PETITION WRITER

The art of living

2012-02-11T12:35:00.001-05:00

The average span of life has now increased and that too considerably. When the medicine and healthcare were just evolving, people were considered lucky to live in their 40s, and now the average living span is somewhere in the 80s. We are astonished when we find that someone has lived beyond the 100 and that too without any ailments or ever visiting the doctor or getting admitted in an hospital for any medical treatment whatsoever.

You find people living a long and healthy life and also those who do not make it for one reason or the other.

But beyond a healthy body that one inherits from parents - or maintains with good habits there is always a third dimension to it, and that is what you think when you live with a healthy or sick body. Positive thinking or negative thinking or no thinking at all define you as a person and the purpose of living life and perhaps knowing the purpose of your birth on earth.

If one is capable of creative thinking and able to engage his or her mental faculties - it is a good sign. But again if that thinking is negative - that obviously is not good for health and a meaningful living. The art of living or courses meant to teach healthy living often focus on removing the negativity or useless thoughts or action. If one can control thoughts, it is easy to control actions that relegate one to negativity.

I happen to come across a center on "Maum Meditation" - Maum in Korean means Mind, Soul or Spirit. Maum Meditation is a simple 7-step guided method of subtraction that allows you to become free of the limitations imposed by your past. The past is recorded and stored within the body and mind as pictures. These pictures dictate thoughts, emotions, desires, behaviors and health. Although these pictures are illusions, humans unknowingly live within the illusions in their mind thinking that they are real.

Through Maum Meditation, one becomes fee of the pictures, free of the incessant recording hence free from the illusory false world. No longer trapped within the illusions of the human mind, one finds his or her true purpose and reach the state of eternal happiness.

Illusion is mistaken ideas or mistaken visual image and something unreal or false by virtue of time and space. The best remedy to give up illusion is to subtract it through Maum Meditation and going forward always think positive to succeed and get out of fear, negativity and illusion for ever.

Courtesy:

www.maum.org

Anatomy of a Meathead

2012-01-22T11:06:00.000-05:00

My favorite Humor Columnist Gene Weingarten in the Washington Post Magazine of January 22, 2012 wrote an excellent feature "A meating of the minds" that I much wish to share. He talks about, Bruce Friedrich , who in my opinion is an example of what I call "renunciation" for he deprives himself even the bare necessities of food, shelter and clothing - he could subsist on the donated food, donated clothes like others in the homeless shelter. It's not about being a vegetarian or animal lover, but having the persuasive conscience to renounce the temptations and staying that way for a healthy mind and body.

Happy reading...

On the Side of Truth

2012-01-10T07:26:00.002-05:00

Neal Katyal, the former acting Solicitor General and law professor wrote recently in the Washington Post about the Japanese internment case. It is a story of distortion of evidence versus the endurance of a life time in the pursuit of justice.

Then again, you need courage to defend people who are made to look unpatriotic and disloyal by sheer distortion of evidence. When one is on the side of truth, and the truth is on the side of the oppressed, the victory is certain. It is sad that it takes so long to get vindicated, and perhaps it's so because the patriotic fervor is so strong that we tend to overlook the evidence.

Professor Katyal is an eminent jurist, thinker and great contributor to contemporary development in law and criminal justice.

Surat and Seerat

2011-12-05T07:41:00.001-05:00

It is very rare when nature gifts one with good Surat (looks) and Seerat (internal beauty and intellect). Those who do not get good looks and beauty become likable by their work, and many turn into Dorian Grays by their bad karmas and blatant ignorance of god given natural gifts.

The Indian film industry have had numerous celebrated writers, composers, film makers and artists. The people in my generation grew up watching films of Balraj Sahani, Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand, Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachhan.

Balraj Sahani and Dev Anand were different - they had plenty of cerebral matter, and it came out naturally in their performance. They acted effortlessly and people liked them to no ends. Dev Anand passed away recently in London and will be remembered for his rare quality of a living mind, great looks and captivating smile. RIP Dev.

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-11-25T09:38:00.001-05:00

The festive mood in fact sets in from Halloween and continues through Thanksgiving to Christmas and New Year. Yes, this years thanksgiving celebration became memorable with loved ones travelling home to visit us. Talking of home, this video brought back memories of a great and vibrant city home to an estimated 20 million people or little more than half the population of Canada.

Growing population and longevity

2011-11-07T06:50:00.002-05:00

The World's population broke the 7th billion mark last week, not so because of birthrate as because of people living longer writes Avis Thomas-Lester in Sunday Washington Post. Featuring the 99th birthday of Inez Dade and writing about her two younger sisters Harris 96 and Bean 92, Avis says;
Dade and her sisters grew up on a farm during the Great Depression, their hard life taught them the value of work and kept their bodies strong and their minds sharp. Good story, here is the link:

Bhupen Hazarika, India's Music Legend

2011-11-05T10:02:00.000-04:00

Dr. Hazarika passed away in Mumbai on 05 November 2011. He will be remembered for his so many compositions, including this River Song that enthralled millions of his listeners. Our Tributes to the Departed Soul.

2011-10-10T07:26:00.000-04:00

Remembering Mahatma Gandhi

2011-10-02T11:32:00.000-04:00

Birthday: 2nd October 1869

http://ibnlive.in.com/cnnibnvideos/mostviewed-us/189390.html

Courtesy: Times of India and IBNCNN

Tiger Pataudi

2011-09-23T07:45:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, the legendary Indian Cricket Captain Pataudi passed away in Delhi, his sad demise brought back old memories of cricket matches, and later when his marriage to Sharmila, the leading actress with the famous family name "Tagore" was greeted with surprise, excitement and much public euphoria in India. It is good to see such a wide coverage in the Media for this wonderful sportsman and a nice human being. This great cricketer, a gentleman, and the last Nawab (Prince) will be greatly missed. RIP, Tiger.

South China Sea

2011-09-18T10:04:00.000-04:00

The following thoughts crossed my mind while reading this feature about the oil rich disputed terriroty in South China Sea.

1. It's an accepted norm for countries to engage in project advocacy to support their companies and national trade overseas.

2. If such a company is engaged in an oil drilling project say in a disputed territory, can the joint venture partner ask its nation to park its naval fleet (in the international waters) to guard its commercial interest in the form of oil field, drilling machinery and equipment, and importantly to save the life of the crew onboard the drilling rig?

For the oil explorer may encounter another claiment and party to the dispute entering into the fray - by force. What will be the consequences and how well founded will be the stake of respective parties under international law?. This is the scene and rivalry brewing up among some nations along the Palawan Coast in South China Sea.

China reportedly consumes more than 10 per cent of total world oil production, and its consumption is expected to increase by 75 per cent in the next 25 years. The 38 oil and gas fields in the disputed territory may help China meet its energy needs but the business adventure is fraught with huge danger and if not resolved soon, may result into an internatiinal conflict involving many nations and economic blocks.

No escape from coal in a worsening economy

2011-09-15T00:19:00.004-04:00

On a trip to Canada recently I read this article on coal fired power plants there. One of the reader comments that solar energy in 14.5 seconds is enough to meet energy needs of the world for a day. That is quite a prospect for solar energy, the key of course is in the technology to conserve solar power.

For the present, there seems no escape from coal. For 35 plus million Canadians with huge forest cover and plenty of coal and oil reserves the prospect seem bright as developing countries will continue importing coal to meet their increasing electricity demands. When the economy improves, we can talk of clean technology but for now the cheap and dirty coal is the major source for generating power all over including environmentally conscious Canada.

In the realm of Investors

2011-08-15T08:12:00.000-04:00

The other day a colleague said that he would want his 401K invested in Gold for his "Golden Years" because day by day the lifeline of Social Security and Medicare look far dismal.

The feature 5 Myths about the Dow by James Glassman in Washington Post that appeared on Sunday August 14, 2011 is quite informative. James says that today investors need more diversification (he once said that Dow will hit 36000 and still stands by his belief!! amen..) and by investing in international stocks from India, China and Brazil and share of smaller, faster and growing companies. He says that given the unexpected downgrade of US economy and the prevailing uncertainty (news report says 8 banks failing in the USA every month?) investors need to protect them on the downside, and the easiest way is through a Portfolio that is weighed more towards bonds (both government and corporate) - he says that bonds often go up in price when stocks go down. Since bonds offer lower returns, they may reduce your upside, but they cushion your downside.

Dow comprises of 30 companies and is not a collection of the largest US firms (for example Apple with a market cap of $347 billion and others) - and this measure of (outstanding sharesXprice) leaves the room for much needed democratisation for most indexes are weighed by market cap and large companies patronized by wide array of investors. The wisdom is not in investing in Gold Per Se but uniformly in worldwide stocks to strengthen the overall investment and the global economy - the aftershocks of downgrades if any will distribute equally, and manufacturers, suppliers, farmers, workers and consumers from farm to table and main street to wall street will swim, survive and grow together. This in a sense will be that egalitarian view of democratisation of wealth ruled by market forces. A win-win for one and all.

To continue ....in the next entry.

Shammi Kapoor

2011-08-14T09:54:00.006-04:00

Great actor Shammi Kapoor passed away, he was a nice human being, heartfelt condolences to his family and his son Aditya Rajkapoor who became a friend in Bollywood. RIP Kapoor Saheb.

Economic debacle, debt ceiling deal and the downgrade

2011-08-13T11:33:00.000-04:00

Congressman Jim Moran in his weekly commentary says that debt ceiling deal would be a drag on the economy. He refers to the national unemployment rate hovering at nine percent and says that while the private sector employment growth is low and modest, the public sector has in fact shed half a million jobs in the past three years - 37,000 in July of 2011 alone!!

The advocates of the small government may score here, but not really - for the tax payers will indirectly support the unemployed, bear the burden millions of these consumers will add to the marketplace by clogging the global supply chain, piling up of inventories, jobs losses in the retail and manufacturing sectors, overhead costs and interest payments on the borrowed capital. So any policy that adds to the unemployment is nothing but depriving the oil to the engine of growth.

No doubt the gains at General Motors is a success story, an anecdotal of sort and considering the $2.2 trillion investment to upgrade the crumbling infrastructure, we can replicate yet multiple success stories. The old rule of thumb that $1 million creates 8 jobs and now American Alliance for Manufacturing stating that every billion dollars of investment in infrastructure would create 18,000 jobs is a good news!! - and none of men, materials or machinery would be outsourced, all these jobs would be created here. This is not the time for scoring political points but  to examine the necessity of discretionary programs and as Jim says come what may use all resources to stimulate job creation both in the public and private sector.

The Catch-22

2011-07-31T11:34:00.000-04:00

Many of us remember the Y2K crisis, the hype and the uncertainty then. I distinctly recall the stories in the Press and expert opinions, but no one seemed to believe for the experts were never 100 per cent sure of what they were saying. The risk and uncertainty was there until "The Time" the Old Gypsy Man walked passed and placed us in a new century.

The American Debt Debacle has created an uncertainty of much greater dimension, and while the Democrats and Republicans reach to a compromise, the prevailing uncertainty continues. This video explains clearly the problem the US faces and repercussions of default around the Word.

Definitely a real catch-22, and it will also pass.

The Issue of Corruption

2011-07-29T15:38:00.000-04:00

A copy of the United Nations Global Compact Annual Review 2010 recently landed on my desk. This crisp report gives a broad picture of sustainable development worldwide and useful insights on corporate sustainability performance and leadership. The Global Compact asks companies to embrace, support and enact a set of core values in the areas of human rights, labor standards, environment and anti-corruption. What began a modest campaign with 40 companies in 2000 has now 6000 members in 140 countries, continues to grow, and is one of the largest Corporate Responsibility Initiative in the world.

Anti-Corruption (Principle # 10 at the bottom of the mission statement) triggered my jottings for this blog entry. The Murdoch’s Mess reported in the Bloomberg Businessweek of July 18, 2011 and a tweet on corruption from India resonated well on this cancer of rampant corruption, lies and scandals. The finding of 2010 Global Compact Implementation Survey completed by over 1200 companies in 100 countries reveal a diverse picture of sustainability performance:

ü Larger companies and publicly traded companies are performing at higher rates on all issues;

ü For companies of all sizes, environmental and labor issues are addressed significantly more often than human rights and corruption; and

ü Compared to 2009 survey results, environmental actions increased substantially, anti-corruption efforts rebounded after a drop in 2008-2009, and human rights and labor rates were mostly static.

The report says that “through compact local networks, companies are increasingly taking collective action and collaborating on sustainability approaches in complex operating environments, for example in Brazil, Egypt, India, Nigeria, South Africa and Sudan”. Known as a Communication on Progress (COP), it is mandatory for the companies in Global Compact to disclose the results and progress on implementing these 10 principles. COP is a critical component of the Global Compact Integrity Measure. The good thing is that the numbers of COPs submitted annually continue to increase, and as of January 2011, over 2000 companies have been expelled from the global compact for failure to adhere to the COP policy, representing one-quarter of Global Compact companies.

Among those expelled 66% were SMEs (Small and Medium Size enterprises) –higher than the overall proportion of companies in the Global Compact (54%). Latin America (37%), Asia (28%) and North America (25%) experienced the largest percentage of companies removed.

The corruption rampant in Latin America and Asia (including India) is a big challenge, and ironically economies doing better despite high levels of corruption keep people confused. It was a creative writer and thinker (from India) who tweeted if like the moderate inflation, moderate corruption is good for the economy. The other successful entrepreneur in sheer desperation suggested making corruption legal. This may sound bizarre but presents the actual scenario from emerging economies. But the moot point is whither we go, which direction we take and at what cost we achieve the so called progress. Given too wide a gap between global corporate behavior and the mandate set by the UN, nobody can afford to surrender to the degradation of moral standards, honesty and integrity , and if we let that happen, the world may not sustain the development in any of the areas enshrined in these 10 cardinal principles.

Mongolia

2011-07-17T20:36:00.003-04:00

The mineral rich Mongolia between China and Russia and the case of a great balancing act on the roof top of the world. This well researched feature makes an interesting reading.

Bollywood and Bollystan

2011-07-16T10:00:00.002-04:00

Top on the list of Indo-US trade are industry sectors like Aviation for sheer volume of sales, and in that ranking films were no where near. The partnership in making movies always took a back seat until the technology evolution and especially use of animation in film making. And now we see lot of collaboration happening in film making and also audiences growing worldwide for Bollywood movies.

I liked what Parag Khanna says about Bollystan and in that context here is an interesting feature from Washington Post.

Jose Saramago

2011-07-14T07:19:00.004-04:00

The boy grew into his name, taming his wilderness but always remaining faithful to his roots in poverty. "Small Memories is an expression of that fidelity, a small but nourishing last gift from a great writer. These are the words of Michael S. Roth in the Washington Post in his review of "Small Memories A Memoir" by Nobel Laureate Jose Saramago.

Metamorphosis in Electronic Discovery Sector

2011-07-12T09:21:00.006-04:00

Much like the unstructured and widely scattered stocks of electronic data all over the place, we are witnessing coming of age of an unorganized sector in electronic discovery, the learning curves in new software technologies & practices taking shape, and those anxious to adopt these on an upswing, and there continues unabated mushrooming of e-discovery vendors in one form or the other all around the globe.

Multiple market surveys and industry trends indicate continuing growth in this sector and market size estimate well over three Billion dollars. Every year at Legal Tech in New York one witnesses e-discovery vendors either disappearing from the scene or seen under the wings of a larger player ascending in this rapidly changing industry sector. The mantra for survival has been "discover or disappear" - go on discovering new methods, new software, cutting-edge technologies and importantly businesses fit to adopt these I.T. solutions - and yet again all this happening in a dramatically changing saga of mass transformation thanks to the Internet, telecommunications and now this powerful social media.

It is interesting to read the findings by Gartner on e-discovery. However, I have not been able to justify the rationale of targeting 25% of survey respondents from India??

Indo-US Collaborations

2011-07-10T13:53:00.000-04:00

The Indo-US Economic Summit concluded in Washington, DC in June of 2011. It was a continuation of Indo-US dialogue that began in April of 2010. The background paper on Economic Summit by CII and Brookings Institute says that cooperation on economic and financial issues and common strategies on shared challenges and goals between two democracies will intensify further in the future.

The attached study by CII, continuing GDP growth of 8 to 8.5% annually, and portent believers in trade and investment community forecast an infinite array of engagements between India and the United States. India announced an untapped investment potential of 1 trillion dollars to meet its infrastructure demands, and then there are many silver linings in cooperation among SMEs in the manufacturing sector. The supply of technology and investment from the USA and huge labor surplus in India bodes well for growth in Indo-US collaborations.

Risk Management

2011-07-01T07:44:00.002-04:00

Despite agitations on a mass scale, the government in Greece went ahead with austerity measures. In the United States the government is in a dilemma now between yet a higher debt ceiling versus measures to curb unnecessary spending and mindless borrowings. The preachings on "Risk-based budgeting" are not in practice.

However, in the private sector, "many firms in fields such as law, engineering, construction and financial services are pumping up risk management strategies to protect their assets and reputation and to boost their bottom lines". Dough Chiders writes this echoing how companies are pursuing risk management plans to boost profits in Virginia Business issue of July 2011.

Now is the time for austerity and risk management in all walks of life and in every sector and segment of trade, industry and governments nationally and internationally.

The month of June, Congress Party and India

2011-06-29T08:51:00.008-04:00

MJ Akbar in India Today recently wrote about India's mishandling of people's crusade against corruption. He has rightly noted that the month of June has not been so lucky for congress party and its governments in the past. He mentioned Jayaprakash Narayan's revolt that began on June 25, 1975leading to emergency. Like JP electrified the young and the old, once again people from all over in India are coming together against corruption. Another problem that India faces is the rising inflation and it also came up up for discussion at the recent CII meet here in Washington DC. For India's growing economy, it's imperative to combat corruption and strike a right balance between inflation and growth.

More later on these two important issues.

Indo-US Economic Summit in Washington, DC

2011-06-22T20:26:00.022-04:00

CII together with Brookings Institution is organizing an Indo-US Economic Conference in Washington, DC on June 27, 2011. The movers and shakers from finance, industry and government will attend this meeting. For a background, CII represents Indian manufacturers and in fact before economic reforms in 1990, it was called CIE (Confederation of Indian Engineering Industry) and like the National Association of Manufacturing Industries (NAM) in the United States, an association of Indian manufacturing industry also started in the 18 century in British India that become CIE.

An estimated 80 per cent of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in America and almost same number of Indian SMEs contribute to national economy, and this Summit will help forge some good partnerships between financial institutions and manufacturing industries. The bottoms up approach is needed to improve the infrastructure in manufacturing and the supply chain - undobtedly fiscal support will be needed to fuel manufacturing and economic growth in India and the USA. Trust economists will deliberate on fiscal policies and ways to fuel growth in manufacturing sector.

This theme and importance of role of individuals and SMEs is evident from what Parag Khanna stresses in his interview thanks to the University of CA/Berkeley.