W. Edwards Demming (The Quality Control Super Guru) has said that 80% of the quality problems are the result of the poor systems designed by management in which workers work and 20% of problems are due to workers’ own faults.

When Indians come to the US, they automatically undergo transformation or adaptation to learn the American System (enculturization)and behave in ways they would not dream of behaving in India under the Indian System.
However, there are still certain Indian systems that I prefer to the American System, namely in matters of family, education, respect and care for elders, and societal restraints on individual norms in matters of dress, modesty, etc.

To answer your question about how great systems are made in the first place, the system itself sees to it that such things take place.
Did we not have a Gandhi, a Dhirubhai Ambani, a NRN who were a part of the system but changed it for once and all. The thing we have to realize is it’s the individual entity who knows that he’s in a system and it takes time to change the system, can change the system. A knee jerk or a temporary solution cannot move a system from its state of inertia, it will try to come to the same state.

@Sudhanshu
I find that the amount of effort put in from our side in getting a complaint forward is not generally recorded in this call centre systems. At first Mr.Abraham will answer, the second day Miss.Tina and the third day Mrs.Sujatha. If you are talking to one person, you can reasonably assume that s/he can understand your frustrations when you shout at them. But everytime an alien answers your call, it just does not make sense to shout or crib.

-Mike

@chaitanya:
I agree with you. Time is not still ripe, as most economists don’t give a thought to it or still think that all this green talk is hokum.

-Mike

I’m staying in Kharadi, and I know exactly how you feel. Though I’ve heard BSNL is coming here, I don’t know how long will it take.

Anyways, here’s a tip. Ask the call center to send the engineer to your place. After you ask them about ten times they will finally send one guy to your place. Now that is your chance!!

Ask a couple of friends to come home when this guy comes. Lock the door, and tell him to he has to stay there till the problem is reproduced and fixed again. Make him stay for at least eleven in the night before you let him go.

And yes, ask him to make all calls from your cellphone, so that the next time you know who to call.

And suppose nobody comes to your place after you have tried a number of times, go to their office on the first floor in MegaCenter, and bring one guy along with you.

I guess you get the idea. It worked well for me, and should work for you too…

With the recent spurt of news channels, I think its up to each of us to utilize these to improve the conditions around us. Let us leverage the powerful forces that they are.

“Since this is a blog by an economist about India’s development, I am tempted to ask how come the modern economic thought considers the natural environment as merely an input for production, in other words the economy as the “system” with the natural environment as a subset?”

Natural environment system is obviously a superset of Human economic system. So, for human economic system to be sustainable in the long run, it should operate by the rules of the super-system. Our current human economy is acting to the contrary. I think you agree with me upto this point.

Now, Modern economic thought (by which i take you mean, the free market system), per se, does not consider “natural environment as merely an input”. It simply says that if the prices of goods & service in the market be completely determined according to supply – demand dynamics, then it leads to efficient allocation of resources. The “natural environment” provides services worth trillions of dollars to our human economy. The problem is that the natural environment cannot speak and does not demand money for the services it provides. So, it is upto the human society to *place* appropriate value on the natural environment and the run the human economy based on that pricing. The whole problem is, the humans are not doing that. For example, we are pricing crude-oil just for extraction costs, refining costs, plus some profits. The price of disruption of climate-service is not included. We are pricing the paper for cost of cutting a tree, transportation costs, etc. The price of carbon-sink-service, and other ecosystem services that a tree provides is not included. These are just couple of examples. So, it is upto the humans to assign value to ecological services, and incorporate in the pricing. So, i believe the solution to environment problem lies not in fixing economic systems, but in humans making conscious choices and incorporating them in existing system.

btw, no need to be apologetic about being “save the earth types”. You are welcome to the club. It just means that one is using one’s head and seeing the larger rules operating in the world. Rules that human economy must live by.

Regards

I fail to understand why other broadband ISPs are not available in a town like Pune.Its a monopoly and the consequences are for all to bear. I am also at Pune and there are none, not even Tatas, available at my locality. Amazing, yet true.

Nice roundup and comparision between the systems in India and California. I live in CA and yearn to return to India for good. But the failure in systems – Do we have to live with it or, we can fight it. Atleast blogging in a community is a way of fighting. What else can be done?

Nissi