My first IKEA purchase ..

Ikea is already a household name in Europe and US. I have been hearing lot about it and been watching videos and even read cases done on it.
 

Here is what Forbes has to say about it - IKEA was founded in Sweden in 1943 by 17-year-old Ingvar Kamprad. IKEA operates 422 stores in more than 50 markets. Nearly 70% of the stores located in Europe. The best countries for IKEA are Germany (15% of sales) and the U.S. (14%). The retailer added 19 stores last year, including its first store in India in Hyderabad. Ikea received 957 million store visits in 2018 and 2.5 billion to Ikea.com. It offers roughly 9,500 products.

Ikea generated sales of Euro 39.6 billion in 2020. From sales of about Euro 21.5 billion in 2008, Ikea has grown in 2020 to about Euro 39.6 billion, ie. about 60% in ten years. Very decent and modest growth considering the fact that this GREEN industry cannot grown like other modern businesses.

 

The other day I made my first purchase at Ikea on the Ikea India app. From Bangalore Chennai etc we can only make online purchases till now. Very soon I am sure Ikea's physical store will open in Bangalore, that is what I have been told. My purchase was a steel bedside table costing about Rs 800/-. I was surprised to find that the same table is available at Amazon as an Ikea product at Rs 1300/-. The design w sleek and excellent. Great value for the INR 800 I spent on it.

 

I remember it was about 4 years ago, that I first did a case discussion on Ikea in the class. IKEA has grown very big and in India they have set up their head office in Hyderabad and their big store in Mumbai.  Ikea is operating in an industry that is fully dependent on nature and greenery. If there are no trees, Ikea does not exist. This raises a major question about the scaling up of this industry naturally, unless one comes with innovative sustainable measures for scaling up.Ensuring availability of hard and soft woord across the year in different geographies is a real challenge for the company. Availability of hard wood, soft wood is a challenge in India. With the increasing rate of deforestation, Ikea is in a very piquant state in India as citizens are aware of the environmental degradation such a consumerist culture in wooden furniture can bring to India.

 

Planned deforestation in select areas in the country growing select type of wood and usage of particle board can make big difference in India. Rubber trees are harvested after almost 15 years of its growth and loss of yield, when its wood is used for making strong durable furniture.

Will Ikea be able to bring bout an innovative wood growing and logging method in India to satisfy the needs of the world ? Who will be the credible and reliable competitors for Ikea in India and the world ?

These days having stylish wooden furniture at home has become a style statement which has led to a consumerist culture among youngsters to acquire more and more wooden furniture even though there is no real need for it at home. We have to wait and see what will be the big change that Ikea can bring about in the youngsters of the country ? 

 

Mail me at geasaw@gmail.com for a case on Ikea.  

 

George

My second apheresis at St. Johns Hospital, Bangalore.

On 30 September 2021, I made a call to Dr. Sitalakshmi, in charge of the St Johns Blood transfusion service, but could not contact her. Later she called me back to ask whether I was ready to donate platelets for a pregnant patient. I readily agreed. She had called me a week earlier (two weeks after my previous apheresis) but I was busy with classes and could not bunk from work.

 

On 31 September , I reached St Johns blood bank at 8.45 am. The two hour process started  at 9.15 and was over by 11.15 am. After taking 10 minutes rest and a fruit juice, I walked almost a km to State Bank of India branch in Industrial area in Koramangala for some banking related work. Perfectly fit.

The platelets help in blood clotting. This time about 100 ml, 3 x 10 ^^11 in number was collected and given for a pregnant lady who was suffering from excessive bleeding in the hospital. I wish the donation becomes useful for her.

Platelets, or thrombocytes, are small, colorless cell fragments in our blood that form clots and stop or prevent bleeding. Platelets are made in our bone marrow, the sponge-like tissue inside our bones. Bone marrow contains stem cells that develop into red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. -www.redcrossblood.org

Platelets are tiny blood cells that help your body form clots to stop bleeding. If one of your blood vessels gets damaged, it sends out signals to the platelets. The platelets then rush to the site of damage and form a plug (clot) to fix the damage. -                 www.urmc.rochester.edu

 

Thrombocytopenia (low platelets count) signs and symptoms:

• Easy or excessive bruising (purpura)
• Superficial bleeding into the skin that appears as a rash of pinpoint-sized reddish-purple spots (petechiae), usually on the lower legs.
• Prolonged bleeding from cuts.
• Bleeding from your gums or nose.
• Blood in urine or stools.        - www,mayoclinic.org
  

Low platelet count is symbolic of Leukaemia. Platelets usually survive in the blood for 7 - 10 days and die naturally. 

What is a healthy platelet count - A normal platelet count ranges from 150,000 to 450,000 platelets per microliter of blood. Having more than 450,000 platelets is a condition called thrombocytosis; having less than 150,000 is known as thrombocytopenia.  www.hopkinsmedicine.org

Here is a good link on blood and its constituents from the Uty of Oklahoma Health Sciences Centre, click here.

Life makes meaning when we give, not when we amass for ourselves .. When I tell others about blood donation and apheresis, I get mixed reactions from people.  Most of them are appreciative, but a bit cautious. Some of them raise concerns of hygienic blood transfusion services, while others find it bothersome to go to a blood bank, stand in queue and spend half an hour for humanity. But generally on the whole the response is positive and appreciative.

After blood donation with the knowledge that it is going to help at least three or four needy patients, there is a great feeling of having done something for fellow human beings without any hope of returns. Before the process, one is given two Calcium tablets and after the process, a can of fruit juice. 

 

With no tiredness and no lethargy, blood donation opens an infinite resource of positivity and optimism in your mind and body, helping everybody in your contact to bubble with zeal, confidence and energy. Ever since I started this process from the Govt. Medical College, Trivandrum, Kerala in 1984, there has been no looking back. We also have a great committed blood donation team at St. Johns hospital with whom I have become friends, Dr. Sitalakshmi and Dr. Ashley, especially after my forty third donation.

 

George

An Amazon Echo dot for Dayabhavan orphanage

After our visit to Dayabhavan two weeks back, Anila and myself decided to give an Amazon echo dot (gen 3.0) to Dayabhavan at Kunigal, Tumkur. Dayabhavan is an orphanage run by Malankara Orthodox Syrian church in Kunigal, Tumkur, Karnataka, India with 70 boys, non-HIV infected of HIV parents. 

Amazon echo dot is an Artificial Intelligence enabled voice controlled smart speaker with excellent audio reproduction capabilities.

The Amazon Echo Dot is a voice-controlled smart speaker that uses an artificially intelligent personal assistant named Alexa to perform a broad range of activities. Alexa can play music, set alarms, control other "smart" devices in the home, play games, and answer questions by searching for information on the internet, just to name a few of its many skills - www.businessinsider.com

Day before yesterday Friday 11 Sept, Father Jinesh called me to say the product has been delivered by Amazon.  The same day evening they have finished configuring the system to their wi-fi network. The echo dot has been kept in the front visitor's room and is accessible to the inmates, the staff and visitors alike.

The purpose of donating an echo dot has been thought out very much. There are many intelligent and curious kids among the inmates at Dayabhavan. We are hopeful that the product will instill an interest in some of the children to follow a degree and profession in computer science and Artificial Intelligence. 

Kids will be able to dream of the infinite possibilities open in life in front of them only when they see the real life product. Hope this small gift from our side will motivate the kids to think of Industry 4.0 and beyond.

 

Tracking Amazon echo or Google Home, who is leading (click here) ? 

Start working with Alexa, the Amazon AI (click here) ..

George.

UN's conniving inaction in Afghanistan

United Nations should have assisted the Afghan govt when US left or taken temporary charge of the administration.  That is the purpose of UN in conflict ridden places of the world. 

UN has a lot of questions to answer in this issue..

1. Does UN want to destroy Afghanistan ? 

2. Does US favour a weak Afghan govt ?  

3. Is UN with the oi-rich enemy-of-humanity Qatar in destroying Afghanistan ? 

4. Why did UN Sec Gen Antonio Gutteres remain silent and inactive in this case ?

5. Why did UN ditch the Afghan govt and people in this time of crisis and allow enemies of humanity like Pakistan and Qatar play a destabilizing role in Afghanistan ?

Answers please, Antonnio .. 😟😟

This question was raised by my daughter yesterday when we were having a discussion at home on global issues .. 😟

A destabilized Afghanistan means a disturbed Asia. A disturbed Asia means a silent and inactive China and India, which means a golden opportunity for US to play the Good Samaritan and establish yet again its dominance of the world.

George 

An apheresis procedure at St. Johns hospital, Bangalore

I had the good opportunity of going through a voluntary 2 hour apheresis procedure on Saturday 4 Sept '21 morning to separate platelets for a cancer patient in St. Johns hospital, Bangalore.

Apheresis is a medical procedure that involves removing whole blood from a donor or patient and separating the blood into individual components so that one particular component can be removed. The remaining blood components then are re-introduced back into the bloodstream of the patient or donor. 

 

Platelets, one of the 4 components of blood, (about 3 x 10^^11 was collected), is a yellowish thick liquid separated from our blood,, about 50 - 100 ml, given to critical / terminal cancer and leukaemia patients. 

Human blood contains platelets 45% and plasma 55% by volume, platelets helps the blood to clot and prevent blood loss. 

The monitor gives progressive info

Actually I went for blood transfusion, but since my last transfusion was just 2.5 months back, they suggested instead an apheresis procedure.

A young doctor there explained to me the procedure well and uncle google also was helpful, I agreed. I was told it is a really harmless procedure, I can do apheresis, every two weeks, if I want to. This time only platelets, next time could be only plasma etc. By this, more people can donate the diff blood components. Though this was my 42nd blood donation, this was my first experience at apheresis and it was cool ..

A very safe procedure, an approximate count of platelets taken was mentioned, 3 x 10 to the power 11, (300 billion or 300,000,000,000 platelets .. ). The procedure app took 45 minutes, totally 2 hours pre-harvesting and post-harvesting in an a/c room under watchful eyes. 

Having had a good breakfast, I was given two Calcium tablets before and one orange juice packet after the procedure. I am perfectly fine after the procedure, healthy and active, no hangovers at all.

If you want to touch the past, touch a rock.  If you want to touch the present, touch a flower.  If you want to touch the future, touch a life.” – Author Unknown

Thanking Almighty God for giving an opportunity to serve society, hope this will motivate others to continue give back to society ..  🙏🙏

An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching - Mahatma Gandhi

George 

Visit to Dayabhavan, Kunigal, Tumkur.

2005 pic of inaug. by HG Osthathios (c).

Dayabhavan is the home for the non-HIV infected children of HIV infected parents situated in Kunigal in Tumkur district in Karnataka run by the Orthodox Syrian Church of India. Wanted to visit some socially stimulating place and this institution run by the Orthodox Syrian church founded by Geevarghese Mar Osthathios in 2005 was a very apt place to visit. This is our second visit... The website of the orphanage is www.dayabhavan.org 

 

The place has two buildings, the St Gregorios orphanage that houses 72 inmates from 5 years to about 20 years of age, mostly studying in the local Kannada medium govt schools and some in local english medium schools, going to PUC and Degree. 

 

The other building is the govt recognised St Gregorios adoption centre for Tumkur district that has about 17 children from 1 day to about 4 years of age. The kids are in different stages of adoption by local childless couples and foreign ones. Usually adoption is a very long legal process taking about 3 years of time. The government system works well in trying to understand over this period of time the willingness and capability of the couple to adopt and take care of children well into their adolescence. Children from the adoption centre move in to the orphanage as they grow. About 7-8 babies are in different stages of adoption by Indian and foreign couples. 

From St. Gregorios Orthodox church, Hosur Road, Bangalore, a team of ten members from five families and driver Anil, under the leadership of Dr. Alice Mani, got ready by 6 AM. By 6.45 AM we were hitting the road to Kunigal in two Toyota Innova, loaded with food and gifts for the children. We went there to spend a very productive day with the children.

We carried the breakfast of appam (total 400) for all the orphanage inmates and their caretakers, while the chicken curry was prepared by the kitchen staff. After a blessed breakfast with the children, we were entertained by them for about two hours. They sang and danced to their hearts content. It was great motivation for them to perform in front of a very welcome crowd who gave them all support and encouragement to dream big and do great things in life.

Kids having breakfast

Then we went around the compound to watch the kitchen gardens being maintained by the children with Fr. Jinesh Varkey. A type of Miyawaki forestry (click here for Miyawaki at Toyota Kirloskar plant Bidadi)  of intense vegetation is practiced here. Instead of wild trees, lot of beneficial fruit bearing trees and vegetables were planted closely together that supported each other while giving high quality organic produce for the inmates to consume. They also make very pure vurgin coconut oil which they sell at rs 300 per liter. 

We also brought some of the produce with us back to Bangalore, at a cost, which helps the orphanage financially. Besides the members also gave good donations to the orphanage to help in it's daily functioning alongside sacks of rice, books, furniture, pickles, and so on.

Alice Mani was very helpful

We also were fortunate enough to plant about ten saplings, a practice to have deep intimate feelings of association with the orphanage and the inmates. The return trip at 2 PM got us back in our homes in Bangalore by 5 PM.

This is a trip we would not forget for a long time. We have enjoyed the warmth and safety of our parents during our lifetime and so have our children. When we think of these children who were denied these luxuries, we feel sorry for them and wish to help them in all ways possible. We are forever grateful to God for giving us the basic pleasures and luxuries of life. 

Were it not for the persistence from Dr Alice Mani, we would not have made it to Kunigal during this Covid time. A big thanks to her once again.

If you want to help the orphanage financially pl contact the Manager / warden Fr Jinesh Varkey 94483 71298. The passion and dedication of Fr Jinesh to this institution is commendable.

St. Gregorios Dayabhavan

Bhaktharahalli Post, Vanigere Village, Kunigal Taluk, Tumkur District, Karnataka State, India. PIN-572 120

Ph. No: +91-76767 05649 (Admin Office), +91-94483 71298 (Secretary Fr Jinesh)

dayabhavan@gmail.com

George.

Artificial Intelligence role play in the MBA class

30 July 2021 we did a role play in the MBA sem 1 class, section B in Alliance School of Business, Bangalore, India.

According to wikipedia, Role-playing is the changing of one's behaviour to assume a role, either unconsciously to fill a social role, or consciously to act out an adopted role.

Northern Illinois University has this explanation of role playing. Click here .. 

Role playing is that allows students to immediately apply content as they are put in the role of a decision maker who must make a decision regarding a policy, resource allocation, or some other outcome. - serc.carleton.edu

Click here for my earlier writing on the Bloom's Taxonomy to effect great understanding in the learning process, Role play comes in the top create part of the pyramid.

Objective : Understand how AI applications in daily rioutine activities in industry or elsewhere can help simplify matters and improve productivity

Procedure : There were 3 groups of 4 students each, the rest of the 45 students were taking online sessions from home. The 12 students carried out the role play.

The role we assumed in the class were of participants who earlier had issues with carrying out the mundane functions in the manufacturing plant or office or home and demonstrating how AI helped to efficiently carry it out.

The first group showed how they had problems manufacturing computer displays in the shop floor. The manual processes were inefficient and resulted in errors which the quality manager often found and complained to the top management in the company. It was when they decided to call in an AI expert and succeeded in effectively shifting from manual control to AI based control, which saw high quality and increase in efficiency.

The second AI based role play involved the hostel mess where the students were bored with the same breakfast. Even after repeated complaining, the menu had not changed. That was when one of the students had a friend who was contacted and who helped come out with an AI program that helped to mix the right ingredients of different varieties of flour to get any food of their liking and preferences. It changed the students perception to the hostel mess food immediately and was a big success.

The third group focused on a retail store. Earlier the store had problems with low sales and the store management decided to install AI systems. This system tracked eye ball movements of customers that gave indicators to the store management what were the items customers were looking at which would move faster than the other items in the store. The store was able tom improve its sales by installing this system. 

Learning : The exercise helped the students to visualise a poorly performing situation and the improved situation with the application of AI based systems that led to overall improvement.