Bangalore Rising

It is evident to even the blind that the media is not particularly in love with Modi. I wondered what was so different about Modi that the media hated this particular politician over a hundred others like him. So here is my half-baked take on this subject. This theorising is obviously just to get a conversation started. So here goes... Their philosophy: From my little tour of the web (most people call it research), I found that some of the more notable media persons in India today are products of left-leaning educational institutions, were flag-waving, and possibly card-carrying members of NSUI, SFI, and similar student unions that are far left of centre. And many of these journalists became journalists not necessarily out of choice, but were misfits in corporate India, or were unqualified for government jobs. And as journalists, they carried their political philosophies into their jobs. This probably holds good for Hartosh Bal, Purnima Joshi, Harshvardhan Tripathi, Nalini Singh, K...

It is but natural that we are a nation of cynics. Of course it is not at all surprising we are this way, since we have been governed by a bunch of corrupt, self-seeking megalomaniacs for a long time - primarily Congress in the centre, and a ragtag bunch of opportunists in the states, who denuded the state exchequer for personal gains.  We also are a generation of fools and cowards, who either stayed away from the political spectrum for fear of backlash, or were mere v oters who toed the family line - for stability, and safety. From the time our umbilical cords have been cut, we have been trained to obey, and never stray. Our parents drummed into our collective heads, that in order to survive, and possibly thrive, hard work and anonymity paid more dividends than independent thought and leadership. If middle-class India epitomised this culture, the average TamBram family took this as the holy grail and never strayed from this straight and narrow path. Of course, it served its pur...

This is not exactly the way I would have loved to start my first post for the year. But this post was prompted by today's news that Bangalore much touted Namma Metro Rail project's Phase 1 Corridor rollout is about a year behind schedule ("will be operational by Sep 2015, promised Chief Minister Siddharamiah"), and burning ~Rs 2.5 crore additionally for every day of delay. And there is absolutely no accountability. BMRCL, the agency that is building and operating the rail project is let off, and there is no single government agency that has been tasked with oversight. I have always felt that India lacks project management skills. None of our projects - public or private, end up being completed on time, within costs, as per quality norms. We don't have processes, we don't have good caliber specialists, we don't have the honesty to accept our shortcomings, and we don't have the will to learn. This malaise is evident in every project across the ...