Sri's Diary

  అవును , ఇది అక్షరాలా నిజం! మీరు మీ ఆహారపు అలవాట్లలో కొన్ని ఆరోగ్యకరమైన మార్పులు చేయడం ద్వారా అధిక మొత్తంలో నీటిని ఆదా చేయవచ్చు - బియ్యం మరియు గోధుమల బదులు సిరి ధాన్యాలు వాడండి.  చెరకు చక్కెర బదులు వేరే   సహజ ప్రత్యామ్నాయాలను వాడండి. భారతదేశం ఈ రోజు ఆహార భద్రత కలిగి ఉంది , కాని అది నీటి భద్రతకు ముప్పు తో జరిగింది. ఇంకా , పోషణ విలువలును మెరుగుపరచడంలో విఫలమయ్యాము , జనాభాలో జింక్ మరియు ఇనుము లోపాలు విస్తృతంగా ఉన్నాయి.   మంచినీటిని విస్తృతంగా వాడవలసిన ఆహార పంటలను ప్రోత్సహిస్తూ , ఆధునిక వ్యవసాయ పద్ధతులు లేకపోవడం , తక్కువ పంట దిగుబడి , అధిక శాతం వ్యవసాయ ఉత్పత్తుల వృధా , వీటన్నిటి మూలాన మనం మంచినీటి పర్యావరణ వ్యవస్థను అంచుకు నెట్టివేస్తున్నాము! ప్రపంచంలోని మంచినీటి నిక్షేపాల్లో కేవలం 4% మన సొంతం.  ప్రపంచ జనాభాలో 18% వాటా మన దేశానిది. మన దేశ జనాభాని పోషించేందుకు మొత్తం మంచినీటి లో 80% వ్యవసాయానికి మాత్రమే మనము వాడేస్తున్నాము. ఈ 80% నీటి వాడకంలో అధిక మొత్తం వెళ్ళేది అతి కొద్ధి ఆహార పంటలకు మాత్రమే.   మంచినీటిని స్వాహా చేసే ఆహార పంటలు  ...

  Yes, you can save humongous amounts of water by making a few healthy changes to your eating habits – replace rice and wheat with millets and move from cane sugar to its natural alternatives. India is food secure today but that happened at the cost of water security. Furthermore, we failed to improve nutrition, with zinc and iron deficiencies prevailing widely among the population. With insensitive-to-water food choices, lack of modern farming techniques, low crop yield rates, alarming levels of wastage of farm produce, we are pushing our freshwater ecosystem to the brink! With just 4% of the world’s freshwater, we use up 80% of that freshwater to feed 18% of the world’s population. 80% of the water in our country is used for agriculture. The majority of this volume of water goes to water guzzler crops!     Water Guzzler Crops Rice, Sugar cane, and Wheat are water guzzler crops and in that order. It takes 3,000 – 5,000 liters of water to grow 1 kg of ri...

  The reconnect with Indic knowledge sources, which was lost over 1000 years ago, will now be possible only through Digital Medium.  Interactive delivery models using gamification and driven by visual graphic representations will ensure the mass connect of our society with its erstwhile forgotten and ignored ancient knowledge treasures! Today, we see the important role that visual graphic representation, gamification and digital interactivity are playing in enhancing learning process of the younger generations. With the ever-increasing prominence of online learning, which has been rather rudely expedited by the current Corona virus pandemic, development of these new innovative learning processes will further excel, swiftly.   Is the concept of Interactive and Innovative Learning, a new one? When we look at ancient Indic texts and resources, we find that everything is presented in the form of Shlokas or Short Poems and colorful, eventful, and exciting stories, whic...

  Online Grocery market will increase from Rs. 14,000 crores ($2 billion) today to Rs. 1.4 lakh crores ($20 billion) in just 5 years! Groceries will lead the aggressive e-commerce growth in India for the next 5 to 10 years. Back in 2006, when I used to live in the United Kingdom, I was super happy when the two supermarket giants, Tesco and Sainsburys started to take online orders and do door delivery. I was never a fan of going to the supermarket, drag the cart along to pick my groceries, stand in long queues to checkout and stuff. I always wondered if this would ever find ground in India with such a strong presence of neighborhood Kirana stores and the fact that still, only a minor segment of the overall groceries market is branded or organized.   Online Groceries and Indian Market Back in India during the first half of this decade, I was pleasantly surprised at the rise of online grocery marketplaces. It only made sense with all the fast-changing lifestyles, busy pro...

National Education Policy 2020  of the Government of India makes a few sweeping recommendations that could dramatically change the whole education process in the country in an incredibly positive way. This is first such comprehensive review and policy recommendation in 35 years. The scope of this policy review and the magnitude of engagement of a diverse set of stakeholders is commendable and it shows in its all-encompassing policy recommendations. While there are more than one major policy recommendations that caught my attention, I will limit my focus in this article to the recommendation to provide education until Class 5 in mother tongue or local language.  This, I believe will be by far the most effective recommendation, which would have tremendous positive implications in ages to come, if implemented. The national government could set the policy and make recommendations. But it comes down to respective state governments to implement the same as Education is on Concurre...

Herzberg's Theory: A Common Law Not So Common Ever since I first learned about Herzberg’s Theory it only reaffirmed my belief that both hygiene factors and motivating factors define the sustainability and success of any organization. An organization cannot buy into part of this theory and fulfil either hygiene factors or motivating factors. Both aspects are equally important and only together the purpose could be accomplished. The theory lists following as hygiene factors: Working conditions Salary Personal Life Relationships at work Security Status If not all of the above mentioned factors, a significant majority could be directly affected by employer. Irrespective of size of organization and the immediate team, hygiene factors play a crucial role in ensuring that employees are not dissatisfied. The factor of relationships with colleagues is mentioned here but I believe soft skills determine or at least play a significant role in shaping up relationships am...