Saturday, October 12, 2024

Experience of Vande Bharat Train

 Recently I happened to take the Mumbai - Shiridi Vande Bharat Express. The impression that one gets when a Vande Bharat train streams into the station is one of awe, maybe not awestruck but definitely awe. That we in India can manufacture such a train should be matter of pride.

Vande Bharat Train Entering a Station

Once one enters the train what one sees also gives a good feeling. After having seen the regular trains of Indian Railways one does feel that we have done something nice and better than we have done in all these years.

It is nothing like what one sees in the normal trains.

It runs fast. The one in which I traveled touch 130 Kmph which is not bad considering the speed of the other trains in India.


The seats are comfortable, much more than in any existing train. They can be turned 180 degrees. So one can turn it 90 degrees to watch the scenery outside or one can turn it 180 degrees to face the seat in front/back and have a discussion with those sitting there. (I was in the executive class so I am not sure of the other class).

The few places where there is enough scope for improvement are as under

1. Food Service leave a lot to be desired

2. Despite notices saying do not pay the attendants any tip they come and ask for tips

3. The mounts of the seats are sturdy to put it in a euphemistic way. They are not sleek. One can understand that it needs to be sturdy, but it will be good if it can be made sleek as well and make it move with a little lesser effort.

4. The toilets are bio toilets which is good, but again the spit and polish is missing in them.

So all in all not a bad effort at all. It is indeed a good move forward, but there is scope for further improvement.

Next time I will try the vistadome and see how it feels like.

Sunday, June 16, 2024

Elections 2024

The Loksabha elections in India culminated and the results took everyone by surprise. The BJP led by the one and only Mr. Narendra Modi had set a target of 370 seats for his own party and 400+ for his coalition. The exit polls predicted that Mr. Modi and his coalition will more or less reach close to the numbers that they had targeted.

When the results were declared on the 4th of June, Mr. Modi's party did not even reach the majority seats of 273. The BJP managed only 240 seats and the coalition ended up with 293 a little above the majority. The INDI Alliance managed to prove everyone wrong. The Indian National Congress ended up with 99 seats and the alliance 200+ seats.

Mr. Modi had to keep up a good bravado to face his party workers during the "victory" meet. Definitely there would have been an introspection within the party about the state in which they find themselves.

Here are some reasons and suggestions for them to ponder over

  1. The Ram Mandir was the biggest bet that BJP was going on. But looks like it did not get them the seats they wanted. This shows that the common citizen is more interested in earning a livelihood than visiting temples. There is a only a small set of people who, if at all, are interested in the Mandirs that BJP promises. The consequence would be that Kashi and Mathura will go to the back burner. It is unlikely that more temples will be unearthed.
  2. The attack on Muslims during his speeches are unlikely to have gone down well with the common citizen. The common citizen has now quarrel with the Muslims as such. There is definitely an undercurrent and suppressed feeling of major differences with the Muslims among the Hindus (which is rarely highlighted by the local media) and vice versa (which is never highlighted by the foreign media). Attacking the Muslims openly and brazenly will only end up with loss in votes and seats.
  3. The usage of Hindi everywhere will definitely alienate the South of India renaming laws, ranks of military in Hindi or Sanskritised words will not win votes except, if at all in the
  4. Renaming of places to remove any trace of the Mughals and other are things that will appeal to only a few and not the entire population. The worst was trying to rename India to Bharat. It is already called Bharat in many contexts
  5. Nationalism was lacking in India, but taking nationalism to the extreme is not going to take anyone anywhere. Extreme nationalism is harmful, linking everything to nationalism or anti-nationalism will make things worse.

In short BJP proved the cliche "Pride comes before a fall". All the good work done to boost India's image, all the good work to upgrade railway trains, all the "revdis", even when blaming the opposition for the same fault, (some revdis were necessary) all went down the drain.

There are many thing that needs to change in the approach and strategy of BJP if they wish to win the next elections. They need to tone down many of their rhetoric. Hope they realise their mistakes and change in the right direction it will help India and its citizens.

Monday, May 13, 2024

Beginning of Rains in Mumbai

 Actually not really the beginning, but just a precursor to the rains in Mumbai. Today afternoon Mumbai experienced a dust storm (one wonders where from came so much dust) and then this was followed by a rain storm with thunder.

The dust storm before the rains part 1

 


 

The dust storm before the rains part 2

 


 

Exhilarating trailer to the Mumbai monsoons - the rain storm






Monday, October 24, 2022

The Underdog

 Why is it that one wishes to side with the Underdog all the time. Is it because one considers oneself, or is actually, an underdog?


Is it a phenomenon only with the pesssimists, the ones that are diffident, the ones that are average or below average?


The only exception is when ones own country is playing one supports one's own country even if the other team happens to be the underdog.


Why this discrepancy?


Unable to control one's emotion and remain "stoic".


Monday, March 21, 2022

The NSE Saga

 What has it come to? A dynamic lady leading a leading stock exchange of not just India, but of the world is found guilty of abusing her position and is found being led by a scamster "yogi". She has been found divulging the company strategy and financial details to the unknown "yogi". Based on his advice she appoints someone who has no background in stock exchange as a consultant and then elevates him almost into the top management cadre of the exchange.

Chitra Ramakrishnan, the name has been dragged through the mud in the last month or so. Not many, except those in the financial industry, would have heard about the lady. She was among the chosen few who was inducted into National Stock Exchange from IDBI. She was the blue eyed girl in IDBI and was made part of the team who were expected to setup a Stock Exchange as rivals to the Bombay Stock Exchange

BSE had been ruling roost as the country's premier exchange for several decades now. The BSE was run, managed and exploited by the brokers. When a normal retail investor placed a buy order he would be told that the stock was bought at the highest price of the day and when the retail investor placed a sell order he would be told that the stock was sold at the lowest price of the day. Who enjoyed the difference? Of course the brokers who were the only ones with exclusive access to the trading floor of the BSE. And they also charged the investor the brokerage fee. Double cream for the broker and double whammy for the investor.

There were other shady deals like the now infamous badla deals. Where one could buy and sell shares even if one did not have the money to buy them or the shares to sell. One could keep rolling the buys and sells till one ran out of steam. The infamous Harshad Mehta, with the connivance of the bankers exploited the exchange and rolled in money till the weakest link came apart sinking him and the exchange.

The brokers were all powerful in the exchange and they dictated the rules and regulations. The National Stock Exchange was setup to counter this all powerful lobby and at the same time it was supposed to win the trust of the same. brokers to become its member and work with an electronic system. They would have a limited say in the rules and regulations. SEBI had been setup to establish vigilance of exchanges while it was yet to grow teeth and fangs to scare the exchanges its presence could be felt hovering over the exchange.

The NSE under Mr. R. H. Patil and the team of young turks including Mr. Ravi Narayan as the CEO and MD and Mrs, Chitra Ramakrishnan successfully setup first the money market and then the equity market. It was a huge success. What made it successful was the trust the retail investors placed in the electronic trading. Electronic Trading made it possible and SEBI made it mandatory for the brokers to disclose the exact price at which the trade was done. This along with the stringent audit of the accounts of the brokers made it difficult for the brokers to charge the retail investors more than what they should.

While the late nineties and the beginning of the new millenium saw the rise and rise of NSE the regional stock exchanges (Cochin, Ahmedabad, Calcutta) got reduced to the level of brokers. They were forced to shut shop. All the listing from these exchanges were moved to BSE and NSE and these exchanges remained as an exchange only in name. They ended up being glorified brokers.

In 2013 when Mr. Ravi Narain moved out, it was no surprise that Mrs. Chitra Ramakrishnan took over the helm of the NSE. Nobody could have imagined what was to come. Mrs. Chitra came under the influence of a "Yogi" who claimed to be in the Himalayas and he conned Mrs. Chitra to reveal a lot of information about the Exchange. He also pushed Chitra to taking on Mr. Anand Subramanian who was the spouse of a close friend and an employee of the exchange. Now what exactly prompted Mrs. Chitra to be taken in by the "Yogi" will be known only to her, the "Yogi" and God.

This is what possibly happened. Mr. Anand Subramanian who would have Mrs. Chitra personnally, or at least through this spouse is likely to have create the facade of the "Yogi". He might have pretended that this "Yogi" is a highly spiritual person who had helped him in his career. He would have further acted like he was introducing Mrs. Chitra to the "Yogi" and would have made the "Yogi" impress Mrs. Chitra by revealing secrets about her and her family which she may have shared with her colleague and friend. Mr. Anand would have seen this as a golden opportunity toi further his growth. Mrs. Chitra seems to have fallen hook, line and sinker for this "Yogi" and she started giving Mr. Anand Subramanian more and more powers based on instructions from this "Yogi".

How Mrs. Chitra claims to have met the "Yogi" and how Mr. Anand Subramanian conned her on this front is so far known only to those two. It seems to be a fact that they both travelled to Seychelles and other tax havens together. What was the relationship between them and how far it extended is also at this time known only to them.

It is pertinent to note that there possibly was no protest, at least in public and there were no whistle blowers at NSE who spoke up against the one upmanship of Mrs. Chitra. There would definitely have been heart burns enough to raise the heckles with NSE. This is thanks to the typical Indian mentality of "Boss is right and Boss can never be wrong" Even if boss is wrong tell them that they are right. The culture of not questioning the "leaders" (Can we even call them leaders?) in the Indian Corporates (It is not to say that the corporates of the other countries are any better and there is enough evidence to prove that it is almost the same in most countries) that helps the head of the organization to have their say in the running of the organization. As long as the organization is financially doing well no one questions the head. And in this case NSE was going from success to success under the mantle of Mrs. Chitra. There was no seeing back for NSE. In the derivative market BSE was decimated and in the pie of BSE in the equity market was very less compared to that of NSE. NSE was also equally successful in the other markets that it ventured into. So no one questioned Mrs. Chitra.

What brought about her downfall was something of which she is very unlikely to be guilty of. It was the starting of era algorithmic trading, which is nothing but a way for the rich to get richer. Brokers who were rich enough to put up their own server, create their own algorithms, who are able to push back a speculative order milli or sometimes even microsecnds before other rich borkers made money. Most of these are speculative trades. It was a mechanism to beat the day traders who bought and sold or sold and bought on the same day so that the only settlement they had to do was to pay up for the loss or to collect the money when they profited. Now instead of a human speculating it was a machine, an algorithm which did the speculation.

One of the keys to succeed in algorithm trading is to get the latest price as early as possible. So the elite brokers were allowed to setup their servers almost alongside the servers of NSE where the trading took place. This is what happens world over in the exchanges where algorithmic trading is allowed (which is today all the major stoick exchanges). Now to ensure any software works without failure one ends up hosting more than one servers from which the services provided by the service provider can be availed. So keeping that principle in mind NSE had setup two servers to serve the prices to the brokers. The other key point is that the prices were sent to the brokers on a first come first serve basis. This was possibly not a public knowledge to begin with.

Now what is being stated are two situations that could have happened. On a particular day a broker might have complained that their servers are getting the price with a long delay. Someone from the operations might have inadvertently told the broker about the existence of the second server. Now when the broker tried connecting to the second server they would have noticed that they get the prices much earlier than on the main server. This broker or the set of brokers would have used this knowledge to now start connecting to the second server to get the price earlier than the other brokers.

The second possibility, which while possible seems a little unlikely, is that some of the brokers could have got to know some of the operators on the NSE side and would have weedled out the presence of the second server or could have got into an agreement that if they are given the whereabouts of the second server they would give a cut of their profits. The regulatory and investigative authorities seem to believe that this has happened. And it is on the basis of this that Mrs. Chitra has been arrested. Even if this was the case it is unlikely that Mrs. Chitra would have come to know about it and it is very unlikely that if it had been brought to her notice she would have let it be that way and have accepted a cut in the illegal profits.

What exactly happened at NSE between the operators and brokers is anyone's guess. It is unlikely anyone will come forward to confess the truth. Did some one connive with the brorkers? If not did someone notice the usage of the second server? If so did they understand the import of the usage of the second server? Did they notify the management? Was Mrs. Chitra aware of this? Seems very unlikely. but unfortunately for Mrs. Chitra this incident has worked against her. Her, if we can call it that, abuse of power by bringing in Mr. Anand Subramanian and elevating him to such a high position in quick succession which is what should have been investigated more in depth has been sidelined to a large extent and the preferential feed of price to some brokers seem to have taken precedence.

To summarize is Mr. Anand Subramanian guilty. Absolutely without any doubt. Is Mrs. Chitra or Mr. Ravi Narain guilty. Very unlikely. If at all Mrs. Chitra, at least to begin, seems to have been naive to believe in the "Yogi" introduced to her by Mr. Anand. Later on the relationship might have taken a different turn and she could have found herself in a situation where it was difficult for her to say that she fell for a charlatan. If at all she is guilty, it is of abusing her power as the head of the organization to bring in someone who was incapable of the holding the post he was given by her.

As for the preferred price feed issue as mentioned earlier it would most likely have been an inadvertent revelation by some operator at the NSE. It is unlikely that they connived with the brokers for a cut. If this has happened the change in the life style of the operators in that time period would clearly reveal who all benefitted.

Saturday, June 19, 2021

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a HatThe Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The book is all about people that one may term "insane". Dr. Oliver Sacks tries to bust this myth. The book is about people who have strange neurological disease. Each patient is unique in his or her disease.
They get these disease due to various reasons, either an accident or it is from childhood. The behaviour of many would appear strange to the ones who do not know them. But under the right circumstances and under the right supervision these people do blossom and come close to normalcy.
Some of them are extremely talented in some way. Some of them are encyclopedia of music, some can count the matchsticks that fall out from a match box and also relate to some mathematical relation that can be derived from/for the number. Not all of them are insane or dumb.
It is nevertheless a strange world which is difficult to imagine. Hope the book evokes the empathy of the ones reading it.
WARNING: If you are paranoid about your health do not read it. It can give you strange thoughts.
A good read.

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Tuesday, June 01, 2021

The Paradoxical Prime Minister by Shashi Tharoor

The Paradoxical Prime MinisterThe Paradoxical Prime Minister by Shashi Tharoor
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Shashi Tharoor has put his whole heart behind the book. It is an election campaign for his Congress Party from him.

He has tried his level best to punch a hole in everything that the Modi government has tried to do and the Modi government has given him enough material to puncture them.

As one reads the book one gets the feeling that Mr. Tharoor expects Modi to lose the 2019 elections spectacularly. He would definitely have been surprised at the election results where his party was once again decimated and the people of India voted Mr. Modi back to power with even more majority.

In his eagerness to pull Modi down he has used some numbers without looking at the history. One glaring errors is India's rating in terms of freedom of media. He says that Indias ranking dropped precipitously to 140. If he looked up the site that he quotes he would see that India was ranked 140 even during the UPA reign.

While Modi has not crowned himself in glory. His silence in not pulling up the "cow vigilantes" and other atrocities in the name of religion, attempts to thrust Hindi on the South Indians not only switch off the halo around him, but also show how biased his thinking is.

At the same time like everyone Mr. Tharoor spews enough calumny against demonetization and implementation of GST. Demonetization was a daring move and GST was a good move. Yes demonetization was initiated early. The government should have pushed for ePayments and only after sufficient adoption of ePayment should the government have pushed for demonetization. And the second mistake was to print as much currency as was in circulation before the demonetization. The corruption in the banks was unanticipated by the government. This was unprecedented corruption of huge proportions.

Overall not a very great read except for those who are hardcore anti-Modi. If you are anti-Modi then do read the book, you will enjoy. If you are Modi bhakth then do not read the book as you may end up tearing it up or breaking your ebook reader. If you are like me who is neither then stay away from the book, you will get nothing. :-)

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