Hi!
Nearly 140,000 people die in road accidents each year in India. Power failures are frequent across India. Question paper leaks for competitive public exams inconvenience millions of students

The list of challenges is long but very much solvable!

The implementer of these solutions in many situations is the Govt: Central, State or Municipal, who really need to increase the use of information technology a thousandfold for the betterment of India. Many successful IT projects have been implemented (Passport, Aadhar, Income Tax), but a lot more can, and, needs to be done

A few of my suggestions are given below.
If you have any, please share them, and push them with the appropriate government authorities

Thank You!
Bipin Deshpande
bipin@bipindeshpande.com

Nationwide 24*7 Grid Power Supply data already available – waiting to be tapped!

Problem:  India is plagued by unscheduled power outages. ‘Load shedding’ is routine. Data regarding power availability is not easily available to the masses. This allows Power Distribution companies to remain largely unaccountable. 24*7 quality power availability is crucial for industrial development, public health, education, and services.
Worse, whenever there is a power outage, diesel-powered gen-sets kick in and add to air and noise pollution. Delhi has to ban diesel generator sets every winter to reduce pollution!
But improving power supply can reduce the use of generator sets! Here’s how:

Solution:
Use existing data on Grid Power availability, which is monitored 24*7, for each and every Cellular Tower across India. There are some 500,000 cell towers spread across every village, town, and city of India. All cellular towers are monitored by a Tower Operations Centre (TOC). There are several TOC’s in India.

This data, when collated from all TOC’s centrally will provide a 24*7 snapshot of power availability at the city, ward and down to every power distribution sub-station level. Identifying, and bringing focus on locations with poor power supply quality becomes effective when granular data is made available online to the public. Over time, power availability data from large private and public sector banks, hotels, hospitals, and other commercial establishments, who also monitor grid power availability 24*7, can be roped into this data-sharing initiative.
The Department of Telecom will need to permit and encourage telecom companies to collate and share this data with the public.

Use Satellite TV to stop Exam Paper Leaks

Problem: Examination Question Papers have multiple ‘leak’ points.

  • Whoever has access to the set Question Paper/s
  • Every location where the Question Paper is Printed
  • The entire Transportation Chain to deliver the printed Question Papers to Exam Centers
  • At any Examination center
  • During the approximately 1 month from date of Question Paper Setting to physical distribution to the examiner.

Solution: Distribute Question Papers via Satellite to a TV in every examination room

Advantages:

  • Exam Question Paper setting can be a set of questions which are randomly selected by a computer program, so even the ‘setter’ does not know which questions will finally form the Final Question Paper.
  • The satellite transmission is on a dedicated broadcast with each examination center SET Top Box having a unique ID card, so no one else can access the broadcast
  • Each site can be monitored by a cell phone camera
  • Only one randomly generated question to be broadcast at a time, available on-screen for the time allocated to students to answer the question, not more
  • No printing or transportation time for getting the Question Paper to the Examination Center Delivery time ‘Zero’ so no scope for interception and leakage of Q paper
  • Every SET Top Box and TV can be used for Distance Learning throughout the year, supported by local teachers or facilitators
Feasibility:

  • The system can be set up and tested months in advance and used to teach subjects as well
  • Large 42” HD LED TV screens are available at under INR 14,000/- as of Feb 2020
  • Satellite TV is available in every nook and corner of the country. No technology challenges
  • Power back-ups using inverters is easily available
  • If there are 500 possible questions, these can be put in the public domain well in advance, and each question can be tested for accuracy, length of question from a TV screening perspective, font size, and time required for answering

 

Use 300 Million Citizen Snipers to change India

Problem: A large number of blatant violations and cases of substandard quality of work and services go unreported. These include traffic violations, encroachments, garbage, potholes, poor construction quality, leaking water pipes, water pollution, child labor, slow-moving windows in government offices, arrogant government officials, VIP tantrums, the list is endless!

Reporting violations is left to ‘inspectors’, who are either in short supply, have limitations of time and resources, or are simply inefficient

Solution :
India has over 300 million smartphones with cameras, which can be used to gather real-time evidence on a range of violations and deviations. Back office processing centers can validate and analyze photographs and videos and levy penalties on the offenders – and reward those reporting the violations

The result will be the availability of a huge number of citizen snipers in mufti, an automatic reduction in violations, the lesser requirement for full time ‘inspectors’, and a lower cost of governance, but with better results!

Benefits:

  • Save City, State, and Central Govt the capital required to invest in CCTVs and cameras
  • Stop hiring armchair inspectors
  • Let 300 million Citizen Snipers report violations
  • Reward them per successfully reported violation
  • Reward money could be a % age of the fine collected, credited directly to their phone number or power bills
  • Create full time employment for lakhs of people across India through the private sector in the back office photograph / video processing centers to process evidence
  • Create opportunity for all citizens to earn money thru reporting violations.
Every year 150,000 people die in India in road accidents alone. Loss of life due to poor construction, pollution, etc, all add up. With constant monitoring and reporting, these losses can be brought down substantially

REQUEST: Can you pitch this idea to the concerned State or Central Govt authorities? Please do!