous nation has one great asset---its people. Through collective actualization great economic results get begotten simply said. It is an explosive waiting to explode; larger the impact more inclusive of people it is. India has a country has seen in parts and in bits and peices such large scale development though lopsided in the recent past post globalization.That per capita income is a fallacy can be seen in the vague satisfaction that the so called developed economies of the world had for ages in the way such pointers inclined themselves to learn too late that the developing countries of the world were more developed than they previously thought.

The world must move away from one thing for sure and that is the treatment of humans at a fundamental level as a mere resource and any index so developed may have had relevance in the domains of the past and they need to look at humans as humans first and then as a resource. Conversely said any economic index must be able in toto to synchronise these two fractions in the best way possible. India as a country is criticised by the world for its infrastructure and roads. ( Even Jeffrey Immelt of GE did this on TV once though in the right tone and spirit) Progress is being seen on these sectors. In the final analysis it is not infrastructure or roads that singularly determine national progress. They form definitely a component but side-by-side many issues must be addressed to ensure that the indices of an economic kind that we humanity develop from time to time to meter our progress is not mis-inclined but covers all the domains it invariably has to.

YOGIC CURE FOR CANCER AND TUMOUR

There are various kinds of cancerous tumours today and is a veiled threat to human existence. This disease though cannot be eradicated can be cured through a combination of scientific and non-scientific methodologies. I have tried to study this disease and have found that yoga and pranic healing can help control this disease and increase longevity.

Any one who wants help can contact me for sessions in yogic and pranic healing for curing cancer.
subash at  sci@fastservice.com

THE SCOPE AND MEANING OF TRANSHIPMENT IN MODERN SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

Supply Chains and their Management will largely influence economies of the future. Note that the growth of Supply Chains will not be a planned one but as water rushes out of a dam in myraid directions in a undetermined flow will result in merger and demerger in an unplanned way of operational circuits and their interconnectivities cutting across in the process geographies around the world in in unabated and unstoppable fashion only to have equilibrium for some time and to re-invent again and again in a chain reaction whose overall ramifications and influence can barely be predicted.

Do we understand Supply Chains? Well we did so in the past in a way befitting of the season but needs to be re-understood. Modern day supply chains need drastic re-understanding and its economic impulses better understood. I beleive Transhipment is where Supply Chains seem to move. Transhipment is a fundamental philosophy because it works on some fundamental principles. One; Transhipment works on "zero warehousing" which means at any point in time of a well managed system items in any warehousing must be zero and translated into reality the bare minimum. Two; Transhipment works by moving in the direction of the destination in the immediate possible ways. Three; Transhipment fundamentally may not beleive in the saving of time and costs as the fundamental premise around which it works but in the logic of minimum or zero warehousing.

Note that Supply Chains and their problems are not predominantly an Industrial problem but could be a problem across many spheres and its proper understanding both from an operational and strategic view point is paramount.

The logical directioning

There is an important concept of supply chains and transhipment that works around logical directioning. Here the concept is goods move in the direction of the destination at the earliest avaliable oppurtunity as against being ware housed and then find subscequent routes to the final destination.

constant movement

Modern day supply chains and transhipment have constant movement of goods through all possible routes. Idling of goods must be zero.

zero ware housing

Though warehousing exists en-route products are ware-housed for as minimum a period as possible. Modern transhipment procedures result in shorter or ideally zer ware housing. Strictly speaking ware-housing happens in the carriers of goods called dynamic ware-housing as against static ware-housing.

time over cost

The focus of transhipment is to economize on time as against cost. Time is a more important factor than cost. Modern supply chains may not economize on these two fronts as a rule on a day to day basis but when assessed on the cumulative and running conditions they land up giving economies.

No fixed source and fixed destination

Note that modern transhipment works across a network of nodes each of which in the dynamics of the system are as important relative to each other.This means there is no fixed source or fixed destination as varying nodes take on the importance of source and destination from time to time.

cross docking

Modern transhipment needs cross-docking which means en-route to a destination depending on the pattern of goods movement goods can be undocked from a system at a node and loaded into another contrivance without prior planning simply because an oppurtunity of pay-of exists.

Information system

Modern transhipment systems must have a live information system that constantly provides information with regards to the location of goods and their pattern of movement which could be called a "talking Logistic"

supply chain eschema

Eschema refers to the overall activity of cross-docking where goods are moved from one mode of transport into another mode.

packet transit

It is not necessary that all the goods move simultaneously over the system but could move in parts and stages.

bi-directioning

Modern day transhipment allows and provides for the facility of bi-directioning which means products can move in either directions at the point of start and could reach the final destination though taking various routes.

co-aptation of medium

For Supply chains to become even more effective various carriers and carriage systems could help and support each other through some process of multiplexing.

product management

For supply chains to be more effective products around the chain must be managed. Various product attributes are size of product; the criticality of its need at a particular destination as also the kind of product. The kind of combination of products transferred across the chain is product management.

CONCEPTS OF SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT (SCM) IN ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING

The buzz-word in the modern day world is “SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT” the world of business largely resigning itself to this aspect as the driver of organizations of the present and the future. Over the years many new concepts and definitions of SCM have been derived and applied for many situations in Operations. Well that a field of this nature has been recognized by modern man and its foundations being laid; it is but apt that a myriad of situations around the professional world could find applications and models in this theory.SCM is a way of life and approach to a problem in making situations lean and simple and a fool-proof approach to study and make activities more efficient and effective.

There is no other field more apt for the application of this concept as Electrical Engineering. SCM can be used to re-model the entire field of Electrical Engineering. This field of Engineering can be studied from many dimensions and very often it is so done. There can be a Mathematical approach to Electrical Engineering and as such many similar approaches. I have seen various continents look at the same field of Electrical Engineering in unique ways. Power is going to be a matter of serious concern for the world and before long there could be globalization of power in the interests of the world at large. Globalization of power would mean countries sharing their burdens of power and power generation and trading in power as any other commodity is traded. There is probably no other go for the world at least in the near term until some newer methods of large scale power generation and distribution is devised.

For a moment look at the field of Electrical Engineering only as a contrivance involved in the generation and distribution of electrical power to the exclusion of all other possible dimensions.The situation very much configures itself to problems faced in SCM; which means that all the problems faced in SCM are found in the creation and distribution of power.

Let us try to identify at least ten trends or approaches in SCM in the recent past and see how this approach can be effectively applied to the betterment of this engineering field which must be largely groping for newer methods to cope up with the challenges of the present day. Let us identify ten concepts associated with modern day SCM and they could be as follows;

• Concept of transshipment as against transportation
• Strategic Ware-housing
• TQM
•  Routing
• Wastage Management
• Connsumer Information System
• Globalization of Supply Chains
• Localised support
• Timeliness and physical transportation of Power
• Creation of efficiency parameters and penalty

In a country like India a large population not withstanding though the power generation and transmission issues may leave much to be desired ;let me express my deep appreciation for people who toil in this sector to keep a complex network up and going; and there are stories of few who have sacrificed their lives inadvertently coming into contact with high tension lines while discharging their occupations. Never the less there should be a large scale and a more involved approach from larger avenues to surmount problems that can arise in the future.

Let us analyse some of the points raised above and see without delay how they could be applied ;Let us take Concept of transshipment as against transportation. The supply chain of power probably evolved in the same way as Supply Chains of Business with a fixed source and fixed destination and the destinations increasing faster than the sources and stop-gap sources created to suffice the demand.This needs to be smoothened as in SCM of Business in Electrical Engineering. Every source must be linked to every destination at least theoretically and how well it can be operated in practice should be studied. As against transportation where we have dedicated source-destination equations the concept of Transshipment will render the system into a matrix of source and destinations. Simply said if a source is not able to supply power to a destination for any reason a reasonably near-by source must be able to take on the load. This interconnection must exist at all levels as possible. This also means all power stations must be connected to each other. Such a system can mean wastage of power through transmission losses but as in SCM providing the consumer with zero interruption must be the top priority of power supply chains.

The next concept of SCM is Strategic Warehousing- Which means I store when I cannot transport – and storing is done logically. This means creating a larger than life UPS system which works under HT conditions as against smaller voltages. Whenever downstram power supply is not possible stored power must come for the rescue at least for an hour. Today we pride in power-cuts with zero inclination towards the consumer and expect him to withstand outages which should be avoided in the power situation of the morrow. Somewhere transmission losses are an ongoing process and such losses can be minimized by storage. A integrated storage technology must be experimented upon and standardized. Experimentation is the need of the hour in this area of power storage especially of house-hold wattage hours but theoretically this can be done at a more global level or at a local levels.

TQM which means “Total Quality Management” refers to a quality management concept where all the stake-holders are responsible for quality. What is Quality in a Power situation is difficult to define fully. Quality could mean right frequency and voltage at all times. I have seen myself in control-rooms of enterprises where there is a swing of both these parameters. Can this problem be collectively addressed. Largely problems of Frequency and Voltage comes from imbalances in a three phase system which needs uniform loading across the phases for proper stability. The problem is to identify the stake-holders of power quality. If some stake holders were to be identified in a hurry it would point to Managers of Power Stations; Line men and similar front end workers and the general consumers of power. Power quality awareness must be created in this trio and aberrations noted and notified. Collective education initiatives however primitive in nature must be enjoined for progress in this dimension. Definitely across the power supply chain there are numerous methods and avenues for power quality improvement.

Routing is a modern day approach to SCM. It simply means creating new routes. When a particular route becomes un-operational another route is used. I have seen in many areas two transformers exist each of them supplying power to a specific region. Suppose a transformer becomes un-operational suddenly or there is single phasing ,one part of the area goes without power . All that it takes is a temporary connection from the other transformer until the problem is corrected. But this simply does not happen for interconnectivity does not exist. New routes of this kind needs to be created to ensure minimal disruption. They can be designed to work automatically .Such scenarios do exist even at larger power distribution centers where a power distribution center can take the load of another temporarily.

We have always heard of Wastage Management in many situations. How can Power Wastage be managed. There is a large scale lack of awareness in this sector and a awakening is long over-due. Power systems that work under low power-factors also waste power , so do consumers who use power without responsibility. Power wastage can be reduced through proper design of house-hold contrivances to large scale industrial equipments. Ten sectors where power can be saved needs to be addressed starting from the minimization of transmission losses to house hold prudence in the use of power. This is an area that will draw large scale attention and has a large scope for involvement and study.

All Supply Chains work with Information Systems today also called as tracking systems and we have the latest generation of Supply Chains called 4PL logistics systems.Today consumers and distributors of Electric Power are poles apart and do not communicate about service issues in real time. Just like in SCM where internet based systems are maintained for real time tracking of logistics there must a well attended and supervised information system that links Generation , distribution and consumption domains in real time. Analysing and processing this information will give fresh and ongoing insight into the synergies within these three domains.

Power supply chains should increasingly become globalized. What does this mean? Countries in the proximity to each other must share power. Before long a global power supply chain can be established cris-crossing geographical boundaries. Here the special generation abilities built over time by independent countries will help in economizing of power generation and distribution over geographies.Take a country like India which has many neighbors’ which could address jointly power issues for any possible hunch of a revised and updated methodology. Here the only problem could arise in some countries having adopted different voltage-frequency back-bone and would pose a challenge of an additional nature to ensure couplings. But eventually across the globe a single grid could be created which means proper sharing of power taking into account a larger consumption pattern spread and varying demand conditions helping in proper management of surplus and deficit situations.

For example a country whose predominant power generation is from hydel plants will find deficit power situations during lean seasons when there is inadequate water flow from reservoirs. Power could be drawn from a country which is not dependent on the rains due to its own peculiar conditions and combinations to tide over the lean season and the power could be returned when copious conditions prevail. Collective management is the need of the hour keeping in mind a global surge in power demand due to many life-style reasons of the day.

Few states in India have added localized support to ease power situations. Localised support basically means identifying areas that need surplus power and building captive generators of some kind to support existing supplies. This area needs huge research and development to identify right form of power resources that create minimum pollution and distractions. Largely power generation of this kind could be from wastes generated by other set-ups. Wind power and solar power would be the better suitors but the system must be able to provide adequate returns on financial imvestments. To start with residential areas that use only predominantly lighting loads could be considered for such outfits. These captive generating units that act as aback-up must also be linked with each other to share higher loads.

Physical Transportation of power would be the reality of our emerging world. Just like a ship carries crude from one country to another power also could be carried from one country to another through power storage devices which can be used by another country and re-sent for charging. A ship leaving Singapore could have a large power storage device which gets charged and the device is transported to another country for use as a captive power device and needs to be replenished in a timely fashion. Well would this be possible ? It must be made possible. Though this would work better in shorter geographical circuits but it still serves larger purposes of addressing power challenges.

Last but not the least Efficiency Parameters and Penalty must be created in Power distribution. Efficiency parameters would be a pointer to some bare minimum deliverables and standards. Penalty is the prerogative of the customer to penalize the power company that creates power outages. The power distribution system must be corrected from the bottom-up. Any time there is unwarranted power outages the consumer must be able to meter the duration and proportionately get a concession with the power bill. Ultimately it is Timeliness around which all modern day Supply Chain works and timeliness must be always ensured in power distribution systems. Well ! what is timeliness? Any consumer at any point of time must get power when he wants it…..which translates to almost zero outage.