Sujavna 2:26

As the hands on my clock dial move across the 1145am coordinates on 24^th June 2012,

My thoughts linger on an interesting news item that was reported by the print media in Mumbai last Tuesday. It mentioned that a Dutch firm has been selected to carry out deepwater dredging for a ports project in Mumbai. The interesting part of the report was that the company’s bid was much lower (8% lower) than the estimated cost by the project proponent and their consultants.

And this is what is keeping my brain cells charged - if large infrastructure projects can incentivise project contractors with completion performance bonuses as part of the contract, would it not also be an appropriate incentive if project bidders include in their bids, rebates in bids for timely project approval and clearance approvals and other facilities that will ensure projects are begun and managed effectively by them. These may be termed Clearance Performance Rebates in financial bids.

Humour, as I have understood, takes many forms – from wry to belligerent, from chirpy to dark, from pun to prank and many more. But has humour helped in driving innovations? Or have there been attempts at innovation that have become a staple for jokes? If you have some views on this please share these with me.

Wishing you a great weekend and an even greater week ahead.

Sujavna 2:25

It is 630pm on a wet Sunday afternoon here in Mumbai.

And as I had spent most of the afternoon following up on a nephew’s engagement and marriage arrangements, I keep wondering about all the innovations that must have taken place around the institution of marriage. What were these and what prompted these innovations? Have these innovations been more focused on making the rituals more “humane” and “comfortable”? or have there been lateral thoughts on alternate forms of achieving “wedded bliss”?

Do you have any ideas on this subject? Please share them with me. I look forward to a great week ahead and hope that you are having a great weekend.

Sujavna 2:24

It is 1230pm on 10^th June 2012.

And I want to continue with expanding my lateral thoughts for the monsoon season.

Has there been any structured analysis done on how an urban economy such as Mumbai performs during the monsoon seasons? What are the known losses to the city’s economy during 3 months of rains, which sectors suffer the most losses and why? What are the economic gains that the city benefits because of the rains, which economic sectors benefit and why? Are there some economic activities that need to be timed for the rainy seasons for maximising returns, if so what are these? What would happen if we selectively close some economic sectors during the monsoon season or reengineer the resources in these sectors to deliver different outputs during these 3 months? In short can we think of a morphological change to Mumbai’s economic profile for the monsoons and get a net positive benefit? If yes, what should this change look like and how can we implement such a change with minimum disruptions to human existence?

What do you think? I hope you are having a great weekend.

Sujavna 2:23

It is well past the deadline for the 23^rd edition of my blog for 2012

And I apologise for missing on last week’s blog.

So what did I want to communicate last Sunday to you? It had something to do with the impending monsoons, the early showers and the apprehensions of road users in Mumbai, about the potholes that they need to navigate for the next 3 months.

And that had me desiring for innovations in materials technologies that will provide us with self-healing roads as soon as the levels of fractures in road surface cross a threshold limit. And talking of self-healing roads, why not also think of self-healing building structures such as rooftops and exterior walls which will prevent water seepage during rains?