#ROFLMAO! #Likes on @facebook don’t mean #Votes

Indian political parties must realise that popularity in social media cannot guarantee an election victory and can only supplement a grass-roots organisation and campaign

In early April, The Hindu ran a lead story on the potential of social media to decisively influence the outcome of elections in at least 160 constituencies. The story, based on a research report by the IRIS Knowledge Foundation and the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), contended that there are “160 ‘high-impact constituencies” where the number of Facebook users exceeds the margin of victory in the last election, or constitutes 10 per cent or more of the voting population.” It’s a simplistic proposition as admitted by the study’s proponents themselves and there are many obvious flaws in the theory.

Nevertheless, the idea has gained ground. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) already has an organised presence online with an army of volunteers who descend on anyone who dares critique the party, and many of its party heavyweights, including Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi are active on social media. The party also recently started working on its social media “guidelines” for its volunteers and held a meet in Delhi. The Congress is getting into the act slowly but ambitiously with plans to spend Rs.100 crore on social media. The Prime Minister’s Office recently opened a Twitter account. Many other younger Members of Parliament have an online presence as well.

Impact of who votes

While all attempts at increasing communication between the political parties and the people themselves must be welcomed, the impact of social media on elections in India is vastly overstated. First, a closer look at the central premise of the study where a constituency is deemed high-impact if the number of Facebook users exceeds the victory margin. There are many obvious flaws in this theory, some noted by the study itself including the fact that it is not known how many of these users are active not just on the site itself but politically. Voter turnout in India in the general election is around 60 per cent, with greater participation of the lower income classes. It is thus safe to assume that the percentage of politically active users on social media will be less than 60 per cent given their middle-class base. A case in point: Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, arguably the most technologically savvy politician of India garnered 1.6 million “Likes” on Facebook. The number for actor Shahrukh Khan? 3.8 m. Actor Priyanka Chopra? 3.9 m. Furthermore, social media sites are not ideological platforms; the users are a heterogenous group ranging from the apolitical to political, and the left to the right. Of those who are already politically active, it is doubtful that social media can help change political affiliation, given the intensely partisan nature of online exchange. So this is what the social media proposition looks like: of the total users, some are fake and inactive. An entire section cares more about Bollywood than Lok Sabha. And of the small section of Lok Sabha enthusiasts, there are hardly if any, undecided.

The Obama campaign

What then is the social media proposition? What of Barack Obama who beat Hillary Clinton to clinch the Democratic Party nomination to defeat John McCain in 2008, and then win again in 2012? What about the Arab Spring protests fomented by social media? While it is true that Mr. Obama leveraged social media heavily in both elections, what is missed by his Indian counterparts (and certainly those looking to sell social media management) is that the campaign used social media not in isolation but to drive his offline grass-roots campaign. Soon after his election, Chris Hughes, the coordinator of Mr. Obama’s online campaign and website My.BarackObama noted that what made the site unique was not the “technology itself, but the people who used the online tools to coordinate offline action.”

The My.BarackObama website was used to create more than 35,000 local organising groups, 200,000 events, and millions upon millions of calls to neighbours during the 2008 campaign. In 2012, in addition to this grass-roots organisation, the Obama campaign leveraged big data to work with the electorate at an “atomic level.” In this “as many as one thousand variables each [for potential voters], drawn from voter registration records, consumer data warehouses, and past campaign contacts” were combined with surveys and volunteer interactions to “derive individual-level predictions.” In contrast, Indian political parties are using social media largely to drive a partisan discourse of either abject devotion or juvenile rhetoric. For instance, after speeches by both Narendra Modi and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi at business forums recently, the online discussion was dominated not by substance but obsessive repetition of “Feku” and “Pappu” by Congress and BJP supporters respectively.

The Indian style of online engagement thus most closely resembles that of Imran Khan, by far the most popular politician online in Pakistan, but whose party was placed third, winning even less seats than the discredited incumbent party, the People’s Party of Pakistan. This is in consonance with the hypothesis that social media doesn’t influence voter behaviour on its own, and can at best supplement the grass-roots organisation of political parties. In any case, given that internet penetration in India is only 12 per cent and five per cent on Facebook, by far the largest social media website, using social media to drive offline engagement is improbable.

Censorship

All said, social media is a useful medium of communication because of its decentralised nature which helps bypass censorship. There is a difference between relaying information and influencing behaviour. Social media did not foment the Arab Spring but did help amplify the protests by making it difficult to censor communication and making information easily accessible. Live 24x7 television coverage by Al Jazeera was another factor in sustaining and spreading the protests. In India, social media is being used by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to directly reach out to its supporters after it soured its relationship with the media with one too many press conferences. However, established political parties are less susceptible to such censorship especially in the context of 24x7 news. What they lack are not adequate channels for communication but content itself as evident from the overblown and facile rhetoric they are increasingly engaging in.

@PMOIndia @narendramodi's & @Infosys_nmurthy #SmallStuff, #BigVision

If Infosys were India, we'd be in good hands. Not even the company. Just the campus in Bangalore. It houses 20,000 employees, who have an average workday of nine hours 15 minutes. It has five food courts but no litter. It has efficient workspaces where the only sound you hear is that of minds at work. And oh yes, its facilities team manages a wide swathe of activities-from ensuring the plants are kept moisture-controlled to keeping disturbance from renovations down to a minimum. The campus has 34 per cent women, the average age of the company is 29, and staff are encouraged to cycle between buildings.

In no small measure it is because of N.R. Narayana Murthy, one of the five founders and its CEO for 21 years. At 69, having quit Infosys after a controversial stint with it last year, he believes a new civic awakening is the only way India can move forward. And indeed, if he could do it at Infosys, why can't Narendra Modi do it for India? As he sits in his tree-trimmed office of Catamaran Ventures, a private investment firm run by son Rohan Murty, Narayana Murthy seems at ease with his new role of Ideator-at-Large.

But it pains him that people don't recognise the importance of the seemingly small stuff. That the rule of law applies to all equally and doesn't diminish the higher you go or the later it is in the day.

Management guru Peter Drucker once told Narayana Murthy that culture eats strategy for lunch. Never more so than in India, where institutions tend to leave change behind when heads change.

Making values sustainable isn't easy, and any attempt to do so is immediately tagged as fascist, part of a creeping totalitarian regime, whose eventual goal is the stifling of marginal people.

India is not used to social revolutions. The last one that ousted the British had to be sustained over almost a century, beginning with the First War of Independence in 1857 to the eventual departure of the British in 1947. The anti-corruption movement of 2011 turned into the unlimited political ambition of a band of well-meaning but clueless brothers and the anti-rape agitation of 2012 was limited to a weekend convenience. The new consciousness that Prime Minister Narendra Modi tried to rouse from the Red Fort may well go the same way, despite its honourable intentions of gender equity, public service and personal hygiene. Every ideology needs action, and action does not take weekends off and rule-of-law breaks.

As Dipankar Gupta points out in his remarkable book, Revolution from Above: India's Future and the Citizen Elite, planning can be of two types: one that maximises the given and doesn't question the ground rules; and the other that changes the rules of the game. He believes only a citizen elite can do the latter. Indeed, only if the old durbaris of Delhi are restrained can a new citizen elite emerge, that is not limited by the zip code of one's birthplace or the email address of one's school. It is defined by the work ethic. A democracy that delivers, says Gupta, does not need heroes or Mahatmas. It does not need sympathy. It needs an aware citizenship that has empathy. Democracy, according to Gupta, begins with a commitment to shape a world that does not conform to 'what is' but to what 'should be'. It needs its elite to make people realise that aspirations for the future are grander than the needs of the present.

National Sports Day (#NationalSportsDay)

 India celebrates its National Sports Day every year on the 29th August. The day is celebrated to honor the legendary hockey player, Major Dhyan Chand Singh. 29th August happens to be the birth anniversary of Dhyan Chand, who made India proud by his extraordinary sporting skills. He was the greatest hockey player India has ever seen.

Dhyan Chand had joined the army at the early age and learnt the game of hockey from his coach Pankaj Gupta and soon became an expert in ball dribbling and goal scoring. He quickly became the Indian Hockey Team captain due to his excellent playing techniques and was given the nickname 'Chand' which means 'Moon'. During his sports career Dhyan Chand had won three Olympic medals and till date remains the only hockey player who has received the Padma Bhushan award. He had won the Olympic Gold medal six times in a row for India in hockey. His lifetime awards and achievements in sports are considered as the highest point in the history of Indian sports.

The National Sports Day is dedicated to the brilliant hockey player Dhyan Chand. This day is celebrated by organizing friendly matches between different Indian hockey teams at the Dhyan Chand National stadium in New Delhi which was constructed in the respect and honor of Major Dhyan Chand. 

On this day, sports persons commemorate this day in a sportive way. The President of India Bestows prestigious awards such as the Arjuna and Dronacharya Award, Dhyan Chand Award, etc to the sports persons who have contributed to the growth of sports all through their sports career and also after retirement. A lot of schools throughout the country celebrate this day as their Annual Sports Day and young people are also encouraged and made aware of the possibilities in sports and what all advancement the country has obtained in sports.

#IceBucket #Challenge

I accepted #BarackObama's ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, to spread the awareness for ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease). I further nominate my favourite leader  #NarendraModi, #DavidCameron, #VladimirPutin, #RahulGandhi, #hillaryclinton, #Billclinton, #ArvindKejriwal, #gulpanag, #sarahpalin, #arunjaitley, #michelleobama, #RajnathSingh, #ShashiTharoor, #OmarAbdullah, #SyedAkbaruddin, #VladimirPutin, #RohanGupta, #SamPitroda, #ArjunModhwadia, #SanjayJha, #SwetaSingh, #barkhadutt, #MilindDeora, #NehaPant, #KiranBedi, #ChetanBhagat, #PartheshPatel, #RahulKanwal, #DeeptiSachdeva, #AnjanaOmKashyap. gotta do it within 24hrs -time starts now.

Today is #WorldPhotographyDay

World Photo Day is about celebrating the ability we have to communicate though this powerful visual medium. 

Today, we can share memories across the globe in seconds. Photography is an invention that has revolutionised the way we see the world. We can visit places without leaving our home. We can share adventures with friends in another city and we can watch grandchildren grow up thousands of kilometers away. 

Origins of World Photo Day 

World Photo Day originates from the invention of the Daguerreotype, a photographic processes developed by Joseph Nicèphore Nièpce and Louis Daguerre in 1837. On January 9, 1839, The French Academy of Sciences announced the daguerreotype process. A few months later, on August 19, 1839, the French government purchased the patent and announced the invention as a gift "Free to the World". 

It should be noted that the Daguerreotype was not the first permanent photographic image. In 1826, Nicèphore Nièpce captured the earliest known permanent photograph known as 'View from the Window at Le Gras' using a process called Heliography. 

August 19th, 1839 was chosen as the date behind World Photo Day based on the following historical merits: 

The Daguerreotype was the first practical photographic process. 

The purchase and release of the patent by the French government.

Katharine Hayhoe

An environmental evangelist

There’s something fascinating about a smart person who defies stereotype. That’s what makes my friend Katharine Hayhoe a Texas Tech climatologist and an evangelical Christian so interesting.

It’s hard to be a good steward of the planet if you don’t accept the hard science behind what’s harming it, and it can be just as hard to take action to protect our world if you don’t love it as the rare gift it is. For many people, that implies a creator. Katharine and her husband, evangelical pastor Andrew Farley, have authored the defining book for the planet-loving believer,A Climate for Change: Global Warming Facts for Faith-Based Decisions. I got to know Katharine as we worked on Showtime’s climate documentary Years of Living Dangerously. But we are all getting to know and benefit from her work.

Arunachalam Muruganantham

The entrepreneur who is an unlikely health crusader

In a small south Indian town, a man’s empathy for his wife has sparked a revolution. In 1998, Arunachalam Muruganantham asked his wife why she hoarded dirty rags and was told she needed them during menstruation. Buying sanitary napkins would cost too much. His response: designing a simple machine to produce sanitary pads. He even wore some himself, using a tiny pump to test absorption. And instead of selling his idea to the highest bidder, he supplies his low-cost machines to rural communities. Now millions of poor Indian women can avoid painful urinary-tract infections and create their own pad-manufacturing businesses. The invention has also sparked interest around the world.

It’s a truism for a reason: Empathy is the most revolutionary emotion.