Timepass

Competition

2011-02-05T01:06:00.000-08:00

The term competition is deeply rooted in our day to day life. We have started to see everything in terms of competition. What is the need to compete? Is it because we are not self sufficient? When self sufficiency comes there is no need to compete. Or is it because of the deviation in the demand & supply? Have we consumed all the natural resources that the Mother nature gifted us with?

We compete with our brothers and sisters for toys, foods, snacks, corner seats, mother's care etc etc during our early stages.

We compete with our friends in studies, plays, for showoffs etc.

We compete with unknown for marks and admissions.

We compete with others for a job.

We compete with our colleagues for better growth, ratings, appraisals, salary hikes, promotions.

We compete with the world to earn more.

We compete with nature to stay young.

We compete with germs and bacteria and virus to stay fit.

We compete with the disease to stay alive.

Finally we compete with the fire to burn leaving ashes.

What do we gain out of this continuous rat race in our life? Everybody is talking about the competition. Our elders teach us to compete in life? But they do not tell why we need to compete? Is there a reason for competition? Can't we have a life without competition? Can two people not have separate paths where there is no competition? Even the senior management discusses about competitive advantage. They even go a step ahead and create a competitive strategy not only for the organization with which they are tied with but also for the nations. We create a bloodbath among ourselves. Is this the case with other living beings? From my point of view we human beings have been affected by ulcers like greed, anger, ego, dissatisfaction and other related emotions. Due to this chronic ulcer we are entering into a contest between individuals, groups, nations, animals etc. for a territory, a niche or a location of resources.

Are we winning the competition? The answer is uncertain. Win or success is a relative terminology. It depends on whom we compete with. If a lion competes with a fox definitely lion wins for its power. however if a lion competes with dinosaurs, then lion seems to be meager or nothing. When dinosaurs competes with the nature it vanishes. When nature competes with the mankind it gets eroded. Competition never ends. People who involve in competition can never confirm whether they succeed or fail without relativity.

Consequently I was given an alternate view for competition. What will happen if we compete with ourselves? My reply to this question is that when we start to compete with self there comes evolution. The nature competed with itself to give us such beauty. The single celled amoeba competed with itself to evolve into a multi-cellular human being. So to conclude I can say competition for evolution is necessary.

What India Could Do With Rs 73 Lakh Crore?

2010-12-25T19:33:00.001-08:00

Build: 2.4 crore primary healthcare centres. That’s at least 3 for every village, at a cost of Rs 30 lakh each.

Build: 24.1 lakh Kendriya Vidyalayas at a cost of Rs 3.02 crore each, with two sections from Class VI to XII.

Construct: 14.6 crore low-cost houses assuming a cost of Rs 5 lakh a unit.
Set up: 2,703 coal-based power plants of 600 MW each. Each costs Rs 2,700 crore.

Supply: 12 lakh CFL bulbs. That’s enough light for each of India’s 6 lakh villages

Construct: 14.6 lakh km of two-lane highways. That’s a road around India’s perimeter 97 times over.

Clean up: 50 major rivers for the next 121 years, at Rs 1,200 crore a river every year.

Launch: 90 NREGA-style schemes, each worth roughly Rs 81,111 crore.
Announce: 121 more loan waiver schemes. All of them worth Rs 60,000 crore.

Give: Rs 56,000 to every Indian. Even better, give Rs 1.82 lakh to 40 crore Indians living BPL.

Hand out: 60.8 crore Tata Nanos to 60.8 crore people. Or four times as many laptops.

Grow the GDP: The scam money is 27% more than our GDP of Rs 53 lakh crore."

Greed, graft, politics, bribery, dirty money. Just another day in the life of a nation still rated among the most corrupt in the world. Scan the scams that have grabbed headlines, destroyed reputations and left many people poorer.

Scams Since 1948 - 2005

2010-12-25T19:31:00.000-08:00

1, Jeep Purchase (1948) :- Free India's corruption graph begins. V. K. Krishna Menon, then the Indian high commissioner to Britain, bypassed protocol to sign a deal worth Rs 80 lakh with a foreign firm for the purchase of army jeeps. The case was closed in 1955 and soon after Menon joined the Nehru cabinet.

2, Cycle Imports (1951) :- S.A. Venkataraman, then the secretary, ministry of commerce and industry, was jailed for accepting a bribe in lieu of granting a cycle import quota to a company.

3, BHU Funds (1956) :- In one of the first instances of corruption in educational institutions, Benaras Hindu University officials were accused of misappropriation of funds worth Rs 50 lakh.

4, MUNDHRA SCANDAL (1957):- It was the media that first hinted there might be a scam involving the sale of shares to LIC, Feroz Gandhi sources the confidential correspondence between the then Finance Minister T.T. Krishnamachari and his principal finance secretary, and raised a question in Parliament on the sale of 'fraudulent' shares to LIC by a Calcutta-based Marwari businessman named Haridas Mundhra. The then Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, set up a one-man commission headed by Justice M.C.Chagla to investigate the matter when it becomes evident that there was a prima facie case. Chagla concluded that Mundhra had sold fictitious shares to LIC, thereby defrauding the insurance behemoth to the tune of Rs. 1.25 crore. Mundhra was sentenced to 22 years in prison. The scam also forced the resignation of T.T.Krishnamachari.

6, Teja Loans (1960):- Shipping magnate Jayant Dharma Teja took loans worth Rs 22 crore to establish the Jayanti Shipping Company. In 1960, the authorities discovered that he was actually siphoning off money to his own account, after which Teja fled the country.

7, Kairon Scam (1963):- Pratap Singh Kairon became the first Indian chief minister to be accused of abusing his power for his own benefit and that of his sons and relatives. He quit a year later.

8, Patnaik's Own Goal (1965) :- Orissa Chief Minister Biju Patnaik was forced to resign after it was discovered that he had favoured his privately-held company Kalinga Tubes in awarding a government contract.

9, Maruti Scandal (1974) :- Well before the company was set up, former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's name came up in the first Maruti scandal, where her son Sanjay Gandhi was favoured with a license to make passenger cars.

10, Solanki Exposé (1992) :- At the World Economic Forum, Madhavsinh Solanki, then the external affairs minister, slipped a letter to his Swiss counterpart asking their government to stop the probe into the Bofors kickbacks. Solanki resigned when India Today broke the story.

11, Kuo Oil Deal (1976):- The Indian Oil Corporation signed an Rs 2.2-crore oil contract with a non-existent firm in Hong Kong and a kickback was given. The petroleum and chemicals minister was directed to make the purchase.

12, Antulay Trust (1981) :- With the exposure of this scandal concerning A.R. Antulay, then the chief minister of Maharashtra, The Indian Express was reborn. Antulay had garnered Rs 30 crore from businesses dependent on state resources like cement and kept the money in a private trust.

13, HDW Commissions (1987) :- HDW, the German submarine maker, was blacklisted after allegations that commissions worth Rs 20 crore had been paid. In 2005, the case was finally closed, in HDW's favour.

14, Bofors Pay-Off (1987) :- A Swedish firm was accused of paying Rs 64 crore to Indian bigwigs, including Rajiv Gandhi, then the prime minister, to secure the purchase of the Bofors gun.

15, St Kitts Forgery (1989) :- An attempt was made to sully V.P. Singh's Mr Clean image by forging documents to allege that he was a beneficiary of his son Ajeya Singh's account in the First Trust Corp. at St Kitts, with a deposit of $21 million.

16, Airbus Scandal (1990) :- Indian Airlines's (IA) signing of the Rs 2,000-crore deal with Airbus instead of Boeing caused a furore following the crash of an A-320. New planes were grounded, causing IA a weekly loss of Rs 2.5 crore.

17, Securities Scam (1992) :- Harshad Mehta manipulated banks to siphon off money and invested the funds in the stock market, leading to a crash. The loss: Rs 5,000 crore.

18, Indian Bank Rip-off (1992) :- Aided by M. Gopalakrishnan, then the chairman of the Indian Bank, borrowers-mostly small corporates and exporters from the south-were lent a total of over Rs 1,300 crore, which they never paid back.

19, Sugar Import (1994) :- As food minister, Kalpnath Rai presided over the import of sugar at a price higher than that of the market, causing a loss of Rs 650 crore to the exchequer. He resigned following the allegations.

20, MS SHOES SCAM (1994) :- Anyone who war old enough in 1994 to read will remember the advertisements- tens of them intriguingly headlined: 'Who is Pawan Sachdeva?' For the record, it was the peak of the public issued-led advertising boom and the ads were created by the Delhi branch of Rediffusion. Sachdeva, the promoter of MS Shoes, allegedly used company funds to buy shares (of his own company) and rig prices, prior to a public issue. He is alleged to have colluded with officials in the Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and SBI Caps, which lead-managed the issue, to dupe the public into investing in his Rs. 699-crore public-***-rights issue. Sachdeva was later acquitted

21, JMM Bribes (1995) :- Jharkhand Mukti Morcha leader Shailendra Mahato testified that he and three party members received bribes of Rs 30 lakh to bail out the P.V. Narasimha Rao government in the 1993 no-confidence motion.

22, In a Pickle (1996) :- Pickle baron Lakhubhai Pathak raised a stink when he accused former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao and godman Chandraswami of accepting a bribe of Rs 10 lakh from him for securing a paper pulp contract.

23, Telecom Scam (1996) :- Former minister of state for communication Sukh Ram was accused of causing a loss of Rs 1.6 crore to the exchequer by favouring a Hyderabad- based private firm in the purchase of telecom equipment. He, along with two others, was convicted in 2002.

24, Fodder Scam (1996) :- The accountant general's concerns about the withdrawal of excess funds by Bihar's animal husbandry department unveiled a Rs 950-crore scam involving Lalu Prasad Yadav, then the state chief minister. He resigned a year later.

25, Urea Deal (1996) :- C.S. Ramakrishnan, MD, National Fertiliser, and a group of businessmen close to the P.V. Narasimha Rao regime fleeced the government and took Rs 133 crore from the import of two lakh tonne of urea, which was never delivered.

26, Hawala Diaries (1996) :- The scandal surfaced following CBI raids on hawala operators in Delhi in 1991. But it was S.K. Jain's diaries that had heads rolling.

27, CRB SCAM (1997) :- Another scam forged by greed and discovered through accident. Chain Roop Bhansali, a smart-talking entrepreneur, created a pyramid financial empire based on high-cost financing. At its peak, his Rs. 1,000-crore financial conglomerate had in its ranks a mutual fund, a financial services company into fixed deposits, and a merchant bank. That Bhansali knew how to work the system became evident when he also managed to secure a provisional banking license. Then his luck ran out. An executive in the State Bank of India Inadvertently discovered that some interest warrants issued by Bhansali were not backed by cash. The bubble finally burst in May 1997, but by that time investors had lost over Rs. 1,000 crore. This was among the first retail scams in India and it was played out, in smaller avatars, across the country-especially in the South where financial services companies promised returns in excess of 20 per cent and decamped with the principal. Bhansali was arrested for a few weeks and released later on bail.

28, MEHTA'S SECOND COMING (1998) :- The Big Bull returned to the bourses. This time, he allegedly colluded with the promoters of BPL, Videocon International, and Sterile Industries to rig the share prices of these companies. The inevitable collapse happened sooner than planned, Harshad Mehta orchestrated a cover-up operation that included a high=jinks effort by officials of Bombay Stock Exchange to (illegally ) open the trading system in the middle of the night to set things right, but the damage had been done. SEBI finally passed its ruling on the scam in 2001, banning the three companies concerned from tapping the market-BPL, for two years. Mehta was debarred for life form dealing in Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) in October 2001

29, VANISHING COMPANIES SCAM (1998) :- A passing remark heard by then Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram resulted in a furore over what was badly-kept secret on Dalal street. Chidambaram was told that hundreds of companies had disappeared after raising moneys form the public. An informal scrutiny revealed that perhaps over 600 companies were missing. Chidambaram ordered a probe by SEBI. The SEBI probe conducted in May 1998 revealed that while many companies are not traded on the bourses at least 80 companies that had rises Rs.330.78 crore were simply missing. Later that year, the Department of Company Affairs (DCA) was asked to probe and penalize these companies. DCA still investigating. Investigations continue to this day.

30, PLANTATION COMPANIES SCAM (1999) :- It was as innovative a swindle as any effected in the world. Savvy entrepreneurs convinced gullible investors that given the right irrigation and fertilizer inputs, teak, strawberries, and anything else that could be grown, would grow anywhere in the country. The promoters could afford to collect money from investors and not worry about retribution (or returns, for that matter). For, plantation companies fell under the purview of neither SEBI nor Reserve Bank of India. Indeed, they didn't even come under the scope of the Department decided to change things in 1999, enough investors had been gulled: 653 companies, between them, had raised Rs. 2,563 crore from investors. To date, not many investors have got their principals back, just another affirmation of the old saying about money not growing on trees.

31, Match Fixing (2000) :- Mohammed Azharuddin, till then India's cricket captain, was accused of match-fixing. He and Ajay Sharma were banned from playing, while Ajay Jadeja and Manoj Prabhakar were suspended for five years.

32, KETAN PAREKH SCAM (2001) :- Ketan Parekh's modus operandi wasn't very different from Harshad Mehta's. If Mehta used banker's receipts, then Parekh used pay orders to ramp up the prices of his favourite scrips (the K-10). Apart from money form the banking system Parekh also rerouted money from corporated like HFCL (Rs. 425 crore), and Zee (Rs. 340 crore) to good effect. He was caught when pay-orders issued by Madhavpura Mercantile Cooperative Bank bounced. Although the total amount involved in the scam was just Rs. 137 crore, the impact was far greater.

Apparently, when a bear cartel sensed Parekh was in trouble, it stepped in and leveraged a dip in the NASDAQ to bear down stock prices. The resultant slump in the markets happened soon after Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha presented what he considered his best budget ever. Under pressure from the government, SEBI investigated the scam and heads began to roll. Among them: the entire management team of BSE, including its president Anand Rathi, CSFB, First Global, and, in an indirect connection, P.S.Subramanyam, the Chairman of UTL Evidently, for the 18 months that PSS was Chairman of UTI, the Trust had mirrored the actions of the bull cartel. The result? When the market tanked, so did the NAV of its holy cow, the US-64.

33, Tehelka Sting (2001) :- Tehelka, an online news portal, used spycams to catch army officers and politicians accepting bribes, in their sting operation called Operation Westend. Investigative journalism turned another corner in the country.

34, Stockmarket Scam (2001) :- The mayhem that wiped off over Rs 1,15,000 crore in the markets in March 2001 was masterminded by the Pentafour bull Ketan Parekh. He was arrested in December 2002 and banned from acccessing the capital market for 14 years.

35, Home Trade Scam (2002) :- Under the pretext of gilt trading, Rs 600 crore was swindled from over 25 cooperative banks in Maharashtra and Gujarat by a Navi Mumbai-based brokerage firm Home Trade. Sanjay Agarwal, CEO of the firm, was arrested in May 2002.

36, Stamp Paper Scam (2003) :- The sheer magnitude of the racket was shocking-it caused a loss of Rs 30,000 crore to the exchequer. Disclosures of the mastermind behind it, Abdul Karim Telgi, implicated top police officers and bureaucrats.

37, Oil-for-Food Scandal (2005) :- K. Natwar Singh was unceremoniously dropped from the Cabinet when his name surfaced in the Volcker Report on the Iraq oil-for-food scam.

India's biggest scams

2010-12-25T19:29:00.000-08:00

Read as S. No, Person involved in scam, Scam Amount

1, Ramalinga Raju, Rs. 50.4 billion
2, Harshad Mehta, Rs. 40 billion
3, Ketan Parekh, Rs. 10 billion
4, C R Bhansali, Rs. 12 billion
5, Cobbler scam
6, IPO Scam
7, Dinesh Dalmia, Rs. 5.95 billion
8, Abdul Karim Telgi, Rs. 1.71 billion
9, Virendra Rastogi, Rs. 430 million
10, The UTI Scam, Rs. 320 million
11, Uday Goyal, Rs. 2.1 billion
12, Sanjay Agarwal, Rs. 6 billion
13, Dinesh Singhania, Rs. 1.2 billion

Republic Of Scams

2010-12-25T19:27:00.000-08:00

Total Scam Money (approx) Since 1992: Rs. 73000000000000 Cr. (73 Lakh Crore)

1992 -Harshad Mehta securities scam Rs 5,000 cr

1994 -Sugar import scam Rs 650 cr

1995 -Preferential allotment scam Rs 5,000 cr
Yugoslav Dinar scam Rs 400 cr
Meghalaya Forest scam Rs 300 cr

1996: -Fertiliser import scam Rs 1,300 cr
Urea scam Rs 133 cr
Bihar fodder scam Rs 950 cr

1997 -Sukh Ram telecom scam Rs 1,500 cr
SNC Lavalin power project scam Rs 374 cr
Bihar land scandal Rs 400 cr
C.R. Bhansali stock scam Rs 1,200 cr

1998 -Teak plantation swindle Rs 8,000 cr

2001 -UTI scam Rs 4,800 cr
Dinesh Dalmia stock scam Rs 595 cr
Ketan Parekh securities scam Rs 1,250 cr

2002 -Sanjay Agarwal Home Trade scam Rs 600 cr

2003 -Telgi stamp paper scam Rs 172 cr

2005 -IPO-Demat scam Rs 146 cr
Bihar flood relief scam Rs 17 cr
Scorpene submarine scam Rs 18,978 cr

2006 -Punjab's City Centre project scam Rs 1,500 cr,
Taj Corridor scam Rs 175 cr

2008 -Pune billionaire Hassan Ali Khan tax default Rs 50,000 cr
The Satyam scam Rs 10,000 cr
Army ration pilferage scam Rs 5,000 cr
The 2-G spectrum swindle Rs 60,000 cr
State Bank of Saurashtra scam Rs 95 cr
Illegal monies in Swiss banks, as estimated in 2008 Rs 71,00,000 cr

2009: -The Jharkhand medical equipment scam Rs 130 cr
Rice export scam Rs 2,500 cr
Orissa mine scam Rs 7,000 cr
Madhu Koda mining scam Rs 4,000 cr"

Meeting with SK

2010-12-17T22:29:00.000-08:00

I met a person yesterday. He joined TCS recently. He is a visiting prof. in one of the University in US. He hailed from financial services background. I am putting his advice in his own words.

"....I am not used to hard working. I do smart working. People ask what is smart working? Spending n number of hours in working is not smart working. I am currently asking the senior management to take half a day off from the routine work and think through the long term plans. This is one example of smart working. People are confused about the two terms responsible and accountable. I can explain the difference with an example. The delivery manager is accountable for the product / service delivery to the customer. But it is the project manager who is responsible. If the product / service delivered is a success it is the project manager along with the team gets praised. However, if anything goes wrong it is the delivery manager who takes all the blame. In the project the Project manager is accountable for the delivery and it is the project lead / module lead / team lead is responsible for the same. For the module it is the module lead who is accountable and the developer is responsible. Hence we must understand what we are responsible for and what we are accountable for. This enables us to work smarter. We must take time out for us and think through our long term plans and work accordingly.

We can read books. The reading habits among the generation Y is reducing. It is ok even if we read a novel. But reading is more important. It will be good if we read any of the management books. Reading triggers our thinking and makes us creative. Creative working will help us to be smarter."

Remembering my teachers

2010-09-10T05:19:00.000-07:00

This month I got an opportunity to read the book of Sudha Murthy Wise and Otherwise. Fortunately on 5th of September I read the chapter related to teachers and Gurukul methodology of teaching. This triggered my thoughts about the teachers who groomed me throughout the student life. I am not able to remember all the teachers. However, I still remember a few.

My first tribute is for a teacher who taught me how to act and dance. She was then from a small town working as a teacher for the KG students. I am not aware of her whereabouts now. I take this opportunity for thanking her for showing me how to lead a lively life.

Next I remember a history teacher. Before I continue further I would like to make a disclaimer that I was not much interested in reading history subjects. He had the natural tendency to grab the attention of students in his class. I consider him as my role model for attracting the students.

Now I want to remember and thank my maths teachers (Kanthimathi, Renganathan, Ramasamy). They molded my analytical thinking and created interest in mathematics.

Lastly Keith Halcro, John Penlington, Siva Sockhalingam, Angela, and Kate Lanka transformed me into a business personality. I thank all my teachers today for all the efforts they invested in developing me as a unique personality.

Valuable Lessons to be Learned from Noah's Ark

2010-06-04T20:25:00.000-07:00

ONE: Don't miss the boat.

TWO: Remember that we are all in the same boat.

THREE: Plan ahead. It wasn't raining when Noah built the Ark.

FOUR: Stay fit. When you're 60 years old, someone may ask you to do something really big.

FIVE: Don't listen to critics; just get on with the job that needs to be done.

SIX: Build your future on high ground.

SEVEN: For safety's sake, travel in pairs.

EIGHT: Speed isn't always an advantage. The snails were on board with the cheetahs.

NINE: When you're stressed, float awhile.

Also Remember that the Ark was built by amateurs; the Titanic by professionals.

About Sundara by his friends

2010-05-08T22:44:00.001-07:00

Sundara is friendly towards all the people. He is considered to be clever. He is one of the person I would most like to work with. He is smart and confident. He is considered as flexible and kindest. He is most hard working and talkative. As a person he is most often wrong.

Sundara during initial period of career

Sundara is one of the calmest person. He is serious and critical. Sundara irritates me most often. He is very reserved and talk less.

Wow what a difference between the two. How is it possible to make such a transition? What made him change his attitude and behaviour?

Is this called as change management? Does this mean I am suceeding as an Agent in change management?

Analysts' perspective of Global Economics

2010-05-01T23:19:00.000-07:00

US Sub-prime crisis has reached an end now. India Inc is gaining confidence to grow its business to generate profitability and show growth.

Ohhh what a timing for the market. Now sovereign debt crisis is in the market. Already the stock market experienced a rolar-coaster ride this week. The market was weak due to the global economic imbalance caused due to the fear of sovereign crisis. It was expected that the crisis might affect all the countries as almost all the countries rearranged economic situation during sub-prime crisis and provided easy money throughout the period. Now due to this generous spending by govt. it is criticized that there is less money or huge debt piling up with each country.

As a layman it is interpreted that these Analysts are more cynic that they are not able to accept whatever is available in front of their eyes and instead they think of a situation which is expected not to occur. Is this a reaction due to the education they had or is it due to the inability to think long???

True and worth implementing..

2010-04-04T03:40:00.000-07:00

“A poor man had no land and prayed to God for some land. God appeared to him and told him that all that he could cover from dawn to dusk would be his land.

The man set off the next morning without sleeping a wink. Though he had covered enough land to satisfy his needs, very soon, he began to run and run filled with a desire to own more land, more than anyone else.

By dusk he had covered a lot of land. But he fell down dead, exhausted.

Usually this is the story of most of our lives.

Desires that are real and are born out of a genuine need will have their own energy and will sustain them.

However, most of our desires are created out of jealousy and have a negative energy.

When we are not able to bear the excellence of others, we get jealous. Comparison is the seed, jealousy is the fruit.

Comparison and jealousy are actually non-existent. We create such thoughts ourselves and talk endlessly on how to overcome them.

Imagine that the room you are in is dark. Can you remove it if you wanted to?

Can you take it to another room? Of course not.

The reason is that darkness has a negative existence. It does not really exist.

If you bring light into a room, the darkness will at once cease to exist. In the same way, jealousy has a negative existence. You cannot deal with it directly. Even if you tell yourself repeatedly not to feel jealous, you cannot overcome it. If you queue up all the people in the world in an ascending order of money, where would you be?

You will be somewhere in the middle. You will not even be able to count the number of people who are on either side of you in the queue. Now, you will have to decide if you are going to look at the queue in front of you and feel jealous or look at the queue behind and feel relaxed and grateful to God.

Everything is in your hands.

We will never face failure if we live our lives competing with ourselves. Win yourself with yourself, never with others.

Every minute of comparison with others is a waste of time in the path of progress. A great problem in the rat race is that even if you win you are only a rat. To stop comparisons, you need to be aware of your own worth; you need to realise your uniqueness without being proud..”

Personal growth and team performance

2010-04-02T23:58:00.000-07:00

Hey buddy can you upgrade the system available in the xxx server. Yeah sure, I can do that. Nevertheless I am waiting for the go ahead signal from abc. He has sent me the mail already. Can you fwd the mail. You are there in the mail chain. No I am not there in the mail chain. See this is the mail I received (Actually the mail is from somebody else for another activity). Alright I shall do what ever you say (You are not going to listen to me even if I try to explain. You just want to give me some work even if there is no work. You think that I am soo dumb that I will trust your words. Unfortunately I donot trust you because of this behaviour).

Hi mate, there is a P1 issue raised in the server stating that there is an issue created due to the upgrade process we started. Your name comes into picture as we are using your id for the activity. I mentioned that I am waiting for the go ahead from the person abc for this upgrade process. You forced me to do it saying that he sent a mail. Now that a P1 issue was raised whatever activity we did today goes waste. Over and above it creates a negative impression about the team here to others. We could have avoided this situation had we trusted each other atleast professionally. From my past experience with you I understand that you work for your personal growth and give a damn about others. You want to make use of them. Arguable you are not concerned about their personal growth and success. This makes you a below average manager. You might perform better had u been concentrated on developing these skills. Its high time you start looking into this.

Self Confidence By 11 Simple Rules

2010-04-02T02:48:00.000-07:00

Self confidence gives us the freedom to commit mistakes and cope with failure without making us feel worthless. If only we have confidence in ourselves, can we gain confidence of others. After all, most people are reluctant to back a project that’s being pitched by someone who is nervous, fumbling and overly apologetic. On the other hand, you might be persuaded by someone who spoke clearly, who held his or her head high, who answered questions assuredly, and who readily admitted when he/she did not know something.

So where do you rate yourself on the scale of 1-10 for your confidence level? Do you think you fall in the low confidence bracket? Here’s some good news for you. And the good news is that self-confidence can be learned and built on.

Let’s start the process of building self-confidence. Remember there is no quick fix solution for it. Nonetheless, practice makes a man perfect. So all you have to do is try and implement the following given tips in your day to day life.

Recognize your insecurities: We all have insecurities in life. It can be anything from acne, to regrets, to friends at school. Giving a name to the things which make you feel unworthy, ashamed or inferior helps to combat them. You can try to pen down your thoughts and you will find that it makes you feel much lighter and happier. Remember that no one is perfect. The man or woman sitting next to you might have the same amount of insecurities as you have. If writing doesn’t come easily to you, you might want to talk it out with your friends or loved ones. Sharing your thoughts will help relieve the burden you have been carrying all alone.

Identify your successes: No matter how insecure you might feel, God has blessed each one of us with some talent. Discover the things you are good at and then focus on improving them. Give yourself permission to take pride in your talents. Give yourself credit for your successes. Inferiority is a state of mind in which you’ve declared yourself a victim. Do not allow yourself to be victimized.

Be thankful for what you have: A lot of the times, at the root of insecurity and lack of confidence is a feeling of not having enough of something, whether it’s emotional validation, good luck, money, etc. By acknowledging and appreciating what you do have, you can combat the feeling of being incomplete and unsatisfied. Finding that inner peace will do wonders for your confidence.

Be positive: Avoid self-pity or sympathy of others. Never allow others to make you feel inferior–they can only do so if you let them. If you continue to loathe and belittle yourself, others are going to do and believe likewise. Instead, speak positively about yourself, about your future, and about your progress. Do not be afraid to project your strengths and qualities to others.

Dress sharp: Although clothes don’t make the man, they certainly affect the way he feels about himself. When you don’t look good, you don’t feel good. It changes the way you carry yourself and interact with people. This doesn’t mean you need to spend a lot on clothes. Rather than buying a bunch of cheap clothes, buy half as many select, high quality items. In long run this decreases spending because expensive clothes wear out less easily and stay in style longer than cheap clothes.

Walk faster: Your gait tells a lot about your personality. Is it slow? Tired? Painful? Or is it energetic and purposeful? People with confidence walk quickly. They have places to go, people to see, and important work to do. You can increase yourself confidence by putting some pep in your step. Walking 25% faster will make to you look and feel more important.

Compliment other people: When we think negatively about ourselves, we often project that feeling on to others in the form of insults and gossip. Refuse to engage in backstabbing gossip and make an effort to compliment those around you. In the process, you’ll become well liked and build self confidence. By looking for the best in others, you indirectly bring out the best in yourself.

Take the front seat: Back benchers might seem to have a lot of fun in schools and colleges but that does nothing to boost their self confidence. Don’t be afraid to get noticed. By deciding to sit in the front row, you can get over your irrational fear of getting noticed and build your self confidence.

Speak up: It’s a general observation that many people are afraid to speak or ask questions in a group discussion or a public gathering. They are afraid that they might be judged for saying something stupid. Generally, people are much more accepting than we imagine. In fact most people are dealing with the exact same fears. By making an effort to speak up at least once in every group discussion, you’ll become a better public speaker, more confident in your own thoughts, and recognized as a leader by your peers.

Work out: A healthy mind resides in a healthy body. If you are fit, you are surrounded by positivity and energy. If you are out of shape you feel unattractive. This leads to demoralization. Just a little discipline in your life can help shape up your self confidence in a big way.

Smile: Last but not the least; try to smile as much as possible. People are always appreciative of a smiling face. You will be welcomed by anyone who comes in your contact. A smiling face is always received with warmth and affection. Acceptance and recognition from others helps in building self confidence.

The art of love

2010-03-27T06:55:00.000-07:00

The 4 letter magic word has taken me to a new height both in my personal and professional life. I would like to put forth my experience of this magic to the general public.

In my first impression this weapon of LOVE is sharper in nature is to be handled with care. However, with undue care if demonstrated the power, there is no alternative weapon to defeat this.

The basic question that arise in an individual's mind is how to make use of this skill? My first thought is that the art of love starts with developing trust. Once trust is developed the stream of love will start to flow automatically. Another major factor to consider is that there might be clear transparency of thought between the people. It is identified that the psychology of animal behavior reveals that an animal can identify people who are demonstrating true care and affection from those who fake it. The same thing holds true with human beings. The children are using this quality without any training. However, the same kid as it grows tends to deviate from and start to lose focus on this quality. Hence if careful focus is given towards this will improve the art of developing long lasting relationship either in personal and professional life. The same quality is applicable in demonstrating love towards others.

Love @ I sight P2

2010-03-13T21:30:00.000-08:00

I meet her for the first time in my life. Though I show myself as normal, I feel the nervousness within me. I strive hard not show it outside. I smile at her and say hello how are you. I replies with a default smile. I was not able to speak to her as we were surrounded by the crowd. I was not interested to screen a free romantic show to the crowd. I just shift myself from one person to another in the crowd and waiting for the right time to speak with her. I waited patiently for a long time. I can feel that the tension within the air oozes out. After some time I feel normal again and gain in confidence. I started cracking jokes with the people to be normal. I just started thinking how will she be feeling in this situation. What will she be thinking about. Will she be having the same feeling like me? Is she waiting patiently as I do to have the first talk? Am I falling in love with her in the first meet? Is this the right sensation I interpret? How am I going to tackle this situation?

Love at first sight

2010-02-04T10:46:00.000-08:00

I enter for the first time into that building. I can feel that my sleepless eyes are expecting some relaxation. I was nou aware that I am going to meet my dream girl in this building. I was gazing randomly as usual. I was taken aback when I heard a sweet voice from behind. I turn to see who called me. There I saw an angel smiling at me and saying hello to me. I felt that I am flying in the air. I shake hand with her and ask her name. Suddenly I feel that the building is collapsing and falling down. I feel heavy weight above me. I open my eyes to see the damage. I realise that I fell down from bed and is holding my pillow over me.

Solar Eclipse 2010 - Jan 15

2010-01-17T01:32:00.000-08:00

The date is now inscribed in the history of natural science as the world experienced the longest solar eclipse of the century. The full eclipse also called as Ring of fire lasted for around 7 min and 31 sec. The previous longest record was 7 min and 29 sec. The eclipse is called as ring of fire as when the full eclipse occured only the outer ring of sun was seen visible from earth which looked as a ring of fire.

I was feeling a sense of pride and anxiety to watch the nature's wonder of the century. I got an opportunity to watch the eclipse with the help of the specialized glasses meant to avoid the dangerous rays that might emanate from sun. As the eclipse started around 11.15 and lasted till 3.30 I was forced to miss my lunch :(. The reason was that people requested me not to consume anything during the eclipse period as the gravitational forces might vary during the period. I am honestly not aware of any change in the gravitational forces. I noted that majority of my friends had late lunch around 4 pm in the evening. I took the picture of the eclipse with the help of the mobile camera. I will try to upload it in the blog.

2010-01-13T09:16:00.000-08:00

I am feeling dejected what can I do? Can I take new responsibility in my personal life? Will I be able to perform my tasks? Will I be able to take more responsibility? Can I survive in this competitive world?
The single mantra for all the questions mentioned above and more similar questions is "Confidence". From my part experience and a keen analysis of other's experience I make the interpretation that a unique kind of core competence is "self confidence". The same will act as competitive advantage when passion to win gets added with it. A confident individual with a passion to win though is not specialised in a specific area will tend to do research in the area. There by the individual can gain theoretical knowledge. With a little effort the same can be converted into practice. However on the other hand a person with more experience and less confidence will likely to ruin the proceedings as there is always a factor of doubt and fear of failure remains as a barrier.

Ontology and Epistamology of my new year resolution

2010-01-02T02:05:00.000-08:00

I wrote my first blog on this new year. The blog is about my new year resolution. After writing the blog I started thinking how I made these resolutions and how am I going to measure them. This thought made me realise the interesting facts about how I made my resolution.

I started the resolution with an apology. This is a typical way to make resolution as per Babylonian tradition. I read once that babylonians start the year with an apology resolution. A similar style is seen with the roman tradition. However, the romans make resolution not to hurt others. Hence, I adopted the style in my new year resolution. Another style is seen with the chinese where they start the year with a clean slate erasing all the old sins. Thus i my next inclusion is to adopt the style. Upon further reading I realised that majority of Indian population wants to perform something that they want to improve in life. This has made me to come up with the final two resolutions.

Now comes the burning question of how will I measure it. Is my resolution goals Simple. My resolutions are 1. not to repeat past mistakes, 2. Respect others, 3. Be organized, 4. Make efficient use of time. Thus I can say that my goals are simple. Can I measure them? ofcourse I can measure them as I know how many times I repeat the past mistakes. How many times I hurt others by not respecting their views. How many times I miss my target. How many times I waste time. Hence, I can measure them. Are they achievable? As the timeline is 365 days to acheive I can definitely achieve them to be a part of my habit. This again shows that I have got a time line which in this case is 365 days. Are they relavant to me? Yes as the goals can improve my habit in both personal and professional life.

My new year resolution.

2010-01-01T05:26:00.000-08:00

Wish all d readers a very happy new year.

Hope I have started my new year blog with the right note. As a typical human being I would like to start this year with my new year oaths.

To start with I would like to apologies everybody if i had made any mistake in my past life. I would like to come out of my past sins and is willing to start my life in a clear slate. As majority of Indian say I would like to be more organized and make efficient use of my time in this new year. I hope I do not hurt any body. I wanna make others happy n wanna respect the feelings of others. I hope i can follow these resolutions and can make it a habit. I would request sincere help from all to make this resolutions a successful one.

Google Knows it All

2009-11-30T07:06:00.000-08:00

Society and human values

2009-11-29T04:14:00.000-08:00

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

2009-10-23T21:06:00.001-07:00

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

2009-10-02T07:37:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-15T07:02:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-15T10:31:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-02T03:19:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-23T18:32:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-06T03:23:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-03T21:11:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-04-28T17:52:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-27T12:15:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-21T15:45:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-14T17:23:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-13T06:02:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-06T11:18:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-05T16:23:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-05T03:56:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-02T15:13:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-24T13:48:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-20T10:12:00.001-07:00

Making Globalization work - Joseph Stiglitz

2009-03-20T10:09:00.000-07:00

How will I search my soul mate

2009-03-16T13:50:00.000-07:00

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???)

2009-03-08T04:41:00.001-07:00

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

2009-02-19T20:52:00.001-08:00

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

2009-02-13T09:36:00.001-08:00

Source: dailymail.co.uk

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

2009-01-23T18:31:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-22T09:38:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-10T19:34:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-08T16:48:00.000-08:00

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?

2009-01-02T14:23:00.000-08:00

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.

The elephant that didn't know its strength

2008-12-31T03:19:00.000-08:00

Today I read a NEWS article from BusinessLine which says that India showed its strength during this global financial meltdown. Interestingly the writer noted a few points which attracted my interest. The author argues that the government supported its poor farmers by waiving farm loans and consumers by paving the way for low interest regime. Indeed the first package is very good. We still say that India is a country whose heart lies in villages. Its majority of population depends on farming. The country is blessed with mother nature for its natural resources.

Hence, I can confidently say that the country's core competence lies in farming. Its long term sustainability depends on how well the country encourages its public to take part in agriculture. Mr. Gandhi noted this point in his views. The same is now being reiterated by Mr. Abdul Kalaam by saying that we need to bring in more value added services in agro based products. The famous rocket scientist is of the view that the country can grow by improving agriculture and diversifying horizontally in a concentric circle without affecting the growth of other industries.

Interestingly in my previous blogs I had mentioned that the liberalisation policy of IMF and World Bank forces one country to reduce subsidies to farmers and health care there by reducing the governmental expenditure. If India is following this then the country is spoiling the growth of its core competence. Consider western powers they do not have abundant natural resourses where everything grows and delivers productive outputs. They can reduce governmental expenditure by reducing spending in agricultural subsidies. But a country like India which is proud of its nature cannot afford to deviate from its core competence. This can spoil its competitive advantage among global nations.

My Journey towards South

2008-12-30T10:19:00.000-08:00

As the world is ready to embarrass west in many senses such as language, culture, management, etc. I made a turn towards South from western country. During the start of 2008 I was not aware of the fact that the year has lots of turnarounds. Collectively the Santa Clause’s gift of year for me turned out to be excellent. Nevertheless, forget not that I am looking at it from a realistic point of view.

So what is all about my journey? I travelled from Chennai to Glasgow in the beginning of the year. Hey wait! Looking at the map I found that Scotland is not at south. I am not sharing my trip to UK instead I am sharing the Meta cognitive journey towards cultural orthodoxy. So how is it possible for me to learn orthodoxy from a dominant west?

Well, the answer is very simple and lies within the history. Everybody knows that by 18th century India was invaded by British. So what is the speciality of this event? History tells that the invasion was mainly due to the abundance in wealth which attracted these traders. However, I ask the question what sort of abundant wealth that attracted these people into the country? Is it the natural wealth? Or is it the precious materials? Or is it the ancient civilization? The answer is all the three and the list is exhaustive. Nobody can loot nature. Hence, the natural resource available to India is still present in the present moment. But the other two are man made. Hence there is a possibility to either lose or gain. Though I agree with the erosion of wealth I am concerned about the erosion of civilization.

We Indians are proud of the fact that our civilization is very ancient and has a long lasting history. Considering civilization as paddy crop we forget to grow the tree by managing it properly. However, the Britons took it to their country and managed to cultivate it properly. When I removed the weeds from the crop I found similarity between what is found in India before British invasion. Not to forget that US was improved by those EU people who had the entrepreneurial vigour in their blood.

So when I ask myself what I have transformed into, I get an answer which says I have travelled more than 400 centuries back in Indian tradition. Nevertheless, I have to accept that I have not left behind the scientific improvements in this current world. Hence, I claim that I have successfully adopted the ancient beliefs and values with the right mix of modernisation processes.

Should Indian companies bailout foreign counter parts?

2008-12-22T11:28:00.000-08:00

It is a known fact now that the global auto manufacturing industry is struggling. Once identified as a pride of an industrial nation, the automobile industry is now facing financial liquidity problem. The bailout package put forward by President Bush of US gave a breather for the Detroit based auto manufacturers. However, there are more market players who are still struggling to find liquid cash to run its business. Needless to forget Toyota is making history by filing its first ever loss in its balance sheet. The situation with the “first industrialised nation” is not a shining star. UK’s car manufacturing industry too is struggling due to the liquidity crisis.

It has became a history now that Indian conglomerate Tata group purchased the Jaguar Land Rower from Ford during first quarter 2008. The current situation with JLR is very bleek. The JLR union has mentioned that the company need funds from the government within days and not weeks. It can be speculated that the compan might file bankruptcy provided it get financial aid either from the owners or from the government. However, the business secretary, UK has mentioned the owners that the government is not having “an open cheque book” policy. This might mean that the government is not very keen to spend the tax payers’ money in a business whose future is still unpredicted. This behaviour is in stark contrast to what US government has done to safeguard its automobile industry. Neither UK government has asked the industry players to submit an action plan similar to Bush’s government nor did they give any confident boost.

Do the Brown’s government want to save its automobile industry? Do they think JLR’s problem is now TATA’s headache and not UK’s? Is JLR now branded as an Indian company just because some nine months ago the company was purchased by an Indian family? Is the government expect bailout from a poor nation (as stated by them) to save its pride? If Tata fails to provide liquidity then what is the situation of the thousands of employees working with JLR? Is automobile industry a core business for UK now?

Needless to say that the government is also keenly looking at the TATA group and its move in the current scenario and is asking them to act before anything done from their side. However, if TATA group has successfully managed the current situation through providing a bailout and work closely with the government in solving the issue it has the potential to act as a major boost for the group's business. Tata group is currently a well recognised Indian conglomerate business in EU. Has the group successfully solved the issue this might bring in more business from EU region. TCS, the software arm of the group can utilise the situation to seal contracts in the region. It is already clear that the group is trying to build its hold in EU with its two major acquisition one through Tata Steel (Corus bidding) and other through Tata Motors (JLR). Hence, in a long term the company can aim to seal more acquisitions in EU region with minimizing the resistance from unions.

Nevertheless, only the politics and the future can answer the questions with respect to the bailout and automobile industry. Let us wait and watch the melodrama of bailing out automobile industry now in UK.

Female CEO (Chanda Kochhar); the implications to India’s No.2 bank

2008-12-21T14:27:00.000-08:00

Mr. Kamnath has found a female successor for ICICI who incidentally became the first young female CEO of Indian banking industry. However, the time is not so easy for Ms. Kochhar due to the global economic slowdown. She needs to do lots of home work before starting the career as CEO. Congrats to Ms. Kochhar and I am eager to look forward in how she manages the shark of Indian private banking industry.

Nevertheless, ICICI Bank is not the only one who appointed female to manage business in recent time. Why is management suddenly falling towards female to manage them? What is the reason for big industry to appoint female at top position? Why there is sudden shout from top management to bring more female in top management?

Hofstede’s study on five major cultural dilemmas identified each and every country to have its own cultural traits. Based on that west was identified to be Egalitarian and Assertive. What does these terms mean? The western business allowed individual to take responsibility. This is termed as Egalitarian. The opposite term for this is collectivism. Generally countries from Asia can fell in this category. The other term can relate to the strategies a business manager follows. Assertiveness is often related with short term aggressive strategy. As it is known the other term is long term conservative strategy. In general Anglo-Saxon model follows short term strategy. I have to accept that there are exceptions to this generalisation. Again countries from Asia can be termed to have long term strategy to business with exceptions.

Now consider the metaphor of mother to female; Mother is one who cares the family and children, takes care of all the members of family, shares common values and beliefs to have a closed knit family. Kinship is a term that can fit very well with mother.

Coming back to Ms. Kochhar, considering her gender, the general of properties of mother can be expected out of her. If she brings in these values to business then this has the potential to neutralise the western culture of ICICI’s business model. This again has the potential to bring in a flavour of Indian culture to the business which is widely expected by the customers in this part of the world.

However, is all the women bring these traits to business? Look at the management style of Mrs. Indira Gandhi and Margaret Tatcher. Are they influenced by the style of male who dominated the management or they lost their feminine style? Why did they fail to show their feminine management style? Is it fear of failure that resisted them from showing them? Will the same affect Ms. Kochhar too? Well, the answer to the last question can be answered by the future.

Has India got independence?

2008-12-21T01:27:00.000-08:00

India attained its independence on 15 August 1947. This is what everybody is saying. However, my claim is that India is still being ruled not by Indians but by some other citizens.

Now let me take you through a series of global economic melodrama to prove my statement. Going back in history we can find that India claimed its independence from Britain in 1947. What is the actual reason for Britons to leave India? We all know that it is because of the quit India movement under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi. Alternatively, looking at the economical and management point of view we can see that the world war came to an end in 1940s and Briton lost majority of its wealth due to the war. US became the economic super power and saw a rapid growth in power and market. Hence it can be said that the fall of global administration led Briton to slowdown in growth and forced them to follow focus strategy thereby reducing global market exposure. Hence, India becoming the biggest nation under control got its independence.

But again during same period in 1947 another big event happened was Britton Woods which gave rise to IMF and World Bank. By 1968, IMF and World Bank started lending financial to the so called poor countries. The question to ask is what is the cause and effect of this lending? The countries which received the monetary benefits were forced to follow certain reforms mentioned by the lendor that are mainly focused towards free market liberalisation.

India too suffered in the hands of these so called global institutions. India was forced to liberalise its policies towards free market economy and thereby under the leadership of Mr. P. V. Naramashima Rao, in 1991 became free market economy. The reforms forced India to reduce government spending in healthcare and providing subsidies to agriculture. Nevertheless, the power behind these global institutions is US. Look at US they provide unnecessary subsidies to cotton growers of California. I say it as unnecessary because California is a desert and is not suitable for growing cotton. In such a condition spending in growing cotton is like spending surplus money. But US is considered world’s major debt economy. When a person is in debt why should spend unnecessarily. This is actually a major contradiction to what the global institutions preaches other countries by the way of free market liberalisation.

Thus it is needless to say that whatever party rule India the actual ruler is somewhere in US in the form of World Bank or IMF who dictates India what to do, when to do and how to do. Now again I am asking the question Has India attained Independence?

Is “Matrix” the American version of writer Sujatha’s novel “En eniya iandira”?

2008-12-04T13:48:00.000-08:00

This blog analyses critically the similarities between the movie Matrix and the novel En eniya iandira. Writer Sujatha published his novel “En Eniya Iandira” in late 1980’s. This novel published in Anantha Vikatan is a success during that period. Statistics shows that the release of Matrix during early 21st century is a grand success across the world.

The story plot follows Science fiction in both the cases. In both the scenarios machine has taken over the administration and manage human race with the help of technology. In one case, the story happens in the future while in other case the world has become virtual reality. In both the cases, technology controlled human beings. Virtual realty gave them a happy lifestyle. Databases managed everything including Maslow’s basic needs. It is clearly possible to link this style of management with principles of protective style of management.

In one case, Agents rule the human power while in other it is the hologram image (Jeeva). However, in Sujatha’s novel Ravi and Mano twin human beings were behind the scenes. Morpheus with the help of Neo fight against technology in matrix while Nila with the help of Jeero fight against the government. Like Oracle in Matrix who knows about the architecture of the system in Sujath’s novel it is Doctor Raa. The pace with which Agents or Ravi & Mano trace the other team is exhilarating. The usage of spying machines, scanning techniques are having more similarity in either case.

Considering the differences in Sujatha’s novel Juno is heuristic robotic dog that improved its knowledge through reading and self-programming. The concept of self-programming or automated programming is a reality in current scenario. I had a chance to work on a project where we used the technique of automated programming using xDoclet. However, in Matrix Agents are human like with state of art technology. Matrix is famous for its scintillating fighting sequences while the novel had crisis. The movie clearly follows American culture. Nevertheless, the novel is truly South Indian.

Last but not the least similarity before I finish this blog both the versions had II part “Matrix Reloaded” in case of American version and “Meendum Jeero” in case of Indian version. The comparison based purely on my perception of both versions. There can be disagreement in my views and thoughts from others. I welcome constructive criticisms.

Why TATA is branded as an Indian company?

2008-11-21T08:15:00.000-08:00

It is interesting to note that the biggest Indian conglomerate TATA is seen as a strong Indian brand that a global company. What could be the reason for this?

A close look at the theory gives some thoughts about the concept of international business strategy. Hill (2008) identifies four types of strategies: International Strategy, Global strategy, Multi-domestic strategy and Transnational strategy. Different companies across different sectors follow different types of globalization model and business strategy. ABB is given as a strong example for a company which follows Transnational strategy as it has a diversified personality in its board.

Now looking at the business model of TATA, it is fairly simple to say that they have regionocentric approach. Though off-late TATA went on a purchasing spree across globe does they integrated their purchases into the core business? Also looking at the purchases made by them it make sense that they are interested in diversification market development for selling their existing products.

If Tata Coffee is purchasing a company in kenya, is it a globalization strategy? Kenya is a leading manufacturer of Coffee. From this perspective it becomes a strategic move for long term sustainability as the company now gets access to the raw material for its business. Similar is the reason if Tata Tea signing a JV with Malaysian firm.

Looking at the purchase of Corus made by Tata Steel some years before, it can be identified that a strategic purchase such as Corus is important for the manufacturing of Tata Steel as this gives access for raw materials, technology and EU market for its marketing. But this acquisition does not make any change to the over all mission of the company and the strategy adopted by the company still remains focused in regional than global. But with multi-domestic strategy the firm is able to satisfy the customer need.

According to Adam Smith's absolute advantage in any trade that involves more than one country, it can be seen that one country gains and the other lose. Thus the countries which exports raw materials and basic services and imports high tech service which are costlier than then exports the country does. Thus the company holds the brand identity of India to the world thus acting as a gateway to the country. From my point of view this is the main reason for the company to branded as an Indian company.

Ten Commandments for Peace of Mind!!!

2008-11-09T16:24:00.000-08:00

1. Do Not Interfere In Others' Business Unless Asked.
Most of us create our own problems by interfering too often in others'
affairs. We do so because somehow we have convinced ourselves that our
way is the best way, our logic is the perfect logic and those who do not
conform to our thinking must be criticized and steered to the right
direction, our direction. This thinking denies the existence of
individuality and consequently the existence of God. God has created each
one of us in a unique way. No two human beings can think or act in exactly
the same way. All men or women act the way they do because God within them
prompts them that way. There is God to look after everything. Why are you
bothered? Mind your own business and you will keep Your peace.

2. Forgive And Forget.
This is the most powerful aid to peace of mind. We often develop ill
feelings inside our heart for the person who insults us or harms us. We
nurture grievances. This in turn results in loss of sleep, development of
stomach ulcers, and high blood pressure. This insult or injury was done
once, but nourishing of grievance goes on forever by constantly
remembering it. Get over this bad habit. Believe in the justice of God
and the doctrine of Karma. Let Him judge the act of the one who insulted
you. Life is too short to waste in such trifles. Forgive, Forget, and
march on. Love flourishes in giving and forgiving.

3. Do Not Crave For Recognition.
This world is full of selfish people. They seldom praise anybody without
selfish motives. They may praise you today because you are in power, but
no sooner than you are powerless, they will forget your achievement and
will start finding faults in you. Why do you wish to kill yourself in
striving for their recognition? Their recognition is not worth the
aggravation. Do your duties ethically and sincerely and leave the rest to
God.

4. Do Not Be Jealous.
We all have experienced how jealousy can disturb our peace of mind. You
know that you work harder than your colleagues in the office, but
sometimes they get promotions; you do not. You started a business several
years ago, but you are not as successful as your neighbor whose business
is only one year old. There are several examples like these in everyday
life. Should you be jealous? No. Remember everybody's life is shaped by
his or her previous Karma, which has now become his destiny. If you are
destined to be rich, nothing in the world can stop you. If you are not so
destined, no one can help you either. Nothing will be gained by blaming
others for your misfortune. Jealousy will not get you anywhere; it will
only take away your peace of mind.

5. Change Yourself According To The Environment.
If you try to change the environment single-handedly, the chances are you
will fail. Instead, change yourself to suit your environment. As you do
this, even the environment, which has been unfriendly to you, will
mysteriously change and seem congenial and harmonious.

6. Endure What Cannot Be Cured.
This is the best way to turn a disadvantage into an advantage. Every day
we face numerous inconveniences, ailments, irritations, and accidents
that are beyond our control. If we cannot control them or change them, we
must learn to put up with these things. We must learn to endure them
cheerfully thinking, "God wills it so, so be it." God's plan is beyond
our comprehension. Believe in it and you will gain in terms of patience,
inner strength and will power.

7. Do Not Bite Off More Than You Can Chew.
This maxim needs to be remembered constantly. We often tend to take more
responsibilities than we are capable of carrying out. This is done to
satisfy our ego. Know your limitations. Why take on additional loads that
may create more worries? You cannot gain peace of mind by expanding your
external activities. Reduce your material engagements and spend time in
prayer, introspection and meditation. This will reduce those thoughts in
your mind that make you restless. Uncluttered mind will produce greater
peace of mind.

8. Meditate Regularly.
Meditation calms the mind and gets rid of disturbing thoughts. This is the
highest state of peace of mind. Try and experience it yourself. If you
meditate earnestly for half an hour everyday, your mind will tend to
become peaceful during the remaining twenty-three and half-hours. Your
mind will not be easily disturbed as it was before. You would benefit by
gradually increasing the period of daily mediation. You may think that
this will interfere with your daily work. On the contrary, this will
increase your efficiency and you will be able to produce better results
in less time.

9. Never Leave The Mind Vacant.
An empty mind is the devil's workshop. All evil actions start in the
vacant mind. Keep your mind occupied in something positive, something
worthwhile. Actively follow a hobby. Do something that holds your
interest. You must decide what you value more: money or peace of mind.
Your hobby, like social work or temple work, may not always earn you more
money, but you will have a sense of fulfillment and achievement. Even
when you are resting physically, occupy yourself in healthy reading or
mental chanting of God's name.

10. Do Not Procrastinate And Never Regret.
Do not waste time in protracted wondering "Should I or shouldn't I?"
Days, weeks, months, and years may be wasted in that futile mental
debating. You can never plan enough because you can never anticipate all
future happenings. Always remember, God has His own plan, too for you.
Value your time and do the things that need to be done. It does not
matter if you fail the first time. You can learn from your mistakes and
succeed the next time. Sitting back and worrying will lead to nothing.
Learn from your mistakes, but do not brood over the past. DO NOT REGRET.
Whatever happened was destined to happen only that way. Take it as the
Will of God. You do not have the power to alter the course of God's Will.
Why cry over spilt milk?

Thoughts I liked from what I read

2008-11-09T16:22:00.001-08:00

I'm against the $85,000,000,000.00 bailout of AIG.
Instead, I'm in favor of giving $85,000,000,000 to America in a 'We Deserve It Dividend'.

To make the math simple, let's assume there are 200,000,000 bonafide U.S. Citizens 18+.
Our population is about 301,000,000 +/- counting every man, woman and child. So 200,000,000 might be a fair stab at adults 18 and up..
So divide 200 million adults 18+ into $85 billon that equals $425,000.00.
My plan is to give $425,000 to every person 18+ as a 'We Deserve It Dividend'.
Of course, it would NOT be tax free.

So let's assume a tax rate of 30%.
Every individual 18+ has to pay $127,500.00 in taxes.
That sends $25,500,000,000 right back to Uncle Sam.
But it means that every adult 18+ has $297,500.00 in their pocket.
A husband and wife have $595,000.00.

What would you do with $297,500.00 to $595,000.00 in your family?
Pay off your mortgage - housing crisis solved.
Repay college loans - what a great boost to new grads
Put away money for college - it'll be there
Save in a bank - create money to loan to entrepreneurs.
Buy a new car - create jobs
Invest in the market - capital drives growth
Pay for your parent's medical insurance - health care improves
Enable Deadbeat Dads to come clean - or else

Remember this is for every adult U S Citizen 18+ including the folks who lost their jobs at Lehman Brothers and every other company that is cutting back, and of course, for those serving in our Armed Forces.
If we're going to re-distribute wealth let's really do it...instead of trickling out a puny $1000.00 ( "vote buy" ) economic incentive that is being proposed by one of our candidates for President.
If we're going to do an $85 billion bailout, let's bail out every adult U S Citizen 18+!
As for AIG - liquidate it.
Sell off its parts.

Let American General go back to being American General. Sell off the real estate.
Let the private sector bargain hunters cut it up and clean it up.
Here's my rationale. We deserve it and AIG doesn't.
Sure it's a crazy idea that can "never work."
But can you imagine the Coast-To-Coast Block Party!
How do you spell Economic Boom?
I trust my fellow adult Americans to know how to use the $85 Billion 'We Deserve It Dividend' more than I do the geniuses at AIG or in Washington DC.
And remember, The Family plan only really costs $59.5 Billion because $25.5 Billion is returned instantly in taxes to Uncle Sam. Talk about a stimulus package!

Ahhh...I feel so much better getting that off my chest.
Kindest personal regards,
A Creative Guy & Citizen of the Republic

PS: Feel free to pass this along to your pals as its either good for a laugh or a tear or a very sobering thought on how to best use $85 Billion!!

ASEAN and Common currency

2008-10-22T12:17:00.000-07:00

The visit of Indian PM to Japan is a strategic move from country's point of view. With this visit the relationship between India and Japan is growing in terms of safety. The PM has already noted down the advantages of this visit and the need for a strategic partnership between ASEAN and East Asia.

We already know that the partnership between Japan and China are very good and they are dependent on each other. With the technical and economical influence of Japan and the human capital of China the two countries are growing supporting each other. With the slowdown in Western countries the developing countries specifically the ASEAN counterparts are now looking at the domestic continent for growth apart from west. This is a good opportunity for India to build strategic relationship with East and Middle East. With the support from these ASEAN countries the ASEAN tigers can perfrom exceptionally good.

This relationship if grown successfully then we can dream of a common currency in ASEAN countries like in EU or US as mentioned by Abegglen (2006). The implications of the common currency have both positive aspects and negative aspects. If we look at positive aspects are that this stabilizes the forex trading across globe. The effect of speculation will get reduced. This provide a balanced play field for all the players. It becomes easy to manage the global economy. A stronger relationship will be achieved across ASEAN players. Trade will grow in the third world. The dependency towards West will be reduced. On the other it is difficult to bring all the ASEAN players who are responsible for the growth together due to the political factors. This common currency will remove the effect of low cost strategy. This might act as a negative factor for some countries.

But overall if we see the effect of new common currency in ASEAN region will improve the state of global economy and will reduce the dependency of Dollar across geography.

Cycle reversal - Nationalisation VS Liberalisation

2008-10-13T14:54:00.000-07:00

Post the collapse of Berlin wall and the fall of communism, the western world started following the capitalistic path of America. Many countries started to open their market for trade. Those countries which are closed for international trade are treated to be conservative in its behaviour. Majority of developed nations started preaching that capitalism is the only way to improve national status and for business growth. The term Neo Liberalism started to be seen in the news articles.

Along with the neo liberalism the introduction of internet enabled the companies to go global with less issues and problems. Thus the companies started to become global and started diversifying themselves across borders. This raised new terms like Globalization, Internationalization, Transnational business, Americanisation, Regionalization. The companies across world wanted to follow any one of these terms.

When the globalization path was seen as the safe bet to get good profit across globe, the financial downturn forced by credit crunch made top management of many companies to rethink on this aspect. Even the government bodies started to nationalize its banks. We saw the bailout action first in US and slowly as a precautionary measure in UK. The public and management in India suddenly started praising Y.V. Reddy(former reserve bank of India) chairman who maintained conservative approach in liberalizing banking sector which somehow got insulated due to the financial legistalions that the country follow. But this does not mean that India is not affected by the financial crisis. The financial crisis entered into Indian market through Indian stock market. For long period the Indian stock markets are relying on foreign institutional investors to inject capital into Indian markets. Thus when there came the real need for money by the institutions in their respective countries the FIIs started taking money away from our markets. This led to sudden fall in BSE which reached a life time high of around 21K mark.

The thought to take away is that should RBI need to think about liberalizing Indian financial sector when western countries are trying to nationalize its banking sectors? Is the financial regulations and rules safe enough to safeguard out Indian public? Are out government having strong hold in our business methodology which follows western system of management?

Dreaming about big dreams of life

2008-10-08T19:33:00.000-07:00

Its quite unfortunate for me as I was not able to write a blog for some times now. The main reason was terrorism in its varied form. The terrorism of drug addicts and robery made me lose my precious laptop which acted as my wife since I bought it with my second month salary drawn in Dubai. Leaving apart the sympathy I want to shout about the dreams about the big dreams I have in life and how I move towards it.

Leaders of modern world such as Dr. Abdul Kalam, and Mr. Ratan Tata asks people to start dreaming about future. In management we used to say every company is having a purpose to exist. The words of these leaders reiterates the point that organizations can be termed as organisms as mentioned by Morgan. They have life on its own like human beings. So taking lessons from organizations an individual can have a purpose to survive. This brings us to a conclusion of having a long term aim and a path to follow to achieve it.

My aim is to improve my society in intellectual capacity. When I say my society it greatly means my land of interest where I want to settle after say 40 years. The path I want to follow is to start a business. By starting business I can generate job opportunities for many people and can generate revenue to the country. By generating job opportunities I become responsible for the financial growth in those families. When a family gets financial freedom, it helps in improving the standard of living. As the living standard improves it triggers the quality of life and education. This generates a strong knowledge base within those families. This inturn become responsible to improve the intellectual capacity of the society.

surge in oil price a reality or hype?

2008-10-06T04:53:00.000-07:00

Oil an essential commodity treated as precious as Gold has made its peak this year. After the attainment of the peak there is a sudden fall in the oil prices. The OPEC were forced once to inc the trease its production are now thinking of reversing the trend. What can be the real behind this?

Looking back at history now it can be said that there was economic bubble due to the subprime crisis in US. Countries were worried about the consumption of oil by China due to the development activities prior to Olympics. Hence according to me the people started to manipulate the scarcity for oil. This gave rise to the increased level of short selling in the market. This not only affected the oil industry but industries which are related to oil such as automobile industry were affected. The sales volume started falling down and yoy sales and profit fell down.

Unfortunately by the end of Olympics the economic downturn started with full force which affected not only the west (US/EU) but also the East(Japan/Singapore) which entered recession. When the economies which attributed for 40% of global economy is in recession again people started thinking of less demand for oil. Thus started the downturn and now it is even predicted that oil might even go as low as $30-$40 a barrel. Now due to the financial failure in US, banks are not confident enough to approve loans which is affecting the sales of automobile industry.

Thus according to me the real for this unrealistic movement of oil price is the investor sentiments due to improper prediction and not the subprime or credit crunch or anything else. But these terms are related in one way or other with the investor sentiments based on the glass through which they see the world.

Scientific Inventions and Change in lifestyle

2008-09-28T04:58:00.000-07:00

I have signed a new contract for broadband service. The service provider requested me to wait for a fortnight to get connected with the digital world. I found it very tough to live without internet connection. As I have mentioned in my orkut profile I understood that I got addicted to the digital virus (discomgoogolated). While I understood the effect of digital invention in my lifestyle I am now trying to turn the clock back by 20 years and trying to go back in time clock by adjusting my thought process.

Year - 1988; Place - a small village in Tamilnadu, India; Scene - a typical middle class family

This was the time television started to get popularity among the public with Doordarshan the only service provider. There was no television in that village. People used to gather in some house and used to have chit-chat. This helped them to build strong public relations among the neighbourhood. This also helped in analyse an issue from diferent perspectives as we tend to discuss it among people. It helped children to feel secured as they gather with more adult people and children of their age. More specifically children are allowed to mingle with other kids of their age and used to play. This helped in building skills necessary to become a team player. The atmosphere slowly changed and television entered that small lovely village. The public slowly started to get involved in wathching television. The analog media attracted them very quickly with the colours and variety.

Year - 1995; Place - a small village in Tamilnadu, India; Scene - a typical middle class family

Years passed on quickly. The analog media slowly transformed to digital. The number of channels started to increase. The radical change from digital to analog made radio a redundant for some time before radio emerged with variety. Digital media during initial days made use of the public's lust for film stars and made huge profit. This even outplayed the government's doordarshan. The public startedlacking sense in thinking what is good and what is not. The programs were not intend to enlighten public. They made use of the weakness among them. This reduced the productivity among public. The telephone made its entry into the house.

Year - 2001; Place - a small village in Tamilnadu, India; Scene - a typical middle class family

As time goes on new inventions hit the market with more force and strength. The entry of digital media transformed the world to come in hands through a single click. Public started using mobile phones. The digital revolution enabled people to connect with each other irrespective of the location. This increased the spending power of public. The physical distance between individual start to increase. Nolonger public spend time with neighbours as it happened a decade back. Nolonger children are allowed more time to spend with fellow kids. They were stressed to spend more time in preparing for competitive exams. The education for children enlightened their interest towards many things and made them competitive. But this had a negative impact. The children started to lack in self confidence, team building, coordination etc. The technical skills were improved among public with the loss of transferable skills. This even had a negative impact in business. The business world started to blame the education system for producing non-employable resource.

Year - 2008; Place - a small village in Tamilnadu, India; Scene - a typical middle class family

Each and every middle class family is now having a colour TV, telephone, mobile phone, DVD/CD player, fridge, washing machine, grinder, mixie, personal vehicle. The list is not limited with this. These can be found widely in a typical middle class family now. But what is lacking in a family is that the parents are not having time to spend with their children. The public is not having time to spend time with the neighbours, society, community. The children were given access to digital play field. This increases the frustration and anger among them. This reduced the reading habit among children and adult. The people started to get connected in the virtual digital world.

As I forcast the future, it is likely that the public will lack self confidence even more. They are likely to become slaves but this time to the digital virus. They might feel sorry for an unknown friend in the virtual world leaving behind the real human being who are living in front of them. Lack of trust will go high. The non-employability will go even higher. The education system will be blamed for not teaching how to live. Thus the parental community will start to drift from their primary focus of growing a good citizen who will be productive in future. They will start to look for an agency which can grow their children for themselves.

Elephant Story and Management

2008-09-24T04:14:00.000-07:00

When I was a kid my grand parents used to entertain me by telling stories. I feel this is more natural in Indian family system. The family system is not my topic of concern but the stories that I was told is my interest of the date. I remember a particular story of an Elephant and 6 blind men. Let me try my best to narrate the story to the readers.

Long ago there were 6 blind friends lived in a town. Though they are physically challenged, they imagined the world we live by sensing it through touching the things. Then they used to discuss about their perception among themselves to imagine better. One day they heard that there is an elephant show in the town. They have not had a chance to imagine this animal before. As others the enthusiasm got carried on to these 6 friends also. The news heard from others about how the animal looks increased the eagerness among these friends. So they decided to visit the town center to get a feel of the animal.

Thinking about the animal the 6 friends reached the town center. They requested the trainer to help them in getting the feel of this animal that stands in front of them. Seeing the interest and enthusiasm in these physically challenged friends the trainer agreed to help them in touching the animal.

The First approached the Elephant, And happening to fall Against his broad and sturdy side, At once began to brawl: "God bless me but the Elephant Is very like a wall." The Second, feeling of the tusk, Cried, "Ho! What have we here So very round and smooth and sharp? To me 'tis mighty clear This wonder of an Elephant Is very like a spear!" The Third approached the animal, And happening to take The squirming trunk within his hands, Thus boldly up and spake: "I see," quoth he, "The Elephant Is very like a snake!" The Fourth reached out an eager hand, And felt around the knee, "What most this wondrous beast is like Is mighty plain," quoth he; " 'Tis clear enough the Elephant Is very like a tree!" The Fifth, who chanced to touch the ear, Said: "E'en the blindest man Can tell what this resembles most; Deny the fact who can, This marvel of an Elephant Is very like a fan!" The Sixth no sooner had begun About the beast to grope, Than, seizing on the swinging tail That fell within his scope, "I see," quoth he, "the Elephant is very like a rope!"

The management lesson that we get out of this story is that each and every individual in this world has their own perception about each and every thing. The reason for perception can range from many things like their studies, believes, standard of living, family background, surroundings, society, interests, exposure etc. The list is endless. In order to be a good person we need to accept and appreciate this individuality.

Steven Spielberg's Artificial Intelligence & Management

2008-09-20T14:05:00.000-07:00

Artificial intelligence (2001) a Steven Spielberg film is a thought provoking movie. When I had a chance to watch this movie it triggered an important question related to management. Before I proceed further with my thought let me give a small overview of the film.

The movie was directed, produced and co-written by Steven Spielberg. The film is about a mechanical boy manufactured by one of the scientist. The boy becomes the first of the kind who simulates almost all the feelings as that of human being. The boy even tries chasing his dream at one point of time. This movie touches the human feelings and it tries to question about whether it is possible to create a mankind simulation without affecting the real human kind. The story line is very simple yet very strong with close knitted sentiments and emotions. Who told western movies are not sentimental. They are far more sentimental than Indian movies. The only difference is that the sentimental sequences in those movies are like real so they are not displayed separately from the story line.

I hope with this short description about the movie let me dwell into the management thought that I obtained from this movie. Many people have a notion that management is to do with managing people. Yes the argument of leadership is right. But it is just one face to management. By this I mean that management is far more than leadership. But the important thing to note from my perspective is that there is a strong co-relation between neuroscience and leadership. Consider for example world’s 2nd largest economy Japan, there is very limited management theory emerged from this country. When we look at US, we say that the country was built upon strong expatriate community that came out of the parent country. This expatriate crowd is the one which became the base for the strong growth of US economy. The other countries either followed them are trying to imitate them. The exception can be seen from EU region. It is said that there occurred a brain drain in EU when many good brains went out of EU to settle in US. Along with them they took away the strong management brain to US from where majority of management theory emerged and is emerging. Does that mean the countries which acted as colonies or which was part of bigger nation cannot become leader? Does this mean leadership should come from the genes of a particular family?

But I feel that there is some sort of relationship between leadership and DNA. But this does not mean that leaders can emerge only from western countries or developed countries. As we practice management in developing countries, leaders emerge from these countries also. But the style of leadership differs based on the region from which they belong to. This can be found by researching different countries and the type of leadership they follow.

Stirling Castle - Management system

2008-09-16T16:53:00.000-07:00

Nature has given very good mix of resources to Scotland. The country has both the mix of highlands and low lands. Stirling acts as a connecting point between the highland and lowland of Scotland. Stirling is a beautiful city of Scotland, situated 30 miles away from Glasgow. The city can be reached from both Edinburgh and Glasgow in less than an hour journey. The place got significant interest because of its natural setup. The main visitor's attraction of Stirling is its castle. The Castle has a long historic background which extends beyond 11th century. This castle acted as the capital for many years in Scottish history. The castle was located in a naturally beautiful hill area. On a clear day people can have a vision of around 50 miles radius from this castle. The castle attracts a total visitor’s count of around 200,000 per year. Tourism and development is one of major industry in Scotland. This industry contributes significantly to the GDP of the country. There are many themes in promoting tourism in the country. To name a few Golf play, Adventure, Historic, and Scenic view etc. Nature has given a lot of resources which acts as the base for the country.

The management issues that are associated with Stirling castle in particular are related with climate. The castle is located in a small mountainous region. We can experience significant variation in temperature between lowland area and this region. As Scottish climate is expected to be wet, people might feel uncomfortable in having a good view of natural scenery of this place and to get the actual feel of tour. Even the management might face problem in promoting this place with its wet climate. Though the place has got long traditional Scottish history associated with itself, the display available in the castle is very limited. The architecture design is an important point to note in this castle. On the other hand this particular castle lack in displaying the old tradition of Scottish rule. The whole castle can be covered in less than an hour and half with guided tour. The facilities are excellent. The castle has provision to arrange for audio tour if so required. The refractory has excellent food with good friendly people serving them. We cannot blame the management in the service it provide to the visitors. It can be assured that all the visitors are received with pleasing staffs to have a good stay at this place.

Useful plugins for Firefox

2008-09-15T14:06:00.000-07:00

Microsoft has released ie 8, Google released Chrome. The 2nd most popular browser with 20% market share Firefox is working on its way to release new version of its browser. Recently I came across a few plugins for firefox that might be of helpful for others. I am sharing them along with its usage.

1. Athens login toolbar
Athens is an online academic database in UK. This plugin enables user to login to Athens there by the user gets access to wide variety of articles, journals, ebooks, statistics data etc. I am using it for more than 2 months and it comes handy without affecting the normal performance of the browser. This plugin reduces the user mouse click and keyboard access.

2. Wizz
This is a RSS feed reader. This collects all the rss url and saves it in a structured manner. Whenever user wants to read or update him/herself with his/her interest he/she can click on this Wizz window to open and can start reading the updated news. This has option to import and export feeds. The performance of the browser takes a toll when we use this plugin.

3. Scribefire
This plugin is useful for those who often write blogs. This enables user to drag and drop formatted text into blog. A handy tool to write blogs with rich format text.

4. Twitterfox
The extension adds a tiny icon on the status bar that notifies user when user's friends update their statuses. Also it has a small text input field to update user's status. Interested people can see more information on my site: http://www.naan.net/trac/wiki/TwitterFox

5. Zotero
This plugin is particularly useful for students/researchers who often needs to cite their works. This plugin helps in building reference automatically without manual typing. Thus this plugin reduces user time in creating a reference in accordance with different format. For more info please visit http://www.lib.umich.edu/exploratory/pdfs/Zotero.pdf

6. Flashblack
This is a handy tool to suppress unwanted flash movie ads. getting loaded when people are interested in doing serious stuffs. This tool can suppress those flash movies and gives option to user to view by selecting particular movie file to load.

Weird fact about me

2008-09-14T19:16:00.000-07:00

The sky is pouring down water in the form of rain to neutralize global warming in its natural form. Cold breeze flow through air. Its late night in Glasgow. As we move away 4.5 hours from GMT we see that India woke up from sleep. It has started another week. I am listening to Aahaa fm online. As I listen to fm my thoughts wander around many issues. Late night I read lots of news paper articles particularly related to two main issues. The first was about the terrorist attack in the capital city of India. The second regarding Lehman brothers. As I was reading I got a few ideas that could be implemented in future.

During this period suddenly a weird fact about my past struck my mind. I found that there is a strong co-relation between my life and emerging things. I selected an emerging subject during that period (Information Technology). Post my undergraduate studies I joined an emerging company of that time (Mindtree Consulting). During my career I started working with an emerging technology (Content Management-Documentum). I joined a foreign university to do my MBA. Again this university is emerging university. I think this is merely a co-incidence. But this fact is interesting.

I feel that emerging industry, country and area is a place to study. I feel that I have utilized this gifted opportunity to learn in emerging areas. Now I feel that I am ready to reflect upon my learning and to do some productive work. I get many good ideas irrespective of industry. I think this is the gift I have with me. I should utilize this properly to bring many constructive changes.

Business in Tamilnadu Strengths and weakness - An article in Business Today

2008-09-10T10:27:00.000-07:00

The nondescript office in Chennai's Egmore area that houses the Guidance Bureau, the single-window investment facilitation office of the Tamil Nadu government, has never seen as much activity since its inception in the early 1990s as it has over the last 26 months. During this period, foreign direct investment worth Rs 25,683 crore has found its way into Tamil Nadu (mostly in and around Chennai). That apart, projects worth Rs 16,000 crore have been finalised and are awaiting official announcements.

For M. Velmurugan, Director, Guidance Bureau, and his staff, it has been a period of extended office hours and lost weekends. We close a minimum of one project worth at least Rs 400 crore every week, says Velmurugan, who is also the point-person for hard-selling Tamil Nadu as an investment destination.

Among the big-ticket investments his department has bagged are the Rs 4,500-crore Renault-Nissan car project, the Rs 3,000-crore Daimler-Hero commercial vehicle facility, Hyundai's Rs 4,000-crore second-phase expansion, Moser Baer's Rs 2,000-crore photo voltaic manufacturing plant, Apollo Tyres' Rs 500-crore radial tyre plant and Nokia-Siemens' Rs 300-crore telecommunications equipment manufacturing facility.But Velmurugan prefers to showcase the state of existing investments to highlight Chennai's competitive edge. Nokia's India operations, he says, began in January 2006 with just over 500 employees.

Fact file

Area: 1,189 sq. km

Population: 7.5 million

Main industries: Information Technology, ITES, Auto, Telecom Hardware

Per capita income: Rs 21,885 per annum

Rents (commercial): RS 60-90 per sq. ft

Peak power demand: 9,267 MW

Peak power supply: 8,800 MW

Power deficit: 467 MW

Power tariffs domestic: Rs 1.85-2.90 per unit

Power tariffs commercial: Rs 5.05-6.00 per unit

Power tariffs industrial: Rs 3.30-4.05 per unit

Total water supply: 950 million litres per day

Per capita water supply (City): 147 litres per day

Public transport: Buses, Suburban Trains, Taxis and AutorickshawsToday, its staff strength is 8,000 (its vendors in the Nokia SEZ employ another 15,000 people). In fact, Nokia's Chennai facility has overtaken the one in China and is now its largest manufacturing facility in the world in terms of volume.

Similarly, Hyundai, which started with a capacity of 100,000 cars in 1996, has expanded its output to 630,000 cars and has designated its Chennai plant its global small car hub. These expansions are a clear indicator of the extent of competitiveness Chennai offers to investors, he says with more than a hint of pride.

Inherent strengthsA strong educational system has been one of Tamil Nadu's traditional strengths. There are, according to Velmurugan, 333 engineering colleges, 230 polytechnics and over 1,200 industrial training institutes churning out close to 300,000 technically qualified students every year. Tamil Nadu produces 25 per cent of the country's engineering graduates.

Moreover, the work culture is very attractive. People here are eager to learn and have a higher sense of loyalty, says R. Chandrasekaran, Managing Director & President, Cognizant Technology Solutions, which houses about 35 per cent of its 59,000-strong workforce in Chennai.

Chennai's other strength is its connectivity to all parts of the country not just by rail, road and air but also through two major ports, Chennai and Ennore. The former, in fact, is India's secondbusiest container terminal. Also, undersea cables to Singapore (13.2 terabits capacity) connect us to our mainframes and servers around the world, says Michael Boneham, President & Managing Director, Ford India.Ford, which recently announced a $500-million (Rs 2,150 crore) programme to double its capacity and set up an engine manufacturing facility, was one of the first global automobile majors to zero in on Chennai.The city's other advantage is its low rentals. Though nearly 16 million square feet (sq. ft) of office space has been absorbed in the city over the last three years, Grade A office rentals in the central business district is just Rs 60-90 per sq. ft compared to Rs 350-600 per sq. ft in Mumbai,'' points out Ramesh Nair, Managing Director, Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj, a real estate consulting firm.Chennai scores on the softer side as well. Our culture is more welcoming and people face fewer barriers when making friends, says Ranjani Manian, Founder CEO, Global Adjustments, a relocation and cross-cultural training firm. The city has excellent schools and medical facilities, the crime rate is low and there are no communal tensions, she adds.

Chennai's strengths are its ports and connectivity to all parts of the country by rail, road and air - Michael Boneham, MD, Ford IndiaTamil Nadu's work culture is very attractive and people here are eager to learn - R. Chandrasekaran, MD & President, Cognizant TechnologiesOur culture is more welcoming and people face fewer barriers when making friends - Ranjani Manian, Founder CEO, Global AdjustmentsMost importantly, the state government is seen as investor-friendly and has been courting investments armed with a huge land bank in close proximity to Chennai.

The flip side of success

The massive inflow of investments and people has, however, begun to take a toll on Chennai's infrastructure. Power consumption grew 16 per cent in 2007-08. This was accompanied by a fall in hydro-power generated by the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB). Result: a shortfall of about 467 MW. In 2008, for the first time in many years, the government announced power cuts for both residents and industries.This regulated loadshedding and industrial holidays have taken the sheen off Tamil Nadu's claim of being a power-surplus state. The shortfall in power supply is a temporary phenomenon. Inconsistent rains in recent weeks have hit hydro-power generation. We are rapidly augmenting capacity and will add about 4,500 MW by 2011, making Chennai power-surplus once again, says S. Kathiresan, Member, Accounts, TNEB.

The rain gods may have played truant in recent times, but they have been bountiful over the last couple of years. This has allowed the authorities to charge the reservoirs that currently supply 645 million litres of water a day. But experts warn that the situation could deteriorate rapidly if the monsoons fail. No long-term solution to the city's water problem has been found. A desalination plant is coming up, but that is a bad remedy. Interlinking rivers is a good option but it is far from being accepted conceptually. In a way, we are going in a blind alley and there are no plans to stop this march, warns C.S. Kuppuraj, former Chief Engineer, Tamil Nadu Public Works Department.Chennai's infrastructure is also wilting. Traffic snarls are becoming more common despite the government investing heavily in widening roads and on building flyovers and bypass roads. Infrastructure will always be a challenge though it is not as bad as in other cities. It will always be in catch-up mode, points out Cognizant's Chandrasekaran.

Also, residential rentals have steadily increased at 25 to 30 per cent per annum over the last three years blowing a gaping hole in the monthly budgets of middle class residents and forcing many to relocate to the suburbs.Time for optimism

Adds S. Muthiah, noted journalist and historian: The city's population has grown three times over the last 10 years but we have failed to move the population out of the city. Attempts to build townships closer to industrial clusters such as Gummidipoondi and Maraimalainagar, near Chennai, have failed. The ever-increasing population puts enormous stress on roads, schools and the water and power infrastructure. In fact, he has a rather radical solution to decongest the city: move the political capital out of Chennai and turn the city into a business hub.

The government, for its part, is now promoting Tier II cities such as Coimbatore and Madurai as investment destinations for IT and ITES projects in order to ease the pressure on the state capital and has even been partially successful in its endeavour.

But despite this, it is clear that Chennai's infrastructure is starting to feel the pressure. Is there any danger, then, of the city going the Bangalore way? This is a genuine concern in the minds of many in Tamil Nadu. But people like Muthiah feel otherwise. We are clearly heading that (Bangalore's) way, but we may not actually get there as the state government is aware of the impending crisis. It has already initiated road, public transport and power projects to ensure that Chennai's infrastructure at least keeps pace with requirements, he says. Given the projects on the ground and the stated aims of both the major political parties in the state, some of his optimism is, indeed, warranted.

Gen-X opting out of EPF, What is the alternative option to initiate savings?

2008-08-31T06:38:00.000-07:00

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Gen-X_opting_out_of_EPF/rssarticleshow/3426845.cms

The article in economic times reveal the move towards western trend by Gen X (I accept this Gen X includes me). It also discusses the effects of following the new trend.

I thought of discussing it. I hope this blog would be a good option to throw our ideas. As an initiative let me give my ideas.

As the article points out people want good return from their money. The trend seen among people shows that the risk taking capability has increased among Gen X. We all know that high return comes with high risk. Now coming to the actual issue, do we still need PF? If the government needs PF money from the employees why not we try to implement Fixed & Floating interest to PF like the housing loans? By introducing this people whose risk taking capability is low can go in for fixed interest schemes. In turn people having greater risk taking capability can opt for floating interest scheme. The government can think of setting up the wealth management to improve the earnings of people. This will be a win-win situation for both our Indian government and the public. The earning by government will also go up without affecting the growing Indian economy.
I would be happy to debate about this issue.

Change in climate

2008-08-24T03:43:00.001-07:00

Its been around 10 days since I wrote my last blog. I became a bit busy with the research project that I currently work with. The project is taking its real shape. I had a good learning regarding the way to do research, usage of appropriate research method, analysis of data using software tools. Another major change is with my attitude in drafting the report. I am currently in the transition process of moving from a descriptive writer to a critical analyst. Thanks to the mentor who helps me in improving myself.
Another notable improvement is the use of RSS feeds. I have got a bit of hands on in using rss feeds. I have firstly used them to get updated with the news particularly with a few selected news sites. The technology is interesting to learn. The google reader makes use of AJAX to implement the reader. The feeds are updated using this technology. RSS feeds are very powerful provided used rightly.
As I change over time the climate in Glasgow also started changing. The day light starts to fade away around 9 pm in the evening. Also the air became chiller compared with the summer. In another 25 days the day light saving will come to an end. Along with the end of summer the vacation will also come to end. The academic institutions will start to function. The next big occasion expected is Christmas in the month of December. It will continue till the new year celebration.

Proactive method of Continuous Adult Learning

2008-08-15T09:00:00.000-07:00

Looking at my past performance I always wonder because of the learning pattern formed in my life. The pattern used to have continuous crests and troughs. Ideally people used to think the learning curve to grow exponentially with a steep growth in the young age. As age progresses the line tend to grow flat. This means that general expectation is that people learn a lot of things during the childhood. It is not to deny that people are not learning at old age. People do learn even in adult age but due to the gathered knowledge, theoretically speaking the learning seems to be slow.

Coming back to my own case I mentioned that I have seen crests and troughs time and again in my performance graph. Does this mean I am not learning continuously? No it was not the message I meant. What I meant is that my assimilation of subject knowledge tend to deviate from what I indent to do in my classroom studies. I always look for action oriented studies than reading theories of past. This is evident even from my child age. I love the subjects such as Mathematics, Science, Computers. But I used to hate subjects like History, Geography, Civics. My feeling was that those subjects were of less importance when compared with the former. Honey & Mumford (1992) explains this act as a Pragmatist approach.

If this is the case then how did I prosper during my peak times? The answer has been given by again Honey & Mumford (1992) simply by mapping my secondary character to a reflector. Being reflector I gained the advantage of being cautious, thoughtful and listen attentively. So this explains what I do in peak times. I used to listen very attentively to what others say and my inner brain works on the thoughts that it assimilate due to the unconscious learning. So I have been dependent on the person who delivers the speech to learn. If the person is good at capturing the attention of listener I would have gained a lot of knowledge. This explains that why I was excelling in some of the subject maters and lagging in others.

What should I do now to show a steady performance? The answer becomes simple. I have to be proactive in learning. This is possible provided I understand the nature of reflector and try to utilize the secondary characters such as cautiousness, thoughtfulness and listening. The thoughtfulness needs to link what i study with the real time action for me to understand the real essence of the theme. This comes from my primary role of pragmatist. Thus combining these two will help me in excelling myself in coming up with a better performance.

Just a thought had I been taught this way I might have performed even better. What our education system could do to help young students is not to change the basic structure. But they have to focus towards the teachers. They have to illuminate teachers regarding the behaviour of students and people in generic. It is time to focus towards the psychological factors and make teachers understand the student psychology. Teachers cannot follow the same style of teaching to all students. They have to be aware of different methodologies that they can make use of in teaching a particular student based on his behaviour and learning style. If we are successful in implement this in school level itself we will be able to produce competitive young brains of future who will be performing good in both the academics and in their profession. It will reduce the effort and cost being put in an individual at a later part of life mostly after undergraduation. This will reduce our % of population who remain non-employable due to the lack of basic skills.

Indian Retail Chain

2008-08-12T07:48:00.001-07:00

With the entrance of UK's largest and economical retail chain Tesco entering Indian market; the competition is set to raise in the Indian retail chain. This is the third foreign retail chain entering the Indian market. Previously Wal-mart, US & Carrefour, France entered India with the partnership with Bharti & Wadia Group respectively.
Currently there is government restriction for these groups to operate only at the wholesale level. This is an attempt to maintain the traditional 'kirana stores' of India. What is the future of Indian retail chain? There is a possibility that the government might liberalize the policy to give access to the foreign players in the direct consumer market. There are already a few consumer dealers like Reliance & Subhiksha who operate regionally.
With the competition from these foreign players, the Indian retail sector is growing organically. What should the Indian counterparts do to neutralize the competition from the foreign players? The Indian players might be interested in improving the supply chain management to reduce cost and improve efficiency. This could be done easily by parterning with the Kirana stores instead of setting up new outlet. Thus, with the traditional way of business i.e through 'Kirana stores' the big players can reach the customers easily and cheaply.
Apart from this, the Indian companies should improve the quality of its product to international level. The adulterant should be brought to zero level. With cheap labor power in India, the operating cost can be minimized with focus given to quality.
Let us wait for the maturity of Indian retail chain in near future with organic competition between Indian & foreign companies.

Ugly aur Pagli

2008-08-08T13:49:00.000-07:00

The most awaited Mallika Sherawat's movie Ugly aur Pagli has got released. The movie's plot revolves around the two Kuhu (Mallika Sherawat) and Kabir (Ranvir Shorey). Director Sachin Kamlakar Khot has majorly underplayed the role of Kabir in his story. To make it worst the character of Kuhu has been made to look like a sadistic girl. The girl who tortures her boy friend without any reason. The background reason for such an act has been mentioned as the sudden demise of her boy friend.
Like in the traditional Indian movies that preached a person in trouble should consume alcohol, this movie took another step of showing the heroin who is an alcoholist just because her life is in sad moments. This raises a question about our Indian tradition. Should we have to follow the corrupted western culture? What about our traditional Indian culture? Why are we not taking the positives of western culture?
Two things that are visible in the movie are the slappings received by Kabir from Kuhu without any reasons. The madness of Kuhu & Kabir who does everything without giving second thought just to make her happy. But does it work? There is no answer as Kuhu suddenly break apart from Kabir without any reason. While going away Kuhu sends a message to Kabir saying that she will come back if she is able to forget the loss of previous boy friend. But during re-entry the girl goes to meet another guy arranged by her parents. She remembers about Kabir only after the new guy takes his name. Why is she not going directly to meet Kabir?
The Director should conduct a quiz to findout the story line. Even after writing this blog I am still wondering what would be the one line story that director might have had in his mind. Overall this is an entertainer to be for those who are mad about Mallika Sherawat. For others it is better to avoid such a third grade comedy movie.

Slovenia - An overview

2008-08-01T13:44:00.000-07:00

Towards the end of 20th century, Eastern Europe has undergone major change both politically and economically (Bateman, 1997). The historic events start with the collapse of Berlin Wall in 1989. This was followed by series of events such as the abandonment of communism, the end of the Cold War, the re-unification of Germany and the end of the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia. When the government shifted from communist rule to the democratic elections, the now post-communist economies was restructured based on the principles of the market economy, which focus on the private ownership, entrepreneurship and liberalization, simply called ‘transition economy’ (Bateman, 1997).
The change brought in individual freedom for people to start their own business, change their life style and bring economic improvements. Privatisation has brought in sense of responsibility and greater motivation under new owners. New opportunities and businesses emerged with a sense of ownership. The early hopes of rapid economic growth and improvement in lifestyle appear not to have been fulfilled during the early part of transition (Bateman, 1997). But the current scenario is better as the people have relatively good lifestyle with the healthier lifestyle. The countries that flourished post the economic or political changes in central and eastern Europe, have a common culture that is better described as ‘entrepreneurial’ in terms of surrounding institutional, legal, financial and technical environments along with changing demands, innovations, products, opportunities and technologies (Bateman, 1997).
Slovenia, an independent country since 1991, is one of the six republics of Yugoslavia. The country gains geographical advantage for development for trade with its northern border sharing with Austria and southern with Croatia, Panomian plain in the east. Port of Koper on the Adriatic coast links the country with many countries (Industry, 1997).
Starting middle ages, Slovenia extend its relationship with Austria rather than Hungary apart from the periods of Turkish invasion and intervention by France under Napolean. This is a contrasting feature when compared with its neighbouring Croatia. Slovenia shares its history not only with Austria, but also with Lombardy, Veneto, Friuli, the Czech lands and southern Poland. The country’s aristocracy and cities were largely German-speaking until this century, but culture has flourished in the Slovene language for a relatively long time, for instance during the enlightenment.
Slovenia acts as an excellent alternative route for goods to and from other countries to neighbouring countries and European region (Industry, 1997). The people are predominantly Roman Catholic and speak Slovene. Since its peaceful secession from the former Yugoslavia in 1991, Slovenia has moved rapidly into the European mainstream, joining NATO in March 2004 and the EU in May 2004.

Reference
Anonymous. (2007). Structural Changes in Network Industries - Effects of Liberalisation. Slovenian Economic Mirror , 13 (4), 26,27.
Bateman, M. (1997). Business cultures in Central & Eastern Europe. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.
Bojnec, S. (1999). Privatisation, restructuring and management in Slovene enterprises. Comparative Economic Studies. , 41 (4), 71, 32pgs.
Industry, D. o. (1997). Open for Business Central Europe - Slovenia. London: DTI Export Publications Orderline.
Pahor et al, M. (01 September 2004). Building a corporate network in a transition economy:the case of Slovenia. Post-Communist Economies , 16 (3), 27.