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On judging a book and its cover

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Earlier this year I had grand plans, like most of us did, of what I’d do with all this extra time I’d have from not having to commute to and from work since we’d all gone remote. It’s fair to say that in hindsight, that was a naive of me. As we’ve all found out, sitting home in isolation is actually far from a relaxing activity. Especially when the world outside is on fire and we start to recede into our own minds. Ideally, I would’ve read a few dozens books in this time (and I’m sure some people have, kudos to you). In reality, what i have managed to do is to read a few pages of several books and almost never finishing any one of them.  This morning, I felt like I was in the mood to read something. So I picked up a book that had only recently arrived. President Obama’s A Promised Land. (I’m only 30 pages into this one too so we’ll see how long this lasts). This book’s cover is rather minimal. It features a greyscale portrait of the president, his name and the title of the book in some
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Hope: for public problem solving

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Recently, I had the great pleasure of being interviewed on a podcast called " Hope ". A group of young Indians is putting together this great series as part of the United Nation's. 75th anniversary (#UN75) and are featuring guests far more accomplished than me so I'm doubly honored to be in such esteemed company! In this hour long conversation, I discuss the importance of defining problems before jumping into solving them, the importance of data and critically, the public in the public problem solving process. All the good bits are based primarily on the work of my amazing colleagues and team at The Governance Lab and all the the bits you don't like are most likely things I've been ranting about on this blog for eons 😂. If you'd like to learn more about the stuff I spoke about, checkout thegovlab.org and also Professor Beth Simone Noveck's upcoming book, " Solving Public Problems ". I hope you'll give it a listen and let me know what yo
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Have you seen it rain?

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Have you seen it rain? I mean really rain. I mean the kind that starts with some grandfatherly clouds with their grey hair and cloudy beard moving overhead at the kind of pace that only grandparents move? They’re not slow, strictly speaking. They look like immovable objects who’d really rather not be moved. Those clouds. The kind that grow bigger and darker by the time you’ve made some tea to enjoy by the window. They’re not bursting at the seams quite yet. They’re biding their time. Just hanging out and watching the baby sparrows learning to fly and the humans below scurrying around to find shelter before the downpour. The only ones who aren’t, are some kids playing football. The sparrows aren’t retreating just yet either. The breeze is now a little more brisk than a moment ago. It’s brought with it that familiar petrichor which makes me want to step outside and raise my face to the clouds, arms outstretched like we used to as kids. Someone in my house is yelling (at me?) to get the
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The Silent Orator

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I want to start this post with the following quote:  Everyone is afraid of the consequence of error, but the greatest error is not to move, the greatest error is to be paralyzed by the fear of failure. Mike Ryan, Executive Director, WHO Health Emergencies Program Mike Ryan was one of the key figures involved in the response to the Ebola outbreak in 2014. Two weeks ago, he made the above statement which has resonated with me to no end especially in the context of the work I, like so many thousands of others, am doing. But it rings especially loudly in the Indian context now. In an earlier article I praised the bravado it took for PM Modi to declare the nationwide curfew in India. And the problems that bravado has now thrown up are slowly turning into a humanitarian crisis in some states. The scenes from Delhi and other parts of the country are heart-wrenching, shameful and belie the notion that PM Modi is some sort of administrative magician who can do no wrong. But once again, let me
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21 days for each other

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By the time I post this, India would've started day 1 of a 21 day curfew. It's an insane idea which will not just inconvenience a lot of people but also throw lives into disarray. The economics of it is of course terrible but the human costs are much more severe. Lots of people will be out of jobs, out of their homes, hungry and unable to access basic resources. We will hear heartbreaking stories about people who are beaten up by the cops for no real reason. We will hear about the ridiculous lack of capacity at government hospitals. There's no denying that for the foreseeable future, we are going to hurt just as the rest of the world has. There is nothing "right" about this decision to confine people to their homes and, in many cases, to the streets. And now imagine all those exact same consequences for all of those people but with the additional burden of a virus that, as of today, has no cure or vaccine. India is an unenviable situation. But we're at that s
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Thoughts on Janata Curfew

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Late last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered what can only be described as a statesmanlike address to the nation regarding India's response to the Coronavirus. The 30-minute speech is one I'd encourage us all to watch and take to heart because the full force of that crisis is yet to hit India (and long may it stay that way). Screenshot of Prime Minister Modi during his address to the nation on March 19. Source: https://youtu.be/h12UQUnhxtA Wishful thinking aside, there is nothing to suggest that India will be spared by this global pandemic which has already killed 13,000 people. All over the world, several strategies have been deployed to varying impact but they all seem to be some combination of social distancing, large scale testing and whatever hospitals can do to keep patients alive. Alongside "social distancing", the phrase "flattening the curve" has dominated public discourse (at least in the US) and for good reason. If you haven't heard
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For The People: Designing for Humans

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Late last week the National Transport Safety Board (NTSB) published its findings after an investigation into the Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines aircraft crash disasters of 2018. The report established that Boeing’s flawed assumptions of how aircraft crew would use the new safety sensor mechanism on the 737Max plane in the event of an emergency was to blame for the disasters which resulted in the death of 346 people. Neither FAA safety assessments nor Boeing’s training modules took into consideration that in real-world experiences of aircraft crews, pilots were faced with multiple alarms and alerts at the same time and consequently, their response to these alerts was inconsistent with Boeing’s assumptions.  This gap between design assumptions and real world user experience is not uncommon in other sectors. Consumer product manufacturer Samsung Mobile, announced their new “foldable” phone earlier this year. The new flexible screen on the phone had a thin, protective layer of plastic wh
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