Data Pollution

We know different kinds of pollution but there is a new kind of pollution that doesn’t affect the environment but seriously hampers our ability to take decision. We can name it as data pollution. With cheap data storage devices we are lethargic in maintaining quality of data. Even though we strive to maintain quality of data in the warehouses through various control measures, still the volume of data is huge causing considerable amount of pollution.

Data pollution is caused by poorly formed data which is of less importance to humans. Recently we faced a similar problem where one user entered alias name for our currency as Indian rupee and another as Indian national rupee. The above mentioned is a perfect example of data pollution.

We BI people always take pride in fancy reports which we developed for people in the higher management. Suppose the same report displays the amount for a report based on the alias name of currency instead of currency codes definitely there will be amount mismatch which destroys the credibility of the entire report. The business impact varies based on the variation or difference in the amount values.

I think growth in volume of data is the only serious competitor to Moore’s law and reliability of data is very high these days and even the Indian government has to change its IIP (Index of Industrial Production) figures as there was data pollution causing huge embarrassment. So kindly takes steps to control pollution of data.

Kindly share your thoughts on how data pollution has corrupted your data.

Need a Tsunami or Earthquake to protect Hindus

With an earthquake of tremendous magnitude of more than 8 in richter scale striking Indian ocean, its ripple effects were felt in my office. But as usual my office hours were not curtailed unlike other organizations. It lead to chaotic traffic and OMR (Old Mahabalipuram Road) choked with heavy traffic, as people rushed to their homes. To avoid this, I took a sharp detour and tried to take back door route to home from SIPCOT Siruseri to Alwarpet via Sitlapakkam to reach Medavakkam. The road was not in good shape and based on the potholes I understood the road was not able to bear the load of heavy tipper lorries. All the areas were in sharp contrast to filmy OMR. It’s a quiet rural hinterland and the reason why I was astonished as the Hindu temples were outnumbered by the churches. It was quite evident that Christian evangelization activities are very high and it has to be stopped at any cost. Churches of all groups were present and I see a competition happening between these groups to convert poor people in the name of money. I was little disappointed last time that tsunami didn’t strike last time on the day of Christmas, if it had struck a good number of Christian communities would have perished. It is also evident from the church support to stop Kudamkulam nuclear reactor from going live and our PM ManMohan Singh expressed unhappiness that foreign funds received by Christian NGO’s for missionary activities are misused against the nation. Only time has to answer to stop these barbaric activities. Hinduism faced onslaught right from the muslim invasion and no other religion would have faced these problems and if Hinduism is not great, it would have perished like Zorostians of Iran. Every Hindu should be proud that he is a Hindu and lives in holy land of India.