INDIAN THINKING

Child trafficking!!

2011-10-15T16:03:00.000+05:30

While India marches to glory in the comet of nations the state of affairs for some unwanted kids is far from wanted!!
Yeah the ones you see on the traffic lights,impoverished,fragile,handicapped...but still begging??

I could never forget the plight of a 2yesr old kid who was in the lap of another kid who was 6 or 7yrs old. While waiting for an auto i realised that the kid was biting the toddler time and again so that he kept on crying??
Also observed outside the business district of Mindspace, Malad, Mumbai a group of kids barely covered in tattered clothes begging from rich call center employees,just few steps back a dangerous looking drugged thug keeping eye on collection and prodding them to beg more!!
All this happens in open in front of the civilized society and police!!
Have we ever thought how the supply of these tiny kids is maintained and how they turn out to be amputated always??This is a questions whose answer was given long back in Slumdog Millionaire! Yes there are organised child trafficking rackets which bring innocent kids from rural India either by stealing them or abducting them..in some sad circumstances even the parents sell of kids due to poverty??
The plight of these kids is deplorable to say the least...and their existence is a big blot on the society which prides itself being the largest democracy??

Steve Apple Fantastic Jobs!!

2011-10-07T20:35:00.000+05:30

By now, you're probably convinced that Steve Jobs was the Second Coming of Jesus. He wasn't.

He was a demanding, mercurial perfectionist. He could be, and often was, an incredible pain in the butt. He was the first technology diva. He needed "enemies" the way a fish needs water. He was more like Howard Roark, the protagonist of Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead, than he was Thomas Edison.

He led the most successful turnaround in technology history. He revolutionized a gaggle of businesses: consumer electronics, software, computing, retailing, music, film.

The key to understanding Jobs was to understand he wandered in the desert like Moses, not for 40 years but for 10. This was his time after Apple, when he invented NeXT, maybe the most powerful personal computer of its time. NeXT was a technical marvel and an economic wasteland. Only the true nerds wanted one, but once they had one, they wouldn't let go.

NeXT was Jobs' ticket back to Apple, which was badly in need of ... everything. But especially an operating system, so Apple bought NeXT and got Steve--buy one, get one free! Or you may have a different interpretation--buy Steve, get a free operating system!

Jobs had been driven from the temple by the Suits, namely, John Sculley. Sculley was much more the consummate politician, but in the end he was a soda water salesman. Sculley had learned the right words, but he never had the tune right. Exit Sculley.

In comparisons with Jobs, Bill Gates is usually cited as the better businessman, and perhaps he was. But at a certain point, Gates got tired, tired of the drag of running a business, tired of the Justice Department, tired of quarterly reports. Jobs never got tired. His thing: design. Design above all. Jobs once had a little Steve fit because he didn't like the screws inside the Mac. The screws! No one was even supposed to ever see them!

Jobs was the consummate venture capitalist, even though he wasn't one. He bought Pixar for a song--$10 million--from George Lucas. He nurtured Pixar, gave it life, let it make films (Toy Story), and hired brilliant people. He was running two companies at the same time, Apple in the morning, Pixar in the afternoon. Alert the helicopter; Steve is moving! The reason Jobs was worth $8.4 billion is that his little $10 million investment in Pixar grew to $5 billion.

Henry Kissinger once asked a staffer, who had the assignment to prepare a white paper, if this was his "best work." The staffer asked for the paper back and tried again. Kissinger then repeated the question, and the staffer then went back and tried a third time, afterwards telling Kissinger it was indeed his best work. Kissinger then replied: "Now I will read it." Jobs not only hired brilliant people, but he also got their best work. No one wanted to disappoint him. Also, no one wanted to be told that "This is the worst piece of ..."

Jobs' view of his competitors: sympathy. He never could understand why any company would release products so buggy and flawed, and why anyone would actually buy them.

Apple had every Jobs strength--and many of his weaknesses. He believed that individuals created and that products, such as Macs, should help creative people learn. Jobs actually never believed in teams or groups or collaboration. So the early Apple products were weak where Jobs was weak.

Jobs never really viewed his competition as Sony or Motorola or Nokia. To him content and media and presentation were simply manifestations of the same creative process.

Was Jobs easy to work with? No. No. No. Clearly, the media industry and the app providers learned that lesson. But give him credit: The music industry titans always viewed the pirate copy as their enemy. Jobs pointed out that they were fighting a losing battle and he had enough clout to get these dons to sit down and support iTunes, reluctantly.

When Walt Disney proposed that his company take its characters and make them into a theme park, the company's board members opposed it. Only because Walt was Walt did they go along. When Jobs saw a market for a tablet--actually, an updated version of the ill-fated Newton--no one else did, citing the number of beached whales the rest of the industry had buried. He invented the category.

He also reinvented retailing. The Apple stores, all 345 of them, stand alone: clean, stark, no frills, no hustle/bustle.

Jobs taught us that design and execution matter, that the newcomer can clobber the incumbent with simplicity and performance, that customers will pay higher prices if a product connects with them. While paying lip service to open source, Job hated it. He believed in a closed shop, whose products work elegantly, whose designs are understated, and which forges an implicit contract with the buyer/user.

Jobs' legacy isn't Apple Inc. His legacy is that excellence can and should be rewarded. And if the Googles, Twitters, and Facebooks of the world learn and remember that, it's because their leaders have stood on the shoulders of a giant.

Right or Wrong??

2011-10-02T13:36:00.001+05:30

A clear conscience is the softest pillow!!
We humans have an inherent sense of right or wrong... that's what we Hindus call the ANTARATMA...the inner conscience...
At the verge of starting my small organisation with some colleagues..i am wondering whats the premise for setting a company...
What are the factors one needs to take in consideration before taking the first step..
Shall the company start operations without a clear Goal and ways to do business..shall we have a set code of work or keep it flexible..what should be one thing on which we shall never ever compromise.
I have seen company taking a stand against own employee just to placate a wrong account..cause that means revenue...What happens to the moral of the employee..
Some one told me once that life is all the same after earning 100 crs...its does not matter if yo have 100 cr 0r 500 cr..you eat the same, dress the same..and financially there is no end to how much is enough..
So the company should be value driven with clear conscience or money driven and flexible ready to take short cuts...Please help with thoughts!!

Guilt free..Are you??

2011-09-22T11:04:00.000+05:30

God made humans and he gave them abundant joy....but he also gave them guilt.
A life which is guilt free could be the best gift one could have!!But think from where does the guilt comes from??
From childhood we are instilled the values of right and wrong..these give rise to sub conscience which becomes the judge of each and every moment of our life!!
So what is this subconscious and how it always knows what is right and wrong for us!!The Indian mythology is full of anecdotes of this meeting with the sub conscience and how it changed the lives of many beyond comprehension. Its the inner voice which is readily available at ones beck and call, this is so pure and divine that if heard well it has the power to change the world....but such is the moral pollution around us and so badly we are getting conditioned not to listen to it...Our own conscience dies daily a slow and regressive death.
What is left of our lives is a justification..of why we didn't listened to ourselves.
Can we allow our kids to listen to their hearts and follow its leads without restrictions....but then comes a vital factor of Indian upbringing what we call Sanskar!
Its a purely Indian concept and cant be explained in other terms..like an Italian PM can boasts of mating with 8 prostitutes in a night and get away as that's the Sanskar of the land. But in a country like India a public figure will have to hang his boots in disgrace and go into oblivion for even thinking so!!
Some times i wonder how will the spouses and kids of these overtly sexual beings feel in company of these alpha males!!How can a country let it self be ruled by a human who is yet to tame his very basic of animal instincts..whats the guarantee that during a public meeting he is not figuring ut how is he going to nail his next sexual victim. Its not about Strauss or Berlusconi its the overall acceptance of the moral bigotry....Its the death of the collective inner voice!!

Trade show's how they have transformed!

2011-09-09T09:03:00.000+05:30

During last few days Mumbai witnessed the Agritech 2011 trade show at The NSE ground at Goregaon,Mumbai. As the name suggest this trade show's main attraction was the new emerging technology developed indigenous as well as overseas.

What amazed me is the new modes of display and the vivid details in the montage as compared to years ago. Now the poster at the trade show display are so livid and true to life as compared to the dull and uninspiring banners earlier,thanks to elegantly designed exhibit booths.
The ambiance itself has changed thanks to the centrally air-conditioned huge halls which have the capacity to hold 100s of booths.

I was also impressed by the through security arrangements at the venue in light of the world wide terror alert considering 9/11 anniversary.
The participation by small entrepreneurs was the highlight of the show which showed the dogged determination a win of creativity for the un organised sectors. The farmers cum entrepreneurs were not so conversant with presentation but were bang on with the technical aspects.

One of the new display technology which won accolades was the use of truss lighting which increased the over all ambient feel.
This exhibit proved fruitful for many companies as they booked huge orders from Indian as well as multinational companies. There was also a slew of MOU signing for sharing technology and infrastructure.
We wish to see more such well thought out and beautifully designed trade shows..Cheers!!

Anna Hazare, India and corruption...

2011-08-26T13:20:00.000+05:30

For the first time we Indians have started to debate the end of corruption!!This is a remarkable leap for a cynical society like us where each gesture is looked upon suspiciously!!Every one is looking for the hidden dagger behind hand that welcome??
The credit for awakening this time goes again to a Gandhian...who after decades later have shown to us how powerful the idea of non violent protest is...how shit scared the government could be of its own people, the jasmine revolution and the freedom struggle from aristocracy going on in Arab world is a chilly reminder to people who want to hold on to power...
Many of my friends and colleagues belive that this Anna movement will not end corruption...but one man thought it will and he awakened a sleeping giant..Its the believers who have changed the face of this world and not the arm chair critics....I guess for the cynics its so difficult to see the writing on the wall...
I know they will laugh on me if it all fails but hey i believed i can bring the change.....
We have grown in a society where in people have told us always what not to do.. examples
Don't play
don't drink
Don't run too fast
Don't drive fast
Don't meet friends
Don't meet girls
Don't love
Don't dive....
whatever..
So here we are a non committal group of people who see the dark side of bright who do all wrong and expect others to do the cleaning for us..
Come on wake up smell the sweat and anger of the masses, all those on road are not doing it for publicity....Anna is a powerhouse and the youth and middle class of India is getting charged by his aura...

Changing Retail scenario in India!!

2011-08-22T16:19:00.000+05:30

From the days of the corner Mom & Pops stores now we have adopted the organised retail as the call of the day!!
For example in my case we moved on from our corner grocery store to D Mart which was at a distance of 10Km from our locality. Still we used to travel for the competitively priced goods and the ambiance. The quality is always taken for granted as seldom have i found a inferior quality branded item in a Mall!
So when the consumer graduated from the small store to the supermarket what happened to the corner store??Have they vanished??
Out of Business??
Sold out??
NO sir..the answer is a resounding no!!!
They continue to thrive!!
Cause not all go to a mall for all the goods..for example on an avg the time needed to buy a stuff in hurry and get out is too high in a mall as compared to a shop so for spurt purchases no one goes to a mall!
The small corner stores also offer interest free credit for as long as 30 days!!
can the malls beat it!!
The corner stores gives free home delivery and accepts telephonic order.
The service is customized and a fair dash of personal touch!! While the mall experience is sterile and reluctant...so in the great Bazaar called India both are thriving..one needs to see the impact the proposed opening up of the sector to foreign investment brings!!

Inspiration!

2011-08-22T14:17:00.002+05:30

Have you ever asked yourself what is inspiration?

When the word inspiration is broken down into it's component parts, it simply means "in - spirit". When you are living "in - spirit" You feel excited about yourself and your life.

You have a special connection with all parts of your mind and body.
The question is how can we connect to our spirit at all times to take that actions that make all things possible ?
Below are ten keys to opening your doors to your inspiration.

1. The first key to inspiration is enjoyment. It would take a spiritual master to get inspired about doing the dishes.

So find something that really excites you. It can be anything that you really enjoy.

2. The second key is love. When you are actively pouring love into what you are doing,

this will guarantee that you are opening yourself to experiencing more inspiration.

3. The third key is to trust yourself. Listen to that little voice inside yourself and know that this comes from heart.

This is called intuition.

4. The fourth key is to follow what your intuition tells you. The more you listen to it, the stronger your intuition will become. If you don't pay attention, that little voice gets fainter and fainter until you can no longer hear it.

5. The fifth key is to keep telling yourself "I can". These are some of the most powerful words that you can ever use.

When you say this to yourself often enough, you build abridge between yourself and your inspiration.

6. The sixth key is not to listen to anyone that says "no you can't". They might think that they may not be able to,

and try to project this negative belief onto you, but remember to keep telling yourself that, "I can! "

7. The seventh key is to believe in yourself. When you are backed by a strong belief in yourself and your dreams,

nothing is impossible.

8. The eighth key is to avoid negativity. Ask yourself, do you really need to read the newspaper or

watch the news on TV everyday ? Nothing kills inspiration quicker than being surrounded by bad news.

9. The ninth key is acceptance. Accept that on some days you feel much more inspired than on others.

This is normal, nobody can be completely inspired every minute of the day.

10. The tenth key is possibly the most important of all. Take action every day, no matter how small a step it seems.

Action is the fuel to the fires of inspiration. Make it a daily practise to keep your fire burning.

The taking of actions, no matter how small, will fill you with inspiration for taking the next step

The loser Farmer!

2010-03-21T14:18:00.002+05:30

The man takes the effort of procuring seed,fertilizer the insecticide the water for irrigation toils the land makes it plan table.

The out come after many months of care and nurturing is sold for less than the production cost is a pity??

This is not fiction I'm talking about the Farmers of India!

Right now when i buy a Kg of potato for Rs 12/kg in Mumbai my fellow villagers are forced to sell their produce for less than Rs 2/kg!!

So why is this disparity??

The legendary supply chain ads the extra cost!!Its not just transportation cost but all sorts of states and municipal taxes!!

So the middleman gets to screw both the producer and the consumer!!

In some parts of the world their is this concept of farm to mkt!Why cant we have the same in India?

Whats the role of the state and Central gov bodies in ensuring the goodwill of farmer and the consumer!

Why the farmer who does the maximum work is in loss and a middleman by just using his clout makes the maximum profit!The poor farmer keeps on getting poorer but the filthy rich middleman grows yr on yr.

Today morning i witnessed a truck which parked in our locality and started selling Onion for half the mkt rate!!It was a distressed farmer who had decided that he had enough of the middleman hired a truck and came to the nearest town.

As a consumer i got 50% discount still the farmer made good profit??

Some thing is grossly wrong in our Agribusiness model??

Teen shows and reality TV!

2010-02-08T21:17:00.002+05:30

The Genre of reality TV is so cliched these days..what with the funnily absurd shows like the "Rahul Dulhaniya le jayega" on NDTV imagine or the sleazy "Emotional atyachar" on Bindas TV!

What happened to the real brave and dangerous show which challenged the guts and stamina of a commoner?

In search of the reality genre i came across the Wipeout on AXN Asia initially it appeared an upgraded version of Takeshis castle but hell no this is mind blowing,one can catch the same on AXN in India.

The anime channel is the craze among the teens today,today spotted some kids in a malls wifi zone watching anime online using windows mobile phone!!

Noticed that the Animax is favored more by teens who are into creative field.

The latest talking point i heard is the show Gurren Lagann which plays at Animax.

The teens of today demand the best in creative and fun action shows which is being catered to by many youth TV channels but Animx and AXN satnd apart!

What a fool most of us Are!!!

2010-01-31T19:52:00.002+05:30

Dear Smart Alecs!!

Please take a look at the Urban Legends site before forwarding stupid mails which causes loss of time and causes a lot of Green house effect!!

How??Out of 100 mails i get daily 20+ are filled with such bullshit..it takes time and energy for me and my computer to screen and delete these!

Please Check the link

http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/blmsaol.htm

As responsible and educated citizens of this world this is the bare minimum one should do-To verify from good sites before sending these chain mails....

Wram regards and happy learning!!

Amit Shekhar.

Dear Friends,

Please do not take this for a junk letter. Bill Gates is sharing his fortune. If you ignore this you will repent later. Microsoft and AOL are now the largest Internet companies and in an effort to make sure that Internet Explorer remains the most widely used program, Microsoft and AOL are running an e-mail beta test..

When you forward this e-mail to friends, Microsoft can and will track it (if you are a Microsoft Windows user) for a two week time period.

For every person that you forward this e-mail to, Microsoft will pay you $245.00, for every person that you sent it to that forwards it on, Microsoft will pay you $243.00 and for every third person that receives it, you will be paid $241.00. Within two week! s, Microsoft will contact you for your address and then send you a cheque.

From: Udapudi, Bheemaraj (Cognizant)
Sent: Wednesday, August 30, 2006 10:% AM

Guys It's working

I have got $10000 .

Deepak

Tata Prima:Horn OK Please!!

2010-01-04T21:56:00.003+05:30

The Indian highways and its Dhaba culture signifies the tough and ruggedness of the clan called the Truck drivers!
The hard working truck driver who is most often having dubious credentials in our mind share.
If I recall a truck driver its mostly in the light of a harbinger of HIV to hinterlands and innocent village women from the commercial sex workers of cities?
Another image is that of a drunk and reckless driver on the rampage on the highways?
Many ads portray them as simple fellows who work very hard,stay away from their family and culture and are in most hostile of the places-I think this is a picture to which I would like to remember them.
But guess what all this is about to change with the launch of TATA Prima!!
TATA the Indian conglomerate is known to be a challenger to the paradigm be it the Tata Salt or the Nano!
The core value proposition of serving the masses and building trust has made Tata brand as pure as gold.
I am sure those who work for Tata must be a proud lot!
Coming back to Tata Prima- now the poor truck drivers can travel in AC comfort and avail the well deserved comfort and pride which will come from owning a Prima.
The Prima boasts of Italian Design,American,European and Korean engines,Mexican chassis,Japanese and Korean sheet metal dies,German and American gearboxes and Swedish fabrication!!
Wohh that a lot of world technologies and expertise put in a bonnet??
Hope the truckers approve of it!!
But hey wait- Will we not miss the customized decorated like a bride Indian truck which has "HORN OK PLEASE" written at the back!!

Paa.

2009-12-06T20:34:00.002+05:30

Saw Paa with my Paa and my 5yr old girl.Its special...I second Paresh Rawal when he says that the director of the film Balki is partial to Big B as he has given him 2 chances of playing 2 very interesting roles in Chini Kum and now Paa.

The novel thought of Balki of shocking the janta by making JrB father of BigB is splendid.The film is so bold and path breaking.I do not second the views of P Nandi that media bashing was over done.It was good to see media being targeted for a change.

The looks of JrB had uncanny similarity to Sachin Pilot??

I liked the casting intro by Jaya ji but fail to understand why cant she have played the role of Vidya's mother??

For that matter how about Mrs JrB playing the role of Vidya??

Paa is a film which is special and pure...it tugs at heart at the right time but not too long..thankfully...

Recommended for the entire family viewing...

Kudos to AB corp and Balki..look forward to more...

Divided we stand:India..

2009-11-10T13:11:00.004+05:30

Early morning tweets are a welcome way to start the day.I like to read the take of imminent personalities like Pritish nandy,Rajdeep sardesai,Chetan Bhagat,Vir Sanghvi and Gul Panag.

Mahesh Bhatt sab is mostly philosophical and enigmatic true to his mental image of mine.

Last morning Gul promoted an ideal called Unitedindiapak.

To which i replied that lets unite India first!!

Hard hitting and at times cynical...the day went on normally in office till my worried sis from Delhi called up about the Azmi beating in the Vidhan Sabha?

I tweeted back to Gul..uniting India takes a new meaning post the beating of Azmi by MNS MLAs for taking oath in the Rashtra bhasha Hindi?

One of my friend said that all big countries need to keep a real big threat ready in front of the country men to keep them united else...their is regional biases and petty demands.

It took British exploitation and cruelty as well as economical blockade of India that forced the warring cultures to unite and respond as a nation.

Gandhi understood the of the masses well thus launched Satyagraha?

Where one has to do nothing to protest...we have always been good at it.

Remember the krantikarti or the revolutionist were always in small number.

The support to Mahatmas cause was great cause you don't have to do anything to support him....

Now India is stable and flourishing so the complacency has set in about threat from outside?

I bet the entire country will unite and forget petty issues if China were to attack us now??

Indian politician at his best??

2009-11-03T19:45:00.000+05:30

Hotels and three companies in Mumbai. Property in Kolkata. A hotel in Thailand. A coalmine in Liberia.

These are some of the assets India’s Enforcement Directorate (ED) said it has unearthed among illegal foreign-exchange transactions and assets allegedly worth Rs 4,000-crore — almost a fifth of the annual budget of the state he once ruled, Jharkhand — of labourer-turned-chief minister Madhu Koda (38).

As nationwide raids by the ED, which probes foreign-exchange violations, and the Income Tax (I-T) department continued for the third day on Monday, investigators interrogated Koda on camera. The I-T department also sent notices to six of Koda’s close associates, based variously in Jharkhand, Mumbai and Delhi to appear before the Additional Director (Investigation) in Ranchi on November 6 and explain “certain transactions and events.”

A labourer who worked on window grills and in iron ore mines till the 1990s, Koda could be not contacted on Monday. His mobile phone was switched off. None of his associates, three former ministers and five others being investigated, were available for comment.

Koda’s lawyer Rahul Kumar on Monday told HT the I-T department had not told him what had been seized. “Unless we get a seizure list, it won’t be proper to comment on the ongoing searches,” said Kumar.

Kumar said he went to Koda’s residence, “but the IT officials, searching Koda’s residence, didn’t allow me to meet Koda”.

“They told me to come after the searches end,” said Kumar. Kumar said Koda had replied to notices served against him by the IT authorities. The ED has not issued any notice to Koda after they charged him with money laundering.

Koda became chief minister at age 35. In 2005, his declaration to the Election Commission listed an asset total of Rs 12 lakh.

“Mumbai was used as the most preferred destination by them (Koda and his associates) to stash away Koda’s ill-gotten wealth to the UAE, Dubai, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, etc through the hawala (illegal foreign-exchange transfers) channel,” said a highly placed source in the ED, requesting anonymity since he is not authorised to speak to the media.

“It’s a huge exercise,” the source said. “Since the raids were spread over 70 premises in nine cities of India, we are still tabulating the information to arrive at the exact figure.”

The investment records were seized during raids jointly conducted by the Income Tax (IT) department and the ED in 70 premises across Mumbai, Kolkata, Jamshedpur, Chaibasa, Patna, Ranchi, Lucknow, Ghaziabad and Delhi last week.

On Monday, IT and ED detectives searched seven premises of Koda and his associates in Jamshedpur and Ranchi. Most investments, according to ED and IT officials, are in the name of Koda’s main associates: Vinod Sinha of Chaibasa (Jharkhand) and Sanjay Chaudhary of Jamshedpur (Jharkhand).

The ED has already charged Koda with investing US $1.7 million (nearly Rs 8.5 crore) in a coalmine in Liberia through a Russian middleman, identified only as Rainto.

Besides Thailand, the ED said it has evidence of Koda’s alleged investment in buying hotels and companies in Indonesia, Singapore, Dubai and Liberia.

In Ranchi, IT officials quizzing Koda on camera on Monday claimed they had discovered documents of “ill-gotten transactions” worth more than Rs 2,200 crore.

The IT department has frozen over 70 bank accounts and lockers and has started the process to freeze bank accounts of Sinha and Chaudhary as well.

Besides property and investment details, officials said they had seized jewellery worth
Rs 2 crore and Rs 2.7 crore in cash.

They estimate the amount sent abroad through hawala could be more than Rs 2,500 crore. These figures could not be independently verified.

A major part of the investment was alleged to have been made when Koda was the CM of Jharkhand from September 2006 to August 2008.

On October 9, the ED had registered a case against Koda, now an independent member of parliament (MP) from Singhbhum, three former ministers Kamlesh Singh, Bhanu Pratap Shahi and Bandhu Tirkey and five others in a Ranchi court under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

“Since Koda has been charged under this Act, the onus is on him to prove the charges wrong,” an ED official said.

Corruption,

2009-09-28T11:56:00.001+05:30

The worst thing about corruption as a system of governance,is that it works so well!!

Didier in Shantaram..

Waste management.

2009-09-23T13:01:00.004+05:30

On my recent trip to the Industrial town of Vapi in Gujarat i noticed a haze as my car inched closer to it.The driver informed that its the pollution and the smog cause of the Industries in the area?

When i rolled down the window a stench entered with a vengeance inside the car!

The river had a blackish look devoid of any flora or fauna...is this the cost of industrialization.

Why cant the industries take care of the hazardous affluent?

Did a little bit of search on the net and came across many a companies which help in reducing the overall uses of chemicals and help in waste management.

Any chemical plant deals with a lot of solvents for different procedures like cleaning emulsification or as catalyst.The solvent is needed time and again,thus a need for solvent recovery system.The solvent recovery system reduces cost of operation and burden on the environment.

Different industries have different waste material and a unique way for management.A look at the river or water body tells how efficiently the waste has been managed.

The need for waste recovery system was long felt.Here in an industry can recover the waste and improve productivity at the same time helping environment.

At the end of the day more solvent recovery means lesser new solvent purchased thus greener.

The more industries focus on recycling and cleaner waste management the healthier our kids future will be.

Lets make earth greener...

Go Kiss the World – Subroto Bagchi..

2009-09-16T14:28:00.001+05:30

This speech was delivered to the Class of 2006 at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore on defining success by Subroto Bagchi CEO MindTree.

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

My parents set the foundation of my life and the value system, which makes me what I am today and largely, defines what success means to me today.

As District Employment Officer, my father was given a jeep by the government. There was no garage in the Office, so the jeep was parked in our house. My father refused to use it to commute to the office. He told us that the jeep is an expensive resource given by the government- he reiterated to us that it was not ”his jeep” but the government’s jeep. Insisting that he would use it only to tour the interiors, he would walk to his office on normal days.. He also made sure that we never sat in the government jeep – we could sit in it only when it was stationary.

That was our early childhood lesson in governance – a lesson that corporate managers learn the hard way, some never do.

The driver of the jeep was treated with respect due to any other member of my Father’s office. As small children, we were taught not to call him by his name. We had to use the suffix ‘dada’ whenever we were to refer to him in public or private. When I grew up to own a car and a driver by the name of Raju was appointed – I repeated the lesson to my two small daughters. They have, as a result, grown up to call Raju, ‘Raju Uncle’ – very different from many of their friends who refer to their family driver, as ‘my driver’. When I hear that term from a school- or college-going person, I cringe.

To me, the lesson was significant – you treat small people with more respect than how you treat big people. It is more important to respect your subordinates than your superiors.

Our day used to start with the family huddling around my Mother’s chulha – an earthen fire place she would build at each place of posting where she would cook for the family. There was neither gas, nor electrical stoves.The morning routine started with tea. As the brew was served, Father would ask us to read aloud the editorial page of The Statesman’s ‘muffosil’ edition – delivered one day late. We did not understand much of what we were reading. But the ritual was meant for us to know that the world was larger than Koraput district and the English I speak today, despite having studied in an Oriya medium school, has to do with that routine. After reading the newspaper aloud, we were told to fold it neatly. Father taught us a simple lesson.

He used to say, “You should leave your newspaper and your toilet, the way you expect to find it”. That lesson was about showing consideration to others. Business begins and ends with that simple precept.

Being small children, we were always enamored with advertisements in the newspaper for transistor radios – we did not have one. We saw other people having radios in their homes and each time there was an advertisement of Philips, Murphy or Bush radios, we would ask Father when we could get one. Each time, my Father would reply that we did not need one because he already had five radios – alluding to his five sons.

We also did not have a house of our own and would occasionally ask Father as to when, like others, we would live in our own house. He would give a similar reply,” We do not need a house of our own. I already own five houses”. His replies did not gladden our hearts in that instant.

Nonetheless, we learnt that it is important not to measure personal success and sense of well being through material possessions.

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

That was my first lesson in success. It is not about what you create for yourself, it is what you leave behind that defines success.

My mother began and galvanized the nation in to patriotic fervor. Other than reading out the newspaper to my mother, I had no clue about how I could be part of the action. So, after reading her the newspaper, every day I would land up near the University’s water tank, which served the community. I would spend hours under it, imagining that there could be spies who would come to poison the water and I had to watch for them. I would daydream about catching one and how the next day, I would be featured in the newspaper. Unfortunately for me, the spies at war ignored the sleepy town of Bhubaneswar and I never got a chance to catch one in action. Yet, that act unlocked my imagination.

Imagination is everything. If we can imagine a future, we can create it, if we can create that future, others will live in it. That is the essence of success.

Over the next few years, my mother’s eyesight dimmed but in me she created a larger vision, a vision with which I continue to see the world and, I sense, through my eyes, she was seeing too. As the next few years unfolded, her vision deteriorated and she was operated for cataract. I remember, when she returned after her operation and she saw my face clearly for the first time, she was astonished. She said, “Oh my God, I did not know you were so fair”.. I remain mighty pleased with that adulation even till date. Within weeks of getting her sight back, she developed a corneal ulcer and, overnight, became blind in both eyes. That was 1969. She died in 2002. In all those 32 years of living with blindness, she never complained about her fate even once. Curious to know what she saw with blind eyes, I asked her once if she sees darkness. She replied, “No, I do not see darkness. I only see light even with my eyes closed”. Until she was eighty years of age, she did her morning yoga everyday, swept her own room and washed her own clothes.

To me, success is about the sense of independence; it is about not seeing the world but seeing the light.

Over the many intervening years, I grew up, studied, joined the industry and began to carve my life’s own journey. I began my life as a clerk in a government office, went on to become a Management Trainee with the DCM group and eventually found my life’s calling with the IT industry when fourth generation computers came to India in 1981. Life took me places – I worked with outstanding people, challenging assignments and traveled all over the world.

In 1992, while I was posted in the US, I learnt that my father, living a retired life with my eldest brother, had suffered a third degree burn injury and was admitted in the Safderjung Hospital in Delhi. I flew back to attend to him – he remained for a few days in critical stage, bandaged from neck to toe. The Safderjung Hospital is a cockroach infested, dirty, inhuman place. The overworked, under-resourced sisters in the burn ward are both victims and perpetrators of dehumanized life at its worst. One morning, while attending to my Father, I realized that the blood bottle was empty and fearing that air would go into his vein, I asked the attending nurse to change it. She bluntly told me to do it myself. In that horrible theater of death, I was in pain and frustration and anger. Finally when she relented and came, my Father opened his eyes and murmured to her, “Why have you not gone home yet?” Here was a man on his deathbed but more concerned about the overworked nurse than his own state. I was stunned at his stoic self.

There I learnt that there is no limit to how concerned you can be for another human being and what the limit of inclusion is you can create.

My father died the next day. He was a man whose success was defined by his principles, his frugality, his universalism and his sense of inclusion.

Above all, he taught me that success is your ability to rise above your discomfort, whatever may be your current state. You can, if you want, raise your consciousness above your immediate surroundings. Success is not about building material comforts – the transistor that he never could buy or the house that he never owned. His success was about the legacy he left, the memetic continuity of his ideals that grew beyond the smallness of a ill-paid, unrecognizedgovernment servant’s world.

My father was a fervent believer in the British Raj. He sincerely doubted the capability of the post-independence Indian political parties to govern the country. To him, the lowering of the Union Jack was a sad event. My Mother was the exact opposite. When Subhash Bose quit the Indian National Congressand came to Dacca, my mother, then a schoolgirl, garlanded him. She learnt to spin khadi and joined an underground movement that trained her in using daggers and swords. Consequently, our household saw diversity in the political outlook of the two. On major issues concerning the world, the Old Man and the Old Lady had differing opinions.

In them, we learnt the power of disagreements, of dialogue and the essence of living with diversity in thinking.

Success is not about the ability to create a definitive dogmatic end state; it is about the unfolding of thought processes, of dialogue and continuum.

Two years back, at the age of eighty-two, Mother had a paralytic stroke and was lying in a government hospital in Bhubaneswar. I flew down from the US where I was serving my second stint, to see her. I spent two weeks with her in the hospital as she remained in a paralytic state. She was neither getting better nor moving on. Eventually I had to return to work. While leaving her behind, I kissed her face. In that paralytic state and a garbled voice, she said,

“Why are you kissing me, go kiss the world.” Her river was nearing its journey, at the confluence of life and death, this woman who came to India as a refugee, raised by a widowed Mother, no more educated than high school, married to an anonymous government servant whose last salary was Rupees Three Hundred, robbed of her eyesight by fate and crowned by adversity was telling me to go and kiss the world!

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

Thank you very much; I wish you good luck and God’s speed. Go! kiss the world.

Government websites how user unfriendly??

2009-09-06T13:26:00.004+05:30

Loved this article by Mahafreed in the TOI today..

What makes Gov web sites so dull or so gaudy and so user unfriendly?

Is this related to the common attitude of the Gov staffs way of working where all work is insipid and done cause one is forced to instead of doing what on loves to do??

I would like to share some example of how efficient our Gov website made by our money are?

Vice President of India :How insipid it could get?See the recommend IE6?

Ministry of civil aviation :Look at the offending colours?Cant skip the flash.Love the tag line PDF is an special software??

MOD: This web site is optimized for java enabled Netscape4.0 above, IE4.0 above and 1024x768 monitor resolution.(IE4 are you serious)

MOSteel :Love the Moving stars hitting logo?

MOSmall enterprises: Look at the colours?

MHA : This is neat..

MO Culture: How clutter free??

CIC: The rainbow effect?

By now i feel exhausted..

Tried some other countries official sites:

Singapore: You decide!

Malaysia :Neat

UK : Cool..

Some serious endeavour needs to go in improving these websites usability.For a change Gov should outsource the task to professional companies?

Example:

Infosys: How soothing and clean.

Wipro : Refreshing..

Airtel : Clutter free

TCS : Cool..

The point is taking ownership and promoting creativity rather than making mockery of e governance..

Some questions??

2009-09-04T12:45:00.003+05:30

Do one really needs to cut throat to survive?

What do we mean in business parlance when we say Killing extinct?

Why do business term are derived straight out of hunting and forest?

Is there some thing called a work life balance?

Can an individual safeguard the encroachment of professional life in the personal domain?

Why is some one leaving office at six is seen as a shirker?

How many productive hours are there in the office hours?

He can's survive in sales cause he is innocent??

Lets rip the competition apart??

How many companies can follow "Do no evil" and still be profitable?

Sea Link Mumbai..

2009-08-30T13:31:00.002+05:30

Had the chance to cross the Bandra worli sae link in a Corola..what a sight, have a glimpse..

Raksha Bandhan(The thread of security)India. | Demotix.com

2009-08-05T20:05:00.001+05:30

Raksha Bandhan(The thread of security)India. | Demotix.com

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Changing face of Digital entertainment.

2009-07-22T20:18:00.002+05:30

Just few years back TV homes used to pay high usage charges to the local cable company or the cable guy.

Then we saw the advent of the Direct TV!!

So here the customer had access to the chosen set of channels and digital picture quality and sound.

Even if the power in a particular area was out the end user can run his backup power and enjoy Direct TV.The welcome change from the earlier inefficient service to a professionally run 24*7 customer care service coxed many TV homes to upgrade to satellite TV service.

Now the discerning customer want to have the same sophisticated experience at most touch points like club,hotel and restaurants?

The problem is that the public broadcasting thru a non commercial Direct TV is illegal.

So the customers miss the higher quality experience as seen at home,resulting in less customers on crucial game days.

Now the same Direct TV is offering the Direct TV Business.This new offering is designated for commercial use and its success will be out in the open in few months.The Commercial Direct TV has many offers suitable for bar r,restaurants and most commercial places.

The changing world of digital entertainment will have a long term effect on the DirectTV Business.

Hillary charmed all in India.

2009-07-22T20:12:00.002+05:30

If India anticipated the US secretary of state’s visit with uncertainty it was largely because it shares the unusual distinction — along with Israel — of viewing with sorrow George Bush’s departure from the White House. As it turned out, Hillary Clinton was successful in allaying most of India’s concerns.

“Her reassurances for New Delhi came in three parts,” wrote James Lamont inThe Financial Times. “First, she prioritised the fight against terrorism, staying in the Taj hotel in Mumbai which, only nine months ago, was the target of rampaging Islamist gunmen. Second, she addressed regional security in south Asia — a priority of the Obama administration — without insisting on a settlement for Kashmir, claimed and fought over by India and Pakistan. Third, she offered assistance in areas that New Delhi gives strategic priority: modernising its armed forces, energy security and its space programme.

“The US will want something in return.

“Behind the desire for India to be a global power is the wish that it speaks up more for its democratic freedoms and open society, and those of others. Talks over climate change, global trade, financial reform and nuclear non-proliferation are where that voice needs to be heard.

“But for all the emollient words, the biggest reward for the US will be India’s help in securing regional peace. That would be the prize of true ‘friendship’.”

Writing for Time magazine, Madhur Singh said: “The big takeaways of Clinton’s visit are three key agreements. The first is an ‘end-use monitoring’ agreement that allows the US to track arms supplied to India to ensure that they are not sold or otherwise given to third parties. This agreement, required by US law, enables US companies to sell hi-tech military equipment and technology to India, immediately benefiting Boeing and Lockheed Martin, which will be able to bid for contracts to supply 26 fighter jets to India for a $10 billion deal.

“The second, a technical-safeguards agreement, will enable India to launch non-commercial satellites containing US components, while an agreement to set up a science-and-technology endowment fund will allow more co-operation in those fields.

“In addition to the monetary boost for US businesses and the ego boost for India, a ‘strategic dialogue’ encompassing a range of subjects — from soft issues like education to thorny ones such as climate change, terrorism and nuclear non-proliferation — was announced. Clinton’s speeches and interviews to the local media were full of references to India’s greater role on the global stage. ‘[I] consider India not just a regional but global power,’ she told an Indian news channel on July 18, the day after she arrived in Mumbai. The irony of that statement was not lost on India’s foreign policy set, given that the country’s recent attempts to take a leadership role in international affairs, such as leading developing nations at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and in climate-change negotiations, has led it on a path of friction with the US.

“In fact, the Indian Environment Minister, Jairam Ramesh, broke away from the saccharine tone of most of Clinton’s meetings with the country’s leaders by bluntly reiterating India’s position that it would not accept binding emissions cuts. ‘There is simply no case for the pressure that we, who have been among the lowest emitters per capita, face to actually reduce emissions,’ Ramesh said to Clinton at a conference on climate change in Gurgaon, near New Delhi, on July 19. ‘And as if this pressure was not enough, we also face the threat of carbon tariffs on our exports to countries such as yours.’ Clinton defused the situation by asserting that the US would not take any step to limit India’s economic growth.”

In World Politics Review, Neeta Lal wrote: “As expected, Clinton’s agenda covered the five pillars of the Indo-US relationship: defence co-operation, science and technology, energy and climate change, education and trade. But the visit left the impression that it was crafted to be more symbolic than substantial, leading many to believe that Clinton was working according to a script, rather than as a much-vaunted ‘friend of India’.

“From her decision to kick off her trip in Mumbai, rather than the national capital of New Delhi, to her stay at the Taj Mahal Hotel where Pakistani terrorists had unleashed terror last year to her politically correct declarations about climate control, Pakistan and terrorism, Clinton presented India with a friendly but unrelenting interlocutor on many counts.

“Not that she was lacking in charm. The secretary met with social activists championing the emancipation of Indian women, captains of industry who have fast-tracked India’s economic growth, and groups of students in Delhi.

“But the most crucial element of bilateral exchange on which India needed reassurance — ie, strong words on Pakistani support for terror against India — were missing. To the contrary, Clinton made it clear that Washington is pretty pleased with Pakistan’s performance in the ‘war on terror,’ and that the primary American concern is the Pakistani nuclear inventory, secure for now.”

Meanwhile, shortly before Mrs Clinton’s departure the media spotlight suddenly shifted to a courtroom drama in Mumbai when Mohammad Ajmal Amir “Kasab” reversed his plea and confessed to his role in the Mumbai attacks.

“The sole surviving gunman in last year’s Mumbai terror attacks may have sealed his fate with a dramatic courtroom confession Monday, but Pakistan’s determination and ability to dismantle the group that plotted the assault remains an open question,” The Wall Street Journal reported.

“Pakistan, after initially denying that any of its citizens took part in the assault that left more than 170 people dead, has in the past six months sought to convince India and the US that it is doing everything in its power to shut down the group thought to be responsible, Lashkar-i-Taiba.

“‘The Pakistani nation and its government fully understand the enormity of the challenge,’ said Farahnaz Ispahani, a spokeswoman for Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari. ‘This nation has paid in blood for its commitment against terrorism.’

“Five of the alleged plotters arrested in Pakistan weeks after the attack are to go on trial in the coming days. Pakistani officials say prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani earlier this month gave his Indian counterpart a dossier detailing what Islamabad knows about Lashkar’s involvement in the attack.”

Official Google Blog: Introducing the Google Chrome OS

2009-07-08T23:13:00.000+05:30

Official Google Blog: Introducing the Google Chrome OS