Hunt for ‘Creative’ Jobs that cannot be done by machines

Wipro Ltd, post launching its artificial intelligence platform few months back, is now making its biggest push to embrace automation by allowing more of its managers to identify work which will not require engineers in each of the over 20,000 projects currently underway.This new capability implies that Wipro doesn’t just get to save on costs, but it fundamentally alters the traditional model of deploying armies of engineers to undertake software maintenance work.

These intelligent software programs are capable of handling a variety of workflows, and are advanced enough to even have a phone conversation with a client or a customer to help that person troubleshoot cable TV or cellphone service. In many cases, the person at the other end of the conversation does not even realize that he or she is talking to a machine! Additionally, these intelligent programs are also used in maintaining, updating and troubleshooting computing infrastructure, testing software programs and so on.

Surely, the trend of lower employee additions and shifting of workload away from human beings on to ‘intelligent computers’ cannot be expected to remain confined only to Wipro; and is likely to happen sooner than we may even imagine. But do we even know what's the cherry on top? It is not just IT jobs that will be done by machines; according to World Bank president Jim Kim, 69% of all jobs currently done by humans — including in agriculture and factories — in India will be done by machines in the future.

What does such inevitable developments imply for campus placements at India's engineering colleges? Would this prompt our engineering colleges to consider reducing seats? What about the investments they have made? Have they broken even? Did they bank too much on IT?

With the possibility of fewer technology companies coming to campuses getting real, should the placement cells at India's engineering colleges start actively inviting non-IT companies - the ones that have been ignored for decades?

The onus is now once again on humans to figure more ‘creative’ jobs that cannot yet be done by machines.

A study by Fortune finds that while machines will change jobs, but they are unlikely to fully take over from humans. The study further finds that the technical feasibility of automation is best analyzed by looking not at occupations as a whole, but at the amount of time spent on individual activities, and the degree to which these could be automated by using technology that currently exists and adapting it to individual work activities. Overall, the Fortune study found that only about 5% of occupations could be fully automated by adapting current technology. However, today’s technologies could automate 45% of the activities people are paid to perform across all occupations. What’s more, about 60% of all occupations could see 30% or more of their work activities automated.

So, while automation is making its mark on a number of different industries, it is being argued that there are still some jobs that require a human presence. So even as larger companies may be automating jobs, there are some jobs and tasks that cannot be turned over to machines. Listed underneath are 20 different jobs at the small businesses or that one could start a small business around that in most cases cannot yet be fully automated:

1. Designer
2. Artisan Chef
3. Garbage Collector
4. Gardener
5. Security Guard
6. Construction Worker
7. Architect
8. Writer
9. Researcher
10. Musician
11. Instructor
12. Retail Salesperson
13. Consultants
14. HR professionals
15. Skilled Trade Worker
16. Engineer
17. Photographer
18. Therapist
19. Manager
20. High end programmer

Disclaimer / Caveat: Whatever has been stated is based on publicly available information, and  the post does not represent the view of the organization the author works for. The article reflects the views of the writer alone and does not seek to offend any community within or outside India. Its purpose is to purely encourage discussion.

(This post is not copyrighted and may be reproduced freely with appropriate attribution of source)

Brahmaputra - The River that is Revered, not Worshiped

The recently held Namami Brahmaputra festival was a five-day event held from 31 March to 4 April 2017 to drive the message that the Brahmaputra "is not called ‘lifeline of Assam’ for nothing as this perennial river presents incredible business opportunities" and the entire length of the river through the state of Assam "is a bridge to drive economic progress in Southeast Asian markets, and is now vital to India’s ‘Act East Policy’.

While everything looks fine with the festival but the image and symbols invoked in the promotional songs of the festival seems to have not gone down well with many communities living in the state. While the cinematography is great, the video fails to capture colloquial nuances starting from this nomenclature - Namami. This is the upteempth time Sanskrit has been used to define the cultural matrix of the north eastern region. The word “Namami” is a forced import.  At the heart of the controversy has been the name itself, which detractors contend is an import from the phrase “Namami Gange” and has very little to do with Assamese culture.

What  I now understand from the local conversation in the region is that the “pranamo” and the “namami” invocation is the language of a latent “conservative” ideology which got its boost with the new government in Assam. According to some, tribal cultures that have grown around the river were ignored. The video could have included some stock footage of riverine tribes such as the Misings, if nothing else. A spokesperson of the Takam Mishing Porin Kebang, a Mising students’ organisation, complained: “The tribal people form a key part of Assam and its culture, all of us consist Assam together. The festival and its theme video doesn’t quite seem to represent that fact.”

Hafiz Ahmed, president of the Char Chapori Sahitya Sabha, a literary body representing Muslims living on the riverine islands of the river, said the community was not represented in the river festival at all. “Our cultural identity is not even recognised,” he said. “People on the chars [riverine islands] face the wrath of the Brahmaputra all the time, but a festival celebrating the river doesn’t even feature us.” This exclusion is perhaps not disconnected from the popular perception that people on the chars have always been branded as “illegal migrants”.

The Bordeori Samaj’s Rajib Sarma was scathing: “This the not the Hinduism we follow here in Assam. This is the RSS brand of Hinduvta being forced upon us.” According to Sarma, the organisers of Namami Brahmaputra did not extend a formal invitation to any of the priests of the Kamakhya Temple. “Not even the deol - the head priest, was invited,” he said. Only a priest close to the current dispensation was called and asked to perform some rituals, claimed Sarma. “So basically, according to this government, people from outside the state will teach us our customs now,” he said.

Some say that tribal sensibilities around the river have been relegated to the backburner for a long time now, is simply a manifestation of an aspiration of the affluent urban citizens of Assam whereby they increasingly want to be part of north-Indian cultural practices and theriefore is their enthusiasm for Namami Brahmpautra - which translates into the Ganga-esque treatment of the Brahmaputra.

Brahmaputra is a river that is revered, not worshipped. According to Arupjyoti Saikia, a historian of the river who teaches at the IIT Guwahati, there were no 'spectacular displays of public and community rituals' around the river till around the mid-20th century. Historical texts suggest that there was a sense of submission to the river from everyone who had anything to do with the river, which was pretty much anyone living in the region. 

The prayer abiding hands in the logo, in the video (Namami Brahmaputra - Theme Song (Hindi Version)) evokes a religious sacredness which is very different from the kind of folk forms of worship that exists in this region. The tribes of Assam have through their folk history preserved their own stories and experiences about the river Brahmaputra, which were untold in the video. Instead, it got reduced to a patronising, Hindutva-heavy fantasia, a series of images that add up to northern India’s fantasy of the river, rather than reflecting the local, plural, inclusive cultural experience around it. 

For instance - there was an evening aarti where Hindu priests, flown in from Haridwar, manoeuvred massive metal fire lamps as they offered prayers to the river in thelines of Ganga Aarti. In all these years, I have never seen the Brahmaputra being worshipped like that. The Brahmaputra is not the Ganga. Reportedly, thee is now a feeling of alienation among many when the priests from Haridwar conducted aarti in a manner highly similar to the ones conducted at Dashashwamedh ghat in Varanasi. This is being interpreted by many as an insult to Assam's Sattriya culture which does not propagate idol worship. The aarti happened when many Satradhikars, the heads of different Neo-Vaishnavite monasteries from all over Assam, were present at the banks of the Brahmaputra, specially invited for the festival.

Thankfully, over the last few days, the contents of the video have received mixed responses from people within Assam and outside. After following the gist of some debates, I re-watched the theme song (Namami Brahmaputra Promotional Video) and realised from my memories of growing up at Guwahati that some of riverine rituals depicted subtely in the video are as unlikely as watching Amitabh Bachchan praying on the banks of the Brahmaputra!

Not surprisingly many from the Brahmaputra valley now appear confused about the objective of the festival. While some believe it had something to do with the river linking project, some feel it was for promotion of Assam as a tourist destination. In the incumbent political party's short period of running the state government in Assam, a pattern seem to be emerging where there is a tendency to present the state as homogenized entity from the lens of Hindutva. The Namami Brahmaputra festival in its promotion appears to have been limited in demonstrating the presence of multiplicity of cultures in the region and in light of other policies, it looks more like the state of Assam must be ready for more imposition of brahmanical Hinduism.

Disclaimer / Caveat: Whatever has been stated is based on publicly available information, and  the post does not represent the view of the organization the author works for. The article reflects the views of the writer alone and does not seek to offend any community within or outside India. Its purpose is to purely encourage discussion.

(This post is not copyrighted and may be reproduced freely with appropriate attribution of source)

A Low Decible, Low on Rhetoric Model of Development

Pawan Kumar Chamling has been one of India's longest serving Chief Ministers - 22 years, 111 days as on date. Only two CMs come to mind, who come close to Mr.Chamling - Mr.Manik Sarkar of Tripura and Mr.Naveen Patnaik of Odisha. Mr.Chamling leads a Landlocked Sikkim, which is bounded to the north and northeast by the Tibet Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China, to the west by Nepal, to the southeast by Bhutan, and to the south by the Darjeeling district of the Indian state of West Bengal.

Chamling has been Chief Minister of the state since 1994, and the State has made tremendous improvement in all areas of human development, in spite of the intensity and frequency of natural calamities, impacting both its ecosystem services as well as livelihoods. Originally the land of Lepchas, Sikkimese society bears a strong influence of Tibetan Lamaic traditions and Hinduism as well. The benevolent rule of the early Lepcha rulers and the later Buddhist influence has shaped the social and political evolution of the state in a peace loving society. The state today is a beacon of peace, and has remained peaceful despite so many provocations in its neighborhood.

While it may be argued that governance of such a small population spread over an equally small geographical area may seem a relative advantage, however in reality Sikkim’s geo-physical characteristics have always posed special challenges for public administration and human development. The state’s physiographic set-up makes the lives of  people extremely vulnerable to earthquakes and landslides. The region has experienced relatively moderate seismicity, with 18 earthquakes of magnitude 5 or greater over the past three and a half decades. Besides, being a small mountainous state it has been a severe challenge to ensure universal access to essential goods and services. But, ever since Chamling took charge of the State as its Chief Minister, the State has won more than 80 national and international awards from government institutions and reputed non-governmental organizations in various developmental, environmental and innovation sectors. Chief Minister Chamling's vision for sustainable tourism has seen Sikkim bagging national awards and international recognition with unfailing regularity. 

Extreme poverty is now virtually absent in the state. Almost all children are in school. In 2015 Sikkim also had the fourth lowest cognizable crime rate of 119.3 (per 100,000 persons) in India; as against West Bengal's, Gujarat's and Tamil Nadu's at 193.0 , 203.6 and 723.2 (per 100,000 persons) respectively.

The Chamling government had consciously stepped up social spending from 27% in 2001 to 37% in 2012–13. Sikkim’s average annual increases on its budget allocations over this period were 12% for education, and for the health sector 18%. Sikkim now has the third lowest levels of malnutrition in the country, following Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland. The state has achieved universal sanitation coverage for all households. The State also boasts of  female labour force participation at 40 %, which is significantly higher than the national average of 26%. In  2011, Sikkim reported the lowest percentage of the population below the national poverty line, at 8%.

Even in terms of action plan for dealing with climate change, Sikkim has made remarkable progress, and can provide replicable models for other states for addressing climate change issues, impact and adaptation strategies. Sikkim was the first state to carry out micro-level climate change related vulnerability assessments of rural communities. The Sikkim State Council of Climate Change has been constituted to ensure appropriate policy interventions. A nodal department for climate change has also been set up. A Glacier and Climate Change Commission has been constituted which works with several other relevant institutions for in-depth studies on climate change.

Consumption is, after all, one of the chief and widely accepted measures of well-being, and therefore monthly per capita consumption expenditure for states is a very good measure of assessing general well being in a state. Analysis of state-wise monthly per capita consumption expenditure data, accessed from Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation at the time of writing this post, indicates Rs.1565 for rural Sikkim (vis-a-vis rural Gujarat - Rs.1536) and Rs.2608 for urban Sikkim (vis-a-vis urban Gujarat - Rs.2581), at their prevailing levels of industrial investments and other forms of livelihood.

If any state needs to be truly lauded for its development model, and its developmental be considered as a 'model' model - Sikkim is surely a forerunner in the list. If someone has to be upheld as a Vikash Purush...Chamling perhaps deserves that accolade more than anyone else in the country.

But sadly, India doesn't like to hear such success stories, stories that don't have rhetoric and noise.

***
Prominent awards and honours bestowed upon Sikkim since 1994 under the leadership Chief Minister Chamling include:
1) Number 1 in Sustainable Competitiveness (2011)
2) Number 1 in the Environment Sustainability Index of Indian States for the year 2009
3) Sikkim earned the rare distinction of being the first and only State in the country to achieve 100 percent physical coverage in rural sanitation in 2008, and that in an extremely hostile and fragile Himalayan topography.
4) Second best performing State in Panchayat Empowerment & Accountability Incentive Scheme Award in 2008-09
5) Prime Minister’s award for 2011-12 for its initiative ‘Excellence in Rural Management and Development
6) India Today ‘State of The States’ Awards in 2004
7) The first national award for ‘Best Tourist Performing State’ in Northeastern States category from the Ministry of Tourism in 1998-99. Sikkim won the award for four the next four consecutive years and then continued from 2005-06 onwards. In 2006-07, Sikkim won the national award for ‘Best State for Tourism Related Programme.’ The State also won the ‘Most Innovative and Unique Tourism Project Award 2010-11’
8) JRD Tata Memorial Award in 2008 for outstanding performance in population, reproductive health and family planning programme. 
9) Bagged three national awards for MGNREGA implementation in 2009-10.

Disclaimer / Caveat: Whatever has been stated is based on publicly available information, and  the post does not represent the view of the organization the author works for. The article reflects the views of the writer alone and does not seek to offend any community within or outside India. Its purpose is to purely encourage discussion.

(This post is not copyrighted and may be reproduced freely with appropriate attribution of source)