Responsive Web Design Can Improve Your Business online

Why Businesses Must Plan to Build and Maintain Responsive Web-Sites

RESPONSIVE DESIGN: INTERNET USAGE COMES NOW IN ALL SHAPES & SIZES:
In August 2014, the CEO of Google estimated that India's Internet population would at 250 million users, surpass the US in 2014. These users access the Internet using a bewildering array Of gadgetry from antiquated school computers to the latest phones, tablets and fablets.
Hence the need to retrofit old sites and build new sites using "responsive design."

Web sites designed before the smartphone era had it a lot easier as smaller screen sizes and web access by phone were relatively rare. Today, companies are designing for many more screen sizes and operating systems than previously.

THE STAKES ARE GETTING BIGGER:
With the Indian population approaching 1.3 billion, India's 250 million  online users would mean an estimated online population of 19 percent and growing. Businesses that do not plan responsively designed web sites will pay dearly for their lack of preparedness.

DEMOGRAPHICS DRIVE THE TREND: Why are these online numbers so high? They are high because 50 percent of India's overall population is below the age of 25).

India is expected to have 500 million Internet users by the end of 2018


WHAT IS RESPONSIVE DESIGN
Responsive web design simply outputs different designs for different devices without changing the url. Its simply done by different ways using CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) which allow us to specify various design instructions in "what if" scenarios. For example if screen height and length are within certain parameters then the page is to be formatted in a particular way.

We can design a responsive website by using width and heights of each content block in percentage and change the positioning and alignment of these content blocks in different devices ( not by device detection, only by width and height).


LOW BAND WIDTH BENEFITS: Another good thing about responsive design is that it is very useful for websites which serve countries like India. In India internet speeds are often very low. Also here, more users use smart phones with pocket data internet (Not even 3G is common). So by using responsive design we can serve them simple and fast loading objects only.


SEARCH ENGINES: Responsive web sites do not lose out when it comes to search engines as they now serve all iterations of hardware as well as browser connectivity.


Overall, responsive design places great emphasis on adaptability. This usually implies a reduced emphasis on heavy animation and high resolution graphics. Working this way also reduces load time for site visitors who could get impatient and go elsewhere If loading times are long.

As Marshal Macluhan once said, the "medium is the message." Today that message or medium had better be responsively designed or it will simply not represent your message or company effectively.

To receive a complimentary phone consultation on ways to increase your reach on the Internet please email the writer at pravinjphilip@yahoo.com

Making the Case for Allowing States to Retain a Measure of Autonomy

Encouraging State's to Improve Safety is Faster & Cheaper than Trying to Do it for Them

Well intentioned legislative overreach in the quest to better manage road transport?
The Road Transport and Safety Bill introduced by the Transportation Ministry in Delhi is a spectacular example of legislative overreach by a well-meaning government.*

On the one hand it is laudable that many of the punitive provisions for motor vehicle offenses such as drunk driving are likely to be enhanced. But the Ministry of Transportation must take into account the existing infrastructure at the state level when developing these initiatives. Especially considering that some states have been doing a good job. The gargantuan scope of this legislation undermines the federal character of this country and seeks to foist many poorly thought-out nationally administered mechanisms and provisions on an economy that is already reeling from regulatory asphyxiation.

No doubt that the problem is severe and requires intervention at all levels:
There is certainly a role for national coordination such as maintaining national vehicle and licensing databases. The problems about the management of motor vehicles are severe, but the prescribed cure should be locally responsive and not create more problems than it solves.

The World Health Organization estimates that  the nation has more traffic fatalities than the entire developed world put together (ten percent of global fatalities; 130,000 deaths in 2012).

India, with the largest road network in the world has 3.06 million kilometers of road criss-crossing an area of some 32,76,000 square kilometers. This includes some of the highest and wettest roads in the world, mostly without pavements, dividers or side barriers. It is estimated that some 40 percent of road fatalities are pedestrian but trying to take over the nation's roads is a rather bumpy way to address the need for more pedestrian protections. Local groups, corporations or public-private partnerships are far more likely to develop effective solutions.

The problem is worse on account of vehicular growth and road expansion:
In proportion to the population, fatalities per 100,000 people have been climbing  over the last ten years. India in 2013 had 18.9 accident fatalities per 100,000 people overall but this number varies depending on the region. It was closer to 13 per 100,000 some ten years ago.

The statistics on Indian fatalities look better if you also consider the growth of the road network and the vehicle population. In 1970, there were 100 fatalities per 10,000 vehicles. Each decade that number dropped to 53, 28 and 16 per 10,000 vehicles in 1980, 1990 and 2000 respectively. In 2011 it was down to ten fatalities for every 10,000 vehicles.

Between 2002 and 2011 the road network grew annually at a compounded rate of 3.4 percent while the vehicle population grew annually at a compounded rate of 9.9 percent.  Fatalities in relation to road growth and vehicular numbers have actually gone down. This is attributed to better policing as well as safer, newer cars.

Regions are now free to innovate, results do vary dramatically : Take Kerala for example: In densely populated, but better regulated Kerala, which so,e say also accounts for an estimated 6 percent of the nation's motor vehicle population, the number of fatalities per lakh is around 12.56, or 33 percent lower than the national average. Since Kerala has only 2.8 percent of India's population, having more than twice as many vehicles in relation to its population and yet staying 33 percent below the number of fatalities per 100,000 people is noteworthy.

Needless to say, even Kerala's lower mortality rates are still much more than high income countries with far larger (and also safer) vehicle populations. In these wealthy, better regulated nations, significant investment is made in public infrastructure and in educating young people who invariably account for most of the accidents. The result is that in developed economies, the mortality average is just 8.7 per 100,000 population.

National standards needed but methods used can vary by region
India's 28 states are well positioned to deal with India's diversity given that the nation has over 1,600 languages and dialects of which over 120 are spoken by 10,000 people or more. There are 22 official languages. Geographical and climatic variations are the norm. India includes the Himalayas (the highest point in the world) as well as Cherapunji (until recently, the wettest.)

It is to the government's credit that they are concerned but a concensus is best developed by engaging the state authorities and utilizing, possibly rewarding good suggestions for improving safety performance. In early November of 2014, Kerala's Transportation Minister, Shri Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan and Sreelekha IPS, Commissioner of Traffic went to Delhi in the spirit of constructive criticism and submitted their concerns. Other states are also likely to have forwarded their suggestions.

A review of comments by several educated administrators and activists who have read the proposed bill also indicate serious concerns ( http://praja.in/en/blog/sanjayv/2014/09/16/draft-road-transport-and-safety-bill-2014).  Creating a constitutionally questionable monolithic "Vehicle Registration & Road Safety Authority in Delhi, with a few impracticalities borrowed from the west  (like mandatory bicycle helmets, even for poor villagers) is not the answer. Once again, the imposition of such an agency on the states is counterproductive.

Legislative impositions on states vs. promoting volunteerism & educating young drivers
Developed nations all together only account for 10 percent of global fatalities. This despite the fact that they drive at higher speeds and account for more than half the world's vehicles.

In most or all of these nations driver education is available in schools so young people are sensitized to the behavioral determinants of safety such as wearing helmets, driving under the influence and seat belt usage, well before they get behind the wheel.

One lesson in history that the high performing economies of the West have taught us is that, communities incentivized to solve problems invariably make things happen cheaper and faster.

Attitudes to safety are linked to volunteerism and education:
A group called "Youth, United for Safety is emerging in Bangalore. The Department of Motor Vehicles in Kerala has been working with schools and is in the process of facilitating self perpetuating public private partnerships that will educate young people through workshops in schools and online programming that offers prizes to students and teachers who participate.

Already being implemented in various regions are public-private volunteer programs that allow concerned citizens to reports issues like drunk driving. Other volunteer programs through Communisafety.com a  traffic safety portal are also planned. These programs will eventually be funded by businesses who have a safety story to promote such as tyre and new car marketers.

The unthinkable alternative is to unleash a gargantuan command & control bureaucracy that takes away each state's right to set taxation and administrative policy on motor vehicles.
Consider in broad strokes what the draft legislation is proposing.
The proposed Act hopes to set up a monolithic gargantuan self perpetuating bureaucracy that directs all activities related to Motor Vehicles in the nations states and -- Union Territories.

The Authority seeks to determine the policies, finances and leadership of 28 different State Authorities while directing each state entity to also report to the State Government that it is supposed to serve. In the process it also tries to take away each state's right to set tax policy for motor vehicles, a right guaranteed by the Indian constitution.

The proposed legislation seeks to allow for national Technical Working Groups on specific subjects with no representation provided for the state opinions on their deliberations.

The Authority will manage a unified driver licensing program for the whole country with a mandatory nine month waiting period for anyone who is applying for a license (even if they are already drivers in other countries).

The Authority will also seek to manage a Unified Vehicle Registration program for the entire country. The proposed legislation includes poorly defined descriptions for two and three wheeler vehicles.

The Authority seeks to direct National Road Transport Activities through yet another national multimodal Authority that is also able to form Technical Works around specific areas as deemed necessary. It will also form and direct State Road Transport Authorities.

The Bill also enters the judicial realm with gusto by proposing Motor Vehicle Claims Tribunals.

Last but not least the Authority gets into the law enforcement business by setting up a National Highway Traffic Regulation & Protection Force that seeks to do away with existing state apparatuses.

It would appear that only area that this proposed Vehicle Registration & Road Safety Authority has left untouched is the armed forces, but even military vehicles, drivers and roads are destined to be subject to this administrative Overlord if this questionable draft legislation miraculously passes into law.

The Draft legislation has brought much needed attention to this important arena and many of its recommendations for care of accident victims, liability management and licensing as well as it's punitive provisions are likely be welcomed by the states. India seeks to lead the world in many areas but traffic fatalities need not be one of them.

* The draft of the proposed bill can be read at
 http://morth.nic.in/index2.asp?slid=1479&sublinkid=932&lang=1


The author, Pravin Joseph Philip can be contacted at pravinjphilip@yahoo.com. Comments are welcome: 

Digitally Dangerous Government

Four Ministers's of the Kerala Government have listed improper e-addresses as their official email address*. The errant Ministers and their improper email addresses are as follows.

Minister Name, Title                                                   Improper Official Email Address

K. Babu, Minister for Fisheries, Ports and Excise:       Ministerkbabu@gmail.com

V K Ebrahim Kunju, Minister for Public Works:          Pwdministerkerala@gmail.com

Manjalamkuzhi Ali, Minister for Urban Affairs:           Manjalamkuzhi@gmail.com

Dr. M. K. Muneer, Minister, Panchayats/Soc. Justice   mkmuneer2@gmail.com,

                                                                                       social justice@gmail.com

Given that the U.S. National Security Administration has admitted to tapping into the servers of e-providers like Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail (as well as Facebook) these ministerial worthies would be well advised to shed their naïveté and use official gov.in email servers that are located in India.

There is also a moral component to this issue as government officials are subject to laws about accountability and transparency.

Just today, Hilary Rodham Clinton (possibly a candidate for the U.S. Presidency in 2016) is being excoriated in the Hindu newspaper for using her personal email address (hdr22@clintonemail.com). Her staff had to turn over 50,000 pages of emails a few weeks ago.

* Source: Kerala Government Diary (2015 Edition)