Consulting Summarized...

Consulting per my past experience I have seen and lived thru can be classified broadly into three areas viz Strategy, Tactical and Operations …

In each of the above three, the needs that can be met can be further classified as Executive Management Needs, Enterprise Needs and Functional Needs

Further to the above 3 x 3 classification the depth is drilled down to seven levels…. Level 0 to Level 6  

Before we drill down further, let’s define who a consultant is… a consultant is "an expert in a particular field who works as an adviser either to a company or to another individual." 

Management Consulting

Management consulting is the practice of helping organizations to improve their performance, operating primarily through the analysis of existing organizational problems and the development of plans for improvement.

The target audience usually are C-Level and Sr. Management. Focus areas usually are to help improve the business TopLine, Cashflow and BottomLine. The consulting output is typically a business case and a roadmap that helps make key investment decisions that impact the organization performance, brand, growth (organic / inorganic) and key financial parameters.

Study and recommendations often revolves as defined below. Again, this is purely my approach, there are multiple ways and means one addresses the situation. This is one I have seen working the most per my past experience…

For example, we are working with a client “XYZ Inc.” and have to help them identify areas of improvement to help grow the business. The study includes the following four possibilities:

1. XYZ Inc does and the Competition also does: The consultant studies various processes, products, service lines etc… analyses the financial statements, tries to identify areas of efficiency improvement and provides recommendations. 
2. XYZ Inc. does and the Competition does not: The consultant in this scenario after the study and analysis of various processes, product and service lines help address the factors on what XYZ Inc. is doing is good as per the market forces and carries the first mover advantage or what XYZ Inc. is doing is not in par with market expectations, and has to stop doing because it is no more required. 
3. XYZ Inc. does not and the Competition does: This is a vice-versa situation to the above example, after the study the recommendations will be inline with what needs to be done and what need not 
4. XYZ Inc. does not and the Competition does not: This is a case where the consultant studies the near term future requirements and demand of the market and prepares business case / roadmap for XYZ Inc. to gear up to and be ready to address the market demand and carry a first mover advantage. 

In all the above four scenarios the company may engage the consultant in any of or all three Strategy, Tactical and functional areas and the depth depending on the time and cost one decides to invest can be anywhere from Level0 to Level6. 

Various value based frameworks like Financial Analysis, BCG Matrix, Balance Scorecard, 7S. 7P, Porters five forces, SWOT, Theory of Constraints etc…are most commonly used 

Enterprise Consulting:

An Enterprise is but nothing a business or a firm or an organization or can be simply a large scale project, there are multiple definitions but they all carry a common combination of People + Process + Technology. 

The enterprise can be a Sole proprietorship, a partnership, corporation, co-operative etc… and further be classified into Small-Mid-Big. 

Unlike the management consulting which focuses on catering the needs of only Top Level executives and operates in a niche space, Enterprise consulting covers the breadth and depth of an organization across all three areas Strategy, Tactical and Operational. 

Key focus of an Enterprise Architect is BIIDAT which stands for Business Process Architecture, Information Architecture, Integration Architecture, Data Architecture, Application Architecture and Technology Architecture. Beyond which the consulting elements also cover the user adoption, transition and migration. 

The consulting assignments can be incremental or transformational in nature. The most famous framework in this area adopted is TOGAF and Zachman along with various other change management and technology frameworks covering Cost, Quality and Time are focused upon

Functional Consulting:  

Functional consulting is the most prevalent area of consulting many service and consulting organizations offer as a service to the clients. A Functional Consultant is a person who is involved in the planning, designing and oversight of a function or a key process area. It could be an organisations enabling (Support) function like HR, Admin, Legal, Sales, Service, Marketing… or a non-enabling function like Banking, Insurance, Manufacturing, Supply chain etc… 

Functional consultant is not generic business consultant but an SME specialized in the area of practice to a particular industry. What matters most in the functional consulting is the depth and industry knowledge coupled with problem identification and solving ability 

Depending on the client's needs and the requirements, the spectrum of the Functional Consultant’s services may be extensive (detailed document preparation and construction review) or less inclusive (such as providing a list of possible solutions to a GAP or incident). 

There are various frameworks and tools depending on the area of consulting the functional consultant operates in. Could be project management tools, six sigma tools, lean and operation enhancement tools, quality tools, in fact the diversified nature of services are so many that for every offering the specialist consultant is equipped with a tool kit specific to the problem area one is working upon. 

Techno Functional consulting also requires one to carry enough expertise w.r.t. solution architecture and technical architecture if he/she is involved in the IT Space often termed as IT consulting which maps the Technology with the Process to enable ease in doing business. 

Consulting according to me is an art, thou there are tools and techniques which help enable a consultant perform his job and draw excellence which is more of a science, an added responsibility or what I call as a trait of a good consultant is ability to play the role of a good sales man. Now a days consulting and sales together as two in a box skill is coined with a new area of consultative sales… which I will write in the coming posts… 

Happy reading, and in case you wish to write into me for gathering more information or learn more about consulting, or interested to shape a career into consulting or just for knowledge sharing feel free to drop a note on rajesh.mohandas@gmail.com or whtsapp me +91 984 594 4896.

Smart Living... beyond smart cities (Part 4) : Senior Citizens Care

Steve Jobs so bravely articulated in his remarkable speech to Stanford graduates in 2005 when he put death at the centre-stage. First, he referred to death as "useful", and then he went on to remind his audience about something the young adults were probably reluctant to acknowledge on the day of graduation: that they would all age and die. It is the one universal human experience. And, finally, he claimed that death "is very likely the single best invention of life. It's life's change agent…” This kind of thought process from various philanthropists has led to multiple innovations in the health and wellness industry to leverage the technology to combat the deadly diseases trying to conquer death leading to an increase in life expectancy. According to World Health organization it is projected by 2020 chronic diseases will account for 75% of all deaths worldwide 

This blog post will connect with you emotionally thru the situations we are today living in and provide practical ways to unleash the emerging technology and overcome an area of our mid-life crisis in lieu with Elder / Senior Citizen Care. 

According to the State of Elderly in India report released by the non-profit organization Helpage India by 2021, the elderly in the country will number 143 million, the report said. Presently, the elderly in divided into three categories: the young old (60-70) the middle-aged old (70-80) and the oldest old (80 plus). The increase in life expectancy the population of those aged 60+ will increase by 270% and out of this, the oldest old segment, which is the most vulnerable on account of suffering from disabilities, diseases, terminal illness and dementia, is also the largest growing segment of the elderly population, at a rate of 500%. 

The traditional Indian society and the joint family system had in built fault tolerant reliable system for all the family members before the nuclear family concept took over the better parts of it. This is especially true for young ones and elder ones reducing them to a compulsion to be more self-dependent. Most often than not, the elderly people are exposed to emotional, physical and financial insecurity of which the most common challenges faced by the elderly is the need to ensure their medical needs are fulfilled.  Today the elderly are both economically and emotionally dependent on a kids who stay away from the beloved ones as the critical need to financially earn and create their career graph beckons, In a distant city, earning livelihood as a prey to rapid urbanization, competitive lifestyle, growing aspiration for more lifestyle products and an insatiable desire to get ahead keeps then on their toes and rarely gives them opportunity to take care of the beloved ones while they struggle themselves to strike a work-life balance. 

All of these are coming at a dearly social cost. Today, the lack of  time to spend with family members, ever increasing work pressures, deadline driven work environment, targets to accomplish, stressed commuting etc… and we are compromising fast and implicitly thereby losing the emotional bonding with kith and kin and hence the  “Relationships”…..starting with spouse at our doorstep. Some have taken that to be a fad to brag about how critical they are for their employer.  Mothers are busy all day slogging for providing the best support systems at home, kids are into rat race so they don’t get time to bond with grand-parents, grand-parents are killing time with the ibox or web-serials and hence the entire house provides a scenario of a busy corporate house.This creates a void in the elderly senior citizens who are left to deal with life and their issues on their own, turning themselves into introverts lest they disturb the rhythm of other lives around them and create the risk of falling into health black-hole which can prove costly.

Kids of the parents who stay far away, realize their compulsions between how they many a times are incapacitated to maintain the balance which otherwise they would have cherished to. What do the elders so? In cases of urgent need, where do they go? Who do they speak to? But there are many who are blind-sighted to even notice what they are missing? Does it hound them? They shudder when they think it’s just a matter of few more years when they too will qualify to become next batch of senior citizen...!!! 

In a bid to find a solution to this, a quite revolution is brewing across the healthcare industry. While heightened patient awareness has led to demands for better health services, remote care and health monitoring for senior citizens, especially for those sets whose kids are far away but would still like to keep a tab and reach out help if needed. Requirements for remote Treatment of complex chronic conditions, with updated PHRs and statistical parametric records have been demanding smarter healthcare systems which through various connected devices should enable measurement and effective treatment of old-age issues which does not seem too far from reach with the advances in the technology at hand. 

• In a medical emergency, timely provisioning of help is the essence. Minutes can make the difference between life and death; disability and recovery. By lessening the time it takes to diagnose and treat a patient, smart, connected devices, will lead to fundamental improvements in emergency medical care 

• Instead of hospitalizing senior citizens a home care option can be extended and alternative for constant physiological monitoring with minimal people intervention using IoT-driven, non-invasive monitoring. This type of solution employs sensors to collect comprehensive physiological information and uses gateways and the cloud to store the information, then send the data wirelessly to caregivers for further analysis and review. It replaces the process of having a health professional come by at regular intervals to check the patient’s vital signs, instead providing a continuous automated flow of information 

• Smart sensors, which combine a sensor and a microcontroller, make it possible to harness the power of the IoT for healthcare by accurately measuring, monitoring and analysing a variety of health status indicators. These can include basic vital signs such as heart rate and blood pressure, as well as levels of glucose or oxygen saturation in the blood. Smart sensors can even be incorporated into pill bottles and connected to the network to indicate whether a patient has taken a scheduled dose of medication 

• As per the WHO 2014 statistics every year worldwide there are 32.4 million heart attacks and strokes that lead to 14 million deaths. About 85% of strokes are ischemic, and these patients can be treated within the first 3 to 4.5 hours and 15% of the strokes are hemorrhagic. Patients suffering Ischemic stroke if given tissue plasminogen activator have a very great chance of recovery but the doctor needs to diagnose if the stroke is Ischemic or hemorrhagic which needs a CT Scan. Most of the time today especially with traffic conditions in India is wasted only to get to the hospital. Here is where a use case of connected devices in the ambulance can help reduce time and transmit information while in transit for the care giver to be ready for action when the patient arrives saving the time and increase the chances of survival
• One of the prominent statistics from the American journal of medical research indicates at least 75% of adults are non-adherent to physician prescribed treatment and medication in one or many ways with respect to medication. The economic impact of non-adherence is estimated to cost $100 billion annually. IoT medication pumps are effective at adequately dosing medications, without the risks of overdose or missed doses that are present when medications are administered manually, also with IoT sensors an alarming mechanism will not only set an indication to elders at home to take medication but also will monitor and give feedback to the care giver 

• Bio-electronic therapies is just beginning to ramp up and that in the future many conditions could be treated with electrical impulses, leveraging IoT in healthcare with the implants both the provider and the care taker will receive specific feedback on various vital parameters that can be monitored proactively with predictive analytics and set course correction which will add a whole new dimension especially to the senior citizen health care treating aliments like Arthritis, Respiratory conditions, Heart diseases, etc…

• A trend from the west which will soon catch up in the east in the coming years is the concept of “aging in the place” where the elder citizens especially men wish to stay back independently in their homes, while another trend is commonly seen in senior women is home sharing, where two or more than two women share a home teaming up as senior roommates. Affordable remote monitoring will become popular with digitally savvy millennials increasingly look to sensors and wearable tech to keep track of parents and grandparents. For Example… Sensara is a remote monitoring system and app that uses small, unobtrusive sensors to keep on eye on elderly family members and friends who live on their own 

• Goode Intelligence forecasts that by 2019 there will be 5.5 billion users of mobile and wearable biometric technology around the globe. Apple is the leading manufacturer of biometric-mobile devices, and HealthKit is said to have an “Emergency Access” feature where medical information can be shared through the “Medical ID” app. Apple has also partnered with EPIC and their MyChart app to capture physical vitals and other patient data, and make this information available to physicians via the HER 

• GreenPeak Senior Lifestyle System consists of just four sensors and a gateway. One sensor is located in the bedroom, one in the kitchen, one in the bathroom and one on the front door. These sensors track the movement of a senior or disabled resident in the home, and by using ZigBee and a ZigBee gateway, transmits the information into a cloud intelligence app. Within a period of one or two weeks, the cloud intelligence app learns the “normal” behavior and activities of the household. When does the resident awaken, when does he go to the bathroom, when does he make breakfast, when does he usually leave the home and return. Once the normal behavior pattern is learned, if there is a sudden or dramatic change in the anticipated movement, then an alert can be sent to family members or caregivers. 

• The BodyGuardian Sensor performs cardiac ECG and rhythm monitoring. A body worn sensor allows individuals to remain active and independent while their heart and general health are being monitored. The patient data is wirelessly delivered to the Preventice Care Platform, a cloud-based mHealth platform that collects real-time data from devices and delivers information to physicians 

• BeClose says it takes less than 15 minutes to set up sensors to monitor a senior’s routine that can be viewed through a web dashboard. Emergency alerts are also provided via email, text message, or phone. Additionally, the system is smart enough to recognize gradual changes or adjusted trends in the senior’s lifestyle. For example, if they are getting out of bed later, or it is taking them longer to get to the kitchen, or if they no longer leave the house, a message can be sent to the family alerting them of this change 

• Old people have tendency to fall and injure themselves.Active Protective can help them in this area. This smart garment detects a fall before we hit the floor. It uses 3D sensors to determine falls and crashes in progress, and then deploys wearable airbags in textile in order to protect our hips from braking. This might be a good thing to consider when hip fractures are so often in older population. While fall detection is not for everyone, it can be the difference between life and death for those who need it. Falls can result in critical injuries, like those to the head and hips, and are the leading cause of loss of independence for the elderly. The top performers in the Fall Detection sensor are Medical Guardian, LifeCall, and Medical Care Alert 

• WalkJoy, a wearable aimed at helping people with neuropathy who have trouble maintaining balance and walking. Individuals who suffer from the nerve problem—most of whom are older—lose feeling in their feet and sometimes calves and knees and, as a result, find it difficult to determine where their foot is in space, leading to frequent falls. The device, which fits right below the knee with a Velcro strap, contains a variety of sensors able to detect velocity and the angle of the foot. With that data, the system fires on the heel as it strikes the ground, causing the motor system to revive and sending appropriate messages to the brain 

• The EverThere has hands-free voice communication, and it can even make a call if the wearer isn’t able to do so herself. Internal GPS allows the care center to determine the user’s location and send an ambulance or call a loved one 

• Another important fact of life especially in the senior citizen community is of Depression. A survey from Times of India group indicates 21.9% of elderly citizen in India suffer depression. One of the causes for depression clearly stated is loneliness. While antidepressant drugs are administered the IoT coupled with augmented reality and social platforms can being the senior citizens close to their loved ones and also with the community then often interact with. Proactive mood aware wearable’s will trigger messages to their near and dear ones who can act immediately to help the elderly bring back smile and cheer on their faces and avert any kind of mood disorders 

Although earlier generations may not have been raised in such a technologically advanced time, statistics show that a large majority of this demographic understands the need to join the digital revolution. Now more than ever, the elderly are engaging in this sphere more often than healthcare providers seem to recognize. Research suggests that a significant number of senior citizens are engaging digitally, but–for those who aren’t– why not? Most likely, this is due to ignorance or inexperience. As their healthcare provider and YOU probably the most important person in their life, it would be wise, as well as appreciated, if YOU were to take their hand, and pull them into the 21st century by educating them on how to engage in a digital world. 

Smart citizen is what they have made you to live in today’s competitive smart city capable of making smart choices using smart devices … it’s time to look back at our parents and grandparents and gift them smart care … think thru. 

Smart Living ... beyond Smart Cities (Part 3) : Smart Energy

The highest consumption rate in today’s world is of fossil fuel. The twentieth century saw a rapid 20x increase in the use of fossil. The consumption of these fossil fuels continues at a high rate which means once we have used up all of them, we need to rely on alternative sources of energy such as solar, wind and hydro power to meet our daily needs. This sounds quite scary, but yes, this is the truth. As per a research report compiled by IEA (International Energy Agency) average energy use in the last three decades grew at 10% per person per year globally.

Statistics show developing nations consume more energy compared to the developed ones while the world overall grew by 39%.

Industrial users (agriculture, mining, manufacturing, and construction) consume about37%, Personal and commercial transportation consumes 20%, Residential consumption at 11%, commercial consumption stands at 5%, The other 27% of the world's energy is lost in energy transmission and generation…

The concept of getting more awareness in developing nation is though a bigger challenge but will catapult them to become a nation better planned when developed and refrain from being in an irreversible position where you cannot change things. 

There has been a veritable explosion in the number of electronics, appliances, and other miscellaneous devices plugged into, or permanently connected to the outlets in our homes that are consuming electricity every moment. The NRDC (Natural Resource Defense Council) conducted a study and found that 23% of power consumption in the average household (roughly about a quarter of your electricity bill), is paid for no good reason but for the idle load electricity which is consumed by various appliances like Computers, Digital equipment’s, electrical outlets and others… in sleep mode. The rush towards the new age innovation and connected devices to an extent where a home refrigerator can now play music and pop up a twitter feed on its display is consuming energy more than what it is actually meant for, Alas… the engineering, some devices actually can be designed such that the energy consumption is minimum and that’s is what we believe Smart equipment are all about…!

India, a country with a population of 1.27 billion and GDP of nearly 6 Trillion has 60%of its power generated by Coal, the electricity demand growth stands at 10% to 12% per annum. Power deficits range between 4.3% to 5.4% and a percentage electrification of 67.2% across the country.   India has an installed capacity of ~350000 MW out of which 12.75% is renewable energy generation capacity. India operated with two power exchanges IEX and PXIL. India has also grand plans on going smart in the power sector in all three areas Generation, Transmission and Distribution.

A study indicates that some power vendors are still working in the old inefficient ways and these power plants typically only turn about 30% of the energy input into usable electricity. We are losing up to 70% of the energy in the fuel at the start of the process and the end user like us in our homes and offices are leaving open the energy sucking vampires in standby mode and charges connected one end to the power plugs dangling unconnected to any device at the other, we should take conscious attempt to drain energy vampires by unplugging electronics and appliances we seldom use.

How can we leverage Technology?

Home automation technology is becoming as synonymous with sustainability as it is with convenience. Incorporating smart home technology into a new or existing structure makes it easier to reduce energy consumption. Easy monitoring of their power, heat and hot water usage helps households and workplaces get to grips with their energy consumption habits. Experience shows that it is possible to save around 20% of energy consumption simply by changing user behavior.  With the advent of Internet of Things and convergence towards Smart City initiative user comfort along with energy efficiency focuses on correct operation of building automation devices and systems. The communicating and connected devices can help us integrate energy-saving smart lighting controls, power controllers that turn appliances off automatically and programmable climate control systems.

·          The energy vampires can be eliminated by use of Smart Strip – a device that automatically detects when you have turned an item off and completely cuts power to a device so it stops drawing electricity and provides surge protection saving 23%of our power bills. 

·          19% of global electricity generation is taken for lighting. Sensors which are capable to detect motion can be great help. LEDs today are using 85% less energy than incandescent bulbs. Research shows LED efficiency is expected to double from the current 125-135 lumens per watt to 230 lumens per watt in the next few years.

·          Thermal conditions at homes or offices helped with programmable thermostats allow us to set the temperature automatically. Motion sensors in the rooms to start and stop the heating and cooling systems and decrease the amount energy consumption to an extent of 7%

·          The emergence in solar power technology and India focusing on use of 20,000 MW of solar power by 2020 is a golden opportunity to leverage this technology at homes, we already are using solar water heaters and can extend this technology at homes for our lighting and other needs too.

·          There is an emergence of Ultra Efficient heat pump systems, for example a fuel-fired, multi-function residential heat pump that can reduce primary energy consumption by 30% while a low-cost gas heat pump is designed to reduce heating costs by 30% to 45% compared to conventional gas furnaces and boilers.  Oak Ridge National Laboratory and General Electric are developing a new type of clothes dryer that uses a heat pump cycle to generate hot air needed for drying.

·          The real smart technology focusing on energy consumption is the invention of Smart refrigerator, a revolutionary new type of refrigerator that uses magnets to create cold, instead of vapor compression technology with water-based cooling fluid which is 70% more energy efficient.

·          While we are very much using our common sense today to open the windows and use the sunlight instead of drawing heavy curtains to them and light up the home, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Pella Windows are working on new highly insulated windows that use sensors and microprocessors to automatically adjust shading based on the amount of available sunlight and the time of day to ensure proper lighting and comfort, saving consumers energy and money.

·         Another mechanism that is driven thru the emerging technology is a system could use the GPS function of a smartphone to automatically put a home in away mode when a person leaves a property. Some companies collect and analyse energy usage data, whether it's two-way power meters or smart thermostats, to tailor heating and cooling settings to specific buildings, on the other hand Cloud-based services can lower energy bills further. Utilities, for example, can reduce power usage during peak times through smart thermostats.

 Technology indeed provides us means and ways to become smart in leveraging the same and the key is sustenance at least cost and being smart at saving our reserves for the future generations adding to it a saving on our power bills to not less than 50%, we’ll also push towards a more sustainable, convenient living situation.

It’s all about making smart energy choices in a smart city opting to live in a smart home filled with smart equipment’s and be a smart human making smart choices. Connect with me on rajesh.mohandas@gmail.com to discuss in length about Smart cities and IoT.

Smart Living ... Beyond Smart Cities (Part 2) : Food Wastage

Food production – from field to fork – requires large amounts of energy and affects the environment in a variety of way. This blog under my Smart Living beyond Smart Cities focuses on things like innovative solutions for smart food and smarter food production, solutions to reduce food wastage in the world.

Let me bring entire focus on the Food waste or food loss category in this blog post. Food wastage is defined as the food that is discarded or lost or uneaten. The causes of food waste or loss are numerous, and occur at the stages of production, processing, retailing and consumption.

According to the British Institution of Mechanical Engineers Loss and wastage occurs at all stages of the food supply chain or value chain. In low-income countries, most loss occurs during production, while in developed countries much food – about 100 kilograms per person per year – is wasted at the consumption stage.

Despite millions of Indians going to bed on a hungry stomach, the country is letting food worth a whopping Rs.44,000 crore go waste each year due to lack of adequate storage infrastructure, fruits and vegetables alone was estimated at Rs.13,300 crore.

The journey of 1000 miles begins with one step; let’s begin this first step at home. Imagine technology helping us understand what we should and what we should not consume depending on our ability to consume. The secret of getting things ahead is getting started; the secret of getting started is breaking complex tasks into small manageable ones and then start with the first one. In the farm to fork value chain lets go reverse way and figure out what our home and accessories in our home can help towards overcoming food wastage.

Here are few pointers to up on to leverage smart eating in our daily life….

• SmartPlate™ is equipped with advanced object recognition and weight sensors which enable it to automatically identify, weigh and analyze your food intake while capturing a complete picture of all your eating habits.
• Connect SmartPlate™ to any wireless device and instantly track your meals with no manual data entry. “Portion Patrol” instantly warns you when you over-serve, helping you stay on track and achieve your goals.
• HAPIfork: This electronic fork, which exhibited at the 2013 CES, aims to help you slow your eating, which aids in digestion and helps weight control. When you’re eating too fast, the fork vibrates and lights up to remind you to slow down. By uploading the data via USB or Bluetooth to the HAPI app or website, you can track how long you take to eat, your bite intervals and bites per minute.
• Meld stove knob: Never again ruin a meal from over- or under-cooking: You can know exactly how hot you’re cooking with this Bluetooth-connected stove knob that you attach to your stove and corresponding thermometer clip that attaches to any of your existing cookware. The app automatically adjusts the stove temperature to the recipe’s needs.
• Neo Smart Jar: Having trouble keeping track of what’s in your pantry? This smart container, made by SKE labs (a 2015 CES exhibitor), does it all: monitors stock levels of its contents, keeps track of “use by” dates and also indicates when it needs to be washed
• Vessyl: Track the number of calories and nutritional content of everything you drink with this smart beverage container capable of analyzing liquids at the molecular level
• iSommelier promises to soften up the tannins mature wine that normally requires years of cellaring through aerating your wine with highly concentrated purified oxygen.
• Egg Minder will keep count of your eggs - up to 14 - letting you know (using LED lights and the companion app) which ones are the oldest and which ones might be going bad.
• Smart Fridge: Ideally, we'd prefer a smart fridge that orders our food online for us based on our stock levels but, until then, we'll have to make do with this Wi-Fi connected cooler from Samsung and LG that comes packing an 8-inch LCD display. That display offers up a plethora of connectivity options including smartphone mirroring, smart TV playback, memos, calendars and internet radio. It also keeps your food chilled. Imagine how a smart fridge could help reduce food waste without stooping to public shame. What if your fridge could monitor its own contents, and ping you while you’re at the store to remind you that you still have yogurt and don’t need to buy more.
• Packaging technologies can help, too. Marks & Spencer and Tesco, two major retail chains in the UK, are testing ethylene-absorbing strips in their produce packaging.

Technologies like these can make big reductions in food waste all along the chain, from the farm (to distributor to retailer) to your fork. While the contents above are compilations on what people at individual level can do to overcome food wastage my next blog will focus on moving beyond individuals and eye at retail chains, food storage warehouses and smart transportation of food items to ensure wastage is minimal.

Even when food is prepared according to plan, there tends to be excess of food sometimes, due to many unforeseen reasons CSR initiative and many NGOs in India have already kicked off awareness campaigns with countable few apps and toll free helpline numbers to collect leftover excess food and serve the hunger.

Smart Cities should incorporate in their planning with key focus in this area in terms of creating more Toll free Excess Food Helplines, Apps, Awareness Campaigns, Collection Cycle Time, Food storage facilities to ensure quality. On the other hand the citizen chapter should ensure people launching weddings, parties, and events where there is potential opportunity for excess left over should proactively inform or update the time, date and place on a app that can route the information to the agencies to complete the process addressing the quality and cycle time concerns upfront.

Thanks to Internet of Things and Connected World we are living in which will help us going beyond normal into Smart Living in a Smart city being a Smart person making Smart choices…

You may wish to write to me at rajesh.mohandas@gmail.com to discuss in length the implementation technologies and solution architecture blueprints with application platforms that are used in this area.