Rear view: Lost in Lanka

By the middle of 1987, Rajiv Gandhi was besieged by many domestic problems of extreme gravity. Yet he decided to mediate in the catastrophic ethnic strife in neighbouring Sri Lanka between the ruling Sinhala majority and the highly aggrieved Tamil minority concentrated in the northern and eastern regions of the island republic. The problem had begun long ago, when the Sinhala-dominated government imposed Sinhala as the only language of the country, and it escalated so fast as to become nearly intractable. India’s policy on Sri Lanka, which Rajiv inherited from his mother, was as complex as the situation in the island.

Indira Gandhi did not like the efforts of Sri Lanka’s veteran and wily executive president, J.R. Jayewardene, to draw in the United States, some west European countries and Israel, to help out with his difficulties. She wanted the problem of Sri Lanka to be resolved with Indian assistance without any “any foreign intrusion”. So she had seen to it that her foreign policy advisor, G. Parthasarathy, and a nominee of Jayewardene worked out an arrangement for devolution of power to the Tamil minority in Sri Lanka that would be acceptable to the Sinhala majority also. The effort remained a work in progress. At the same time, she was keen to ensure that Sri Lankan Tamils did not feel let down by India. There was so much sympathy and support for them in Tamil Nadu that they could use the Indian state as a safe haven and also a training field, with the Central government benignly looking away.

Rajiv did not like this and changed the policy. Meanwhile, of the various Tamil groups resisting Sinhala domination, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) emerged as the most influential and powerful. Eelam in the name stood for complete independence. This was the brainchild of its leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran who, as the world witnessed, was a “brutal fighter”.

The old fox, Jayewardene, was usually in awe of Indira. But he found it easy to deal with her son and successor. Fairly early during their negotiations, the two agreed on a new approach. The Sri Lankan government had so isolated the northern Tamil area as to virtually force India to do some “bread bombing” of Jaffna to enable the starving people to eat. Yet, the two sides broke new ground soon enough. New Delhi and Colombo decided to sign an agreement on solving the problem and to cajole or coerce the LTTE to accept it. The Rajiv-Jayewardene accord was duly inked on July 29 in Colombo in an immensely tense atmosphere. But, as Rajiv’s MoS for External Affairs K. Natwar Singh (who later became foreign minister) has recorded in his autobiography, One Life Is Not Enough, its implementations created more problems than

- it solved. In the first place, even while the agreement was being signed, Sri Lanka’s prime minister, R. Premadasa, and a senior minister, Lalith Athulathmudali, made no secret of their opposition to it. Something even more startling happened a little later. Seeing that Jayewardene was talking seriously to Rajiv surrounded only by Sri Lankan officials, Foreign Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao asked Natwar Singh to go and find out what was afoot. Rajiv told him that Colombo was a besieged city and Jayewardene feared that there might be a coup before nightfall. So he had asked for an Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) immediately. To Natwar’s question of whether he would like to consult his senior colleagues before sending troops, Rajiv replied that he had already ordered a division of the army to get to Colombo as fast as possible. Before signing the agreement, Rajiv had sent for Prabhakaran in Delhi, and was apparently satisfied with the LTTE supremo’s verbal acceptance of the draft accord. Tamil Nadu’s hugely popular chief minister, M.G. Ramachandaran, was also in Delhi and reportedly gave Prabhakaran a lot of money. However, when asked to surrender arms, as required by the July 29 accord, the LTTE insisted on a series of preconditions, including the release of all Tamil prisoners in government custody and a halt to Sinhala colonisation of the island’s eastern region. How terribly high the Sinhala rage against Indian intervention in their country was became known at the time of Rajiv’s departure for home. At the guard of honour, a Lankan soldier tried to hit him with the stem of his gun. The prime minister’s youthful reflexes saved his life. At the Bandaranaike International Airport, the Sri Lankan prime minister was conspicuous by his absence. When asked about this “discourtesy”, Rajiv blandly replied: “Some presidents have a problem with their prime ministers, and some prime ministers have a problem with their presidents.” The latter part of the statement was a clear reference to his row with the then president, Giani Zail Singh. For a short while, an uneasy peace lasted in Sri Lanka. But even the Tamils of that country turned against India because the IPKF had to storm and capture the LTTE headquarters in Jaffna, though at a high cost. Several IPKF commanders have written books about the often vague and even contradictory instructions from Delhi. This should explain why the much-respected Indian army suffered a dent in its image. Over a thousand Indian soldiers were killed. In 1989, when Rajiv was defeated in the election, Premadasa had replaced Jayewardene as Lanka’s president. He lost no time in demanding the IPKF’s withdrawal. The new Indian prime minister, V.P. Singh, was happy to undo what Rajiv had done. When the first batch of the IPKF landed in Chennai, no one in the Tamil Nadu government was willing to receive it. Only the governor, P.C. Alexander, welcomed them. Even more sadly, there is no memorial for the IPKF anywhere in India. Only the Sri Lankans have built one in Colombo. - Evidently, they realise that India spilled blood and spent from its treasury to save their country’s unity. -

Global wealth flowing to the richest, says study

The richest 1 percent is likely to control more than half of the globes total wealth by next year, the charity Oxfam reported in a study released Monday. The warning about deepening global inequality comes just as the world’s business elite prepare to meet this week at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

The 80 wealthiest people in the world altogether own $1.9 trillion, the report found, nearly the same amount shared by the 3.5 billion people who occupy the bottom half of the worlds income scale. (Last year, it took 85 billionaires to equal that figure.) And the richest 1 percent of the population, who number in the millions, control nearly half of the worlds total wealth, a share that is also increasing.

The type of inequality that currently characterises the world’s economies is unlike anything seen in recent years, the report explained. Between 2002 and 2010 the total wealth of the poorest half of the world in current U.S. dollars had been increasing more or less at the same rate as that of billionaires, it said. However since 2010, it has been decreasing over that time.

Winnie Byanyima, the charity’s executive director, noted in a statement that more than 1 billion people lived on less than $1.25 a day.

Do we really want to live in a world where the 1 percent own more than the rest of us combined? Byanyima said. The scale of global inequality is quite simply staggering.

Investors with interests in finance, insurance and health saw the biggest windfalls, Oxfam said. Using data from Forbes magazines list of billionaires, it said those listed as having interests in the pharmaceutical and health care industries saw their net worth jump by 47 percent. The charity credited those individuals rapidly growing fortunes in part to multimillion-dollar lobbying campaigns to protect and enhance their interests.

Looking for a lady from Eastern Europe

Ban Ki-moon has nearly two more years to go, but the race for his successor as U.N. Secretary-General has already begun in world capitals as well as in New York

If you are a lady in your late fifties or early sixties, a national of one of the small states in Eastern Europe, with considerable experience of working in the U.N. system either as a diplomat or as a senior member of the Secretariat, with no strong views against the well known U.N. consensus positions on fundamental issues, and also speak French, you have a high level job waiting for you. Starting from January 2017, the job will be based out of an office on the 38th floor of the U.N. building in New York and a town house in Manhattan.

But the imponderables are many. The job description is extremely vague and cursory. So are the prescribed qualifications of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, who has to be the Chief Executive, negotiator, mediator and the conscience of mankind. In fact, anyone who is acceptable to the majority of the members of the Security Council, including the permanent members, can be chosen in a private meeting. The person has to win two-thirds majority of the General Assembly later, but so far, no recommended candidate has failed to fulfil that requirement. But still, the next Secretary-General of the U.N. should have the attributes mentioned because of the history of the position, convention, practice and expectation.

Factors that matter

First and foremost, no woman has ever been elected Secretary-General so far and, in these days of gender balance and empowerment of women, the U.N. cannot overlook this fact. Equally sacrosanct is geographical rotation, which is at the centre of selection of personnel at all levels. Competence is often sacrificed at the altar of regional distribution. The fact that nearly half the staff of the U.N. are selected on the basis of geographical representation and not merit was acknowledged by Boutros Boutros-Ghali, when he said, “about fifty percent”, when he was asked as to how many people worked at the U.N. Among the five regional groups, one of which every member state belongs to, only the East European Group has not had a chance to provide the Secretary-General so far, while Asia (Myanmar and South Korea) West Europe (Norway, Sweden and Austria) and Africa (Egypt and Ghana) have provided more than one and Latin America (Peru) has provided one. The East European Group has undergone major changes after the end of the Cold War and it will be difficult to deny it the chance to nominate a Secretary-General this time.

“That no woman has been elected U.N. Secretary General cannot be overlooked in these days of gender balance and women’s empowerment”

The leading state in the East European Group, Russia, does not qualify as permanent members are excluded from consideration, as there will be too much concentration of power in a permanent member, if it also nominates the Secretary-General. This argument was used against India as India was a candidate for permanent membership. Even while opposing India’s permanent membership, the argument was used to deny support to an Indian candidate. But some of the former Republics of the Soviet Union like the Baltic States or some states, which were part of Yugoslavia may be able to offer candidates that fit the bill.

Age is no bar, but in the traditional world of diplomacy, in which age and experience are respected and the youth are seen as upstarts, persons with no more than 10 working years to go have an advantage. The experience can either be in the missions at the Ambassadorial level or in the Secretariat or both. Kofi Annan was the only Secretary-General who came from the Secretariat and some of his faults were attributed to his having been a part of the U.N. Secretariat for long. Foreign Ministers and above look attractive, but former Presidents or Prime Ministers have never made it. Overqualification is as deadly as under qualification.

Holding strong views on any subject is not an asset to the aspirants. Inane and colourless commitment to the consensus positions of the world body should help. The smaller the country, the more committed it will be to non-proliferation, human rights and the environment as it does not have to give up anything in espousing the consensus within the U.N. A representative of a country like India, which has its own angularities on these issues has little chance of leading the U.N., unless he disowns his national positions. No wonder, then, that the Indian candidate last time had never represented India at the U.N. Mr. Ghali was denied a second term basically because he brought his own perspectives to the job. Initially, it was thought that his Coptic Christianity and Jewish wife distanced him from the country of which he was Foreign Minister. In the case of Kofi Annan, his European wife may have been a helpful factor.

The permanent members

The permanent members have repeatedly made it clear that they will not accept any procedure to elect the Secretary-General that would detract from their own role in choosing the next Secretary-General. There have been suggestions that a search committee should be constituted with Kofi Annan at its head, with representatives of the permanent members as members. Nothing would be more objectionable to the permanent five. They demand absolute loyalty of the Secretary-General and will not be party to any arrangement which brings in other king makers. For this reason, the aspirants should be totally acceptable to all the five of them. It is the U.S. which identifies a potential candidate and sells him or her to the rest of the permanent members and then to the rest of the Security Council. The best chance is for someone who is willing to abide by the wishes of the permanent five without questioning as in the case of the previous incumbents except Dag Hammarskjöld and Boutros Ghali. The first was killed in a mysterious aircraft accident and Ghali was denied the customary second term. A “head waiter image” is the most suitable. Brilliant ideas or thinking out of the box are not assets for them. Like it happened in the case of Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, after several rounds of voting, an exhausted Security Council picked the one candidate who had nothing negative against him even if he had nothing positive either. Pérez de Cuéllar was fishing in Peru when he was elected unanimously.

With the sartorial elegance associated with diplomats, the aspirant has to be smartly turned out and well groomed. This is particularly important if a lady becomes the next U.N. Secretary-General.

The run-up

If a senior official of the Secretariat or a senior diplomat begins taking French lessons in New York, it is presumed that he or she aspires to be a candidate for the post of Secretary-General. France absolutely insists that it will veto any candidate who does not speak French. But mercifully, no desirable level has been clearly established and the French vote is often determined by other factors. Ban Ki-moon’s French is not particularly strong, but the French had other reasons to support him. But the French trump card is a nightmare for aspirants. If China and Russia too had imposed such conditions, the language courses at the U.N. would be heavily subscribed.

Ban Ki-moon has nearly two more years to go, but the race for his successor has already begun in the world capitals as well as in New York. Since there is no established procedure, whispers in the delegates’ lounge and conference corridors lead to speculation, emergence of candidates, controversies, convergence of opinions and even consensus. One agreement that has been reached so far is that the next Secretary-General shall be appointed as early as possible, preferably not later than one month before the term of the incumbent expires. The decision in November 2016 may be a surprise, but it will be no surprise if a lady from East Europe walks away with the post.

The new name of planning

The replacement of the Planning Commission by Niti Aayog will help change the emphasis from projects and programmes to policy and institutions, from expenditure inputs to real outcomes through better governance, and from political disputation over incremental allocations to new challenges and opportunities

The “Yojana Aayog” or “Planning Commission” has been replaced by the “National Institution for Transforming India” or “NITI” for short. From “Yojana” to “Niti”, what is the difference? First and foremost, it means a sharp break from Soviet inspired National Development (Five Year) Plans to “Niti”, that is “Policy” and “Institutional change for ‘transforming India’.” Paragraph three of the Cabinet resolution states: we “require institutional reforms in governance and dynamic policy shifts that can seed and nurture large-scale change.”

“Development” is one of those words that everyone thinks they understand but which means many different things to different people. It covers a multitude of possibilities as well as a multitude of ideological sins and special agendas. The cabinet resolution constituting Niti Aayog approvingly quotes Mahatma Gandhi: “Constant development is the law of life, and a man who always tries to maintain his dogmas in order to appear consistent drives himself into a false position.” The Planning Commission took its first tentative steps towards “policy” 28 years ago, by creating a post of Advisor Development Policy. There was so much resistance that the Advisor (in this case, me) had to be designated “Advisor-Development Policy Research.” Despite decades of effort, policy solutions always played second fiddle to increasing Plan allocations and expenditures without any “social benefit-cost analysis” or “Macro-economic models” to back the decisions.

Three other points in the introductory part of the Cabinet resolution setting up Niti Aayog are noteworthy: The first is the assertion that “our aspirations have soared and today we seek elimination, rather than alleviation, of poverty.” The second is the important role given to governance in achieving desirable social outcomes: “The people of India have great expectations for progress and improvement in governance, through their participation. They require institutional reforms in governance and dynamic policy shifts that can seed and nurture large-scale change (paragraph 3).” Subsequently, there is an indication of how the institutional reforms in governance can be brought about: “Government and governance have to be conducted in an environment of total transparency — using technology to reduce opacity and thereby, the potential for misadventures in governing (paragraph 6g).”

Poverty elimination

A paper in the Economic and Political Weekly in 2002 had raised the issue of corruption and governance and to bring policy-institutional reform into the development debate, but to no avail. A debate on poverty elimination, as against alleviation, was sought to be initiated in 2005-06 through a Planning Commission paper, but was stymied. It is therefore very encouraging that this is an important part of the mandate of Niti Aayog.

“The emphasis on interaction with international think tanks and Indian educational and policy research institutions would be a departure for the Indian bureaucracy.”

The third is the recognition of a changed reality of economy, society and government functioning and its implications: “India needs an administration paradigm in which the government is an ‘enabler’ rather than a ‘provider of first and last resort’. The role of the government as a ‘player’ in the industrial and service sectors has to be reduced. Instead, the government has to focus on enabling legislation, policy-making and regulation (paragraph 6a).” Many old-style development planners refused to accept these changes (even if they paid lip service to it), though this issue was raised first in the 1990s and subsequently in the 2000s. A recognition of this reality by the Union cabinet provides a sound basis for closing the technology gap between India and the advanced countries, that is correlated with the large income gap between us. The reference to the role of urbanisation (paragraph 6g) as an aid to a technological catching up, suggests an understanding of the links between technology gaps and per capita income gaps. This further links to welfare gaps through the statement “Equality of opportunity goes hand-in-hand with an inclusiveness agenda (paragraph 8c).” The open discussion of the global environment and its two-way interaction with India also displays a degree of self-confidence vis-à-visforeign countries (paragraph 6c) that bodes well for building a competitive, fast-growing economy.

Niti’s role

So, what is the specific role of Niti Aayog in this changed environment? Its primary/central role is to “Serve as a Think Tank for the Government” … “to give “strategic and technical advice across the spectrum of key elements of policy. This includes matters of national and international import on the economic front, dissemination of best practices from within the country as well as from other nations, the infusion of new policy ideas and specific issue-based support.” (paragraph 11). Several of us have argued for a long time, without much success, that the old Planning Commission should evolve into a “think tank” with a primary emphasis on policy and institutions, rather than on expenditure programmes and projects. By its bold move to abolish the Yojana Aayog and set up Niti Aayog, the new government has set the stage for a wholesale transformation in this direction. Given the absence of any formal social benefit-cost analysis of programmes and projects and the limited capacity for an appraisal of outcomes, one had also suggested to the Deputy Chairman a decade ago that the Planning Commission develop a database of best practices to guide future decisions. It is hoped that a full-fledged division will be set up in Niti Aayog to translate this into reality, with all such information digitally accessible to experts and policymakers.

Emphasis on ‘lessons learnt’

Some of the specific objectives of Niti Aayog are at the level of generality of the Cabinet note, not significantly different from those of the Planning Commission or other organs of government. However, the following objectives suggest a greater priority and emphasis on the issues mentioned in them: To design strategic and long-term policy and programme frameworks and initiatives, and monitor their progress and their efficacy. The lessons learnt through monitoring and feedback will be used for making innovative improvements, including necessary midcourse corrections; to provide advice and encourage partnerships between key stakeholders and national and international like-minded think tanks, as well as educational and policy research institutions; to create a knowledge, innovation and entrepreneurial support system through a collaborative community of national and international experts, practitioners and other partners; to maintain a state-of-the-art resource centre, be a repository of research on good governance and best practices in sustainable and equitable development as well as help in their dissemination to stakeholders, and to focus on technology upgradation and capacity-building for implementation of programmes and initiatives

In the first of these, the emphasis on “lessons learnt” is very important. Experience confirms a great reluctance to modify or reject programmes when they don’t work. In the second, the emphasis on interaction with international think tanks and Indian educational and policy research institutions, though expected from a think tank for the government, would be a departure for the Indian bureaucracy. In the third, the emphasis on support systems rather than funds/subsidies is an important departure. The fourth reinforces what was said earlier about good governance and best practices and suggests that improvement in governance will be seriously pursued to improve the delivery of government social and welfare programmes. In the fifth, the recognition of weak capacity and need for “capacity building” for implementation is critical to the success of all new initiatives and many old ones.

The abolition of the Yojana Aayog and its replacement by Niti Aayog by the new government is a bold and long overdue initiative. It will help change the emphasis from projects and programmes to policy and institutions, from expenditure inputs to real outcomes through better governance and from political disputation over incremental allocations to new challenges and opportunities in a global environment. The discussion of India in a global context also reminds one of Gandhiji’s sayings: “Let the windows of my mind be open to winds from across the world, but let me not be blown away by them.” Like all new institutions, it will be a challenging job for Niti Aayog to fulfil its high objectives.

School system fails students

Considering Nobel laureate Amartya Sen’s caution regarding the insecurity that people face over a lifetime due to the deprivation of basic education, the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2014 calls for a hard look at the situation. Its findings amount to a distressing catalogue of the failures inherent in the pedagogic methods of instruction in vogue. The foremost among them is the overemphasis on a curriculum that is geared to outcomes in the form of examination results, at the expense of a process of learning that is oriented to a mastery of concepts. These shortcomings underlie the original assumption that students of a particular grade would not measure up to commensurate standards; and that any such evaluation would hence be an exercise in futility. That is the apparent rationale behind the ASER assessment of actual student performance based on a lower set of metrics. The report points out that just a small proportion of third-graders are able to read even a text from a lower grade, let alone their own. Any improvement in later years is at best marginal, says the report. The fact is that reading skills are not imparted as part of classroom activity.

ASER also shows that pupils from the higher classes are unable to perform even simple tasks of division or subtraction. This may have to do with the inadequate reinforcement of concepts over the years owing to the structure of the syllabus. For instance, the use of logarithms that were once taught from Class 9 has been dropped from the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) curriculum. Students are hence denied the opportunity to learn complex mathematical computations. Besides, the mathematics knowledge that people need in daily life is mostly arithmetic-based. Yet, the latter has been omitted from the Class 9 and 10 syllabus. Time was when students could opt between a basic and advanced level of math from Class 8 or 9 under some State boards. The current CBSE paper, tailored to the requirement of engineering aspirants, may be imposing an undue burden on students inclined to pursue different academic streams. A healthy pupil-teacher ratio could also help overcome many of these shortcomings. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act stipulates a 30:1 ratio. ASER notes that the country has come consistently close to universal enrolment in the 6-14 age group for six consecutive years. That may have afforded some consolation in an age where the prevailing wisdom held that poor families are disinclined to send children to school. In today’s competitive environment, the ability of students to read, write, count and measure is a bare minimum. The country cannot continue to fail its children.

Real pride of ancient Indian science

I write this with considerable impatience and one question. Do we really have the time to waste on controversies like what ancient India did or did not achieve by way of scientific discoveries? This is when there is the huge unfinished agenda to use the best of science to tackle current challenges and crises.

At the recently concluded annual ritual of the Indian Science Congress, the Union science and technology minister drew solace from the fact that ancient India had mathematical prowess - we gifted the Pythagoras theorem and algebra to the world. There is truth in this, no doubt. But all this is about the past. At best, it tells us to be proud of our legacy. But what does it tell us about what needs to be done to innovate for our needs?

There is no doubt that Indian science is losing ground; every indicator shows this. The ranking of our top scientific educational institutions is consistently falling and our achievements are fewer by the day. Most importantly, Indian scientists are nowhere to be seen in the world you and I inhabit. This is when our modern world requires science to be integrated into every aspect of daily life.

This is also the problem I have with the current controversy about Vedic science - whether we flew aircraft or mastered plastic surgery is immaterial for modern India. What matters is if ancient Indians understood the science and art of settlement planning, architecture and governance of natural resources. This is the history we need to learn because it tells us what we must do right. These are the real symbols of ancient India's scientific prowess.

Take water, for instance. Traditionally, we built highly sophisticated systems, which varied to suit different ecosystems, for harvesting every drop of water. Archaeological excavations near Allahabad have found evidence of early Indian hydraulic engineering. Dating back to the end of first century BC, the Sringaverapura tank is a remarkable system to take the floodwater of Ganga into a set of desilting chambers, including water weirs, to clean the water for drinking. It can be a matter of belief that Lord Ram drank water from this tank. But it is a fact that the technological system is so evolved that it would put to shame all public works engineers of today's India.

 

 

Dholavira, a settlement off the coast of Gujarat, dates back to the Indus Valley civilisation. Archaeologists have found this desert city had built lakes to collect monsoon run-off, bunds and inlet channels to divert water, and intricate drainage system for storm water, drinking water and waste. Today, we cannot even build city roads that do not get flooded each monsoon, or protect lakes for storing rainwater.

Till the time the British came to India, the water traditions were in vogue. British gazettes speak of these systems, at times with awe, calling us a hydraulic society. Sir William Willcocks, a British irrigation engineer, who was called in 1920 to advise the administration on how to handle famines, said the best answer was to go back to the ingenious system of flood management of Bengal. This was never done, of course.

Ancient Indians also understood the art of water governance. Kautilya's Arthasastra, written around 300 BC, has details of how tanks and canals are to be built and managed. The key was to clarify the enabling role of the state - the king - and the management role of local communities. The kings did not have armies of public works engineers; they provided fiscal incentives to communities and individuals who built water systems. The British changed all this, by vesting the resource with the state and creating large bureaucracies for management.

The British rulers also changed the tax system; collection of revenue became paramount, even during droughts. There was little then to invest in community assets. The decline came quickly and was cemented by polices of independent India. This is the history of resource management we need to learn.

But if we must be proud of our water heritage and relearn its art and science, then we must also reject its ills - the focus on rituals and the evils of the caste system. We are such a dirty nation today - look at the untreated sewage in our rivers and garbage in our streets - because we come from a society where waste is an "untouchable" business. As long as we can live with the idea of manual scavenging - somebody from a "lower" caste will carry our excreta away - we will never get a clean India.

If we must glorify the past, we must be proud of our present. This is what we need to learn. Quickly

Promise or problem? How the lack of right data affects the promise of big data in India

The digital footprint of society is expanding the world over into fragmented mediums (blogs, tweets, reviews etc) and technologies (mobile, web, cloud/SaaS etc). Data generated from mobile devices and the internet of things are the main contributors to this data explosion. While this provides organisations with significant business opportunities, it also presents several challenges in harnessing these information sources.

India's digital landscape maybe evolving quickly but the overall penetration remains low, with only one in five Indians using the internet (as in July 2014). Enterprises and businesses do have access to a veritable wealth of information. While some larger organisations have made a start in harnessing the information - telecom providers, online travel agencies, online retail stores are some of the industries that are using big data analytics to engage customers to a certain extent - most Indian companies are still learning how to collect and store big data.

To put it simply, big data analytics is still in its infancy in India. Most companies are just learning to store the data collected. There are several challenges when it comes to the collection of data sets themselves. Past and current data is required to make the application of big data analytics really useful but there is a scarcity of past data in public and private sectors in India. The lack of historical data can be traced to following:

> Late and slow computerisation: Healthcare, economic and statistical data, in both private and public sectors in India, is yet to be fully computerised. The main reason for this is the late adoption of IT in India. Unlike in the West, most industries in India made the transition from manual records to computerised information systems only during the last decade. Over the years, the state and central ministries have made the move towards e-governance. Efforts to deliver public services and to make access to these services easier are being made as well. While this is still a work in progress, huge amounts of data across many government sectors are yet to be digitised.

> Poor quality inputs: Not only quantity, the quality of data being used for crunching also influences the quality of insights. If the signal-to-noise-ratio is high, the accuracy of results may vary for less than optimum data samples. Public social media information that is available for most individuals from India lacks quality information about the users. Random facts and figures in individual profiles, sharing of spam content and fake social media accounts that are created for bots are very common in India.

> Spam: Social media sites are becoming increasingly vulnerable to spam attacks. Time spent by a captive audience on social media sites opens up windows of opportunity for online threats and spammers. Again, social media spam contributes to the signal-to-noise-ratio that defines the quality of big data.

This comes in the way of generating appropriate results.

> Cultural and social influences: In most Western markets, insights generated through big data can be applied across a wide consumer base. But given the extensive cultural and linguistic variation across India, any insight generated for a consumer based, say, in Chandigarh will not be directly applicable to a consumer based in Chennai. This problem is made worse by the fact that a lot of local data lives in regional publications, in different languages and has limited online visibility.

> Unstructured sources of data: Big data in India is not structured. Most transactional data in the healthcare and retail segments are stored purely for book-keeping purposes. In most developed countries, user data is rich enough to provide demographic or group level markers that can be used to generate customised insights while maintaining individual privacy. The absence of such standard identifiers in Indian consumer data is one of the biggest bottlenecks in mapping transactional and social records in India.

> Handsets and internet connectivity: Even though smart phones are driving the new handset market in India, feature phones still dominate everyday usage. Most connections in India are pre-paid and fewer than 10 per cent of users have access to 3G networks. To add to it, internet connection speed is among the lowest in Asia. As a result, consumer data, especially retail enterprise data is limited.

As more people in India make the move to smart phones and internet connectivity improves, there will be an increase in the amount of usable data generated. That said, organisations need to make a huge effort to improve the quality of enterprise data. The good news is, the key contributors to the promise of big data analytics in India are steadily gaining ground. An increase in social media users, efforts by enterprises, both public and private, for optimum collection and storage of transactional enterprise data, will contribute to better quality data sets, leading to improved application of big data analytics.