Google Knows it All

Society and human values

Today I had a chance to have a conversation with an Indian parent. This conversation triggered a series of thoughts within me. As a parent are we aware of our final goal? How are we going to identify the uniqueness within our child? Are we going to develop our child according to our interest? Is it right to impose our dreams into child's life? How are we going to identify the interest of child?

As an Indian parent are we really paying attention towards our child's interest? If we say yes, then why are we facing conflict in parent child relationship. If the answer is no, when are we going to change our attitude related to this? What ever we claim as our cultural values are they truely reflecting our culture or we are just looking at the outer layer that is visible to naked eyes and claim it as our culture? Are we not paying attention towards the root cause? Is it because of the educational system that we follow? If yes, when are we going to change this? Are we going to leave our kids the same environment or are we going to create a better world to live?

I am currently in the process of exploring these areas to identify atleast one solution that can improve the society for future.

Expectation as an interviewer

Once we all were worried about the job interviews. The department in my undergraduation used to arrange for mock interviews. These interviews are arranged by the senior batch for juniors. Mostly this occation is considered as a show off period or to embarrase the juniors. However, there are exceptions. Majority of the senior batch expects their juniors to perform at par with them. Hence they take this as an opportunity to mould the student to biz. scenario.

Today I am conducting interview for candidates with experience ranging from 5 years to 15 years. Having crossed the 50 interview mark, I am reflecting on what are the criteria I look for in a candidate to successfully clear the interview. The expectation varies based on the role and responsibility. However, there are few generic qualities that are expected. Reflecting from my experience I am listing them here.

Confidence, Assertiveness, Teamplay, clarity of thoughts, openness, lateral thinking, willingness to learn.

As the list is growing, I feel that I can write how I evaluate each and every quality in the subsequent blogs.

Original description of a project managed in a Fortune 500 company

Opposing Project Manager and his decisions.
Laughing against him at his worst humour sense.
Fight for employee rights in the organization.
Revealing the organizational politics created by Tech Lead.
Working when it is boring.
Checking yahoo and gmail.
Orkutting.
Reading various online News papers.
Playing blame games with Maintenance and Infrastructure and Outsourcing teams.
Encouraging those who are not interested to work to behave in the same way.
Checking cricket scores and following other sports.
Disturbing those who are trying to work.

Looking back in my life

I now graduated with an MBA. Looking back at what has happened in my life in the past few months since I landed in India, I am surprised to see the amount of action involved.

It is now history that I landed in Mumbai the financial hub of India. The stay in Mumbai helped me a lot to get adjusted with the Indian culture. As all says Indian culture is very different from an western culture specially girls :) . Mumbai has helped me in my cultural adjustment.

Then started my tour around South India. The next location in my itenary was Chennai. When I landed in the place I realized that Singara Chennai has became Chennai after losing its singaram. As general public speak me too suffered due to the weather change. The heat in Chennai was difficult to handle. The same type of weather was seen in Madurai and Tirunelveli the other places I visited. However, the change in culture is a point to mention. The realization is that though the above mentioned places are part of Tamil Nadu the culture prevailing in these places are different. I cannot ignore the similarity in culture. As I moved towards Kerala the weather was pleasant and the type of welcome I received was excellent. I found that there is a friendly culture prevailing in this part of India similar to Mumbai.

The reforms in financial sector and the volatile nature of Indian stock market are be considered as key issues in India. Again as in the past government has came up with a scheme and is now making some adjustment to the same. I feel that it is now time to change this sort of misjudgments. A decision made in favor of public should not be adjusted to satisfy a few stakeholders for financial gains.

Apart from these issues the most scary problem is SWINE flue. People are very scared of the pandemic disease. Nevertheless, forget not that people are not aware of the precautionary measures. Cleanliness is still a question among general public be it literate or illiterate. The situation is better among illiterate and villagers. The are more clean and their lifestyle is far more matured compared with the literate.

I mourn for the sudden demise of Andhra CM. This shows how vulnerable our Airforce is. The Jet employees strike shows that the management is to learn from past mistakes to make a turnaround and to become globally competitive.

Culture in my view

Off late I heard this word Culture again and again from various people I came across. This made me think what this buzz word culture is all about. Is this related with the way I live or dress? Is it related with what I do or think? Is it related with what I speak, write, read, eat? What is the definition of this term culture?

As I started thinking deeply, I realized that neither I can culture nor can touch it. However, I can feel it through the way I behave, speak, think, read, write, eat, and dress. The list is not limited to what I have noted down here. Accidentally, all these items listed are related with each other. The relation happens through the values I hold and the believes I have. These values and believes form the cognitive sense of an individual thus it is related with human psychology. So does this mean culture is related with human psychology?

If I consider my culture is related with human psychology, what are the factors that contribute towards my cultural values? As I am born in India (Tamilnadu, Tirunelveli District) will it affect my cultural values? I pursued my studies in more than five schools. Will they have any contribution towards shaping my beliefs? I traveled across India and met many new people. Do they contribute in any way towards shaping my cultural aspect? Will my parents, relatives, society and friends influence in my cultural values?

Happy Friendship Day

Today is friendship day. I wish happy friendship day to all my friends. A simple search of keyword friendship day throws link www.friendshipday.org. I hope this is the official site related to this friendship day. There are more details available related to friendship day in this site.

• National Friendship Day is on the first Sunday in August.
• Women's Friendship Day is on the third Sunday in August
• International Friendship Month is February
• Old Friends, New Friends Week is the third week of May

AI a pleasant surprise

15th May 2009 is the day I landed at CST Mumbai. For the first time I travelled through Air India. The main reason for selecting AI is because they allowed 46 kg of check in baggage + 7 kg of cabin baggage.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that the flight was packed fully on that day. Eventhough AI doesnot have young female cabin crew the service was good. I do have to accept that the quality of service expected varies with individual. However, from a business point of view the service satisfied the expectation.

Another pleasant surprise was that the flight arrived at mumbai in advance (45 min in advance!!!). This is the first time I experience early arrival. The baggage clearance was good.

I was asked to report regarding H1N1 (swine flu) before enter into my own country.

Finally I am in my home land enjoying independent air and our culture mixed with crowd and pollution.

Love Story 2109 Chapter 2

The friends of Neha and Rahul describe them as tit for tat couple because of their similarity in thoughts and behaviour. They both are assertive, flexible and friendly. They challenge others and try hard to do what others say impossible. This has made them exceptional personality from the rest of the crowd. Their initial meeting (rather accidental meeting) is an example of this.

This happened a few years back when Rahul and Neha joined university. Neha was supposed to do research on organizational business environment. She pluged in her new ipod that purchased a few weeks ago to her wrist. The company has existed for more than a century and is producing music players that can substitute ornaments and sell it as a branded item specially in India. It is understood that Indian women are very fond of wearing ornaments for centuries and this company has made use of it in their business.

Neha faced challenge in identifying pattern in business environment during early 21st century. All her friends said that the business environment during those periods were messy and is not suitable to conduct any research. But Neha worked hard to identify a pattern. This is the time when she first met Rahul in a digital cloud journey.

Rahul was researching upon the financial tumults occurred in the past to to strengthen the global system. The world has faced many financial crisis in the past almost on an average once in a decade. It is identified that there is a specific pattern being followed in creating havoc. Rahul’s work is to contribute to strengthen the system by studying the pattern and to formulate regulations against repeating such an action. He landed in the same digital cloud as that of Neha.

What is digital cloud? How did Neha met Rahul?

2109 love story

Today is 17th May ‘2109. 50th year of Neo-liberal celebration is in process. Yes India has declared itself as a capitalist country. The growth in IT sector has enabled India to enjoy the status of capitalist. The country is the land of opportunity. It has attracted almost all the firms from the rest of the world. India enjoys the status of being the only country to hold office of all the firms from around the world. The country enjoys having one of the head offices of the largest transnational organization “Troggle”.

Rahul works as a senior developer with Troggle. He has been working with the firm for almost 12 months now. Last night he gave a party celebrating his 12th month with this prestigious organization. He is currently living together with his girl friend Neha. She works with an Indian IT firm “Ginfy”. Outsourcing business has been booming since the early 21st century that almost all the Indian youth did a degree in IT. This has transformed the lifestyle in India.

Neha received an offer from WLO (World Labour Organization) a professional body that tells the country to generate the kind of labour force that is in need of the global industry. It has requested India to produce manpower with only IT background. As a result everybody in India studies IT and only IT industry has grown ever since. This WLO has offered Neha to work for them to study the global status of India and its younger generation to strategise plan for future so as to prepare a plan on generating proper labour force from this country. She is having tough time to make her decision to either accept the offer or to reject it. If she is accepting then the assignment expects her to spend more than 75% of her time in travelling to other countries. This might force her to stay away from Rahul. They are planning to get married at the earliest as to enter into the family culture. Neha has been using various techniques to avoid pregnancy and now is longing to have a family. If she rejects the offer then it requires courage as the project brings her prosperity and career growth. She should not feel guilty in future about her rejection. This makes the decision a tricky one.

What happens in their life? Is she accepting the offer from WLO? Stay tuned….

முதல் அழுகை.

கோடை காலத்தின் உக்கிரத்தில் தகித்தான் சூரியன். உக்கிரத்தை தாங்க இயலாத தளிர்கள் தங்கள் சிரத்தை கவிழ்த்து தரை பார்த்து இருந்தன. சுற்றுபுறத்தை அளவிடுகையில் அது ஒரு சிறு கிராமம் என்று தெரிகிறது. கிராமத்தின் கம்பீரத்தை உயர்த்திக்காட்டுவது போல அந்த கிராமத்தின் பசுமை கோடையிலும் கண்களை குளிர்விக்கிறது.

அதோ ஒரு பெண்மணி மற்றும் ஒரு சிறுவன் அந்த வண்டியில் ஏறுகிறார்கள். அந்த பெண்ணை பார்த்தால் கற்பமாய் இருப்பது போல இருக்கிறது. சிறுவனுடன் வண்டியில் போவதை பார்த்தால் அவளுடைய தைரியம் நமக்கு மெய்சிலிர்ப்பை உண்டாக்குகிறது.

அந்த தாயின் கண்களில் தெரியும் வலி அவளுக்கு குழந்தை பிறக்கும் நேரம் நெருங்குவதை பறைசாற்றுகிறது. அந்த பெண் நேராக சென்று மருத்துவ மனையில் சேருகிறாள். மதியம் இரண்டு மணி ஆகி விட்டிருந்தது. செவிலியர் அவசர நடை அந்த பெண் கருத்தரிக்கும் நேரம் நெருங்கி விட்டதை நமக்கு தெரிவிக்கிறது.

ஒன்றும் அறியாத அந்த பாலகன் தன் தாய்க்கு ஒரு சேவகன் வெளியே காவல் நிற்கிறான். சிறுவனின் கம்பிரமான நடை அவன் எதற்கும் அஞ்சாதவன் என்று காட்டுகிறது. மருத்துவ அறையில் இருந்து ஒரு அழுகை குரல் வெளியே வருகிறது. அந்த சிறுவனின் தாய் ஒரு ஆண் மகவை ஈன்று எடுகிறாள். அந்த குழந்தையின் முதல் அழுகை திக்கெட்டும் ஒலிக்கிறது.

Why India is still a developing country

I came across an email that clearly identifies the issue regarding why India is still a developing country. I am publishing the email here.

An Old Story:

The Ant works hard in the withering heat all summer building its house and laying up supplies for the winter. The Grasshopper thinks the Ant is a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away.

Come winter, the Ant is warm and well fed. The Grasshopper has no food orshelter so he dies out in the cold.

Indian Version:

The Ant works hard in the withering heat all summer building its house and laying up supplies for the winter. The Grasshopper thinks the Ant's a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away.

Come winter, the shivering Grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the Ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.

NDTV, BBC, CNN show up to provide pictures of the shivering Grasshopper next to a video of the Ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. The World is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be that this poor Grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?

Arundhati Roy stages a demonstration in front of the Ant's house. Medha Patkar goes on a fast along with other Grasshoppers demanding that Grasshoppers be relocated to warmer climates during winter . Mayawati states this as `injustice' done on Minorities. Amnesty International and Koffi Annan criticize the Indian Government for

not upholding the fundamental rights of the Grasshopper. The Internet is flooded with online petitions seeking support to the Grasshopper (many promising Heaven and Everlasting Peace for prompt support as against the wrath of God for non-compliance). Opposition MPs stage a walkout. Left parties call for 'Bengal Bandh' in West Bengal and Kerala demanding a Judicial Enquiry. CPM in Kerala immediately passes a law preventing Ants from working hard in the heat so as to bring about equality of poverty among Ants and Grasshoppers. Lalu Prasad allocates one free coach to Grasshoppers on all Indian Railway

Trains, aptly named as the 'Grasshopper Rath'. Finally, the Judicial Committee drafts the ' Prevention of Terrorism Against Grasshoppers Act' [POTAGA], with effect from the beginning of the winter. Arjun Singh makes 'Special Reservation ' for Grasshoppers in Educational Institutions & in Government Services.

The Ant is fined for failing to comply with POTAGA and having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes,it's home is confiscated by the Government and handed over to the Grasshopper in a ceremony covered by NDTV.

Arundhati Roy calls it ' A Triumph of Justice'. Lalu calls it 'Socialistic Justice '. CPM calls it the ' Revolutionary Resurgence of the Downtrodden '. Koffi Annan invites the Grasshopper to address the UN General Assembly.

Many years later....

The Ant has since migrated to the US and set up a multi-billion dollar

company in Silicon Valley, 100s of Grasshoppers still die of starvation despite reservation somewhere in India.

......AND

As a result of loosing lot of hard working Ants and feeding the grasshoppers,

India is still a developing country…!!!

The next leap

Three hundred years ago there was a country which was contributing 1/4th of the global gross domestic product. Every country in the world was envious of this part of the world. The country was blessed with vast natural resources. The country had a pleasant climatic condition with beautiful scenary. However, the country had lacked in securing its resources due to mismanagement.

The mismanagement has led the country to become a slave. The country was ruled by foreigners for centuries. Eventhen, the country has never lost its individuality. A few leaders understood that it is collective management (Democracy) that is the best way to manage. These leaders have a special place in the history of the nation.

Post 18th century the country deviated from its exploratory path and started adopting foreign principles. This has resulted in the decline of the country's contribution towards GDP which currently attributes to less than 1%. However, the wheel has already started rotating and the country has started to progress. This time technology has acted as a catalyst for the growth of the nation.

But as the world experienced credit crunch, the country is also experiencing slowdown in business. When I talked to a westener regarding the situation, I was told that this is the right time to sow the seed for future growth. Investment guru Buffet once mentioned that, the right time to make purchase is during the period of discounted sale. The time has arrived for purchasing at a discounted rate. I am going to make the purchases for the future and thus making my next big leap.

Nanda visits Rahul

Nanda visited his friend Rahul's house on a weekend. Rahul is working with IOB and is looking at the historical chart of his company. Neha is Rahul's wife and works as a Wealth Manager.

Rahul: Hi Nanda! welcome. It has been a long time since you visited my house.
Neha: Welcome Nanda. Your friend was just thinking of calling you.
Nanda: You are lucky that our telepathy has worked this time and I reached for your service Rahul. How is life going on.
Rahul: Life is great my friend. Today we celebrated Chitirai tirunal our traditional Tamil festival.
Nanda: Oh yeah. I have heard about this festival. What is special you are doing for this festival.
Neha: I am insisting him to invest a marginal amount into share market for our future.
Nanda: Good thought Neha. Have you got any specific scrip in your mind?
Neha: I asked Rahul to look at the possibilities related with IOB.
Nanda: Great suggestion. You are a treassure for your clients as you can make them rich through your stock ideas.
Rahul: Don't exaggerate Nanda. Is IOB really a good investment?
Nanda: You have better knowledge about the company as you work with it.
Rahul: Yeah I know about its past and current. IOB's core strength is its overseas business. Headoffice in Chennai. One of Indian bank with online transaction facility.
Neha: The stock traded around 160 when Sensex traded at 21k. Currently the scrip trades around 58.
Rahul: Nanda, do you think the stock has reached bottom to consider for investment at this point of time?
Nanda: The Scrip's MFI is currently at 80. This indicates that the scrip has bottomed out.
Neha: This is a good news. I see that the MCAD shows a trend reversal and is reaching towards the 0 level. This is again a signal of bullishness.
Nanda: Right said Neha. Even RSI indicates bullish signal as it is above 70.
Rahul: The long term view of the bank's operation is very good as it is having very good liquidity system. The bank's operations can improve even further. The bank has a better future in rural areas. The rural schemes are doing better.
Nanda: This is a good news Rahul. I am going to recommend this scrip for my clients.
Neha: I will wait for the sensex to correct as it moved north for 7 consecutive sessions. Once the market corrected I shall consider investing.
Rahul: I have no other choice other than to follow what boss (looks at Neha and grins) says or else I will be denied of my lunch today.
Neha: You Rahul! Shut up. Come on lets have our lunch. I am feeling hungry.
Nanda: Me too and going to enjoy the lunch today with you guys.

Party at Arun's house

Nanda is an Analyst. Neha, Priya, Arun and Ravi are his friends who are assembled at Arun's house for a party. Arun is hosting the party as he failed on a bet with Nanda. Arun was confident of L&T suceeding the bidding process as opposed to Nanda who supported Tech Mahindra.

Nanda: Hey Arun, finally you have to agree that I won the bet with you.
Arun: Yes. I thought L&T was very keen from the beginning.
Neha: I do agree that L&T would have gained more had it won the bidding. How will it affect the IT sector.
Nanda: I think Mahindra is better placed IT firm than Infy, TCS and Wipro. Because of its client base and revenue.
Arun: I disagree with you. Nobody can compete with Infy or TCS.
Ravi: I disagree with you Arun. You know Tech Mahindra is concentrated towards telecom industry and with this acquisition they extend the service to other areas also.
Priya: This is similar to the ripple effect seen in water. If we drop a stone in the pond it creates concentric circles with the place where the stone was dropped as its centre.
Nanda: Right said Priya. I assume Tech Mahindra can now provide other service and can continue to have more focus towards its core sector ie. Telecom.
Neha: Another point to note down is that MBT as it was earlier called has a strong revenue and client base in Europe.
Arun: Yeah. But the issue is that they are more dependent on BT who is the primary customer from UK.
Nanda: I agree. But we know that Indian IT companies are more dependent on America and Satyam is not any different. Now this merged entity will have a balanced outlook in two major geographies America and Europe.
Ravi: This can act as a headache for other major IT players such as Infy, TCS and Wipro who are still struggling to get a major client base in Europe.
Arun: I think the Europe market is conservative when compared to US market. This is the reason for Indian cos. to struggle in acquiring new clients in this region.
Priya: You are right Arun. Me too have read about the conservative nature of Europeans.
Nanda: I am thinking of increasing my exposure in Tech Mahindra. The cos. is having bright future.
Arun: I will wait for another quarter and then will increase my stock.
Priya: I have never purchased Tech Mahindra in the past. I never thought this company will become one of major IT player.
Neha: Me too have no stock in this company. I am going to buy a small lot.
Ravi: I am thinking of buying Satyam instead of Tech Mahindra because the management might try to merge the stock.
Nanda: Good thought Ravi.

Tamil proverbs and management concepts

In the previous blog I claimed that INC followed free trade through exports and BJP's focus towards domestic consumption. These technical terms are explained easily using two tamil proverbs.

neo-liberal policies -

"ஊரான் பிள்ளையை ஊட்டி வளர்த்தால் தன் பிள்ளை தானே வளரும்."

This particular proverb explains clearly the concept behind neo-liberal policies. This liberalization policy encourages countries to open up the country's market for foreign companies and the goods manufactured by them. They encourage the other countries to export more instead of serving the local consumers. The effect of this is seen in the form of surge in prices of commodities in local market. I claim this as a risky strategy because the countries that are in power provide subsidies to the local players there by making their product cheaper. On the other hand the so called poor nations that are governed through neo-liberal policies are denied to provide subsidies because the governments are asked to reduce operating expenses. This forces the local players to increase their selling price of goods in domestic market. However, the competition from foreign players forces them to fix the price less than their cost price. This can be identified as the main reason for the formers to suffer because they are affected mostly by this Washington Consensus.

retion-o-centric approach -

"தனக்குப்பின் தானம்."

This approach follows a different route. The approach focuses towards the domestic needs. Hence, the main motive of this approach is self sustenance in other words this is called "Swadesi movement". It is very much possible to think that this strategy might isolate us from the rest of the world. But this notion is false. The example is seen through developed nations. Considering any sector it is seen that these countries export those goods that are available plenty. For example Scotch whisky is very famous world wide and India is not isolated from this. Last year the Scotland government increased the age limit for the purchase of Alcohol to 21. A country that is proud of manufacturing alcohol is trying to safeguard its own population from the ill habits. Contrary to this the same government encourages the export of alcohol to countries such as China and India. This is because these countries have major population. By encouraging these countries to consume more alcohol the government is trying to balance the loss of income incurred due to the rise in the age limit in its own country. Thus the country benefits financially and builds a healthy culture for its own public interest.

The difference between BJP and INC

I am currently affected by the election virus of India. This is my third political blog in the current series. For a change this time I am comparing the two renowned national parties Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Indian National Congress(INC).

The fundamental principles of INC is humanism and inclusive development. On the other hand BJP represents the country's majority community and centre-right in nature, the party advocates conservative social policies, self reliance, robust economic growth, foreign policy driven by a nationalist agenda, and strong national defense.

My view of INC is that the party follows free market led by globalization driven through exports. Incidentally BJP follows free market led by region based strategy through self sustainence. From a realist perspective it is understood that globalization is a myth.

An export driven market will fail during the time of crisis as other countries might tend to follow protectionist measure. On the other hand a consumption driven economy is the one that can survive any external financial turmoil irrespective of time line. This does not mean that a country will be isolated from global growth. The best example for this is the growth of Asian Tigers and China. These countries followed protectionist policies as opposed to the neo-liberal policies of IMF and World Bank. In current situation when IMF and G20 are seriously considering an alternative currency for Dollar in terms of SGN, strongly believe that Chinese Yuan should be included in the list of global currencies that have to back this newly designed currency.

The election manifesto of both the parties discuss the same issue namely Security, Governance and Development. The difference is seen only through the strategic policy formulation and implementation. As identified earlier INC formulate a strategy that is based on FDI and exports, while BJP formulate strategy that are based on domestic development and growth. Now the real question of whose policy includes the growth and development of aam admi raised among the public.

From my point of view both the strategy can lead us towards the success. But in graph theory I learnt something called shortest path algorithm. Considering human mentality the shortest path algorithm is very famous because human beings look for best solution with less input. Hence the public can make rational decision based opportunity for individual growth with less investment.

IT usage of Tamilnadu Political Parties

In my previous blog I had mentioned that MDMK had feedback mechanism though a few links are dead links. I received a mail from the webteam that shows that the feedback url is active and is been reviewed by the respective team.

The links to the webpages of respective political parties are listed below.

DMK
http://www.dmk.in/

AIADMK
http://www.aiadmkallindia.org/

MDMK
http://mdmk.org.in/

DMDK
http://www.dmdkparty.com/

PMK
No Webpage

BJP
http://www.bjptn.org/

BSP
http://www.bahujansamajp.com/

CPI
http://www.cpindia.org/

CPI(M)
http://www.cpim.org/

How effective is the usage of IT among Tamilnadu Political parties

DMK
The website has various branches that includes a separate section to tamil grammar. The site looks elegant and has been designed in tamil. The site has a good look and feel. The content includes the long lasting history of this party in Tamilnadu.

However, the website shows its hatred towards Brahmin community and towards the national language Hindi. Another issue to note is that there is no achievements mentioned under the past achievement list for the period from 2006-2008. Majority of data available in the website are old and has no current data.

AIADMK
Unlike DMK website this party has enabled multi language (Tamil and English with english as its primary language). However, the site lacks content. Except the Press Release none other tab has links. Even the press release section is not updated to hold current data and has content that are released during 2007. There is no mention regarding the party's policies, history, achievements.

MDMK
Similar to AIADMK's website this party has enabled multi-language for viewing. The party has uploaded the site with content that attracts the leader. The site makes use of multimedia to a greater extent.
However, the site lacks elegancy in the website design and hence makes tougher for the reader. Due to this the reader might lose interest in browsing the site. There are some broken links seen in the website. The site has option to send feedback. I am currently testing this option I shall update soon.

DMDK
The website of this party has good look and feel. However, the homepage shows pictures of those affected by natural calamity and terrorism. There is no mention why this occupies homepage. This seems that the party is concentrated towards Srilankan Tamil community.

Regarding the content posted in the site, the contents describe the history and achievements of an individual and no data available that is related to the party. Hence I am not able to understand how and why the party prevails in tamilnadu. I am also confused regarding whether this is a website of a political party or a private website of an individual with acting background.

PMK
I am not able to find the official website of this party.

BJP
This national party has a dedicated website for Tamilnadu. The site has been designed to view in english. However, the site is filled with excellent content and elegant design makes it easy for its reader. The history and reason tells the reader the existence of the party.

BSP
The website of this party has excellent design. However, there is no regional flavour to the site. The site given overall view of the nation.

CPI
I found difficult to track the national website of this party. There is no regional flavour to the site. The site lacks in content.

CPI(M)
The website of this party has some good content. However, the site lacks in design and it makes difficult for the reader to find relavant data without struggling. The site lacks to provide regional flavour for the reader.

Who is getting benefited out of power politics

Finally it is published that IPL (Version 2) is migrating its venue to South Africa from India. The reason for this is given as security issue. While IPL requested for the security of players Indian government rejected due to the security requirements for public ahead of Loksabha election. It is obvious that politics and public governance is of high priority than entertainment, and economics.

It should be accepted that IPL generates revenue to a greater extent. Due to IPL the sports and entertainment sector grows, media takes its priority due to the telecast rights, advertisements and sponsership enable revenue flow, hotel, tourism and restaurants generate profit due to the human traffic.

However, election and public governance is more important compared to these sectors; as majority of the stakeholders from these various industries are from private sector. These industries are not the priority of aam aadmi. These industries acts as a supporting environment for satisfying the basic needs of human being.

It is not be forgetten that due to the power politics played by the politicians and the IPL management, India is losing revenue and it is somebody else who is benefiting. It is not possible to postpone the general election. But it is possible to postpone the IPL by a fortnight or a month. What made IPL not to reconsider the schedule? Was there no unity between IPL and Indian politics? Didn't our politicians strong enough to negotiate with the private players?

The effect of globalization in Agro industry

Making Globalization work - Joseph Stiglitz

How will I search my soul mate

The thought of searching a soulmate suddenly came in my mind when I started getting my friend's marriage invitation. So here is the solution that got its shape in my mind. I consider myself in the place of business leader and drafting this solution.

I am very assertive and if I got suppressed then will become openly agressive. If this agressiveness raises to a maximum level then I will burst out of anger and lose my critical thinking. Hence, in order to be rational I have to balance my anger and my openness. Thus, I have to find a person who respects other person's view preferably assertive. I am a participative in leading. Hence, if my soulmate is feminist or egalitarian then my style will fall apart and will lead to failure.

I have technological strength along with management knowledge. To define myself using a cliche "Jack of all trade, Master of none". Hence, I need a master in any one of area preferably finance which is not my area of expertise. With people focused strategy my style can take care of human resource and marketing, but will not adress the finance. Nevertheless, without a proper finance manager the organization of family is bound to fail. This leads me to conclude saying that I need to search for a finance minister. If I search for a personality with similar profile as mine the resources available with me will become abundant and as simple economics says as supply grows the price will go down. Also in order to manage a balance I need to invest in those skills that are not available with me and not in those resources that are available in plenty.

Travelling through time machine - History of India (North???)

During schooling time History was regarded as a boring subject by me. I never concentrated towards reading history. But as time goes on as a matured student my interest towards history rejuvenated again. The regards for this should go to Late Mr. Kalki. The novels written by Kalki (mainly historical novels) impressed me in reading history of India. This interest grow due to my international biz. studies. When I am reading about the political, legal and economical history of rest of the world, it is not right to isolate my own country and its history. However, I was searching for right book to start my reading. Incidentally, my search landed when I encountered the historical book written by Mr. Madhan.

The book gave me a different perspective about India. This showed how vulnerable was the kingdom of India to receive continuous attacks from its enemies. Even then the sad part is that the country failed in learning from its previous mistakes. A country with such a wealth is always vulnerable to attack. However, it is very sad to identify that none of the officials took interest in safeguarding this vast nation of wealth and opportunity.

It is very proud to find that Mother India never went on to acquire other nations in her 1000 yrs of history. However, it is sad that the country failed in consolidating her wealth and gave it away to foreigners. It includes the costliest wealth such as Kohinoor Diamond (which is still in England crowning Queen's head).

In current business scenario same situation is seen. This is an issue of concern for Indian business. Though we proudly say that the country is the youngest with skillful human resource, it is a matter of concern to ask are we utilizing it properly and safeguarding the resource from vulnerabilities such as cultural shock? From my point of view the need of the country at this point of time is the effective corporate governance with controlled capitalism and improved labour act.

Does Information Technology falls under Unskilled work

I was reading a management book about knowledge workers. Before I move ahead I have to explain what I mean by knowledge workers. Those workers who have analytical and logical thinking falls under this category. The Author mentioned about unskilled jobs among knowledge workers. This initiated my thought process regarding outsourcing and offshoring in IT.

In IT we have many different type of projects such as Development, Testing, Maintenance. Through my experience of working with various IT cos. I found that majority of development projects goes towards either foreign MNCs or offshored in their own land.

This leaves with what I claim to be unskilled jobs among knowledge workers that are outsourced to countries such as India. The reality shows that there are less or no products developed and marketed in India that is accepted globally. India is still acting as a follower of western counterparts when it comes even to the highly paid and rapid growth sector such as IT.

If I have to reflect from my personal experience with Foreign MNCs I can say they have a functionally divided organisational structure where India is their back office hub. These cos. use India to provide rapidly changing technological support for their application development or application maintenance.

Thus my claim is that India and its employee force need to change from this unskilled work towards skilled work. Though Indian IT work force are treated as Highly Skilled they are still unskilled among knowledge workers. This paritcular attitude was reflected among the western counterparts when I had discussion with them.

Beginning/End of Rainbow

Source: dailymail.co.uk

Is there a necessity to allow foreign B Schools to setup their campuses in India?

It is said that India is the youngest country in the world with majority of its population between 16-40. It is also said that the country's major differentiating factor is the youth population. Having such a massive youth population necessiates the country to concentrate towards the education system.

The county which is proud to of having setup the ever first university in the world is now discussing about allowing competitors from foreign land. Is it really necessary to allow this? Are we not having quality education system in place? What are we missing to bring our industries to global standard?

Having studied in a foreign B-School, I strongly feel that our Indian education system needs basic reforms. We need to look back in history of India and have to reflect upon how we learnt in the past. We have to start reseraching from ancient period to have a clear understanding of our basic method of learning style. Also, I personally feel that the gurukul style of learning should be in place. Even from secondary schools there should not be any teachers. There should only be mentors who facilitate their junior scholars to learn. Unless we try doing this we will not be able to compete against foreign standards.

Movie Review - Slumdog Millionaire

Slumdog Millionaire a movie directed by foreigner having a theme of Mumbai Slums. The movie received awards for best performance in many areas of film making.Kudos to A. R. Rehman for receiving award for his originality in music.

The movie depicts the real picture of India and specifically Mumbai. The story line revolves around the hero who wins 2 Million in a TV competition. The movie starts by criticizing the organisational structure of Indian BPOs. The movie criticises the craze for Actors in India among public through the question, The next theme followed was the Hindu-Muslim revolts happening in the city, the other themes identified are the working pattern of Indian call centre and the way they attend calls. This is clearly comes from the client perspective and the director didnot miss the opportunity to register his mark of being a Scottish by including Edinburgh in the dialogue.

Another perspective to look at is the importance given towards vocational studies instead of regular engineering studies. The hero who is uneducated according to industry standards knows more than the educated professionals. This is clearly due to the knowledge gained through experience and not through theoretical education. Thus it is said that the indirect message is the need for vocational education. The country is gifted with knowledge work force and it depends on the government to utilize them properly to boost the internal growth of the country. It can even take a protectionist policy for doing the same instead of being a mere exploiter of the neo-liberal policies set by the international organisations.

Overall the movie has a very good message with a good storyline that mixes all the facts and events properly. However, the world should keep in mind that this story depicts just one culture that prevails in India and cannot generalise this to the whole Indian community.

Eic in the land of nature

Long ago in the forest of highland there lived an elephant named Eic. Majority of the time the forest was filled with white snow and devoid of food. Eic and the other jungle animals struggled to live their life. One day, Eic came across a fox who returned after touring around the world. The fox described the land to have rivers flowing through the forest without drowning. The land had right mix of climate suitable for the animals to live without the fear of famine. The land is full of trees and plants. The fragrance of the flowers filled the forest. The animals consumed the fruits available in the forest. Some of the fruit tasted sweet, while some tasted sour. Nevertheless, they tasted very good. The animals seem to live a healthy life due to the atmosphere. This was unlike the forest of highland where they had dust. Fox said that this is truly a land of luxurious life where the animals lived in peace with nature blessing them with all the basic needs of their life. Eic got very much impressed with this new found land and wanted to visit it once.

As the highland forest administration insisted on Eic’s safety he sent his administration general first to have a close look at the security features in that forest. After touring in the forest of nature the administration general returned and informed Eic that there is no safety hazard in the land of nature and all the jungle animals lived without any fear and without any security breaches.

Eic started preparing his tour to the land of nature and reached the place. He got surprised with the lifestyle of the animals and requested the academic generals who accompanied him to study their lifestyle and behaviour. The scholars started their mission of studying the behaviour of animals in this new found land. Meanwhile Eic went around the country and made friends. The animals in highland consumed a drink made of some fruits to keep them out of cold weather. Eic served this drink to the new found friends of him. The drink tasted good; however, it brought some sort of dizziness to the animals.

The scholars returned to their homeland and started teaching the fellow animals how to live and grow. Meanwhile the animals in the land of nature found these friends from highland to be very funny and started admiring them. They thought the guests were more advanced in their lifestyle and started noticing the external fashion. While the animals in highland learnt the way to lead a better life, the animals in the land of nature learnt the fashion style of highland. Hence, both the forests made transformation in their lifestyle.

After 62 years, Eic returned to the land of nature and found that the land has changed a lot post his last visit. The land was no more the land of nature he once saw. Instead it became a land of mess with animals fighting with one another and mostly confused with less confidence and devoid of knowing their own strength. Eic lost his scope of visiting this land again wrote in his diary “To lead a better life is always necessary to critically analyse the behaviour before practicing it.”

Satyam!!! - A company with wrong name

When the west is gearing up its management fashion towards business ethics, India Inc. has delivered exceptional case study to consider. Satyam!!! which means truth has forget its values and started falsifying its audit books. The factor to consider is that the company is 4th largest in India. What a tragic failure this is for India Inc and its reputation in global market.

The company's home page says that the company focus to delight its investors, assure its customers, and empower its staffs. Looking deep into the company's failure it can be speculated that the company believed in financial returns for its stockholders. The reason could be seen as greed, inability to have creative ideas to grow business, lack of strategic vision, poor leadership styles. I once read that the culture in Satyam is entrepreneurial in nature. It was mentioned that the company has built more leaders for future business and runs its business units as a separate business. With such a model followed I am wondering how it becomes possible to falsify the fact sheets without the knowledge of others. If Ramalinga Raju is the lone man to perform such a huge fraud, I question this. In my point of view this is a group activity. Without the knowledge of other leaders in the company such a big scam is impossible. However, India being a company where accepting a scam or involving in scam is considered as sin, I believe without proper investigation it is difficult to point anybody involved in this activity.

I am still wondering how bad a company goes to compete in this market. I believe that this is due to the short term strategy that the company had instead of long term vision. This also reveals that there is serious issues with Indian Corporate governance and strategic business evaluation methods. India Inc. need to have greater focus towards developing a model for the evaluation of board. The Golden peacock corporate governance model is good to adhere from European foundation for quality model, however, there is a gap in this model in terms of business ethics which is considered as the latest management fashion. Atleast now whoever be the company who awards golden peacock corporate governance can consider to include this ethics of doing business in evaluation.

Globalisation is it a modern days terminology?

Happy new year to all of you and a Warm welcome to my blog in the new year. To start the year with a global sense sounds more interesting. However, the global nature of business during ancient period and its relevance in modern terms is more suitable to reflect to improve current crisis situation.

The literature about international business and globalisation starts global trade period widely with the voyagers such as Christopher Columbus (1492), Vasco da Gama (1497). However, looking at the history of ancient Indian kingdom there is a general sense that the global trade or transnational trade is so common even during ancient period.

For example consider the pandya dynacity of India. Historical evidences says that they had extensive trade links with the Southeast Asian maritime empires of Srivijaya and their successors. The Pandyas excelled in both trade and literature. They controlled the pearl fisheries along the south Indian coast, between Sri Lanka and India, which produced some of the finest pearls known in the ancient world. According to Hiuen-Tsang, the Pandya country was a depot for sea pearls, its people were black, harsh and of different religions. This can be termed as the modern pluralistic nature of governance. Hence we can interpret that the management style followed in ancient period is pluralistic in nature which is more common in modern day's term. They were very good at trade. Roman trading centre was located on the Pandyan coast at the mouth of the Vaigai river, southeast of Madurai. Hence it can be interpreted that joint ventures and strategic alliances are more common among people of ancient kingdom in globalising their business.

Pandyas also had trade contacts with Ptolemaic Egypt and, through Egypt, with Rome by the first century, and with China by the 3rd century. The 1st century Greek historian Nicolaus of Damascus met, at Damascus, the ambassador sent by an Indian King "named Pandion or, according to others, Porus" to Caesar Augustus around 13 CE (Strabo XV.1-4, and Strabo XV.1-73).

Now it can be argued that the notion of global trade is not a new concept for India. I personally feel that there is no difference between export of software or export of pearl. Even during modern days the city of Tuticorin is called as the pearl city of Tamilnadu.