गुरु का साया

जीवन में उसने ही कुछ पाया जिसको मिला गुरु का साया
सुख तो सुख ही रहे उसके, दुःखों से भी उसने सुख ही पाया
 जिसको मिल जाए गुरु का साया

जीवन में जो आनंद बरसाए
मान-अपमान अंतर को छू ना पाए
अद्भुत विस्मय में कटता जीवन
प्रबल हो सामने आता वर्तमान क्षण
ॐ ॐ में लय हो जाता
अतुल्य तेज बल वो पाता
हो जाती अग्नि जैसी काया
जिसको मिल जाता गुरु का साया

देव ,यक्ष ,गन्धर्व ,किन्नर करे सेवा जिसकी
परम प्रेम छवि उसकी
भक्ति रस को जो समझाए
सत्य ज्योति से साक्षात्कार कराये
जो जला दे ह्रदय में ज्ञान की ज्वाला
खोल दे बुद्धि से इच्छाओं का ताला
छिन्न-भिन्न  हो जाती मोह-माया
जब मिल जाता गुरु का साया

Becoming a Freelancer as a Finance Professional

I have been toying with the idea of going freelance at some point. To this end, Toptal appears to be an excellent option. But can I succeed at it?

As a finance professional I have more than 6 years of experience working for PricewaterhouseCoopers, having done 2 years of audit and 4 years of financial due diligence work. Prior to that I have worked 6 years as a software engineer, developing online solutions using Java technology stack. Academically, I am a Chartered Accountant in England & Wales, hold an MBA (Strategy) from the University of Oxford and have an engineering degree from the Indian Institute of Technology (Industrial Design). 

My experience and academic background places me in the unique niche of somebody who has deep understanding and appreciation of both Finance and Technology. This reflects in my formidable financial modelling skills and a systematic approach to problem solving. I am also able to appreciate point of views of different workstreams and act as a project manager for multi-disciplinary projects. In the past 6 years I have worked on a wide variety of financial due diligence projects, including buy side assistance, vendor due diligence, working capital review, refinancing, deal specific bespoke financial analysis and long form reports for IPO. I have worked for both Private Equity and Corporate buyers across e-commerce, business services, energy, infrastructure, logistics and utilities. Deal sizes vary between £70m to £1bn. The projects typically involve working with C-suite executives, lawyers, investment bankers, lenders and other diligence teams (mainly tax, legal, strategy, post deal integration, purchase agreement, transition agreement).

Given my strong background, I bring to table skillsets that clients may find useful, which could possibly help me to succeed at Toptal. Let's see.

Key Metrics to Measure Functioning of a Healthcare System

Helped a friend some time ago to research key metrics that a government can use to monitor the efficiency of its health system. Thought will share it on my blog as well.

The health metrics used by governments around the world are highly contextual, geared at their specific targets. The presented metrics are based on internet search and can be further improved by conducting country specific research and employing health care professionals. As a disclaimer, I am not a health specialists and have relied heavily on the WHO framework. All sources used are duly mentioned below the post. I have tried to zero down on 10 key metrics as a way to focus on the basics and with a belief that doing everything often means doing nothing. I believe that starting with these would give an excellent start and help put in place a framework to support further improvement.

The aim is to help policy makers save time by presenting a one page memo for key items to focus on that help them create a widespread image of efficiency and transparency (people feel the system is functioning well), aiming for KPI management. While a ground up build up of health system is ideal, the framework would help to address visible change. More fundamental question of how to ensure long term improvement of the health system (e.g. having enough medical staff in the long run, promoting healthy lifestyle, planning investment into beds/ equipment etc.) is not directly addressed by these, though inevitably these would have to be considered to deliver these metrics in the long run. Happy for suggestions to improve this keeping in mind the objective.

Please note that some metrics are measures (need effort to quantify but can be quantified), others are boolean flags (it is done or not done). Use of technology would be critical for measuring success.

My key 10 metrics are:
1. Under 5 mortality rate per 1000
2. % of pregnant women with  at least 4 antenatal care visits during last pregnancy
3. % of 1 year olds fully immunised
4. % of women reported knowing about means of avoiding sexually transmitted diseases/ HIV/ birth control
5. Premature mortality rate (% of people dying before reaching the average life expectancy) with causes
6. Respect for the dignity of the patient (includes aspects of the interaction with providers such as courtesy and sensitivity) using surveys
7. Prompt attention to health needs: time lag between a person identifying the problem & coming to the hospital (distance travelled to get to the facility), being seen by the doctor & provided medicine (promptness of care/ availability of enough doctors & nurses), and cured (effectiveness of diagnosis: segment by disease)
8. Availability of basic amenities for patients: clean waiting rooms, adequate beds, and healthy/clean food when admitted
9. Cost of service delivery benchmarked against a standard cost (calculation methodology to be same), including efficiency of purchasing (cost and quality)
10. Provision for strategic leadership, preparation of financial statements and independent audits

Other metrics that you may want to consider once you have the above in place are:
1. Under 5 chronic malnutrition per 1000
2. Analysis of consumer protection cases to identify problem hospitals
3. State of communication of existing government hospitals with each other so that resources can possibly be pooled
4. Availability of physicians, nurses, community health workers etc. as perceived by patients
5. % of population denied care due to cost (if significant, explore options/cost for social insurance, increasing competition, etc.)
6. Controls in place to reduce shrinkage (theft, corruption) and use resources more efficiently
7. Resource analysis by key health facilities (how much money comes from government, fund-raising, donations, NGOs)

Key Sources:

1. WHO Urban HEART: Measuring Urban Health
2. WHO Framework for Health System Performance Assessment
3. Measurement Framework: Evaluating Efficiency Across Patient-Focused Episodes of Care (NATIONAL QUALITY FORUM, US)
4. European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies (LSE)

Making Your Meditation Deeper

5 top tips from my experience to help beginners make their meditation deeper:

1. Choose a comfortable time and place
As you become more experienced, you will be able to be more flexible about this. However, when you are just starting it is better to choose a comfortable time and place where you know you will not be disturbed. Put your mobile on silent, wear something comfortable and sit comfortably with your spine straight (cross-legged or on a chair, as you prefer). Use a back support if you need one. The best times that work for me are either early morning or just before sleeping.

2. Have a relatively empty stomach before meditation, stay hydrated
Meditation works better with an empty stomach and a hydrated body. So, if you planning to meditate before sleeping plan to have an early, light/ easy to digest and easy on the stomach dinner. Avoid fried food, red meat, alcohol and very spicy food for dinner. If you experience a slightly heavy head post alternate nostril breathing, it is a sign of insufficient water intake.

3. Avoid caffeine, alcohol, nicotine and phone scrolling near meditation
The aim of meditation is to make your mind sharper and naturally alert. Therefore anything that either makes the mind jumpy, restless or dull needs to be avoided pre-meditation. Besides alcohol, coffee, tea and recreational drugs, this also includes endless Facebook and Whatsapp scrolling and TV binge!

4. Exercise
If you are a naturally very energetic person with a very active mind, settling down for meditation can be difficult. While breathing exercises can help with it, physical exercise would use up some of that nervous energy, allowing you to settle deeper.

5. Be regular
As with most things in life, practice makes perfect. So, don’t give up. There are some serious benefits to be reaped with regular meditation, and simply doing it regularly is the key to both unlocking these benefits and going deeper.

Demonetisation in India

My take on the current demonetisation situation:

1. In current political climate it is suicidal to accept that you have made a mistake. BJP government will therefore not admit to any failings. Nevertheless, the implementation and benefits at this stage are unlikely to exceed the costs from current point of view.

2. Let this be a lesson for all leaders who think revolutionary changes are cool/ they can change a large entrenched, rotten system overnight with few, big moves. Ideas of Arthkranti (the guys who gave this idea to Modi), while appealing on paper, have no historical precedence of actually working. Changes need to be incremental, systematic and well thought of. Disruption is not always good and change is always slow & painful.

3. Modi has seriously underestimated the will of 97% people to evade taxes and stay out of the system by any means possible. It is not easy to seek people's direct cooperation to act against their self-interest, even if the move benefits the whole society.  

4. If Modi wants to salvage the situation, he can use the chaos and confusion created by this move to push through serious reforms to tackle root problems. Tax raids, pushing digital transactions, stronger anti-tax evasion rules and marginal tax on gold to enable tracking gold transactions are steps in the right direction. Bringing in the right to service act as envisioned by Dr JP + continual shift towards e-governance will stem more corruption than demonetisation. 

5. It is time to bring in laws to prevent disruption of Parliament

6. I still support Modi as I see him as a leader who intends to change the system for good. I have not seen any alternative leadership that I could trust more. I would happily support any national leader who offers a constructive, reasonable intelligent plan and a leadership and is capable of forming a stable government at the centre.

7. The only people who make mistakes are the ones who try to do something. Nevertheless history rewards only success, as highway to hell is often paved with good intentions. Modi may do well to remember this.

Wishful thinking

The heart is not a friend, my own hands have become foes

The fate seems sealed with no end to woes

As I lie surrounded by darkness, bleeding barely breathing

Thinking about a life unlived, dreams unfulfilled, and promises broken

As life lingers, and pain extends

The mind races on roads that may never be

And I wonder about the million questions that I cannot think of anymore

I do want to fly and float, but here I am… sinking

Dreaming of warmth, o wishful thinking…

Narendra Modi's Masterplan for Indian Economy

While I don't actually know what NaMo is thinking, given his actions to date I think his plan for the economy is on the following lines: 

1. Market India as an investor friendly country to get in FDI
2. Promote "Digital India" to encourage a part of economy that does not need big infrastructure spend, and use it to promote e-governance
3. Get manufacturing in India at least for domestic consumption (including defence) to create jobs and positive buzz. Defence export are less likely to be sensitive to transport costs (the penalty of poor infrastructure) and can boost Digital India
4. Start building the infrastructure required to ultimately enable India to export manufactured goods 

For the first three to be sustainable, reining in bureaucracy to be more business friendly  and judicial reforms to reduce end-to-end judgement times would be needed. We are already seeing steps to make the bureaucracy toe the line. Whether it will work or not is to be seen.

There is no concrete step on judicial reforms, which is a concern. However, as long as NaMo is in power, a compliant bureaucracy in itself will make a world of difference. If Modi goes out of power, most of the gains are likely to be lost without judicial reforms.

These changes are hard, but step 4 will be the hardest. Indian export in manufacturing at global scale is simply not possible without a highly developed infrastructure, including state of the art container ports, express ways for large container trucks, and a functioning fast freight container rail routes. Privatisation of freight rail, strategic layout of roads, and integrated deep water ports are needed to match the logistics advantage for manufacturing in China. To give you a perspective, right now 7 of the world's busiest container ports are in China, who has strategically invested in its infrastructure to brilliantly support exports. Without doing the same Make in India (for export and not just internal consumption) will never be viable, and digital India+defence exports can take you only so far. 

Even if Modi delivers factually, he needs to up his game regarding communication and rein in a lying, agenda based main stream media. It is time that media houses were held accountable for what they publish as factual news. You can't run a lie to tarnish somebody's reputation as main news for 20 hours and then publish the apology as side news for 2 minutes.

Overall, these steps, if executed reasonably, can provide India a significant boost and actually turn it into a world power. However, it is a difficult battle against entrenched socialist practices/culture of non-performance, corruption, and protectionism. Add in a biased, lying, agenda based main stream media and desperate fight for survival by the existing corrupt order, and this gets even more interesting. Of course some of out neighbours would like to see us derail as well. NaMo alone can do only so much. I just hope it is enough...