स्वार्थ, दम्भ औ’ गर्व का पिंजरा
लटकता टँगा रह जाता है
प्रेम का पंक्षी दह जाता है
इतिहास सदा ये कह जाता है
….अभय….
The cage (Selfishness and Pride) burns the bird (Love). This is happening since generations.
Month: April 2020
80-20 Rule: Does it work in personal life?
Today I am presenting you one of the management principles, which some of you might already be knowing. This has helped many in both personal as well as professional life. It has wide usage in business as well as economics. The axiom “80-20 Rule”, in general, means that the input-output relationship is not balanced. In other words, 80% of the consequence (Output) is the result of 20% of the cause (Input).
How this Rule came:
This rule is also known as Pareto Principle, named after esteemed economist Vilfredo Pareto. He gave this principle after observing the land distribution pattern in Italy. According to his observation, 80% of the lands in Italy belonged to just 20% of the population. Taking cue from the skewed relationship, he furthered his observation
How we can understand it works!
*Student uses/can use this technique very well. (I also did :-D) Based on previous year question papers, they can easily understand which portion of their syllabus can fetch them maximum marks. Based on that analysis, they will only focus those parts (20%) which may fetch them maximum (80%) score in the exam.
*It is observed by many corporation that 80% of their Revenue comes from just 20% of the customers. Take an example, let’s say Telecom Industry. Not everyone recharge their mobile phones with the amount which is in higher bracket. Generally business firms or government offices which has the bulk of the connections are the source of larger revenue. Hence, the company may have millions of customers on paper but many of them keep balance in their phones just enough to maintain the incoming and outgoing facility.
*Many organisations has reported that 80% of the firms profit is driven by only 20% of the employees. Hence focusing to retain those 20% is their main concern.
*This principle also holds good in the field of quality assurance in manufacturing sector. Observation suggests that 80% of the defects are sourced from nearly 20% of the causes. Hence if the firm can minimise these cause then they can also get away from most of the defects from the product and in turn can save time, effort and money.
How can we apply it in day to day life:
The purpose of my writing is to let my readers know that we can use this principle in day to day life and hence we can increase our productivity as well as efficiency.
Let me just share one simple and relatable example which is more visible especially in the period of lockdown. Many a times we cry that we are not able to do certain things which are close to our heart due to dearth of time. This principle will help you in generating extra time. As saving is generating. I suggested this principle to one of my friend, who was also complaining that he is unable to learn guitar because he doesn’t have sufficient time. He recently applied this and shared his experience.
First thing he did is that he spent time in observation about his daily schedule. He found that his mobile usage on daily basis accounts for one of the highest source of time utilisation. He also took the help of technology in tracking his activity. Don’t get swayed away by the word “technology” as he did not purchase any gadget to monitor him, but used existing one i.e. Mobile Phone. There is a feature in his phone (now a days everyone has) which gives the hourly utilisation of different applications. He got astonished to know that WhatsApp and YouTube, only these two apps took his more than 5 hours daily whereas he had more than 30 applications installed in his phone. He realised that many a times he opened WhatsApp when it was not needed. He used just to check status, of which he has already seen many a times. So now he was aware that what is the distraction for him and accordingly he set a fixed time for each applications. After nearly a month along with his experience he shared with me a short clip of how he is learning the guitar by saving extra 3 hours!!!
This is just a single example of how 80-20 Rule can be applied in our life. Hope this piece will help you figure out your own interest area to reflect.
Note: One thing which needs to be understood that 80-20 is not a strict figure to follow. It just help us to prioritise the most important feature from other and accordingly one can work upon them.
जो नज़रों से गिर जाएँ..
पतझर में पेड़ों से पत्ते,
नीचे गिर आते हैं
वसंत आते ही पेड़ों पर पत्ते,
वापस से आ जाते हैं
जो नज़रों से गिर जाएँ
उनके उठने का
कोई मौसम नहीं होता
……अभय……
Understanding Reservation System in India
Today is 129th birth anniversary of Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, a towering personality in Indian freedom movement and framer of the Indian Constitution. His emancipatory work for Schedule Cast (SC) and other marginalised section of Indian society makes him a revered figure among them. However, it will be a gross injustice to him if we only restrict Ambedkar as a leader of that specific section of population. He was a true genius, a great political scientist, a remarkable economist, a jurist, a polyglot and, above all, ray of hope of millions of those who were thrown into darkness of slavery, untouchability and pauperisation since generations. Awarded Bharat Ratna only in 1993, he is one of those personalities whose stature have grown by time. A lot many articles must have published today in different platforms regarding his life and work, I will restrict myself to one of the outcomes of his political struggle, which is highly contentious as well, i.e. “Reservation”. Wherever the discussion regarding reservation takes place, my common experience is that it has a tendency to get divided in to two sections. One those who support and other those who oppose it. However, my purpose in this article is very simple. I would try to explain how the judicial interpretations, judgments and government actions have evolved over the period of time regarding this policy of reservation.
Our constitution rests of the principle of balance between Parliamentary Sovereignty and Judicial Supremacy. This simply means that Indian Parliament has right to frame legislation which it deems necessary, however, these legislations are consistent with the Indian Constitution will be decided by the Supreme Court. Indian constitution give the fundamental right to each citizens. One among them is “Right to Equality”. Which means, in simple language, every person will be same in the eyes of the law and there will be no discrimination based on caste, gender, religion, race and place of birth. However the policy of reservation apparently seems to be discriminating. People from specific communities or categories are given reservation in educational institutions, government jobs and in political representation. These measures were taken to uplift the socially, educationally (and recently economically) section of society. The whole purpose, as per the proponent of reservation is to bring more equity in the society.
To understand that equality is not always desirable and concept of equity is more justifiable, we can look to the following representation
Here we can see, in first half, everyone stands on the same plank of same height which represents the equality. However, in second part of the image, the one with shorter height is given more favour so he can also enjoy the game equally, which was not possible in earlier case. This positive discrimination is called equity. Reservation, as per those who advocates the policy, serves the same purpose. However those who opposes this policy, as per them, it’s just the gross injustice inflicted upon the meritocracy. They say that even if the caste system were prevalent in past and out of that many disabilities were imposed on so called lower caste, still why to punish the current generation for the act which they haven’t done.
Timeline
Originally, reservations were given to the people from SC/ST community. The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes comprise about 16.6% and 8.6%, respectively, of India’s population (according to the 2011 census). If we look at the reservation figure for these two communities, it stands in proportion to their population. People from Schedule Caste gets 15% and from Schedule Tribe gets 7.5% reservation.
In 1979, Morarji Desai government, invoked the article 340 of the Indian Constitution and formed Second Backward Class Commission under the Chairmanship of B.P Mandal to investigate the conditions of the socially and educationally backward classes and to suggest measures for their progress. After nearly one year the commission submitted its report and identified 3743 social groups which were educationally and socially backward. For their advancement, the commission suggested that they should be given 27% reservation in Government Jobs (not in educational institutions). However, one should keep in mind that 27% in not an arbitrary number but a constitutional necessity. The reason being that in 1963 Supreme Court of India has given a judgment in which governments were barred to give reservation more than 50% in government jobs in a year. Since SC and ST reservation (15%+7.5%=22.5%) accounts for approx. 23% hence 27% OBC reservation will save the possibility of judicial scrutiny. However, the Janta Government collapsed and the commission report was not implemented immediately. It was implemented 10 years later by V.P. Singh government, and they awarded 27% reservation to Other Backward Class (OBC) community in government jobs. In 1991, P.V. Narsimha Rao government made few changes and added two more provisions: First, creamy layers among OBC will not get benefit of reservation and Second, he also proposed 10% reservation for Economically Weaker Sections of the so called upper caste.
When this policy of the government for giving reservation to OBC came, there were fierce opposition to this. Many litigations were filled in the Supreme Court and finally SC gave a landmark judgement in the Indra Sawhney v. Union of India, (1992) which is also Known as Mandal Case.
The important outcomes of the judgement
*Creamy Layers among OBC should not enjoy the Benefits of Reservation
*SC rejected the 10% quota given to Economically Weaker Section among General Category
*Reservation should not exceed 50% in a year
*There should be reservation only at entry level and not in Promotions
*Carry forward rule should be there but it should not exceed 50%
However government took several steps to nullify the Supreme Court order. Through 77th Constitutional Amendment in 1995, government enabled reservation in promotion as well for SC and ST community. By the 81st Amendment Act of 2000, ruling with regard to backlog vacancies was nullified. By 85th Amendment Act of 2001 the government allowed ‘consequential seniority’. But no steps were taken in regards the nullification of reservation given to General Category. Very recently in 2019 through 103rd Amendment Act government gave 10% reservation to EWS category from General Category.
I tried to present, in brief, the history of reservation in India. Initially our framer of the constitution allowed reservation in political representation for only 10 years but subsequent amendments of the constitution it is still in continuation. Hope this brief write up will help you to give some insight.
Do let me know your views on Reservation System in India. #StaySafe
Today while reading news paper , I came across a heartwarming narration. After reading this piece, four lines automatically came to me.
संकीर्णताओं की पिंजरे से
अब भी, आज़ाद कोई परिंदा है
इंसानियत की हर रोज़ लाशें बिछती हैं
किसी कोने में मानवता अब भी ज़िंदा हैं
…..अभय…..
the ETERNAL tryst 
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