#2 Less is more

1. 99+ per cent mass in animals and plants consist of just 4 elements – CHON – Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen and Nitrogen. All beauty of nature is designed with these 4 elements.
2. Design of all species and their behaviour and characteristics are based on just 4 elements – Cytosine, Guanine, Adenine and Thymine (CGAT).
3. Apple with just 4 products – iPhone, iMac, iPad and AirPods generates over 365 billion$ of revenues.
4. Sometime we celebrate and link productivity with higher number of activities.
5. Sometime I measure my importance with number of meetings per week or number of mails I receive in my mail box.
6. For Design Thinking – ‘why’ is important before ‘what’? ‘Why’ brings clarity of purpose.
7. Once there is clarity of purpose, one can make a few choices using his wisdom. Making a few choices are the most difficult decisions in the life of an individual.
8. Japanese decluttering guru Marie Kondo’s Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up has revolutionised lives by the ‘Power of Deleting’ principle. This principle creates space for thinking and execution.

I call ‘Less is More,’ as the First Law of Design Thinking.

#design #productivity #power #law #beauty #designthinking

December 12, 2021

My understanding of thoughts… #1 – Slow is fast

1. Thoughts are the starting point which helps drive us towards choosing the direction or dream or goal.
2. Thoughts are continuously coming to all of us at a very high speed.
3. When I wake up in the morning, I don’t control the origin of a particular thought.
4. The speed of thought varies during the days, weeks and various situations. Say it varies from 30 KM per hour to 100 KM per hour based on the situation.
5. The more the speed of the thought, the more energy is required thus faster blood flow and more glucose consumption. Continuous and fast speed of thoughts can put a strain on human organs from blood pumping, wear and tears to sugar management lines.
6. Meditation is the process to watch the speedometer of the speed of thoughts. Once you start watching the speed, the speed starts slowing down.
7. When we walk slowly then we can observe a lot of things around us, while driving in the car very few items are observable.

The slowness of thought speed makes us better listeners, observers and thus brings better empathy.

These are the prerequisites of good design thinking and better outcome.

#designthinking

December 12, 2021

15 Educationalists and Teachers before 1200AD

A couple of weeks ago I catalogued 15 Educationalists and Teachers before 1200AD and encouraged my network to add more to the list.

I was overwhelmed with the responses I got and truly appreciate each one of you for taking the time to add to my list. 

India is blessed with rich wisdom and knowledge since ancient times. It has a rich tradition of Intellectual heritage and its contribution has gone a long way to enhance the lifestyle of mankind. They are visible in the field of mathematics, arthashastra, formulae of medicine, vibrant art, literature and the list goes on.

Here is the list which is classified in 3 Groups (Group 1 – BC, Group 2 – 1 AD to 600 AD and Group 3 – 600 AD onwards) which is a testimony to us being blessed with rich wisdom and knowledge since ancient times.

#educationinindia #indiaeducation #wisdom

December 12, 2021

Great example of designing in the minds of villages

Transformation of villages can happen when villagers own the change and work together. In the above movie, Sidharth Tripathi, a government bureaucrat works with the tribal community and the change is visible.

1. Complete alcohol free tribal community
2. Family income increases 3 times from 3 crops per year vs. 1 crop per year. This is because of water conservation.
3. The education of the tribal women and then building SHG where banks are comfortable giving loans up to 5 lacs creating nextgen entrepreneurs.
4. Curiosity of villagers to learn scientific agriculture and crop diversity like Shimla Mirch etc., increased income further.
5. Youth participating in sports, this way they stay away from drugs and alcohol.
6. Both forest conservation and water conservation i.e. ecology drivers built in.

We visited Aram Kera villages in February 2021 and were amazed to see how Personal Development with minimal cost can drive 50 to 100 times the economic viability.

#transformation #ruralindia

November 12, 2021

15 Educationists and teachers of India before 1200 AD

We have recorded the history of kings. I was searching for the history of Educationists/Teachers in India but could not find one. I collected a list of 15 names before 1200 AD.
1. Valmiki – 4th BC to 7th Century BC
2. Sushruta – 6th Century BC
3. Mahavira – 5th Century BC
4. Buddha – 5th Century BC
5. Chanakya – 375 BC to 283 BC
6. Uma swami – 2nd Century AD
7. Kalidas – 4th Century AD
8. Aryabhata – 476 to 550 AD, Bihar
9. Varaha Mihira – 505 to 587, Astrologer in Ujjain, Brihat Samhita – Trigonometry
10. Brahmagupta – Mathematician – 598 to 668, Gujarat
11. Bhaskara I – 600 to 680 AD, Saurashtra in Gujarat
12. Shankaracharya – 700 to 750 AD
13. Aryabhata II – 920 to 1000 AD, Geometry and Maha Siddhanta
14. Ramanujam – 1017 to 1137 AD
15. Bhaskara II – 1114 to 1185 AD, Maharashtra Ujjain Observatory, Calculus predates Newton

I need more names to complete this list. Please do suggest.

#teachers #india #education

November 12, 2021

Five years of partnership with Banvasi Seva Ashram

We are proud to be partners with Banvasi Seva Ashram, five years on. As a part of our Mission Samriddhi programme, we are happy to contribute to their efforts towards child and youth development, while they also uphold Gandhian principles.

Sonbhadra is the poorest tribal district of UP where she has devoted herself. The entire family of Prem bhai – a Gandhian, his wife – Dr Ragini, MBBS MD and their two daughters Dr Vibha and Shubha are fully committed to this Ashram. They are transforming 445 villages of the district.

I recommend you to watch this video.

November 12, 2021

Two years of ADK Jain Eye Hospital

As of tomorrow, 24th November marks two years of our complete eye care charitable hospital, I congratulate Dr. Manju Verma and Dr. Ruma Gupta, who have driven this initiative and made our hospital a world-class one.

With 100 beds at this hospital, we are proud to have brought the facilities of urban medical care to rural India. Here patients can avail speciality care in a far easier manner. I have personally seen a 75-year-old lady accompanied by her grandson, travelling 20 km to attain eye care. ADK Jain Eye Hospital aims to make quality eye care accessible to more people like her. 

November 12, 2021
November 4, 2021

My Diary from Archives – Entrepreneurship – Juggling 6 balls

Today, I visited TieCon 2014 Chennai and many entrepreneurs during the day.
During the various meetings I observed 6 patterns of problems being faced by entrepreneurs.

1. Lots of discussions were around fund raising, valuations etc. I call this Finance Capital.
2. Second area was around product and its differentiation. We can call this IP Capital.
3. Once they have finance and IP capital then it’s about building a team. That’s about Human Capital.
4. Right customer identification and winning customer confidence is about building Customer Capital.
5. Once entrepreneurs have completed the first four blocks then they start thinking about systems and processes i.e. the power of Execution Capital.
6. Finally, scaling is about getting noticed and starting to get a few pull sales. This is building a brand – Brand Capital.

Now, imagine a cuboid of 1 inch side with 6 sides and write each capital on each side of its face.
Face 1 – Finance Capital
Face 2 – Product/IP Capital
Face 3 – Team/Human Capital
Face 4 – Customer Capital
Face 5 – Systems/Execution Capital
Face 6 – Brand Capital

Now, if each side of the cuboid grows 3 times or each Capital grows 3 times, what will be the overall growth of the Cuboid? Calculate.

27 times

And, if each side grows 4 times, what will be the impact on the business?

64 times

That’s the power of entrepreneurship.

October 12, 2021

Diwali – The economics of oil lamps

I was curious to know how much a family used to pay before the invention of electricity in the late 19th century.

A few data points which will help you connect the economics of light that we have been enjoying in the last 125 years.

1. One oil lamp consumes 15 ML of oil per hour.
2. One oil lamp lumen is around 10 lumens.
20 oil lamps for 4 hours per day for lighting a basic house requires 1.2 litre of oil every day or 36 litres of oil per month.
3. Cost of lamp oil per litre is around 180 rupees.
4. Thus the oil bill per month with just 200 lumens of light at home for a month will cost 6000 rupees.
5. Oil was not cheap in the olden days thus it used to form a substantial part of the family expenses.
6. The design of chandeliers was to increase the total lumen in a hall by aggregating 30-100 oil lamps.

Some more data:
1. A 20 watt LED has 1600 lumens equivalent to 160 oil lamps.
2. 160 oil lamps will consume 2.4 litres of oil per hour at 180 rupees which equals to 432 rupees per hour.
3. A 1000 watts per hour (1kwh) of electricity costs less than 10 rupees and 20 watts will cost 20 paisa.

Now you connect the dots and get your imagination to work. 

#economicsinnovation #data #electricity

October 12, 2021