freedom

Why Depreciating Rupee is good for short term..

2011-09-14T17:33:00.000+05:30

If you look at Indian currency INR (Rupee), it has been depreciating from past 45 days, the reason might be the outflow of dollars. High inflation numbers and poor industrial performance is also not helping the stock markets. We are seeing the spur in demand of precious commodities like gold and silver as lot of economist are fearing a double dip recession. Our currency has now depreciated to more than 48 per dollar from 44.5 just 45 days back which is nearly 7 to 8%. But this deprecuition of currency might be good for the country in short term.

1. It will make exports Competitive and might improve the capacity utilization of manufacturing companies.

2. Increase the investment in Indian equity and Debt market as dollar will get god valuation.

3. Curb outflow of investments from India and the money might be invested in Indian businesses.

4. Natural Hedge against the selling by FIIs as the FIIs will loose in dollar terms.

See the Difference ..

2011-09-13T18:44:00.000+05:30

Why Jan Lokpal law can slow India down..

2011-09-08T22:58:00.001+05:30

We might all be cheering hard for Jan Lokpal which the Anna team has presented but are we aware that it can adversely affect the growth of the country. Following are the prominent reasons which might derail the good growth in India if very strong anti-corruption bills are passed.

1. Dis-incentive for Government machinery: The government machinery, banks, public institutions are so used to bribes that it has become a part of their compensation. Infact the salaries offered by government is so less that it barely makes up for their needs and reflect their experience and qualifications. These people are there on those roles just because they are getting incentives from extra money they make. This also improves the speed in the system as they try to push the proposals. 99% of times wrong proposals are not passed by bribing, its just that the deserving proposal gets those extra legs and gets passed on priority. Time is money and the whole business suffers if the speed of transactions reduces.

2. Fear of doing Wrong: Anyone and every one can do things wrong at times. Consider a bank manager working in a PSU, who passed 100 loans every day, he can get a few loans passed wrongly as people submit fake documents difficult to differentiate. Now if you will hang that person for doing wrong in 1% of those cases, he will never work efficiently. The fear of complaint, disrespect will make people take a lot of time in doing routine things and the speed of the whole value chain will be greatly reduced. For example, if I give a slap to Sehwag for getting out below 10 and no incentive for hitting a century, will he still like to play cricket. And everyone seems to know Cricket well and criticize Sehwag in this country

3. Change the draconian Laws first: The laws are required to be reformed before a strict anti-corruption law is in-acted. If you check out the rules of financing, rules of land acquisition etc. If the entrepreneur start following them as per the books, the business in India will come to a stand still. Rules might favor the established players as they have powerful lobbies and they also fund the political parties. The young entrepreneur will find it impossible to do business in India if he follows the draconian rules and not bribe his way through.

4. Crores of cases in Jan-Lokpal: If every person in India can simply write an application and get his complaint registered in Jan-lokpal how will you solve such crores of cases wnd who will monitor it ? How will you prevent people from filing wrong cases just to ridicule or blackmail the honest public servants ? The whole country is already struggling with so many pending cases in our courts. If things are pending in arbitration, it will adversely affect the growth of the country and velocity of money.

5. FDI in India: Most of the foreign direct Investment in India is nothing but the black money of Indians itself which is routed through tax heavens and is invested in fresh projects which create economic activity and employment opportunities.The tax laws in India are deterrent to a lot of growth. If people pay less tax and invest more in growth it provides compounded returns.

6. Law can not change people: Law can only create deterrent for people, it can not change people in a day.

7. Don't confuse corruption with Cop asking for money:The masses are mostly behind Jan Lokpal,specially the middle class as they feel that it will stop people in influential position abusing their power. How will you stop a cop asking for Rs 100 when actual fine is 500 and one has to wait for it in court for 5 days. You want to happily want to pay-off Rs 100 and get rid of it. If the cop is smart, you will be actually ready to pay even 500 to cop and still avoid the procedures. No law can change the way things are done in a civilized society. It takes generations to bring the change. If you change the system to no court hearing , pay 200 fine and leave. Will I have any problem in doing so ?

Everyone wants corruption free country but the question is you want anti-corruption over growth. Most honest countries might not be the most progressive or having the highest growth in the country. When India has almost half the population below poverty line, we need to ask our self, " do we need most honest country or do we need more people who are prosperous". Growth slowly tickles down and create opportunities for all. One white collar jobs lead to creation for 3 blue collar jobs. The thought is good but the timing is still a concern to me.

How to Handle Terrorism ?

2011-09-07T20:43:00.000+05:30

Yet another bomb blast rocking the country, a lot of people died, few lost their limbs and will suffer for life because of it. Life isn't fair after all. I don't understand why do terrorist target the innocent people. Don't they have their own families ? How do they sleep in night after committing such heinous acts ? Is there any end to it?

The problem is only getting difficult with improvement of technology. Terrorists are using modern method to create panic in the society. It is very difficult to locate handful of such crack heads from millions of people. How can we handle or reduce such cowardly attacks?

1. Extra Vigilant Society: We need to be extra vigilant in crowded areas, It might look a stressful activity but a vigilant society might reduce the number of such blasts. We need to be sure whom we are renting our hotels and flats to. We need to be careful about any unusual activity done by our co-passenger. We need to report all such activities to police at the earliest. I think its need of the hour to be extra vigilant.

2. Strict Punishment for Terrorist Activities : Make life so difficult for terrorist that they think 7 times before planning any activity. They should dread being charged for terrorism. People who support the terrorism by providing material or non material support should be be made equally liable for punishment. I dont really care about human rights activist here, We need to firstly save our human race and humanity.

3. Education: Education and knowledge improves perspective towards things, makes people more understanding and tolerant towards each other. It might not completely stop the terrorism but the more and better educated world will certainly have lessor terrorism.

4. Eradicating Poverty and inequity in society: Somewhere or the other inequity and poverty in the society gives rise to such activities. The epicenter of such activities are mainly shabby localities where people find difficult to make a living and are lured by crime and terrorism.

5. Peaceful resolution of conflicts: Government should work with the terrorist organizations to reduce the conflicts, should peacefully resolve the problems, create jobs and employment opportunities for such people who can get healed and treated so that the poison of terrorism can be washed away from our system.

6. Reforming the antiquated systems: Some of the antiquated systems and institutions like Madarsas should be reformed and brought under clear guidelines and curriculum. These are the places where innocent peoples were systematically brain washed into believing in Jihad .

7. Better Intelligence Network and Infrastructure : Although terrorism is very difficult to curtail just by our intelligence agencies, but the way our intelligence system works, there is a huge opportunity for improvements. The whole anti-terrorism infrastructure needs to developed again. A part of money we pay as tax should be used for improving our security by investing in modern technology and infrastructure to fight terrorism.

Another Politician goes to Jail ..

2011-09-06T18:36:00.002+05:30

Amar Singh became the new addition to the list of politician who went to judicial custody for various charges in last few months. Interestingly the whole drama of not turning up to court by showing medical reasons was strictly sorted by the court which usually does not hesitate in just giving the next hearing date. Amar Singh now have to just be happy with medical facilities of the prison.

Mr Singh has also just added his name to the prominent list of politicians who tasted the salt of prison off-late like Mr. A.Raja, Mr. Suresh Kalmadi, Mr. Madhu Koda and Ms. Kani Modzi. As the number of politicians going to Jail are increasing, it looks to be a positive sign for the Indian democracy. It also sends a good message to the political class that no one is untouchable when it comes to judiciary. If not in their own political term,politicians will be taken to the task once their term end for their misdeeds. So politicians should better do good things to stay away from a prison term.

Our politicians must realize that doing corruption and escaping charges is become increasingly difficult for them as the media and use of technology is increasingly making the system more transparent.Government at times is also forced to stay away from influencing the judiciary to respect the popular sentiment of the citizens of the country. I hope it makes more politicians honest.

Some of the question which comes to mind are how many of the politicians will finally be convicted, how much time will they stay in jail and how long will the case remain pending for judgement? I hope we witness some of the judgement in our lifetimes if not politicians.

Its a high speed ride: Are you ready ?

2011-08-30T18:50:00.001+05:30

The speed at which the changes happen in this globally connected world is astonishing. It took several decades for TV to reach India after it came in US markets, mobile phones took much lesser time and nowadays you see launches of all the products and services happening globally. There are new technological innovations happening in the various markets which gets quickly integrated in the world markets.

The Good..

1. Innovation improves efficiency of the system, if production of particular product was taking 2 resources before, it is now taking less than 2 resources.

2. It brings bigger market for the companies. They can produce more, sell more. It might also affect the economies of scope and scale and make products cheaper. A lot of companies are getting into backward and forward integration which is improving both the margins and also reducing the cost for consumers.

3. Better products and services for consumers.

The Bad ..

1. The companies find it difficult to sell their products, specially if they are not the most competitive or do not have the quality or pricing as per world standard.

2. In a highly competitive world, the jobs will either be mechanized, outsourced or become redundant hence one has to keep improving their capabilities as per the new requirements of the market.

The Ugly ..

1. Due to higher speeds the business cycle times have reduced and the boom and bust are happening a lot faster than they usually happen. This is making a lot of people vulnerable, specially who are not financially secure.

2. Doing business becomes more difficult as the markets are moving towards perfect competition and margins are eroding very fast. Technologies gets copied very fast and companies find hard to protect the intellectual capital.

With the world changing at the fast pace, this speed is only going to increase in future as their are no breaks in this system.

What should you be doing if You are Anna's supporter ..

2011-08-22T21:53:00.001+05:30

Supporting Anna ji might be the new " Cool " amongst the young population, but it should be done with some sanctity so that it reflects well on the us as the aware citizen of our country.

1. Don't Abuse anyone: The basic Gandhian policy is based out of respect for all. Even the adversaries must be given full respect.

2. Do not break the rules of the land: I have heard people are openly violating traffic rules etc as they are Anna supporter and can walk away doing it. It wont please Mr. Hazare for sure.

3. Lead the Initiative: Keeping just Face Book or Gtalk messages will not make the country corruption free. Be the change you want to see in your country.

4. Make informed choices: If you feel that some of the clauses in the Jan Lokpal are difficult to implement and can be problematic, you should clearly say that. Application of individual judgement is important as all human can make mistakes.

5. Respect the National Symbols and Flag: National flags and symbol should be treated with respect and no one is above it. One should keep follow it in all the rallies and places whee national Flags are used.

Try to hold fast for a day and feel what its like to be hungry, it might make all us empathize with Anna and also with the countless children who sleep empty stomach every day.

Understanding Marketing Plan: Anna Hazare Campaign

2011-08-17T21:41:00.001+05:30

Understanding Marketing Plan: Anna Hazare Campaign

This is just an attempt to explore the Brand Anna and the magic of his Campaign which is making waves in the country. What could have made it work? Without any prejudices just tried to think about it and found out.

Campaign : An corruption free country.

Timing of the Campaign: Country caught in series of scandals like Common Wealth Game, 2G etc. The people of the country want to change the country, hence an opportunity of easily finding takers of the idea.

Market Research for designing the campaign:

More than 50% of the Indians are below 26 years of age.
Less than 1% of the people are super rich. Big emerging middle class, which wants to be socially conscious, uses internet and mobile phones and largely stays in urban India.
The young India wants to do something but don’t know what to do when it comes to showing their contribution towards the nation building.
Talking against corruption is considered cool in present scenario. The louder you speak; you are looked as more patriotic and socially aware citizen.
Earlier effect of movies such as RDB and how it has affected the educated masses. Use the frustration of people as a tool of creating a mass uproar against the establishment.

Segmentation

Simple demographics based segmentation of marketing based on the size of population in various age groups, education back ground and ease of passing information to them.

Targeting

Targeting the people who are :

In age bracket 18-30, which comprises majority of the population of the country
People who have read about Mahatma Gandhi in NCERT books, and want to contribute to something for the country.
Educated people, using social media, who likes to express their opinions who can be the flag bearers and the early adopters.
People who have time but also who does not like full time commitment.

Positioning: Anti-Corrupt India

The positioning is neutral in nature, not to entice any religious feeling, any regionalism, try and make it global in nature where all global citizens can participate. Some thing most of the people can easily relate to or face in their life.

Brand:

Anna " Curroption Free" has been used as a biggest brand in the whole campaign like Richard Branson for Virgin or Mr. Mallya for Kingfisher. The reason is the spotless past which very few people in the country can boast of, a history of leading movements and an innocent and aged persona which brings respect for the brand. The campaign main tag line is “I am Anna Hazarre” which is clearly used to make people live the brand Anna Hazzare.

Communication Strategy:

Crowd Sourcing, using the youngster to become the voice of the campaign. The young India which changes status messages 2-3 times a day to become the brand advocator. The people can easily pitch in by not fully committing themselves but can do their bit.
Largely using modern technology communication like mobile phones, internet and Social Networking. Creating news and being capturing by 24 hour media channels to directly go to the masses.

Metro Trip via Indralok ..

2011-08-17T20:35:00.001+05:30

I had traveled a few times in Delhi Metro and liked the easy journey which metro provides to the passengers. So with that in mind I boarded the metro at Rajiv Chowk few days back and contrary to the earlier experience it was a Jam packed coach , may be the office hours effect taking toll of my comfort.

Police Man literally pushed the last man in and somehow managed to close the metro door. So finally I was inside and the train was traveling at a good speed, you can smell all kinds of sweat in the vicinity but the air conditioning was still very comforting and the experience was much better than good old Mumbai Local.

In a Jamm packed train, a lady was trying to help her relative to get down on some station. They were both some distance apart in the train and could not see each other.

So the people were obviously unaware of it.

Old Lady: ( Top of her voice) Sussshila , tu hai na...
Young Lady: Haan, mai hu .. ( quite Prompt )
Train Crowd : Few murmurs in a otherwise silent setup..

After 5 minutes ..

Old Lady: ( Top of her Voice) Sussshila, Inderlok utar jaiyo ..
Young Lady( Ofcourse Sushila) : Haan, Utar Jaungi ( little embarrassed)
Train Crowd: Laughing, Everyone seems to be enjoying this difficult train journey.

After another 6-9 minutes ..

Old Lady: (the only way she knows to speak) Susshila, Inderlok aa gaya, tu Utar gai ..
Looks like she assumed if she does not responds means she is already out ..
Sushila: Haan uttar rahi hu .. ( deeply embarrassed ) , murmuring ..chalo sub ka manoranjan ho gaya ..
Train Crowd: Laughing on top of there voices

I thought to myself, Everyone now knows for sure that Sushila has finally got down on Inderlok station :)

Game Shows Mysteries

2011-08-16T19:41:00.000+05:30

One cannot help but notice so many game shows and reality shows nowadays mushrooming on every channel. Some of them are good, some not that good but there is something common about all of them.

Emotional Atyachaar: Why do people gets so emotional on these shows ? Do they think that it will earn them some extra points ? Do the producers of reality show think it will improve the popularity of the show? Do the audience want to see diarrhea of emotions and tears when they are watching these shows ?

Troubled History of Participants: All these shows specially the game shows says that they have a very transparent computer generated selection procedure then how does people mainly with troubled pasts and background end up on the show? Is the computer really picks up cleanly or do the producers want to make it interesting for the audience ?

Are Celebrities so intelligent : When these shows call celebrities to be either judge or participants in the shows, they all tend to do really well. I have not seen any of the celebrity participant to make less money on any of the quizzing show or game show. Is it that our bollywood celebrities are best creation of God and they look good, act well ( sometimes ) and even know the name of the president of the Indian Olympic association in 1969 ?

Everyone Believes in Giving : Every one who comes on these shows believe in giving. Whether its the celebrities or the mango man. Why were they waiting for so long for doing this charity ? Are they really going to give away the money or just trying to impress the audience ? Are the celebrities anyway told to donate every thing to charity what they win? Does it feels good to do charity with easily earned money?

Can't be just a coincidence, these things get repeated again and again on these shows. Can someone help me with the answers please?

Aarakhshan

2011-08-13T20:16:00.002+05:30

Watched the movie Aarakshan yesterday, first day, last show in a packed movie theater sitting in the second row . I think since the movie was banned in few states in India added the incentive of watching it here in South Africa.

The movie started with a promising opening, showing a glimpse of education system in India, how the reservation era and supreme court decision on reservation divided the masses along the communal lines rather than bringing equity in the society. The movie clearly shows the anxiety of both the sections of society specially the youth who is caught between the politics of reservation and most importantly the teachers who can not be partial about a particular section but are always viewed with suspicion. The initial one hour of the movie was quite entertaining although there is nothing in the movie which you will find new or unheard but the acting of Mr Batchan is captivating to say the least. Some the dialogues in the movie regarding reservation were actually harsh but realistic and I was surprised that they were not scissored by the sensor board.

After the initial one hour, the movie digressed and focused on the role of coaching institutes in education system and also on the personal rivalry between a good teacher (Mr Bachhhan) and a bad teacher (Mr Bajpai) . It just took the main topic of Aarakshan for a toss and looked to me as a major flaw in the movie. The timings of songs was really bad and they all seemed to be just inserted in the movie and made little sense with the story line. The characters were too strong either very good or very bad which also looked to be the traditional bollywood way of story telling and this aspect also could have been depicted much better by Mr Jha.

Overall I can say people can go out of the theaters after the first one hour if they have got other important work to do, to make best use of their time or can just remain seated if there is nothing more interesting to do.

What do our Armed Forces do in Peace Time ?

2011-08-12T19:35:00.000+05:30

India boasts of a huge military might, they are all very well trained, disciplined and also inclined towards the development of the country. India has fought 4 wars in last 60 years and there had been minor disputes here and there but what has been the qualified forces will strength of 4.5 million been doing in the peace time ?

India as a country have a long road to travel to improve its infrastructure, to develop our cities and villages . Why cant the qualified people from the forces help the country in achieving its goals. There can be some rotation policy which allows say 10% of the trained force people at a time can be deployed in the developmental projects.

Currently when the country is facing huge shortage of well quantified and trained staff, our armed forces can make our country even more proud about them. The decision has to be taken by our think tank and I am sure the armed forces can be much more useful even in the peace time.

How to fight uncertain World

2011-07-17T08:50:00.000+05:30

The world and the market changes so fast nowadays that the uncertainty is something our generation needs to live with, its is more or less unavoidable. Whether its the skill requirement for any job, the technology or even the way of looking at things, it keeps changing. There is no point fighting this change, but the sensible idea should be how to minimize the risk of uncertainty for our self and our families.
For starters, few of the ways to counter such risks can be:

1. Awareness : The first step of negotiating any risk is to be aware about it. If we as a person are not aware of the challenges and threats we are exposed to, it will be impossible to tackle the risk.

2. Corpus: Ours is the credit card generation, we buy today and earn tomorrow assuming that the tomorrow is as bright as today. I think we should always have a corpus of savings which is liquid in nature and should be able to sustain us for a period of 6 months to 1 year.

3. Investing in the Intellectual Capital: To walk ahead of changing times, one need to keep investing in the skills and try and improve ones intellectual capital in the process.

4. Making right choices: The choices we make should be futuristic in nature and should also be something one can enjoy.

Same Strategy: Divide and Rule

2011-04-14T09:21:00.000+05:30

After Jantar Mantar victory, Looking at the news which are making the headlines regarding the Anna Hazare's revolution ... people at influential position are trying to link Chief Minister Narendra Modi with Anna . Anna did praised the minister for the development work. Any linkages with Narendra Modi will only divide the masses as the minister has a image of carrying a very fundamentalist ideology.

Anna being a Gandhiwadi and true patriot has nothing to do with all these controversies. It looks to be the clear work of the people with vested interests who doesn't want the masses to support Anna's mission.

Just looking at the history, it all looks so consistent.. what a funny analogy.. Britishers tried the same divide and rule policy to dilute the Mahatma's fight for freedom now the few people are trying the same tricks to dilute Anna's mission for a corruption free country.

I hope Anna succeed like Mahatma for India and for Indians.

The Rich India : Statistical Review

2011-04-13T20:24:00.000+05:30

I really wanted to know the statistics regarding poverty in India after writing the post Defining Poverty. The numbers were different on various websites. Than by collecting bits and pieces I tried to make the whole picture about the rich India somewhat clear. The data is consistent with World Bank estimates about the poverty in India. I have just defined poverty level as less than 2$/day which I believe is bare minimum to lead a life.

Here the pie chart clearly shows that nearly 80% of India is still poor earning less than 2$/day, The middle class is rising and constitutes nearly 19.61% of Indians and rich are less than 0.4% of the total population. I have defined middle class as people earning more than 2$/day.

To have a better view of the enormity of the situation, have a look at the assorted data in the below picture.

We have nearly 50 billionaires which keeps hitting the media headlines. We can boast of 170,000 dollar millionaires in India but the number is less than the number of dollar millionaires in Switzerland which has less than 1% of the population of India.

The news and views on India shining and becoming developed nation keep hitting the news channels. The rich and middle class Indians feels good to hear these views but we can not deny the real situation.

The numbers are improving, there are more people every day getting out of 2$/day benchmark and becoming the part of middle class but there is still a long way to go.

Defining Poverty

2011-04-13T17:25:00.001+05:30

Poverty runs deep in India, to the extend that we start ignoring it.. the reason is very simple, we get use to it. From our childhood days we see so many destitute, beggars that we think that is the part of our life and ets just ignore it. This blog is not on it, it is about the definition of poverty ? Who do you call a poor ?

The country is full of brilliant souls and Politicians who don't really want India to show its poor face to the world. They try and show that the poverty in the country is coming down as it portrays the good image of the country. They try and eliminate poverty by these three ways:

1. Development: Improve the image of the country by doing developmental work which have direct or indirect effect on alleviating poverty from the country. Lot of it is being done nowadays, some by the government and more by NGO's, external aids etc.

2. Eliminate the Poor: If you cant eliminate the poverty, can reduce the number by eliminating the poor population. Very difficult and barbaric option. The good thing is that no one can do it. Its just the natural calamities and disease in India which does it. The infant and maternal mortality amongst poor in the country is very high. So no action to reduce poverty in one way is like making the poor die by disease and illness.

3. Redefine Poverty: The easiest way out to show reduction in poverty is by changing the definition of poor. If you simply change the poverty line from 1.25$/day ( World Bank PPP number ) to Indian number of1 $/day, a lot of Indians crosses the BPL line overnight.

Some economist says that people earning less than 2$/ day should be classified as poor, others argue that less than a $ per day are poor. So their is no uniform definition of poverty in India.

The planning commission of India accepts that 37% of the Indian population is living below the poverty line as per the Tendulkar ( not Sachin ) committee report. Arjun Sengupta report says that 77% of the people in India are living with less tha 0.5 $/day.

Whatever may be the exact proportion of poor in the country but even 37% number is quite a high number.

How Google pays just 2.4% corporate Tax

2011-04-09T08:01:00.000+05:30

It was a surprising revelation, 30 Billion $ US company, Google pays just 2.4% of the profits as taxes when corporate tax in USA is 35% .. They have saved more than 3billion dollars in last few years .. how ?

They adapt a popular strategy known as the Double Irish. Google has incorporated two subsidiaries in Ireland. One is a holding company in Bermuda, the other is located in Ireland.

In Ireland, intellectual property royalties has lower income tax rates of 12.5%. Google’s Irish company in Ireland pays those royalties to its Irish company in tax-haven Bermuda and again funneling them through the tax-advantaged Netherlands on the way and end up paying just 2.4% in taxes. How this is some financial engineering.

Google should now start offering tax consulting too apart from internet services.

Two Indians in Top 10 richest College Dropouts !

2011-04-08T17:42:00.000+05:30

Yes, two Indians has made it to the top 10 richest dropouts of the world .. I was surprised when I read the list, more so as I never knew that both Mukesh Ambani and Ajim Premji are college dropouts.

One can say that they had the legacy of their fathers behind them but I will still say that they actually made it big. Particularly Mr Premji venturing into software from commodity business was amazing.

Incidentally both of them were studying in Stanford University before they left it for the good. Other college dropout that made up to the list from Stanford University is Steve Ballmer, the CEO of Microsoft.

Harvard Grads, Bill Gates and Mark Zukerberg of facebook fame also adored the list of richest dropouts.

Now we know where to go if we want to be rich and also don't want to study for too long :-)

Speak like a Captain

2011-04-08T12:42:00.001+05:30

Being a captain of any team, one has be responsible and intelligent in all the external communications. The curious case of Shahid Afridi bashing Indian people and media is still alive in our memories and has left a bad taste in mouth. Since the wordings were so strong the media actually made him take his words back.

Now the hard hitting batsman Mr. Sehwag has also done something which I will not associate well for a captain of the team Delhi Daredevils. He said in a press briefing, " I have played under Dhoni's captaincy and I know what all tactics he can deploy as a captain and will make it ineffective against Delhi Daredevils Team" . Now there are somethings which you might be thinking of but speaking it out as a captain does not look really good for a captain of the team. Yes, it might not be as bad as what Afridi did but non the less he could have been more discrete. The media might not have caught the comment made by him but it does looks immature for some one like Sehwag.

The only thing which is interesting in these recent episodes is the similarity between Sehwag and Afridi's way of playing cricket.

Anna shows the Power of Democracy

2011-04-07T13:03:00.001+05:30

Mr. Anna Hazare is actually showcasing the power of democracy in this modern world. Old Gadhian tools of Ahimsa and Satyagraha are working wonders again in this world of tears and blood sheds. I am really fascinated to see the kind of support his movement has got from the people of the country.

The youth of country has also sent a very strong message to the government that the days of corruption are limited now and they should better improve the governance otherwise this country come to the streets and fight it out. Ihe important part of this message is that the youth of the country is intelligent and responsive and will adopt the route of peaceful agitation. Few years back it was difficult to foresee this new face of Indian Youth, I believe the Sanjay Dutt movies on Gandhi giri should be admired for making this internet and i-pod generation believe in Gandhian philosophy.

Other exciting thing happening is the rapid adoption of technology in the country. I am very hopeful that the changes brought about by use of Information technology and social movements will work in parallel and will make the administrators of the country more transparent and responsive.

The initiative of UID could prove to be a another milestone which will change the way system works and will drastically reduce the leakages.

Looking at the evolution of the western world, they all suffered from corruption during high growth phase but the systems became much cleaner and government agencies became far more responsive as they got the dose of development. India is also witnessing the same changes and hopefully in our life times we might see a new India with with far less corruption and red tap-ism.

What exactly is CBI doing ?

2011-04-06T10:22:00.001+05:30

If we look at the past, we all know how honest had all our politicians and bureaucrats been. The Central Bureo of Investigation was primarily created with following divisions:

Anti Corruption Division: Cases of corruption and fraud committed by public servants of all Central Govt. Departments, Central Public Sector Undertakings and Central Financial Institutions.

Economic Crimes Division: Deals with cases including bank frauds, financial frauds, Import Export & Foreign Exchange violations, large-scale smuggling of narcotics, antiques, cultural property and smuggling of other contraband items etc.

Special Crimes Division: Deals with cases such as cases of terrorism, bomb blasts, sensational homicides, kidnapping for ransom and crimes committed by the mafia/the underworld. (Source: Wikipedia)

Now if we analyze their work particularly in anti corruption, I cant remember any of the politician or a top notch bureaucrat being nabbed by CBI. The Raja's 2G scam was discovered by central Vigilence Unit so was the case of Hasan Ali where Supreme Court has to intervene when it found CBI doing nothing. This is the story with almost all the prominent cases.

Even now that the CBI is investigating the 2 G scam, the charge sheet filed by CBI is kind of soft towards Raja. I really dont understand what exactly are they doing ? Is there some genuine conflict of interest where all the posting and promotions of CBI are being done by the influential politicians and bureaucrats and they just cant do anything about them ?

Team India: Making History

2011-04-03T15:13:00.002+05:30

It was amazing to see India lift the Cricket World Cup yet again after 28 years. The team never looked perturbed by the initial blows in the finals, not even when Sachin got out. This team under Dhoni has graduated to a level where they can think about winning without Sachin.

I still remember the matches of world cup from 1992 to 2011, the truth is the team never looked so formidable before. Yes, the team had a good chance in 1996 but Srilankans with the assistance from unprepared pitch of Eden Gardens gave us a disappointing loss. The uncompleted match played at Eden made a lot of Indians to cry and we still get emotional about that game. The itch lasted really long but finally Dhoni's XI gave Lankans reply after 15 years. What a fabulous way of winning.

The God of Cricket got the due respect from the team and it was very nice to hear the team dedicating the cup to him. Sachin actually got what was long due to him. I strongly believe Sachin should play another world cup as he is still the best batsman in India and the world and his fitness levels are beyond doubt.

The whole thing is still to seep in, Winning the world cup Feels great !

Stock Market Puzzle

2011-03-26T10:43:00.002+05:30

Nobody Knows when the markets moves up or down !

The market was going smoothly in 2010 and than it declined nearly 20% all of a sudden. What were the reasons for it ? People can only find out the reasons after the market actually falls. People gave lot of reasons

Egypt Crisis
Inflationary Conditions
High Interest Rate to reduce the Profitability of India Inc
Corporate Governance issues emerging in Indian Companies
Libya Crisis
Manmohan Singh Government and scams
Crude Oil to hit the growth of India

Few of the economist had even written off India. Likes of Goldman Sachs said that developed countries will outperform the emerging economies .. hmm too many views all of a sudden..

Now the market has recovered almost 1000 points in a short run. The conditions are actually quite similar to earlier conditions or much worst that what they were. The crisis in Japan can also affect the growth of the world, than you have RBI increasing the policy rates yet again and none of the earlier conditions have actually changed.

The truth is that no one can predict the direction of market in short run and whenever market takes sharp turn than most of the market players are caught unaware of it and it is not logical.

The funny side of the story is that whenever there is a strong rumor that the market it is going to decline, usually there is no actual decline in stocks and when the market declines, nobody knows it.

10 reasons why people love regular Bollywood movies ..

2011-01-23T10:11:00.000+05:30

Its hard to imagine people loving bollywood movies.. a big statement right .. I am talking about the regular bollywood movie where you can predict the movie right from the beginning, there are cheezy and crapy songs after every 15 minutes, characters which might look 50 year old but can still be shown as teenagers, larger than life lead characters and same old f***** story. Wow, this is the real bollywood movie .. Hard to imagine why people just fall for it over and over again..

I still remember that once upon a time I went to watch this movie " KISNA" and had taken a vow that will think twice before getting into a theater. Yes some of the movies are real awesome but Goodness me watching KISNA was a real pain sitting in that theater, you can't even sleep, it was so irritating !

So I was trying to think why people might like bollywod movies ..and at times watch the same movie over and over again .. The reasons can be plenty but the one I can think of are: -

1. Hero Worship : hmm , rather a costly way .. cant resist the mass appeal hmm ..

2. Songs : Wanna hear to good songs , Get yourself a I-Pod ..

3. Heroines : Hmm actresses , cant find a solution , go buddy watch it again as if she is gonna jump out of the screen..

4. Time Pass : Have you tried the new PS 3 with motion sensors..

5. Accompanying your GF/BF/WIFE/Relatives : Hmm , I can very well understand what you are going through ..

6. Insomniac : If typical bollywood movie is better than a sleeping pill , wow .. its a new market for theaters.

7. Language Troubles : Can't understand the accent, try the subtitles. You gonna love it !

8. Place for Romance: There are very few corner seats , try the box seats, they are kinds cool !

9. Bird Watching : Never knew you can watch birds in dark !

10. Bollywood movies are real awesome : No comments .

Investing in Mid Caps .

2011-01-08T08:05:00.002+05:30

Small and mid caps companies looks very attractive at times on stock indices. You might find them rightly priced, far cheaper than the regular blue chips but investing in them is a tough question.

The biggest problem in these companies is lack of transparency. Inspite of strict discloser norms enforced by SEBI, there are companies which frequently cook up their numbers.

The corporate governance issues are creating lot of volatility in the mid caps stocks off late.The mid caps actually corrected by nearly 25% in last one month as some of the companies were found to be either involved in unethical business practices or their owners were involved in some types of scams which puts a question mark on the whole company.

Mid caps also have problem of cash and seldom a recession can eat of all their cash reserves and a company might never be able to become profitable even after the return of good times . In case of blue chips the resilience to survive a few quarter of negative growth is much more.

I believe the best way to pick a good mid cap stock is :

1.
How to pick the real Infosys of the future amongst hundreds of scripts? The real multi-baggers will be found in mid or small caps only .

1. Analyze the leverage of the company: A highly leverage medium sized company is more likely to fall in bad times.

2.
2.Disclosures and Transparency

3. 3.Quality of management

4. 4.Business Model

5. 5.Barriers to Entry in the business

6. 6.Profit margins

All said and done , its a tricky exercise . If one is not very sure of investing in equities than investing in mid caps is definitely not a option .

Centre Point of India

2010-12-12T10:53:00.000+05:30

Nagpur isn't really a exciting place, sun beating down on you even in the month of November. The only thing I was excited about was to see the Centre Point of India, yes the point from where the East, West, North South parts of India are equidistant. ! Wow centre of this huge country ! Must be awesome ..

So me along with Sid asked our Cabbie to show us the Centre Point , he told us " Do you mean Centre Point Hotel Sir " . No we told him . Finally he left us somewhere in between and we kept searching for the place, no body there seems to know about the Centre point.

Finally some learned man told us that the place is called the "Zero Mile". Hmm, the name is in interesting. Finally we reached the place, and was aghast after seeing the condition of the place. Thay have simply killed it !

The place was uncleaned, surrounded by political and business hoardings. The centre point of India and no maintenance what so ever. Tried to click a few photographs, Planning to write to the authorities. Where are our taxes going ?

When will we start marketing our country ?

Once upon a time in India..

2010-12-12T08:58:00.000+05:30

Recently happen to visit Sevagram, the place where Mahatma lived with his team and planned and implemented the project " Freedom of India " . All the great freedom movements were actually thought through and discussions on the future directions for the pan India movement was done at a place which is almost the centre point of India. The simplicity of the place and lifestyle of Mahatma really makes you think "What Am I running for ?"

Clicked few of the pics during the trip ..

Barkha Dutt Episode : Not a surprise

2010-11-22T18:02:00.000+05:30

Although very few newspapers are reporting the controversies of alleged lobbying by the celebrated journalists like Burkha Dutt and Vir Sanghvi, people are slowly getting the feel of the reality. Media does not want to publicize or comment on the episode as it might lead to problems for them . "People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones on other."

It was not at all surprising to find Burkha and Sanghvi involved in such practices. The whole media is like that Only the stories which are well paid are told by the media. Needless to say all controversies relating to page 3 people, linkages of actors and actresses just before a movie release, editorial with a biased stance are the profitable products of our media. We all know now why one of the leading newspaper of India was so critical about CWG scams just after loosing its bid to be the media partner of the event. Its all about conflict of interest and media have power to portray anything in the way they want.

Burkha dutt has always been a loud mouthed women, making big statements which catches public attention. I still remember her article , " Like Father , Like Son" she published after the son of Late Promod Mahajan was found involved in a drug overdose case. In her article she critiques Promod and tries to suggest that the son of Promod is so much like Promod Mahajan himself. It was a profound insult to a dead man. The lady leaves no one when it comes to publicity . Now if we just use the same analogy in case of Burkha, the character of whole Dutt family can be easily sketched , but will any sane person do it .

Its so easy to be the one, holding the mike and asking difficult question, making witty remark and commenting on the integrity of the person but its so difficult to be a real genuine person using your power responsibly.

Black Money : Making India Uncompetitive

2010-11-16T11:02:00.000+05:30

Indian economy is over a trillion dollar economy but lot of economist says that the parallel economy (in the form of black money or undisclosed transactions ) is as big as the real economy. Billions of rupees are never shown to the tax man to avoid tax . This black money is really bad for India. It is making India uncompetitive in business at a very fast pace . How ?

Black money usually goes into the investments where it is hard to detect. Usually people keep the black money in cash but it is hard to carry it every where and there is no return on it. Real Estate is the prime investment destination for it as the prices paid in white are abysmal and a very high amount to black money is involved to evade tax. Very high proportion of black money is chasing very few investment destination of real estate. The real estate prices are shooting over the roof. Now when the land prices are abnormally high due to vested interest of people some of the speculators bring in even more money in the real estate market which increases the costs even further. In a nut shell the black money is creating a bubble in the real estate market.

Now land and real estate are essential part of the infrastructure required for industries. Due to soaring cost of infrastructure the industry is finding it tough to be profitable. The entry barriers for small size co-operations are even higher. If you want to have even a small office in rime locations the money which is charged to you is as high as one in developed economies like USA or Europe with the pricing of products and services nowhere close to it. How will the industry in India survive in long term if the real estate price goes on increasing.

A Passing thought: It is good that lot of Indian black money is parked in the Swiss Banks as it will only worsen the condition of property markets in India.

Indian Judiciary : Can't Get Worst !

2010-11-13T09:46:00.002+05:30

Indian Judiciary might be seen as a important part of the Indian democratic system, but its very difficult to cope with it. Yes, as a citizen of the country I have my rights protected but the slowness of the judiciary makes life difficult .

Anyone can do anything here as one knows that the Judiciary is slow and nothing will happen. It is really painful to see likes of molester cop Rathore to again get a bail after years of struggle by the affected family. His smile is a tight slap on the face of the system which is giving no justice to people who are suffering.

In my lifetime I have not seen any powerful person to get the real taste of prison, be it the actors crushing laborers on road, be it the politicians involved in serious crimes, be it powerful people exploiting every little person for their individual gains or be it influential people inciting violence and hatred in the minds of people of the country. Anyone can do any thing here as long has one has muscle power, money power or influence on the system. Sanjay Dutt can be a lone exception to this case.

Even in so called consumer court it takes years to get a judgment. In case you miss any of the hearing the case is rejected. In case the accused party misses the hearing the court is adjourned. Even if you get the decision in your favor after years of effort, the other party can move to the civil court which will again takes years for judgment.Thinking of all this a common man just drops the case and just feels cheated.

We are doing all kinds of reforms in India, how about reforming the judiciary. No Jessica Lal killers or Ruchika's molester should go out of the hands of our legal system. No person should be able to bypass the judiciary of the country.

De'ja' Vu , The Great 2008 Recession

2010-10-17T09:43:00.002+05:30

Summer of 2008 was simply unforgettable. Recession was tough on us as the students as it was on the people who were employed in various corporations. I can never forget the time, maybe that was a good thing which keeps me grounded all the time.

The recent times has so many similarities with the recessionary times. It simply feels like a de'ja' Vu. Various similarities are:

1. Sensex nearing all time High: The levels are just a ting lower than the previous high which followed a crash.

2. A Big IPO lined up in the form of COAL India , similar to Reliance Power IPO which turned disaster in the end.

3. Precious Commodities at all time High: The Gold and Silver almost touching all times high.

4. Inflation nearing Double Digits

5. Strong Rs and weak dollar : The rupee has touched almost 44 to a dollar

6. US trade deficit: Widening to $ 40 Billion/ month which is scary .

7. Excited Retail Investers : Participation in recent IPOs have been really out of ordinary .

8. HR hiring anyone with a degree like there is no tomorrow.

9. Real State prices doubling every 6 months .

I hope it doesn't goes the way it went last time. The fundamentals looks much better this time . Lets see how it goes, I am optimistic this time.

Empty CWG Lanes

2010-10-16T08:56:00.000+05:30

Its been 2 days that the common Wealth Games are over. CWG lanes are now open for the general public and I must say its a big relief from every day traffic hassles . There has one really interesting observation. People are still not using CWG lanes and they continue to use the other crowded lane. It is really surprising. What can be the possible reasons for the same :

1. People don't know that CWG are over: Since the CWG lanes still shows CWG written over it, people are not choosing it to avoid fines . Likely to happen, knowledge about current affair of an average Delhi hunk is not debatable. They at time even dont know about who is the chief minister of the state .

2. People showing anger and boycotting CWG Lanes: Highly unlikely.

3. Human Programming: As the people are using only non CWG lanes from past 13-14 days, they have been subconsciously programmed to use only the non CWG Lanes or we can say , they want to take the usual roads and are avoiding the roads less traveled. :)

Whatever may be the reason, I am just loving it !

Poor PR Practices ..

2010-10-16T08:40:00.001+05:30

India and China are being compared on a regular basis in both national and international media nowadays. Its bound to create some animosity between the two countries, Than our Chief of Army Staff yesterday came up with an statement " China and Pakistan are two of our Biggest Irritants " , he even added that " India should be prepared for war on two front with both China and Pakistan " . I was least amused by such an undiplomatic comment . Is there something in it which people don't know ?

The only message I have for him is, WTH. Everyone knows it, you sitting at such an post of honor and responsibilities should not utter a word which creates doubt in the mind of our not so friendly neighbor. If India wants to be prepared to take on any country , talk to the concerned people who can sanction you funds for doing so. Giving open ended statement like this will only deteriorate our relationship with countries like China .

I don't know if there is a post of public relation officer in the ministries or is there a communication department who is handling all such statements from people at the highest positions. Likes of Kalmadi , Lalit Bhanout and VK Singh only makes India a laughing stock in front of other countries.

Analysis: Common Wealth Indian Performance

2010-10-15T09:10:00.002+05:30

Indians have every reason to be proud of our record second position, podium finish in the overall medals tally at common Wealth games 2010 conducted in Delhi . Its also the time to actually analyze where we did well , where we went wrong and how can we improve in future .

Overall Analysis

Last time we won 22 gold medals in Melbourne , this time ours medal tally reflects 38 golds. We are good 16 golds ahead of our last CWG performance. The overall increase in medals will start to look less rosy when we deduct the gold medals we have won in the games like Wrestling ( 10 Golds), Archery ( 3 Golds) ,Tennis ( 1 Gold) which were not played in earlier version of the games at Melbourne. So the net real addition of medals was limited to just 2 Golds.

Shooting: Compared to last year the performance remained same with no real addition to the medals .

Hockey: The team lifted their game at the right moment, aussies were just too good for us.

Tennis : Remained a big disappointment, our players were beaten by unknown players, may be the era of Lee Hash is finally coming to an end.

Weight Lifting: The game was again disappointing for Indians , it started with doping controversies and India ended with just 2 golds out of the event.

Archery : This looks to be the game where Indians can really go to Olympic level in no time. Our inexperienced young player were really performing well against the best of the teams.

Badminton: The sport has shown that India has really emerged as a big power in Badminton lead by likes of Saina Nehwal.

Athletics, Swimming, Diving: A big hole , we need to get into the medals in these events as bulk of the medals comes from them. If India wants to lead the medal tally, it was to do well in swimming and Athletics.

Gymnastics: Who can be better than India, land of Yoga in Gymnastics ? We just need to nurture our talent young.

Common Wealth Winners !

2010-10-15T08:55:00.001+05:30

CWG games finally coming to an end with a spectacular closing ceremony. Last 14 days have been really awesome, it generated so much curiosity and interest, for the good everyone was actually concerned about some sport other than Cricket.

The turning point of the CWG can easily said to be the opening ceremony which brought smiles and pride on the faces of Indians who were thrashed by media around the world. And Indian athletes lead from the front by winning medal in almost all sports.

The best part of the game for me was easily the close contest for the second sport between India and England, at one point of time it looked like England will easily walk away with the second position as they have a lot of athletes in finals of various events. God has his own plans, except the dismal hockey performance for the gold medal match, Indians actually won every thing which came there way in last two days, be it boxing, table tennis or Badminton . It was truly an awesome performance, specially for a nation which is obsessed with cricket and most of us don't even remember the names of our sporting heroes.

We registered a great beginning in the sports like swimming and even gymnastics. We were spectacular as ever in wrestling and shooting.

CWG2010 can become the turning point for the sports in India. As its seen all over the world, all rising nations eventually do well in sports, I hope the same becomes true for India too and we lead the medal tally for Olympics in our life time.

Why Blame Politicians for corruption ?

2010-10-02T20:14:00.001+05:30

Common Wealth Games Corruption, Why are we blaming bureaucrats and politicians for large scale corruption . I have the following questions ?

1. Why do we idolize our wealthy relatives without checking out their means of income and wealth ? And even when we know that they are corrupt, our respect and appreciation within society for them never change.

2. Do we prefer to bribe the Traffic Police man rather than paying actual penalties ? How much money are we annually saving out of it, nothing, But we still do it , right ?

3. Do we lay more stress of wealth rather than knowledge, personality or behavior of the person ?Do we speak with same respect and admiration to people with equal education but unequal wealth status ?

4. Do we prefer to worship Laxmi more than Saraswati ? Why so ?

5. Are we showing all our rental , interest and other sources of income for our Tax returns ? Is that because we are afraid or tax man or due to strong value system ?

6. Do we publicly look down on people who bribe or receive bribe? Do we do it even when they are our relatives, friends, parents or close acquaintance ?

7. If we have a option of saving or gaining 1,00,000 which might have potential damaging affect on government of country by 50,00,000, what will you do ?

Changing politicians is out of our circle of influence and criticizing them will not change them . What we can do is that we can change ourselves and once society starts reforming the politicians will themselves change. The day most of the Indians have proud answers to these seven questions, we will not have much of problem with the rampant corruption in the society.

Credits : Inputs from lot of people who influence my opinion and knowledge.

Reliance ..

2010-10-01T09:39:00.000+05:30

As far as i see, Reliance has always tried to provide best price to its customers and that has been a consistent strategy in all its companies big or small. Have they ever considered differentiating them-self by quality of services, socially conscious group or by creating a niche. Naah ! The prime reason might be that they always want to capture a larger market which makes sense.

Reliance is much more of a company whose strength lies in Public relations, Project Management and Financial Engineering. Over the years they have shown us that they can get the large market share within no time by aggressive pricing , can get the facilities built before time because of there project management capabilities and has always been a darling of the financial markets. But they never attracted the best of the marketing talent, never have they boasted or tried to go aggressive on the branding of the company.

Reliance ADAG group and RIL group has survived and made it big even without much of branding and marketing initiatives primarily as there offerings were much more of B2B ( Business to Business Marketing ). Off late ADAG group has ventured into many of the B2C ( Business to Consumer) businesses like Reliance Entertainment, Mutual Funds, Telecom etc where they have to start thinking about the branding aspect of their company.

Its not that ADAG group has not tried for branding , particularly for Reliance communication, they came out with "Sehwaag ki maa ka phone aaya hai" advertisement. I just cant stop smiling thinking about that advertisement, its really tough to find logic behind it . Why the hell will Sehwag's Mom call a spectator in the stadium and how did the spectator came to know by looking at the number that Sehwag's Mom is calling . But all that is past, they were trying to enter a uncharted territory so initial hick-ups ( popularity called as teething troubles by business managers to safe themselves from Senior Management bashing :-) ) were bound to happen .

Yesterday I called up Reliance Capital ( Another ADAG Company) Customer Care for a query regarding Reliance Mutual Fund and during the waiting period they played Voda-phone Tune. I was amazed and surprized and than I asked my friend to check out if its Voda-Phone tone only, he confirmed it. Its a classic case of marketing disaster, as a Group if you can not promote your own company , why are you playing your Competitors Song !

How to improve your Car's fuel Efficiency ..

2010-08-06T16:12:00.003+05:30

Recently went to CII maintenance expo and came across information from Petroleum Conservation Research Association for improving the fuel efficiency of our four wheelers.. I found the it really informative and it has actually clarified lot of confusions. Few of the important points discussed were :

1. Stop the vehicles if the wait time is more than 15 seconds ( Based on research done for Delhi Roads ). I used to think that its 1 minute ..

2. Most of the cars are most economical if they are run at 45 kmph , Very tough to ride at such low speeds though!

3. Try to run the vehicle in top gears. It should be correct gear too !

4. Use of clutch only for changing gears.

5. Cleaning Air Filter, Fine tuning of engine.

Common-Wealth Game !

2010-08-05T10:15:00.000+05:30

I write like..

2010-07-18T07:37:00.000+05:30

Just came through a article on TOI which talks about a website which analyzes your writing style and tells you the author which resembles your writing style. Ahhh , as a blogger i thought, let me check my writing style.

Browsed the website to find out if i resemble any of he greats. One has to just copy and paste few of the paragraph of your writings on the web page and click on analyze. So after the first iteration the result says Issac Asimov , wow . I thought of repeating it if it was just a fluke or a random generator. On the second iteration with other text it showed David Foster Wallace. On the 3rd, 4th and 5th iteration with different text it showed the same result.

The website does some kind of analysis based on the number of words per sentence etc. So you have all the reasons to feel good on a Sunday morning thinking that you are not that bad at writing.

About Light and the Darkness

2010-07-14T09:22:00.000+05:30

We all must have read or seen it n number of times, the great divide between the rich and poor in our country. Its so apparent and we start ignoring it as we get use to it. But I really start feeling it after reading 'White Tiger' by Arvind Adiga.

The book talks about the story of India which is mostly left untouched during the growth of the country in last 2 decades, economist calls it India Vs Bharat where Bharat is almost the same as 20 years back. The author Mr. Adiga calls the people living in the fertile region of Ganges as Darkness ( so ironical )and coastal area as Light as most of the people in areas of Ganges are still deprived of the most basic necessities of life and those living near coast are much better off. The story is of the desires of the people in darkness who sees the world developing but when they look at there abysmal poverty, it leaves them strained and suffocated. The people in darkness are mostly working for people in light for making there life comfortable. They also want to own the comforts of life and lead a respectful life. But do they have even a remote chance of it of they lead a honest life ?

Now when I go around places, it seems like there is darkness everywhere, I can empathize with the kind of lives they are living, not sure of even next meal when we are thinking about how to finance a flat in our locality.

The real problem is that most of India is still in darkness and not much is being done to address it yet. The day is not far when this rift might cause a civil war as rich will keep on exploiting the poor by underpaying for services or disrespecting them.

I believe that we the people in light should start working in our ways to bring light to the people around us in darkness, may be if not them, there next generation so that these people get humane treatment and there is more equity in this world. Remember only a candle can light another candle and Adiga's analogy fits so beautifully even here.

Customer Delight

2010-07-14T08:51:00.001+05:30

All companies try to provide comfort to customers in all possible ways to attract them, but there are very few companies who can actually delight customer. I had an recent experience with a company which I least expected to do it. ICICI Bank !

I wanted to open saving bank account in ICICI bank for the comfort of internet banking. I just called them once and they followed it up very keenly and made an appointment with me as per my convenience. The formalities were completed in minutes. This was all routine for all private sector banks who are tying to grab as many CASA ( current accounts / savings accounts ) as possible. The real satisfaction came when I told the bank representative that I don't have a passport size photograph with me and gave him a stamp size photo. The bank representative Hussain was happy to help me and when he visited me next time to hand over the debit card and cheque book, he also handed me 3 developed passport size copies of my photograph. Wow , this is going beyond my expectations. I just thanked him and thought that the bank has came a long way in keeping their customers happy.

So finally I am a happy ICICI Bank customer, hoping that the services remain as good as the initial experience.

Landing becomes even tougher ..

2010-05-29T08:59:00.000+05:30

I always had fears while the plane is landing, recent incidents of plane crash due to landing will make the air travel definitely tougher for me , I cant imagine how can the landing be so precise that it always hits the landing point, considering the speed of the plane and low visibility in the airports . May the soul of the people who have lost there life due to human error rest in peace.

I believe it also makes sense to travel by train ( as long as area is not naxal affected ) when the distances are within 6 hours. The time spend on airport in security check , boarding and collecting the baggage is considerably high which should also be included while the time comparison between train and air travel.

Stupid MRF Blimp

2010-04-26T13:37:00.000+05:30

The IPL 3 is finally over, it feels so good that now we no more need to hear phony phrases like " Carbon Kamaal Catch, DLF Maximum or Citi Moment of success " .

I really pity the well paid commentators, who were forced to speak these phrases and after months of repetition they might find it difficult to get rid of the new vocabulary. Advertizers should realize that broadcasting the same thing over and over again might create the top of the mind recall but can also irritate the customers.

The stupid Air Balloon sponsored by MRF called MRF Blimp was especially portraid as something which is extraordinary. It was not surprising when people were tweeting messages like " I'm just so happy that there's NO MORE BLIMP!!!! NO MORE BLIMP!!!!NO MORE BLIMP!!!!NO MORE BLIMP!!!!"

Arindam Choudhary Latest Gyaan

2010-04-26T12:04:00.008+05:30

Arindam Chaudhuri , Self Proclaimed Management Guru, Philosopher and Economist leaves nothing to chance when it comes to advertising his greatness in Media. No wonder thousands of students are paying Lakhs of rupee as fees in his countless number of colleges which he says are beyond IIMs. In last 10 years he has created a large chain of money sucking institutions by attracting innocent students who believed in his high profile media campaigns portraying the greatness of his institutions.

In 2005 his own students who felt cheated after getting admissions in the college started a blog to uncover the real Guru to the media. The media was not really interested in loosing there prime advertiser and the story never reached the common man through newspapers or television.

Mr. Choudhari now has started the campaign about his new book released in December 2009 " Discover the Diamonds in You " . The self proclaimed marketing Guru even forgot the need of providing respect to the audience in all your promotion exercises . His Advertisement says " After the successful Count your Chicken Before they Hatch and The great Indian Dream, The Management Guru Educates India with his new book , Blah Blah " . Mr. Choudhary, it will be a great help to all the Indians if you leave academia and stop Educating India.

Prof. CK Prahalad was not a socialist

2010-04-18T08:53:00.003+05:30

As the news of Prof. Prahalad's death hit the Indian media channels, every news paper reported there version of him. It really hurts me when prominent newspaper are publishing there baseless theories about the professor. A newspaper described him as " Guru of Poverty and Profit " and also described him to be a messiah of poor. I really dont agree with the reports ..

Prof. CK was a great management thinker , one of finest India has ever produced , a global citizen, person who gave world two great theories of " Core Competency" and " Fortune at the bottom of the Pyramid ". There are very few management thinkers who gave two management theories. But he was never a socialist , if one reads his book Fortune at the bottom of the pyramid he always concerned about profitability of corporation and highlighted that the bottom half of the population has great potential to provide profitability to the corporates and if the companies start targeting this segment the condition of even poor might improve. Prof. CK Prahalad was socially motivated personality but not a socialist.

The death of Professor marks the end of an era and the world will never be same after him .

Youngistan and Ungli Cricket!

2010-04-17T14:38:00.007+05:30

The new series of advertisement by Pepsi and Idea really make me think what are these creative advertisement gurus doing ?

We all know that Pepsi is targeting the young generation and half of India's population lies in that segment but what are you guys really want to show ? Is it a attempt of involving customer going terribly wrong ? What exactly is Sanjay Dutt doing in that huge suit which makes him look tiny ? I dont know ?

Idea has also disappointed its fan by the new Ungli Cricket advertisement , Indians are mad for Cricket but it doesn't mean that they can digest all kinds of shit thrown at them in the name of cricket. The whole set up looks clumsy and the idea of Ungli cricket looks really Ugly.

For Idea this advertisement is a total disaster as it was replacing the Hit " Idea can change your World " theme . Now for changing themes of the Hit campaign , you should really have some substance in your campaign ..

Both the advertisements are classic case of the waste of celebrity and also conveys that Celebrity endorsement never means that the campaign will be a hit. Some more thought should be put into the campaigns by big corporate houses as they have huge budgets for telecasting the advertisement and every time such ads are telecasted , people only loath them and left with no option but to switch the channel.

One more thought visit my mind frequently.. Why cant these celebrities tell the ad man directly " Boss Is mai Dum nahi Hai ! "

Tooth Ache in Flight

2010-04-16T12:14:00.004+05:30

Even a thought of going to dentist scares me but last year finally I had to go to the Dentist when the pain became unbearable . The doctor performed the root canal therapy ( RCT) one of the standard therapy for the tooth decay.

A year passed and a strange thing happened , I started feeling pain in the same tooth whenever I am in flight. This made me uneasy in flights as I just cant sleep or eat during the boring flight hours, after the flight lands every thing again becomes normal. Initially I thought its just a coincidence but the incident got repeated every time I traveled in last 2-3 months .

Finally I decided to search it on Internet which confirmed that its the sign of some infection in the tooth, as the pressure varies at higher altitudes and one can suffer tooth ache in Flights. A early sigh to go to a dentist ?

I am not still convinced about the theories on Internet :-)

Flip Side of Internet Advertising . .

2010-03-18T14:30:00.003+05:30

I was reading one of the articles today on Valueresearchonline.com on the problems with investment in insurance schemes which are offering highest NAV in last 7 years.
ICICI Pinnacle is one of the such schemes which is marketing itself using the website. Now in the photo the article is saying that all these schemes are nothing but crap and on the same page the advertisement still talks about investing in the scheme.

Vada-phone all set to enter Dog Business

2010-03-16T16:57:00.005+05:30

Their are rumors that Vada-phone, the global telecom major has been in the final stages of negotiation with its distributors to cross sell dogs along with its Mobile connections in India.

“The dog density in India is very low at 1.2 dogs per 1000 homes and its easier and more profitable to sell Dogs in India rather than selling mobile phone connections “ remarked Mr. Sunil Puri

Renowned politician and animal right activist Meneka Gandhi has come out in support of the company but have suggested to the company to market stray dogs of Jharkhand and West Bengal instead of Pugs. In a interview with media Menaka said that there are only 1.411 Lakhs Dogs left after the Maoist started there killing spree and the telecom company can help in protecting the innocent animals from dying.

Meanwhile RBI has raised its concerns regarding the new venture. Increasing the density of dog population can have inflationary pressure on the food prices and they have suggested to the finance ministry to put a special tax on all dog owners.

Why UP and Bihar are not progressing ?

2010-03-10T08:49:00.004+05:30

Inspite of rich heritage, human resource , having one of the most fertile areas in India , mineral rich states of UP and Bihar are not progressing .. Why ? Today I have got the answer of the same . Its the leadership crisis which has engulfed these high potential states of India . The leaders from different political parties does have the political will , vision and attitude to change the conditions of these laggard states. What a agony that a state like UP who can give the most powerful prime minister could not produce Chief ministers of even half of their ability for the state.

Lalu ji yesterday made the statement in public " If (they) think that the women would vote independent, then they are mistaken. If I asked Rabri to vote a certain way, do you think she would do otherwise? ". The statement is really disappointing and speaks loudly about the mindset of the leader. If even after education and interaction with the society people still carry such a mindset than only God can help them and I believe even the polical survival of people which such a mentality will be tough in future.

Microsoft distributing freebees ..

2010-03-05T16:47:00.003+05:30

Just got another forward from my friend and he didn't spare anyone in his contact list from getting rich , Mr. Bill Gates seems to be getting bored of his fortune by sharing it with the people who will forward his emails. May be he feels its better to do some charity rather than loosing it through dwindling Microsoft stock.

Really beyond my understanding, how can well educated people just can't resist even the remotest chance of getting rich . Be it small gifts like cap to electronic gadgets like Laptops to hard cash $$$ , they will keep mailing maximum number of people..

Mr. Bill Gates has also just announced that people who will forward this blog links will also be rewarded ! :-) Anyone Reading ... ?

100th Post !

2010-03-04T13:28:00.002+05:30

Never knew that this blog will remain active for so much time , Its been more than 1.5 half year and today I am writing the 100th post of freedom . Initially when I started writing the blog there was no fix theme of the blog and infact I never realized that Freedom posts has a theme. It was Sidharth Bedi , my close friend and and one of my inspiration for blogging who noted that Freedom does have a theme, He told me that your topics of post might vary but all of my posts make some kind of business sense. I must say that it was purely the confidence of few of the admirers which kept the blog alive and the frequency of post was maintained during all my phases of life .

Hope to continue this journey which I am finding very enjoyable . Thanks to all the readers of Freedom for your constant support and motivation throughout this journey.

Please find attached : OMG Google !

2010-02-28T23:58:00.003+05:30

Today when I was sending a official mail with attachment , I wrote ," Dear Sir , Please find attached blah blah .. " and I actually forgot to attach the document and just click on send ... Google saved me from so much embarrassment when the mail was not processed but a message popped up , " You wrote "find attached" in your message, but there are no files attached. Send anyway? "

The words which came from my mouth were literally , Oh My God , Google !

I felt so good after reading that message and quickly attached the file before sending the mail, My respect for google went up a few notches today ..

Then as usual I searched it on the internet if it is a new feature of gmail but only found out that its a pretty old one and was released way back in 2008 but it has its own key words to find wheather the mail should have attachments .

IIM Ahmadabad CAT 2009 Shortlist , Really Short

2010-02-28T16:20:00.008+05:30

The CAT-2009 results were finally announced today after days of speculations. The sanctity of the exam was questioned in the 3 month long exam exercise when students from across the country complaint about the irregularities in the exam . The problem in the online format are the stories which plagued the whole nation and people are even doubted the credibility of the top management of the IIMs which could have compromised on the terms of the exam with external agencies like NIIT , Pro-Metrics and others.

What came as the biggest surprise to me is just the list of 940 + announced by IIM Ahmadabad. In order to dilute the effect of exam problems , ideally IIMs should announce bigger shortlist and more weight age should be given to group discussion and Personnel Interviews .

I really don't understand the reason behind not increasing the number of calls when compared to last year.

Some of the Best Quotes for God !

2010-02-27T12:00:00.006+05:30

These are some of the quotes I love to read again and again ! Its like listening to Bhajans .

From Cricket Legends

"Sachin is a genius. I'm a mere mortal" ~ Brian Charles Lara

"If I've to bowl to Sachin, I'll bowl with my helmet on. He hits the ball so hard." Dennis Lillee

" I saw him (Sachin) playing on television and was struck by his technique, so I asked my wife to come look at him. Now I never saw myself play, but I feel that this player is playing much the same as I used to play, and she looked at him on Television and said yes, there is a similarity between the two...hi compactness, technique, stroke production... it all seemed to gel. " Sir Don Bradman.

"Sachin Tendulkar has often reminded me of a veteran army colonel who has
many medals on his chest to show how he has conquered bowlers all over the
world" - Allen Donald

"He is a perfectly balanced batsman and knows perfectly well when to attack and when to play defensive cricket. He has developed the ability to treat bowlers all over the world with contempt and can destroy any attack with utmost ease." - Greg Chappell

"I think he is marvellous. I think he will fit in whatever category of Cricket that has been played or will be played, from the first ball that has ever been bowled to the last ball that's going to be. He can play in any era and at any level. I would say he's 99.5% perfect" - Viv Richards

Some from Twitter by Tendulkar Fans

" ICC announced that Sachin Tendulkar's b'day i.e. 24th April will be will be celebrated as "World Cricket Day"

" A cricket fact - Most of the countries have history in playing cricket but INDIA has SACHIN TENDULKAR to rewrite it "

" All kneel down and praise whatever God you fancy for the mighty Sachin Tendulkar. "

Other credible Sources

" Beneath the helmet, under that unruly curly hair, inside the cranium, there is something we don't know, something beyond scientific measure. Something that allows him to soar, to roam a territory of sport that, forget us, even those who are gifted enough to play alongside him cannot even fathom. When he goes out to bat, people switch on their television sets and switch off their lives." BBC

" I'm hounored to take birth in the same Land, I'm blessed to breathe the same air, and I'm fortunate to see god in True Sense, No words to describe this great Man , Thanks Sir Sachin ! Kudos ! " Abhishek Mahajan via SMS

"They say that God created the world – the grossly flawed world that we know and live in. Sachin created another world where in people live in pure harmony till the time he is on the pitch. No egos are hurt when a guy in a Mercedes comes to a autowallah with a radio and asks “Kitne pe khel raha hai??“. There are no class distinctions when outside a TV showroom you can see people with expensive clothes standing alongside street vendors looking at the screens – all with the same wish in their hearts. And a world where a whole nation can rise with one voice if something goes against the God. Where else can you find such a homogeneous world?"-Sidharth Bedi

I believe time is ripe for Indian government to award him Bharat Ratna , Oxford to include the word Tendulkar in their Dictionaries, Ms-Word to recognize Tendulkar as a word and Tendulkar critics to bow in front of him and go to Himalayas .

Changing times ...

2010-02-26T10:34:00.005+05:30

The pace at which technology is progressing every day is really scary, there was a time when Hardware used to sell like hot cakes and there was no real value for software... IBM did this historical blunder of concentrating too much on Hardware and leaving scope for likes of Microsoft to develop a operating system , they realized there mistakes when they started incurring huge losses .. finally after many years they sold there hardware PC/Laptop division to Lenovo and now focusing on software developement...

Time has taken one more turn after few years, software programs became so important and vital that new range of hardware are designed just to accommodate certain software features... new handset with no appreciable change in designs but featuring advanced software applications like blackberries of the world took over the market by storm .. the change was so fast , within no time every one was checking there mails on Blackberry .

Now this was not enough for us , another big change , entrepreneurs are developing specialized hardware to accommodate just a few dominant websites , this is micro specialty feature and people are buying it without second thought. ,For example new mobiles which are face-book enabled are spending millions just in advertising their products , face-book might not be making any money but these new generation of Entrepreneur bring new innovation and changes in market are reaping the benefits ..

The change might be a bit easy for non paying users but is very tough for entrepreneurs and licensed users who spend lot of money in developing and marketing a application which goes off line in a flash .

I Play for the Audience

2010-02-22T13:29:00.005+05:30

When it comes to Indian Cricket Team, I must say they are totally committed towards customer satisfaction, they want to make every match really interesting for the audience. Yesterday in the close encounter with South Africa, Appam and party were again in top form, they made sure that the match goes to the last ball.. I have captured some of the excepts from the post match interview session with Appam

Reporter: How do you rate your performance yesterday?

Appam: My performance was awesome, I was good in both fielding and bowling, never got the chance to bat, could have been a complete day for me.

Reporter: You were taken for runs all round the field Appam , your fielding was awful, and you are still saying that you were good .. your batting could have ended a lucky escape for India ..

Appam: You are talking rubbish, In the field we play as global players, there were few of the players in the opposition of my IPL team,I cant mess around with my IPL career..

Reporter: So what was your approach in the Game

Appam: I want each spectator on the field to be involved, be its Indian or South African and it should be the prime work of all the players. We are entertainers and end of the day the thrill of the match should be kept alive. I wanted to throw the balls to covers but my accuracy was not upto the mark and the ball fell few feet away from Dhoni .

Reporter: What kind of result were you aiming for?

Appam : Tie would have been the best result and could have kept the interest of all the spectators in the remaining matches. Only my inaccurate throw needs to be blamed for the same.

Thanks Appam for the brilliant performance, just because of the players like you the interest in 50 over match is still alive. Appam has definitely taken the game to a different level.

Taste of Water ...

2010-02-19T12:27:00.003+05:30

When we travel from one place to another the usual belief is that the taste of the water changes? But is it just a myth or there is some real truth behind this belief? This is one of the doubts I always had, When I came to Jammu, I water didn’t tasted good and I have been drinking Aqua Fina water only from few days ,Infact I believe I have started to like the taste of Aqua Fina water from months of usage.

So in order to clarify my doubt I started to search it on internet and found an answer which was quite a surprise to me. The humans are actually not capable of tasting water, few of the animals like Dogs and Pigs are. Our tongue cannot taste pure water and the taste we find in drinking water is purely due to the extra minerals or impurities which are the part of it.

So why do we like water of particular brand or say particular city? May be because each one has different kinds of mineral or chemical impurities and due to daily consumption of a particular kind of water (impurities), one tends to like that kind of water.

My Introduction to stock markets …

2010-02-19T11:33:00.003+05:30

When I first heard about stock markets way back in 90’s, it was always from the kind of money my relatives or my neighbors are making in the business, they all became my role models. They used to be surrounded by people asking for tips to invest or rather trade in the market.I used to think if I have money, I will invest in a 5 Rs stock , it will jump to 20 than again I’ll invest in another 5 Rs Stock and it will again jump to 20 in few days , the money will become 16 times .. Oh is it so easy, I said to myself, I just need to have 1000 Rs and I will become millionaire one day..this was how I was introduced to the stock market and I was barely 8 year old.

My father used to invest only in IPOs (Initial Public Offering, where one invest in the companies going for listing). I used to wonder why he is so conservative with investment, why not invest in the rapidly moving stocks in the exchange, the money is so huge there, you need to just bet on one and make merry for yourself.

I used to check out daily stock prices of father’s holdings, finding out whether we are making money or losing? In a classic bull market everything used to move so fast, wow we are making money even in IPOs. Everyone just used to talk about share and its returns those days. I used to feel that everyone is so intelligent, I should also know about it. Then there was an Uncle living close to our home and used to always talk big about the latest killing he has made in the market. I used to think, he must be so rich.

The euphoria didn’t lasted long, the whole market crashed, few of the people were badly hit, few sold of their houses, Harshad Mehta became the talk of the town. The Uncle living next door was never seen again in the neighborhood, people say he fled with his family due to the fear of creditors..

Then I thanked my father for being conservative, It’s not so easy after all.. but still that feeling was there inside me ,may be these people were not wise enough I can still make money in this market .. They should have short sold the stocks and they could all had been so rich.. I can do it one day, I used to say to myself..

To be continued..

Insurance against Alien Kidnapping ..

2010-02-11T13:47:00.005+05:30

What are the chances of you being kidnapped by Aliens ? You can call it a Hollywood effect, some kind of phobia, good marketing game by Insurance company but there had been more than 40,000 buyers of such insurance policy which will protect them from it .

Goodfellows Insurance offers such a policy which provides massive coverage of $1.7 millions for just 400$ premium . Needless to say that insurance companies makes money out of diseased state of our minds.

The protection against terrorist is one more popular policy nowadays chances of which is again minimum but people are happy to pay a high premium for it !

Top Websites in India

2010-02-10T12:58:00.006+05:30

I was just surfing through internet and found alexa.com, it is one of the most popular website for finding out traffic of a site on Internet. It is being used as one of the industry wide benchmark for checking the popularity of the site . Infact one can very easily create his account on Alexa and check out the traffic ranking of it.

I was just curious to know that how many google websites are there in top 20 of India . The list goes as such .. ( Courtesy Alexa)

google.co.in
No surprises . Google , nice start (1/1)
google.com

Google wins it again 2/2
yahoo.com

Legacy of yahoo , which started the email revolution in India , quite deserving but more tech savvy people have moved on ...
facebook.com

This was a surprise (pleasant one ), I thought orkut is more popular in India .. online games like Farmville and mafia wars has improved its visibility ..
blogger.com

Another google website and host for our blogs .. 3/5
youtube.com

hmm , right there on the top , number one streaming videos website, even when webspeed is not great here . The content is just too good . (4/6) for google
orkut.co.in

Orkut, number 1 website of Brasil but at lucky 7 position in India , offlate it has got real tough competition from Facebook . ( 5/7 )
rediff.com

surprise surprise , an Indian website in Indian top 20 ,
wikipedia.org

I am a big fan of Wiki , they are doing a great social service .. Very deserving .
orkut.com

Orkut.in and Orkut.com combined might overtake facebook , what do you think .. (6/10) . wow google is killing the competition here
twitter.com

Social Networking redefined , I see great future for this website and should enter top 10 very soon .
indiatimes.com

Another desi website , good portal
linkedin.com

Recession might have improved the popularity of this website in India . Another social networking website just behind facebook , orkut and twitter .
live.com

Another surprise , Personally I found this website really good but never seen anyone surfing it though .
wordpress.com

Blogging is becoming a rage in Indians , second blogging webpage in top 20.
cricinfo.com

It has to be there , by far the best Cricket webpage , Automated page refresh after every 20 second might again be making it easier for it.
ie100.net

never heard of it ..
msn.com

Still popular , specially people love hotmail and the new page on Indian news is very popular amongst youth.
microsoft.com

Windows default homepages might be helping it to enter top 20 otherwise I dont see any daily need for anyone to visit this portal.
in.com

Indian website which has made waves in last year , another surprise for me .

Sites to look out for :

I believe two the website which can enter the top 20 in next 4-5 years : -

1. moneycontrol.com with excellent research on Equity markets .

2. valueresearchonline.com : - One of the best websites I have ever seen on Mutual Funds

Nursery Admissions in Delhi..

2010-02-08T09:35:00.006+05:30

In the last blog I was comparing the ease of admissions in good Engineering colleges of India and USA, now take a look at even tougher admissions, admissions in Nursery for Delhi kids.

Their is again a huge demand supply mismatch of good schools in Delhi inspite of good efforts by the government . Their are more number of children running for fewer seats and the competition is breathtaking. The admissions committee of nursery schools devise a 100 point system for admissions and the point allocation varies from one school to another.

So the first step for parents is to fill the forms for various schools and they will be awarded points on various parameters which often looks absurd to me. The common criteria are : -

1. Alumni : If any of the parents have been alumnus of the school they will get 5 to 10 points . Now is it the mistake of the kid if his parents are uneducated or were not brought up in Delhi.

2. Neighborhood :- It is again a most important criteria and nearly 20-30 marks are allotted to it. This criteria makes lot of sense as without it the ambitious parents will try and put their kids in far located or may be best schools putting pressure on both the child and the traffic of the city.

3. Girl Child : If the candidate is girl, she will be awarded 5 to 10 points which varies from school to school. Now its good to encourage girl child education but is it the fault of the young boy or his parents if he is a boy ?

4. Sibling : Delhi school wants sibling to study in same school and provides extra points for it which makes it tougher for first kid or parents who wants just 1 kid.

5. Single Parents : Single parents are given 5 to 10 extra points.

6. Your views on Education System : This is a qualitative analysis of your thought process based on which the parents are awarded points..

One of the welcome moves has been the removal of extra points for the parents education. It has not been taken very well by the elite class of Delhi but I fully support it and even believe that uneducated parents can even be given few extra points to educate their wards.

So after the shortlisting of children based on points its the interview round, previously there used to be interview of the candidate (Kids! ) but now it has been abolished by the government ,we still have interview of the parents . There are FAQ of the same which lot of parents are reading and preparing for it these days .. the day is not far when we have classroom coaching for the same..

T are parents who gets zero points out of the this point system, does it means that there children are not worthy of good education ?

College Seats.. Demand and Supply ..

2010-02-04T14:26:00.009+05:30

Just got hold of the data of selection rate (Engineering Courses ) in Top US Universities , courtesy app2us.com

1 Massachusetts Institute of Technology 23.5%

2 Stanford University 28.0%

3 University of California Berkeley 20.4%

4 Georgia Institute of Technology 36.8%

5 University of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign 19.2%

6 California Institute of Technology 13.1%

7 Carnegie Mellon University 21.8%

8 University of Southern California Los Angeles 46.6%

9 Cornell University 19.8%

9 University of Michigan–Ann Arbor 36.4%

If you compare it with Indian universities, getting admission is far tougher. To get admission in IITs one has to be in top 2% even after massive increase in intake of IITs. Needless to that there is supply crunch in this sector.

Indian Entrepreneurs tried to tap the opportunity by opening lots of new colleges and universities but the quality and infrastructure, education, professors is still lagging behind in most the new colleges. I believe next 7-10 years will see massive capacity creation of institutes with good education and infrastructure . It might come from Indian Business houses or foreign universities setting up their colleges in India to reduce the large gap in demand and supply of good educational institutes.

The issue of supply of good professor is one factor which might trouble the growth of the industry and it might lead to massive increments in the salaries of Professors.

Google Home Page

2010-02-03T08:14:00.009+05:30

Google just keep surprising me with its products and there features. Google homepage is the new addition to my favorite internet page. When I first looked at it , it just made me say " Oh, how could i miss it .. "

Normally homepage are not customized as per the user requirements and the website promote themselves by asking you to make there website as your homepage. In this new era of internet frenzy companies decided to provide more flexibility to the internet user by providing a platform where one can himself decide which website he want to follow on a regular basis. So now instead of wasting time in separately logging in to the different websites one can check out every thing at one go by logging into Google homepage . For example you can add Your Email account , social networking Website, Youtube , Blogs you follow, News Website, Weather Forecasting of your area etc on it and the moment you login to your Google ig account it will show you updates from all the websites. Its like a dashboard for you customized as per your requirements.

There are no advertisement on the homepage and you can even compose mails and chat with your friends through your gmail account connected through homepage.

IPL 3 : Pakistanis out of game

2010-01-31T16:18:00.004+05:30

New IPL controversy , None of the Pakistani players getting selected for IPL 3 by any of the teams. Good , Bad or Ugly ?

The way Pakistani players were shown the door back to there country, may not be the best way of sending a message. But the message is loud and clear, if you keep killing people, spreading hate and terrorism, you are not fit enough to be the part of civilized society.

Mr Shahrukh Khan has shown lot of concerns about Pakistanis not being picked up. If he thinks this is wrong, why don't he surrender his money churning KKR team . He said that Pakistan is a great neighbor, I dont know what greatness he has seen in the terrorist nation, his family might not be the one which is affected out of the Pakistan's terrorism but as a respected citizen of India he should make careful remarks about such issues.

We had enough of it now, Pakistan does not deserve any of the privilege of a normal country. They should reform themselves first before pitching for fair and equal treatment.

Volkswagen Beetle - Too high Price

2010-01-30T11:18:00.004+05:30

Volkswagen Beetle is easily one of the cutest car in the world and is finally arriving in India. I am really excited and waiting to see car running on Indian roads. But what came as surprise to me is the high price quoted by the company. The company is quoting price range starting from 20-22 Lakhs in India which by no means looks affordable.

If we look at the Volkswagen vehicles, they are known for yesteryear's styling and fun driving dynamics but are inefficient in fuel efficiency. Beetle is positioned as affordable car throughout the world and costs nearly 10 to 13 Lakhs in US. The car is called as people's car and is one of the largest selling vehicle in the world. Given the positioning of the product in the market I can't really understand the logic behind high pricing in India as it will be tough for the car to achieve high volumes at this price.

What segment of the market are they really targeting ?

Rocket Singh

2010-01-17T18:50:00.007+05:30

When I went to watch Rocket Singh, I was not expecting much from the movie but found it unexpectedly good and a must watch for all management professional. The movie is a story of a Sales organization rather than a sales man, surprisingly a bollywood movie without any hero.

I think the way movie's promos were designed, it couldn't gave a feel of the quality of the story and looked more like a comedy to me. The promos could have been made more meaningful to pass on the real message.

The characters of sales man looked quite original, dialogs were perfect. The experienced sales man acted really well and his dialogue " Jo sales man ulta nahi pad sakta wo andha hai " was awesome.

Few of the important messages from the movie

Importance of values and ethics in a business without which the business wont survive for long.

It also teaches us the importance of customer value proposition . When for one businessman the customer meant just sales value and for another customer satisfaction was more important.

The employees/ sales force does not meant just to be exploited, pressurized for targets. Just keep your employees happy, targets will itself follow.

The best message was to all the people who are employees and think that things can be done better . Become a Entrepreneur, its not that tough. " Risk to spiderman ko bhi lena padta hai, mai to sales man hu".

Kartikh's Team Spirit

2010-01-16T18:05:00.004+05:30

Mr Kartikh , one of the unrated players who rarely scores runs in double digits spoiled the party of Sachin by hitting the winning six against Srilanka. I have , never seen Sachin so clearly upset about not getting a century .

What Karthik did can never be justified by even the worst critics of Sachin, I am sure none of Indian Cricket team fans were amused by such display of batting by Kartikh. He should have curtailed his rare heroics and should have allowed Sachin to complete the century.

3 Idiots !

2010-01-15T09:48:00.008+05:30

Just watched 3 Idiot yesterday, truly refreshing movie with great messages. The movie reminded me of good old Engineering college days and the fun I had there with the friends. Yes it has larger than life character of Aamir Khan which looks a bit stretched at times but we need to discount it for the sake of bollywood.

Chetan Bhagat has all the rights to feel cheated as the movie actually has twisted all his scenes and non of it truly resembles 5 point someone but I still think that the real Five point someone story would have been tough to sell in the market. Five Point someone was a great story full of realistic scenes but something which is too specific to the Engineering colleges..

Interestingly movie also touches upon the real problems with Indian education system, fear of failure and pressure on children to perform and excel in regular educational streams . The freedom to choose your own profession is a bit subdued in Indian context and the problem is very clearly depicted in the story. The message is loud and clear to the parents which try to force there children into certain profession just for the sake of there own prestige and societal pressures.

Two of the personal learning from the movie

Al iz Well

Don't delay your dream for Long, do what you really want to do in life.

Some of the Dialogues I loved in the movie ..

Agar dost fail ho jaye toh dukh hota hai aur woh agar woh first aaye toh aur bhi dukh hota hai

Hum science ki taraf se hain

Millimeter Virus Ko bahar nikal

Saari umar hum Mar mar ke jee liye Ek pal to ab humein Jeene do Jeene do

Give me some sunshine

Al iz Well

Where are we Heading ..

2010-01-14T10:18:00.001+05:30

It’s been Sixty two year, seems to be a long period. What’s in store for our futures? Is India going to be anywhere close to a supreme power in the world?

If we do a reality check to see if we have any chance to be next China or USA of the world, it’s not going to be an easy task. Where exactly are we lacking?

For initial few years of my schooling it looked like the population growth is the real issue which eats up all the resources. After the advent of globalization the scenario changed and so was the thought process, population was no longer looked upon as the real weakness, we became the knowledge capital of the world, but no real breakthrough yet. Most of the population still doesn’t have the skills to get employed in the newly generated opportunities.

Where are we heading now? What are the plans to revive the condition of the deprived sections? What is the strategy for the next decade to take India to the next level?

I am hopeful that people at the Top have the vision for the future for this great country and they have plans to make significant difference to the life of 1000 million people.

N.D. Tiwari's Biggest Mistake !

2010-01-13T10:04:00.003+05:30

N D Tiwari Ji might be one of the fittest octogenarian in the world. 86 year old man was caught in bed with 3 women. The incident is nothing new for the politicians .

I only fail to understand that why did he offered his resignation on health Grounds ?

Good Wicket

2009-12-30T09:40:00.013+05:30

Over the years life has become tougher for bowlers, I don't know how can a youngster watching Cricket nowadays will get motivated to become a bowler when a bowler is thrashed to all parts of the ground.

Mediocrity is something which can be appreciated by more number of people and this is precisely the reason why Cricket authorities are trying to woo the audience by making pitches full of runs. It might make batting look more spectacular but it comes at the cost of being unfair to bowlers.

I still remember good old days when bowlers like Wasim, Waqar, Donald, Mgraw, Ambrose, Kumble, Warne use to test batsman for their skill, there use to be a great anticipation for contest between the bat and the bowl. Are we seeing it any of it these days ? It looks like we are just watching batting and not Cricket.

Sometime I really don't understand how can someone call a dead pitch devoid of any life for bowlers as a good cricketing pitch. Making the teams score 400 runs in 50 overs might be making Business sense for the Cricket Lords now but i strongly believe that its a short term trend and eventually people will get bored out of it.

Good Question ..

2009-12-23T22:41:00.000+05:30

Why do scientist/space mission looks for water on other planets?

Stay Hungry Stay foolish

2009-12-23T22:18:00.003+05:30

Read the book stay hungry Stay foolish , found it really motivating, interesting and a must read for all budding Entrepreneurs. I have noted down the parts I liked most.

Naukri.com

Don’t do it for money, Do it for your Passion!

Don’t exaggerate the cash flows, under commit and over deliver

Be generous with stake sharing.

Employ people who are smarter than you or atleast smart.

Learn the art of delegation!

Funding is important, don’t hesitate on Venture Capital Funding.

Educomp

Look for Need Gap.

The scalability of the venture.

Even if your salary is 15lpa, in 5 yrs you will earn 50 lakhs after tax , If you run a business for 5 yrs , it will be in crores very easily.

Feed Back Inc

Apni Aukat mai kaam karo , check the level of risks you can take

Adequately capitalized

A complete team , competency Mapping

Don’t bother about the peer pressure , “ Koi phikr nahi hai apna kaam kar “ ?

Mastek

If you want to keep your friendship with your college buddies for life, start a firm in a partnership.

Choose a leader not based on shareholding, age but on trust, respect and competence.

Team with trust for each other.

Implemented Balanced score card and incentive schemes very early.

Get 4-5 years of experience; learn at somebody’s cost, get a bit of feel, financial stability and savings.

Don’t just think of it, don’t just wish for it, Jump in it and do it if you are really serious.

More than synergies of skill, synergies of attitude and values is more important.

Subhiksha

Join the company where you want to operate

Work for smaller companies to get the exposure to the nuts and bolts of the company.

Shree RENUKA Sugars

The kinds of jobs which comes on Campus are not suitable for budding Entrepreneurship.

TEGA

Don’t give it up half way.

Have patience during the difficult time.

Plan to put 50% more money than you have calculated .

For midsized company, don’t spread in too many geographies as the management focus will dilute.

Eklavya School ( Sunil Handa )

Can join a company for 2-3 years

Join a company which makes you a CEO of a sick unit, and gives you power to make it profitable

Join a company which provides you opportunity to work fully on a new project from planning till implementation.

Executive Assistant to the CEO , Promoter

Narayan Murthy – Give capital stake to people who add value to your company, not to attract capital.

Edelweiss Capital

As human we grossly overestimate the short term and underestimate the long term.

Financial literacy is very important to run a business.

Make a person head, with slightly more equity holding, not more than 4 partners. Equal partnership is not possible.

Don’t worry about temporary loss of status, money and address.

India Infoline

Be prepared to fail, if you can’t take failures, Entrepreneurship is not for you.

Work for a good medium to big size company before jumping, It helps.

Select a leader, having 3-4 equal share partner and looking for consensus is the worst thing.

EXL

Don’t start fresh out of college, spend some time in industry.

BE conversant with Finance, VCs don’t teach you that, you should know the finance well.

Orchid Pharma

Aim to create value, lasting value, no dearth of capital in the country.

Mphasis

Diversify wherever possible, as u can’t see the future.

Not be over emotional about your company

Important Traits – Networking, Risk Appetite and Luck!

Promoter has to spend lot of time with customer; sales people cannot match yr energy and passion.

As a small company you need to very transparent, refund the money yourself if you did a bad job.

Learn about networking, cash flows, loans, negotiations before taking a plunge in entrepreneurship.

Try to tell your negatives first in power point, than come to your positives.

Take customer reference (Written) to add value to your power point.

Precious Formals

Business plan can be made by anyone, but plans are not enough.

Maths is Fun

2009-12-16T23:01:00.002+05:30

I was just searching on net the value of cos 30 and I came across a very informative website. They had displayed a easy way of remembering sine/cosine values.

sin 0° = sqrt(0)/2
sin 30° = sqrt(1)/2
sin 45° = sqrt(2)/2
sin 60° = sqrt(3)/2
sin 90° = sqrt(4)/2

cos 0° = sqrt(4)/2
cos 30° = sqrt(3)/2
cos 45° = sqrt(2)/2
cos 60° = sqrt(1)/2
cos 90° = sqrt(0)/2

The website http://www.mathisfunforum.com contain other interesting Mathematics games , puzzles too.

Obama's Party

2009-11-28T11:22:00.004+05:30

US President Mr. Barack Obama's ceremonial dinner party in honor of the Indian Prime minister being attended by uninvited guest has came as a funny yet serious incident. I am not too sure how would have the Washington taken it, had it been US president visiting India and we could not provide the proper security.

It also shows the serious problem which is being faced by the security agencies today . If they do too much of scrutiny with regard to the identity of the person, it might look little rude and people often feel offended. This is something which preciously happened with Shak Rukh Khan at the Newark Airport and he left no stone unturned to get the mileage out of it .

If the security agencies don't do the necessary due diligence and maintain the security of the place, it might lead to more serious security issues.

Farmville Updated Profitability and XP Matrix

2009-11-13T13:13:00.005+05:30

Updated till level 19 .

Crop	SP	Real Cost	Time	Gain	Gain/Hr
Grapes	270	100	24	170	7.08
Blue Berries	91	65	4	26	6.50
Rasberries	46	35	2	11	5.50
Pattaya Squash	160	80	16	80	5.00
Aloe Vera	85	65	6	20	3.33
Pepper	162	85	24	77	3.21
rice	96	60	12	36	3.00
Cannebaries	95	65	10	30	3.00
Pumpkins	68	45	8	23	2.88
Red Tulip	159	90	24	69	2.88
Pine apple	242	110	48	132	2.75
Straberries	35	25	4	10	2.50
Bell Peppers	198	90	48	108	2.25
Water Melon	348	145	96	203	2.11
Cotton	207	90	72	117	1.63
Soyabean	63	30	24	33	1.38
Squash	121	55	48	66	1.38
Daffodils	135	75	48	60	1.25
Antichock	204	85	96	119	1.24
Eggplant	88	40	48	48	1.00
Wheat	115	50	72	65	0.90

Crop	XP	Real XP	Real XP/Day
Blue Berries	1	2	12.00
Rasberries	0	1	12.00
Straberries	1	2	12.00
Aloe Vera	1	2	8.00
Pumpkins	1	2	6.00
Cannebaries	1	2	4.80
rice	1	2	4.00
Grapes	2	3	3.00
Pattaya Squash	1	2	3.00
Pepper	2	3	3.00
Red Tulip	2	3	3.00
Soyabean	2	3	3.00
Pine apple	2	3	1.50
Bell Peppers	2	3	1.50
Daffodils	2	3	1.50
Eggplant	2	3	1.50
Cotton	2	3	1.00
Squash	1	2	1.00
Wheat	2	3	1.00
Antichock	2	3	0.75
Water Melon	2	3	0.75

Crop Mastery - Farmville

2009-11-08T13:18:00.007+05:30

A new feature has been added to Farmville, a internet game on facebook, its called Crop Mastery . The mastery concept makes the whole Farmville game even more interesting. The mastery as name suggest is the farmer mastery in a certain crop , hence after a certain fixed number of crop harvest person is reaches a level of mastery in the crop. For example for soyabean after 150 harvest one star is given. Their is extra bonus of coins and XP for reaching each level (star) of mastery in the crop, for first start that bonus is 500 coins and 25XP.

One can easily see the number of crop harvested by him by clicking on market and taking the cursor on the crop for checking the number of harvests and crop total number of crops required to reach next mastery level.

I am yet to explore if after reaching 3 star mastery if we can gain some extra xp per harvest but from now on it makes much more sense to stick to good profitable crop with good XP/Day for some time for reaching level 3 of crop Mastery.

Mathematical Humour!

2009-11-07T10:35:00.011+05:30

Today browsing through internet I came across an amazing piece of trivia regarding Google Inc which I found both interesting and hilarious.

The founders of Google Larry Page and Sergey Brin are so fond of mathematics that they created virtual Mathematical Jokes while taking important financial decisions. Google went for S-1 IPO filing in April 2004 to raise as much as 2.718281828 Billion Dollars; here the number might sound familiar as it is exponential function (Inverse of natural Log).

When Google actually went for the IPO in August 2004, they sold 14142135 shares out of their own and rest of sub stakeholders. Here again the figure is precisely chosen as it represents square root of 2 (1.41412135)

They did it again when in August 2005 Google announced to sell another 14,159,265 Shares, this again closely represents Pie (3.14159265).

The numbers must be fitted or chosen after deciding the roundabout requirement of financing by rigorous financial analysis but it still speaks loud about a company which is so fascinated by the power of Mathematics that they live it every day.

Exploring Farmville ..

2009-11-06T11:10:00.008+05:30

Recently I started playing Farmville internet game on Facebook. Initially the game seemed boring but the graphics and animation attracted me and after 2 days I found the game really interesting and started playing it for nearly 1 hour per day.

Yesterday I tried to analyze my decision making regarding my crop selection in Farmville. Initially I thought why should I waste time in analyzing it and just visited my neighbor farms to see what they are growing but was unable to find any similar pattern in them. It might be because of variant individual likes and dislikes for different fruits, vegetable and flowers. Finally I decided to do some analysis on crop selection myself and found some really interesting patterns.

As I had reached level 11 only few crops are available to me for cultivation. I did the hourly profitability analysis based on real cost price (Cost price of crop + Ploughing charges)/crop and compared it with the selling price. Experience gain per crop is also an important variable in the game and hence it is again required to be used as a active decision variable.

Now if we refer to the table here we found that Bell peppers provide us gain of $ 2.25 Coins/hour in comparison of wheat which has low return per hour of just $ 0.9 Coins/hour. It will take the wheat farmer to harvest 2.5 crops to match the earning of one crop of Bell peppers in the similar time and on top of it one will even earn more XP/day.

Soyabean might just provide 1.38 Coins/hour but it provides good XP/day(3) , hence as per the need of the hour one can pick and choose any of them.

If someone can login to play the game after every 2 hours in the day he can cultivating Raspberries and can grow 12 hour crops rice in the night, by this process one can make maximize the profits and also earn maximum experience credits. If putting so much time in the game is not possible, one can choose Strawberries for slightly reduced profitability but more comfortable 4 hour cycle.

Getting ribbons also bring lot of money and XP in the game so one should carefully plan to hit them to increase the earnings and becoming a good farmer.

Similar profitability and experience analysis can also be done for the plants, animal and other interesting variables in the game.