Aloke Kumar's Blog

(Ram says) Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the most eminent of all? I have looked far and wide, there is no one on the right, On the left a chosen few, but who more eminent than you, my dear Ravan.  Copyright: Intellectual property posted on this Blog is copyright of the author(s) About the author:  Dr. Aloke Kumar is currently an Assistant Professor at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. He tweets at @aalokelab Disclaimer:  The article expresses the personal opinion of the author

Yantra-Vigyaan Advaita: The Non-dualism of Science and Technology It is impossible to construct an engine which will work in a complete cycle, and produce no effect except the raising of a weight and cooling of a heat reservoir . The reader may not be faulted for concluding that this is one of those perfunctory disclaimers in an automobile, refrigerator or a pump repair manual. Perhaps written uninspiringly by a dreary mechanic plodding through a listless day at work. In that case, you may be surprised to learn that this single statement is pivotal to explaining profound conundrums such as why time seems to only move forward, how even black holes can emit radiation, the nature of life itself, and why it is extremely unlikely that Humpty Dumpty will spontaneously come together after the fall. This statement is the second law of thermodynamics expressed by none other than the father of quantum theory, Max Plank. This veritable law of nature is perhaps more familiar to non-scie...

Art, Science and Dharma- The Indic triad of education The most strident criticism of the Indian education system is that it stifles creativity and bores the students to death through rote learning. One tech guru even went public so far as to say that Indian culture lacks creativity [1]. In private, the criticisms are even harsher. This issue is recognized by several educators and industry leaders and unless it is stemmed, it will become a roadblock for growth and prosperity of Bharat. This is not a mere academic coffee table issue or fervid paranoia. Lack of creative juices can not only stifle long term growth but also imperil the long-term dividends of important strategic initiatives such as ‘Make in India’. Without inculcating creativity, India’s demographic dividend will soon turn into a deadwood nightmare. A perfect trap of stagnation. In fact, few countries have managed to get out of the vice-like grip of long-term growth loss before fully reaching their potential. For a ci...

Jugaadism – An Infantile Disorder Neils Bohr once said that prediction is difficult, especially if it is about the future. Yet, engineers, generals, planners and ruling classes are expected to predicate their actions based on calculated expectations of the future. Jugaad hinders this process in many ways and threatens to make our society a collective myopic failure. It should not be admired and we must not descend into the culture of jugaadism 1 . Like many seductive, but ultimately disastrous, isms of the last century it needs to be buried into an unmarked grave. Jugaad is a neologism arising from the indic ‘to gather’. When the bar is set low, even gathering ingredients is fait accompli . In touting it as a laudable achievement, we not only hold ourselves back from the final finished product but, more dangerously, the very process of seeking the solution. It is the seeking, the manthan ( मंथन ; churning) , that is the backbone of irreversible positive development in a suc...

Assassinating Jugaad: The case for rigor - I Last fall the colloquial Hindi term   jugaad  was included in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) update - an event that was widely celebrated 1 . But, what does  jugaad  truly mean? The OED defines  jugaad  as "a flexible approach to problem-solving that uses limited resources in an innovative way" and it is this conflation of  jugaad  with 'innovation' that has brought the term into popular use. Wikipedia states that "Jugaad is increasingly accepted as a management technique and is recognized all over the world as an acceptable form of frugal engineering at peak in India”. So today, jugaad is much like the two faced Roman god Janus, where one face symbolizes a struggle against adversity, while the other symbolizes ‘frugal innovation’. India’s souls yearns to be a  jagat-guru  once again, and it has embraced the concept of ‘ jugaad ’ with open arms. But,  jugaad  is al...