Abhishek anand's blog

Working With Small and Medium Enterprise

2011-04-28T09:27:00.007+01:00

It's been few weeks of working as interns with a relatively small company based in Hyderabad,expertized in management consulting, business analytics, and outsourcing solutions. My keen interest in small and medium enterprises and philosophy of entrepreneurship in growing countries like India has allowed me to look closely and analyze the two sides of SMEs. Working with smaller companies has both positives as well as negatives

Positives:

It's exciting
You get to do a bit of anything / everything (if you want to, and sometimes if you don't)
You'll usually find the management aren't rigid and jaded, and are willing and able to take on new ideas and new ways of doing things. This means you get to have a say (to some extent, depending on your position) on how things are done.
You don't spend time working on horrible legacy code/model. You get to start from scratch, and (of course!) do it right...
Rules are flexible, processes evolving. So you get to see how things are done even when its not fully organized.

The negatives:

It's highly risky (check out how well funded the business is before you join)
Lots of start-ups have a good technical idea but no idea how to market it. That's fatal and depressing for employees.
Young techies running companies sometimes get it right, but just as often get it horribly wrong, so you may find yourself the victim of their inexperience / experimentation
You don't get much respect from clients and partners (but on the other hand, you might actually get to interact with them on a meaningful level, if you want to)
At times they lack in basic infrastructures at work place, that may well mean that you may not have air-conditioned, amiable work place. You may well be denied the very basic working conditions which will be expected of any established organization.

I'm sure there are hundreds of other positives and negatives in a relatively small sized organization like this. Problems and opportunities lives together conjointly. It's pretty common to see employees being unhappy in morning over some salary related issues and celebrating in the evening with a movie ticket organized by company. Life runs on and so does the organization. Wavy, as its journey's usually are, togetherness, management's personal touch and care lies somewhere in the core of the organization that in turn keeps employees bound and may be loyal. My overall summary is this: if you can afford to take the risk (or for some reason you believe it's a highly risk-free venture) and you enjoy the thrill of a roller-coaster ride, go for it. If you want stability instead, then go for a big, established company.

Bihar Election 2010: Ek Vishwas

2010-11-01T11:36:00.005Z

When it comes about Bihar, almost every Indian knows it with a preconceived notion, more or less in the same way as you have always known the last ranker in your school.

Having been born and brought up in a small village of Bihar has been more of a privilege to me than anything else. If nothing, since I started knowing the world I always knew that I need to do more as I may not be on equal ground. As I grew up, I worked in more than 10 states and 5 countries. I travelled across India and visited more than 20 countries. Still, a travel to back Home (Begusarai District) has always been the journey with more excitement for me. It brought new perspectives, thoughts and fresh enthusiasm in my mind and soul of the complacency. And of course, there were the charm of home food dahi - choora and litti-chokha.

The last travel to home was different however; it was more purposeful, more determined and with sense of purpose. A purpose that has been there ever since someone asked me "Bade hokar kya banoge?" In the world of fierce competition and rat race of finding something, I realized late that "Ab main 28 saal ka ho gaya hoon!". Stoppages in the path have become goals and goals started looking distant. It was a journey of self realization. Thoughts hover around things like "Has something really changed in Bihar, outside Patna and other urban cities?" If yes, do ordinary people, especially from the lower orders, notice these changes?

The experience of being Bihari has taught me not to go by perceived notions and wisdom. Statistics are dodgy, the national media is either deceivable or unfriendly and the local media suffers from an urban mindset. It was obvious I wanted to see things myself.

Changes were visible and at least a part of the answer was clear soon, as the vehicle and its occupants survived the many forays beyond the highways. Earlier expedition from Begusarai to Cheria Bariarpur (My Home Town!), a 24-km stretch, used to take two hours. The roads in Bihar have changed. They may not be the best in the country, but they are way better than what they used to be a few years ago. Does the quality of road make a difference to "Aam Admee – The Mango people"? I asked this question and was promptly silenced by some passengers waiting for a bus to Rosera. It used to take them a full day to transport a critically ill patient to the hospital there. Now it takes two hours.

The improvement in law and order is no less dramatic. Gone are the days of brazen rangadaari, of extortion, loot and kidnappings with open political patronage. These practices have not completely disappeared. Even though it's not completely vanished, yet the contrast with the past is there for everyone to notice. And it matters even to the landless laborer who can now ply his rickshaw without the fear of being dragged for begaar (unpaid labor).

As part of election campaign later, I visited the Musahar tola of a remote village to check if 'development' had reached the last person. Most of the students in the two-room school get books, uniform and a mid-day meal, but perhaps not much education. Elsewhere, people had reported that government doctors have started attending the rural health centers, but there was no hospital around this locality. Yes, every family had a job card under MNREGA, but could not recall the last time anyone got work under that scheme. Migration to Delhi and Punjab by large remains the main source of livelihood. There is still no electricity here. We have gotten cycle, and chawal (Rice), let Nitish come back to power, they said, and this time we will get real electricity, not just the solar lamps.

It was not usual of Bihar and more unusual of a Bihari to talk like this. Changes were reflective and the last person could also notice it. At many places even the opposition party candidate, deep down the heart had praise for Nitish Kumar and the changes that he has brought in last five years. This election is not about vikas (development) or even about bipaas (bijali, paani, sadak). This is really about Vishwas (Trust). Bihar is still a long way to go for the kind of change that could better the life conditions of every person. We are not talking about good governance, just governance. The five years of Nitish Kumar government — his government, neither NDA's, nor JD (U)'s --has earned the trust in Biharis, perhaps after three decades. This trust is shared across the caste and class divide.

Earlier Bihar elections were measured by the cast equations and now people were talking development. It was heartening to see that development work is primary reason for voting decisions for many voters. By all views, it is not caste versus development in this election. It is not as if Bihar has taken off the lens of caste. It is just that the power of this lens has changed, allowing for a better visibility of development and that is a really powerful change.

My love is calling!

2009-10-06T23:52:00.000+01:00

Ever had that weird feeling that someone out there is watching you and
caring for you? Who knows your love is just calling…

In my little heavenly abode
Often listening to those silent voices of God
I see glimpses of a pretty face
This paralyzes all time and space

In the nearest temple, as the bell rings
I feel her prayer and care for all small things
Suddenly all stops and there is no sound
But I still know she is just around

The two beautiful eyes are watching the moon
Says something, screams out, before it falls in my room
I sense, the eye drops rolling
And I know my love is calling

Each breath becomes a thousand sighs
As she gazes into my eyes
The hand of love and the pain that touch my soul
And the bell of destiny begins to toll

Wave of love begin to toss
Like the brilliant rainbow arching across
She is somewhere here, I need not roam
God help me find her and take her home

Women's Kiss Simplifies Our Olympic Heroes Pick!!

2008-08-11T19:15:00.006+01:00

Someone ought to inform Michael Phelps that no matter how many gold medals he wins, no matter how many records he obliterates or primal screams he unleashes, he cannot emerge as the hero of the 2008 Olympics.

We already have a hero. Make that heroes.

Phelps can swim his way to eight gold medals, eclipsing the record set by Mark Spitz , and still pale in comparison to the achievement of Nino Salukvadze and Natalia Paderina, neither of whom is destined for endorsement riches or the guest seat alongside Regis and Kelly.

One is from Russia, the other from Georgia. If you've been watching CNN , you know there are problems between the two countries.

Let's hear it for the girls, who with an embrace and a kiss on the cheek showed the world that the Olympic ideal, perhaps a flicker, not a flame, cannot be extinguished. We can only hope their leaders are watching, appreciating and downloading the message.

Their countries are at war. People are dying. They're suffering. How fast things change.

It was just last week that Russia's Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, was in Beijing, inside the Bird's Nest stadium, waving to his country's Olympic athletes during an opening ceremony for the ages.

And now Putin oversees the Russian Army's movements into South Ossetia, a disputed territory of Georgia. We will not address right and wrong, at least not as it applies to warring nations.

Compassion, Sympathy

We will, however, stand and applaud athletes who demonstrate a great deal more compassion, sympathy and common sense than our world, uh, leaders.

These athletes shared a medal podium. No glare. No ire. No hate. The 32-year-old Paderina, who serves in the Russian Army, took silver in one of the air pistol categories. Salukvadze, 39, won bronze.

It's not their medals we should celebrate. It's their mettle. And conviction.

They were friends before the tanks, missiles and bombs, before the killing and carnage. And they are still friends,

sharing a simple act they had to know meant so much more.

As their nations declare war, they say enough, already! Stop.

The picture of their embrace is, indeed, worth 1,000 words. Here are 44 more.

``If the world were to draw any lesson from what I did, there would never be any wars,'' Salukvadze said during a press conference. ``We live in the 21st century after all and in the 21st century we shouldn't really stoop so low as to wage wars against one other.''

How is Phelps supposed to top that?

The National Rifle Association likes to say that guns don't kill people. People kill people. Well, here are two ladies with guns who are trying to save lives. Remarkable.

``There should be no hatred amongst athletes, and there should be no hatred among people, either,'' Salukvadze said. ``The politicians should certainly sort out the situation. If they don't, we'll have to get involved.''

They're already involved. Pictures of their embrace are being beamed around the world. Naive, perhaps, but maybe it can change hearts and minds.

And to think, so much of the chatter leading into these Olympics focused on whether the athletes would make political statements. There were a range of topics to choose from, from bad air and human rights to Darfur and Tibet.

Political Talk

The International Olympic Committee made itself clear, that sports and politics don't mix. The U.S. Olympic Committee showed its cowardice when it failed to voice support for one of its own, former gold medal winner and human-rights activist Joey Cheek, whose visa was rescinded by the host government at the last minute.

Paderina pointed out that she and Salukvadze, both mothers, by the way, have been shooting together for a long time.

``Sports are beyond politics,'' she said.

It's easy to roll your eyes and harrumph when IOC President Jacques Rogge starts in with the mumbo-jumbo about the Olympic movement, better understanding through sport or, as is plastered on billboards throughout Beijing, One World One Dream.

Sometimes it's just easier to forget the outside ugliness, to wander inside the magnificent Water Cube and marvel at one man's drive for eight gold medals.

But then two women, friends from warring nations, share an embrace. The heroes of these Games have already been determined.

And to think that neither has a shot at eight gold medals.

Democracy or Deal-o-cracy?

2008-08-06T13:33:00.014+01:00

“... THAT government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not vanish from this earth” said US President Abraham Lincon speaking at the dedication of a national cemetery at Gettysburg in 1863. It is perhaps the best-known definition of democracy in American history.

In the Indian context, our Parliament has always been well represented by men and women coming from various states, speaking different languages, following diverse religions and belonging to different casts. Members’ educational, economical and professional backgrounds have also been vastly different, but all of them had one qualification in common — they were elected by us. Thus, they have been people representing the people of their constituencies, in running the government for us, the people at large. After all, we are the world’s biggest democracy!

Despite all its positives, decision making in a democratic government is by majority vote and is never known to be quick and fast. Democracy is perhaps the most complex and difficult of all forms of government. It is filled with contradictions and requires its members to labour diligently to make the government work with accountability. We are probably experiencing one such difficult situation now and seem to be drifting in the undesirable terrain. Right from the day Left decided to withdraw support to the UPA government, all that we read and hear about is ‘deals’. At the centre of all is the nuke deal. But the government requires 272 (majority) before 123 (agreement) and that has thrown up the game of politics open to all sorts of deals.

We hear about an airport being renamed to garner a few votes and wonder if Taj Mahal and India Gate will also be named after some MP’s wife or a daughter in the coming days. We see MPs talking to TV channels from their hospital beds and party leaders pressurising the attending doctors to let the MP travel to Delhi on the voting day. Some MPs are being persuaded by promises to consider nationalisation of mines in their area and others are being offered ‘structured deals’ , such as CM chair in the state along with two ministers-of-state positions in the Union Cabinet or the desired Cabinet berth at the Centre and deputy CM post for the son. A few MPs are also agreeing to indirectly support the government by abstaining and are silently extracting their pound of flesh.

Then, there are smaller parties, demanding creation of separate states, possibly with a vision to become the USI (United States of India), comprising over 500 states, each covering the area of a constituency. And there are discussions for introduction of industry-specific or company-specific windfall taxes, threatening to end up in some MPs coming up with a list of permanent account numbers (PANs) that they wish to be taxed at higher rates.

There are interventions at the highest level to patch up differences between big businessmen and there are usual lunches/dinners being organised by political parties to hold their flocks together. Finally, there are TV channels and MPs openly discussing anything from Rs 25 to 100 crore as the price for one vote in favour of the government. And what else than a promise for release can be a deal with MPs (with criminal record) in jail to enlist their support, when they go out on bail to vote in Parliament. In short, it seems to be a government of the deals, by the deals and for the deal. Isn’t that deal-o-cracy ?

In such a cacophony of personal and party specific deals, one really wonders what our MPs are thinking about the nuclear deal. What do we get and what do we give in by signing up 123 agreement? Are we running our nuclear power plants at full capacities? Has our country fully exploited its potential for hydro power? Have the party think tanks shared their viewpoint and aligned all their members? Or are fence-sitters planning to defy the party whip and realign themselves in anticipation of early polls? Isn’t current level of inflation that is affecting the common man a bigger concern than the nuclear deal? Are our MPs not bothered to know whether the loan waivers granted in the budget reaching the target farmers or not? None of these may seem relevant in the dirty deal-o-cracy .

To get our elected members focus on real policy issues and ensure good governance, we actually need the government to get out of ‘running businesses’ and concentrate on its key roles viz. defence, law & order and delivery of justice. Once the government gets out of businesses, MPs may not see value in demanding specific ministries and there will be no deals to strike. Till such time anything like that happens, may the MPs who represent us, responsibly exercise their votes, for our democracy to triumph over the dirty deal-o-cracy !

How BRICs have changed the world?

2008-08-06T13:33:00.013+01:00

In 2001, Goldman Sachs came out with the concept of the BRICs - Brazil, Russia, India China - as high-population countries that would dominate the world economy by 2050. At the time, global financiers sneered that this was a facile formulation to get business from the gullible. Very little global finance trickled into the stock markets of the four countries in 2001.

Seven years later, the BRICs have outperformed the most optimistic projections. Goldman Sachs had predicted that these countries would account for 10% of world GDP by the end of the decade. They have already crossed 15%.

Analysts have offered various explanations for their success. Let me suggest one more. Without consultation or planning, the BRICs have stumbled into a four-way division of labour yielding huge gains in productivity and synergy.

China has specialised in manufacturing. India has specialised in service exports. Russia has specialised in energy. And Brazil has specialised in other commodities (iron ore, sugar, ethanol, soyabeans, beef, orange juice). All four have become world-beaters in their respective specialisations.

Of the four, only China looked remotely like a champion in 2001, and it too was struggling with social discord in interior provinces that had missed the great export boom. In 2001, Russia was in financial straits after defaulting on its external debt in 1998, Putin was struggling to re-establish Moscow's control over the provinces, and the price of oil was just $18/barrel. India's growth rate had plunged after 1997, and in 2001 was down to the 5.8% level of the 1980s. Brazil had barely overcome its financial crisis of 1998.

Seven years later, the BRICs have exceeded all projections. China ontributed more last year to incremental world GDP than even the United States, whose economy in absolute terms is four times bigger. India has averaged almost 9% growth for several years. Russia has become an energy superpower, and in place of its huge current account deficit in 2001, it now has a huge surplus approaching $200 billion a year. Brazil, with 5.4% growth, is the slowest of the four, yet is among the few countries that looks like growing strongly even in the coming global recession.

Few Indians realise how dominant Russia has become in energy. I am sure 99% of readers think Saudi Arabia is the world's biggest oil producer. Wrong. Saudi Arabia has the biggest oil reserves by far. But in terms of production, Russia at 10.1 million barrels/day beats Saudi Arabia's 9.3 million barrels/day.

Russia is even bigger in natural gas. Its dominance in world gas reserves parallels that of Saudi Arabia in oil reserves. Huge new gasfields have been discovered offshore in the Arctic Sea, encouraging Russia to lay claim to the Arctic seabed all the way to the North Pole. Western European governments are horrified to find themselves woefully dependent on Russian gas for future energy needs, but see no alternative.

Brazil's commodity dominance is not well known in India. It is a huge producer of iron ore and sets the world price. This year Vale, Brazil's biggest producer, negotiated a 65% increase in iron ore prices with East Asian importers like China, and the world market (including India) has followed suit.

Brazil has a huge land area and ample rainfall, but a modest population. So, at a time of soaring prices, it is among the few countries that can rapidly expand high-quality acreage and exports. It is the world's largest producer of sugarcane, from which it makes ethanol that is much cheaper than petrol, and fuels Brazil's ethanol-based cars. It is the biggest exporter of soyabeans and orange juice. What's more, it has discovered the two biggest oilfields offshore in recent years,
containing an estimated seven billion and 33 billion barrels respectively.

Indian readers are fully aware of China's phenomenal success in manufactured exports, especially labour-intensive items like garments, footwear and toys. Readers are also fully aware of India's phenomenal success in service exports, especially software and business outsourcing, which are projected to touch $50 billion this fiscal year. Notwithstanding huge increases in salaries in the last five years, Indian companies remain as competitive as ever, and their future looks bright.

Two final points need to be made about the unplanned but serendipitous specialisations of the four BRICs. Specialisation brings a country high benefits from productivity growth, but also creates vulnerability. In the event of a technological change or sudden fall in global demand, a specialised producer can be particularly hard hit.

The BRICs, however, have all become producers of a wide range of manufactures and services, including high-tech ones. Brazil is the most high-tech manufacturer in Latin America, and even has a competitive aircraft industry. Russia has more engineers than the US, and so should do well when its Soviet-era industries are completely replaced by 21st century ones.

India's merchandise exports have been sizzling recently, and Indian manufacturing companies are acquiring dozens of giant multinationals. China, which started as an exporter of labour-intensive goods, has moved sharply up the value chain. Less than half its exports are now labour-intensive, and it is a big exporter of heavy machinery and chemicals. This diversified profile means that the BRICs will be resilient in the face of external shocks that may hit their specialised activities from time to time.

The second point to be made is that the different specialisations of the BRICs are synergistic and self-reinforcing. The fast growth of India and China, both of which are at a material-intensive stage of development, has helped spark a huge and rising demand for commodities (which benefits Brazil) and energy (which benefits Russia).

Brazil's stockmarket is among the few to remain strong in 2008 because markets think commodity demand from countries like China and India will remain strong even if there is a global recession. That looks optimistic to me. But if indeed this happens, the BRICs will create history. Never before have commodity demand and prices remained high in a recession.

Next generation of NRIs to dominate the world of finance!!

2008-08-06T13:33:00.010+01:00

A dozen young Asians, most of them ethnic Indians, are in the Daily Telegraph's Made It By 40 list of Britain's best young entrepreneurs, using a yardstick the paper said they all understand - wealth.

Heading the list - among several run by the paper this week - at number nine is Baljinder Kaur Boparan, who along with her husband Ranjit owns the chicken processing company Boparan Holdings. The family is said to be worth 130 million pounds ($250 million).

The others, with fortunes ranging from 56 to 106 million pounds, are:

* Mehan and Raj Sehgal of the fashion company Visage Holdings;

* Sanjay Vadera of the Fragrance Shop retail chain;

* Mayank Patel, who owns Currency Direct, a foreign exchange specialist;

* Sanjay Kumar of the textiles company Rajan Group;

* Arif and Munaf Patel, whose Faisaltex group of companies supplies socks, underwear and other children's clothing to discount stores;

* Shafqat Rasul, who runs E-Net Computers, claimed to be the biggest buyer of DVD and CD-media in the world;

* Sandeep Chadha, whose Supreme Imports Group is one of the largest sellers of batteries in Britain;

* Raj Chatha, heads of the Halifax-based European Food Brokers, a major wine and beer company;

* Ajaz Ahmed, founder of Websign and interactive marketing agency AKQA, which employs over 650 people in New York, Washington DC, Amsterdam, Singapore, London and San Francisco.

All are 40 years or under, but their success does not surprise another former award-winning entrepreneur.

"These people are entrepreneurs, not businessmen. They love owning their businesses and hate being told what to do," said Ab Banerjee, chairperson of Immediance, a global online trading platform for institutional investors and company shareholders.

"Their story is part of the way Indian immigration has taken place," said Banerjee, a former newspaper director whose Raw Communications was named by The Times newspaper as the fastest growing British private technology company in 2001, when he was only 36.

"The first generation came here, found jobs and put their children through the best education. The second generation has now come into their own," he said.

However, the Daily Telegraph's list shows that many of the Asian entrepreneurs are still engaged in traditional Asian businesses: textiles, fashion, food processing and wholesaling.

Analysts predict the next generation of NRIs will dominate the world of finance. With a large number of them graduating from top universities to enter the banking and financial services sector, it's only a matter of time before they start out on their own.

"They have their entrepreneurial drive already. They will be money managers," said Banerjee.

The drive and determination are evident in the Daily Telegraph list.

Chadha came to Britain with his parents at the age of two, but fled back to India at 15 in order to escape racist bullying at boarding school. He was the only Asian at school, and wore a turban.

Returning after a year, he cut his hair and began helping out with his father's business, selling fancy goods - imported clocks, watches, radios and toys - from the back of a van.

Today he is 40 and owns Supreme Imports, which sells 180 million batteries a year - roughly 20 per cent of the British market - with a turnover of over 200 million pounds.

The dollar downing

2007-11-28T09:52:00.001Z

No seriously, how much lower will the dollar go? It's gone lower beyond Mallika's neckline and even Rakhi Sawant's décolletage seems nun-like proper in comparison to this plunge. Is that how low it goes or will it plunge further?

78 per cent of Americans say that the economy is getting worse, according to a recent Gallup report. So we poor third world types better be ready for some tough times because the greenback today looks increasingly like what the Bangladeshi taka looked like a few years ago. It's safe then to say, "Dollar to do takey ka nahi."

Why if Karzai is given a free hand, the Afghani will be equal to the dollar. The ISI can then trade their ill-gotten dollars with the Afghani.

And those wealthy Indians, who stashed away dollars without Chidambaram's knowledge, weep copious tears because the taxman is having the last laugh. Your dollars are not worth the Samsonite suitcase it is packed away in.

Try traveling anywhere in Europe with dollars instead of Euros. You are met with stony looks at currency exchange counters. One gets the same look that Arab sheikhs got changing dinars few months after 9/11.

Recently in Moscow, I tried paying my hotel bill in dollars. I was politely and firmly ticked off. "No dollars here, or anywhere sir." I presume she meant anywhere in Russia, but she would probably not be too off the mark if she meant the world minus the US and England. Oh yes in England the Bureau de Change (as you would have gathered I hate paying commission fees) accept the dollar as if accepting 'shagun' from a relative. The US is their relative from across the pond, you see.

Once the oil barrel become a $100 and more, Americans will know what it feels like to be Indians, who hesitate to order a double iced, skimmed venti latte at Starbucks wondering how many nimbu paanis you could have bought with those Godforsaken dollars. With the rupee growing stronger there are more Indian billionaires than before we are told. K P Singh of DLF replaced Azim Premji in some billionaire lists. More power to our real estate maharajahs. They are the true blue blooded types in the new millennium.

Now, how about a Sahara Mall or a DLF Plaza in Texas? Right in the middle of Dubya land? The Texan product, George Bush, has brought the dollar where it is today. He just might take the Rupee to new heights. Of course he will welcome us Indians, after all he is our best bet, right Mr Prime Minister?

Courtesy: Economic Times

Coz that's where the Money is!

2007-10-02T14:33:00.000+01:00

When legendary robber Willie Sutton was asked why he only robbed banks, his answer was rather simple: “Because that’s where the money is”. Investors follow a similar logic on the financial marketplace. They flock towards assets with the strongest growth characteristics, particularly during the later stages of a bull market when growth is in short supply.

Emerging markets have turned out to be the biggest beneficiaries of the Federal Reserve’s rate cut two weeks ago even though the primary objective of the US central bank’s action was to stabilize the US financial markets and limit the negative macroeconomic follow-through from the credit crunch. Within the emerging market complex too, markets with faster growing economies such as China and India recorded outsized gains despite the higher valuations already assigned to stocks in those countries.

This behavioral pattern is consistent with past cycles when any increase in global liquidity following a crisis headed more towards asset classes exhibiting relative strength rather than in the direction of weak performers. After all, most developing countries did not need any monetary help as their economies continue to grow at a rapid clip even in the face of a US slowdown. It is precisely such solid growth credentials that make emerging markets even more appealing for global investors who know it’s difficult to reinvigorate a weak asset class at this late a stage of the economic cycle.

The global economy has followed a remarkably uniform path over the past fifty years. Typically, a new economic cycle gets underway at the start of each decade and the rising growth tide initially lifts all the boats. Midway through the decade, central banks begin tightening monetary policy in order to pre-empt any inflation breakout. Higher interest rates always lead to financial turmoil in some part of the system.

Central banks then begin to adopt an easing bias, as the priority shifts to avoiding a wider crisis especially when inflation is usually not a major issue as yet. This sets the stage for a bubble in the few asset classes unaffected by the crisis as they were never in need of extra liquidity. By the end of the decade, the whole cycle begins to unwind with inflation ending being a more general problem as productivity gains diminish, leading to more concerted central bank action.

Japan in the 1980s and the US in the 1990s were winners of the late cycle boom. The scene is being set for emerging markets to be the mania of this decade. For the first time since the mid-1990s, emerging markets are now trading at the same valuation as developed markets. The price-to-earnings, or P/E, ratio based on one-year forward earnings is currently at 14 for both the asset classes. What most analysts tend to forget is that before the series of crises broke out in emerging markets in the mid-’90s, starting with the Mexican peso devaluation in December 1994, emerging markets used to trade at a premium to developed markets.

At the peak of their relative performance versus developed markets in September 1994, emerging markets were trading at a P/E multiple of 22— a 25% premium. The thinking back then was that emerging markets deserved to trade at a higher valuation given their stronger growth attributes. However, the disappointing earnings growth profile of companies in developing countries — due to their lack of focus on profitability and poor corporate governance — led to a substantial de-rating. Money fled to the US in a massive way later that decade with earnings growth exploding of US companies on the back of a tech-driven boom.

It’s remarkable that despite a more than a four-fold jump in emerging market indices over the past five years it is only now that emerging markets are trading at parity with developed markets in valuation terms. Earnings growth has been the main driver of returns for emerging markets but now it seems investors are once again gaining the confidence to pay a higher multiple for the asset class.

By the time this cycle ends, it’s likely that emerging markets will trade at a considerable premium. The power of P/E expansion is illustrated by the fact that if emerging markets get back to their 1994 P/E ratio of 22 it would translate into another 60% gain for the asset class. In addition, there will obviously be some earnings growth and even currency appreciation for the dollar investor.

P/E expansion is one of the most difficult concepts for financial analysts to comprehend. Many intangible factors drive this ratio, ranging from long-term growth and inflation expectations to just market sentiment. What history suggests is that as the breadth of a global economic expansion begins to narrow during the second half of a decade, investors tend to concentrate their bets in the few remaining growth areas.

Little wonder, capital flows to emerging markets have begun to accelerate following the credit crisis in the US. The challenge will be when inflation begins to rear its ugly head in the US or China — the main suppliers of global liquidity. It is important to understand that the Fed is currently able to respond to the credit crunch and cut interest rates because inflation is well behaved. In China, meanwhile, inflation is turning out to be a bit of a problem. However, the Chinese authorities have so far only taken incremental steps to tighten policy as they view food price inflation to be a non-monetary phenomenon and inflation minus food is rather tame.

Emerging markets are currently enjoying the best of both worlds: growth dynamics remain strong led by China while liquidity is abundant as the Fed reacts to weak US growth. To prevent a bubble, central banks in emerging markets will need to de-link their monetary policy from the US. But with inflation not yet a major concern in many developing economies and China reluctant to let its currency appreciate in a meaningful way, central banks are in no hurry to engage in any major regime shift. It’s no surprise then that global investors are piling into emerging markets, as that’s where the money is.

Blue Shirt With A White Collar

2007-08-31T13:42:00.001+01:00

Yuppies have been one of the central characters of the well-chronicled "India Shining" story. No account of the country's economic surge would be complete without glowing references to record salary increments, unheard of perks and a massive consumer spend fuelled by the emergence of the rich twenty something professional. The brightest, smartest, wealthiest and the youngest of footloose Indian executives – mostly living in big cities and swanky offices – hog all the limelight and make it to glossy magazine covers. We've been swamped by heady accounts of freshly minted Bschool grad and IITians striking it rich or of compulsive IT and BPO job hoppers who manage to nearly double their salary with every move.

But in reality, white-collar workers or those in supervisory, non-manual jobs are very different from the popular mediahyped imagery. Contrary to the stereotypes, most of the white-collar employees are over 35, and have put in almost 12 years in the profession. And anybody who spends at least five years in a job won't qualify as a job hopper. Half of the whitecollar workers are plain graduates drawing an average monthly salary of Rs 13,000. Around 70 per cent belong to single-income households and an equally big number of them come from non-metro cities.

Just when you may have decided to switch off on this strange breed, here's what might sound familiar – 8 out of 10 want to change job in the next six months - salary being the biggest grouse.

For the world, white-collar workers in India have a glamorised face often referenced to signal the surging fortunes of a nation on the rise. Dominant themes around fat salaries, multiplying job offers and global work environment for the jet-setting lot provide easy and dazzling imageries of a changing India.

In reality, the world of executives is changing – though not as fast and as dramatic. What's the real face of white-collar workers? Where and how do they livework ? What do they aspire for? Has the job-hopping bug hit all? Is salary 'The Factor'? The Corporate Dossier-Juxt-Consult, an online research arm of Indicus Analytics, conducted one of the largest studies to understand and unravel white-collar workers in India. With 16,500 respondents, covering 4,700 companies in 31 cities, the study has been designed to represent 160 million urban Indians.

They aren't as glossy as often perceived. The survey reveals a face that's middle-aged, conventional, stable, mostly graduates with a majority (8 out of 10) employed in the private sector. With 68 per cent living in non-metro cities and close to 46 per cent drawing a monthly salary of less than Rs 13,000, "their white collars appear greasy – not starched," says Sanjay Tiwari, director, JuxtConsult. Only one in eight are very well off having more than Rs 50,000 monthly income.

But that's a face that's changing dramaticall . In the next seven years, India is expected to add around eight million new workers every year – one in every four new worker in the world will come from India. This will happen at a time when the government's role is increasingly shrinking both as a job creator and attitude influencer in India's job market as private sector outpaces them. "Stable, 9-to-5 job with defined predictable career-paths - everything that defined a government job is getting redefined," says economist Laveesh Bhandari who also heads Indicus Analytics.

These shifting tendencies are already beginning to show.

While in one hand average white-collar workers (surveyed) have spent close to five years in their last job, a high 80 per cent say they will be open to or may consider a job change in the next six months and one in four aspire for ESOPs. The stability-loyalty on the surface is being stirred by a dramatic questioning of norms on the inside. If nothing, this shows a growing willingness to experiment across age, hierarchy and sectors. White-collar workers will change in many other ways. The entry-level age – of 23 years that the survey reveals – too is coming down with the younger generation. It is expected to settle around 20 years, experts say.

So far clerical jobs of accountants, general management, administration dominated the entire pool comprising 33 per cent of the total. Emerging but critical functions of the future like IT, HR, designing comprised barely 7 per cent, 3 per cent and 5 per cent respectively. As the services-led economy grows, some of these new upcoming functions will gain importance even as some of the old clerical jobs get eliminated due to automation and standardisation of processes. "Changing nature of economy will demand a new definition of white-collar workers," says Manish Sabharwal, chairman, TeamLease.

Communication skills, basic computer literacy – softer skills will become critical for gaining entry into this class. Madras University has made it mandatory for postgraduates to clear a course on soft skills. CII in partnership with BPO firms is helping train 250 teachers in Chennai for the course. After the pilots, the course will be made mandatory for the undergraduates as well.

There's another potential area of change in the SME segment. Forty per cent of the white-collar workers are from SMEs where productivity and efficiency levels are poor. The survey reveals that on an average, one senior manager manages only six white-collar workers, the ratio getting better with size. "I see that already changing," says B Santhanam, chairman, national committee (HR), CII.

Absence of processes and lack of standardisation means higher level of human intervention required – this is what explains the poor manager-worker ratio. Smaller companies, growing rapidly, are actively looking at automation and outsourcing of non-core functions to improve efficiency levels. "This is the only way they can handle growth, attrition and employee aspirations, they realise," says Santhanam.

Overall, only 30 per cent of the whitecollar worker households come from multiple income households (read working spouse). This dips further in the government and PSUs to 20 per cent of the families as against 33 per cent in the private . Further, most under Rs 20,000 income households are single income and the likelihood of it being multiple income rises as one moves up the economic ladder. Both the drivers for a working spouse – better incomes and more private sector jobs – will only strengthen in future.

But what doesn't seem to be changing is the geographical skew in jobs available for white-collar workers. So far it's the government and PSUs who have been the biggest creator of these jobs in the north and east whereas private sector has dominated the south and west India (66 per cent of the jobs). As the government vacates its role in larger number of economic sectors and private sector jobs outpaces them, this skew will intensify in future . "You will see lot of political reaction on issues like reservation etc going forward ," says Abheek Barua, chief economist , HDFC Bank.

Simply because a large chunk of new workers will come from the northern and eastern part of the country where fertility rates are still higher whereas more jobs will be created in the west and south. But remember, a large part of India's workforce will remain in the self-employed segment, warns Ajit Ranade, group chief economist, Aditya Birla Group. Poorer BIMARU states like UP and Bihar, with weak educational infrastructure and even weaker job prospects, are adding more workers.

The transition from blue to white will be a long and ardous journey.

Courtesy: Economic Times

Are you interested in Equity Market? Check-out Saturday watch on Market Outlook
Want to know market? http://knowmarket.blogspot.com/
Visiting India? http://inditour.blogspot.com/

The sweet and sour Indian story from Viswanathan Anand

2007-08-16T16:16:00.001+01:00

(The author is world chess champion, Viswanathan Anand)

In 2007, as we complete 60 years of Independence as Indians, we seem to have got a new sense of identity. Not just the kind of identity that comes from having Aloo Tikki burgers or Bollywood pop but a true sense of being a country. As we add to an impressive list of billionaires and top class corporate, Indians are extremely proud of seeing the Indian Tricolor fly high.

For me personally, becoming World No. 1 meant that it was not a first for me but a first for my country. Recently I was with the mayor of a picturesque German town. She mentioned that they were now keen to have Indian tourists rather than Japanese. This was an eye-opener. She said Indians came, stayed at the best hotels and spent on fine food and wine. They were not keen on mass tourism in crowded buses. This is a paradigm shift. India is now seen not as a country with a future but a country where the purse strings are beginning to open and the purse itself is bulging. As the Sensex zooms to new levels, Indians silently feel that the country is prospering. Images of patriotism are now new symbols of prosperity.

All this makes me feel very proud to be part of a country that is rich in its past and more likely in the future.

Recently a Spanish magazine ran an article on the state of Indian women. To say the least it was highly derogatory and general in its assumption. My wife called the editor to complain about the lack of sensitivity and the general assumptions made to call all Indian women subservient and modern-day slaves. It was most saddening to see that some countries perceive us as an impoverished society. The fact that we have elected women as President and Prime Minister, CEOs, traveled to space didn't cut. The answer was coldly that "but most of your women don't have a chance".

Although I hate to admit it, female infanticide still exists in certain states. It is altering the gender ratio in some states that are among our more prosperous states. This is what is disturbing -- economic wealth alone is not an indicator of social progress. We have women at two ends at the spectrum fighting against odds to achieve. For some, the odds are just life and death.

As we power ourselves to be the knowledge powerhouse of the world, we are proud to bring computers to the farmer. I have myself seen such touching examples of women using the stone they use to roll chapattis as mouse pads. Micro credit has been a boon to many farmers and big corporate have come up with novel ideas of giving the farmer a better deal. But being a highly fragmented country you see some farmers self-immolating themselves for the lack of the very same privileges some of their fortunate brothers now seem to use as normal business practices.

I have travelled to many countries and met Indians in countries like Iceland and Estonia. The one striking feature is we blend in very easily. We are able to assimilate other cultures and never impose our beliefs on others. Somehow we are able to leave that baggage at home. When I hear of untouchability being an issue or caste issues being raised it rattles this equilibrium.

It takes just one tale like that to mar 100 perfect images of the Indian story. It then becomes the story we get identified with. When someone asks me which caste I belong to or does my caste mean I go to heaven, I, honestly, have to say I don't think of it. My main aim in life is that I play chess. They always find that answer irritating or rather un-mystic. But somewhere they have been given to believe that that is what India is.

There are two perceptions of India. One, of the people who have interacted with India from the economic side, have worked with Indians or travelled on business and they generally have a fairly positive one. The others get their perceptions from reading general articles. Most articles are fairly complimentary when they talk about culture, colors or customs. But sometimes dowry, female infanticide or caste violence will raise its ugly head. There are foreigners who have been to India and have been mesmerized by the experience. There are some who have gone and the only thing they seemed to have noticed are the cows and poverty. In some western countries you do notice similar things but somehow I find it difficult to tell a person that "in your country you know, I hate the way the trains are".

We now seem to shop the same way as our American cousins and truffles and foie gras are something you buy in your local delicatessen. But you look closer. These brightly lit stores need generators to battle the unstable electricity grid that is reeling under the weight of our consumption. The water has to be specially brought and the roads feel like one roller coaster journey until you arrive at the cool Indian mall. We need to go beyond the shop window and actually look at how to improve basic utilities. Not just in cities but also in rural areas. That is how progress is measured .Many of our people still having no access to drinking water. Roads need to exist and electricity at times becomes a luxury. I am not against consumerism. Brightly lit malls are also providing employment. I think each one of the Indians has a right to be a consumer not only for goods but also for utilities and we need at least a basic level of service. Aspiration and the need to live better will make Indians more competitive and drive the need to study more. Aspiration, albeit not for just luxuries, but also equality, education and emancipation.

I recently travelled on the Delhi metro. This was one of the best public transport services I have ever been on. I am one of those people who take my carbon emissions seriously. So I love using public transport if and when possible. The Delhi Metro is much cleaner and safer than its European avatars. We handle more crowds but still the people seemed to be almost proud of it and that dirtying it would be a crime. It is the same India with its same bureaucracy that made this possible.

Similarly certain roads in India are just world class. If we could do it in a few sectors why can't we be able to take it to the whole country?

It takes time, resources and initiative. We have the talent to make it happen.

All of us feel extremely proud when we watch the Incredible India campaign. But sometimes we need to look beyond the glossy picture and look at the real story. The real story in India is not always sweet or always sour. Taking both together may make it the best taste yet.

Are you interested in Equity Market? Check-out Saturday watch on Market Outlook

Want to know market? http://knowmarket.blogspot.com/

Visiting India? http://inditour.blogspot.com/

In London, more chronicled and more vibrant India at 60 forced little blood-brother into shadow!!

2007-08-15T13:51:00.001+01:00

Pakistan was forced into the forlorn shadows even as it marked its 60th birthday, as British and European news coverage focused on Indian Independence day and "the arrival of a golden (Indian) age".

In an unusually thoughtful, if nuanced, nod to India's rise to prominence on the world stage, the former Raj marked the eve of Indian Independence Day with a paean to India, almost ignoring the fact that it was the 60th year of Pakistan's existence.

Mainstream British newspapers have been running 'India at 60' series, while The Times , London produced a special India supplement and The Guardian devoted its entire features pull-out to "The New India". The Guardian's India special's theme was expressed by its cover headline: "This is the best place in the world to be born right now".

Tuesday's India specials are the culmination of a fortnight-long focus on India by the British press.

They include The Independent 's attempt to answer the question, "60 years after Partition, why is India doing so much better than Pakistan?"

The paper said, "Now, at the age of 60, India's image is that of a resurgent, confident regional power racing to compete with China and the West. Meanwhile, Pakistan's image - at least in the West - is as a broken, backward country that provides a safe haven for extremists."

But in an acid corrective, it said these perceptions may not be entirely accurate. It pointed out that while India's "economy is currently growing at about nine per cent a year. Pakistan's is also growing.

One government minister said recently it was the third fastest-growing economy is Asia. Over the next four years it is expected to grow at about six per cent. The UN Human Development Index - which measures a series of economic and lifestyle indicators - ranks Pakistan 134th out of 177 and India 126th. In India and Pakistan, life expectancy is 63.6 and 63.4 years respectively, the adult literacy rates are 61 per cent and 49 per cent and the GDP figures are $3,139 and $2,225."

The Daily Telegraph , meanwhile, headlined the third part of its 'India at 60' series, "Independence has failed to reduce poverty". The piece quotes 60-ear-old Nanu Singh, "an almost toothless villager" on "what six decades of freedom and 20 years of economic growth had brought him... kuch-nahi ...I was a poor boy then, and I am still a poor man now."

The paper points out that "Without education or good health - 49 per cent of Indian children under six are malnourished, as can be seen from their stick-thin limbs and vacant stares - it is impossible to break the poverty trap."

The sobering assessment of India's astounding failures and equally eye-catching successes is seen to be typical of Britain and much of Europe's cautious optimism about 21st century India.

South Asia-watchers here point out that every Western article about India's remarkable rise is balanced by eye-watering accounts of its poverty, casteism, corruption, poor governance and the growing divide between rich and poor. But this, they say, is not necessarily a negative thing.

"There is no such thing as bad publicity," said one British academic, pointing to Pakistan's unmissable half-life as the country less chronicled than its bigger, more vibrant blood brother.

Source: TOI

Are you interested in Equity Market? Check-out Saturday watch on Market Outlook

Want to know market? http://knowmarket.blogspot.com/

Visiting India? http://inditour.blogspot.com/

Time celebrates India's awakening as a young giant

2007-08-04T13:00:00.001+01:00

There is hardly a board-meeting finishes in the world without discussing India, and there is yet a lot to be done, Time comes up with an special article on the awakening of India ...the most prosperous economy of tomorrow!! Here is the gist sourced from economic times...

Sixty years after independence, India is beginning to deliver on its promise, "unleashing a torrent of growth and wealth creation that is transforming the lives of millions", says Time magazine in a special cover issue.

"India's economic clout is beginning to make itself felt on the international stage, as the nation retakes the place it held as a global-trade giant long before colonial powers ever arrived there," says the US magazine's Aug 13 issue.

The special issue on "A Young Giant Awakes" has articles looking at the country's middle class, religion, politics and the transformation of its economy, besides a write-up profiling the conflicts, trends and turning points that shaped modern India.

"Twenty years ago the rest of the world saw India as a pauper. Now it is just as famous for its software engineers, Bollywood movie stars, literary giants and steel magnates," notes Time.

"It is worth remembering this as India aspires to superpower status, economic futurologists all agree that China and India during the 21st century will come to dominate the global economy," says William Dalrymple, author of "The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty, Delhi 1857".

"Various intelligence agencies estimate that China will overtake the US between 2030 and 2040 and India will overtake the US by roughly 2050, as measured in dollar terms. Measured by purchasing-power parity, India is already on the verge of overtaking Japan to become the third largest economy in the world," he says.

"Today, things are slowly returning to historical norms. Last year the richest man in the UK was for the first time an ethnic Indian, Lakshmi Mittal, and Britain's largest steel manufacturer, Corus, has been bought by an Indian company, Tata.

"Extraordinary as it is, the rise of India and China is nothing more than a return to the ancient equilibrium of world trade, with Europeans no longer appearing as gun-toting, gunboat-riding colonial masters but instead reverting to their traditional role - that of eager consumers of the much celebrated manufactures, luxuries and services of the East," says Dalrymple.

Another article notes how real estate prices have skyrocketed in India. A 2006 study by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and professional-services firm Ernst & Young found that total revenue from sales of commercial and residential property throughout India had grown 30 percent a year for the previous three years.

Land prices in some areas have tripled in value since 2004, while office rents in Mumbai and New Delhi are now more expensive than those in Paris, Hong Kong or midtown Manhattan, Time says citing a 2007 survey by real estate consultant CB Richard Ellis.

"Yet the boom may still have room to run. Merrill Lynch forecasts India's property industry will grow to $90 billion by 2015, up from $12 billion in 2005," it says, noting that "as its economy grows, India will need millions more square feet of offices as well".

"Industry analysts estimate India has less modern urban office space than a single large American city. India's infrastructure demands too should keep plenty of companies in business. The government estimates the country needs $320 billion of investments in roads, ports and bridges by 2012.

"It's not a bubble," says Arjun Divecha, the California-based manager of investment firm GMO's $15 billion emerging-markets fund. "In India the reason why prices have risen so rapidly is because there has been so little increase in supply. If you look at the experience of other emerging markets, the real wealth escalator has been real estate and I expect the same in India."

Another article on "India's Democratic Advantage" says "sixty years of freedom have bound all Indians, rich and poor, to a single commitment: democracy".

"With a sixth of humanity living within its borders, India is more linguistically diverse than Europe. But apart from a few hiccups along the way, it remains one of the most stable and unified societies in all of Asia," Time notes.

Source: Economic Times

Are you interested in Equity Market? Check-out Saturday watch on Market Outlook
Want to know market? http://knowmarket.blogspot.com/
Visiting India? http://inditour.blogspot.com/

India calling

2007-07-23T10:48:00.001+01:00

If America makes it too difficult for immigrants to start their companies in the US, these entrepreneurs will be welcomed in India

The United States Congress recently considered reforms to the US immigration policy. While no reforms were enacted, the debate in Congress — and across America — revealed that many Americans still think of immigration as an issue about low-skilled people, mostly from Latin America, who drive down wages for native-born Americans. Very little attention was paid to the high-skilled, highly educated immigrants from countries such as India, China, the United Kingdom and Russia who seek to enter America legally but are often dissuaded by the lengthy wait required to receive a small number of green cards.

The US ignores the needs of these immigrants at its own peril. A recent study completed at the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University showed that these entrepreneurial immigrants are using their skills, as well as the opportunities for business development present in the United States, to boost economic output and create more jobs for American workers. The effect of Indian entrepreneurs on US economic growth is particularly noteworthy.

The study, of engineering and technology companies created between 1995 and 2005, found that in 25% of these companies either the chief executive or lead technologist was foreign born. In 2005, these immigrant-founded companies alone produced $52 billion in sales and employed 450,000 workers — enough jobs to hire all the skilled engineers the US has admitted over the last decade, and then some.

The study also found that most immigrant entrepreneurs in America did not enter the country with the intention of starting a new business. In fact, less than 2% did. The vast majority came to pursue work or educational opportunities. On average, immigrant founders launched their firms 13 years after they arrived in the US.

This makes sense. Immigrants may not be fully aware of the opportunities for business development in the United States. Furthermore, coming from countries that have less developed and often more bureaucratic economies, they may not realise how relatively easy it is to start a business in America. The US economic environment is one that's supportive of entrepreneurship — reasonable taxes and regulation, enforceable contracts, and a highly motivated, well-educated workforce.
Most of the companies started with the help of immigrants are small and growing technology and science firms. But some have already reached global prominence. Yahoo's Jerry Yang is originally from Taiwan, Google's Sergey Brin is from Russia, and Vinod Khosla, a founder of Sun Microsystems, hails from India.

The study also found that in science and technology fields, innovative entrepreneurship is correlated with high levels of education. We infer that people with advanced degrees possess the qualifications, and the confidence, to bring novel and useful contributions to the market. Among the immigrant founders surveyed, 96% held advanced degrees, mostly from US institutions. Most of these advanced degrees were in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

Indian immigrants, in particular, tend to be better educated than both native US citizens and other immigrant groups. While less than a quarter of US citizens hold a bachelor's degree, more than two-thirds of Indian immigrants have a college education. And nearly 40% of Indian immigrants in the US hold a graduate or professional degree — the highest rate of any immigrant group studied.

While one might have expected that most Indian entrepreneurs in America were trained at the elite Indian Institutes of Technology (which graduated Vinod Khosla), the reality is that just 15% of Indian entrepreneurs in America earned degrees from an IIT. We were surprised that Delhi University graduated as many such entrepreneurs as did IIT-Bombay, and Madras University graduated more than IIT-Madras. Indian entrepreneurs we surveyed attended more than 40 different universities in India before arriving in the US.

India's education system appears to offer a growing range of opportunities for students to pursue the kind of science and technical education they once could only find at elite schools or abroad. Perhaps because of the advanced educational achievements of Indian immigrants, they alone have generated a substantial portion of the jobs and economic output created by foreign-born entrepreneurs in the US. In fact, Indians founded more engineering and technology companies in the US in the decade leading up to 2005 than the next four immigrant groups combined — those from the UK, China, Taiwan, and Japan. Indian entrepreneurs accounted for 26% of all immigrant-founded start-ups, about 117,000 jobs, and $14 billion in revenue in 2005. In a very real sense, Indian immigrants have helped drive US high-tech leadership.

But the US faces a problem. While Indians who emigrated to America for education and work traditionally remained in the country in great numbers, more and more are now returning home, choosing to put their skills to use in India's growing domestic tech sector rather than waiting up to ten years for a green card in the US. According to NASSCOM, some 20,000 Indians living in the United States have moved back to India in just the last two years. We believe there are over 100,000 more who may be forced to leave because of visa processing delays.

Until now, the United States has been seen as the premier centre of both education and job opportunities in innovation industries. But with globalisation and communications technology driving the growth of high-tech centres outside the United States, today's scientists and engineers have many more options for launching a successful career.

Given the growing prominence of India's high-tech sector, the United States could also face a situation in which Indian students who once would have gone to study in America — and then stayed to help launch new, job-creating ventures — decide instead to remain at home. Sure, this would make some immigration-sceptical Americans happy, but it would do no favours for those who want to keep the US at the top of the global high-tech industry.

America's loss could be India's gain. While once the Indian government lobbied US lawmakers to provide more green cards for Indians seeking training and education in America, we expect it will not do so in the future. In building its own high-tech industry, India has used the United States as a training ground for its own scientists and engineers. And while Indian emigrants remained in America, the Indian government benefited from revenues they sent home.

But now India is booming — clearly one of the world's most promising emerging economies. It wants its own citizens to come home, or to stay home. It needs all the skilled workers it can get in order to continue the progress already made in attracting world-class talent and businesses to its shores. Indians who have the skills, the connections, and the business savvy to launch entrepreneurial ventures will be encouraged to do so at home. The message is clear: if the United States makes it too difficult for immigrants to start their companies in Silicon Valley, New York, or Boston, these entrepreneurs will be welcomed in Hyderabad, Bangalore, and Delhi.

(Co-authored by Robert Litan, Vice President for research and policy at the Kauffman Foundation. Wadhwa is executive in residence at the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University and a founder of two software companies.)

Source: Economic Times

Are you interested in Equity Market? Check-out Saturday watch on Market Outlook

Want to know market? http://knowmarket.blogspot.com/
Visiting India? http://inditour.blogspot.com/

TCS and Ferrari - A strange combination or is it?

2007-06-28T15:30:00.000+01:00

At 2 pm on race day when rubber hits the road and the world's eyes are on the race track – TCS is ready to deliver certainty with speed for Ferrari- even at 350 km per hour

Cutting-edge solutions delivered with speed and precision and the constant search for excellence and innovation had led to a partnership between the makers of one of the world's fastest and most famous red car and Asia's largest software company.

TATA Consultancy Services and Scuderia Ferrari have crossed yet another milestone on their journey, completing three years of a successful relationship. In 2004, in a unique initiative both the companies had come together where teams of engineers and specialists from TCS provided IT and engineering services and assist in the development of the Formula 1 racing car and the Ferrari sports car.

The F1 car is the most complex and advanced car platform in the market, packing research in aero dynamics, engine technology, brakes, tyres and modelling to name just a few. An F1 car is a feat of engineering in many domains. It has more in common with a jet fighter than it does with a normal car.

Experts compare it to a moving solutions platform that tests not only the stamina of the drivers but also mechanical and electronic systems that have to perform under levels of extreme stress. Goalposts shift dramatically every moment and pressure to deliver is a constant. From car electronics to safety, aerodynamics to trouble-shooting, TCS works with the F1 team to provide IT-based solutions before, during and between races.

A Formula 1 entry, as part of Ferrari's technology team is a feather in the cap for TCS, showing that the Indian industry leader is now part of an elite group that is driving the future of technology worldwide. Collection and processing of millions of data elements with speed and accuracy is daily business at Scuderia Ferrari, the Maranello, Italy-based home of the car manufacturers.

While glamour and speed is what attracts millions of viewers to the races, a lesser-known fact is that increasingly, TCS has also delivered cutting edge engineering solutions to several customers in Europe in the automotive, aerospace, heavy engineering and automation domain.

TCS remains the first and only Indian company to enter the F1 stadium alongside the most famous occupant of this global arena.

Are you interested in Equity Market? Check-out Saturday watch on Market Outlook

Want to know market? http://knowmarket.blogspot.com/

Visiting India? http://inditour.blogspot.com/

The Indian growth story is widely inclusive

2007-06-24T01:27:00.001+01:00

The leftist critics are right when they say India's record GDP grow-th is bypassing rural millions. This tragedy arises from massive government failure to provide decent education and infrastructure to every village despite 60 years of gargantuan but wasteful spending. India's cities have been connected to the global economy and have taken off. The villages have not.

But does this justify criticism that 9% GDP growth benefits only a thin upper crust of the population? Not at all.

No economy can grow at 9% unless a wide swathe of people simultaneously increase their productivity and output. Caveat: in small economies, a single mineral deposit can raise GDP without widespread citizen involvement. These exceptions apart, 9% growth is rare across the world precisely because it is so difficult to rapidly improve the productivity of most of the population.

The plain fact is that 9% growth cannot be non-inclusive. It can be achieved only by aggregating the efforts of hundreds of millions. Now, widespread inclusion is not the same thing as complete inclusion. Significant sections are excluded in India, especially in badly-governed states. Still, 9% growth is widely inclusive, and could never have been achieved by a thin upper crust.

Mobile phone connections in India are growing at the rate of six million per month, or 72 million per year. With telecom towers coming up in rural areas, the number of mobile connections is expected to soon hit 500 million. Clearly, this represents wide inclusion, not a thin upper crust.

The number of households with TV sets was just one million in 1980, mostly black and white TVs. Today, 120 million households have TV sets, mostly colour TV. When close to two-thirds of all households have what was an elite privilege in the heyday of socialism, let us celebrate this as a success of inclusion.

Forbes magazine's list of dollar billionaires has two new Indian entrants, K P Singh of DLF and Ramesh Chandra of Unitech. Critics find it awful that Singh and Chandra have so much wealth when others have so little. But Singh and Chandra used to be non-entities, and have become billionaires only because the price of the few thousand acres they own has skyrocketed. The same price rise has benefited every home and farm owner. Urban land in Delhi goes for Rs 2 lakh/square yard, and rural land in Haryana sells for up to a crore per acre. So, rising real estate prices are actually very inclusive. They benefit all from the jhuggi owner to the small farmer. Even those recorded as landless in rural India have homesteads. A small minority with no house or land at all have missed the bonanza. But the vast majority of Indians have gained.

India's 9% growth is not, as some people think, due largely to the information technology (IT) exports. Indeed, India's National Accounts do not even list IT services as a separate category. These services are lumped into the category 'real estate, ownership of dwellings, business and legal services'. The real impact of IT is grossly underestimated by official data, since GDP is based on a historical composition of the economy, where IT had a tiny role. If you exclude IT altogether from GDP, the growth of the rest of the economy will probably be 9%.

Services account for most of the economy. The largest services sector is 'trade hotels and restaurants', which has been growing at 8-10% for many years. This is not run by the Ambanis or software giants.

Millions of urban and rural folk are employed in trade. Hotels and restaurants mean, overwhelmingly, dhabas, pavement vendors in cities and tea-shop owners in villages. Our formal statistics have no good way of measuring this unorganised sector, and so unfortunately miss large parts of it.

Activist Madhu Kishwar estimated some time ago that almost half the households in Delhi were engaged in street hawking and cycle rickshaws. Both these activities are largely illegal, and hence, poorly captured properly by official data.

The fastest-growing sector is communications (23.9% in 2005-06). The telecom revolution benefits a wide swathe of people, not an upper crust. Transport, another fast-growing sector, also benefits a wide swathe. Finance and insurance are booming. Millions of the uninsured now have cover. Consumer credit has spread the benefits of credit to millions of buyers of TV, white goods, vehicles and homes. Micro-credit has reached over 10 million poor women.

Official data show that almost 60% of Indians are engaged in agriculture. This is misleading. Agriculture is a seasonal occupation. Most rural workers do multiple casual jobs. A rural worker who spends 51% of his time in agriculture is classified as agricultural, even though 49% of his work may be in services, construction and rural processing. One study estimated that 70% of new rural jobs for women were in construction (which is growing by 14%, and employs millions).

If all Indians participated in today's boom, i imagine GDP growth would be 15%. Clearly, we need more inclusion of those left out today. But equally we must scotch the notion that only a thin upper crust of Indians is benefiting. India's growth is widely, though not fully, inclusive.

Source: TOI

Are you interested in Equity Market? Check-out Saturday watch on Market Outlook
Want to know market? http://knowmarket.blogspot.com/

Visiting India? http://inditour.blogspot.com/

It’s not size, but quality & price that matter!!

2007-06-22T10:42:00.001+01:00

At a time when the economy is growing, it's not surprising that corporate India's need for capital to finance expansion and acquisitions too has increased manifold. Consider this: In CY 2007 till date, the total amount of capital raised from the primary market has reached a whopping Rs 12, 041.68 crore. But June 2007 will be remembered for witnessing India Inc's largest fund-raising exercise ever. Of the total Rs 12,041.68 crore raised till June 20, nearly Rs 10,000 crore has been raised in June alone.
A couple of issues are lined up to hit the street, where more than Rs 13,000 crore will be mobilised from the primary market in June alone. This will take the total resource mobilisation in June 2007 to more than Rs 25,000 crore. Also, nearly 17 issues which has got approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) will shortly hit the market whose total fund-raising plans are around Rs 7,400 crore.

Says Girish Nadkarni, COO-Institutional Banking & Institutional Equity, IL&FS Investmart: "The Indian IPO market has become really strong with variety of companies from different sectors approaching the primary market for raising capital. There is a huge potential in the Indian IPO market and the total capital raising activities in 2007 will surpass all previous figures. Liquidity in the Indian market has never been a major issue as most of the money has been coming from institutions." In CY07, it is not the number of issues that mattered the most, but the sheer size of each issue, which grabbed the headlines. Market players expressed a lot of concern about these mega issues, which could potentially suck out the available liquidity in the market. But to everybody's surprise, these mega issues did not have any negative consequences on other activities of the capital market.

Shrugging off liquidity concerns, mega issues of DLF Ltd and ICICI Bank's follow-on public offer (FPO), which is currently on, received good response from various categories of investors.

The Indian market has proved it several times that those issues, which are well priced, were able to successfully sail through, receiving good response from all categories of investors compared to those issues, which were overpriced. Market experts say size doesn't matter but the quality of the company and pricing decide the success of any IPO.

According to Arun Kejriwal, director, KRIS Capital: "The expectation of investors on post listing is a key factor for the success of any IPO. If the issue is well priced and investors think that they can make money post listing, those issues have received good response from investors."

Citing the example of ICICI Bank, Kejriwal says, "The ICICI Bank FPO is the single largest issue by any company in India. Still, it received good response from investors on the first day of subscription. But at the same time if we take the example of Cairn India, it got poor response from investors, which was considered overpriced."

Most of the issues in CY07 generated more response from the qualified institutional buyers (QIB) category, which one could easily argue is because 50% of the total issue size is reserved for them. But if we carefully see the figures, with special focus to oversubscription in this category in each IPO, one fact which is proved beyond doubt is the confidence reposed by foreign investors on the long-term India growth story. But on the other side it also reveals the stark reality of the hegemony enjoyed by these institutional fund houses over the Indian market.

Source: The Financial Express

Are you interested in Equity Market? Check-out Saturday watch on Market Outlook
Want to know market? http://knowmarket.blogspot.com/

Camels in the desert ...One of the best pictures of the year!!

2007-06-20T20:54:00.000+01:00

Watch it closely and you'll get what is so great about this pic.

Thanks to: Bhargavendra Tripathi

ICICI played mindful and tricky game in pricing its FPO

2007-06-18T23:08:00.001+01:00

As I was pretty tired yesterday evening, I didn't get a chance to go through business pages, which is unusual, but sometimes it happens. Being an auxiliary activity for me since last two years now, equity market has become a very real part of my daily life. It so happens that in late evening a friend of mine conveyed me that ICICI has declared its price-band and its 885-950. My first reaction was "oh my God its another DLF, it has put an aggressive price as well". But as I started going through its RHP and other news, I realized it's mindful and tricky too!

Huge money is involved in market, talented minds too… Institutional buyers are getting smart and the firms smarter…

Well, for all those who are wondering what I am talking about, read this, where I've put whole saga about ICICI FPO in financial and technical terms.

If you have even niggling idea about equity market and how it goes, you must be knowing, its more unpredictable than a cricket match where India plays and much more vulnerable than wendy house made in sand-heap at sea-sore and much more filled with floating information than any page of well known matrimonial site.

When you go finding about ICICI FPO in news, amid all brouhaha, you'll be left confused. I am trying to make a point here.

Somebody said to me once, if you have to find how rich a person is, don't look for his branded cloth, watch, perfume or tie; instead look for his shoes… the idea is very clear, if you have to find how a firms fundamentals are, don't look for those orbits where everyone is managing beautifully, but look for how it is performing where others concentrate very little. Look how fundamentally strong a company is where others don't care…

When it comes to ICICI, I read somewhere its Hinterland to foreign soil, and it certainly is.

With a strong franchise, the parent bank has its growth drivers firmly in place. Offering a wide range of products from credit card to mortgages, the bank is a clear market leader in the retail segment, which constitutes about 65 per cent of its loans.

While the retail market has grown in the range of 30-40 per cent over the last three years, ICICI Bank has consistently beaten the industry with a 60 per cent growth each in 2004-05 and 2005-06, and 39 per cent in the last fiscal, a slowdown mainly due to fluctuation in interest rates.

The retail market is expected to grow at 20-25 per cent in next few years and going by the past track record ICICI Bank should outpace the industry growth rate. Brushing aside the rising interest rate impact on loans, Kalpana Morparia, joint managing director, ICICI Bank, said that the bank expects to grow its retail business profitably.

After making its presence felt in the urban retail segment, the bank is turning to opportunities in the rural sector. Though the urban retail segment will continue to be the bank's growth engine, ICICI Bank wants to reach the consumers in the hinterland, not serviced by banks currently.

"We feel that if properly serviced, rural areas can offer greater opportunities than even retail," says Mulye. To grab this opportunity, the bank has formed a multi-product and multi-channel strategy primarily by partnering with various micro-finance organisation, self-help groups and even corporate targeting the retail as well the SME customers.

Also, looking at the big volumes of cross border M&As, growing aspiration of Indian companies to have a global size and to meet the needs of the NRI population, the company is looking forward to enhance its international presence. Currently, the bank has the largest international business among Indian banks with presence in 18 countries outside India.

Currently, this forms 19 per cent of its total consolidated balance sheet. Going forward, the bank will also focus on the international retail i.e. fees and liability (deposits) generation business. It already has a 25 per cent market share in inward remittance market of $28-30 billion.

In total, banks shoes are firm and robust and certainly a branded one.

There is real good scope for good medium/long-term returns, given the prospects for the core banking business, strong brand value and possible contributions from the insurance subsidiary. Moreover ICICI strategically has provided Rs. 50 discount to lure retailers, which certainly is a plus point and it diminishes downside risk to a large extent. Unlike Vishal retail, here the scenario of having " too good a news is a bad news" can be ruled out, as its huge issue size won't let it oversubscribed in double digit in any case in Retail section.

Having said all that, one cannot expect it to grow overnight, may be in adverse situation its price may come below issue price in short term, but when it comes to medium to long term story, its only win situation. Be there, and remain firm for a longer period. You'll get reward.

The bank was expected to be mindful in its pricing strategy of the fact it is following close on the heels of one of India's largest initial public offerings last week. DLF, the property group, raised $2.25 billion. Yet the deal is still far behind the benchmarks set by China. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China's largest bank, raised $19 billion last year. That tells how far Indian equity market has to go to mature globally.

Also read ICICI meant for medium to long term investor.

Are you interested in Equity Market? Check-out Saturday watch on Market Outlook
Want to know market? http://knowmarket.blogspot.com/

TCS: First Mover In India - CEO speaks to Forbes.com

2007-06-17T22:15:00.001+01:00

To what extent and for how long will you and the industry be able to weather the impact of the rising rupee [which has appreciated over 8% against the dollar since January]? What do you expect from the government on that front?
The rupee's appreciation vis-à-vis the dollar is definitely of concern to the industry and TCS. Hedging is a mechanism by which you cover your losses. We've done that fairly well in the last quarter. But because of the mechanism and costs involved, we can only go to a certain point. So anything below 43 rupees vs. the dollar will continue to worry us.
To what extent the government will succeed in the short term in addressing inflation will determine how the rupee's rise will play out. The industry has expressed its views on a number of policies, and we've said what interventions are possible from our perspective.

TCS has a huge workforce, to which you're adding substantially every quarter. What percentage is global and how much is that going to expand in the next few years?
We have a network model where we deliver from multiple global locations, including Uruguay, Chile, Mexico and China. It's becoming a scale play even outside the country. At present, 9.6% of our employees are from other nationalities; it'll grow to 10.5% in two years.

We're hearing so much about the talent crunch today. What are you doing to attract and, more important, retain employees in India? How much is the fight for talent contributing to rising costs per employee?
The war for talent will only get tougher. [In India] the demand is not from IT alone--there are also industries like retail, financial services, banking. The brand which TCS has built has some attraction for young graduates. The number of colleges we go to in India alone each year just crossed 300. We've been successful in ensuring we get invited [to campuses] early in the game. We also engage students through summer projects, training and have strong ties with the faculty. We have centers of excellence on campuses, fund projects there.
Having gotten people from campuses, the second level is the quality of work, what kinds of opportunities they have. We have a dedicated [two-month] training program for all new employees. Experienced professionals have two-week trainings every year. Our attrition rates are 11.3%, way below the industry average. We trained 32,000 professionals last year.

What are your favorite global locations for TCS centers? Why?
North America tops the list because of its proximity to our customers. Another favorite is Uruguay, from where we are able to address European and North American requirements and cater to companies that need Spanish capabilities support. Canada is another asset.
In China, we can address the domestic as well as Asia-Pacific market. Countries in Eastern Europe and Africa help us to identify talent and draw professionals. They want us to employ their graduates. And in India, tier-two cities are definite destinations of the future.

There's growing interest from global firms in setting up captive centers in India. For how long will our infrastructure and talent pool be able to sustain that?
This will be one of the mechanisms global corporations will adopt for their own strategic reasons. They see India as a good destination, but the size of such centers will not exceed a couple of thousand employees. And some global majors also exit these centers after a certain period of time. Some will never have captives. Most companies realize their main brief is to run their business rather than run their IT capabilities. The bigger portion [of their technology needs] will always be outsourced.

What keeps TCS ahead of the competition? What do you do that makes the firm unique?
The experience of the last 38 years is a very clear and powerful differentiator. We're present across geographies. We do strong deployment of capabilities in the domestic market, where 12% of our revenue comes from. Our ability to handle large turnkey, total-responsibility projects is also a very important differentiator. Another factor is, we've integrated our global workforce and reached out to markets that are far beyond traditional non-English-speaking markets. We did it successfully in Uruguay and China. We're a global player with a global presence.

How will a reduction in discretionary spending in the U.S. affect TCS and the industry as a whole? Is a global slowdown good for Indian tech growth?
When discretionary spending gets reduced, that plays out well to our strategy and the India strategy, because of our ability to take costs out through process improvements and by shifting from high-cost to low-cost locations. We provide value-added, low-cost arbitrage for firms. The ability to ramp up in offshore locations rapidly is a dimension we bring in.
But I don't see any such indication of a slowdown in spending as we speak. About 18% of our revenues last year came from new services that we launched.

Opponents of an increase in the H1-B visa cap argue that since Indian firms file the highest number of those applications for visiting Indian professionals, the program isn't really being used to retain talent. Is that a fair argument?
To us, whether the number of visas gets increased or decreased or stays the same, we look at our business model differently, where we should not be dependent on just the movement of people from here to there. How do you localize, globalize, how do you hire the locals as well as distribute the workforce, not just in the U.S. alone. We view this in totality. We don't make recommendations saying, "Increase the number of H1-Bs...we're having problems."
Our whole view is the mobility of employees, and the ability to execute projects in any part of the world, is going to be critical for any global company, whether you go for one year or a couple of weeks. The same is for whether a U.S. company needs access into India or any other country. That's the way we need to look at this, rather than as a U.S. "visa situation."

Are you interested in Equity Market? Check-out Saturday watch on Market Outlook
Want to know market? http://knowmarket.blogspot.com/

Some like it hot: India's invader - An article on the Tata group

2006-10-24T10:11:00.000+01:00

When Jamsetji Tata, perhaps India's most revered industrialist, aired the idea of starting the subcontinent's first steel mill in 1907, Sir Frederick Upcott, the British commissioner of railways in India, seemed to think it was no more than hot air. He is said to have remarked at the time that he would "eat every pound of steel rail" the plant produced.
So executives at the Mumbai headquarters of Tata Steel, the country's largest steel producer, could be forgiven a chuckle after the board of Corus, the former British Steel, recommended Tata's audacious £5.1bn bid last week. If shareholders back the offer, the deal will be worth more than three-quarters the combined value of all previous foreign acquisitions by Indian companies.
Yet Tata Steel is just a small part of the massive empire of Tata Group, which numbers more than 100 companies and is now pursuing an aggressive push beyond its domestic borders. It is virtually impossible in India to get through the day without somehow adding a few rupees to Tata's coffers. Cup of tea? How about a drop of Tetley, which the company bought in 2000, served in a mug made by Tata Ceramics? How about a holiday? Try a stay in one of the five-star properties run by the Taj Hotels and Resorts, the country's largest luxury chain and also part of the group. The heaving streets of Mumbai are clogged with cars and trucks made by Tata Motors; the new skyscrapers puncturing the city's skyline are built with Tata Steel.
The group, which was started as a trading firm by Jamsetji Tata in 1868, today accounts for 2.5 per cent of India's GDP. It is majority owned by a Tata family trust that funds a range of initiatives including hospitals, universities and disaster relief.
Yet for all its ubiquity at home, Tata is still relatively unknown abroad. Until now. If the purchase of Tetley, once famous for its Yorkshire "tea folk" marketing campaigns, was its coming-out party in the UK, the offer for Corus, a company four times the size of Tata Steel, is its coming-out to the world.
Under the 68-year-old Ratan Tata, who took over as chairman in 1991, the group has been an active buyer of businesses, but these have generally been small. Now, fuelled by an economy that Standard & Poor's predicts will grow at 7.5 per cent annually for the next few years, and by a sudden willingness on the part of international banks to lend to acquisition-minded Indian enterprises, Tata is looking beyond its borders like never before.
None of the group's sprawling portfolio of companies encapsulates its growth and ambition more than Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). Already the largest of India's booming information technology outsourcing companies, it writes software, runs call centres and manages back-office systems for an array of big international names, including Virgin Atlantic and Alliance Boots in the UK, and Lehman Brothers and retail giant Target in the US. It accounts for roughly half of the group's $49.1bn (£26.1bn) market value and has set itself the goal of growing annual turnover from $2.9bn last year to $10bn by 2010.
To do so, TCS is in the midst of a massive recruitment drive. Within the next 12 months, it expects to hire 30,000 engineers - more than a third of its current workforce of 78,000 - at a rate of around 100 people every day. While some critics worry about such breakneck expansion, bigger rivals such as IBM and Accenture are pushing into India and domestic competitors Infosys and Wipro are growing at similar rates. And for now the market loves TCS, giving it about the same market value as Accenture, though the latter has six times the turnover.
S Ramadorai, the avuncular chief executive, who started at TCS over three decades ago as a trainee engineer, acknowledges the scale of the task but exudes complete confidence that the plans will work. "Our biggest challenge is managing growth," he says in an interview at his 11th-floor office in the Air India building in Mumbai. (JRD Tata, an aviation enthusiast who led the company for five decades after Jamsetji died, started Air India. It was later nationalised by the Indian government.) "It does get harder day in and day out, but then good companies will always attract the numbers."
Much of the growth will come in the city of Chennai, a technology hub where many international and domestic firms have set up shop. After a job fair earlier this year, TCS received over 26,000 applications in one day. Using the kind of automation software it sells to clients, it whittled down the pool to 13,000 candidates, who were then tested. A week and a few thousand interviews later, it offered jobs to around 1,000.
Wages for Indian engineers are on the rise and the number of companies providing similar services is increasing. As that happens, the cost advantages enjoyed by TCS and its ilk will erode. So the company is betting that the future lies in a shift of focus from low-cost outsourcing to hi-tech innovation and consulting, which can be sold at a premium to Western clients.
Like much of Indian industry, TCS is in transition: instead of making someone else's widgets, it wants to design them. For example, it is putting the finishing touches to an airline innovation lab in Chennai, where executives can walk into a room mocked up as the interior of a commercial jet and test-drive new software or any other ideas the company is coming up with.
Ramadorai says TCS is open to more acquisitions "when it makes sense", but that it will not buy companies that might dent its chunky 25 per cent margins. TCS looked at Vertex, the call-centre business now being auctioned by United Utilities in the UK, but walked away because its 3 per cent margins were too low. Instead, it is scouring low-cost markets such as South America and Eastern Europe.
Analysts expect TCS to list in either the US or London within the next couple of years as a way of increasing its profile and beefing up its balance sheet.
Yet looking out from the top floor of one of TCS's innovation centres on the "IT highway" - a road through Chennai that houses numerous technology companies - one can't help but be struck by the obstacles that stand before it. The IT highway, for one thing, looks anything but.
Across the street from TCS's sleek brick-and-glass building, which would not be out of place in Silicon Valley, a naked, emaciated child squats defecating on the side of the road. The highway is flanked by thatched huts and open ditches, while motorised rickshaws jostle among the tangle of cars and cows on the potholed road. The government promised years ago to improve the thoroughfare, but roadworks lie abandoned. Criss-crossing the city is an unfinished elevated railway system, the empty stations serving as temporary shelter for the homeless.
In contrast to China, where big infrastructure projects are relentlessly pushed, things here move at a glacial pace. "In the next few years, they need to build a lot more roads, a lot more ports, a lot more everything," says Standard & Poor's analyst Ping Chew. "When they build new highways, they're almost coming to capacity as soon as they are done."
Whether or not such projects get off the ground, Tata is used to the government being more hindrance than help.
Consider the story of the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai, a palatial building on the waterfront. In the early 1900s, Jamsetji Tata was already a successful businessman, yet he was, so legend goes, denied entrance to a British hotel because he was Indian. So he decided to build his own. When it opened in 1903, the Taj Mahal was the first hotel in India to have electricity; it remains the group's flagship property.
"There is a very strong pioneering sprit here," says one TCS executive. "We all grew up with Tata soap and Tata shampoo." And if the group has its way, Tata will become a hosehold name in the rest of the world too.

Source:The Independent [22 Oct 2006]

Are you interested in Equity Market? Check-out Saturday watch on Market Outlook
Want to know market? http://knowmarket.blogspot.com/

Why should we welcome the stock market crash

2006-05-24T12:38:00.000+01:00

Economics assumes that human beings are rational. But human reactions to stock market movements are utterly irrational. When markets rise, everybody cheers. When markets crash — as has been the case for two weeks — everybody moans.

A hunt for culprits often ensues. No such hunt is ever announced when the markets are rising. In past scams, when manipulators like Harshad Mehta and Ketan Parekh sent share prices through the roof, they were hailed as geniuses and became celebrities. Some market experts cautioned that the markets had shot up to insane levels. But this plea for sanity was widely dismissed as stupid, and ordinary housewives and college kids bought frenziedly in the belief that share prices could only go up.

However, when the markets inevitably fell, the hero-manipulators were suddenly denounced as villains. They were accused of the dreadful sin of rigging markets, and thus misleading small investors. Ironically, no investor complained as long as the manipulators rigged prices upward.

The complaints began only when the manipulators were unable to rig markets any more, and prices crashed. Truth be told, the real public complaint against Harshad Mehta and Ketan Parekh was not that they manipulated prices upward, but that they failed to manipulate it upward forever. For that, this could not be forgiven.

The underlying assumption of small investors is that share prices should rise forever. Now, if the price of rice, sugar or petrol rose forever, the small investor would complain bitterly. Yet he seems to think it perfectly fair that share prices should go up forever, and very unfair if share prices crash. How greedy and hypocritical humans are!

Consider the current moaning over the stock market crash. The fall of the sensex from 12,624 to 10,400 represents a sharp 20% decline within two weeks. But few people seem to remember that sensex was at just 9,390 at the start of 2006. So, even after the crash last Monday, the sensex was still up 10.5% since the start of the year. No bonds or fixed deposits could give such a high return within five months. This point escapes the CPI(M), which sees the market crash as reason enough to stop pension funds from investing in equities.

Remember that the sensex was around 5,000 during the last general election in 2004. It then slumped to 4,282 on panic selling. From that low point, the sensex tripled in two years to 12,624 on May 10, 2006. That has been a bonanza, fuelling speculative frenzy. So, the 20% correction is to be welcomed. Stock market valuations remained stretched by historical standards, though not by developed market standards. If the sensex falls all the way to the 9.390 level at the start of the year, the market would still have yielded enormous gains to investors since 2004.

The long run prospects of the economy are excellent. So, some investor exuberance is understandable. Yet such exuberance needs to be tempered by sharp corrections from time to time. This sends the valuable message that exuberance is no substitute for judgement.

Human beings quote many aphorisms that they seem to forget when they enter the stock market. All that glitters is not gold. Don’t be penny-wise and pound-foolish. Look before you leap. There is no such thing as a free lunch. Better safe than sorry. A fool and his money are soon parted.

All who invest in markets must remember these aphorisms. Risk and reward go together. If there were no risk, there would be no market reward. Share prices represent subjective judgements of the day, so bouts of euphoria and depression will necessarily drive share prices up and down.

Marxists find this terrible. They deplore “casino capitalism”, and lambaste foreign institutional investors (FIIs). Marxists cannot bear to acknowledge that FII pressure has sparked capital market reforms that have made Indian markets among the best in the developing world, far ahead of China or South Korea. FIIs were earlier reluctant to invest in a market where one-tenth of all paper share certificates were forged, settlements were delayed for months on end, and thin turnover facilitated rigging by big brokers (and by companies before every public issue).

But after capital market reforms, FIIs have flooded in. They have invested in all emerging markets, but disproportionately more in India. They have favoured companies with good governance and transparent accounting, rewarding these traits for the first time (earlier, the ability to rig markets was rewarded most). Stock market reforms and FII inflows have hugely improved the ability of Indian companies to raise equity finance for expansion. This has reduced their dependence on debt, thus reducing interest rates as well as over-leveraged balance sheets.

The CPI(M) can see none of this. It believes only that foreign devils are making millions and paying no tax. So it demands a capital gains tax and an end to the Mauritius treaty that has been used as a tax loophole by FIIs. The CPI(M) seems unaware that Mr P Chidambaram is in fact taxing dividends and capital gains in ways that have made the Mauritius loophole irrelevant, and so ensured that FIIs are indeed taxed.

Dividend tax is now paid by companies rather than recipients; so FIIs cannot avoid it. A transactions turnover tax is being collected in lieu of capital gains tax. This brings all investors including FIIs into the tax net, and the Mauritius route has been rendered irrelevant. Domestic crooks used to avoid capital gains tax through benami small accounts, but now cannot escape the transactions tax. Thus Mr Chidambaram has ended tax avoidance and evasion, brought FIIs and Indian crooks into the tax net indirectly, and created a level tax playing field between domestic and foreign investors. That is a considerable achievement.

So, our problem today is not untaxed FIIs. It is the notion that markets should rise forever. They will not, and should not. We need sharp dips, not Marxist controls, to remind investors from time to time that stock markets have risks as well as rewards.

Are you interested in Equity Market? Check-out Saturday watch on Market Outlook
Want to know market? http://knowmarket.blogspot.com/

You've got to find what you love

2006-01-30T04:57:00.000Z

This is the text of the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005.

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I retuned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.

This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.

Red Herring meets CEO Ramadorai

2005-12-29T06:04:00.000Z

Tata Consultancy Services' CEO steered his company to the top of the pack in India. Now his challenge is to face global majors IBM and Accenture.

If India is the crown jewel of outsourcing destinations, Tata Consultancy Services is the company spearheading this movement. As the largest Indian outsourcing company in terms of revenues and profits, TCS has become a force that is challenging global firms such as IBM, Accenture, and EDS.

In March, TCS became the first of the Indian outsourcers to cross the $2-billion revenue mark. For fiscal year 2004-2005, TCS' revenue reached $2.24 billion and its net income was $512 million. When the Mumbai-based company went public on the Indian stock markets in August 2004, shares were oversubscribed 7.8 times and the $1.2-billion IPO become the second largest in Asia that year.

S. Ramadorai started working in 1971 at the then-fledgling company as a programmer after completing a master's degree in computer science from the University of California, Los Angeles. Despite lucrative opportunities in the United States, Mr. Ramadorai returned to his home country to join what was then just about the only IT company around.

Since taking over as CEO in 1996, Mr. Ramadorai has led TCS through massive changes to become one of the leading IT companies worldwide. TCS is part of one of the largest Indian conglomerates, the TATA Group, which includes markets that cover energy, telecommunications, financial services, chemicals, and engineering and materials.

In September, TCS secured the largest-ever deal by an Indian outsourcer to provide application support and enhancements to Dutch bank ABM Amro; the work will generate $247 million in revenues over five years. In mid-October, TCS made another big move by entering the U.K. life insurance and pensions industry with a 12-year, $847-million contract with the Pearl Group. And in November, TCS bought Chilean outsourcing company Comicrom for $23 million.

Mr. Ramadorai is also extensively involved in the academic world, and is on the corporate advisory boards at the University of Southern California 's Marshall School of Business and several institutions in India. Earlier this year, Mr. Ramadorai was appointed chairman of Nasscom, India 's influential software trade association; his mandate is to drive initiatives to spread technology nationwide.

However, TCS faces challenges in the form of increased competition from smaller Indian players as well as Chinese companies, and still lags behind global players like IBM and Accenture. On a recent visit to the United States, Mr. Ramadorai fielded questions from Red Herring about the Indian IT environment, and how he plans to compete with the global giants.

Q: How does TCS plan to overtake global players such as IBM and Accenture?

A: We build scale.This year we plan to add about 13,000 people and [the total] are going to be 60,000 people by the end of March 2006. One dimension is the number of people, but we need to be very clear what we mean by going forward. Growth without profitability doesn't make sense. Growth with the right margins is very fundamental and we'll be picking the right kind of opportunities for us to grow in the places that will give us margins.

Q: TCS is facing significant competition from smaller, upstart Indian players such as BirlaSoft, Larsen & Toubro, and Bharti Telecom—how do you plan to face them?

A: TCS has been in the business for the last 36 years and has an enormous amount of competencies and client base. The total outsourcing out of India is still less than 3 percent than the total of IT spend in the world, so we still have a lot of upside in the game.

While there may be a number of other players that are emerging—which I believe must be necessary as the chairman of Nasscom, because we want to build an industry rather than one company—I think each of these smaller ones must find their own niche and find their opportunities for growth.

Q: How do you intend to grab the best talent in India, where there is a huge entrepreneurial wave catching on with all the startups and VC funding?

A: The TCS brand and the TATA brand, how it builds excellence in people and the kind of opportunity we give, is a very natural attraction. Secondly, we also have an enormous amount of innovation in the company where entrepreneurial culture and spirit is encouraged, a lot like idea generation and building a small niche product or service.

Thirdly, we have participated in funding some of the startup initiatives within the company and we ourselves act as a VC at times. Finally, we partner with some of these VC companies extensively because today startup companies with core technology will not see the market unless it is part of a solution. So some of these startups see us as a great system integrator to take them to market.

Q: The top management owns about 80 percent of TCS and employees hold very little. Is that likely to change?

A: The change came about when we went public in August 2004 and we gave stock grants to a number of people as well as cash for people to buy the stocks that were allocated to employees. Going forward, we still continue to give cash rewards but we will look at various ways as we see it necessary. If that is an option program that needs to be put in place, we will, so we are completely open and flexible.

Q: How do you see consolidation playing out in India 's IT industry?

A: Consolidation will always happen and inorganic growth can always happen. TCS acquired CMC about four years ago, now we are integrating and merging Tata InfoTech, and we entered joint ventures with airline companies like Singapore Airlines and Swissair. Finally, we bought a captive entity of insurance company back office called Phoenix Global in Bangalore, which brought in about 500 people. When you add up all of these we have almost added up 7,000 people inorganically, plus the Pearl initiative is going to bring another 950 people. We are talking about almost about 8,000 people coming into [the company] in an inorganic manner. It's a big deal—few companies have done these kinds of things out of India.

Q: TCS has been rooted in a family-owned environment—is there rigidity in the company that could impede its ability to become a big global player?

A: The Tatas were never family-owned because if you look at the historical significance of the group itself, it is completely professionally managed and the family holding is not even 2 percent of the total.

Family ownership is disappearing in India, not just in the IT services but in any part, because the next generations of the work force who want to run these companies are spreading, the companies and professional management is coming into place, and that's what we are witnessing in India. Changes are happening faster than we all believe.

Q: When is TCS planning to float American depository receipts in the stock market, if at all?

A: I can't make any prediction on when it will happen, how it will happen, and whether it will happen. But we always said on the IPO road shows that it was the beginning of a journey by the first dilution, by the listing in the Indian stock exchanges, so we will view this in the right context and the right opportunities and certainly consider it.

Q: So sometime soon

A: We don't rule out anything. We don't have any plans, or any decision on what we are going to do.

Q: What are some of the trends in the software and services space in India?

A: Open source is getting a lot of traction and attention. The second one is clearly the distributed computing and distributed infrastructure because of the communications link availability and its usage beyond urban areas in rural areas through a kiosk and a service-based model. Some states like Andhra Pradesh have partnered with TCS to create a portal to provide citizen services as a joint venture.

Q: Where do you think India stands against China?

A: China is absolutely clear that they want to grow in the globalization of IT services and software. They have a fairly long way to go, not only because of the language skills but also to migrate from a hardware mindset to a software mindset. India has a natural advantage where they have been in the software game for a long time. So the potential innovation that we can do in software is our biggest opportunity, and we will still focus on the commoditized types of services like [business process outsourcing]. So China will find its own position in the world, but at the end of the day it will not be at the cost of India or vice versa.

If we want to participate in the Chinese domestic market, we have to build local competencies. We view China as a market, as a competitor, as a source of talent to address external markets, and to service multinational companies. That's the way India will have to play in the Chinese markets.

Are you interested in Equity Market? Check-out Saturday watch on Market Outlook

Want to know market? http://knowmarket.blogspot.com/

Hell and Heaven !!

2005-12-22T13:39:00.000Z

One day while walking down the street a highly successful Human Resources Manager was tragically hit by a bus and she died. Her soul arrived up in heaven where she was met at the Pearly Gates by St.Peter himself.
"Welcome to Heaven," said St. Peter. "Before you get settled in though, it seems we have a problem. You see, strangely enough, we’ve never once had a Human Resources Manager make it this far and we're not really sure what to do with you."
"No problem, just let me in," said the woman.
"Well, I'd like to, but I have higher orders. What we're going to do is let you have a day in Hell and a day in Heaven and then you can choose whichever one you want to spend an eternity in."
"Actually, I think I've made up my mind, I prefer to stay in Heaven", said the woman
"Sorry, we have rules..." And with that St. Peter put the executive in an elevator and it went down-down-down to hell. The doors opened and she found herself stepping out onto the putting green of a beautiful golf course. In the distance was a country club and standing in front of her were all her friends? Fellow executives that she had worked with and they were well dressed in evening gowns and cheering for her.
They ran up and kissed her on both cheeks and they talked about old times. They played an excellent round of golf and at night went to the country club where she enjoyed an excellent steak and lobster dinner. She met the Devil who was actually a really nice guy (kind of cute) and she had a great time telling jokes and dancing. She was having such a good time that before she knew it, it was time to leave. Everybody shook her hand and waved goodbye as she got on the elevator.
The elevator went up-up-up and opened back up at the Pearly Gates and found St.Peter waiting for her. "Now it's time to spend a day in heaven," he said. So she spent the next 24hours lounging around on clouds and playing the harp and singing. She had great time and before she knew it her 24 hours were up and St. Peter came and got her.
"So, you've spent a day in hell and you've spent a day in heaven. Now you must choose your eternity," The woman paused for a second and then replied, "Well, I never thought I'd say this, I mean, Heaven has been really great and all, but I think I had a better time in Hell."
So St. Peter escorted her to the elevator and again she went down-down-down back to Hell. When the doors of the elevator opened she found herself standing in a desolate wasteland covered in garbage and filth. She saw her friends were dressed in rags and were picking up the garbage and putting it in sacks. The Devil came up to her and put his arm around her.
"I don't understand," stammered the woman, "yesterday I was here and there was a golf course and a country club and we ate lobster and we danced and had a great time. Now all there is a wasteland of garbage and all my friends look miserable."

The Devil looked at her smiled and told...

“Yesterday we were recruiting you, today you're an Employee. . .”

Lalu didn't do anything. Will Nitish?

2005-12-02T05:02:00.000Z

Winds of change have blown across the landscape of Bihar. With Lalu Prasad Yadav's 15-year era having come to an end, it is time for a new beginning. Or is it?

A week after Nitish Kumar took over the helm of affairs in the state, there are expectations galore from the man who started his career along with Lalu, under Jayaprakash Narayan's socialist movement.

From bringing back law and order to the state, the engineering graduate-turned-Chief Minister also has to deal with Bihar's falling fortunes. Apart from resurrecting the state's economy, he also has to restore a sense of peace and calm.

For a state that has been mired in an abyss of absolute lawlessness and hit rock bottom economically, the climb will be a tough one and Kumar will have to start from scratch.

Do the people of Bihar draw confidence from Lalu’s successor? Is Nitish the man to do all of that? Is it at all possible? What people of Bihar want to get done in their home state? These are questions which will get answered in near future.

The change of guard in Bihar is definitely great. It is a huge victory for the people of Bihar and having actively participated in the polls, One can understand the sense of elation.

It also shows that the mandate was never with the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the poll results are a rejoinder to the fact that free and fair elections are quite possible in Bihar. This is just the beginning of a new, changed Bihar.

The new CM has to start everything from scratch –it’s difficult but possible. Politics, infrastructure, economics, social disorder –Nitish Kumar has a lot on his agenda. Bihar has been in a state of complete disarray over the past 15 years, which has been a period of complete misrule and non-development.

While Lalu had the mandate to work it out, he couldn't do anything for the state. Kumar will have to woo investment to the state in order to ensure that all those who had left the state in search for employment and a better future come back. Although it’s a coalition government, it will work if they have their house in order.

In business salesmanship, the consumer is the king. Likewise, in a democracy it is the people’s verdict, given freely and fairly which ultimately, is the ruler and the results reflect this.

The time for changeover was absolutely necessary. Large sections of people were yearning for social respect and prestige. They had also started clamoring for betterment in terms of facilities and availing new opportunities to better their economic standards.

The new government will have to beef up law and order, development of infrastructure and governance. However, law and order alone can’t resurrect Bihar's falling fortunes.

Kumar also has to stress on development and economic growth and there has to be a judicious mix of stick and carrot with preference between the two varying depending upon prevailing situation and circumstances.

Coalition governments reflecting a broad consensus of different ideologies and programmes, often suffer from the disadvantage of conflicting priorities even if a common minimum programme is in place. As long as that doesn’t happen to this government, things should be fine.

Since people have chosen him, it’s a welcome change. Although it’s too early to comment anything, Kumar looks promising.

The overall situation has to improve as the present state is not very good. There are lots of challenges ahead of him and he has to start from the basics. In terms of education, infrastructure, investment, Bihar has a long way to go, compared to other states.

I have spent my formative years in Bihar and I know that a change was definitely required. Kumar seems like a capable and deserving candidate who can revamp the situation in Bihar, which over the years has gone from bad to worse.

As long as the government has its priorities in order, there’s no reason a coalition government won’t work. Even at the Centre, there has been a successful coalition government. I can now hope that the bumpy roads in north Bihar, where my grandparents live will be a thing of the past.

Source: TOI, 1st December

Planning to visit Bihar? Check out this.

TCS to Support Joburg's New S/w Engineering Centre

2005-12-01T06:23:00.000Z

An agreement was signed on 24 November 2005 between Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a leading global software services and consulting company and the Joburg Centre for Software Engineering (JCSE) at Wits University. The agreement will bring specialist software engineering lecturers from India to the JCSE over the next two years. Prof Barry Dwolatzky, Academic Director of the JCSE, says "Bringing these lecturers to South Africa will make a significant contribution towards the development of high-level skills in the local software development sector."

The JCSE was launched in May this year as a partnership between Wits University, the City of Johannesburg and over 20 companies, including TCS, IBM, Microsoft, Unisys and FNB. Prof. Dwolatzky says, "TCS has a great deal of experience and expertise in training world class software engineers. The company's corporate training academy, in Thiruvananthapuram in the South of India, trains thousands of TCS recruits from across the globe. Today TCS boasts of a 54,000 strong team of software consultants and it is this centre that makes this training possible. The lecturers that will be brought to South Africa will come from this academy. It is really exciting that TCS has agreed to share this expertise with us. They will support the JCSE's educational programmes aimed at promoting best practice in software engineering and creating a pool of talent that would service the needs of our country".

Mr N. Chandrasekaran, Executive Vice President of TCS says "TCS is proud of its association with the University of the Witwatersrand and with the City of Johannesburg through the JCSE initiative. I am sure that the JCSE, in association with the industries in the ICT sector, would be able to realise its vision to create a local talent pool that would enable South Africa's capacity to deliver world class software".

TCS was among the first Indian software companies to enter South Africa, in 1995. The company implemented the STRATE system at the Johannesburg Securities Exchange, has worked on numerous projects in the banking and government sectors including Barclays, FNB, SABC and is implementing an ERP system at Wits.

The agreement will be signed for TCS by Mr N. Chandrasekaran, Executive Vice President and Head, Global Operations, who is visiting South Africa, and the Vice Chancellor of the University of Witwatersrand, Prof Loyiso Nongxa, for the JCSE. This contribution from TCS is worth over R2 million, making it a "Gold Sponsor" of the JCSE.

Are you interested in Equity Market? Check-out Saturday watch on Market Outlook
Want to know market? http://knowmarket.blogspot.com

TCS partners with SAP in South Africa

2005-12-01T06:21:00.000Z

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a leading global provider of IT and consultancy services, announced its partnership with SAP AG in South Africa. The agreement was signed between TCS Limited and Systems Applications Products (Africa) (Proprietary) Limited, a subsidiary of SAP.

The combination of SAP's platform innovation and TCS' pioneering Networked Delivery Model and Software Quality Excellence will provide customers in South Africa unparalleled business agility and enable them to significantly enhance the value of their IT investments. Using its proven and robust software delivery methodology, TCS has built numerous tools and proprietary assets around SAP platforms. These have led to accelerated customer-centric solutions, reduced time-to-market and significant cost savings.

The partnership in South Africa is for several key initiatives with SAP, reflecting the strategic nature of the relationship between the two companies. TCS will also leverage its manufacturing and mining experience globally to work closely with SAP in the South African market.

Mr. Maphum Nxumalo (SAP South Africa - Director Strategic Business Development) in his address said, "It was indeed a pleasure to welcome an organization like TCS to the South African SAP Partner community and SAP South Africa was looking forward to working closely with TCS."

Speaking on the occasion, TCS EVP and Head of Global Sales and Operations, Mr. N Chandra, said - "TCS has aggressive growth plans for the Middle East and Africa regions and as part of this strategy, we want to cement our global alliances though local partnerships. TCS and SAP are natural global partners and this agreement is an extension of our joint commitment to the South African market."

About TCS' SAP Practice:

TCS has cumulative SAP project experience of over 4000 person years. Over two-thirds of TCS consultants have more than 4 years of SAP experience. TCS's SAP practice operates in North America, UK, Europe, India, Singapore and Australia with dedicated solution centers. TCS has strong, dedicated Industry Practices that are powerful repositories of domain knowledge, gleaned from work done around the globe. This ensures better understanding of requirements and successful implementations by incorporating best practices, complementing SAP's own vertical alignment of solutions. TCS's SAP practice has a presence in the SAP Partner Port at Walldorf, Germany to ensure synergy in operations with SAP AG.

Are you interested in Equity Market? Check-out Saturday watch on Market Outlook

Want to know market? http://knowmarket.blogspot.com

A Hindustan Times exclusive interview with CEO

2005-11-29T09:04:00.000Z

TCS has a market cap of over $16.5 billion and yet it is acquiring small companies of less than $50 million. Where do these acquisitions fit into your global delivery model?

We are doing this by design. The acquisitions are meant to scale up the global delivery model. Size is not important. The important aspect for an acquisition is what value addition does it bring to the table in terms of domain knowledge, geography or its clientele. We have categorized six verticals or bubbles in TCS — IT services, business process outsourcing (BPO), engineering and industrial solutions, package enabled solutions, consulting and infrastructure services.

Going forward, one has to separate between voice and transaction based services which is why we divested from voice (Intelenet) before the IPO. Using technologically intensive modules, the future is in platform based, domain based, transformational based and transactional based services. The recent multimillion dollar with the Pearl Group is to achieve this end. Pearl has 13 platforms which is a most inefficient way of operating. We will rationalize their systems and create a single platform and take a thousand plus of their people and bring them into our fold. The Pearl Group has four million of the closed books in the insurance and pensions space, worldwide, there are 75 million of these available.

The recent Joint Venture (JV) with SBI and the acquisition of FNS will kick start our product space foray. The deal in Chile is a bolt onto the Pearl deal. It gives us a toehold in the life and pension area and credit cards space in South America.

You mentioned that you are adding 1,100 personnel from Pearl Group, where is TCS headed in terms of employee numbers?

The CMC absorption means an addition of 3,300 employees, the integration of Tata Infotech another 3,200, while FNS has seen us add 190 and the Chile operation will add 1,200 people. This means that very quickly we have added close to 8,000 people and this we have done hitting the road running.

We have seen CMC and Tata Infotech adding mass to TCS in different ways through a collaborative model and a merger, what does it mean for the Tata group?

We are going to leverage Tata group companies' strengths to bring comprehensive solutions for our global customers at competitive prices. In addition, we are in the process of amalgamating all the different platforms into one, which will help us in offering best of breed and best in class services at a comparable price.

TCS is aggressively exploring opportunities in the remote network and infrastructure management domain. For this we are going to use the bandwidth of VSNL or Tyco or Teleglobe. Similarly we are going to use the servers of one of the companies. Depending upon the requirements of global customers, the utilities of these services will help us in bringing down the cost. While at the same time increase the efficiencies and dependability as well as quality of services.

In fact, TCS has put in a lot of effort to bring seamless synergies with various vendors and other group companies like Tata Technologies, Tata Elxsi and others. It is a collaborative model where all the companies will benefit. Our go to market strategy incorporates leveraging all our assets all over the world.

What is the differentiator or USP for TCS? Is it price competitiveness?

Let me make it clear that the labor arbitrage model is history. Indian companies are providing end to end solutions. We are not merely a low cost hub, we are much more starting with research and development to service delivery to product delivery. We compete on the global canvas not because of price alone. Though price is an important ingredient, it is not the sole criteria. There are a host of other reasons that goes in favor of India like credibility of delivery on or before time, offering a comprehensive solution that helps these companies in achieving higher productivity.

Since a reasonable number of Indian IT firms has either crossed the billion dollar mark or is poised to do so, they are being viewed as more credible with long-term longevity. That helps us in partnering with some of the global leaders even for critical operations. Each Indian tech company will evolve in its own way - some will be product facing, some engineering, some BPO facing — we have to make sure that depth and breadth of IT is covered by us.

What about merger with other group firms?

No more mergers. The buck stops here. Basically it is the issue of synergies. All the group companies in the technology space have their own space. It is better to have a collaborative model than to go in for a merger.

Given the kind of growth rate you have registered in the recent past, where do you see TCS in the next three to five years in terms of revenues?

It is difficult to give you a number. But our aspiration is to double the turnover every three years through organic growth. While doing so we would also like to ensure our margins should increase or at least remain protected. In fact each of the six bubbles should give us revenues of half a billion dollars in the next three to five years.

Last year, when TCS was listed on the Indian bourses, we were told that TCS would be listed on the US bourses after one year. When is this going to he happening?

We have planned to list overseas, but as of now there is no dialogue. It is difficult to hazard a guess on a timeline. We will be deliberating on this in our board and let you know.

But what is the purpose of an overseas listing?

Let me clarify that an overseas listing would not be for the purpose of raising funds. TCS is a global company. The intent of listing on the overseas market is to create visibility in that local market, which in turn helps in building new businesses. Secondly, it helps the company in hiring and retaining locals as it is easier to give Employee Stock Options (ESOP) to them once you are listed there.

Source: Hindustan Times 29 Nov 2005

Are you interested in Equity Market? Check-out Saturday watch on Market Outlook
Want to know market? http://knowmarket.blogspot.com

TCS Awake and hungry

2005-11-24T09:05:00.000Z

Savour a few contradictions. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is slow. TCS is old-fashioned. And TCS will have $3-billion revenues by March 2006 - a full $1 billion more than that of nearest Indian rival, Infosys Technologies.

Over the last seven months, the Tata group's flagship IT company has bagged global outsourcing contracts worth $1,457 million and pushed through acquisitions valued at $50 million. When it closes its accounts for the financial year, these moves will have translated to a $600-million rise in the company's top line, propelling revenues to the $3-billion mark. That's barely three years after it hit $1 billion. Clearly, the company that pioneered the factory model of Indian IT services nearly two decades back is in a hurry to go somewhere. CEO S. Ramadorai quantifies the goal: $10 billion by 2010.

This week, the TCS deal run continued with the acquisition of Chilean BPO firm Comicrom for $26 million. Though a small acquisition, the deal will give the company's BPO business a foothold in the Latin American pensions processing market and add to the critical pensions and insurance BPO skills that TCS has started building. [The $847-million Pearl deal was the first step towards that.] The Comicrom deal comes just two weeks after the $23-million acquisition of Australian banking solutions firm FNS in late October, which TCS bought to augment its products business. Ramadorai intends to maintain the deal momentum. "Over the next two years, growth through acquisitions will become very important for TCS," he says.
TCS's recent moves have certainly perked up the markets. As the stock charts show, the TCS share price has gained significantly over the last nine months. As on October 2005, while its earnings per share (EPS) was trailing Infosys by a fair margin at Rs 59.1 per share (Infosys is at Rs 92.2 per share), in terms of P-E (price-to-earning) ratio, the gap in valuations is quite small. Infosys is trading at a P-E of 29.1, while TCS is at 24.8.

Acquisitions, though critical, is just one component of the 2010 growth strategy being spearheaded by TCS's core think tank - N. Chandrasekaran, executive vice-president (global operations), S. Mahalingam, executive vice- president & CFO and S. Padmanabhan, executive vice-president (HR) at the company's corporate headquarters in Mumbai. The plan to reach $10 billion assumes a complete overhaul of the company's internal processes and businesses, and big jumps in organic growth. Much of the overhaul process has been under way since 2000, and the job is about half done. "In three years, TCS will look like a very different company," says Chandrasekaran, second-in-command to Ramadorai and dubbed internally as CEO-in-waiting.

If TCS does get to $10 billion by 2010 - and that is still a huge stretch target - it will redefine the global pecking order of IT services players (see 'Sizing up the Competition'). It will place TCS at the same high table that is today occupied by IBM Global Services, HP Services, EDS and Accenture. It would make TCS a prime contender in the $1billion-plus order game. It would, in effect, make TCS the first Indian global IT superpower. But for that to happen, it needs to clock growth rates of over 40 per cent year-on-year for the next five years, while the global Top 10 are averaging at 8-10 per cent a year today. The TC Strategy Think Tank.
Can TCS really reach that exalted status? A couple of years ago, the answer would have been no. After two decades in the business, TCS seemed to have lost its growth momentum. Younger rivals like Infosys and Wipro were growing much faster and had almost caught up with TCS in terms of revenues. Worse, both Infosys and Wipro had spotted new growth avenues, while TCS was still stuck with its old legacy businesses.

Making Up For Lost Time

In March 2003, TCS revenues scaled $1 billion. It was a notable milestone no doubt, but the sheen wore off in no time. A year later, Infosys also crossed $1 billion in revenues. The Bangalore-headquartered company had taken much lesser time to scale the heights that had taken TCS over 20 years to climb. Infosys was joined by Wipro and Satyam Computer the same year.

Source: BSE

In early 2004, TCS was beginning to look like a has-been. With 24,168 people on its rolls, close to 20 global development centres, and multiple service capabilities, TCS could still boast of being a more complete company in terms of services and geographical depth than any of its peers. But it had some glaring weaknesses. To begin with, the company's topline growth rates were barely at 20-22 per cent year-on-year, while Infosys and Wipro were clocking steady 35-40 per cent per annum growth rates. TCS's offshore-onsite revenues were also lopsided in favour of onsite 40:60, which meant lower margins. Despite an impressive breadth of service capabilities, it did not have a presence of note in new growth areas like remote infrastructure services, BPO and consulting. Traditional application and maintenance work accounted for over 70 per cent of its revenues. All these factors began to gain prominence as TCS edged closer to its public listing.
Meanwhile, Infosys had chalked out a very clear model for chasing growth. It had a five-year plan to look at the big targets, a three-year model to set strategic targets for each business division, and a one-year goal to address immediate revenue and profit targets. It was looking at $2 billion by 2005-06, and seemed well on its way to achieve that goal. It had kicked off a complete overhaul of its businesses that saw it re-organising along verticals. And it had taken the lead among Indian players in building up the consulting business.

Meanwhile, Wipro was moving equally fast to grab two very different growth opportunities - infrastructure management and BPO. In BPO, Wipro had taken a head start with the acquisition of Spectramind in 2002. It was among the first Indian firms to bag some of the bigger outsourcing contracts, the $80-million Lattice contract.

Though TCS seemed to have fallen asleep, it was actually preparing the base for the spectacular acquisitions and deals that have started rolling this year. In fact, the agenda to propel TCS into the global big league by 2010 was being formulated in April 2000.

Perhaps it was the top management's preoccupation with its impending IPO in 2004 that was slowing the company down. The TCS management is still highly centralised and the strategic decisions are still taken by just four men at the headquarters. Analysts point out that the Tata company will have to address this issue if it wants to become a global company.

At any rate, things speeded up dramatically after the IPO, and the TCS team went on an acquisition and deal- closing spree. One analyst points out that after the IPO, TCS was also under much more public scrutiny than it was as a private company. And that added its own pressure for the team to roll out the ambitious growth plan quickly.

At the core of TCS's Vision 2010 is, what it calls, its 'five-bubble' strategy. It has identified five strategic growth areas - consulting, BPO, infrastructure management, products, and engineering services - which will play a key role in powering its growth to $10 billion. "Each of these businesses will have revenues of $50 million-$200 million by the end of this fiscal. This excludes growth by acquisitions. We see each of these businesses growing to $500 million-$1billion over the next 3-4 years," says Chandrasekaran.

At present, engineering services and infrastructure are its fastest growing areas and will be closer to $200 million in revenues each by the end of this fiscal. In fact, engineering design and services is one of the areas where TCS has a big edge over its domestic rivals. Wipro and Infosys do some work in product and chip design in areas like mobile interfaces, but TCS has the widest breadth of services and a big team of 2,000. It does high-end work in aerospace design and has a large presence in industrial design because of its strong domain focus on the manufacturing sector. Manufacturing accounts for 20 per cent of TCS's revenues and engineering design accounts for 30 per cent of that. An industry veteran points out that these will be critical growth areas for IT service companies in the next few years. Apart from TCS, no Indian firm has any competency in these fields.In infrastructure management though, TCS is still lagging behind Wipro. Globally, infrastructure outsourcing is the space in which most big-ticket deals happen. Companies like IBM and EDS dominate the infrastructure space which also brings in the multi-billion dollar deals. Here, TCS realises it has a huge gap to cover.

Till the beginning of the year, TCS seemed to lack focus in the BPO segment. Wipro and Infosys had taken big strides already. But the recent Pearl outsourcing deal and the Comicrom deal have changed that picture. The Pearl deal was important in terms of the revenues it would add to the BPO business - £60 million (over $100 million) by the end of the year. But it was more than just a big deal for boosting the topline. The real importance of the deal lay in the fact that the Pearl group had built up 13 process platforms to manage its pensions, life and administration services. This was what TCS really wanted - and the reason why it agreed to absorb the 950 Pearl employees. Similarly, Comicrom was attractive to TCS not just because it gave a toehold in the Latin American market but also because it operated in the pensions space - an area TCS hopes to dominate.In consulting though, TCS has not done anything spectacular so far. Unlike Infosys, TCS has not yet carved out the consulting practice as a separate company. That's because Ramadorai says consulting has been embedded into TCS' services all along.

--Sources : Businessworld

Are you interested in Equity Market? Check-out Saturday watch on Market Outlook

Want to know market? http://knowmarket.blogspot.com

Story of a Software Engineer

2005-10-24T06:03:00.000+01:00

An ambitious software engineer finally decided to take a vacation. He booked himself on a Caribbean cruise and proceeded to have the time of his life. At least for a while. A hurricane came up unexpectedly. The ship went down and was lost instantly. The man found himself swept up on the shores of an island with no other people, no supplies, nothing. Only bananas and coconuts.

Used to four-star hotels, this guy had no idea what to do. So, for the next four months he ate bananas, drank coconut juice, longed for his old life, and fixed his gaze on the sea, hoping to spot a rescue ship.

One day, as he was lying on the beach, he spotted movement out of the corner of his eye. It was a rowboat, and in it was the most gorgeous woman he had ever seen. She rowed up to him.

In disbelief, he asked her: "Where did you come from, and how did you get here?"

"I rowed from the other side of the island," she said. "I landed here when my cruise ship sank."

"Amazing," the software engineer said, "I didn't know anyone else had survived. How many of you are there? You were really lucky to have a rowboat wash up with you."

"It's only me," she said, "and the rowboat didn't wash up: nothing did."

He was confused, "Then how did you get the rowboat?"

"Oh, simple," replied the woman. "I made it out of raw material that I found on the island. The oars were whittled from gum-tree branches, I wove the bottom from palm branches, and the sides and stern came from a eucalyptus tree."

"But, but, that's impossible," stuttered the man. "You had no tools or hardware - how did you manage?"

"Oh, that was no problem," the woman said. "On the south side of the island, there is a very unusual strata of exposed alluvial rock. I found that if I fired it to a certain temperature, it melted into forgeable ductile iron. I used that to make tools, and used the tools to make the hardware. But enough of that. Where do you live?"

Sheepishly, the man confessed that he had been sleeping on the beach the whole time. "Well, let's row over to my place then," she said.

After a few minutes of rowing, she docked the boat at a small wharf. As the man looked onto shore, he nearly fell out of the boat. Before him was a stone walk leading to an exquisite bungalow painted in blue and white.

While the woman tied up the rowboat with an expertly woven hemp rope, the man could only stare ahead, dumbstruck.

As they walked into the house, she said casually, "It's not much, but I call it home. Sit down, please. Would you like to have a drink?"

"No, no, thank you," he said, still dazed. "I couldn't drink another drop of coconut juice."

"It's not coconut juice," the woman replied. "I have made a still - How about a Pina Colada?"

Trying to hide his continued amazement, the software engineer accepted, and they sat down on her couch to talk. After they had exchanged their stories, the woman announced, "I'm going to slip into something more comfortable. Would you like to have a shower and a shave? There is a razor upstairs in the cabinet in the bathroom."

No longer questioning anything, the man went into the bathroom. There in the cabinet was a razor made from a bone handle. Two shells honed to a hollow-ground edge were fastened to its tip, inside a swivel mechanism.

"This woman is absolutely amazing," he mused. "What next?"

When he returned, the woman greeted him. She beckoned for him to sit down next to her. "Tell me," she began suggestively, Slithering closer to him, brushing her leg against his, "We've both been out here for a very long time. You've been lonely. There's something I'm sure you really feel like doing right now, something you've been longing to do for all of these months."

She stared into his eyes.
He couldn't believe what he was hearing - this was like all of his dreams coming true in one day.
"You mean...," he replied, "I can check my e-mail from here?"

IT Consultant

2005-10-11T09:53:00.000+01:00

ONCE upon a time there was a shepherd sitting on the side of a deserted road. Suddenly a brand new Porsche screeches to a halt. The driver, a man dressed in an Armani suit, Cerutti shoes, Ray-Ban sunglasses, TAG-Heuer wrist-watch, and a Pierre Cardin tie, gets out and asks the Shepherd:

"If I can tell you how many sheep you have, will you give me one of them?"

The shepherd looks at the young man, and then looks at the large flock of grazing sheep and replies: "Okay." The young man parks the car, connects his laptop to the mobile-fax, enters a NASA Webster, scans he ground using his GPS, opens a database and 60 Excel tables filled with logarithms and pivot tables, then prints out a 150 page report on his high-tech mini-printer. He turns to the shepherd and says, "You have exactly 1,586 sheep here."

The shepherd cheers," That's correct, you can have your sheep."

The young man makes his pick and puts it in the back of his Porsche. The shepherd looks at him and asks: "If I guess your profession, will you return my animal to me?"

The young man answers, "Yes, why not". The shepherd says, "You are an IT consultant ".

"How did you know?" asks the young man.

"Very simple," answers the shepherd. "

First, you came here without being called. Second, you charged me a fee to tell me something I already knew, and third, you don't understand anything about my business...

Now can I have my DOG back?"

Silence: The still voice of God

2005-10-01T06:58:00.000+01:00

Have you ever experienced a moment in your life when you just ran out of words and you go... s i l e n t ???

Let me assist you in recalling...

.. the moment when you left your home for the first time and you look back at your parents who are worried that their son/daughter are leaving them yet happy that their child took the first step towards independence.

... the moment when the girl/boy you like most.. smiled back at you! You don't say anything.. you just smile back..

... the moment when you get better marks than you expected... those "numb" moments of ecstasy n surprise "is that true?"...

... the moment when you are parting with your old friend(s) and the train has just started... and you are standing on the door of the wagon.. waving "bye-bye" with your heart beating fast...

... the moment after the HR manager has just called you and told you,"You are through! Congrats!"

... the moment when you sit alone in your room after having told everyone that you cleared that exam you prepared for months.

You can go on remembering your "special" moments!

I had always wondered why I never said anything to myself at those moments.. as if it was "understood"... happiness, joy, pain.. all feelings just flowed ceaselessly in the 'years' that passed in those flash moments!

They say.. the best way to communicate is through "silence". Love. Joy. Grief. Surprise. Anger. Hope. Expectations. Support. Non-cooperation...

Can you imagine the importance of a silent moment in a song??

When Bryan Adams stops for a while along with music, before he goes on in his husky voice...
... Please forgive me. I can't stop loving you!

Ever had those moments when you thought you were tired enough that you reach for your bed after dinner.. but find yourself wide awake looking at the roof of your room silently...

But you sure are 'thinking'... those moments of self-talk are the most important in our lives. Those moments when we listen to our own hearts! Those promises... those decisions... those are the moments when we make our destinies!

Next time you go silent... listen carefully to what your heart is saying.. listen to its joy...listen to its pain.. listen to its fears.. listen to its desires..

Don't make it shut up and go off to sleep... LISTEN TO THAT VOICE and ACCEPT EVERYTHING IT SAYS! That voice alone can lead you to the abode of peace that your sleep lacks... peace that awaits you!

Because Silence is The still voice of God.

"Dear DAD"

2005-09-23T07:12:00.000+01:00

A FATHER PASSING BY HIS SON'S BEDROOM WAS ASTONISHED TO SEE THE BED WAS NICELY MADE AND EVERYTHING WAS PICKED UP.

THEN HE SAW AN ENVELOPE PROPPED UP PROMINENTLY ON THE CENTER OF THE BED. IT WAS ADDRESSED, "DAD".

WITH THE WORST PREMONITION, HE OPENED THE ENVELOPE AND READ THE LETTER WITH TREMBLING HANDS:

DEAR DAD,

IT IS WITH GREAT REGRET AND SORROW THAT I'M WRITING THIS. I HAD TO ELOPE WITH MY NEW GIRLFRIEND BECAUSE I WANTED TO AVOID A SCENE WITH MOM ! AND YOU.

I'VE BEEN FINDING REAL PASSION WITH BARBARA AND SHE IS SO NICE EVEN WITH ALL HER PIERCING, TATTOOS, AND HER TIGHT MOTORCYCLE CLOTHES.

BUT IT'S NOT ONLY THE PASSION DAD, SHE'S PREGNANT AND BARBARA SAID THAT WE WILL BE VERY HAPPY.

EVEN THOUGH YOU DON'T CARE FOR HER AS SHE IS MUCH OLDER THAN I, SHE ALREADY OWNS A TRAILER IN THE WOODS AND HAS A STACK OF FIREWOOD FOR THE WHOLE WINTER.

SHE WANTS TO HAVE MANY MORE CHILDREN WITH ME AND THAT'S NOW ONE OF MY DREAMS TOO.

BARBARA TAUGHT ME THAT MARIJUANA DOESN'T REALLY HURT ANYONE AND WE'LL BE GROWING IT FOR OURSELVES AND TRADING IT WITH HER FRIENDS FOR ALL THE COCAINE AND ECSTASY WE WANT.

IN THE MEANTIME, WE'LL PRAY THAT SCIENCE WILL FIND A CURE FOR AIDS SO BARBARA CAN GET BETTER; SHE SURE DESERVES IT!!

DON'T WORRY DAD, I'M 15 YEARS OLD NOW AND I KNOW HOW TO TAKE CARE OF MYSELF.

SOMEDAY I'M SURE WE'LL BE BACK TO VISIT SO YOU CAN GET TO KNOW YOUR GRANDCHILDREN.

YOUR SON, JOHN

P.S. DAD, NONE OF THIS IS TRUE. I'M OVER AT THE NEIGHBOR'S HOUSE. I JUST WANTED TO REMIND YOU THAT THERE ARE WORSE THINGS IN LIFE THAN MY REPORT CARD THAT'S IN MY DESK CENTER DRAWER. I LOVE YOU!

CALL WHEN IT'S SAFE FOR ME TO COME HOME.

Feelings ...A Sweet Proposal!

2005-09-11T05:23:00.000+01:00

When I saw your name next to mine,
In our wedding card,
I felt blessed.

When I saw you smile,
Seeing me in the traditional bride groom dress,
I felt teased.

When I held your hand,
During the marriage rituals,
I felt responsible.

When you entered my lonely bachelor life,
And changed it into a heavenly abode,
I felt lucky.

When you showed the same love as I did,
Towards my parents,
I felt proud.

When you scolded me,
For neglecting my health amidst my hectic work,
I felt pampered.

When I saw you scream,
Crying out of labor pains,
I felt helpless.

When I saw tears of happiness in your eyes,
As you looked at our kid,
I felt blessed once again.

All these feeling have bloomed in my heart,
But are yet to blossom in reality.
As these are feelings I long to feel,
For these are still unfelt.

Will you marry me?

She finally smiled

2005-08-26T10:33:00.000+01:00

From the very beginning, girl's family objected strongly on her dating this guy, saying that it has got to do with family background, & that the girl will have to suffer for the rest of her life if she were to be with him.

Due to family's pressure, the couple quarreled very often. Though the girl loved the guy deeply, she always asked him: "How deep is your love for me?" As the guy is not good with his words, this often caused the girl to be very upset. With that & the family's pressure, the girl often vents her anger on him. As for him, he only endured it in silence.

After a couple of years, the guy finally graduated & decided to further his studies overseas. Before leaving, he proposed to the girl:

"I'm not very good with words. But all I know is that I love you. If you allow me, I will take care of you for the rest of my life. As for your family, I'll try my best to talk them round. Will you marry me?" The girl agreed, & with the guy's determination, the family finally gave in & agreed to let them get married. So before he left, they got engaged. The girl went out to the working society, whereas the guy was overseas, continuing his studies. They sent their love through emails & phone calls. Though it was hard, but both never thought of giving up.

One day, while the girl was on her way to work, she was knocked down by a car that lost control. When she woke up, she saw her parents beside her bed. She realized that she was badly injured. Seeing her mum crying, she wanted to comfort her. But she realized that all that could come out of her mouth was just a sigh. She had lost her voice....

The doctor says that the impact on her brain has caused her to lose her voice. Listening to her parents' comfort, but with nothing coming out from her, she broke down. During the stay in hospital, besides silence cry… It’s still just silence cry that accompanied her. Upon reaching home, everything seems to be the same, except for the ringing tone of the phone which pierced into her heart every time it rang. She does not wish to let the guy know & not wanting to be a burden to him, she wrote a letter to him saying that she does not wish to wait any longer.

With that, she sent the ring back to him. In return, the guy sent millions & millions of reply, countless of phone calls. All this girl could do, besides crying, is still crying.... The parents decided to move away, hoping that she could eventually forget everything & be happy.

With a new environment, the girl learns sign language & started a new life. Telling herself everyday that she must forget the guy. One day, her friend came & told her that he's back. She asked her friend not to let him know what happened to her. Since then, there wasn't anymore news of him.

A year has passed & her friend came with an envelope, containing an invitation card for the guy's wedding. The girl was shattered. When she opened the letter, she saw her name in it instead. When she was about to ask her friend what's going on, she saw the guy standing in front of her.

He used sign language to tell her "I've spent a year to learn sign language. Just to let you know that I've not forgotten our promise. Let me have the chance to be your voice. I Love You." With that, he slipped the ring back into her finger. And then …She finally smiled.

She is beautiful because you love her

2005-08-12T10:00:00.000+01:00

The passengers on the bus watched sympathetically as the attractive young woman with the white cane made her way carefully up the steps. She paid the driver and, using her hands to feel the location of the seats, walked down the aisle and found the seat he'd told her was empty. Then she's settled in, placed her briefcase on her lap and rested her cane against her leg.

It had been a year since Susan became blind. Due to a medical misdiagnosis she had been rendered sightless, and she was suddenly thrown into a world of darkness, anger, frustration and self-pity. 'How could this have happened to me?' she would plead, her heart knotted with anger. But no matter how much she cried or ranted or prayed, she knew the painful truth, her sight was never going to return. A cloud of depression hung over Susan's once optimistic spirit. All she had to cling to was her husband Mark.

Mark was an Air Force officer and he loved Susan with all his heart. When she first lost her sight, he watched her sink into despair and was determined to help his wife gain the strength she needed to become independent again.

Finally, Susan felt ready to return to her job, but how would she get there? She used to take the bus, but was now too frightened to get around the city by herself. Mark volunteered to drive her to work each day, even though they worked at opposite ends of the city. At first, this comforted Susan and fulfilled Mark's need to protect his sightless wife who was so insecure about performing the slightest task. Soon, however Mark realized that this arrangement wasn't working - it was hectic, and costly.

Susan is going to have to start taking the bus again, he admitted to himself. But just the thought of mentioning it to her made him cringe. She was still so fragile, so angry. How would she react? Just as Mark predicted, Susan was horrified at the idea of taking the bus again. "I'm blind!" she responded bitterly. "How am I supposed to know where I'm going? I feel like you're abandoning me."

Mark's heart broke but he knew what had to be done. He promised Susan that each day he would ride the bus with her until she got the hang of it.

And that is exactly what happened. For two solid weeks, Mark, military uniform and all, accompanied Susan to and from work each day. He taught her how to rely on her other senses to determine where she was and how to adapt to her new environment. He helped her befriend the bus drivers who could watch out for her, and save her a seat. Each morning they made the journey together, and Mark would take a cab back to his office.

Although this routine was even more costly and exhausting than the previous one, Mark knew it was only a matter of time before Susan would be able to ride the bus on her own. Finally, Susan decided that she was ready to try the trip on her own. Monday morning arrived, and before she left, she threw her arms around Mark, her temporary bus riding companion, her husband, and her best friend. Her eyes filled with tears of gratitude for his loyalty, his patience, his love. She said good-bye, and for the first time, they went their separate ways. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.... Each day on her own went perfectly, and Susan had never felt better.

On Friday morning, Susan took the bus to work as usual. As she was paying for her fare to exit the bus, the driver said, "Boy, I sure envy you." Susan wasn't sure if the driver was speaking to her or not. After all, who on earth would ever envy a blind woman who had struggled just to find the courage to live for the past year? "Why do you envy me?"

The driver responded, "It must feel so good to be taken care of and protected like you are." Susan had no idea what the driver was talking about, "What do you mean?" The driver said, "You know, every morning for the past week, a fine looking gentleman in a military uniform has been standing across the corner watching you when you get off the bus. He makes sure you cross the street safely and he watches you until you enter your office building. Then he blows you a kiss, gives you a little salute and walks away. You are one lucky lady."

Tears of happiness poured down Susan's cheeks. For although she couldn't see him, she had always felt Mark's presence. She was blessed, so blessed, for he had given her a gift more powerful than sight, a gift she didn't need to see to believe - the gift of love that can bring light where there had been darkness.

"You don't love a woman because she is beautiful, but she is beautiful because you love her..."

Gone are the DAYS but not the MEMORIES

2005-07-29T05:49:00.000+01:00

Gone are the days

When

The school reopened in June,

And we settled in our new desks and

benches.

When we queued up in book depot,

And got our new books

and notes.

When we wanted two Sundays and no Mondays, yet

managed

to line up daily for the morning prayers.

We learnt writing with

slates and pencils, and

Progressed To fountain pens and ball pens and

then

Micro tips.

We began drawing with crayons and evolved

to

Colour pencils and finally sketch pens.

We started calculating

first with tables and then with

Clarke's tables and advanced to

calculators and

computers.

When we chased one another in the

corridors in

Intervals, and returned to the classrooms

Drenched in

sweat.

When we had lunch in classrooms, corridors,

Playgrounds,

under the trees and even in cycle sheds.

When all the colors in the

world,

Decorated the campus on the Second Saturdays.

When a single

P.T. period in the week's Time Table,

Was awaited more eagerly than

the monsoons.

When cricket was played with writing pads as

bats,

And Neckties and socks rolled into balls.

When few played

"kabadi" and "Kho-Kho" in scorching sun,

While others simply played

"book cricket" in the

Confines of classroom.

Of fights but no

conspiracies,

Of Competitions but seldom jealousy.

When we used to

watch Live Cricket telecast,

In the opposite house in Intervals and

Lunch breaks.

When few rushed at 3:45 to

"Conquer" window seats in

our School bus.

While few others had "Big Fun", "peppermint",

"

kulfi", " milk ice !" and "sharbat !" at 4o Clock.

Gone are the days

Of Sports Day,

and the annual School Day ,

And the one-month long

preparations for them.

Gone are the days Of the stressful

Quarterly,

Half Yearly and Annual Exams, And the most

enjoyed

holidays after them.

Of tenth and twelfth standards, when

we

Spent almost the whole year writing revision tests.

We learnt,

we enjoyed, we played, we won, we lost,

We laughed, we cried, we

fought, we thought.

With so much fun in them, so many friends,

So

much experience , all this and more.

Gone are the days when we used

to talk for hours with our friends.

Now we don't have time to say a

HI.

Gone are the days when we played games on the road.

Now we

code on the road with laptop.

Gone are the days when we saw stars

shining at night.

Now we see stars when our code doesn't

work.

Gone are the days when we sat to chat with friends on

grounds.

Now we chat in chat rooms.....

Gone are the days where we

studied just to pass.

Now we study to save our job

Gone are the

days where we had no money in our pockets and fun filled

on our

hearts

Now we have the atm as well as credit card but with an empty

heart

Gone are the days where we shouted on the road.

Now we dont

shout even at home

Gone are the days where we got lectures from

all.

Now we give lectures to all... like the one I'm doing

now....

Gone are the days

But not the memories, which will

be

Lingering in our hearts for ever and ever and

Ever and ever and

Ever .....

NO MATTER HOW BUSY YOU ARE ,

DONT FORGET TO

LIVE THE LIFE THAT STILL

EXISTS.

How company's policies or religious traditions get established??

2005-07-15T08:16:00.000+01:00

This is based on an actual experiment conducted in U.K. on eight monkeys as it is said...

*Put eight monkeys in a room. In the middle of the room is a ladder, leading to a bunch of bananas hanging from a hook on the ceiling.*

**

*Each time a monkey tries to climb the ladder, all the monkeys are sprayed with ice water, which makes them miserable.*

**

*Soon enough, whenever a monkey attempts to climb the ladder, all of the other monkeys, not wanting to be sprayed, set upon him and beat him up.

Soon, none of the eight monkeys ever attempts to climb the ladder.*

**

*One of the original monkeys is then removed, and a new monkey is put in the room. Seeing the bananas and the ladder, he wonders why none of the other monkeys are doing the obvious. But undaunted, he immediately begins to climb the ladder.*

**

*All the other monkeys fall upon him and beat him silly. He has no idea why. However, he no longer attempts to climb the ladder.*

**

*A second original monkey is removed and replaced. The newcomer again attempts to climb the ladder, but all the other monkeys hammer the crap out of him. This includes the previous new monkey, who, grateful that he's not on the receiving end this time, participates in the beating because all the other monkeys are doing it. However, he has no idea why he's attacking the new monkey.*

**

*One by one, all the original monkeys are replaced. Eight new monkeys are now in the room. None of them have ever been sprayed by ice water. None of them attempt to climb the ladder. All of them will enthusiastically beat up any new monkey who tries, without having any idea why.*

**

*This is how any company's policies or religion's traditions get
Establish.***

Go Kiss the World

2005-07-01T15:27:00.000+01:00

This was the welcome address by Subroto Bagchi, Chief Operating Officer, MindTree Consulting to the Class of 2006 on July 2, 2004 at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, India on defining success.Kinda loved it...

I was the last child of a small-time government servant, in a family of five brothers. My earliest memory of my father is as that of a District Employment Officer in Koraput, Orissa. It was and remains as back of beyond as you can imagine. There was no electricity; no primary school nearby and water did not flow out of a tap. As a result, I did not go to school until the age of eight; I was home-schooled. My father used to get transferred every year. The family belongings fit into the back of a jeep - so the family moved from place to place and, without any trouble, my Mother would set up an establishment and get us going. Raised by a widow who had come as a refugee from the then East Bengal, she was a matriculate when she married my Father. My parents set the foundation of my life and the value system which makes me what I am today and largely defines what success means to me today.

As District Employment Officer, my father was given a jeep by the government. There was no garage in the Office, so the jeep was parked in our house. My father refused to use it to commute to the office. He told us that the jeep is an expensive resource given by the government - he reiterated to us that it was not 'his jeep' but the government's jeep. Insisting that he would use it only to tour the interiors, he would walk to his office on normal days. He also made sure that we never sat in the government jeep - we could sit in it only when it was stationary. That was our early childhood lessons in governance - a lesson that corporate managers learn the hard way, some never do.

The driver of the jeep was treated with respect due to any other member of my Father's office. As small children, we were taught not to call him by his name. We had to use the suffix 'dada' whenever we were to refer to him in public or private. When I grew up to own a car and a driver by the name of Raju was appointed - I repeated the lesson to my two small daughters. They have, as a result, grown up to call Raju, 'Raju Uncle' - very different from many of their friends who refer to their family drivers as 'my driver'. When I hear that term from a school- or college-going person, I cringe. To me, the lesson was significant - you treat small people with more respect than how you treat big people. It is more important to respect your subordinates than your superiors.

Our day used to start with the family huddling around my Mother's chulha - an earthen fire place she would build at each place of posting where she would cook for the family. There was no gas, nor electrical stoves. The morning routine started with tea. As the brew was served, Father would ask us to read aloud the editorial page of The Statesman's 'muffosil' edition - delivered one day late. We did not understand much of what we were reading. But the ritual was meant for us to know that the world was larger than Koraput district and the English I speak today, despite having studied in an Oriya medium school, has to do with that routine. After reading the newspaper aloud, we were told to fold it neatly. Father taught us a simple lesson. He used to say, "You should leave your newspaper and your toilet, the way you expect to find it".

That lesson was about showing consideration to others. Business begins and ends with that simple precept.

Being small children, we were always enamored with advertisements in the newspaper for transistor radios - we did not have one. We saw other people having radios in their homes and each time there was an advertisement of Philips, Murphy or Bush radios, we would ask Father when we could get one. Each time, my Father would reply that we did not need one because he already had five radios - alluding to his five sons. We also did not have a house of our own and would occasionally ask Father as to when, like others, we would live in our own house. He would give a similar reply, "We do not need a house of our own. I already own five houses". His replies did not gladden our hearts in that instant. Nonetheless, we learnt that it is important not to measure personal success and sense of well being through material possessions.

Government houses seldom came with fences. Mother and I collected twigs and built a small fence. After lunch, my Mother would never sleep. She would take her kitchen utensils and with those she and I would dig the rocky, white ant infested surrounding. We planted flowering bushes. The white ants destroyed them. My mother brought ash from her chulha and mixed it in the earth and we planted the seedlings all over again. This time, they bloomed. At that time, my father's transfer order came. A few neighbors told my mother why she was taking so much pain to beautify a government house, why she was planting seeds that would only benefit the next occupant. My mother replied that it did not matter to her that she would not see the flowers in full bloom. She said, "I have to create a bloom in a desert and whenever I am given a new place, I must leave it more beautiful than what I had inherited". That was my first lesson in success. It is not about what you create for yourself, it is what you leave behind that defines success.

My mother began developing a cataract in her eyes when I was very small. At that time, the eldest among my brothers got a teaching job at the University in Bhubaneswar and had to prepare for the civil services examination. So, it was decided that my Mother would move to cook for him and, as her appendage, I had to move too. For the first time in my life, I saw electricity in homes and water coming out of a tap. It was around 1965 and the country was going to war with Pakistan. My mother was having problems reading and in any case, being Bengali, she did not know the Oriya script. So, in addition to my daily chores, my job was to read her the local newspaper - end to end. That created in me a sense of connectedness with a larger world. I began taking interest in many different things. While reading out news about the war, I felt that I was fighting the war myself. She and I discussed the daily news and built a bond with the larger universe. In it, we became part of a larger reality. Till date, I measure my success in terms of that sense of larger connectedness.

Meanwhile, the war raged and India was fighting on both fronts. Lal Bahadur Shastri, the then Prime Minster, coined the term "Jai Jawan, Jai Kishan" and galvanized the nation in to patriotic fervor. Other than reading out the newspaper to my mother, I had no clue about how I could be part of the action. So, after reading her the newspaper, every day I would land up near the University's water tank, which served the community. I would spend hours under it, imagining that there could be spies who would come to poison the water and I had to watch for them. I would daydream about catching one and how the next day, I would be featured in the newspaper. Unfortunately for me, the spies at war ignored the sleepy town of Bhubaneswar and I never got a chance to catch one in action. Yet, that act unlocked my imagination. Imagination is everything. If we can imagine a future, we can create it, if we can create that future, others will live in it. That is the essence of success.

Over the next few years, my mother's eyesight dimmed but in me she created a larger vision, a vision with which I continue to see the world and, I sense, through my eyes, she was seeing too. As the next few years unfolded, her vision deteriorated and she was operated for cataract. I remember when she returned after her operation and she saw my face clearly for the first time, she was astonished. She said, "Oh my God, I did not know you were so fair". I remain mighty pleased with that adulation even till date. Within weeks of getting her sight back, she developed a corneal ulcer and, overnight, became blind in both eyes.

That was 1969. She died in 2002. In all those 32 years of living with blindness, she never complained about her fate even once. Curious to know what she saw with blind eyes, I asked her once if she sees darkness. She replied, "No, I do not see darkness. I only see light even with my eyes closed". Until she was eighty years of age, she did her morning yoga everyday, swept her own room and washed her own clothes. To me, success is about the sense of independence; it is about not seeing the world but seeing the light.

Over the many intervening years, I grew up, studied, joined the industry and began to carve my life's own journey. I began my life as a clerk in a government office, went on to become a Management Trainee with the DCM group and eventually found my life's calling with the IT industry when fourth generation computers came to India in 1981. Life took me places - I worked with outstanding people, challenging assignments and traveled all over the world. In 1992, while I was posted in the US, I learnt that my father, living a retired life with my eldest brother, had suffered a third degree burn injury and was admitted in the Safderjung Hospital in Delhi. I flew back to attend to him - he remained for a few days in critical stage, bandaged from neck to toe. The Safderjung Hospital is a cockroach infested, dirty, inhuman place. The overworked, under-resourced sisters in the burn ward are both victims and perpetrators of dehumanized life at its worst. One morning, while attending to my Father, I realized that the blood bottle was empty and fearing that air would go into his vein, I asked the attending nurse to change it. She bluntly told me to do it myself. In that horrible theater of death, I was in pain and frustration and anger. Finally when she relented and came, my Father opened his eyes and murmured to her, "Why have you not gone home yet?" Here was a man on his deathbed but more concerned about the overworked nurse than his own state. I was stunned at his stoic self. There I learnt that there is no limit to how concerned you can be for another human being and what the limit of inclusion is you can create. My father died the next day.

He was a man whose success was defined by his principles, his frugality, his universalism and his sense of inclusion. Above all, he taught me that success is your ability to rise above your discomfort, whatever may be your current state. You can, if you want, raise your consciousness above your immediate surroundings. Success is not about building material comforts - the transistor that he never could buy or the house that he never owned. His success was about the legacy he left, the mimetic continuity of his ideals that grew beyond the smallness of an ill-paid, unrecognized government servant's world.

My father was a fervent believer in the British Raj. He sincerely doubted the capability of the post-independence Indian political parties to govern the country. To him, the lowering of the Union Jack was a sad event. My Mother was the exact opposite. When Subhash Bose quit the Indian National Congress and came to Dacca, my mother, then a schoolgirl, garlanded him. She learnt to spin khadi and joined an underground movement that trained her in using daggers and swords. Consequently, our household saw diversity in the political outlook of the two. On major issues concerning the world, the Old Man and the Old Lady had differing opinions. In them, we learnt the power of disagreements, of dialogue and the essence of living with diversity in thinking. Success is not about the ability to create a definitive dogmatic end state; it is about the unfolding of thought processes, of dialogue and continuum.

Two years back, at the age of eighty-two, Mother had a paralytic stroke and was lying in a government hospital in Bhubaneswar. I flew down from the US where I was serving my second stint, to see her. I spent two weeks with her in the hospital as she remained in a paralytic state. She was neither getting better nor moving on. Eventually I had to return to work. While leaving her behind, I kissed her face. In that paralytic state and a garbled voice, she said, "Why are you kissing me, go kiss the world." Her river was nearing its journey, at the confluence of life and death, this woman who came to India as a refugee, raised by a widowed Mother, no more educated than high school, married to an anonymous government servant whose last salary was Rupees Three Hundred, robbed of her eyesight by fate and crowned by adversity - was telling me to go and kiss the world!

Success to me is about Vision. It is the ability to rise above the immediacy of pain. It is about imagination. It is about sensitivity to small people. It is about building inclusion. It is about connectedness to a larger world existence. It is about personal tenacity. It is about giving back more to life than you take out of it. It is about creating extra-ordinary success with ordinary lives.

Thank you very much; I wish you good luck and Godspeed. Go, kiss the world.

What is Love ???

2005-06-17T08:07:00.000+01:00

A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds, "What does love mean?" The answers they got wer broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined.
See what you think:

"When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toe-nails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love." Rebecca -age 8

"Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs." Chrissy - age 6

"Love is what makes you smile when you're tired." Terri - age 4

"Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK." Danny - age 7

"Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday." Noelle - age 7

"Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well." Tommy - age 6

"During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling. He was the only one doing that. I wasn't scared anymore." Cindy - age 8

"Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford." Chris - age 7

And the final one -- Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia once talked about a contest he was asked to judge. The purpose of the contest was to find the most caring child. The winner was a four-year-old child whose next-door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife. Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there. When his Mother asked him what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said, "Nothing, I just helped him cry."

Read funny quotes at http://indiquote.blogspot.com/

A nice desert story

2005-06-03T08:28:00.000+01:00

A story tells that two friends
were walking
through the desert

During some point of the
journey they had an
argument, and one friend
slapped the other one
in the face.
The one who got slapped
was hurt, but without
saying anything,
wrote in the sand:
TODAY MY BEST FRIEND
SLAPPED ME IN THE FACE.
They kept on walking
until they found an oasis,
where they decided
to take a bath.
The one who had been
slapped got stuck in the
mire and started drowning,
but the friend saved him.
After he recovered from
the near drowning,
he wrote on a stone:
TODAY MY BEST FRIEND
SAVED MY LIFE.
The friend who had slapped
and saved his best friend
asked him, "After I hurt you,
you wrote in the sand and now,
you write on a stone, why?"
The other friend replied
"When someone hurts us
we should write it down
in sand where winds of
forgiveness can erase it away.
But, when someone does
something good for us,
we must engrave it in stone
where no wind
can ever erase it."
LEARN TO WRITE
YOUR HURTS IN
THE SAND AND TO
CARVE YOUR
BENEFITS IN STONE.
They say it takes a
minute to find a special
person, an hour to
appreciate them, a day
to love them, but then
an entire life
to forget them.
Do not value the THINGS
you have in your life. But value
WHO you have in your life!

Why I Will Never Have A Girlfriend ?

2005-05-20T12:17:00.000+01:00

The author Tristan Miller, is working at German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence, Erwin-Schr¨odinger-Straße 57, 67663 Kaiserslautern, Germany. Thanks to ranjith for a nice paper ...

Abstract

Informal empirical and anecdotal evidence from the (male) scientific community has long pointed to the difficulty in securing decent, long-term female companionship. To date, however, no one has published a rigorous study of the matter. In this essay, the author investigates himself as a case study and presents a proof, using simple statistical calculus, of why it is impossible to find a girlfriend.

Why don’t I have a girlfriend?

This is a question that practically every male has asked himself at one point or another in his life. Unfortunately, there is rarely a hard and fast answer to the query. Many men try to reason their way through the dilemma nonetheless, often reaching a series of ridiculous explanations, each more self-deprecating than the last: “Is it because I’m too shy, and not aggressive enough? Is it my opening lines? Am I a boring person? Am I too fat or too thin? Or am I simply ugly and completely unattractive to women?” When all other plausible explanations have been discounted, most fall back on the time-honored conclusion that “there must be Something Wrong with me” before resigning themselves to lives of perpetual chastity. Not the author, though. I, for one, refuse to spend my life brooding over my lack of luck with women. While I’ll be the first to admit that my chances of ever entering into a meaningful relationship with someone special are practically non-existent, I staunchly refuse to admit that it has anything to do with some inherent problem with me. Instead, I am convinced that the situation can be readily explained in purely scientific terms, using nothing more than demographics and some elementary statistical calculus. Lest anyone suspect that my standards for women are too high, let me allay those fears by enumerating in advance my three criteria for the match. First, the potential girlfriend must be approximately my age—let’s say 21 plus or minus three or four years. Second, the girl must be beautiful (and I use that term allencompassing to refer to both inner and outer beauty). Third, she must also be reasonably intelligent—she doesn’t have to be Mensa material, but the ability to carry on a witty, insightful argument would be nice. So there they are—three simple demands, which I’m sure everyone will agree, are anything but unreasonable. That said, I now present my demonstration of why the probability of finding a suitable candidate fulfilling the three above-noted requirements is so small as to be practically impossible—in other words, why I will never have a girlfriend. I shall endeavor to make this proof as rigorous as the available data permits. And I should note, too, that there will be no statistical trickery involved here; I have cited all my sources and provided all relevant calculations in case anyone wishes to conduct their own independent review. Let’s now take a look at the figures.

Number of people on Earth (in 1998): 5 592 830 000

[WP98, Table A–3]

We start with the largest demographic in which I am interested—namely, the population of this planet. That is not to say I’m against the idea of interstellar romance, of course; I just don’t assess the prospect of finding myself a nice Altairian girl as statistically significant. Now anyway, the latest halfway-reliable figures we have for Earth’s population come from the United States Census Bureau’s 1999 World Population Profile [WP98]. Due presumably to the time involved in compiling and processing census statistics, said report’s data is valid only as of 1998, so later on we’ll be making some impromptu adjustments to bring the numbers up to date.

. . . Who are female: 2 941 118 000

[WP98, Table A–7]

I’d’ve thought that, given the title of this essay, this criterion goes without saying. In case anyone missed it, though, I am looking for exclusively female companionship. Accordingly, roughly half of the Earth’s population must be discounted. Sorry, guys.

. . . In “developed” countries: 605 601 000

[WP98, Table A–7]

We now further restrict the geographical area of interest to so-called “first-world countries”. My reasons for doing so are not motivated out of contempt for those who are economically disadvantaged, but rather by simple probability. My chances of meeting a babe from Bhutan or a goddess from Ghana, either in person or on the Internet, are understandably low. In fact, I will most likely spend nearly my entire life living and working in North America, Europe, and Australia, so it is to these types of regions that the numbers have been narrowed.

. . . Currently (in 2000) aged 18 to 25: 65 399 083

[WP98, Tables a–3, A–7]

Being neither a pedophile nor a geriatrophile, I would like to restrict my search for love to those whose age is approximately equal to my own. This is where things get a bit tricky, for two reasons: first, the census data is nearly two years old, and second, the “population by age” tables in [WP98] are not separated into individual ages but are instead quantized into “15–19” (of whom there are 39 560 000) and “20–44” (population 215 073 000). Women aged 15 to 19 in 1998 will be aged 17 to 21 in 2000; in this group, I’m interested in dating those 18 or older, so, assuming the “15–19” girls’ ages are uniformly distributed, we have 39 560 000 × (21 − 18 + 1)/ (19 − 15 + 1) = 31 648 000. Similarly, of 1998’s “20–44” category, there are now 215 073 000 × (25 − 22 + 1)/( 44 − 20 + 1) = 34 411 680. Females within my chosen age limit. The sum, 66 059 680, represents the total number of females aged 18 to 25 in developed countries in 2000. Unfortunately, roughly 1% of these 2 girls will have died since the census was taken; thus, the true number of so-far eligible bachelorettes is 65 399 083.

. . . Who are beautiful: 1 487 838

Personal attraction, both physically and personality-wise, is an important instigator of any relationship. Of course, beauty is a purely subjective trait whose interpretation may vary from person to person. Luckily it is not necessary for me to define beauty in this essay except to state that for any given beholder, it will probably be normally distributed amongst the population. Without going into the specifics of precisely which traits I admire, I will say that for a girl to be considered really beautiful to me, she should fall at least two standard deviations above the norm. From basic statistics theory, the area to the left of the normal curve at z = 2 is

0.5 – 1/ sqrt (root (2*pi)) * Integration (lm 0 to 2) of pow (e, -0.5) square (z) dz = 0.022 75

And so it is this number with which we multiply our current population pool.

. . . And intelligent: 236 053

Again, intelligence can mean different things to different people, yet I am once more relieved of making any explanation by noting that it, like most other characteristics, has a notionally normal distribution across the population.

Let’s assume that I will settle for someone a mere one standard deviation above the normal; in that case, a further

0.5+ 1/ sqrt (root (2*pi)) * Integration (lm 0 to 1) of pow (e, 0.5) square (z) dz = 84.135 %

Of the population must be discounted.

. . . And not already committed: 118 027

I could find no hard statistics on the number of above-noted girls who are already married, engaged, or otherwise committed to a significant other, but informal observation and anecdotal evidence leads me to believe that the proportion is somewhere around 50%. (Fellow unattached males will no doubt have also noticed a preponderance of girls legitimately offering, “Sorry, I already have a boyfriend” as an excuse not to go on a date.) For reasons of morality (and perhaps too self-preservation), I’m not about to start hitting on girls who have husbands and boyfriends. Accordingly, that portion of the female population must also be considered off-limits.

. . . And also might like me: 18 726

Naturally, finding a suitable girl who I really like is no guarantee that she’ll like me back. Assuming, as previously mentioned, that personal attractiveness is normally distributed, there is a mere 50% chance that any given female will consider me even marginally attractive. In practice, however, people are unlikely to consider pursuing a relationship with someone whose looks and personality just barely suffice. Let’s make the rather conservative assumption, then, that a girl would go out with someone if and only if they were at least one standard deviation above her idea of average. In that case, referring to our previous calculation, only 15.8655% of females would consider someone with my physical characteristics and personality acceptable as a potential romantic partner.

Conclusion

It is here, at a pool of 18 726 acceptable females, that we end our statistical analysis. At first glance, a datable population of 18 726 may not seem like such a low number, but consider this: assuming I were to go on a blind date with a new girl about my age every week, I would have to date for 3493 weeks before I found one of the 18 726. That’s very nearly 67 years. As a North American male born in the late 1970s, my life expectancy is probably little more than 70 years, so we can safely say that I will be quite dead before I find the proverbial girl of my dreams. Come to think of it, she’ll probably be dead too.

Reference

[WP98] U.S. Bureau of the Census, Report WP/98, World Population Profile: 1998.
Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1999

A bit lengthy but too good ...

2005-05-06T03:51:00.000+01:00

Grandmother was pretending to be lost in prayer, but her prayer-beads were spinning at top speed. That meant she was either excited or upset. Mother put the receiver down. "Some American girl in his office, she's coming to stay with us for a week." She sounded as if she had a deep foreboding. Father had no such doubt. He knew the worst was to come. He had been matching horoscopes for a year, but my brother Vivek had found a million excuses for not being able to visit India, call any of the chosen Iyer girls, or in any other way advance father's cause. Father always wore four parallel lines of sacred ash on his forehead. Now therewere eight, so deep were the furrows of worry on his forehead. I sat in a corner, supposedly lost in a book, but furiously text-messaging my brother with a vivid description of the scene before me.

A few days later I stood outside the airport with father. He tried not to look directly at any American woman going past, and held up the card reading "Barbara". Finally a large woman stepped out, waved wildly and shouted "Hiiii! Mr. Aayyyezh, how ARE you?" Everyone turned and looked at us. Father shrank visibly before my eyes. Barbara took three long steps and covered father in a tight embrace. Father's jiggling out of it was too funny to watch. I could hear him whispering "Shiva shiva!". She shouted "you must be Vijaantee?" "Yes, Vyjayanthi" I said with a smile. I imagined little half-Indian children calling me "Vijaantee aunty!". Suddenly, my colorless existence in Madurai had perked up. For at least the next one week, life promised to be quite exciting.

Soon we were eating lunch at home. Barbara had changed into an even shorter skirt. The low neckline of her blouse was just in line with father's eyes. He was glaring at mother as if she had conjured up Barbara just to torture him. Barbara was asking "You only have vegetarian food? Always??" as if the idea was shocking to her. "You know what really goes well with Indian food, especially chicken? Indian beer!" she said with a pleasant smile, seemingly oblivious to the apoplexy of the gentleman in front of her, or the choking sounds coming from mother. I had to quickly duck under the table to hide my giggles.

Everyone tried to get the facts without asking the one question on all our minds: What was the exact nature of the relationship between Vivek and Barbara? She brought out a laptop computer. "I have some pictures of Vivek" she said. All of us crowded around her. The first picture was quite innocuous. Vivek was wearing shorts, and standing alone on the beach. In the next photo, he had Barbara draped all over him. She was wearing a skimpy bikini and leaning across, with her hand lovingly circling his neck. Father got up, and flicked the towel off his shoulder. It was a gesture we in the family had learned to fear. He literally ran to the door and went out. Barbara said "It must be hard for Mr. Aayyezh. He must be missing his son." We didn't have the heart to tell her that if said son had been within reach, father would have lovingly wrung his neck.

My parents and grandmother apparently had reached an unspoken agreement. They would deal with Vivek later. Right now Barbara was a foreigner, a lone woman, and needed to be treated as an honored guest. It must be said that Barbara didn't make that one bit easy. Soon mother wore a perpetual frown. Father looked as though he could use some of that famous Indian beer.

Vivek had said he would be in a conference in Guatemala all week, and would be off both phone and email. But Barbara had long lovey-dovey conversations with two other men, one man named Steve and another named Keith. The rest of us strained to hear every interesting word. "I miss you!" she said to both. She also kept talking with us about Vivek, and about the places they'd visited together. She had pictures to prove it, too. It was all very confusing.

This was the best play I'd watched in a long time. It was even better than the day my cousin ran away with a Telugu Christian girl. My aunt had come howling through the door, though I noticed that she made it to the plushest sofa before falling in a faint. Father said that if it had been his child, the door would have been forever shut in his face. Aunt promptly revived and said "You'll know when it is your child!" How my aunt would rejoice if she knew of Barbara!

On day five of her visit, the family awoke to the awful sound of Barbara's retching. The bathroom door was shut, the water was running, but far louder was the sound of Barbara crying and throwing up at the same time. Mother and grandmother exchanged ominous glances. Barbara came out, and her face was red. "I don't know why", she said, "I feel queasy in the mornings now." If she had seen as many Indian movies as I'd seen, she'd know why. Mother was standing as if turned to stone. Was she supposed to react with the compassion reserved for pregnant women? With the criticism reserved for pregnant unmarried women? With the fear reserved for pregnant unmarried foreign women who could embroil one's son in a paternity suit? Mother, who navigated familiar flows of married life with the skill of a champion oarsman, now seemed completely taken off her moorings. She seemed to hope that if she didn't react it might all disappear like a bad dream.

I made a mental note to not leave home at all for the next week. Whatever my parents would say to Vivek when they finally got a-hold of him would be too interesting to miss. But they never got a chance. The day Barbara was to leave, we got a terse email from Vivek. "Sorry, still stuck in Guatemala. Just wanted to mention, another friend of mine, Sameera Sheikh, needs a place to stay. She'll fly in from Hyderabad tomorrow at 10am. Sorry for the trouble."

So there we were, father and I, with a board saying "Sameera". At last a pretty young woman in salwar-khameez saw the board, gave the smallest of smiles, and walked quietly towards us. When she did 'Namaste' to father, I thought I saw his eyes mist up. She took my hand in the friendliest way and said "Hello, Vyjayanthi, I've heard so much about you." I fell in love with her. In the car father was unusually friendly. She and Vivek had been in the same group of friends in Ohio University. She now worked as a Child Psychologist.

She didn't seem to be too bad at family psychology either. She took out a shawl for grandmother, a saree for mother and Hyderabadi bangles for me. "Just some small things. I have to meet a professor at Madurai university, and it's so nice of you to let me stay" she said. Everyone cheered up. Even grandmother smiled. At lunch she said "This is so nice. When I make sambar, it comes out like chole, and my chole tastes just like sambar". Mother was smiling. "Oh just watch for 2 days, you'll pick it up." Grandmother had never allowed a muslim to enter the kitchen. But mother seemed to have taken charge, and decided she would bring in who ever she felt was worthy. Sameera circumspectly stayed out of the puja room, but on the third day, I was stunned to see father inviting her in and telling her which idols had come to him from his father. "God is one" he said. Sameera nodded sagely.

By the fifth day, I could see the thought forming in the family's collective brains. If this fellow had to choose his own bride, why couldn't it be someone like Sameera? On the sixth day, when Vivek called from the airport saying he had cut short his Gautemala trip and was on his way home, all had a million things to discuss with him. He arrived by taxi at a time when Sameera had gone to the University. "So, how was Barbara's visit?" he asked blithely. "How do you know her?" mother asked sternly. "She's my secretary" he said. "She works very hard, and she'll do anything to help." He turned and winked at me. Oh, I got the plot now! By the time Sameera returned home that evening, it was almost as if her joining the family was the elders' idea. "Don't worry about anything", they said, "we'll talk with your parents."

On the wedding day a huge bouquet arrived from Barbara.

"Flight to India - $1500.

Indian kurta - $5.

Emetic to throw up - $1.

The look on your parents' faces - priceless" it said.

How much a Miracle costs ?

2005-04-22T05:58:00.000+01:00

An eight-year-old child heard her parents talking about her little brother. All she knew was that he was very sick and they had no money left. They were moving to a smaller house because they could not afford to stay in the present house after paying the doctor's bills. Only a very costly surgery could save him now and there was no one to loan them the money.

When she heard daddy say to her tearful mother with whispered desperation, 'Only a miracle can save him now', the child went to her bedroom and pulled a glass jar from its hiding place in the closet.

She poured all the change out on the floor and counted it carefully.

Clutching the precious jar tightly, she slipped out the back door and made her way six blocks to the local drug Store. She took a quarter from her jar and placed it on the glass counter.

"And what do you want?" asked the pharmacist. "It's for my little brother," the girl answered back. "He's really, really sick and I want to buy a miracle."

"I beg your pardon?" said the pharmacist.

"His name is Andrew and he has something bad growing inside his head and my daddy says only a miracle can save him. So how much does a miracle cost?"

"We don't sell miracles here, child. I'm sorry," the pharmacist said, smiling sadly at the little girl.

"Listen, I have the money to pay for it. If it isn't enough, I can try and get some more. Just tell me how much it costs." In the shop was a well-dressed customer. He stooped down and asked the little girl, "What kind of a miracle does your brother need?"

"I don't know," she replied with her eyes welling up. "He's really sick and mommy says he needs an operation. But my daddy can't pay for it, so I have brought my savings". "How much do you have?" asked the man. "One dollar and eleven cents, but I can try and get some more", she answered barely audibly. "Well, what a coincidence," smiled the man. "A dollar and eleven cents -- the exact price of a miracle for little brothers." He took her money in one hand and held her hand with the other. He said, "Take me to where you live. I want to see your brother and meet your parents. Let's see if I have the kind of miracle you need."That well-dressed man was Dr Carlton Armstrong, a surgeon, specializing in neuro-surgery. The operation was completed without charge and it wasn't long before Andrew was home again and doing well.

"That surgery," her mom whispered, "was a real miracle. I wonder how much it would have cost?"

The little girl smiled. She knew exactly how much the miracle cost ...one dollar and eleven cents ...plus the faith of a little child.

Exams are over!!

2005-04-09T15:05:00.000+01:00

Now all the exams are over and I entered into the last week before leaving this wonderful place...
The only formality left in being a graduate is getting the degree... I hope I’ll pass in all subjects :)

We are told that our email-ids are moving from student category to alumni category... A nostalgic feeling has naturally taken place for a while but that’s the way it is… Isn’t it?

As being an active member of nocturnal club …nowadays (read nowanights) I am active throughout the nights watching movies… doing some funny businesses… Not of sort you think though!

To tell you truth since 2-3 days, my day starts with dinner and ends with breakfast...

The only bad thing about this nice routine is that most of the people disturb me on my cell-phone during my night time…

Even today, just got up now after receiving a phone call and thought of writing something in my blog... and so here I am…Okay let me go for dinner now …

It will hurt like hell

2005-04-05T02:05:00.000+01:00

As I lay down on my bed last night, I was recounting the moments I had during the fest this year. All of a sudden, there was a jerk in my thoughts …. It was my last fest. It’s not that I didn’t know but I suddenly got conscious. The last day of these four years in IIIT Hyd is close, very close. I have been in a similar situation earlier too while leaving my school after class VIII. It was a residential school far from cities, deep inside the nature, in Samastipur district of my home state. We had spent a few long years together there. Every single day we cursed the hostels, the food, the exams and above all the strict rules and the agony of being confined to the same old campus. We felt like prisoners at times. Often we wished we could get out of that damned place. I remember even just two days before the final day; we were celebrating the end, our forthcoming freedom. In the evening before the day, there was a short meeting of all the students and our warden. At the end of the meeting, everything changed. I heard people weeping. It soon changed into a session of mass hysteria. Some were crying like lunatics. The much awaited last day, the day of celebration got transformed into a day of shedding tears as people started leaving. It was not really feeling sorry for losing close friends. It was different. I walked around the campus, hugged and cried with people I hardly had ever talked to. The final hours in the campus got us closer than what we were in the last few years.

The scenario in IIIT is not much different. Here also we often get frustrated with the place. The absence of city-life, the scarcity of girls, 8:30 classes in winter, awful mess, the worst attendence policy, the howling of the profs specially the guide …. The list can go on and on. But no matter what, we definitely love this place. I don’t know how people will react on the final day. I don’t know whether 23-year-olds will cry like 14-year-olds did. But I can guarantee you something ….. It will hurt ….. It will hurt like hell.

The Neem Sapling Planting

2005-04-02T11:03:00.000+01:00

Before the farewell, we planted a neem sapling, adjacent to the volleyball court in the ground. Though it was just a neem sapling, a feeling of "us" has been attached to it so emotionally, that I felt like I am leaving behind something very very important in the form of this tree.

As if the young tree was speaking to me ...at the end of a goodbye walk your arms may be empty, but you are full of things to take with you - feelings and sights tucked deep inside you, memories to keep ...and lots more. And I'll always be here whenever you'll come to see this place later to make you remember these beautiful times ...Promise me that you'll come to see me soon ...won't you ?

Standing there, I was like talking to myself ...I promised from the bottom of my heart !! I'll come to see you little sapling ...I'll come for sure.

And I moved towards the farewell ceremony ponderously...

The Hilarious Farewell Speech

2005-04-01T12:11:00.000+01:00

By Imran on 30th march ...

I first saw IIIT when I was in school and I just knew that I have to be here. It was a dream come true for me. I not only got into IIIT but also in one of the best batches ever. I couldn’t have asked for more.

Now, talk about coming to the right place at the right time!! Things were really HAPPENING in IIIT. And of course, we were there to witness the institute grow. First came the DEEMED UNIVERSITY status, our own version of “Independence Day”, independence to be autonomous. And WE were there.

It was our batch that actually “COMPLETED IIIT”. For the very first time, IIIT had all the four years of its BTech program and we became the only batch ever to actually KNOW all of it’s alumni that passed before us.

We were the ones who saw IIIT grow, not only IIIT as a matter of fact, but also the surrounding places like all the S/W companies coming up in our vicinity, ISB and we also saw the building of the now, “Land mark of Hyderabad” the GMC Balayogi Stadium. But you should know that we know these places from the time when their address read “Besides IIIT” and not vice-versa.

Our batch was also the trendsetters in its own rights. It was actually from our time that IIIT saw all its cultural festivals in the form of Amalgam and of course FELICITY. And who can forget the first ever inter house sports competitions.

We can also boast of being the only “Truly Nomadic” society of IIIT. For two years, we were always on a run. Running from this hostel to other, from one room to other. That was the time when we never unpacked our luggage for, we knew that we wont stay long in one room and change was on cards every moment. The newly built 3rd floor of OBH as well as the newly constructed NBH were actually “gdit2k1 hostels”. Also we know the problems ,All those “TEAM BUILDING” exercises truly bonded us together as one entity.

We can also boast of having the best talent in IIIT, be it in programming, sports or music and who can forget the best dancer of our batch (look at patke)….

As SPIDERMAN once said “ With great powers, comes great responsibilities”. Our batch is also responsible for some of the major policies in the institute. Because of our perseverance and hardwork, IIIT is the only institute throughout India with “ZERO RAGGING”. We welcome our juniours with open arms. Maybe, the institute’s policy of taking freshers in huge quantities might have helped the cause here ;)…

Well speaking of institutes’ policies, let me tell you what happened in our first holi, which was quite an “indoor event” at that time. We thought that the colours of hostels were a bit too drab But I don’t know why but the faculty didn’t like our new paint job. And we ended up celebrating holi, for the first time in IIIT, for 2 days… first for colouring and then cleaning. And hence forth, holi became as you know of today a strictly “an outdoor affair”…

Of course we were the bonds of all the “state of art” technology. But we also believed in DIVERSITY. We took upon ourselves the challenge of building the IIIT’s formidable gaming industry. We just have to go to the other colleges to just collect the prizes they offer and in the mean while taking a shot or two at the sitting ducks they try to pass off as our competitors J.

You might be thinking that we know just about everything there is to know about IIIT from my speech so far, but you just mistaken!! We are still trying to figure out the “AC effect” in our labs. The moment the lab “cools” we are in some other “hot” destination in some corner.

But now, it is really sad and difficult to comprehend that our 4 years have come to an end. From now on, all our classmates will sport a small subscript under their names which will read “B. Tech. CSE, IIIT-H”………

Let me remind you, once again that we were those people who joined IIIT not because of its now reputed “B. Tech” degree or the 100% placement record. There was nothing at the time when we joined, not even this AIEEE. We joined this college because we were passionate about this place and like myself, for many people it was a dream come true. In part, we can boast of being a part of IIIT in it’s growing phase, and have contributed our share in it’s growth. I will always remember this clean and green 62 acres of land for the rest of my life……

And now, my dear juniors. I know that you all are about to cry at your great loss which I might add is quite understandable. But for being - what I can now conclude safely from my lengthy speech – a LEGENDARY batch, we still think about our beloved juniors. It will be too great a blow for you to recover if we were to leave this institute in entirety.

We are leaving behind our representatives, the pioneers, in the form of MSBR, PHD students and even future IIIT professor for your benefit. Yes, the faculty might think that they are here for doing “State Of Art” research and development work, but I think we share a secret here J. They are here to fill in that great “void * main” and will always be there for you.
And now, as the past has been saved, the future generations of IIIT in safe hands, I can now safely bid good bye to you all….and may God bless IIIT.

Thank you all the professors for teaching us and our juniors for this farewell party.

B'day of a loved one

2005-03-29T11:01:00.000+01:00

Today, 29th march, b'day of a loved one of mine... but unfortunately, I can't share the feelings with the person. It was never like we were very close, but it never was as far as we are now. I was always there knowingly or unknowingly...

I know, I miss the things we shared, but I pretend as if I am not...

I know, it won't reach there, but I really hope this message to speak a lot...

I know, it’s beyond our hand, but I still wish if my hands were so long...

Why human beings bound itself to a boundary, why don't we express ourselves at times... why we cheat ourselves?

Oh my almighty, in the times to come, please save my little circle of trust!!

Lives don't cheat, we cheat !!

Lives don't cheat, we cheat,

Knowing it’s not gonna repeat

We blame the time,

But its lack of our feat

It made us distant,

And created a lot of heat

We thought it just happened,

But it’s in the human meat

I've seen loosing people,

Just from the fear of defeat

The time and memory we shared,

I doubt things can be more neat

I just prey the almighty,

To keep me far from the human greed

Lives don't cheat, we cheat,

Knowing it’s not gonna repeat

History of President's Rule in Bihar

2005-03-24T23:05:00.000Z

It is the 8th time when president's rule is imposed in Bihar.

President's rule was imposed for the first time in the state on June 29, 1968 when Bhola Paswan Shastri, succumbing to pulls and pressures from various constituents of his Sanyukta Vidhayak Dal (SVD), resigned and asked the governor to recommend central rule, which lasted till February 26, 1969.

It was imposed again on July 4, 1969 and January 9, 1972, both times when Bhola Paswan Shastri was the Chief Minister, as he could not manage his squabbling coalition partners.

Bihar was brought under central rule for the fourth time on April 30, 1977 when Jagannath Mishra's Congress government was dismissed after Morarji Desai became Prime Minister. It lasted till June 24, 1977.

With the failure of Janata experiment and return of Indira Gandhi to power, she dismissed Ramsunder Das ministry of Janata Party and President's Rule was imposed for the fifth time on February 17, 1980, which continued till June 8, 1980.

The state again came under a brief spell of President's Rule for six days for technical reasons as the assembly could not be constituted till March 15, 1995, due to non-completion of election process.

Central rule was imposed for the seventh time on February 12, 1999 by BJP-led NDA government following the massacre of 22 people at a village on January 25 and killing of 11 of Dalits in Jehanabad district on February 10 which continued till March 9, 1999.

However, as Congress came to the rescue of Rabri Devi government and declared to vote against the central government resolution in the Rajya Sabha where it had the majority, the resolution was withdrawn and President's Rule revoked on March 9, 1999 after 25 days.

And seemingly, this time, it will go for long. Unfortunate but true in the history of Bihar, here ruler changes faster than rules do.