GDP and GNP

Following post is a courtesy from the text book Macroeconomic Policy Environment by Shyamal Roy.

We all know that GDP is Gross Domestic Product. It is a measure of economic activity in any country. GDP is simply calculated as sum total value of all goods and services produced in that country. It is usually measured every year, but of late due to volatilie economic conditions, it is measured every quarter. Ofcourse, more than the absolute number, the rate of change in these numbers every quarter is what makes interesting for stakeholders.

Now, what is Gross National Product (GNP)? GNP is simply the total value of goods and services producted by the residents of a country, irrespective of their geographic location. For example, people employed in Infosys India, goes abroad and earns money will be counted in the GNP of India, but will not be part of GDP of India. Let us say this employee is working in USA, his income will be part of US GDP and GNP of India. Now, you might say is it true for NRIs? No, the GNP is calculated only for resident Indians. So, obviously if this employee is staying beyond 180 days, his income will not be part of India's GNP.

Let us consider one more interesting number called, Net Factor Income from Abroad (NFIA). This number is very easy to derive (theoratically). Just take all the income earned by residents of India from rest of the world and subtract the income earned by non-residents of India in India. Currently this figure for India is negative, which means the income earned by foreigners in India is more than the income earned by Indians in outside India.

Do you now see the link between GDP, GNP and NFIA? Can we say, GDP = GNP - NFIA? Do you want to think how? Comment me if you dont get it.

Are you serious? Do you really want to blog that way?

check it out...

http://www.ted.com/talks/yossi_vardi_fights_local_warming.html

Whats Local Warming?

Get a mac campaign..

Youtube has become increasingly popular among corporates as a new medium of their marketing and advertising. Check out the new Get a Mac campaign in You tube.. few ads that I could not stop myself laughing out loud are..

1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrJTiAwpM6I - ask what you can give to Vista, not what vista can give you

2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNnX6XRQBec&NR=1 - movies made on a PC

Moral Hazard and Adverse Selection

Economists refer to this term 'Moral Hazard' as someone's behaviour is not observed, then it affects the probability or magnitude of the payments. For example, if your car is fully insured, then you are less likely to be careful while driving. Or if you house is fully insured against theft, you will be less diligent about locking doors or installing an alarm system.

Adverse Selection is a form of information asymmetry. For example, in used car market, the seller of the car knows much more information than the buyer. When making a purchase, buyers view all cars as 'medium quality', in the sense that there is an equal chance of getting a high-quality or low-quality car. Because of such asymmetric information problem, low-quality goods drive high-quality goods out of the market. This phenomenon is sometimes referred to as the lemons problem. Another example is, how insurance companies sell premium. They hope that there are more healthier people taking policies than less healthy people so that the costs are averaged for Insurance companies and they can make some money too.

New Drug for a Pharma company

Did you know that under guidelines established by US FDA (Food and Drug Administration), no drug could be sold in the US market until it underwent three stages of successful clinical testing and sruvived a rigorous approval procedure?

Only one in 20 trail-phase drugs was eventually approved for public use and even successful candidates often took 10 years and 50,000 pages of documentation to win FDA approval. The total cost of this process was reported to be between $500 million to $880 million.

Now do you know why someone sells an antibiotic for 300 rupees a tablet?

Would you buy imported Apples or Domestically grown?

If you are a sensitive Global citizen caring for climate change, consider answering this question. Lets say you live in Bangalore, Would you buy a domestically grown Apple or buy an imported apple while staying sensitive to the climate? If you answer Domestically grown apple would have less impact on climate, you could be wrong. The producers store domestically grown apples in cold storage warehouses for long duration (could be 3 to 6 months based on summer) and this energy would have resulted in more carbon emissions than the ones due to transportation of imported apples.

Wal-mart's Annual IT budget

Here is another 'amusing' fact - Did you know that WALMART's IT spending is only second to Pentagon? With sales of around $253 billion, WALMART spends roughly $4.5 billion on IT. Though this figure is not publicly available, this is derived from the usual percentage terms (1.8% of sales) of retailers.

BMP Property Tax

Last week I paid the property tax for the assessment year 2009-10 via online. Its so cool. All you need is last year's application number (that you paid under new UAV scheme) and you are all set to go. Once you give the application number, the system shows how much you owe and just pay that amount online. This site also gives you the facility to inform BMP of any mis-calculations that occured during previous filing. I found it very cool and convenient. Just search for BMP Online in google and click on Online Tax Payment.

Air Express: Document Carrier

Another post in my 'Did you know' series. Air Express service, in other words the courier service that air ships your documents or non-documents which weigh below 50 KGs check in the collected consignments as excess passenger baggage. :-) In a normal case, any cargo beyond 50KG goes as air cargo in cargo planes. But this has certain limitations such as timing, synchronizing flight connections, safety of documents etc. So, courier companies became innovative and they actually carry your documents or small boxes that you want to ship by air, either domestic or international with the help of passengers. There are some intermediate companies that are into this business of 'supplying' passengers who just tag along the baggage of courier companies and 'travel' with them. Once they reach the destination, the courier company's baggage is taken over by the respective local office. The passenger has absolutely nothing to do with the baggage.

Now do you know how Scotty and his friend Cooper flew from Ohio to England for just $18? ;-)

Carbon Capture

We all know how serious the threat of green house gases (GHG) these days is. There have been considerable discussions, awareness and activities worldwide to reduce carbon emissions and to look for alternate energy sources more actively. Many nations are planning to cut their carbon emissions or GHG emissions or try to offset them by purchasing carbon credit. One way to reduce carbon emissions is not to use fossil fuel like coke or oil. But the problem is for the industries to switch to alternate energies, it would take sometime (could really be a decade or more). This is not an immediate solution.

Few nations are trying for some alternate ways of reducing emissions. One such method is, CCS Carbon Capture and Storage. In this method, the carbon is captured at the source and pumped underground. Such a method is expected to reduce CO2 pollution by 40% according to oil major Shell. Ofcourse such a method can shoot two birds with one bullet. Shell is providing this services to companies that want to reduce carbon emissions. Shell makes money from these companies by helping them reduce carbon emissions and guess where do they pump this gas? They pump this gas into oil fields so that the oil that could not be extracted from the normal levels can now be extracted because due to the pressure created by CO2 in these oil fields, the oil levels raise above. :-)

Did you know series

Oflate I am getting lot of gyan. So, I thought of putting them in my blog under the theme 'Did you know?'. I will label them as 'Did you know'.

Hillary wants emission cuts from India

The carbon foorprint of US is 22.2% of the world and that of India is 4.9%. India is one among the few countries who is expanding the forests to offset carbon footprint. And Hillary is asking India to commit on the emission reduction?

By the way, China I think has gone past US in terms of Carbon Emissions.

Excellent way to learn Casio Keyboard for a beginner

I have been enjoying Carnatic Music for long time... but never thought of learning. Recently when I saw Casio Electronic Keyboard, I thought, why not try out? I picked up SA-45, the basic keyboard from eZone for 1800 and started trying my luck. I thought I would get sufficient resources on Internet to learn play this. I m not such a great fan of Carols, so I wanted to stick to South Indian way of playing Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Da Ni on this keyboard. I tried few on the net, but there is one series that I liked most. The lessons are in the form of short videos uploaded to You Tube. The objective is to teach Bhajans, but they go along with a Raaga. Its a nice way to learn Casio Keyboard. Check out this link for more details: http://www.youtube.com/user/kpax1008

Risk of Commoditizing

When a product becomes commodity, customers dont need choice. They just look at the price comparison. For example, if Stategy becomes a commodity (as I see the risk now in current times), no customer would want to pay premium to a straight forward stategy. They would just look around, find any MC company that can deliver strategy and get the cheapest one. So, you are a product vendor, you constantly need to watch if your product is being commoditized. And keep innovating on your product to stay afloat if you want to be unique.

June 5th World Environment Day

Yesterday was World Environment Day and I took public transport to work along with my colleagues to reduce my carbon footprint.

Quote...

What you are is God's gift to you. What you become is your gift to God.

Parantha holic - Bellandur

This is a new speciality eat out joint opened at Bellandur two weeks ago. I had been there last week and writing my experience. As the name suggests, its supposed to be 'the' place for those who love parathas. But u know.. Bangalore is such a cosmo city that you hardly find large punjabi community in just one location. Bellandur area has a mix of people from various locations. These are the people who eat Parathas once in a while and for a change from routine. With that perspective, Parantha holic is doing well even though the parathas are not really delicious.

The prices start from Rs.30 and go till 60 for each Paratha. One paratha comes with achar and curd. The size is not really big. I would eat two such parathas for lunch along with some rice & dal. The curries are to be bought extra. Average meal costs Rs.100 per head and this is a self service joint. My first experience from this place is, this will create confusion in the customer about the positioning. This is not a fast food center that churs out 10 parathas in 15 minutes for high volume visitors and at the same time this is not an order, eat and pay restaurant with comfortable seating. If the target customers are bachelors, one has to shell out roughly 70-80 rupees for a filling meal. If the target customers are family of two or four, it would be around 400, but would such a family want to spend time in a self service eat out where not so great parathas are served? I still like Dummas parathas than Parantha holic !

So, my suggestion to you is, 'Improve the taste of Parathas, Price Competetively, Process the orders quickly'.

3rd Generation Honda City

I wanted to write about my new Honda City for a long time. Here it is...

The 3Generation Honda City was launched in October 2008 in India (after its first launch in Thailand). It has new arrow shot design that makes it look like Civic at the first glance. I got this beauty on Nov 26th.

By this time there are many Citys running on Bangalore roads. So, its not much fun to write about the features of this car. I will write about my experiences. This model of City has got an bigger wheels which helps in increased ground clearance. With just two people in the car including driver, any bump can be easily negotiated. With 3 in total, you need to be careful at certain bumps. With four passengers, you have to be careful all the time when there are speed breakers. After two three weeks, you will know this yourself and also the bumps which you can handle with some speed.

Eversince I got this, I have been filling Shell Super Petrol and I have been getting a mileage of 13KMPL in city traffic with occassional A/C. With all the time A/C and bumper to bumper traffic it drops to 8.5 KMPL (As shown on the dash board).

Just comment if you have any questions on this car and I will be happy to answer.

SMART Ulips

My investment agent approached me with the SMART Ulip products introduced by SBI, Tata AIG and Birla Sunlife. All these products have similar unique feature, i.e. they promise the highest NAV the funds touched during 10 years period at the time of redemption . The ppt is either 3 or 5 years and if you surrender before 5 years it attracts surrender charges. Although, you are very likely to get sold to the idea that you are guaranteed for the highest NAV, you must remember that the number of units you hold by the end of the tenure are the ones that you can cash on. For example, you have invested 50,000 for 3 years. The total amount you invested is 1,50,000. But this product also has administration charges and monthly recurring charges. On the days when the market is doing really bad, you will lose more number of units because the NAV is less. Lets say for first year the invested amount is 50,000 and SBI charges Rs 60 per month flat thoughout the policy term and additional Rs 5 for every 1000 of sum assured for the first 3 policy years. Incase of SBI Life Sum Assured = 5 times Allocated Premium. For a 3 year ppt, around 34,500 goes out in fixed charges, remaining charges go out in cancellation of units. Lets say the units started at initial NAV of 10 and when the NAV goes up you get less number of units and when it goes down you get more (remember when it goes down you also lose more units interms of monthly admin charges). So finally you ended up after 3 years total number of units accumulated are around 10,000 and by the time you surrender, this 10,000 units would have shrunk to 8800 or 9000 and for you to break-even at the time of surrender after 10 years, the NAV should have touched minimum 17 (17*9000 = 1,56,000) and to really reap good benefits of holding amount for 10 years, NAV of 35 would fetch you 3,15,000 and a NAV of 45 would be 4,05,000/- . 

We are talking about an MF that started with Rs 10 and touched 45 (an appreciation of 450%) atleast once in a period of 10 years. If you think this sounds logical, dont think twice to invest in these funds.

BBMP Property Tax - Finally paid it

When I was reading the ads by BBMP in ToI by Citizens who paid property tax about the ease of payment and help they received, I was thinking BBMP was exaggerating. But when I paid the tax by myself, I realized it was not really the case. I went to one of the make shift BBMP offices near my apartment and they had around 10 chairs to sit, one assistant to ensure people are sitting in the order they arrived, two tax collectors, one clerk to print the paid receipts (has got a computer, printer with UPS) and two ceiling fans in running condition. It took me not more than 30 minutes because they also helped me with filling of the form. I wrote a cheque favoring 'The Commissioner, BBMP' for the amount he specified and thats it. I collected the receipt and got it signed by the Tax Collector. One thing I still did not like is, despite of Times Of India's alarm against using '2007 Army Flag Day' stickers on the receipts and collecting money from Bangalore citizens, this practice is still continuing.

BBMP - New Property Tax Rules

Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike has announced new rules for assessing and paying property taxes in Bangalore city. If you pay the property tax before 31 March 09 you will receive a 5% discount. :-) Following is the procedure to pay property tax.

1. Visit this link http://www.bmponline.org/propertytax/hand%20book.shtml. This link gives the basic details of new scheme introduced by BBMP.

2. The next step is to find out which zone your property falls into (A to F zones).

3. Remember: If your property is AUTHORIZED property, fill the pink form. That is Form-II. Do not fill the LIGHT GREEN Form (FORM-III) even if you are insisted by the BBMP Officer. This form is for un-authorized property and it seems they are asking citizens to use this form. Do not forget to carry your last year fee paid receipt. This receipt contains your Khata number.

4. Calculate the property tax as per the handbook and visit your nearest BBMP office.

5. Pay the fee and obtain proper receipt.

Commitment and Involvement

Once a chicken and a pig decided to open a breakfast restaurant. They were discussing what should be served for breakfast. The chicken said, 'What else ! Ham and Eggs'. Well, the pig then said 'No way !! IF we serve Ham and Eggs, I would be commited and you would only be involved'.

How to obtain Marriage Certificate

Last week I completed one long pending activity, to get my marriage certificate. The process itself is pretty simple if you are already married. Oh.. yeah, by the way this process is only for thos who are already married as per hindu marriage customs. This process does not describe how to get married infront of a registrar. I was already married and wanted to get my marriage recognized by the Government of India. Of late there are many software engineers visiting foreign countries and obtaining marriage certificates so that they can take their spouses along. I am not one among them, I just thought I would keep the marriage certificate with me. The marriages are registered with Sub-Registrar - Special Officer for Marriages. Everybody in the sub-registrar office responsible for marriage registration are pretty much aware why does someone need a marriage certificate and they have certain expecations from you interms of 'donation' you could offer to the clerk there.

Step by step procedure to get marriage certificate:

Step1 - Find the sub-registrar office

You could get your marriage registred in a city or town where you can produce residence proof. As I said, the marriage is registered in the sub-registrar office. The sub-registrar office is usually located in the same premises of the same sub-registrar who registers property deals. So, its not a tough job to find out where this office is. Just ask any real-estate broker in your area, he would guide you where the sub-registrar office is.

Step2 - Submit the required documents

Following documents are required:

1. Age proof in the form of 10th standard certificate or passport (A Photocopy of either of them)

It is better to inquire at the office which one do they accept. For me, they did not accept passport as age proof, he specifically wanted 10th certificate for age proof for both of us.

2. Residence Proof (Passport or Driver's License) 

I submitted two wheeler driver's license and my wife submitted her passport

3. Three photos with clear faces of bride and groom 

The three photos taken during three important stages of marriage (one is during Muhurat, next while tieing the knot and third what we call Talambralu in telugu-I dont know how to say it in other languages).

4. Form 1A - can be obtained outside the regitrar office for Rs. 5 or Rs.10/-

5. Two applications one for bride and one for groom on a Rs.10/- stamp paper with the details of marriage (They can also be obtained from the vendor outside the office for a nominal charge - Maximum Rs.100).

6. Wedding cards from both parties

7. A certificate issued by the Wedding Hall that your marriage took place at certain date & time with your names including your family name.

All the above documents are mandatory and lack of any can not be excepted.

Step 3: Three witnesses

After you have all the above documents, just walk into registrar's office along with your spouse and three witnesses. The registrar will examine your documents and you require three witnesses to sign on Form 1A. Once the documents are examined, you would proceed to a clerk who would ask you and your spouse to sign in the marriage register. All the three witnesses would also have to sign here.

Step 4: The clerk would then ask you to come back on the same day - usually in the evening when nobody is around so that you could make your 'donation'. I donated six hundred after he demanded.

I hope this post is useful for you. There might be slight variations to the process depending on place to place. But the required documents might be the same.

Why did Raju do this?

Satyam's Ramalinga Raju is well educated man. He is from HBS and as I read from one of his contemporaries article, he is the person who is tech savvy, passionate about his business. But, what lead him to make such faulty decisions? What could be the take away for us? In my opinion, tough people last during tough times only if...

1. They maintain their integrity all the time - my understanding of integrity is dont settle with 'convenient' way of doing things when you are in a tough situation. Instead, stick to what is right, what is ethical and what is appreciated.

2. You really dont have to change yourself or your way in tough times. If you are really the one who is doing right things you naturally withstand tough times - for example, look at Infosys.

3. Trust people, delegate tasks, spread the information, dont micro manage. Had Raju really kept his books transprarent, he would not have to ride the tiger at all. (He confessed that he was riding a tiget and wanted to get off without being eaten).

Satyam - Asatyam

When Ramalinga Raju admitted that a fraud has happened in their books, I wondered about the timing. He said in his message that what started as a narrow gap by mistake had grown into a massive black hole that sucked an entire company of 53000 employees. Someone says this is Financial Terrorism. If a terrorist gets shot dead mercilessly in an encouter, what should be done to such people who cause Financial Terrorism ?

Could it have been announced without Raju telling his friends to sell Satyam stocks? Could not it have been dealt much early? He said he did not take a single rupee from Satyam stock except for some philanthorpic activities. If he had such good intentions, why should he wait till date?

Lessons for BJP Government in Karnataka from current election results

Congress Party had done a clean sweep in 3 state assembly elections and had also eaten into last year seats of BJP in the remaining two states where BJP won. I think BJP has to learn a lesson here. In the states where Congress has won, there is little amount of people who are directly affected by terror. When there is sufficient amount of development including the elimentary needs of people taken care of, only then one can think of projecting bigger issues. Sheela Dixit had done an excellent job in developing Delhi to a world class city. NCR region has been developed to the best standards. These are the visible facts that people would look at. In Karnataka, ever since BJP government had come into power, the first 6 months were gone in securing more MLAs into BJP to ensure the government does not topple. I guess, now its time for the party to rake in some moolah that was spent. There is very little progress on infrastructure front in Bangalore city. New infra projects are kicked off, but progress is very slow. BJP clearly undestands that they have won this time in Karnataka purely due to the sympathy they carried from JD(S) power sharing crisis. If the party does not show good development in the state, I am sure it will not even get half the number of seats in next elections.

A small advice to make money from stock markets

Dont ask me if I follow this or not. But I think essentially this is the formula.

As any savvy investor knows, Stock market basically goes up and comes down not necessarily in that order and not bound to same frequency. All you have to do is buy low and sell high. In a volatile market, the buy low and sell high period might be short and in a stable market it might be high. And the key ofcourse is to know when to buy. A rule of thumb is buy when everybody says, markets are falling - markets are falling. And sell the day your stock has appreciated by more than 20% (You dont have to wait in never ending optimism of making your stock appreciate by 2000%).

If you observe, the stock market index is standing at the same level in 2006 and today. But during these two years, the market has doubled and came back. Which means, you could have potentially invested 1L in 2006 and got returns of 2L in 2007 (had you sold) and you have perfect opportunity to invest your profit money again. So, the key is selling when the markets are high.

Experience from the Concert

In my previous post, I mentioned about Vishaka Hari,
a carnatic classical singer. The friend who told me about this concert
and inspired me to go, has written a nice article about his experience
of the concert. I am copy pasting his writing here.
----------As told by him------------------------

It’s 4 days of Vishaka here at 2 venues. Both organizations had arranged a concert and a discourse.

The first was Indiranagar Sangeetha Sabha where Day 1: 7 Nov 2008 (was a
Thyagaraja Vaibhavam rendered in English. Here Vishaka impressed with
her singing – however one felt that the artist was not totally
comfortable talking to an audience in the English language. The verve
displayed in her Tamil discourses was missing. Here, though the
expression was good, it reminded one of school and college days where
students memorize pages and pages of oration essays lovingly penned by
parents using the most pompous complicated words (with the help of
Roget!) – there were several moments when one felt she could not
recollect the next word/sentence and then groped clumsily to find a
substitute to convey the thought. Some sarcasm-laden jokes on the
new-gen/old-gen that cares little for tradition did not fall too well
on the audience’s ears and evoked little more than weak smiles.
Nevertheless the singing was par excellence and in pieces like
Durmagachara and Giripai she brought out the bhava beautifully.



Day2: Indiranagar Sangeetha Sabha – Concert - – B Ananthakrishnan (Violin) – Sudheendra - Sukanya

She got off to a great start with an MSS style shloka followed by a well
executed Saveri varnam. This was followed by a Jaya Jaya Swamin in
Naatai that had some novel sangathis. Innu Daya Baarade in Kalyana
Vasantham – a Lalgudi stable favourite - was next, significantly
different from the way Sudha/Jayashree render it. A brisk Kandajumi and
then Thodi followed for Raju Vedala – here one thought the weight and
grandeur of Thodi was lacking – successfully overshadowed by the bhava
injected into the sangathis. The alapana had some inspired phrases but
overall was not an “AAhhhh – THAT Thodi”! Swagatham Krishna in Mohanam
again racy and then RTP in Kapi. Need to listen to this again before
comments – but remember some parts where the enthusiasm overtook the
grace in rendition causing a noisy result. Theeradha Vilayaatu Pillay
was definitely the jewel of this concert and possibly 2 concerts – sung
with excellent expression and the right mix of bhava and laya and
improvised sangathis. Another piece in Kannada followed in Abhogi –
Baarayya Krishna Barayya was soothing. The last piece was Lalgudi’s
Brindavana Saranga Thillana. Throughout the concert the violinist
impressed both with his support as well as innovative pidis in the
alapanas. Overall this concert was good but not one that would remain
in memory forever. Average age of the audience was 55 and they wahhed
and che-che-choed appropriately, and left the hall awestruck with
several comments overheard about CA GOLD MEDALLIST wearing MADISAAR ;-)

ISS took some time to get their acoustics right with the vocalist’s voice being muffled almost till the 3rd piece


Day 3: Sri Rama Lalitha Kala Mandira – Concert – Charulatha Ramanujam (Violin) – Sudheendra - Sukanya


This concert started with a shlokam again on Mannargudi Rajagopala followed
by Viriboni. A very fast Shobillu followed – a tad noisy. Hamir Kalyani
followed for VenkataShaila Vihara – a good alapana from both singer and
violinist. Maragatha Mani Maya – Arabhi again sung with aplomb. Paraaku
Maadade - Saveri was the main piece for a Purandara Dasa composition.
Here the first signs of the artist’s voice cracking showed and she
evidently had problems reaching the upper sthayi. The violinist
executed a neat but uninspiring alapana. The main piece was again OK –
flashes of great music but mainly forgettable. Brova Bharama in
Bahudari was next – breathtaking speed as if the artist was desperate
to conclude the concert. Her shruti by now was a thing of the past and
was frequently slipping.



Then came the RTP – this was an attempt at a Dwi-raaga pallavi. Mohanam and
Hindolam. Now, the point in multi-raaga pallavis is for artistes to
display expertise in flawlessly traversing the notes of ragas that are
significantly different , blending the turns so that the shifts are
soft and smooth and the character of each individual raga is
maintained. The RTP attempt was far from any of these rules. It was
marked by extreme violations of the basic notes of each raga and the
transition between the ragas was far from smooth – both vocalist and
violinist abruptly stopped a raga and then restarted the next!! There
were apaswaras galore from both(?? Why the violinst one wonders) and
Shruti had quite evidently left the concert in a greater hurry than
Vishaka herself. Definitely something distracting the performer. A
significant portion of the audience was missing by the time the Raga
part of the RTP was concluded. The rest of the RTP was limpid and
lackluster.


Yaman Kalyani – Hari Smarana Mado a Dasar padam was the last piece – Vishaka’s voice had lost its soft appeal by now and the rendering sounded a trifle hard on the ears. By now the race to conclude was obvious and there was no
“Shantham “ so to speak in a raagam like Yaman Kalyani.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Extremely disappointing indeed. There is a compellingly unique reason people
flock to hear Vishaka – iconic in her image – student of none less than
Lalgudi Jayaraman, a dancer of repute, a Gold Medallist Chartered
Accountant who gave up the prospects of a potentially brilliant career
for marriage to Sri Hari – nevertheless gaining fame as the
daughter-in-law of the revered Sri Krishna Premi; a 21st century
Chennai-bred – Mylapore damsel who donned the Madisaar and slid into a
supposedly “old” lifestyle with ease!



For many of the “progressive” Tam-Brahm community this sterling example of
one of their own breed returning to roots is possibly confounding as
well as inspiring – especially compared with their own situations of
sons and daughters in far away lands pursuing dreams that may or may
not include them. The novelty of a woman extolling the scriptures (she
is not the first but definitely the most talked about), comfortable in
Tamil as well as English, a vocalist upholding the Lalgudi baani – many
many reasons to inspire.



However, having listened to Vishaka both live and recorded, as well as having
listened to some of the great exponents of Hari Katha and Upanyasam,
here are some thoughts:

1.Hari katha : Vishaka has a very long way to go in terms of narration –
novelty wears off when it ceases to be fresh – its is 4 years now that
the Thyagaraja Vaibhavam or the Prahlada Charitram or the Sundara
Kandam have consisted of stock fare – from the songs to the jokes! The
danger of mediocre becoming inane is not far. Hari Katha is not easy –
it needs a sweeping knowledge of 100s of incidents and stories that the
narrator has in memory and can naturally command to the front to keep a
performance from becoming tame. A wonderful voice that flashes a few
bhava-laden pieces cannot bring majesty to an overall Hari Katha.
Vishaka is young and learning – she should make sure that complacence
does not become her undoing – lest the same audiences that looks up to
her as Sri Anna’s daughter-in-law, fail to accept her in comparison to
the giant he is!


2. Concerts: It is one thing to pull at the heart-strings of an audience in an
emotionally charged narration, with a perfectly chosen song/shloka in a
apt raga, and quite another to hold one’s own in a full-fledged
Carnatic Concert. The 2 concerts were proof of this. When compared to
the most average well-planned concerts delivered by artists of the day,
the two concerts can only be called pedestrian. A good voice and a
great guru do not a great artiste make – manodharma is what makes a
Carnatic performer stand apart from his or her peers. Vishaka had voice
–problems – this is possibly among the first performances after her
maternity break and her voice failed her more than once – not something
saadhana will not remedy. Her delivery of the pieces as per instruction
were excellent, the sangathis great, some of the
alapana/niraval/kalpana swara interludes showed latent brilliance – but
a few and far between moments do not hold up a concert. She will do
well to plan better and maintain a kalapramana in her concerts and pay
heed to that all important aspect of music - Manodharma.


Vishaka has everything going for her – she has established an image of piety
and sincerity, she has an automatic fan-following thanks to her
father-in-law that will encourage and nurture her talent and support
her every miss, all she needs to leverage is the great training she has
been imparted by her Gurus and give flight to her creativity – the road
is long and tortuous... but unlike many, she is blessed with all the
support she needs for her journey.

Of late interest in Carnatic Classical

I have always been a fan of good music, more so for our traditional Indian music, whether Carnatic or Hindustani. I always cherished MSS, Annamacharya, Thyagaraja's compilations right from my childhood days. I think one of the best ways to beat stress is, listen to good music or if possible, even play some 'good' music. One can play good music from a musical instrument and requires some basic lessons and practice. Then I started looking for some music schools in Bangalore and especially around Bellandur, Sarjapur area. I found http://easternfare.googlepages.com/branches in google. I still need to check out where & how much. While lazing around in the weekends, one fine day I also found that there is another music school somewhere near Marathalli. The poster is put in the musical instrumets shop inside Innovative Multiplex. I forgot the name and did not note the phone number. Will check it out again next time I go to Multiplex (I go there once in 6 months).

Anyway, while things were progressing as I described above, one of my friends told me about Indiranagar Sangeetha Sabha. Though I am very much familiar with Indiranagar Club in Bangalore, I never noticed Purandara Bhavana right behind Indiranagar Club !! Shame on me. Nevermind, I went there on last Friday for a discourse on Thyagaraja in English by Vishaka Hari. I think she is popular among Classical Carnatic music community. Since I never had been to a classical music concert in Bangalore, I did not hear about her. Anyway, I went there with my wife on Friday evening for a 2.5 hour discourse. It was quite interesting with three familiar keerthanas and many un-familiar ones to me. I could atleast understand the context of those familiar keerthans composed by great Thyagaraja. It was a great evening, followed by dinner at Little Italy on Indiranagar 100 ft road.

Computer Party

My friend from AP wanted to start a regional political party after he got inspired by so many regional parties. Then I asked him, what is your party name, janda, agenda etc? He said, his party name is 'Computer Party' his flag is a laptop computer and his agenda is the following.
* Free laptop computer to all government school children
* Free computer to all households
* Automated self service applications to all citizens
* Free email id to all voters
* Free web site space to all voters
* Free internet connection

He then continued, if he is elected he will achieve a great progress by making everything transparent using computers, spreading information, creating self services (so that nobody else is involved from government) etc. I thought this is very interesting but not possible practically. I ruled him out saying you are not a politician, but a techie. But I could not refuse his offer and thought he could ofcourse become a good politician, when he said, 'Friend !! You will own the company that provides internet services for a subscription, you will own the hardware shop, you will be the ISP, you will sell anti virus - and dont forget my share !!'

IIM Fee hike and corporate side effects

From the day I heard the news that I got offer to join PGSEM course, class of 2008 I started to think whether to accept this or not. One of the prime reasons is ofcourse the course fee. The entire course for 2.5 years costs about 7.5L. The regular PGP course offered by IIM Bangalore costs 8L for 2 years. The rising input costs, Srikrishna commissions' recommendation to hike salaries has mandated IIMs and IITs to raise the fees. The popular comment you hear anywhere to justify the fee hike by premier educational institutes of India is after completion of course, the average salaries offered are so high that students can afford to pay these fees. This fee hike definitely has a great impact on students who are fresh out of college joining the program. On the flipside there are many students who are sponsored from their companies for higher studies. The current allocation from corporates for these programs must accommodate the higher fees. One could say "no big deal, the corporates have lot of money and funds for higher education are not so much", but look at it, atleast IT companies will be thinking twice with raising dollar and shrinking margins from US projects. More-over this fee hike requires almost more than doubling the current allocation in the budgets. Assuming most of the companies finish their budget exercises before March, the academic year 2008-2009 definitely would not have got any higher allocation. Since the fee hikes (actuals) were announced in the last two months. anyway, the bottom line is, someone in my company who could do PGSEM program sponsored by my company last year could not do this year without investing remaining 50% of the course fee from his/her pocket !!! :-( :-( :-(

State Bank of India Recruitment Drive and Computerization

SBI has announced to recruit 20,000 clerical staff across India (here is the link http://www.statebankofindia.com/viewdetail.jsp?lang=0&id=0,15,110&dcd=1554&did=12095387224165EDAEEBEA6E967765193AECF3857CAE9). Well, this may not be the news. The news is, the entire application process is made online except for the part where you need to pay the application fee. This exception is alright, because not everyone might have access to online payment facilities in India. The application process is very very simple. Just go to any SBI Branch that is Computerised and centrally networked, (SBI calls such branches as CBS branches) and pay the application fee (which is Rs. 250) and get a journal number from them. This number has to be updated in the application while filling it online. The minimum qualification required to apply is 12th plus communication skills plus basic computer knowledge. So, this makes a lot of sense to automate the application process and make it online. Not everyone might have access to online payment facilities but almost every mandal (taluk) or a small town has atleast one cyber cafe and internet is widely available.

I would say this is a welcome step from such a large public sector enterprise and I see more such initiatives from other big public enterprises such as Indian Railways or State owned RTCs or UPSC or respective state Public Service Commissions. Such a process ensures no application is lost in post, no application is delayed, no application went un-noticed. More-over it saves paper, reduces cutting trees, saves planet earth.

Movies delivered at home

Since the days I returned from US in 2002, I always wanted NetFlix type of service in India. I missed the quality DVDs not just movies but also other interesting programs available on DVDs. The poor quality of discs in neighborhood rental stores and high city traffic to watch a good movie made me look for alternatives. 'Cinema' at Koramangala is one such store in Bangalore and Hyderabad offering wide variety of titles for rent with best quality discs, but they dont have a door delivery service. The neighborhood stores slowly started door delivery service, but they lacked a website catalogue to choose from titles and ofcourse the quality of discs is not always the best.

Now after 5 years, www.seventymm.com is the first such site to offer DVD rentals over the web. They have good collection of titles and to start with a fairly priced plans. Recently Reliance promoted www.bigflicks.com has entered into this business. So far I have seen these two companies offering DVDs delivered to home in India and thought of comparing their plans here.

Seventymm claims service in 6 cities, Bangalore, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Chandigarh and Hyderabad and around 15,000 titles in 14 languages. Their basic plan gives you 1 movie at a time and you could watch upto 6 movies in a month. You need to return the disc within 3 nights and 4 days. This plan costs you a basic membership fee of Rs. 250 and a registration fee of Rs. 199. You need to pay a refundable security deposit of Rs. 349. Per month it costs you Rs. 798 for 6 movies. Rs. 133 per movie. Hrm...

Bigflicks delivers movies worldwide over broadband and in India by door delivery. Being a Reliance company, they have office in Ahmedabad and also offer services in 9 other cities (Bangalore, Chandigarh, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Indore, Kolkatta, Mumbai, Pune). Their basic plan of 1 disc at a time requires a refundable deposit of Rs 400, a monthly subscription of Rs. 250 and no registration fee. Currently none of the plans in Bigflicks have registration fee. While rental period for Old titles is not limited, new titles have to be returned within 48 hours. Bigflicks also claims over 15,000 titles in 15 languages. In total per month it comes to Rs. 750 for one disc plan and no major difference than seventymm.

And for the real movie buffs, Bigflicks lets you take a maximum of 3 discs at a time with no upper limit on total number of movies per month. This plan costs you Rs. 5000 per annum and a security deposit of Rs. 1000. Where as in Seventymm, one can rent a maximum of 2 discs at a time with no limit on the number of titles you can rent in a month. Their annual plan costs you Rs. 5490 per annum with no security deposit. Their one time registration fee of Rs. 199 is to be paid. This turns out to be Rs. 5689 per annum again not so much of difference from Bigflicks. The advantage here is one can keep the disc for unlimited number of days. Assuming a new title can also be kept.

Ofcourse what needs to be seen to compare these two services further is on the following parameters....

1. The availability of titles
- Once you place the request, what is the number of days you need to wait for that title
- This parameter can further be for old titles and new titles
- The title itself in their catalogue
- When delivered, the contents of the case has same movie as you requested

2. Turnaround time of your requests for pick up and delivery
- Lets say you place a request to pick up the disc, how many hours or days they take to pick up the disc.
- If the disc is available at the time of placing request, when does it get delivered

3. Transparency in Billing
- Are you charged as promised?
- are there any hidden charges like late payment fees or service charges

4. Quality of titles
- Condition of discs
- You get a good movie watching experience without any missing parts due to scratches on discs
- Sub-titles in the language you need
- For higher customer satisfaction - original discs with supplement information like making of the movie etc.

May be the blog viewers can comment their experience with any of these services. I am still not a subscriber to any of these services.

CPI and CPI(M)

Whenever I read some news related to elections and politics I just wonder what is the difference between these two left parties. One is Communist Party of India (www.cpiindia.org) and the other is Communist Party of India (Marxist) (cpim.org).

To my understanding CPI(M) is quite influential in politics and is currently heading three state governments. It has been un-interruptedly in power in West Bengal since 1977, in Kerala and in Tripura. On broad level both the parties are leftists in nature and has influence from Soviet. CPI being the oldest was born in 1925 in India and CPI(M) was born in 1964. Popular known leaders from CPI(M) are Prakash Karat, Sitaram Yechury, EMS Nambudripad, HS Surjeet, Sukomal Sen and BV Raghavulu. And in CPI, the national secretery is AB Pradhan, and more known names are Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy, D. Raja and Gurudas Dasgupta. I have not explored further at a micro level what seperates CPI from CPI(M).

Tata-Ford deal

Tata Motors has paid 2.3 billion USD for two luxury brands that Ford acquired in one in 1989 (Jaguar) and other in the year 2000 (Land Rover from BMW). Ford has paid much more than what Tatas have paid now to acquire these two brands. From Ford's point of view, I think it is straight forward why did they want to sell these two luxury brands. Ford has been struggling to manage these two brands in domestic as well as overseas markets and there are not enough profits generated from these brands. But, it will be interesting to hear the story from Tata's side. Without looking into the books looks like Tatas did smart shopping considering the fact that they paid almost half of what Ford paid to acquire these two brands. It is not new for Tatas to manage global acquisition more so a British one. It is also not new for them to manage post acquisitions. Ford labor unions preferred the proposal from Tatas post takeover. As Tatas have already mentioned, they are going to leave Land Rover and Jaguar as independent entities. I think it is in the best interests of Tatas to keep them independent for sometime (for about 2 to 3 years). This gives enough time for Tatas to get sufficient learning opportunities to understand and manage these brands. They could then start experimenting with leveraging on Supply Chain capabilities, like getting steel from Tata-Corus (I am just guessing that they supply steel for cars), then on the collaborative design process, co-innovation, managing luxury brands and then look at synergies from India interms of domestic sales or auto components or Indian management in productivity. Tatas have already started introducing a good amount of features in their Dicor series of Safari vehicles. Its a good start and they are on this challenging journey ahead.

Prasnottara ratna malika

One of Adi Sanakara's works is Prasnottara Ratna Malika which is meant to elevate the seeker, by providing answers to doubts that may arise in the mind of the devotees. I am just listing few that constantly come in my mind..

What is more beneficial than anything else?
Righteousness.

What is the most desirable for human beings?
Life dedicated to one's and other's welfare.

Who is the foe?
It is but idleness.

What is unintelligence?
Not repeating what is learnt.

What is transient like the water on lotus leaf?
Youth, wealth and life.

What is priceless?
That which is given at the right moment.

What pains like a shaft till death?
The sin committed in secrecy.

By whom is this world concquered?
By the person who has truthfulness and endurance.

What is chartiy?
Expecting no return.

What is to be earned by people?
Knowledge, wealth, strength, fame, merit.

Which is the destroyer of all good qualities?
Greed.

X-Engineering (or Cross engineering)

BPR (Business Process Reengineering), the quite popular buzz word in early 90s focused on automation and transformation of an organization from operating a business in traditional ways to modern ways with the help of IT systems. Now that most of the organizations have done that job, the future is to look at innovating these business processes that are already mature with IT. X-Engineering (pronounced as Cross Engineering) aims at one such method.

Cross Engineering looks at business process improvements across the organizations involving their customers, vendors, business partners and any other mutually interested third party with an IT system. This process takes advantage of the fact that these participants have matured IT systems and can exchange information in understandable formats.

I believe cross engineering paves a big way for integrating loosely coupled systems. Which actually means, the recent buzz word - SOA (Service Oriented Architecture). Already major application software vendors are moving in this direction and cross engineering has a good potential to support SOA.

Disappointing day

Today is quite a disappointing day for me. I am disappointed on myself. On one side I dream of creating an organization, be an entrepreneur, be somebody, do something different, challenge status quo, challenge ex-bosses, complain the old-system to create a new one, beat few successful people's success blah blah blah. But I realized today that I lack the right attitude more than anything else. The way one of our guys went an extra mile to speak to a prospect and get some business where he was not even remotely connected to such a task made me feel humiliated on myself, while appreciating his efforts.

I dont know where my life is heading and what am I going to do !! I just wish I do the right things.

Self belief

There are three stages in achieving victory. (1) Knowing what to do (2) Knowing how to do it (3) Doing it - without which, of course, the knowledge of 'What' and 'How' is useless. Each of the stages hinges on self-belief: belief that you can master the subject or the sport, belief that you can apply that mastery in real-life situations, belief that you will succeed in execution. More, all three stages are informed by the belief that you can continuously improve, forever raising your game or your management performance.

Picked this from the article: http://www.thinkingmanagers.com/management/learning-organisation.php

Jack - straight from the gut

Currently reading that book. Few lines I liked...

• When your boss asks you something (I am talking about a smart boss), he already has an answer. He is just looking for a confirmation.
• Business is not quite similar to engineering where it is a list of procedures and mathematical calculations. Business is to feel, smell and then make intuitive decisions sometimes. Its not necessarily one single big idea - it is a collection of ideas and making them work.
  

T20 (Twenty Twenty)

My usual prelog to any thoughts and then the thoughts...

Cricket - the game most watched in India, a bat and ball game with an objective to score maximum runs. The team with most runs wins. It is about runs. When I was a kid, I remember very well - a 5 day test match used to take 7 days because it included a two day rest in between. One day after first two days and another day of rest after next two days of play. In 1939, there was a longest test match between South Africa and England that lasted for 11 days (Ofcourse due to rain and the play that followed till the result). Each over used to be 10 balls, later it was reduced to 8 and then to 6. There were not many TV sets in India at that time. Times have changed, technology has improved, satellites were sent to receive live transmission from anywhere across the world and beam them over to India. Indian matches are scheduled to be played over the weekends to attract maximum crowd. Corporates started sponsoring matches and players. Money started to pour. Cricket boards become cash rich. Market potential is unveiled.

Now, how could the boards or TV channels or companies make more money? By making more people pay for it. But again how? By making more people watch it. So... shorten the play time. Give the audience the entertainment they want. A full game of cricket could be watched in the same time span that a family block buster takes. Watch it on any day weekday or a weekend. Watch it after your work hours. The highlights take just 15 minutes. You could watch them too, incase you missed the match.

And to make the game little bit more interesting than usual game they have re-written few rules. For example, a ball following no-ball is a free hit. Incase of a tie, winner is decided by the maximum number of times the bowlers hit the wickets. Hello...!! Is not the game of cricket about making more runs?

Epilogue
Anyway, the point is, this game has become an entertainer than a skill game. A player would not like this form of cricket. I would not like it so much to myself. And unfortunately due to the time constraints and the money, I am worried that this will be the only way cricket might be played in future and the next generation have to watch the same.

60 years and still young

That's the most striking sentence that one would observe on independence day of India. What does this mean to me as an Indian? Till I was in the school, I was singing the National Anthem. That has always been inspiring me. There were two three occasions where I spoke about independent India during my school days in the assembly of students. Ofcourse, it required some preparation and courage to speak. I was not so much of an independent thinker then. Now, may be I dont depend so much to think. So, I started to think. First thing, Independence means, the right to live. As long as you are in the country the government ensures that you could have a good night sleep and dream. This thought inturn is in sync with what 'Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak' said 'Independence is my birth right'. Next, the fundamental rights that constitution confers on every citizen of India, living in Indian democracy. They include individual rights common to most liberal democracies, such as equality before the law, freedom of speech and expression, freedom of association and peaceful assembly, freedom of religion, and the right to constitutional remedies for the protection of civil rights such as habeas corpus. And if you were to enjoy these fundamental rights, you also need to be aware of your fundamental duties. Such as to abide by constitution, to uphold and protect sovereignty, unity and integrity of India, to defend the country, to promote harmony, to value and preserve rich heritage of our country, to protect and improve natural environment, to safeguard public property, to strive towards excellence so that the nation rises higher levels of achievement, to participate in such a nation building process. Now that I am aware of my fundamental rights and duties, I started to think how many Indians could honestly say they live by them?

Few incidents I could recollect - most common ones.

- destroying public property such as government buses, trains, offices

- poaching of rare animals & national birds

- cutting trees, encroachment of forest land, lakes

- women and child abuse

What is the guarantee that you are not going to be a victim in sometime? If you want to enjoy the fundamental right, you must responsibly discharge your fundamental duty as well. Otherwise, there is no meaning to life and hence no meaning to 'Independence'.

Why suddenly...?

Did you not hear this expression when somebody said, I am resigning? Especially, from your boss when you told him you are quitting. The typical response is 'Why?', 'I am shocked to hear this', 'I never expected, that "you" would do this', etc etc. BULL SHIT!!

If I were a team leader, I exactly know who is reporting to me, what is the work being carried out, what are individual aspirations, what is the value addition to each team member and how each person is peforming. Even if a small disconnect between individual's expectation from the organization and his/her aspiration ignites the negative thinking. I fully support the theory that people quit not from the organization, but from their immediate boss.

And to enlighten the poor boss's soul, the chicken starts to think at the first negative sign and many things keep adding up. Finally the individual either encounters a spike that completely demotivates him/her or reaches a saturation state accumulating all the encounters in the past (like illogical appraisal talks etc). This process could take anytime from 6 months to one year. And then the employee announces his decision to be free from the boss (not from the organization). So my dear bosses, when somebody says I want to resign, please dont pretend to put a shocking expression on your face. You better be aware of whats happening in your team and atleast verify where the 'disconnect' is. Mere talking does not help, act.

Leader and Manager

I have been thinking about this for a while and asked my sister whats the difference. She told me Leader is the one who leads and Manager is the one who manages. Hmm... thats a trivial answer, but not clear enough. Infact, when I started writing this, I gave the title as 'Leader vs Manager'. I wanted to distinguish the roles that each one play. Later I realized, these two roles do not really compete with each other, but sometimes are best performed complementing each. Based on the situation one of the qualities come out from the same individual (not induhvidual). The reason I started writing about this topic was, simple organization behaviour. I believe work atmosphere should never create 'challenging confusions' among work force.

Let us look at a typical team structure in a Bangalore based software services company. A team of size 30, has one line manager, has 4 or 5 project leaders (or team leaders) reporting to him/her and the remaining (24) is a mix of senior and relatively junior set of developers. In such a set up, a project leader (or team leader) is the one who is closest to the work force. He/she knows about business intricacies and execution. Seldom is the manager aware of them.

In this kind of setup, the ideal role for manager is to do 'measure and control' and interfere less in the daily operations of execution. May be the manager could look at measuring the productivity or 'observing' the quality process or motivating the work force or providing a safe and inspiring work environment, matching their professional and personal goals, etc. It is upto the project lead to ensure that deadlines are met, team members are skilled to perform the tasks, there is a great degree of inter and intra team co-operation, quality processes are 'followed', ensure transparent reporting of activities for better visibility etc. If the project is adequately staffed and project leader is able to manage the execution and still has time, there is no harm in sharing few responsibilities of line manager. BUT I would expect its a great disaster if manager tries to micro manage the project leader's functions. It hurts the confidence of team members and the project leader.

I conclude with the fact that a leader is more result oriented person with a team to produce results and a manager need to steer the energy in right direction. A manager has got 4 to 5 engines and he/she needs to make them function with synergie to make the vehicle move in right direction. But a steering could never try to become an engine.

One liners...

I am currently reading 'High Performance Entrepreneur' and came across this sentence. I thought I dont always have to write minimum of hundred words to make up a post. So, here it goes.

"Do not try to solve all the problems you face, some problems do not need to be solved and in those situations try to change the rules of game".

For example, if you are running a business where its no more profitable and has negative margins and with no proven business model, it does not make sense to pump in more money. Just forget it and start a new life. Or you picked up a stock without your own research and later realized its a dead investment, just get out of it even for a loss. Atleast you are free of the space it is occupying in your mind.

Saving Earth and filling pockets

Shai Agassi calls it quits to commit himself to alternate energy, environmental policies and other issues. Norway aims be zero emission country by 2050 and reduce emissions of greenhouse gases by 30% before 2020. Carbon trading business is reaching close to a billion dollar per annum and its growing.

ICICI Bank announced a Rs. 100 crore fund on April 26, to support innovation and development of green business in India, focusing on energy-efficient and environment-friendly ventures. Well, needless to say the interests on saving earth from greenhouse emissions are growing. This concern has been there for a while. So, whats new now? Let me explain what motivates countries like India and China in this program.

Before I proceed, let me introduce to one buzz word, carbon trading.

• Under Kyoto protocol, developed countries agreed that if their industries can’t reduce carbon emissions in their own countries, they will pay others like India (a signatory to the Protocol) to do it for them and help them meet their promised reduction quotas in the interest of worldwide reduction of greenhouse gases.

• The “currency” for this trade is called Carbon Emission Reduction (CER). One unit of CER is one tonne equivalent of carbon dioxide emission.

• UN Framework Convention on Climate Change registers the project, allowing the company to offer CERs produced by the project to a prospective buyer.

Now that we know the currency for carbon trading, lets look at who is gaining this currency in India.

Vadodara-based Gujarat Fluorochemicals Ltd (GFL), and Gurgaon-based SRF are likely to see their bottomlines grow more by selling carbon credits, a waste product, than their main business, refrigerants.

SRF made Rs 149 crore from the transfer of Certified Emission Receipts (CERs, also called carbon credits).

So far, GFL has received around Rs 350 crore (including advances) toward sale of carbon credits. They claim a potential of upto Rs 400 crore per annum if they are able to sell all of 6 million CERs.

It was the first Indian company to get registered for a CDM project in March 2005 for 3 million CERs. With 114 CDM-registered projects, India is currently the world leader.

Meanwhile, SRF which got registered for its 3.83 million CERs in December the same year, has taken the lead in actual trading accounting for 39 per cent of market share in the country.

Coffee day is expensive

Coffee day has revised its pricelist since last month. One of my alltime favourite 'Cappuccino' that was priced Rs. 30 now costs Rs. 45. Its a 50% jump straight. I think its either planning an IPO (to show good balance sheet) or the costs have gone up really high. If we say, costs have gone up high, milk did not really go up so much in the past one year. Fuel prices have come down, the number of people visiting coffee day did not go down, the staff remained same, rentals would have been agreed upon before and one could expect a rise of about 10% max in a year. Salaries would have gone up by 15% more. Total expenses would not have rised more than 15 to 20% considering the above facts. And finally coffee prices. Weighted average prices of coffee in the last three years did not change much. I understand there are fluctuations, but as I said overall in a year not much of change (google on coffee prices). But a straight 50% rise is a surprising move. I would be consuming less coffee there.

Are you over-achiever?

Picked up this from smbconsultinginc.com.

10 Dynamic traits of over-achiever

Are you a successful over-achiever? Considerable research has been done about the characteristics that typify the successful business owner. Most experts who have studied the subject tend to agree that the most important single factor is an overpowering need to achieve. In other words, a person's attitude seems to be the main determinant of success in business, more so than education, intelligence, physical attributes, or having a pleasing personality. The key characteristics that have been found to be part of the makeup of all successful over-achievers are:

1. Powerful need to achieve -- which should not be confused with a mere need to exercise power or be liked or admired; the way in which different entrepreneurs "keep score" in assessing their level of achievement varies, and may range from accumulating great wealth to creating a better mouse trap;

2. Perseverance -- the characteristic trait of following through on commitments and not abandoning objectives when difficulties are encountered;

3. Positive mental attitude -- the self-confidence in one's abilities that allows a person to remain optimistic in new, unfamiliar and unexpectedly difficult situations;

4. Objectivity -- an ability to accurately assess the risks associated with a particular course of action, including a realistic understanding of one's own capabilities and limitations. This includes being willing and able to abandon an ill-advised project without having ones' ego get in the way.

5. Foresight -- the ability to anticipate developments and be proactive, rather than constantly having to react to problems after they arise;

6. Well-developed personal relations skills -- being cheerful and cooperative and able to easily get along with people, but often without being close to employees and associates;

7. Strong communication skills -- the ability to communicate well in written form and in making effective oral presentations, either one-on-one or before groups;

8. Resourcefulness -- an ability to solve one-of-a-kind problems in unique or creative ways, including the ability to handle problems for which you might not have had previous training or experience to call upon;

9. Technical knowledge -- broad and well-rounded technical knowledge and understanding, especially with regard to the nuts-and-bolts physical processes of producing goods and services

10. A respectful attitude towards money -- a tendency not to look upon it as an end in itself, but to view it as a means of making things happen and accomplishing business goals, or as a type of objective feedback from the outside world, which lets the entrepreneur know if is on the right track with the business.

So, there you have it...10 successful business traits. If you see yourself in this list, then we will be seeing you at the top!

Be your own life coach

I was reading this nice article in RD March edition by Keith Ferrazzi, CEO of Ferrazzi Greenlight and author of Never Eat Alone. He emphasizes on the following four aspects that sound quite logical.

Focus: Identify your needs first. Form a focus. Many times it is not easy for us to answer this simple question 'What do I want to do?'. But its not that difficult too. Its a matter of focus. Dont let others define your success. Once you know what you want, just follow the next three steps.

Diagnose: You need to identify what is the behaviour that stops you from moving forward in achieving these goals. Identifying weakness is as important as knowing strengths. The good behaviour and the bad one work in opposite directions to prevent moving forward. For example, I was raised in an environment where I was told to respect elders, do not question them and give them what they want. Unfortunately I observed that I carry the same with me in my professional life where I seldom question my manager in the fear of sounding too argumentative and also in fear of making my boss feel uncomfortable with me. But when I found such a problem with me, I consulted my friends and got an advice that I need to handle the conversation in a professional way. Put all the information in black and white and let him know what I want, instead of work towards what he wants me to be.

Share: Help others to let them help you. Let others know what you have in mind. Be open to receive feedback. If somebody is giving you a 'gift' saying your behaviour is not good or certain aspect of you is not good and few more people share same feeling, certainly there is some change needed in you. A good behaviour is always respected and makes you feel good. Someone would not bother to give their opinion on your behaviour if you are going to contradict everytime you receive some feedback. Perhaps the best people who would know your weakness are your friends, colleagues, or your spouse. If you receive some negative feedback, seek clarifications if you dont understand. Ask more like 'Could that person give more examples', or 'What exactly do you mean by that?', 'What came to your mind when I was doing this?'. You could work it out by forming a group of trusted advisors to you and let them know that you give importance to their advice. 

Milestones: You cant manage what you cant measure. Once you got the focus, you need to see if you are going in the right direction. Periodic checks always help. It is possible that the contents of checkpoint change. For example if your focus is weight management, check everyweek changes in the weight. Once you got the weight into control, perhaps next checkpoint would be to see if the waist is reducing.

Guru - the movie

Watched this movie two weeks ago. I thought of writing this blog because of one reason - many people told me that its an inspiring movie and gives some boost to start a business. I am not sure if this movie is such a booster. So I want to focus on two aspects in the movie in that direction and I welcome your comments.

First one: Starting Business - As Mani Ratnam portrayed in the movie, 'the passion todo business' makes the 'hero' to make 'life turning' decisions. It makes him think, makes him not to think, makes him goto extremes, makes him take the power into hand when required: I mean... the essential leadership qualities are displayed. These qualities come from the 'passion'. The true passion to be someone, to do things differently, to dream and then to follow that dream. Well, the point here I am trying to make is... its the passion that makes the difference, not some movie or someone's life story.

Second one: Sustaining the business in ethical way. In other words doing the business in true spirit and with ethics. Zero means zero. However tough it may be... how many years it may be. This is one thing I wish everybody takes from this movie. And the director has nicely put it in the role of chief editor 'The Independence' newspaper. In my opinion its a real tough job to stand for what you believe in life and carry on with it. If such an ethical business is practised we would not hear any Harshad Mehta or Enron stories.

Technorati tags: Movie review

What does companies like Infosys do?

Thats a good question. A friend asked me. What is the difference between a product company and services company (in other words, a services department in a product company and services company). How could companies like Infosys deliver so much so fast for so less. I gave the following answer. They have processes so much established that a newbie becomes productive in less than three months, where as it takes upto 6 months to be productive in a product company. Definitely he did not buy the idea of process. Of course, then I started thinking and started writing this blog.

Priorities

Define who are the customers. In a product company the customers could mostly be either internal or sales force. Sales force would (perhaps) promise heaven and earth to customer and sometimes customer is willing to wait (till end of the year or till the current contract comes to expiry). Revenues would be realized as per the contract and may not be so much dependent on 'all' promised deliverables. But in a pure offshore services company majority of the projects are handled in Time & Material way. Which means one could bill only to the amount of 'actual work'. This means a clear visibie signs of functionality to customer. Customer would not pay unless things are moving. Situations like this forces offshore companies to really deliver something with time. But product companies which get the pressure only towards the deadline do not see any motivation to deliver.

 More on the way...

Technorati tags: Business, Technology, Outsourcing

K@W: Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Just came across this article and found quite interesting.

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1623&CFID=2567255&CFTOKEN=90452463

Following are the takeaways for me.

• Entrepreneurs not only take risk, but also manage it well.
• There are no special qualities they posses. Its the drive and passion to take on makes them one.
• Check out how much you got to lose if you start something on your own. Its better to have as low liabilities as possible.
• Follow the KISS - Keep It Simple Stupid principle. No fancy GUI without value addition.

How to be a good manager.

Or atleast I try to write how to be a manager or on the second thought i think it is just enough to write how to be a human being. Let me write some of my observations that would tell budding managers on how not to behave.

1. Privileged Person: Being a manager does not mean that you belong to a privileged lot of human beings. Only from 8 to 5 at work somebody is a Manager. After that he/she is just 'somebody'. You cant take extra luggage on plane without paying extra, you cant upgrade to business class without being a frequent flyer, you cant just do things which you are not allowed to or can not do!!

2. I am GOD: PLEASE for GOD's sake, leave the notion that a manager is God. A manager is after all a human being (atleast should try to live like a human being, if the manager is appointed from the Homosapien species). A manager does not necessarily have to have the knowledge of everything in the world. Other people in the society know about it. One does have to say that Operas come from France and Italians make Champagne. One does not have to say, I do not work for money. One does not have to break all speed limits (one does not get lucky always). One does not start to speak a foreign language without learning it.

3. Manager Attitude: First of all by virtue of your name and location where you sit, everybody around you at workplace knows that you are a manager. This is enough to kill opponent's energy by 50%. You still do not have to kill the rest by wearing 'Manager Attitude' hat and moving around. Stop doing that. Stop telling people that your laptop was used by somebody next to Board member and now it is possessed with super powers. Stop compelling people that they need to invent super duper figures and presentations in two shakes of a lamb tail because somebody next to board member asked. Stop telling people that you are flying on a work day and you can send emails while flying. Stop telling people in meetings that you are attending the meeting not to understand the contents but to tell at the end that you are a manager and you just want to grace the meeting with your presence.

4. Accept Ground Realities: Everybody who is employed at work place are productive in their own way. Infact a manager is the one who is not as productive as the employee. There are ways how a manager could be productive. you could contact me to find that out. But a manager should never become a hindrance to productivity. One must not carry the tag that says I am the manager, I work the most, I produce the most!! This is a wrong notion. As I said earlier a manager by himself does not produce anything. Its like Government. A government organization can not survive if there are no people paying taxes or no people at all. Without a team a team manager is nothing. One has to realize that. A manager has to respect the team members and also people outside his team. Who knows, may be one day the manager has to work for the team member.

5. Move with Makeup: This is one thing I always suggest wannabe managers to be aware of. If you think you are moving with a make up, remove that make up. Everybody around you knows how a damn fool you are with the make up. Everybody around you knows everything. you are the one who is ignorant.

6. Managers make mistakes: Its alright. Nobody is perfect. If you are a manager, if you commit a mistake there is no problem in admitting it. nobody takes you off your position. You dont get dis-respected suddenly. So, dare to commit mistakes and dare to admit them.

Standard Disclaimer: All characters & information posted are purely my personal opinions and any resemblance to dead or alive is purely coincidental.

MTR Ready to Eat

When MTR Foods introduced their ready to eat stuff, there was an interview with the CEO of the Company. He shared one vision "MTR wants to be McDonalds of South India". In my opinion they are heading towards the right direction.

I happened to buy 6 of their ready to eat packs on Sunday, tasking one by one. So far I finished Tamarind Rice, Sambar Rice and Vegetable Pulao. Ofcourse, in the past I also tasted their Pongal, Tomato Rice, Masala Rice. Of all these, the best so far is Veg Pulao. I liked it for two reasons - 1. Less oil than other products in the same category, 2. Less spicy. Next best is Samar Rice, again for two reasons one being less oily and second being the taste (though a bit spicy). Then comes Pongal that does not make you miss the authentic taste. My next choice is Tomato Rice. Though a bit oily, the taste is quite good. Masala Rice takes next position with similar taste as Veg Pulao but more spicy. Tamarind Rice comes last because of heavy oil. If you are a staunch MTR customer, chances are that you would like this because MTR managed to preserve the taste.

By the way, for bachelors in Bangalore I feel this makes a quite nice meal after a hard days work and no time left. All you need to do is keep the pack in boiling water for 5 minutes and your favourite hot dish is ready. Except Veg Pulao, all of them are in the range of 18 to 22 Rs. And if you are really hungry two packs are recommended.

Successful Innovation

I am currently reading this book and picked up few lines that I thought I must remember & recollect often.

Capturing the thoughts... (How to capture creative ideas)

• Org wide competetions - People put their minds to work not because of the prize money, but because of the opportunity to gain public recognition for their thinking.
• Association of language and creativity - The choice of words provde an intellectual and emotional context for the way in which subordinates and colleagues relate to and make sense of their work.
  
• Avoide bullets during presentation - instead use story telling. Story telling has always been an important part of the culture of 3M. For example, story about a scientist who, while singing in the choir, wished he had bookmarks that wouldn't fall out of the hymnal - and later createed Post-It Notes. Bullets are typically generic and cant give critical relationships in a logical way.
  
• Reduce work based stress, one of the great inhibitors of creativity.
  

What are the attributes of a software company?

One of my friends told me, "Check out my startup's website"! I was quite amazed, then started thinking. How easy it is these days to start a website and it does not cost so much if its a no frills site (I mean no large data, no database connection etc). I asked him, what does your startup do? He said, they offer unique customer experience, they are into training, they are into product development etc. He mentioned that at the moment he is the only one and looking for freshers because they are less expensive. This made me think on the above subject. How much the traditional business has been changing.... one could ask what are the attributes of a company - the answer is readily available. What are the attributes of a manufacturing company? One could answer without hesitation. But, what are the attributes of a software company? To make it worse, how much thin line of difference exists between ITES and IT Services Company. I tried searching for this answer over the web and found one article that is quite interesting. I will not copy paste entire thing.. but here is what the author feels are important attributes of a software company.

• Requirements Management
• Change and Configuration Management
• Effective communication among development teams
• Appropriate defined processes
• Reviews

If you observe most of them align with SEI CMM assessment requirements. This would then showcase the capability of a software organization. A software company begins with a commitment to learn and employ the fundamental principles that govern the development and management process of software.

For further details, Roger Pressman's book on Software Engineering is highly recommended.

Making sense out of non-sense

The other day Rajeev asked me 'What is this blog thing all about?'. In his blog he wrote a blog on blog. If you read his post, one of the main concerns is that, does blogging have a purpose? In my opinion so far there is not a single tool or site that actually makes use of blogging platforms. So far blogging is really seen as a platform for individual's opinions. (To make it a point, read my previous sentence - it says my opinion). So far what is the commercial value of blogging? Why did google buy Blogspot? Why does Microsoft provide a tool to publish blogs? Why is every F500 company is trying to have a blog for their own? Why many technology companies have their 'Official' blogs? Is the information published over a blog just an opinion? (One of my friends says Opinions are like ass holes - everybody is entitled to have one.)

Anyway... to a common avid blogger or a net savvy user its not un-usual that the above questions pop up in the mind. I think (again in my opinion), there is a business opportunity here. Or...let me not even go to the extent of talking about business opportunity. Let me put it as taking some value out of blogging. First thing I noticed is all blogging sites and platforms provide a way to tag the posts with labels. Which is quite good. This makes blog search quite easy. It becomes easier to categorize given blogs into these topics. So, the next step is to apply little bit of analytics to these categories to figure out trends. For example, Coca Cola has launched 'Chai Coke' a new flavor of coke that smells like Ice Tea in 4 metros of India. Now coke wants an instant feedback on the product to proceed further on this product. My idea is that Coke should promote blogging on this product to individuals and apply our little analytics tool on the blog sites to search for labels such as Colas, Cool Drinks, Spirits, Cocktails etc and search for the word Chai Coke and see the number of positive or negative words in these posts. This could give an idea on success factor of the new product.

Netscape and Google - Web 1.0 and Web 2.0

Google requires a competency that Netscape never needed: database management. Google isn't just a collection of software tools, it's a specialized database. Without the data, the tools are useless; without the software, the data is unmanageable. Software licensing and control over APIs--the lever of power in the previous era--is irrelevant because the software never need be distributed but only performed, and also because without the ability to collect and manage the data, the software is of little use. In fact, the value of the software is proportional to the scale and dynamism of the data it helps to manage.

Another example demonstrating Web 2.0 principles - BitTorrent: a key Web 2.0 principle the service automatically gets better the more people use it.

The central principle behind the success of the giants born in the Web 1.0 era who have survived to lead the Web 2.0 era appears to be this, that they have embraced the power of the web to harness collective intelligence:
The lesson: Network effects from user contributions are the key to market dominance in the Web 2.0 era.

As noted above, one of the defining characteristics of internet era software is that it is delivered as a service, not as a product. This fact leads to a number of fundamental changes in the business model of such a company:
1. Operations must become a core competency
2. Users must be treated as co-developers - It's no accident that services such as Gmail, Google Maps, Flickr, del.icio.us, and the like may be expected to bear a "Beta" logo for years at a time.

Real time monitoring of user behavior to see just which new features are used, and how they are used, thus becomes another required core competency. A web developer at a major online service remarked: "We put up two or three new features on some part of the site every day, and if users don't adopt them, we take them down. If they like them, we roll them out to the entire site."

Mittal wins

As I rightly predicted, Mittal has won. From his words, 'If this deal does not go through, Globalization has no meaning'. I think so too.

Mittal vs Arcelor

Its an interesting game is not it? But its not new to Mittal. Infact its been his most favourite game. The game he played since he has been an entrepreneur. The game he mastered for years. For me personally, I felt Arcelor made a hasty decision when it could not shape up the deal right with Severstal (the russian steel maker). Infact I read one of the reportes wrote a sentence that sounded like this entire take over bid of Mittal is a conspiracy planned with the help of Indian government. It might sound absurd... but then how else could one convince the investor community in European countries?

Now Mittal has got the nice business plan presented to the investors and I have a strong feeling that he is going to win this match too.

Social Networking

These days I see lot of people using Orkut. Then I started wondering how successful this webcommunity is. Coincidentally, I found an article on Social Networking from K@W Newsletter. (Connecting the corporate dots). Its an interesting article, afterall some big heads from Wharton have written it. Well... the amazing thing is, the concepts have been there for quite sometime - except that the new age computing has made them as a bigger commodity. Easy to use, whenver, wherever, more accessible, more interesting.... all in all it has become a fun activity that users would love to do.

I would now like to take another view point on these web communities. Just login to Orkut or MySpace or Friendster. Did you find any ads? Or adsense atleast? (ubiquitous google)
How do they make money? Atleast they are not in charity. This certainly is a food for thought.

Atleast one blog a week

I set a goal for myself to write atleast one sensible blog in a week. I myself did not like the making of telugu movie blog. I shall delete it.

A small story....

Once upon a time in a village a man appeared who announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for Rs. 10. The villagers seeing that there were many monkeys went out in the forest and started catching them. The man bought thousands at 10 and as supply started to diminish and villagers started to stop their effort he announced that now he would buy at 20 rupees. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching moneys again. Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms. The offer rate increased to 25 and the supply of monkeys became so that it was an effort to even see a monkey let alone catch it. The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at 50! However, since he had to go to the city on some business his assistant would now buy on behalf of the man. In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers. Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has collected. I will sell them to you at 35 and when the man comes back you can sell it to him for 50. The villagers queued up with all their saving to buy the monkeys. Then they never saw the man nor his assistant, only monkeys everywhere!

What is the similarity between Indian Cricket & Indian Stock Market

These days its like Indian cricket team. I seriously doubt the current windies series. What would you do incase the popularity for cricket is going down especially when windies is hosting the next year's cricket world cup!! One must revive the interest and which is the best way to do it? Get a strong cricket team and make it lose. Thats it. I feel this series would have been mutually agreed at high levels.

Big deal. What the heck this has to do with Indian stock market? Pretty simple huh... how do you attract lot of money? Make it popular... from 6000 to 12000 in just one year, hype it, talk about it, let media take care of advertising for it, create an impression as if its going to cross 20000 points... let the retail investor's hard earned money be pumped in. Now pull your (FII) money back...

Drawing similarities between these two.... look at mass behaviour of people. Its pure flocking nature. And others make money out of it.

**Disclaimer: All my posts are purely of personal opinions. You are most welcome to comment on my posts.

Stock market blues... cont...

Found some interesting statistics...
Today's market correction is the biggest single day fall in absolute terms (Sensex).

Single Day market falls
18-May-2006 = 862 Points ?? Global fall + Commodities fall + Fed Hike + Taxation of FIIs
28-Apr-1992 = 570 Points ?? Harshad Mehta Scam
17-May-2004 = 564 Points ?? NDA losses + Left joins Govt
15-May-2006 = 462 Points ?? Global Fall starts...

In percentage terms...
Oct 8,1990 = 15
Apr 28, 1992 = 12.7
May 17,2004 = 11.1
May 12, 1992 = 9.7
May 18, 2006 = 7
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Munich

Watched the movie Munich last weekend. Liked it. The way Speilberg makes movies !! Truely amazing. He shot the movie as it it was taken during early seventies.

The way Golda Meir potrayed is brilliant. Very inspiring character.

Indian stock market

Tell any stock market savvy person that lefts have joined the government or serial blasts in Bombay or war situation in middle east or new RBI credit policy, immediately he would ask how many points Sensex moved?

Situations like changing governments that do not suppoert liberalization, could be a big thing. Stock market crashed more than 200 points. Trading was stopped for a while.

Well, times have changed my friend. Two years is a considerable time. I agree, looking at the percentages, you might say it is just 7% down. But, when its big, a small percentage of change also effects.

Look at small investors who entered the markets at 12000 levels, hoping for 13000 or worse (rather best) 16000 levels. And if the market goes down 850 points in a single day who is protecting them?

MindTree was born

I could not resist myself from writing this after reading 'The making of MindTree by Subroto Bagchi'. The transcript is available in MindTree Consulting's site. Do you know that the logo of MindTree was painted by K.S.Chetan a 17 year boy who has a form of Celebral palsy that denies him co-ordinated limb movement and affects his speech!

I strongly suggest the budding entrepreneures to read both the documents available on MindTree about Making of The MindTree.

Web Services

I just want to share few new terms I have been hearing oflate related to WebServices.

1. BPEL - Business Process Execution Language Wiki link

2. CDL - Choreography Description Language
The Web Services Choreography Description Language (WS-CDL) is an XML-based language that describes peer-to-peer collaborations of parties by defining, from a global viewpoint, their common and complementary observable behavior; where ordered message exchanges result in accomplishing a common business goal.

The Web Services Choreography specification is targeted for composing interoperable, peer-to-peer collaborations between any type of party regardless of the supporting platform or programming model used by the implementation of the hosting environment.

The main difference between 1 and 2 is that CDL ensures ORDERED MESSAGE XCHANGE. And BPEL requires central co-ordination whereas CDL does not (atleast thats the idea).

Well the main advantages with the above BPM techniques are, an Enterprise can service enable its systems and wire them together in a network of SOA systems. Once service enabled, any third party or new internal service integration is a cake walk. No need of middleware integration programmers. You can ask them to develop business logic.

Entrepreneurship again.

Many places you hear about individuals talking about 'Entrepreneurship'. You hear this word from those who are successful, those who are not and also those who are in the process of falling into one of the first two categories.

After reading the stories from Subrato Bagchi on 'Making of Mindtree', it inspired in me and my dear friends on the specifics of 'Entrepreneurship', from 'What' to 'How'. Let me share some information from the discussion.

Every entrepreneur has to first answer these two questions.
1. Why do I want to open an Enterprise?
2. Why would my Enterprise be a success? What are the strengths I have to make it a success?

Now, how to answer these questions?

Are you doing business because you have 10 crores of money to spend? Or is it a unique business idea you have which you would like to see taking shape? If you are not passionate about your business, not committed, can not give your 100% effort and time, lets not talk about this any more. If you are into a startup you have to give up two things. All of your time and all of your money. Only then I feel its possible to shape an individual's imaginations.

More in my next post...