Is Science Neglected in India?

Today, the importance of research in various fields is clear to everyone. When hundreds of thousands of articles in different fields are published each year, resulting in an increase of knowledge at every moment, peoples run a risk of lagging behind and being backward. The capability of countries to present and publish their scientific research papers represents their scientific development. This is as true in the Basic Sciences as in other fields such as IT.

But as per the Indian Governament's Scientific Advoiser CNR Rao, India is lacking in the Publications of Scientific Papers and If we don't take considerable steps to change this, we have may encounter many problems.
Here are some points he pointed out in his paper, whose link is given at the bottom.

WHEN we gained independence in 1947, we fervently hoped that India would emerge as a progressive, economically sound country, where social justice prevailed. As Gandhiji had pointed out, true freedom meant wiping out unemployment, bridging the gulf between the rich and the poor, banishing communal strife and ensuring that millions of Indians wholeheartedly participated in nation building.
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India is one of the few countries, which, from the very beginning, recognized the importance of science in national development. The science policy resolution of 4 March 1958 moved by Pandit Nehru clearly states that we have to secure for the people of the country all the benefits that can accrue from the acquisition and application of scientific knowledge.

Unless we are able to accomplish this rather difficult task, there is the grave danger that India will continue to remain a backward country for a long time. Because of increasing competition as well as an increasing population, we will face even bigger challenges and problems in the years to come, if we do not launch a constructive programme of action geared to transforming India into an economically and morally sound nation.

The educated and enlightened citizens of India have a special responsibility to the nation today, to accomplish the objectives and roles set forth here.

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Source:http://www.india-seminar.com/2005/547/547%20c.n.r.%20rao.htm

More than a process

The great software-development-methodology wars never cease to amaze me. Agile, Waterfall, XP, SCRUM, RUP… so many people are so occupied with convincing everyone around them that their favorite methodology is the ultimate answer to practically any question.

Why is this a problem? Because no one methodology will ever be able to solve all problems. The process of developing software is (like almost anything else in our life) context sensitive. With every new project comes a different set of challenges, constraints and expectations. Each methodology has some great things to offer. No methodology, however, can fit as-is to every project.

In a recent post, Ed Gibbs describes how he was disappointed to realize that the stakeholders of a new project refused to adopt Agile development despite of some successful pilots conducted in his company:

“I just assumed that we’d be using our official Agile methodology on this high profile project. […]

[…] I turned out to be on a different page then the rest of the room. There idea appeared to be that we would run this as a traditional project. Traditional for us means a sort of strange version of waterfall, but waterfall none-the-less.”

Here’s the good news. The methodology wars are 90% psychological. If we would just stop using the names of one methodology or another in our discussions, most of our disagreements will disappear. At the end of the day, it all comes down to common sense.

In his post, Ed was troubled by the risk of spending weeks on writing requirement documents for a two-month project. Ed is right. This is a concern. It does not make sense to spend weeks on writing lengthy documents for such a short project. I bet he will be able to convince the other project’s stakeholders that there is a better way to manage the requirements in this project. I bet he will be able to do that without mentioning the word ‘Agile’.

At the same time, it might make sense to take a different approach when it comes to another aspect of development. Maybe the design of the product should be well-thought of before implementation starts due to the complexity of the product and the risk it imposes. Does this approach contradict Agile development? You know what, I don’t really know. What I do know is that for some projects it makes perfect sense.

You see, it doesn’t matter what you call it. Apart from the pseudo-prestige of saying “we use [your-favorite-methodology]”, the name of the methodology has no meaning.

Every methodology offers certain tools, guidelines and practices. That’s great. You have a great variety to choose from. No one says, however, you have to buy the entire package. You should use whatever tools and practices make sense for your current project. Create a customized process that fits perfectly to your needs and the needs of your stakeholders.

When you manage to do that, don’t be tempted to apply your customized process to a different project as-is. You should carefully analyze whether your process fits the new project, and adapt it as needed.

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One more thing: please don’t comment on the fact that this article is tagged under ‘Agile’ against my own recommendation. That is, unless you really have to… ;)

Project Management

“If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience.”
George Bernard Shaw

Here’s a fictional scenario. It takes place in a project postmortem session. The product manager looks in his papers or dashboards and says something like “We had too many defects in this project”. The developers look at each other. They know anything they say will sound like an excuse. “So,” the project manager continues, “I guess we’ll have to do better next time!”

Learning from experience is not that simple. It is simple when you can easily identify cause-and-effect. A child may touch a hot surface once, but as soon as he gets his finger burnt, he will learn to be more careful next time. Cause-and-effect is apparent in this case. But life is more complicated to be described as a sequence of cause-and-effect events. And a software project is no different.

A software project is a dynamic and complex system. To start with, it involves many stakeholders: the customer, the project manager, developers, testers, the development lead, marketing, and management. External forces, such as regulations and competition, often influence the project as well. And then there are of course other projects, which might compete on the same resources. To this inherent complexity, one can also add changes in the requirements, third-party components’ failure, sudden crisis modes, and other unfortunate events.

Learning from experience means examining what happened in the project. It means analyzing what made it a successful project, or what were the problems in the project and how they could have been avoided. But this is not trivial to do in such a complex and dynamic system.

A prerequisite of any analysis process is having meaningful data to analyze. This may sound trivial, but think of the last time you had a project postmortem (or if you prefer a more positive term: “lessons learned” or “retrospect”) session on one of your projects. Chances are that you had in front of you some raw data, such as the number of bugs, the project plan, the different artifacts that were produced as part of the process, etc. But this raw data doesn’t tell the whole story. It doesn’t necessarily tell you what really happened. If you identify, for example, a sudden increase in the number of bugs, you’re probably just looking at a symptom. To really learn something useful from this data you must understand what caused the sudden increase. And the same applies of course to schedule slippage, customers’ complaints, etc. Behind all these symptoms there are people, processes, dynamics, and events, which are not reflected directly in the data generated during the project.

Fortunately, there’s a simple way to fill in most of the gaps: maintaining a project log. The project log is used to record what really happened during the project. How do you do that? Quite simply. Every member of the development team and other stakeholders as well, can access it at any time to record an event.

What events should be recorded? Anything that might have an influence on the project. When there’s a change in the requirements — log it. A crisis in a different project caused some interference — log it. An external component was buggy and support was a disaster — log it. The artificial-intelligence-enabled sprinklers system in your office decided it’s time for a cold shower without any apparent reason, and your entire team was not able to work for a week — that’s right, log it.

It might seem funny at first, but think of it: you’re probably using logs to record events in the software you create. Logging events in a software product is used for understanding what went wrong in case of a failure. The exact same idea should be applied to project management. If you want to understand the source of a failure (or a success for that matter), you must first understand what really happened — what were the dynamics that led to this failure (or success).

It’s not about making excuses or preparing a cover-up. The purpose of a project log is to provide you an additional view of the project. Trying to re-create what really happened without a real-time recording is not effective. With all the stress around the project, and the frequency of internal and external events, many things will evade you.

In one of the project-postmortem sessions I attended, one of the developers claimed that it took him a whole week to address a last-minute change in the requirements. Nobody in the room seemed to remember it this way. They were all certain that this particular change request had been implemented in less than a day. With a project log, this wouldn’t have happened. Getting your facts straight is a prerequisite for driving an improvement. If you cannot agree on the facts, you won’t be able to come up with a real improvement plan.

But the best part about having a project log is that you don’t have to wait until the project ends to analyze it. Analyzing problems after they occur is only second best to preventing them altogether. If you analyze your project log on regular basis, you will soon be able to identify certain patterns, which may be the source of potential problems. You will be able to address these potential problems while they are still manageable. You would learn to expect the “unexpected”.

There isn’t any magic about it. The project log will not provide you an answer to every question you have. The dynamics of a software project are often more complex than what you can capture in a sequential log. But a project log is a good start. It provides you a breadcrumb trail to help you find the source of problems and the reasons for successes, so in your next time you can do even better.

Human Rights

The horrific terror attacks on 11 July 2006 and 8th sep 2006 in Maharashtra have caused outrage across the world but following similar attacks in London, Madrid and New York it comes as no huge surprise. That these attacks seem to have received less attention in the West is another story but Indian citizens have become used to the world ignoring terror attacks in India. More worryingly however is the general attitude of the Indian government to terror attacks on its own citizens and Hindu religious sites. Already this year there have been numerous attacks on civilians and especially children in India.
Further, it is the Indian government itself which is largely responsible for creating the arena of hatred against Hindus and Hindu culture through its policies since Independence. The education system in India openly discriminates against Hindus and Hinduism which fuels the cycle of denigration we see in the Indian media. It is also the government of India which has continued and extended colonial policies designed to impoverish local economies through the taxing and land grabbing of (only) Hindu temples. The government's example is carried through to its logical conclusions with the ethnic cleansing of Hindus from the state of Jammu & Kashmir and in North Eastern India. Parts of India's countryside are also now in the control of Maoist terrorists, supported by their allies in the Indian government and responsible for killings of Hindu villagers and Hindu tribal peoples.

BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL

Black is beauty.

This is one of the abstract topics I came across and since I am damn jobless now(i have job but it is not helping me to improve my financial condition) and also it is my favorite color, I thought I would write on that. Black- this word reminds me many things like; the night sky, the eyes, the movie (also) and many more. I like this color so much; any thing I buy the first time for myself should be black. I have a strong desire to experience anything first time in black. This craziness can be attributed to me.
I love mystery, things which are not explicit, not quite comprehensible. The night time, at times the moonless pitch dark time is mysterious, when every one on this earth would be cuddled up in their caves, it seems to me as if the whole universe is laughing at us(people) for our cowardly act. It seems to me as if it is calling us for a fantastic exploration, asking us to use our brains in solving the puzzles and mysteries of night and revel in the revelation. This is the dark time when one feels the eternity, the whole thing dark and it is just you and you and you alone with the eternity.
Black is beautiful for it is mysterious and dazzling. It is attractive yet repulsive. It tells one so many things and yet none, it is elegant yet ugly, the paradoxes can be listed on and on. I would go to the extent of defining everything on this earth which is beautiful and also ugly as black. This may sound a little out of scope because beauty or the absence of it depends only on the perspective; something mysterious about the object defines both. If some thing is beautiful, then there is something black about it, something incomprehensible, some thing to be explored and the same holds for the opposite.
Black is beautiful because it gives rise to all other things, I mean all other things literally. Black gives rise to white; here the analogy may be from night to day. A lady’s womb is black which gives rise to the amazing life, it is in the black of meditation or peace is the enlightenment born. It is in the black does the union takes place, it is in the black every element is born.
It is in the black when the superior gains power, total control is established, intelligence resonates and everything reaches its peak. All these can be attributed to the color because it is the only color to my knowledge, which has no different shades; it is just the one and only color and is perfect. No varying shades which may cause confusion as to which is mentioned. It is the symbol of power, total control and unity, which is the master of all. It is mysterious for it symbolizes both power and self destructing qualities like hatred, jealously. It is intriguing because it doesn’t discriminate those explicitly, leaves it for the sixth sense, which is stimulating (mentally).
Black is absolute and is the supreme.

MOTIVATION

At times one has to ask this question; what have I achieved in life? I am staring blankly at the monitor as if some answer would jump out right in front of me and would give me quite a pleasure, rather a relief from this tormenting question. At this age of 24, no one is expected to have turned a mountain upside down but is definitely expected to have set a course for that. Have I really planned up to that extent? Am I clear enough about my goals and my future. I do not know, or rather I do not know whether I know, albeit both means and leads to the same conclusion. Anyway I think the former would reflect a clearer state of mind (though relatively).

How time passes off no one realizes, for the amount of time I had in all my engineering days , I could have utilized more efficiently. I have never ever been a “born” engineer, I here mean the those who behave as If they have sacrificed all their joys and enjoyments for the sake of engineering.
Here I see some of the students who have utilized all the time they had and gone up the ladder, where as there are some others who are left out and are whining now. What is that makes all the difference? How much and what kind of motivation does one require, if at all it can be quantified and qualified according to the personality? I have seen some students being highly active from the day one and continuing the same till the end, for some it is like the gusto in the start and an exponential decay, for some it is the exponential rise, for the rest it is nil from start to finish. What motivates them? I am led astray.
Some have that high school habit or rather passion for the first rank, some think that they will be regarded as one intelligent brain if they have high scores, there are some queers who want to impress the opposite sex. Are these the only things?
So people out there, tell me what motivates/motivated you to achieve whatever you have.

Can God be found?wht bible tells?

God will be found by those who seek Him.

Proverbs 8:17
Those that seek me early shall find me.
Mt.7:8, Luke 11:9-10
Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

God will not be found by those who seek Him.

Psalm 18:41
The cried, but there was none to save them: even unto the Lord, but he answered them not.
Proverbs 1:28
Then shall they call upon me but I will not answer; they shall seek me early but shall not find me.
Lamentations 3:8
Also when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer.
Lamentations 3:44
Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through.
Amos 8:12
They shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it.
Luke 13:24
Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.

What is the solution?

So, What's Your Game?

I’m an avid Computer games player.

But I’m not an addict. I used to play heavily when I was in college. Nowadays, with a job, my play hours have been reduced to virtually nil. Nevertheless, when I have time to spare I do play small computer games.

Till now i have played games like Age Of Empires,Max Payne,Rise Of Nations,Half -Life and among them Age of Empires and Rise of Nations are my favorites.


So, What's Your Game?

Creativity?

I was reading some one's blog yesterday and news of his departure from his company to pursue more “creative” endeavors has got me thinking.

What have I done “creatively” in the past years aside from work-related stuff? Virtually nothing … except if you count blogging “creative”.

Ever since graduating from college close to two years ago, I’ve been stuck in the vicious cycle of corporate life. Whatever time I have left from the conundrum of the office I spend on personal pursuits that nourish my sanity, my soul and my spirit – family, friends and reading Books.

So, i am thinking, have I been nourishing myself creatively? The answer – no.

In my school days, I used to draw a lot, and used to do some scientific Experiements & model making.And even during college days i used to do some creative work on computer.

I did a lot of creative stuff then that nourished my creative hunger.But the reality of the working life changed all that …

With my recent penchant to read the blogs of artists, writers the creative hunger is growing but I am unable to satisfy it yet.