A NEW Persona for a RENEWED Nation......

Deepika Padukone -- #MyChoice Video
Image Courtesy: Google Images

“Controversy is indeed a great Marketing Strategy”. Nothing else has ever caught the attention of the target audience more effectively than a marketing campaign disseminating a viewpoint or an opinion which is not only audacious but also ‘bordering on outrageous’ or on the ‘verge of being revolutionary’ from the perspective of a majority of the audience. Such a message when delivered by a well-known celebrity, who displays unwavering conviction and deep emotional commitment to the topic while expressing the same, will only further bolster the ‘attentiveness’ of the audience multi-fold.

A case in point from the recent months, that comes to my mind is the #MyChoice video that was released jointly by popular Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone and director Homi Adajania in association with Vogue India as part of their drive to create awareness on ‘women's empowerment’. This campaign sparked a massive outrage in certain segments of the society who considered it as a sacrilege and on the other hand triggered a lot of cheer, celebration and optimism in certain other segments who identified themselves closely with the philosophy being expressed. The reactions and responses to this video were in huge numbers with the views/opinions being spread across the entire spectrum including the very extreme ends as well. It evoked responses from all segments of the society spanning across the length and breadth of the country. I really do not know what the actual intent of the campaign was, what the expected outcome was and whether or not the expectations have been met from the campaign owner’s point of view.

To my mind, a smart marketing campaign has its foundation on a very sound strategy. The commonly mulled over topics while designing a marketing campaign typically are: key demographics or traits of the target audience, their stated and unstated needs and expectations, how does the product or service satisfy their needs better than competition, what are the key differentiators and product/service features or attributes that need to be highlighted, choosing the right ‘message’ to maximise the impact, alignment of message to the audience, expected reaction of the audience, measurable impact on say product/service sales etc.

The ‘strategy element’ however should play a pivotal role by pondering over questions such as: what the real or unstated intent of the campaign is, what the real or unstated final outcome or result expected from the campaign is, how the final result or outcome from the campaign can be made most effective and impactful. The emphasis of the strategy element is primarily: to clearly differentiate between the stated and unstated objectives of a campaign; careful or subtle and perhaps delicate alignment of the message and theme seemingly with the stated objective but in reality with the unstated objective; design and execute the campaign such that the actual or unstated intent and objectives are met and the actual or unstated final results or outcomes are achieved.

“The key point to note is that the intent or objective of the campaign and the outcome or result of the campaign as viewed by the audience and as viewed by the campaign owner are completely different. And this is by design”.

What really matters is only that the real intent or objective of the campaign from its owner’s perspective is fully achieved and is corroborated by quantifiable campaign results. Let’s quickly take a re-look at Deepika’s #MyChoice campaign as a case in point to help illustrate the concept that I was talking earlier. As we do not know what the real intent of the campaign was, let’s attempt to guess as to what the campaign intent and expected campaign result could possibly have been from the campaign owner’s perspective. To begin with let’s consider the 2 possibilities:

SCENARIO 1:

CAMPAIGN INTENT: “To provide a perspective of the world from purely a woman’s view point and give an insight into the mind-set, deepest emotions, views and expectations of a woman in today’s world, thereby spreading awareness and garnering empathy and support from men and women across the country to promote the cause of women’s empowerment”

CAMPAIGN RESULT: “Win supporters among the Indian populace in large numbers who would not only endorse this view but also be influenced enough by the video to spread the ideas around leveraging social media or even word of mouth. Garner excellent reviews and support from the media and also be appreciated by the men and women spanning across the various segments and various geographies in the country. This would in-turn trigger a change in ground realities which would accelerate the process of women’s empowerment”

SCENARIO 2:

CAMPAIGN INTENT: “To ignite the minds of the men and women in India on a critical but somewhat ignored topic and trigger a nation-wide debate on a few crucial topics which were typically considered as sensitive or not-to-be-talked-about or even a taboo”

CAMPAIGN RESULT: “Trigger a chain of debates and discussions on these sensitive topics among men and women of India, spanning across segments and geographies both leveraging social media and face to face conversations. This will have the outcome of opening up the Indian society atleast to some extent and encourage men and women to start discussing crucial and sensitive topics which were hitherto pushed under the carpet”

From a marketing point of view achieving either the result or outcome in Scenario 1 or Scenario 2 would be an extremely difficult if not impossible task and that too in a country as diverse and large as India. Let’s assume for a moment that the REAL or UNSTATED “Intent” and “Result” from a campaign owner’s point of view is ‘Scenario 2’ and that the STATED “Intent” and “Result” for the consumption of the external world or audience is ‘Scenario 1’. We could then quickly apply the concept of blending the UNSTATED and STATED intents into a single strategy that I talked about earlier and this would make it much simpler to achieve the results or outcomes as expected from a campaign owner’s perspective. In such a case the ‘outcome of the campaign’ would be viewed or rated differently by the audience and the campaign owner which is on expected lines. The other theme embedded as an integral part of the strategy in this case study which would act as a catalyst is, “…extreme or perhaps even controversial views may have to be leveraged so as to be able to trigger a strong enough emotional quake that would shake men and women out of inertia and provoke them enough to open up and voice their opinions and trigger a debate…”

This is a very good strategy to adopt especially when the attempt is to change a deep rooted mind set or modify an ancient practice or stop adherence to an old custom. Such an approach as explained and also illustrated by the case study above is very appropriate and helpful in 'Marketing Social Themes' that are critical for a nation's progress.

Deepika’s #MyChoice video was arguably the most talked about (controversial?) video in my friend circles during the recent months for reasons right or wrong depending on which side one was. Putting the visuals and messaging in that video completely aside for a moment, I do believe that one definitely positive outcome from that video was that it ignited a dormant topic and triggered off a raging debate in the Indian society covering a wide range of topics such as feminism; patriarchy; individual freedom and liberties; values, morals, ethics binding a person; traditions, customs, practices, conventions from the past in today's context etc.

Many of these topics were usually considered sensitive and personal and a few even considered as a taboo. These topics were hitherto never so openly discussed in the Indian society and that too on such a wide scale spanning across age-groups and across the length and breadth of the country. The video acted as a catalyst for men and women across the country who used that topic as a 'conversation starter' and then went on to express their opinions, feelings and emotions on these topics which many a time led to intense debates and on some occasions heated arguments as well.  A key point to be noted is that these debates spanned the “breadth and length” of India as it was on a topic that was equally relevant to each and every Indian and therein lies the BEAUTY of Indian culture. 

Social media played a huge role in becoming the central platform for every man and woman to be able to express their opinions and views from deep inside their heart on these topics without any hesitation or mincing of words. The cloak of anonymity offered by the social media was certainly a huge boost in the arm for persons who were shy and reserved or perhaps constrained by the prevailing norms in the society. The walls and barriers, in form of tacit and implicit norms or controls that exist in the society on ‘what is to be spoken’ and ‘what is not be spoken’ in public by a man or a woman, simply dissolved or were torn down due to the way in which social media operates. Seeing other like-minded persons across the country express their views only encouraged the rest to join the debate. I believe that this is indeed an “inflexion point” in our society and certainly a milestone to be remembered.

We need to recall the fact that Ancient India always had an open and tolerant culture which encouraged debates on varied topics and expression of diverse opinions. Our Nobel Laureate, Amartya Sen succinctly summarizes this in the title of his popular book "The Argumentative Indian" which delves deeply into the evolution of this aspect of Indian culture over several thousand years. Indians believed in "agreeing to disagree" which is probably the CORE PHILOSOPHY behind the creation of a society which embraced a culture of peaceful co-existence and encouraged interactions among people with diverse or even contrarian opinions, values, beliefs, customs etc.

The BEAUTY of Indian culture however was that, despite these interactions and exchange of ideas and opinions with diverse groups of people who many a time would come from far-away lands, Indians had a very deep and innate sense of IDENTITY and steadfastly protected the CORE of Indian tradition, philosophy, value systems, ancient texts and religious beliefs over thousands of years. Indian society was at the same time quite adaptable to embrace practices and techniques which benefitted our people and also was amenable to discard even the accepted beliefs and deeply rooted practices of those times whenever it encountered a convincing logical and scientific reasoning that was contrary to the existing beliefs and practices.

The innumerable invasions on India by many foreigners over the centuries, starting with Alexander in 327 BC to the Persians in 15th century who then ruled over us for many centuries or even the rule by the British from 18th century to middle of the 20th century, could not change the CORE of Indian tradition, value system and religious beliefs. Indians had over the centuries mastered the art of adopting modern practices and techniques, scientific thinking, novel concepts, inventions and ideas that bettered human life but at the same time passionately and fiercely safeguarded their “IDENTITY”.  If one looked deep into an Indian’s mind, one would never miss the “INDOMITABLE INDIAN SPIRIT” and “UNIQUE IDENTITY”. This is true not just for the Indians who are residents of the country but even for those with origins in India and have adopted other faraway lands as their homes. An outsider would indeed be startled to find the FLAME of INDIAN SPIRIT still alive even in person of Indian origin whose ancestors had migrated to a far-away foreign land say even as many as 200 years ago and had no contact whatsoever with India in all these years.

Unfortunately over the years, as Indian culture evolved, the practice of open debates on any topic under the sun or encouraging logical arguments or questioning the status-quo even on deeply rooted beliefs/traditions/practices gradually started getting on to the backburner. Many of the traditions, customs, beliefs and practices over the years gradually became CAST IN STONE and questioning these began to be considered as “sacrilegious”. In my opinion this was the SINGLE BIGGEST REASON for India to lose its dominance on the world stage over the last few hundred years. The saving grace is that the INDOMITABLE INDIAN SPIRIT however continued to remain intact and unabated over the several thousand years.

India has indeed made very significant strides in nearly 70 years after its independence in 1947. India has slowly and steadily begun to get noticed on the global scene and has gained significant respect from even the most developed nations. The liberalization of Indian economy in 1991 under the leadership of our then Prime Minister Shri P V Narasimha Rao has heralded a new era in our country with reforms in the industrial and economic policies. That is truly an “inflexion point” in the history of modern India which laid the foundations for the growth and renewal of global respect that we are seeing for our country today.

Today, India is considered by the top global powers as a force to reckon with and as a potential super power in the coming decades. Fortune 500 corporations from all over the world without exceptions firmly believe that this is a market that will be the epicenter of their activity in future. We should indeed be rightfully proud of our beloved nation for all that it has achieved in just 70 years of independence and within the natural constraints of being a true and fully functional democracy. At the same time we should also be cognizant of the inherent social, cultural and structural weaknesses in our society and the dangers that pose to our nation’s progress in future.  As a nation we should together take corrective actions as soon as possible.

This brings me back to what I mentioned earlier as the “Indomitable Indian Spirit” and our “Unique Sense of Identity” that we ferociously defended over several centuries and also ensured that CORE of Indian tradition, value system and beliefs stood the test of time. Today, I believe that the CORE is under attack due to two primary factors:

1. The advent of cable television in the early 1990s had a significant impact over the years especially on shaping the beliefs and value systems on the generations that grew up with it. It does not really matter whether the impact was in the right or wrong directions. While even centuries of British rule could not cause much of an impact to the core value systems, culture, traditions or even the core mindsets or beliefs of Indians; the access to the western media and thereby exposure to the western culture, way of life, mindsets, beliefs and value systems on a daily basis indeed had a significant impact in shaping up all these aspects of life among today’s young adults. And the last decade which saw the advent of the Internet and Smart Mobile Phones steeply accelerated these influences on the minds of children starting from a very young age. I am not even getting to the aspect of whether the western influence is right or wrong. The issue that one needs to deal with is that, Indian society is most fragmented at this time than at any point ever in the nation’s long history when it comes to the CORE beliefs, mindsets and values that drive one’s life. This makes the concept and definition or delineation of what I was earlier referring to as the “Indian Spirit” or “Unique Identity” very difficult to articulate as arriving at a common definition which is all encompassing is very very complex today compared to the past. The issue is compounded due to the different rates of evolution of individual thought  processes based on extent of foreign influence, family background, indoctrination by parents and relatives, rural/urban differences, geographical area, education levels, peer group, first hand exposure to  foreign cultures and so on.
2. Modern India has certainly made a lot of progress on the social front besides the economic and political fronts. The darker aspects of our society such as social and cultural evils, unscientific customs, traditions and practices, superstitions, outdated and illogical beliefs etc have been addressed to a significant extent though they still rear their ugly heads in certain pockets from time to time. While we address these issues, we need to take cognizance of the fact that our societal norms and social structures, lifestyles and standards of living have significantly evolved in the last 70 years of independence and even more pronouncedly in the last 20 years. I had earlier said that many of the “traditions, customs, beliefs, value systems and practices” which were CAST IN STONE for centuries and questioning them was a big sacrilege in those times. While it may not be as big a sacrilege today, there are many topics under this broad umbrella which an average Indian does not like to talk about publicly or dare to question the status  quo or  attempt defy the norms even now. It might be a good idea to perhaps revisit these traditions, customs, beliefs and value systems that were designed for the way of life of a person in the form that existed several centuries ago and all these customs and traditions might not make sense or be applicable in today’s context.

We need to address both the challenges that I delineated above if we are to ensure that the “Indomitable Indian Spirit” and “Unique Sense of Identity” continue to remain powerful differentiating factors and help accelerate India’s journey to attain a preeminent position in the world. India should regain its past glory and respect which was based on intellectual superiority, self-sufficiency, technological superiority and superior standard of living of its people. And I believe that we can address both the challenges with a common solution: “become argumentative Indians again”. “Harness the power of intellectual debates and arguments based on logic and reason which originally created the foundation for the pre-eminence of India in the ancient times”. These practices will need to once again come to the fore-front.

Indian society needs to once again become one that encourages diverse opinions, tolerates opposing views, questions status quo on certain traditions, norms and practices however deeply rooted they might be, creates a newer set of traditions, practices and rituals which are relevant in today’s context by overruling the ones that are not applicable anymore, gives men and women freedom to express their views on any topic, relook at the belief system and values to determine applicability and relevance, creating right forums for sharing and exchanging views etc. And for a country as diverse and as populous and as geographically spread as India, we cannot achieve any of the above without leveraging technology and social platforms. Indians need to work together on all these areas with a newer mindset and find concrete solutions. Once the above is accomplished, the next step would be to have a nation-wide debate and discussion for finally arriving at what can be termed as the “Highest Common Factor” method of delineating the newer and updated definition of “Indian Spirit” and “Indian Identity”. These definitions should be relevant and applicable to today’s context and at the same time keep the essence and core theme from the ancient times intact so as to maintain the continuity.

Coming back to Deepika Padukone and her #MyChoice video, as I mentioned earlier we did see a large number of men and women, spanning across different age groups and different geographical areas of the country, discussing about the content and messaging in the video and many expressed their opinions touching upon certain topics which were usually not discussed publicly on such a wide scale earlier. While I do know that there is no final consensus reached on that topic and that probably it will take a very long time to reach that stage. The point to be noted however is that it certainly ignited the minds of men and women across the country and set them to active thinking mode on contemporary topics such as feminism or patriarchy or even sexual relationships. In a way, perhaps even inadvertently, an attempt was perhaps also made to rekindle the flame of “argumentative Indian” which lay dormant and hidden beneath multiple layers of filters formed due to conditioning of mind over several centuries. This is indeed a very great beginning and a significant accomplishment from my perspective.

Some of the critical problems that we are facing today in our society such as Gender Crime, Human Trafficking, Dowry related crimes, Pre-Marital or Extra-Marital relationship linked crimes etc should not be left to the law enforcement authorities or law & policy makers alone. These are essentially “social” problems at the root and the society needs to engage in multiple levels of dialogue involving diverse groups of people across the country and finally arrive at a consensus based solution from a societal stand point which can prevent or atleast minimize the occurrence of such incidents. And we can only forge such a culture of debate and open mindedness by making concerted efforts in this direction and leveraging every opportunity to provoke and coax the members of our society to express themselves openly and encourage debate on all topics critical to our society and our nation.

The KEY to the progress of our nation is therefore the resurgence of “THE ARGUMENTATIVE INDIAN” in a modern avatar and a transformed society with a mindset that not only accepts but also encourages a person donning that avatar.

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DISCLAIMER 1: The author DOES NOT have any association or connection whatsoever with the #MyChoice video, the Vogue Empower campaign or its producers/campaign owners. He neither subscribes to nor disagrees with the views or opinions or messages expressed or visuals displayed as a part of that campaign. The author does not know what the intent of the campaign was or results expected of the campaign were from the producer’s perspective. He has only attempted to use the examples purely as a case study to illustrate his ideas on “marketing social themes” which are critical for nation’s progress. This article was purely written in good faith and the author sincerely apologizes if any ones sensitivities or feelings or sentiments or emotions have been inadvertently hurt by the views or opinions or ideas expressed in this article.

DISCLAIMER 2: The views expressed in the article are purely the personal views of the author and have nothing to do with the company he works for. This article in its entirety has been written purely in his personal capacity.

Building Tomorrow's Digital Nations.....

My article-> "Building Tomorrow's Digital Nations" has been published by the Cyber Media Group.

Cyber Media Group is amongst India's top five magazine brands and owns 12 properties including Dataquest, PCQuest, Voice&Data and MIT's Technology Review-India.

Do check out my article by clicking on the link below and post your feedback:

Building Tomorrow's Digital Nations -- CIOL

Making a young girl fall in love with Computer Science...

I touched and felt a computer for the first time in my life in October, 1992, a week after joining the engineering college. I recollect that in my first year engineering, I simply loathed the subject called 'computer programming' and vividly remember arguing for 20 minutes with my professor that I could do everything using my scientific calculator that she was saying could be done by a computer. I was very frustrated when my clarity on the topic was no better at the end of the argument. I then spent next 2 weeks reading the prescribed text book titled 'Programming in Fortran 77’ by V Rajaraman, multiple times which helped to some extent but at the end of all that, I still disliked computers. I strongly felt that I and they do not understand each other very well and can never be together. Then I firmly made up my mind that after completing my first year, I will never again look at a computer in my life. I was in Mechanical Engineering at that time which did not have any more courses on computers after the first year. I was also aspiring to do an MBA after my engineering and this further added firmness to my resolve.

After finishing the first 4 months in first year engineering, I expressed my anguish and frustration to a close friend of mine, who was regarded as a computer whiz kid in college, and confessed that I HATED computer science. He said nothing and simply gave me a book on 'Introduction to Programming' from Schaum Series and that helped me a lot to understand the real power of computer programming. I also chanced upon a book called ‘Applications of computers in the business and industry’ that for the very first time gave me a very broad perspective and helped me discover the potentialities and possibilities in this field. I had no clue till that day that computers could be useful to mankind in so many ways.  At that point I realized that computers will play an important role in future and hence I resolved to work on the subject deeply and know as much as I can within the remaining part of the year. I was still quite firm that I will abandon computer science after my first year and therefore it was important that I learn whatever is possible within this limited time.

During next 7 months, unbeknownst to me I got quite intimately involved with the subject and before I realized, I was madly in LOVE with computer science. I was so much in love that I shifted to Computer Engineering branch after the first year and an intense and raging affair with computer science ensued ever since.  I did finish my MBA as aspired and then chose to join the computer industry in the management stream and remained there. Computer Science continues to remain my first love even today and the intensity of love remains as much now as it was then.  This is one of those decisions in life that I will never regret.

Computer Science is a philosophy and not a technology. It is a way of thinking and perhaps even a way of living.  In a nutshell, Computer Science has transformed me in every possible way and has influenced varied aspects of my personality such as: mind set and thinking, self esteem and confidence, way of looking at the world, approach to problem solving, approach to technology, reasoning and higher order thinking and so on. Nothing in me has been left untouched by this amazing subject [It probably merits a full fledged article to explain my fascination for this subject!!]

It surprises me that even after two and a half decades, the percentage of girls who pursue computers and mathematics is very low and the reason being solely the lack of interest and awareness. There are several reasons why many youngsters might not be interested in the subject as it is unique and exotic in its own way and has an élan of its own kind. It is extremely important that a correct approach is adopted while introducing the subject to a novice. The right kind of appreciation is needed to be developed before one can start liking the subject and discover the elegance and beauty of computer science.

The discovery of my love for computer science was purely accidental and the probability of that happening in those days was very very low. It took me one complete year and a very frustrating one at that. There was a very high probability that I would have abandoned this subject for good. The probability of abandoning the subject and considering it as a drudgery holds good for students at the university even today. I am not talking about learning a programming language or learning a technology or a platform which is very easy and one might be driven to do that due to the lure of a well paid software jobs. It is probably easy to accomplish this in developing countries where one tends to be driven by job market and money as one might not be able to afford to be driven purely by interest or passion.  But if we really want to increase the participation in this field in a country like the U.S. where typically many people tend to choose to work in the area of their passion, one needs to be able to generate that intense passion and fervor.

It has a lot to do with creating a mind blowing first impression, generating a deep urge to know more, creating an enabling atmosphere for getting intimate with the subject, developing a mindset that will allow one to realize and then fully absorb its awesome beauty, and finally falling in love with it. In the context of the efforts being made by the U.S. government and corporates to generate interest in the STEM area especially among young girls, it is very imperative to note that the goal is in reality all about generating passion.  This needs to be looked as an endeavor that helps youngsters experience the ethereal beauty and immerse them in a magical world. The curriculum, reading materials, class room sessions, practical sessions on computer etc should be carefully developed  with the aim of being able to create ‘an experience like never before’ in the minds of youngsters and must focus on their feelings, emotions and mindset as a central theme. It is all about making them fall in love that lasts a life time and not about making them learn a technique or luring them with good career prospects.

What concerns me is that the interest shown in computer science by many youngsters and especially young girls remains lukewarm even today.  I was some what surprised when I read somewhere that in subjects like computer science, girls constitute only 15% of the overall students in the class at University level. And these are numbers for the U.S. which is arguably the most progressive country in the world. I am aware of several initiatives by U.S. Government and large corporates in the last few years to increase the awareness and ultimately the representation of women in the STEM field but we indeed have a long way to go before we would have reached the goal. On the contrary, countries like India beat the trend with 37% women enrolled today in computer science at university level. It is very startling to note that the corresponding number in the U.S. was 35% in 1980 and it steadily dropped over the years to a low of 10% in 2010 and then rose slowly to reach 15%.

I found the following observation by a researcher to be quite interesting and profound: “The omission of women from the history of Computer Science perpetuates misconceptions of women as uninterested or incapable in the field”.

Keeping this in view it will be a good idea to familiarize our young girls with the "history of computer science" and the path breaking contributions to this field by women, in 19th and 20th centuries, which would inspire them. There is a lot of information on the Internet and even many books are available on this topic which I am sure could generate interest amongst the youngsters on this seemingly esoteric but in reality an adorable subject.

Let me quickly talk about the four women who in my opinion were the pioneers in the field of computer science during their times and hopefully this will act as a starting point….

Ada Lovelace could be termed as the “First Lady of Computer Science". She was a great mathematician and was the first woman to actually write a computer program in as early as 1843 based on a very complex algorithm and executed the same on what was called as ‘Charles Babbage Analytical Engine’ which is the precursor of the modern day computer. The programming language used for developing modern day ‘Real Time Military’ software systems is named as ADA in her honor. ADA is a very structured and evolved programming language with a number of innovations which could be termed as a work of ingenuity. The ‘C’ programming language of today inherited a number of concepts and principles from ADA.

Grace Hopper was one of the very few computer scientists who worked for the U.S. Navy in 1950s. Grace conceptualized and designed a new programming language for use in business applications and also wrote a full fledged compiler for the same. The modern day COBOL programming language has a lot of resemblances to the one that was designed by Grace.

Edith Clarke was initially trained as mathematician and worked in that area before proceeding to pursue her Masters in Electrical Engineering from MIT in 1918. She was the first woman to be awarded that degree. Edith pioneered the usage of advanced mathematical methods in computer science. She leveraged mathematics and computer science solve complex problems related to electrical power systems. This was unheard of in those times and forms a basis for the modern day computer based automation and control systems used in the industry today.

Hedy Lamarr was a very popular actress in her times who also made significant innovations to the field of wireless communications. She pioneered the concept of ‘Frequency Hopping’ which is the foundation for modern day Data/Wireless communication technologies. The application of her invention in those days was to actually control and guide the ‘torpedoes’ even while in motion and prevent them from being intercepted by the enemy leveraging the concept of frequency hopping. She was far ahead of her times to have been able to conceive this idea and for others to be able to comprehend what she was talking about. Those were the Second World War (1939-45) days and she was a very famous actress who was very well known for her ‘stunning looks’ and ‘ethereal beauty’ and not many knew of her intellectual abilities. Electrical engineering was an area that she picked up as a hobby during her spare time which indeed speaks volumes about her intellect. The invention that she made however was dismissed right away by the naval authorities who asked her to stop wasting time on areas that she does not understand and instead use her popularity for raising funds needed for the war. This was an area that could have potentially altered the history of the war. The advanced missile systems and anti-missile systems of today accomplish similar objectives as envisaged by Hedy Lamarr in the 1940s. It was 1997, when her contributions were finally recognized and she was honored with a special international award for being a pioneer in the area of wireless communications.

Better Late than never. Isn't it?

Journey through the Dark and Winding Alleys of 'Human Brain'......

Yesterday, I ran into a good old friend of mine with whom I had lost touch after finishing college. She and I were like-minded in some ways and had a fairly similar thought process though she was certainly more well-read and probably more intelligent. I recollect that in those days,  we would debate a lot on subjects such as English Literature, Human Behavior and Philosophy which were actually areas in which neither of us had any formal education. Even though these three areas were not even remotely connected to Engineering, we somehow found them interesting and worthy of debating. Now I have come to realize that these are not really three disparate subjects but these actually coalesce to a single overarching theme which defines, drives and explains the way human beings in a society interact with one another.

Great writers like Shakespeare, Jane Austen and Pearl S Buck became great only because they were able to deeply introspect, reflect upon and critically analyze human behavior, understand human psychology intimately and thus could establish a deep subliminal connection with their audience. They were not only able to understand the nuances and subtleties of human emotions, feelings and thoughts but also were able to clearly differentiate the various hues and shades within the human feelings and emotions while communicating in form of words and phrases to the audience. That would have required a mastery of English language as they would have had to select and map the exact word or a phrase or a combination of these from among multiple words of similar but differently nuanced meanings in English language so that the exact variant or hue or shade of the feeling or emotion reaches the audience without any transmission losses.  Similarly great psychologists such as Freud and Jung relied heavily on literature and history for understanding human behavior intimately and then attempted to define the workings of human mind and also cause-effect analysis of human actions and emotions. Philosophy is intertwined very strongly with human behavior as it helps codify the right and wrong and provides us with a framework for logical reasoning and experimentation. The credo or the accepted rules of human behavior have many of their roots here.

Now coming back to my old friend that I met yesterday, after an exchange of pleasantries, we discussed the key milestones in our careers and personal lives, shared notes about our families and then the topic quickly went on to our respective philosophies of life and how they evolved in the last two decades. Interestingly the respective thought processes evolved in a similar pattern over the years and by and large the core philosophy remained the same.

After she left, the first thought that came to my mind was that it would a great idea to author a joint research paper on a topic of import as it would be possible to work in parallel on different sections and integrate the work very quickly into a cohesive whole which would substantially save the throughput time. In fact if there was a way to identify the wiring patterns in the brains of people in a team, then it would be efficient to deploy similarly wired people in projects that require similar thinking and use a dissimilarly wired people in projects that would need diversity of opinions and ideas. I started reflecting on the views exchanged with her and the evolution of our respective thought processes over the years. It occurred to me that thought processes, attitude and mindset of a person are a function of: the basic wiring and programming of the brain that has its roots in the genes and the consequent re-wiring that happens continuously based on experiences, increased knowledge, changes to the belief system and core philosophy based on renewed view of life, changes in priority of things and a newer perception of reality based on changes in environment etc. The extent and rate of re-wiring and thus the speed and direction in which the brain evolves changes from person to person. If the start state, evolution of the brain and end state are similar in different persons then it is safe to assume the net effect of the inter-play of different variables that I mentioned above has resulted in a similar outcome even while the individual variables might have been different.

My thoughts then drifted to the question as to what would be the most simplistic structure of the human brain which could explain similarity of thinking process or like-mindedness. Being a Computer Engineer by training, the easiest explanation that occurred to me was that human brain could possibly be represented by logical blocks such as those pertaining to logical thinking, analytics, reading and comprehension, creative arts, science, inter-personal relationships, emotions and feelings, verbal communication etc. Each one of these logical blocks would be controlled by a sub-program which has a distinct programming logic which governs how that block functions and processes information. Thus each of the logical blocks would be controlled by a sub-program and all these sub-programs would be controlled by main program. Needless to say these sub-programs run in parallel and also interact with the other sub-programs. When we say people are like minded and have a similar thought process, we could perhaps conclude that the particular logical block in like-minded people has similar programming with probably a major part of the ‘brain wire code’ overlapping.

I started wondering about the unknown mysteries of the human brain which is arguably the most complex and intricate creation of God. Brain research in the recent times has advanced significantly although what is known is minuscule when compared to what is unknown at this point of time. In my college days though Artificial Intelligence was still in infancy stages, I was very optimistic in those days that computer science, communications and robotics will very soon enable the creation of a replica of the human brain if not the complete human being. When I entered the real world,  I was grounded by the reality that the rate of advancement in neuroscience, neural networks and biochemistry has been very slow and will also continue to remain slow in the coming years. It was traditionally attempted to simulate a human brain using a computer system which mimics step by step the functioning of the actual human brain as revealed to us by neuroscience. However the intricate details of the internal functioning of the human brain which are necessary for simulation via a computer system have remained elusive for many years due to the slow progress in the field of neuroscience.

However today, with the advances in technology [in the areas such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Advanced Analytics, Spatial Navigation, Sensor Technology, Cognitive computing and Pattern recognition, Big Data etc together with the unprecedented rate of increase in computing power, memory, storage (thanks to Moore’s Law) ] have provided us several alternate ways to simulate the human brain which do not rely completely on granular details provided by neuroscience. The endeavor today is to build a computing system that will give identical outputs as that of the human brain when given the same inputs. Since the method of building a computing system that is an exact replica of the human brain (which means not only the output but also the processing and decision logic as well as sequence of steps should exactly be the same) does not appear viable at the moment due to the limitations of neuroscience, the alternate method of using a black box approach is widely being adopted. In this method we simulate the functioning of the brain by harnessing unlimited computing power and very large data-sets. The algorithms for the black box are developed on the basis of empirical research and trial and error techniques with the objective of generating identical outputs as that of the human brain when given the same inputs. This indeed does excite me and I will probably see a computer system that is as intelligent or perhaps more intelligent than human brain in my life time. 

Top Guns such as Ray Kurzweil (from Google Research Labs) say that the day when artificial Intelligence will surpass and outwit human intelligence is not very far off. However this could potentially have very dangerous and unpredictable ramifications. There are fears that if computers become more intelligent than humans, they might then start working at an intellectual level that is completely incomprehensible to humans. This is bound to create utter chaos and confusion as well as huge degree of unpredictability. Clearly, a Frankenstein monster like scenario unfolding cannot be ruled out. Some time back, I tried to visualize as to how computers with more intelligence than humans can really take over the world and as to why this idea is not too far-fetched as one might think. However I shall reserve this topic to a future article where I will dwell upon it in depth.

Though alternate methods as described above for simulating the human brain in a black box fashion are being adopted, the innate thirst to demystify the inner workings of the human brain remains unquenched. Teams of multi-disciplinary researchers across the world continue to work on unravelling the mystery of the human brain. One such endeavor is the ‘Human Brain’ project that has been initiated by the European Union last year with the aim of creating a replica of the human brain by 2025 that has the vision of replicating each and every function of the human brain up to the neuron and synapse level. This is somewhat similar to the ‘Human Genome’ project that leveraged computing power to decipher the information embedded in the human DNA to a great degree of granularity. If successful this project will pave way for the exact replication of the individual human brains in a computing system. This will mean that the computing system that has the replica of an individual’s brain will “think, take decisions, feel, emote, write and speak” exactly like the individual whose brain it replicates. It will replicate not only the information in the individual’s memory but also the processing logic. Neuroscientists envisage that it will be possible to capture the information in a person’s memory as well as the processing logic in his brain. This can be done by detecting and deciphering the electrical impulses in the brain and bio-chemical messages exchanged between neurons. These will then be digitized and transferred to a computing system. This will actually mean that long after a person is physically gone from this world,  the computing system with a replica of the person’s brain will continue to think, write, speak, make decisions and display feelings and emotions exactly the same way as the person would have done had he been alive.

Let’s now return from the fantasy world and do a quick reality check!!! Human brain is an extremely intricate and supremely complex creation of God and human beings are indeed fortunate for having been blessed with this magical gift. For getting a quantitative perspective of the complexity, let's take a look at the Rat’s brain which has been completely mapped today.  Neocortex is the part of the brain which deals with the conscious activity and which has been fully mapped today in case of a Rat’s brain. Neocortex consists of 10,000 neocortical columns and each column is 2 mm tall and 0.5 mm in diameter. Each neocortical column has 10,000 neurons and [10 raised to power 8] synapses (synapses are links between neurons).  In summary we are dealing with one million neurons and a huge number of synapses. And remember we are still talking of a Rat’s brain!!! Human Brain is many times more complex and has a whopping 20 billion neurons and [10 raised to power 15] synapses.

The task ahead for the scientists is humongous. The scientists will need to understand the processing logic in each neuron and comprehend every one of the messages being exchanged between the neurons. And these messages are not limited to electrical impulses which are relatively easier to decipher but mostly consist of a humongous number of bio-chemical messages. These are result of a large number chemical and nuclear reactions that take place in the brain on a continuous basis. Every feeling, thought and emotion in the brain triggers these chemical reactions which produce bio-chemicals that are exchanged between neurons. Some experts in the field of neuroscience from across the world have written articles in journals like ‘Scientific American’, ‘Nature’ etc that the objectives of projects such as ‘Human Brain’ or other allied projects are not very realistic and are probably impossible in the time lines mentioned. Even assuming that the neuroscientists have the wherewithal to be able to do a phenomenal job on their part, there will still remain huge challenges on the computer science and systems engineering front to be able develop highly scalable and massively parallel processing architectures of this magnitude and also integrate these systems with ultra-high speed memory and massively gigantic storage.

Optimists that we humans are, let’s assume for a moment that the activities mentioned above are indeed possible and scientists will be successfully able to decipher the secrets of the human brain. The reality however is that all the above challenges I talked about are only about deciphering the secrets behind the functioning of the conscious brain which is primarily the Neocortex. As I mentioned earlier Neocortex has ~20 billion neurons and is only a part of the overall human brain which has ~100 billion neurons. The rest of the human brain (excluding Neocortex) deals with the more arcane subjects such as the unconscious and subliminal processes as well as the dreams. As you will appreciate these are subjects which are in the mystic realm and humans have extremely limited understanding of these. Therefore other areas of the human brain (excluding Neocortex) are arguably very difficult to decipher. Besides we will also have to understand: interplay between conscious, unconscious and dreams, how these 3 units interact with each other, what are the outcomes as a result of these interactions etc. Thus it is seems to be getting more and more complex and it looks as if further complexity will be unearthed as we dig deeper into the recesses of the human brain. At this point, it appeared to me as if I have now reached an inflection point in my thought process!!! Until now, we have traversed through the series of obstacles in the path of being of able to unravel the mysteries of the human brain. And for a layman like me, at this point the odds were too overwhelming to be able to believe that we can truly replicate the human brain in its entirety. However the eternal optimists that we all are, the thought of my engineering dream (to see humans completely unravelling the mysteries of human brain) failing was certainly not palatable. This led me to take refuge in my other area of passion i.e. philosophy to seek an answer to the question “whether the endeavor of replicating human brain is possible at all even at a point very far in the future”. I pondered over this question for a really long time and finally there seemed to be some light at the end of the tunnel. It seemed to me that the answer to my question could be derived from the thought that: “we need to work with higher level of intelligence to find a solution to a problem than the intelligence that created the problem in the first place”. This essentially translates to the fact that human beings will never ever be able to fully comprehend and decipher all the secrets behind the working of the human brain as they will never be more intelligent than themselves. At best humans would be able to simulate the brains of mammals with lower orders of intelligence and perhaps understand the workings of human brain to a certain extent which will however be no where even close to the complete demystification that I have been dreaming about.

To further add substance to the thought process I just walked through, let’s look at another example. When Einstein postulated the ‘Theory of relativity’, the entire world believed that man has now understood the principles that govern existence of the universe and that every action that happens in the universe can be explained using laws of physics. No one was able to find loopholes in Einstein’s theory probably because no one else operated at the intellectual level of Einstein. After some years, Einstein himself realized that his theory indeed had some limitations when it comes to the surfaces on the curvature of black holes which is called as “Singularity”. All the laws of physics seem to fail at the point of singularity including Einstein’s Theory of Relativity.  And Einstein had no answer or explanation as to why this was happening. Being not only exceptionally intelligent but also devout person as well, he knew the failings of human race and also knew the supreme power of the creator. He then simply explained the phenomena by stating that Singularity is a point in the universe where “GOD DECIDED TO DIVIDE BY ZERO”. I believe the issue is settled now and demystification of all the secrets behind the working of the human brain and creating its replica is not something that will ever happen. Though we might be able to come out with some theories which explain the workings, the fact still remains that we do not know what we do not know and thus can never claim mastery.

At the beginning of my journey, I started out on the quest to identify like-minded people using a scientific and empirical model in a programmatic manner. The path involving a combination of neuroscience and computer science appeared to be the best option at the beginning but along the journey, I however realized the pitfalls of my hypotheses. So probably the best and simplest solution is to leverage the age-old and the time-tested Psychoanalysis techniques to understand an individual’s thinking process in detail. We could then harness this information while choosing individuals in each team so that we get the best productivity and are able to choose either similar or dissimilar individuals based on the need.

The interesting by product of this journey is understanding the method in which simulation of the human brain by using a pure black box approach is possible. This is a pure technology based approach as I explained earlier and the computing system will leverage emerging technologies such as big data, advanced analytics together with Artificial Intelligence, Artificial Neural Networks, Spatial Navigation, Cognitive computing and Pattern recognition to produce same output as the brain does with a particular input. I had talked about the possibilities of more intelligent systems taking over from the human beings and ruling over us. These fears are totally unfounded as no human will ever release a computing system with more intelligence than himself or herself in a live environment. At best, these experiments would be done under controlled conditions in secure labs and will be more towards satisfying human’s intellectual appetite of being able to create computing systems that are more intelligent than himself or herself.

Having now come to the end of the journey the following is the key take-away:

1) Researchers working on simulating the human brain must limit themselves to understanding the workings of the human brain only to the extent that is realistic. The research should be such that it is useful for greater human cause. For example: To accelerate and support Disease diagnosis and finding economical cures so that patients with ailments of the brain and nervous system are immensely benefitted.

2) Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in the ‘Digital’ era must focus on solving real world problems and provide innovative approaches and solutions. The objective need not be to develop a system to have more intelligence than humans but to build a system that is needed for solving complex human problems and make the world a better place to live in.

3) Good old Psychology, Psychoanalysis and principles of Human Behavior/ Organization Behavior which are best practiced by humans cannot be replaced by computer systems

4) And finally, the last but certainly not the least:           “STAY CONNECTED WITH OLD FRIENDS” 

Comparative Analysis of Top 5 Indian IT firms -- Quarter ending June 30, 2014 (Q1, FY15)

With the Cognizant results released on 7’th August we now have the results of all the Top 5 Indian IT service firms for the quarter ending June  30, 2014  released to the world. Apologies for the delay in sending out this communique as I am travelling outside India on business. For the benefit of those of you who have read my earlier version of the communique that was sent after the 4 firms other than Cognizant released their results, I am marking the changes in YELLOW.

With results of the Top 5 Indian IT firms for the quarter ending June 30, 2014  released to the world, we have adequate data points for a comprehensive comparative analysis and hence again a time for drawing inspiration from the winners and reflecting on the learnings one can pick up from the rest. The idea of this analysis is to present an ‘apples to apples’ comparison view to the readers unlike the view that comes from the media which is some time not an accurate representation of the reality on  the ground as they mix up numbers in INR with that of USD and that of GAAP with IFRS. My analysis is  based on the USD numbers as per IFRS norms based on the balance sheets released by the Top 4 Indian IT firms. Thanks to your constant encouragement, I have been sending out these communiques for over 10 quarters now without skipping even one quarter.

I had written in the communique that I sent last quarter that there seems to be a trend where in the Top IT firms are releasing their results within the first 2 weeks after the quarter ends. This excitement was however short lived as all the firms broke the trend this quarter and took more time to come out with their results. The gap between Infosys releasing its results and the other Top firms releasing its results further increased to an average of 2 weeks. Forbes came out with its list of Top 2000  Global firms a few weeks ago and four of the top 5 Indian IT firms (TCS, Cognizant, Infosys and Wipro) figure in this list. In terms of market capitalization TCS has far out performed the rest of the pack by touching  a value that exceeds the market capitalization of the next 3 firms put together. The market capitalization value of the Top firms is as follows: TCS[84 B USD], Infosys[31 B USD], Cognizant[28 B USD], Wipro[23 B USD] and HCL[18 B USD]. Though these numbers are small compared to IBM at 194 B USD, they do compare well with Accenture at 51 B USD. Now let’s dive deeper into the qualitative and quantitative analysis of the Top 4 IT firms.

Cognizant has had a rather muted growth rate for quarter ending June 30, 2014 with the QoQ growth at 3.9% which is however better than its performance in the last few quarters which had sub 3% QoQ growth rates. The growth rate for FY15 has also been reduced by 2 percentage points compared to its earlier projections of 16% growth in FY15. So it appears the current quarter is an aberration in terms of having ~4% QoQ growth rates and the remaining quarters will follow the 3-3.5% growth rates in line with the trend in the previous quarters which is not very encouraging. However its operating margins as a % of revenues are improving to a 19-20% range in the recent quarters up from the 17-18% levels last year. Also it is the weakest amongst the Indian players in terms of the Geo risk diversification with its exposure to North American market at 77% of its total revenues.  While it is too early to say that it has lost its mojo vis. a vis. the industry leader TCS, one needs to keenly watch this company for the next 4 quarters to get a feeler of its ability to handle the complex delivery related issues arising out steep growth rates which it has been having over the last few years and its ability to streamline the operational agility of the firm and also introduce the right controls and processes needed for a company of its size. However the best thing that happened this quarter is that, it has crossed the 2.5 B USD per quarter revenue run rate which catapults it to the 10 B USD per year company in terms of revenues.

Infosys growth rate might be showing signs of recovery in this quarter and we could perhaps expect a rebound with a new CEO at the helm. The new CEO clearly told the media that his priority was to bring growth back at Infosys by leveraging Innovation and Cutting Edge technologies for adding value to its clients. Infosys grew QoQ for in Q1, FY15 by 2% which is not bad on a standalone basis but does not look very pretty compared to its competition. The operating margins as a percentage of revenues which had hit a rock bottom of 21.8% last year has  rebounded to 25-26% in the last 3 quarters (including the current one) which is a clear sign of success of the firm’s cost optimization strategies. However the YoY growth for Q1, FY15 compared to Q1, FY14 was at 7.1% which means that the firm must accelerate over the next 3 quarters for ending FY15 with a decent growth in line with the 13-15% industry growth rate predicted by NASSCOM. The results for Q1,FY15 are however in line with FY15 growth guidance given by Infosys which is 7-9%. The overall employees today stand at 161,000 and overall utilization has increased to 75% (80% excluding trainees) at the end of Q1, FY15 up from 70% levels last year. Infosys has a client base of 910 active clients today with a net addition of 61 clients in this quarter alone. 

TCS has had a superb quarter which over shadowed all its accomplishments over the last 8 quarters. TCS had  a phenomenal growth of 5.5% QoQ during Q1, FY15 which beat all its growth rates in the last 8 quarters. TCS clocked  a whopping 3.7 B USD in revenues this quarter which clearly places it in a different league compared to the other Indian firms. TCS continues to stick to its core philosophy of ‘high growth with high profitability’ and has taken its profitability to ~30% levels in FY14. However its CEO went on record saying that they will be content with 25-26% operating margins and they want to plough back the rest as investments that fuel future growth and the same philosophy seems to have been already put into action with the current quarter operating margins at 26.3%.  The guidance for FY15 seems very positive and the firm is very confident of outperforming its act in FY14. I will not be surprised if TCS touches 20% revenue growth in FY15 going by its acceleration and its renewed focus on making investments to fuel growth. They seem to be taking a leaf out of Cognizant’s book of high growth fueled by investments and topping it up with the TCS core competency of yielding industry leading operating margins. The overall employee count has crossed the magic number of  300,000  last quarter and its overall utilization was 80% (85% excluding trainees) this quarter.

Wipro is becoming a mystery as there is no specific indicative pattern that one can see over the quarters and its performance is showing fluctuations from time to time. This quarter (Q1, FY15) was a bad one for Wipro with a mere 1.2% QoQ growth with the saving grace being that the YoY growth is 9.6%. While it appeared very good with its Operating margins at 24.5% in the last quarter, it does not look as rosy with a drop In Operating Margins this quarter to 22.8%. Wipro is one company that is making all the right strategic moves and seamlessly translating them to action as well. Keeping this in view the not so rosy performance  and a lack of a clear visibility on whether it is out of the woods or not is indeed a mystery. It has a total of 1022 customers today with a net addition of 31 customers in the current quarter. The year FY15 will be an interesting year for Wipro as it will be a make or break year for this veteran Indian IT firm. Wipro has 148,000 employees on its rolls and its utilization stands at 69%.

HCL  is probably the only company which has become very predictive in terms of its quarterly performance and is indeed a very steady and reliable firm in terms of its growth. It has been showing a steady growth of 3-4% over the last several quarters. HCL has grown by 3.4% QoQ in Q1, FY15 which is in tune with its historical trend. And as I mentioned in one of my earlier communiques this will eventually become the norm for the Indian IT services industry very akin to the much talked about “Hindu rate of growth”. HCL has shown a steep increase in its operating profits as a % of its revenue from ~15% levels 8 quarters ago to ~25% levels today which is a very significant accomplishment. HCL has been growing at a CAGR of 15% over the last 3 years and at the same time its Operating margins are growing at a CAGR of a whopping 40% over the last 3 years.  The firm has 90,000 employees with an utilization of 84%. HCL has crossed 5 B USD in terms of its annual run rate in the year ending March 30, 2014. This will give it further access to the larger deals which in turn will further fuel its growth.

RESULTS FOR QUARTER ENDING JUNE 30, 2014:

The summary of the Q1, FY15 comparative analysis for Infosys, Cognizant TCS, Wipro and HCL is as follows:

1.       TCS leads in terms of QoQ Revenue growth at 5.5% with Cognizant following at 3.9%, HCL at 3.4%, Infosys at 2% and Wipro trailing at 1.2%

2.       TCS  leads in YoY Revenue growth at  16.7% with Cognizant following at 16.5%, HCL at 14.6%, Wipro at 9.6% and  Infosys trailing at 7.1%

3.       CTS leads in terms of QoQ Operating Profits growth at 6.1%, with HCL at 1.7%,  Infosys at 0.4%, TCS at -4.8% and Wipro trailing at -5.9%

4.       HCL leads in terms of YoY Operating Profits growth at 33.2% with Wipro  following at 24.9%, Cognizant at 14.3%,  Infosys at 14.5% and TCS trailing at 13.6%

5.       TCS leads in terms of Operating Profits as a % of revenues at 26.3% with Infosys following at 25.1%, HCL at 24.2%, Wipro at 22.8% and Cognizant trailing at 19.4%

6.       Cognizant leads in terms of SG&A expenses as a % of revenues at 19.2% with TCS following at 18.3%, Infosys at 11.9% and HCL trailing at 11.8%

Following is a chart showing the comparative analysis of these top firms on various financial parameters:

Q1, FY14
Parameter	Infosys	TCS	Wipro	HCL	CTS
Q1 Revenues(M USD)	2133	3694	1740.2	1406.9	2517.1
QoQ Growth	2.0%	5.5%	1.2%	3.4%	3.9%
YoY Growth	7.1%	16.7%	9.6%	14.6%	16.5%
Q1 Operating Profits(M USD)	536	972	397	340.7	487.9
QoQ Growth	0.4%	-4.8%	-5.9%	1.7%	6.1%
YoY Growth	14.5%	13.6%	24.9%	33.2%	14.3%
As % of Revenues	25.1%	26.3%	22.8%	24.2%	19.4%
Q1 Net Profits(M USD)	482	845	NA	305.4	371.91
QoQ Growth	-1.0%	-1.9%	NA	15.7%	6.6%
YoY Growth	15.3%	20.5%	NA	44.3%	23.8%
As % of Revenues	22.6%	22.9%	NA	21.7%	14.8%
Q1 SG&A Expenses	253	677	NA	166	482.9
As % of Revenues	11.9%	18.3%	NA	11.8%	19.2%

*Wipro does not give P&L for Global IT services separately. There is a single P&L for Wipro Limited

Please do feel free to send in your feedback and I will really appreciate comments and suggestions…

Note: The views expressed in the article above are purely the personal views of the author and have nothing to do with the firm he works for