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Some issues are true catch 22s. Child labor is one of them. It is tragic to see it in our daily lives. In this age where human capital is at a premium, this is a major potential squandered.

So, its no wonder India has recently extended ban on child labor in chousehold and hospitality. While the intention is noble and the move is welcome, the catch 22 part of it is, now what?. Where will the estimated 16.4 million Indian children go?. Views on the news is mixed. While everyone agrees that just this law is insufficient, some argue that this is a good start and you have to begin somewhere, while others believe this will be disastrous.

In all this, we are missing the real issue. Child labor is the symptom. The real issue is human resource development. There is an opportunity cost for the country as a whole if these children do not realize their potential.

So, how do we achieve this?. Nurturing human potential is capital and time intensive. The government's traditional approach is that of policy, subsidy and regulatory which is at best ineffective. We must explore a radically different approach..

Democratize education!

In today's knowledge economy, we should look at how to equip these children to use knowledge and skill to raise their potential. For this, we need to lower the barriers of education so that it is freely, easily and quickly availble.

1. Decentralize education: Narayan Murthy articulated best recently that education needs to be decentralized. The power should shift from government dictating education policies to cities, villages, families managing educational goals at their levels.

2. Repackage education: K12 is a good system if you can afford it both in terms of time and money. But in this situation, we need an educational system that is cheap, focused and fast. Cheap in terms of affordability, focused in terms of its objectives and fast in term of time to learn. Children should be able to learn a specific skill in a short time (3 months?) and earn more with it.

3. Incent education: Provide incentives for financing education. Chilren should be able to get financing easily for educational purposes. Employment opportunities should be aligned with education and skill levels.

4. Popularize education: Instead of banning child labor outright, a radical approach is to encourage employment of child labor in a safe and nurturing environment. As an example, for every hour a child works, employers are required to provide education credits (which can get tax benefits). More incentives can be provided to employers where the nature of employment has growth and learning built into it (on the job training). Create a culture where employers feel proud of participation in nation building.

Government policy should focus purely on providing security and preventing child abuse in the work place environment and incenting positive employer behavior.

Saw the hindi movie Bluffmaster couple of days ago. I really like the songs and have to admit Abhishek Bachhan is getting good these days. The movie is a take on Adam Sandler and Jack Nicholson's Anger Management. Substitute meekness to conmanship and you get the idea.

But there is another point to the movie which is striking. It explores the idea (although pretty weakly) - what if you knew beforehand the day you will die. How will you live your life. Very powerful idea. The hero of the movie goes on to do some goofy stuff and totally misses the potential of this track.

But, it got me thinking.. imagine.. what if.. what if.. we all were born with the knowledge of how long we may live. The latest date of departure is fixed. You know you wouldn't live beyond this date. That doesn't mean you will definitely get to live that long. You may die before. The only thing certain is that you will not live beyond this date. Would it make our lives fatalistic? Would it kill spontaneity? Would it make life less interesting?

I strongly believe that it will make my life more efficient and more interesting. Because I know the end date, I will have more motivation to pack my life with more meaning, more purpose and I will dare to do more. With an end date death will look more real to me. Atleast I don't have to plan for anything after that date :-)

How would you feel?

Time certainly has changed. A british retailer fired an employee by sending a text message to her. If getting fired by SMS seem odd to you, time certainly has changed a lot for you and me. This begs a good question. Is it appropriate to fire someone by SMS?.

My opinion is that there are some communication etiquettes that we should consider. Using SMS to chit chat is one thing and using it to fire someone is totally another thing. If you consider formality of a medium of communication, SMS squarely falls under casual.

While face-face communication is the most formal preferred mode, phone comes next followed by snail mail and then by email/fax and last by SMS. What do you think?

I came across this amazing, powerful and moving sound bite of MLK Jr. when I accidentally clicked on a link in Oracle email announcing Martin Luther King day as a new holiday introduced next year. I am glad that I clicked on the link. It is a moving speech. I hope you enjoy it too Check it out

Andy Warhol is a genius way ahead of time (whether he realized himself or not :-)). He is credited with the quote

"In the future everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes"

Now you can buy self-credited narcisstic 15 minutes on Yahoo Music for $1.99. Not very long ago, I used to be amazed with Dell customizing laptops for every single user. "You can do that?!" was my reaction. Today it is mass customization for etching your name in Jessica's song. We have certainly come a long way. Well, let me rephrase that.. we are certainly going a long way!