Operation Camouflage by Amit Sidham

Just finished reading the book Operation Camouflage by Amit Sidana.  This is the first book I have read from Amit and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I picked up the book thinking it will be another spy or some other kind of thriller and will do for a light reading. But when I started reading the book I realized that it is not one of the other suspense and thriller book but one which talks about serious issues of environment degradation and the welfare of all the species that live on this earth and about our ancient knowledge of yoga, Ayurveda and the concept of holistic healing but camouflaged in a fictional story. Not only this but  it also has some out of box thinking ideas about the corporate word and lessons which we can learn to improve our corporate culture which is synonymous with the welfare and well being of its employees.

The main character of the book Adiyta meaning sun is one of the four other characters of the book who together derived their names and signifies the Panch Tatva of the nature, viz, air, water, fire, earth and the ether (Space) and referred in the book as Panch Bhoot.

Of course it is a work of fiction about the crusade launched by these five to protect the environment and the species that live on this earth. The novel is very gripping and the concepts given by Adiya about sustaining the environment and looking after the welfare of the inhabitants of this planet are worth discussing. These out of box thinking ideas can also form a basis for developing a new corporate culture based on Indian ethos and philosophy. The concept that a homo sapiens is also one of the species that inhabit this planet and hence the treatment of all the species for various diseases can be done by mastering the principles of Ayurveda and the techniques as given there. These concepts brought  my mind to another book by Dharamdas  on technological advances in Ancient India ,where he has compiled the book based on the records of the reports submitted and available in British Archives by the British travelers, intellectual in India on their witnessing a replacement of broken nose, making ice in 17th century, steel making, extraction of magnesium and the role played by Brahmin’s of Varanasi  in vaccinating with live germ to protect the children of Bihar and West Bengal them from kala azhar.

I strongly recommend reading this book and I am eagerly awaiting for his next book and some new out of box ideas on corporate culture and our ancient but otherwise lost or gradually loosing knowledge on Ayurveda and its techniques.

Modernizing Armed Forces-A New Approach

Modernizing our Armed Forces is an essential requirement but we have always been dependent on what is available in the market outside and which was developed to suit the requirements of that country or the buyers of the commodity and not necessarily what our armed forces require vis a vis the threat posed to us by Pakistan and China and in future may be Taliban/ Al Qaida.

In order to modernize the armed forces we need to develop our own and not be dependent on what is available outside. No country will sell its front line equipment which he is using but will always offer you the downgraded or older version. To modernize the armed forces we need to have persons developing the equipment of what they require by being with them, experiencing their problems, work to develop solutions to overcome these problems and test them in actual conditions.

At present the armed forces specify their requirements in technical terms. This requires that first they understand the problem, think towards he solution and after working out the solution convert them in technical term and specify them to the scientist who have no inking as to what was the problem. There is a communication gap from the lower formation to higher to specifying them in quantitative terms and scientists understanding the problem by just studying the requirements. Majority of the times one just goes through with what is available in the market, modify the specification with the thinking that this modified requirements will solve the problem. But sadly this does not happen and the developed equipment is not what armed forces had in mind and most of the time the problem is addressed only partially and the armed forces are forced to accept t as the development has consumed a lot of money. Typical examples are HF 24, Tejas, Arjun tank, etc. The problem is further complicated as the PSU’s are the only developer and supplier and have no competition from other private players. Compare this to a small country like Israel which has very strong private players in the defence production sector or USA where everything is in private sector.

A long term solution to overcome this issue is to develop from the grass route level the people who work with army and see the actual conditions, understand their problems and then have the intellectual and innovative skills to develop the solutions into equipment necessary to overcome the problem, test them in actual conditions and see their successful induction. A tall order but it can be done by not the QR set by armed forces which are set to develop good officers and men but not innovative and out of box thinking minds. To develop such minds we need to pick them up at very young age, expose them, train them and educate them in armed forces environment by giving them free everything and ensuring that the persons who graduate from these institutes are giving the prestige and honour they deserve as they will be the cream of innovative minds.

1.       Establish a separate department in Defence Ministry with brilliant officers from armed forces, scientists, educators and talent hunters with suitable budget.

2.       Their job will be to visit the schools and colleges especially the students in the age group of 14 to 18 years between 10 and 12 standard only and identify the boys/girls with innovative minds and out of box thinkers by developing suitable tests in association with psychologists, interviews and giving them problems which will involve out of box thinking.

3.       These students should not be confined to only science and engineering but can be from any discipline including medical, economics, etc.

4.       Identify what the student is good at and what he wants to do in future and encourage them to pursue that field.

5.       These students will undergo the rigor required for armed forces but will study to become scientists, engineers, economists or medical professionals, etc.

6.       For this either we need to create institute with the most brilliant minds to teach them and develop and sharpen their innovative and out of box thinking skills. Or a tie up can be created till these are established and fully functional with the premier institutes of India to train them with this special emphasis on out of box or innovative thinking.

7.       After graduating these candidates will be required to stay with armed forces for two to four years tenure where they will take up the problems faced by armed forces and develop .equipment to mitigate or remove these difficulties. After their tenure is over they can remain in the armed forces if they wish to or return to civilian life where they can set up enterprises to develop and supply their solution to armed forces and oversee their induction in the armed forces. Even during the training period the project works will consist of problems faced by armed forces with a view to suggest innovative solution for them.

8.       Help by way of finance or land and other clearances can be provided to set up their enterprises in once they return to civil life if they so desire.

9.       This will help in creation of a strong bond between armed forces and industry, better understanding of issues faced by armed forces and development of indigenous forces for our armed forces and will create a healthy competition between PSU and private sector.

10.   The training, education and stay should be free and should come out of special funds. To make it more attractive they can be treated as apprentice and given a stipend. They should be evaluated by seeing their response to problems and issues and not confined to examinations. These tests can be regular and at random also and candidates not coming up to required standard to be weeded out by sending them to normal schools. The aim should be to test their innovative and out of box thinking skills and how far they have advanced in this direction. It should be expected that such type of training and evaluation will have a high dropout rate but it is required that we have out of box thinkers and innovative minds even though they may be few.

11.   Maintain a strong bond and relationship with graduates of this training by involving them in discussions, evaluations, development and also in planning with regular get together and help.

Right To Die With Dignity

Right to die with dignity, not to be confused with nonexistent and punishable right to die, is an inescapable, undeniable and inseparable right along with right to live with dignity under article 21 of constitution as a fundamental right as observed by Supreme Court in a judgement.  The court went ahead and laid down certain guidelines, requirement and procedure to be followed for the right to be exercised by a citizen by giving rise to the concept of Advance Deceleration or sometimes referred to as Living Will. Supreme Court has also specified that the procedure as laid down by the court is to be followed till states enact their own law and rules in this regard. This has gained more importance because of the high cost of medical treatment in case of a person being declared brain dead or suffering from life threatening diseases. This has sometimes forced person to either commit suicide or sell of his land and even house in order to afford the treatment. Sometimes even the surviving member have no house or money to survive as all the money has gone into the treatment.

Advance declaration or living will is a document prepared by a person in healthy state of mind specifying that if he/she slides into vegetative state because of an irreversible terminal illness then the deliberate existence should not be prolonged with the help of life support system or other medical interventions. This will help the relatives/legal heirs the agonizing decision of removing life support and will not only spare them from tough decisions but also from the misinterpretation by others and also help them in cutting the high cost where a patient is allegedly kept alive by some hospital in order to make more money.The doctors are also benefited as  they no longer have to make the Devil's choice.

The process of making a living will is the same as that of normal will except that instead of assets and distribution the person needs to specify the medical conditions where this advance declaration will become applicable and life support systems or medical interventions can be withdrawn .The registration is not done at registrar office but it is only countersigned by the Jurisdictional Judicial Magistrate First class (JMFC) and it will be his responsibility to keep it in digital as well as in paper form and return a countersigned copy to the executor. However the procedure for executing this living will, while the executor is in vegetative state, is slightly complicated and lengthy as compared to a normal will and is to done under the supervision and order of JMFC and the team of doctors as specified. They have the powers to certify that the person can be declared dead and all life support systems withdrawn.