Writer's Search

What Amitabh, Salman And All of Us Should Know After Mahi's Death

2012-06-24T06:00:00.001-07:00

Picture courtesy: IBN Live.com

Actors Amitabh Bachchan and Salman Khan tweeted their grief while others poured out their emotion through comments posted on various media web sites reporting on the death of 5-year old Mahi. Here's what we all must know about safety and other regulations involved in borewell drilling

By Francis Adams

According to the Central Ground Water Board of the Government of India, Haryana in which state the five-year old girl plunged to a tragic death, is among few other states that have been declared or notified as critical and over-exploited for extracting ground water.

Under such notification, construction of ground water wells are prohibited in these areas, with exception of drilling reserved for government agencies that are responsible for drinking water supply.

A Supreme Court ruling on "Measures for Prevention of fatal accidents of small children

due to their falling into abandoned bore wells and tube wells" resulting from a writ petition filed in 2009, can be seen here: http://bit.ly/Mt5TgA

After reading the detailed strictures outlined by the country's highest court, it is obvious that the contractor who had undertaken the borewell drilling work in Kho village of the Industrial Model Township, in Manesar flouted norms.

The Central Ground Water Board also has published guidelines "for evaluation of proposals/requests for ground water abstraction for drinking and domestic purposes in Notified areas and
Industry/Infrastructure project proposals in Non-notified areas". See: http://bit.ly/LhlWMz

The Board also has a page dedicated to training its staff. A glance at the schedule revealed that the Board has planned a one-week training titled "Safety Measures in Water Well Construction" for its drilling staff, next month from 16 to 20.

In the wake of another tragic death, again involving a child, what the Board requires to do is display these safety measures it is planning to teach its staff, prominently on its web site for the public.

There are several other issues that demand answers, such as, does ground water in Kho village and near the site measure upto 1500 TDS or Total Dissolved Solids that is the Common Tolerance level for human consumption; did the contractor possess a borewell construction licence as well as groundwater licence.

Newspaper reports have suggested that the work was being carried out illegally.

Involving more than 100 officials and various government and private agencies in rescue operations even in the future will be futile and an embarassment for the country unless the concerned authorities at the local level ensure that required safety measures are implemented as well as by using advanced equipment like the one used by Reliance Industries in the rescue operation. It was this machine that was able to locate the exact position of the trapped girl.

Until then, we can only put our heads down in mourning and in shame and of course, tweet in disgust, like Amitabh Bachchan did, his tweet saying "We successfully launch ICM's, but could not successfully save a little child that fell into a bore well !!!(sic)."

Link to few reports from the mainstream media:

www.ndtv.com - http://bit.ly/LrY53d

www.hindustantimes.com - http://bit.ly/LrYhzs

www.ibnlive.in.com - http://bit.ly/MI9d7K

www.timesofindia.com - http://bit.ly/KVaqNm

5 Reasons Why TCS, Cognizant, IBM, Infosys Are At The World BPO/ITO Forum

2012-06-23T09:09:00.000-07:00

WEEKEND SPECIAL By Francis Adams

The dissent and resistance toward BPO/ ITO in a global economy or Gloconomy notwithstanding, big names from the industry are attending the 5th Summit for five reasons and a little more...

At a time when the global economy is increasingly turning into One Big System owing to international integration of businesses, global sourcing is becoming the key to economic success, which was the Summit's theme last year. Economist Larry Summers, who was the keynote speaker at last year's event had said: "There are those today who would resist the process of international integration; that is a prescription for a more contentious and less prosperous world…We should not oppose offshoring or outsourcing."

This year's Summit has adopted a more realistic theme: "Smartsourcing: The Prize is Elusive... But It's Sure Worth the Effort!"

The five reasons why corporate giants such as the Tata Consultancy Services, Cognizant, IBM, Infosys and HP are attending the World BPO/ITO Summit on June 26-27 in New York City, are:

1. The Summit's forum is the only off-shoring thought leadership platform for U.S./global companies.

Surya Kant

Surya Kant, President, North America, UK and Europe at Tata Consultancy Services, among the Diamond Sponsors of the event, will lead the thought leaders with an opening keynote titled " Global Sourcing Strategies for Sustainable Competitive Advantage - 2012 and Beyond". Besides offering his expertise on shifts in global sourcing strategies and sustaining the competitive advantage, Kant will speak on the opportunities that lie beyond traditional outsourcing; the core of an organization's business strategy in a rapidly changing global market place, disruptive technology and an equally fast-paced infrastructure growth.

2. Opportunity to gain insights into what works and what doesn't in a multi-vendor environment.

Barbara Dugainer

Barbara Dugainer, Executive Director, Resources BPO at Accenture, which also is a Diamond Sponsor of the Summit, will speak on "Achieving High Performance in BPO." Dugainer will provide an insight into and offer advice on the BPO of today that is ready for fresh challenges and to offer advanced services to clients including business insight, innovation, industry expertise, solutions that are adaptable to more individualized needs and commitment to continuos improvement. Dugainer will also bring to the Summit thoughts on how well are providers stepping up to the new demands; which clients are succeeding and why. To support her presentation, Dugainer will unravel new research -- conducted by the Everest Group and the Outsourcing Unit at the London School of Economics -- that identifies eight specific practices which, collectively, have the potential produce sustainable business value for a company that exceeds or betters that of its industry peers.

3. A peek into real life case studies and insights from global leaders.

Paul Roehrig

Ben Pring

Ben Pring, AVP, Center for the Future of Work at Cognizant Technology Solution, along with Paul Roehrig, PhD, AVP, Corporate Strategy, also at Cognizant Technlogy Solution will speak on "Winning at The Shift Point: New Process and Technology Architectures Will Unlock New Business Value."

The duo from Cognizant will focus on how to reign in the accelerating pace of conducting enterprise work and use it effectively to drive greater levels of productivity and competitive advantage by moderninzing work in ways that deliver both cost efficiencies and innovation.

During their session, the duo will explore: How Future of Work "Mega-trends Are Reforming The Enterprise; The Nature of The "New IT Architechture"; The Acceleration of a Shift to "Process-Centricity"; and Practical Tactics For Today And Tomorrow.

4. Building valuable global relationships with the right partners.

Lynda Applegate

Lynda Applegate, Sarofim-Rock Professor of Business Administration Unit Head,
Entrepreneurial Management & Chair, OPM at Harvard University Business School will discuss "The Enterprise of The Future" by highlighting key points from her research work and publications. Her work focuses on "the challenges of building new ventures and leading radical business innovation in the face of significant industry, technological, capital market, and regulatory turbulence."

Applegate will also examine "emerging governance models to support inter-firm collaborative innovation."

5. Strategizing near-shoring and far-shoring solutions in the Country Pavilions.

Last year's Summit saw two leading offshore country delegations -- India and the Philippines -- joined by nearshoring destinations including Brazil and Argentina, followed by emerging offshore destinations Malaysia, Poland, Scotland and Northern Ireland, prompting Kartik Kilachand, CEO and Co-founder of the World BPO Forum Inc to say "This is a clear indication that the concept of ‘global delivery centers’ is rapidly becoming the norm.”

This year's edition will see a new entrant Krakow (Poland), which is emerging as among the top desitinations in Europe on the investment attractiveness index. It is reported that the BPO/ITO and Shared Services Centres (SSC) provide employment to about 20 thousand people in Krakow alone.

The attendees for this year's Summit:

List of attendees as of 6.21.2012

Designation

Company Name

Acting General Manager & CIO

New York City Housing Authority

Adscript Consul

Consulate General of Uruguay in New York

Americas Lead, Cloud Computing

Ernst & Young

Associate Dean, Business Development

University of Bridgeport

Associate Dean, School of Information Systems & Management

Carnegie Mellon University

Associate VP

TD Bank Group

Associate, IT Resource Services

Purdue Pharma

Asst Professor, Silesian University of Technology

Katowice City Hall

Attorney

Private

Attorney at Law

Sharma & DeYoung LLP

AVP

Scottish Development International

AVP, Center for the Future of Work

Cognizant Technology Solutions

AVP, Corporate Strategy

Cognizant Technology Solutions

Board Member

SIM NY, SIM International

Board Member

Global Connex

Business & Cultural Office

Consulate General of Uruguay in New York

Business Development, Services

IBM

Business Head

Infodart Technologies India

Center Director

IBM / Center of CIO Leadership

CEO

The Glass House Group

CEO

WebTecz Inc.

CEO

Moksha Fine Wovens

CEO

GiftRapped.com

CEO

The Fifth Business

CEO

IndiaXLns

CEO

Solutionize / GI Social

CEO

CrowdFlower

CEO

Ascension Health Shared Services

CEO

TiE Global (The Indus Entrepreneur)

CEO

SIM International

CEO & Co-founder

iRise

CEO & Co-founder

Digital Divide Data

CEO & Co-founder

World BPO Forum, Inc.

Chair, GSC 3S Awards

Global Sourcing Council

Chairman

Tucker & Associates

Chairman

Minerva Group Ltd

Chairman

Bhagat Global

Chairman

WICS

Chairman & Founder

The Advisory Council (TAC)

Chief of Operations

United Nations Office for Partnerships

Chief of Staff

MetLife Global Operations

Chief Sales Officer

Digital Divide Data

CIO

John Jay College of Criminal Justice

CIO

CwCastle Associates

CIO

4P Network

CIO

Uncommon Schools

CIO

Metropolitan Regional Information Systems

CIO

Sunoco Inc.

CIO

Yale University

CIO

TD Ameritrade

CIO & Chief Sustainability Officer

The Dow Chemical Company

CIO & VP

Allied Beverage Group

CIO / IT Strategy Group

TechTarget

CIO, U.S./Canada

Marsh USA Inc.

CIO, Wealth Management

Thomas Reuters

Client Executive, Oil & Gas

IBM

Co-Founder & CEO

Solutionize Inc.

Commercial Attache

Kenya Embassy Washington D.C.

Commercial Manager

Deutsche Bank

Consul

Consulate General of the Republic of Poland

Consul

Polish Consulate

Consultant

Infodart

COO

WICS

COO

ICRA Online Ltd.

COO

DTG Consulting Solutions

Counsel General of Uruguay

Uruguayan Consulate in New York

CTO

Bridgewater Associates

CTO

Conde Nast

CTO

AstraZeneca

CTO, Office of the CIO

NASA

Delivery Centre Director, IOS

Capgemini Polska

Demand Programs, North America C-Suite

IBM

Deputy Director

ASSOCHAM

Deputy Mayor of Katowice City

Katowice City Hall

Dir, Global IT Vendor Mgmt & Sourcing

MetLife

Director

Lionbridge

Director

aSpark Inc.

Director

Infodart Technologies India

Director

Citigroup, Capital Markets Group Technology

Director

Professional Outsourcing Magazine

Director

The Fifth Business

Director

Sanofi

Director

GreenScience Exchange

Director

AIG

Director

IBM Canada Ltd.

Director

AIG

Director of Legal Department

Krakow Technology Park

Director of Marketing

Krakow Technology Park

Director, BPO/KPO & Shared Services

NSBI

Director, Business & Market Development

Multimedia Development Corp.

Director, Commercial Immigration Services

Sharma & DeYoung LLP

Director, Global Platform Services

Deutsche Bank

Director, International Business

Uruguay XXI

Director, Managed Services

Sunoco Inc.

Director, Program Manager

Societe Generale CIB

Director, Program Manager

Societe Generale CIB

Director, Project Management Office

Hachette Book Group

Director, Solutions Development

Digital Divide Data

Director, Strategic Sourcing & Supplier Managment, OCIO

Microsoft

Event Logistics Manager

IBM

EVP

Collabera

EVP

aSpark Inc.

EVP, Global Director Client Compensation & Strategic Sourcing

Leo Burnett Worldwide

EVP, Global Operations

MetLife Technology & Operations

Executive Advisor

Aquiline Holdings

Executive Director

Datamatics Global Services Ltd

Executive Director

Bristol-Myers Squib

Executive Director

Morgan Stanley

Executive Director

Center for CIO Leadership

Executive Director

ESC

Executive Director

UBS

Executive Director

Morgan Stanley

Executive Director

Morgan Stanley

Executive Director

JPMorgan

Executive Director & CEO

Global Connex

Executive Director in the Outsourcing & Offshoring Function of Supply & Demand Management

UBS AG

Executive Director, 2012 GSC 3S Awards

The Global Sourcing Council

Executive Director, BPO

Accenture

Field Marketing Manager

Cognizant

Forbes

Associate Reporter

former CIO

Palmolive-Colgate

former CIO

Philip Morris International

former CIO

AIU Holdings

Former Consultant: ICT Enabled Services & BPO

The World Bank

former Deputy General

Reserve Bank of India (RBI)

former Global CIO

American Express Company

former President

MphasiS

Founder

Samasource

Founder

Computer Management Group, Inc.

Founder & Chair

Global Partnerships Forum

General Manager, Strategic Outsourcing, Global Technology Services

IBM

General Manager, WW Sales

IBM

Global CTO

Deloitte Touche Tomatsu

Global Head of Operations

Sutherland Global Services

Global Head, Smart Document Processing

Datamatics Global Services

Global Process Services, Business Devlopment

IBM

Global Sourcing Manager

AstraZeneca

Global Sourcing Manager

Marsh & McLennan Companies Inc.

Global Technology Services, Business Development

IBM

Head of Global Programs

Procurement Leaders

Head of Global Sales

Infosys BPO

Head of Investment Promotion

Uruguay XXI

Head of Investor Relations Department

City of Poznan, Poland

Head of Marketing

HCL America Inc.

Head of Sales, North America

WNS Global Services

Head of Strategy & Promotion Section

Katowice City Hall

Head of U.S. IT

Eisai, Inc.

Head of Vendor Management, Risk & Controls

Citi Private Bank Operations

Head of Worldwide Strategic Outsourcing

Johnson & Johnson Group of Consumer Companies

Interim CIO

TOMS SHOES Inc.

Interpreter

Katowice City Hall

IT Manager

Deutsche Bank

IT Sourcing Director

Marsh & McLennan Companies

Manager

PricewaterhouseCoopers Uruguay

Manager, Finance Integration

The Home Depot, Inc.

Manager, Strategic Investors Assistance Center

Katowice City Hall

Managing Director

Toscone Associates

Managing Director

IT Executive Circle

Managing Director

Velocity Media Ventures

Managing Partner

Financial Technology Holdings

Managing Partner

Financial Technology Holdings

Managing Partner

FTS

Managing Partner

Strategic Offsites Group

Managing Partner

Vetcentric

Managing Partner

BCH Ventures

Managing Partner

Agile Equity

Managing Partner

Outsource Brazil

Marketing Specialist

Katowice Special Economic Zone

OM Exco & Head, Marketing & Branding

Outsourcing Malaysia

Operations Director

Association of Business Service Leaders (ABSL)

Partner

Accenture

Partner

Oliver Wyman Financial Services

President

V-cube USA, Inc.

President

Aegis Global Communications

President

WICS Research Centre

President

Tata Consultancy Services

President

Human Potential Project

President

Hungary Outsourcing Association

President

RUSSOFT Association

President

Krakow Technology Park

President

Górnośląski Park Przemysłowy Sp.z o.o.

President

avendus Capital

President & CEO

Tiara International Consulting, LLC

President & CEO

The Advisory Council

President & CEO

Sun Technologies, Inc.

President, Offshore Services

Xchanging Inc.

Product Development Engineering Lead

Texas Instruments

Professor

Global Institute of IT Management

Professor of Public Policy

University of California at Berkeley

Professor of Work & Employment Relations

University of Strathclyde Business School

Program Leader

Center for CIO Leadership

Program Operations Associate

Rockefeller Foundation

Project Manager

Krakow Technology Park

Proprietor

Color Printz

Publisher Emeritus

CIO Magazine

Regional Director / Hays Poland

Katowice City Hall

Sales Director

Corofone

Sarofim-Rock Professor of Business Administration

Harvard Business School

Secretary General

ASSOCHAM

Secretary/Treasurer

SIM New York

Senior Consultant

The Fifth Business

Senior Director

McGraw-Hill

Senior Director

Cognizant

Senior Director of User Experience

ADP

Senior Director, Global Growth Strategy

Best Buy

Senior Fellow

University of Minnesota

Senior International Development Executive

Scottish Development International

Senior Solutions Consultant

iRise

Senior Solutions Consultant

iRise

Special Advisor

Public Service Institute, University of Oklahoma

Specialist for Investment Promotion

The City of Poznan

Staff Economist

oDesk

Strategy Consultant

C IT Consulting Services, Inc.

Student

Micro-Linkable Project

SVP

Scottish Development International

SVP

Scottish Development International

SVP

Collabera

SVP

Citi

SVP

Citi

SVP

Citi

SVP

Talisman Energy

SVP

Allstate Insurance Co.

SVP & CIO

Sentinel Real Estate Corporation

SVP & CSO

NCS Technologies, Inc.

SVP & Global CIO

Reader’s Digest Association, Inc.

SVP & GM, Infrastructure Technology Operations, HP Enterprise Services

Hewlett-Packard Company

SVP & Head of IT

Bank Leumi USA

SVP, Chief Architect & Chief Development Officer

JP Morgan Chase

SVP, Sales

XChanging

SVP, Vendor Management Office

Marsh & McLennan Companies

U.S. Polish Trade Council

Katowice City Hall

Dyargus LLC

Scottish Development International

Allstate Insurance Co.

ACE Insurance Ltd.

Xchanging

Cognizant

Katowice Special Economic Zone

HSBC Bank USA

VP & CIO

Purdue Pharma L.P.

VP & Global Head, BPO

Cognizant

VP Enterprise Vendor Governance and Sourcing

Prudential

VP of Global IT Shared Services

Talisman Energy

VP of Membership

SIM NY Board of Directors

VP, Business Development

Xchanging Inc.

VP, Global Head of Business Analytics

Diageo

VP, Outsourcing & Offshore Services Market Research

IDC

VP, Sales

Samasource

VP, Strategic Sourcing & Delivery

Fannie Mae

VP, Strategic Vendor Management

American Express

VP, Strategy & Evaluation

Rockefeller Foundation

VP, Worldwide IT Sourcing Strategy

The McGraw-Hill Companies

VP. Information Services & Technology

Mary Kay Inc.

Source: World BPO/ITOForum.com

Sponsors of the Summit:

Sponsors 2012

Source: World BPO/ITOForum.com

Dr God Also Behind Conjoined Twins Getting Their Own Bodies

2012-06-21T08:19:00.002-07:00

Although it was a team effort of 23 doctors and 11 nurses that separated the conjoined twins in Betul, Madhya Pradesh, there was one doctor who was an inspiration to them all

By Francis Adams

Aaradhana And Stuthi: The conjoined twins who were separated following the 12-hour surgery. (Pic courtesy: Daily Mail, UK)

Among the team of 23 doctors who successfully performed the rare 12-hour surgery separating conjoined twins Aaradhana and Sthuti, was Dr Albert Shun, who was called "Dr God" by the parents of two-year old Mackenzie Argaet from Canberra whose life he saved, in 2008, by using a ping pong ball .

Dr God: Dr Albert Shun, centre, who performed the surgery.

Dr Shun, who has earned the reputation of a quick-thinking surgeon, is a transplant expert working with the Westmead Children's Hospital in Sydney, Australia.

Ball Bearing: The ping pong ball, whose outline can be seen on the left of the radiograph (X-ray) image that was inserted into Mackenzie Argaet's body to stop the adult replacement liver from pressing against her arteries.

Mackenzie, who suffered from Biliary Artresia, a disorder that destructs the liver's bile ducts failed to get a child's replacement liver owing to the low donor rate prevalent in Australia. As a result, Dr Shun had no option but to use an adult sized liver to keep the child alive. The successful operation was a world first.

Why the Ping Pong Ball and What is Biliary Artesia?

Immediately after the operation, Dr Shun, who was preparing to sew Mackenzie up realized that the temporary sponge he was using as a backup to prevent the adult sized liver from causing pressure on Mackenzie's blood vessels wouldn't allow him to perform the stitches. He instantly called up his wife, asked her to rush to the Woolworth's supermarket and get him a set of ping pong balls.

"The ping pong ball was the perfect answer. It won't deteriorate, it won't create an infection and it was cheap," Dr Shun told The Daily Mail, UK.

According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine (the world's largest medical library) Biliary Atresia "is a blockage in the tubes (ducts) that carry a liquid called bile from the liver to the gallbladder."
To know more about the disease see: (http://1.usa.gov/MNm5b7/)

Last year, Dr Shun performed a similar operation at the Westmead Children's Hospital to save the life of 19-month-old Lareia Joyce. In the 20 years that he has been performing surgery and transplants, Dr Shun is known to have never let a patient die on his operation table.

It is such extraordinary work, often termed miracles from a doctor that inspires others around him to take up challenging tasks, such as this rare separation of the conjoined twins.

India's Presidential Elections: Drama, Dharti Pakad And More

2012-06-20T04:39:00.001-07:00

Did you know the race for Raisina Hill ever had a candidate by the nickname Dharti Pakad (One who clings) or are you aware of the highest number of candidates ever to vie for the position? Read on...

By Francis Adams

As nominated members of the Rajya Sabha, cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar and Bollywood actor Rekha may be glad they don't have the right to vote for the 14th Presidential election considering the bizarre and funny development each day over the growing list of candidates for the highest elective office in the country.

Although the Congress party has silenced speculation by announcing Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee as their candidate much ahead of the June 30 deadline, the names of candidates initially began with rumours of Defence Minister A K Antony and Mukherjee being in the fray, which grew by the day to include home minister P Chidambaram, external affairs minister S M Krishna (reportedly because he is from Karnataka - the only southern state not to have seen a native becoming president), former governor of the Reserve Bank of India C Rangarajan, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Dr. Karan Singh, Mohsina Kidwai (the only woman among the names floated around), former president APJ Abdul Kalam, Vice President Hamid Ansari, Shivraj Patil, Ram Jethmalani, Gopal Gandhi, Somnath Chatterjee and P A Sangma.

The battle of wits and chess-like strategies continued to make headlines with the latest one being the confusion within the NDA over their preferred choice Sangma aside from the public statement made by Kalam that his conscience did not permit him to contest for the position for another term. Funny as the developments may sound such scenarios are not new to the race for the President’s post or for Raisina Hill, as it has been christened lately.

The fourth Presidential election, in 1967, saw 17 candidates contesting for the chair vacated by Dr Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan, whose term expired on 12^th, May, that year. Dr Zakir Hussain was declared elected as President on 9^th, May.

It was this term that saw several changes incorporated for electing the head of the state, one among them described as “innovative” by the Election Commission of India. Dr Zakir Hussain passed away suddenly on 3^rd, May, 1969. And although, under article 65 (1) of the Constitution, V V Giri, the Vice-President assumed office as the acting president, he resigned from his position as well as acting president on 20, July, 1969, necessitating an election that saw 15 candidates standing for the position.

The ECI says that no candidate among the 15 secured the required quota of 4, 18,169 votes in the first count. “Candidate after candidate was excluded till only two candidates, namely, Shri V V Giri (with 4, 20, 077 votes) and Shri N Sanjeeva Reddy (with 4, 05, 427 votes) remained in the field. Shri V. V. Giri who secured the quota was declared elected by the Returning Officer on 20.08.1969 and the newly elected President assumed office on 24-08-1969,” says the ECI.

As for the innovation, the ECI says that to ensure strict secrecy of voting “the serial numbers on the back of the ballot papers were covered with coloured slips of paper pasted at the four corners.”

That was not all. The ballot papers were then shuffled several times during polling, like you shuffle numbered coins in a game of Housie, to flummox “agents of the candidates” from noting down the serial numbers in their efforts to identify the number of votes cast by members during counting.

Interestingly, Wikipedia (many doubt its level of accuracy) says that Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy was, incidentally, nominated as the official candidate of the Congress party, the same way the party has announced Pranab Mukherjee’s candidature for the current Presidential election.

Wikipedia says that for the sake of transparency, Reddy resigned from the Lok Sabha Speaker’s position he was holding even before the Presidential election had begun (Pranabda is yet to relinquish his chair as Finance Minister). However, says the free encyclopedia, “Indira Gandhi [the then Prime Minister], knowing that Sanjiva Reddy was too independent a person to toe her line, took the stance of allowing the party electors to vote according to their conscience, rather than asking to vote for the party candidate. This actually implied her support to V. V. Giri.”

Having lost the election, Sanjiva Reddy is reported to have retired from active politics and returned to his native village Illluru in Andhra Pradesh to take up farming.

It was also the 1969 election that saw the end of Chowdhry Hari Ram’s tryst with becoming President. No detail is available in the public domain, not even on Wikipedia about Hari Ram, whose only claim to fame seems to be that he contested five elections, starting from the very first in 1952 against Dr Rajendra Prasad.

Besides being listed as Chowdhry Hari Ram, his name is also listed as Ch. Hari Ram and Shri Hari Ram by the ECI. Hari Ram’s determination in becoming the President seemed very strong. He did not gain a single vote when he contested in 1967 against Dr Zakir Hussain. He stood again, in his final attempt in 1969, against V. V. Giri and Neelam Sanjiva Reddy and garnered 125 votes.

There was more drama waiting to happen during the 1969 election. “For the first time in suitable cases, some MLAs were allowed to cast their votes at Parliament House in New Delhi instead of their State Capitals, “ says the ECI.

After the polling, it was the Election Commission’s turn to take the flak for allowing a gap of four days between the polling date and the date of counting the votes. In its defence, the ECI says that there were several reasons behind the delay. “First, there were numerous postal ballot papers for electors who were under preventive detention. They were detained at outlying stations and the Commission wanted to ensure that they had sufficient time to send their votes to reach the Returning officer before counting.”

The other reason cited by the ECI is inclement weather that hampered shipping the polled ballot boxes from the North Eastern states including Nagaland and Assam. The Commission says that flights at that time were either delayed or cancelled and officials were working round the clock, checking the status of the weather with the meteorological department.

“Ultimately, the ballot boxes had to be carried from Guwahati by the army courier plane under special escorts. All previous Presidential elections [in 1952, 1957, 1962, and 1967] were held in the first half of May when the weather was in good condition and in 1969, for the first time, the election was to be held in August,” says the ECI.

More drama ensued. Agents of the candidates, from various state capitals, were allowed by the Commission to fly in the plane carrying the polled ballot boxes, that is, after it had strictly directed the Civil Aviation authorities to ensure that the respective Assistant Returning Officers kept the sealed ballot boxes close by their side until the time the plane landed in New Delhi.

The Commission had additional criticism coming its way, to which it dealt with firmly, thanks to the ignorance of the critics.

“Another criticism was that the votes should have been counted at the State Capitals themselves instead of being brought to Delhi. These critics were not aware that in the proportional representation by single transferable system of voting, counting cannot be done in piecemeal at different places to arrive at decisive result,” says the ECI.

Wiser after all the drama and criticism it experienced from the previous election, the ECI decided to take some bold, corrective measures for the election in 1974. “The experience of the five elections to the office of President held earlier in 1952, 1957, 1962, 1967 and 1969 revealed that some persons offered themselves as candidates for the office of the President without even a remote chance of getting elected. Another matter of concern was the light-hearted manner in which persons resorted to a court of law for challenging the election to the office of the President. In order to remedy these shortcomings, the Government, on the recommendations of the Commission, got an Act passed by Parliament on 23-03-1974 amending the Presidential and VicePresidential Act, 1952,” says the ECI.

Thus, a new set of rules were formulated, among them the nomination paper of a Presidential candidate that was required to be backed (subscribed) by at least 10 electors as proposers and an equal number as seconders.

The stringent measures adopted by the Commission helped a smooth election in 1974, also for the fact that for the first time the race featured only two candidates, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed and Tridip Chaudhuri. Ahmed won a whopping 7, 65, 587 votes while Chaudhuri managed to attract 1, 89, 196.

Drama reared its head back again, in 1977. The sudden passing away of Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, the fifth President of India, on 11^th February 1977 meant fresh election required to be held to elect a new President.
B D Jatti, who was the Vice President took over as acting President. A fresh Presidential election could not be conducted immediately because the Lok Sabha election, that had already begun on 10^th February ended on 13^th May, that year. “General elections to constitute new Legislative Assemblies
of 11 States were completed only in June-July, 1977,” says the ECI.

The polling date for the Presidential election was scheduled for 6^th August, 1977 and the last date for withdrawal of nomination was 21^st July. On that day, after 3pm the Returning officer declared Neelam Sanjiva Reddy, who was back in the fray, elected unopposed. This was done under section 8 (1) of the Presidential and Vice Presidential Elections Act, 1952 – the first time any candidate was elected to the country’s highest elective office without a contest.

Reason? “In all 37 candidates filed their nominations. On scrutiny, the Returning Officer rejected the nominations filed by 36 candidates. Thus only one validly nominated candidate remained in the field, namely, Shri Neelam Sanjiva Reddy. Neither the preparation nor publication of the list of contesting candidates for taking the poll therefore became necessary,” says the ECI.

The 1982 election progressed without a hiccup and saw Giani Zail Singh become the seventh President of India after winning 7, 54, 113 votes to his only rival in the contest H R Khanna’s 2, 82, 685.
Then came the 1987 election that witnessed court ruling, both the High Court as well as the Supreme Court, over the eligibility of disqualified candidates to vote. (See pages 32 to 35 of this document: http://bit.ly/MLzxvU ).

1992 brought the fun element into the election back into the headlines. The contest saw Kaka Joginder Singh alias Dharti-Pakad vie for honour against Dr Shankar Dayal Sharma, G G Swell and Ram Jethmalani.
Kaka Joginder apparently earned the sobriquet Dharti-Pakad (in this case, meaning “one who clings”) because, says Wikipedia that “His nomination papers were usually disregarded by the election commission and he earned the nickname [Dharti Pakad (one who clings)] after several unsuccessful runs for the President of India. The most prolific year for him was during the 1992 10th Presidential elections where he earned fourth place in the polling with 1135 votes, losing to Shankar Dayal Sharma. He also tried elections from 14 states of India in the 1990s, mostly for state assemblies.”

Kaka’s election promises included bringing back the barter system as a solution to guide the Indian economy on a prosperous path. Wish to know more about Kaka? See: (http://bit.ly/NRogkw ).

The 2012 Presidential election will undoubtedly be devoid of all the topsy-turvy, funny developments, that is, once the candidates in the fray are officially announced because we have an extremely wiser, professional team at the Election Commission of India.

Despite the confidence in the current ECI, one wondered what happens when several seats in the Electoral College are vacant during polling. Who substitutes for these seats?

A prompt email response from the Election Commission of India answered the query. “If any seats are vacant in the electoral college for the presidential election, the same do not effect the overall composition of that electoral college and the total number of MPs (776) and MLAs (4120) in the College remains the same. The value of their votes also does not change because of any vacancy in the electoral college. Your attention in this context is invited to Article 71(4) of the Constitution and the decision of the Supreme Court in Re Presidential Election, 1974 (AIR 1974 SC 1682),” responded S.K. Mendiratta, Legal Advisor at the Election Commission of India. He was replying on behalf of the V.S. Sampath, Chief Election Commissioner of India.

The Other Side of The Rajat Gupta Case

2012-06-17T06:54:00.001-07:00

It is likely that Rajat Gupta too, like the media, could have overlooked few telling signs and warning before it was too late for him

By Francis Adams

A section of the media, both in India and the United States described how Rajat Gupta’s conviction in the insider trading trial has shook the business world in these countries – the largest and the oldest democracies in the world. Another section highlighted the case as the battle between two Indian giants, prompting www.Time.com to headline a story “Desi vs. Desi: India’s Press on How Preet Bharara Got Rajat Gupta.” (See: http://ti.me/L5UyHr ).

What the media seemed to have overlooked in writing eyeball-grabbing, crime fiction thriller-style reportage is the fact that Gupta’s conviction is likely a result of the belligerent approach by the Financial Fraud Task Force that was established in November 2009 -- a year after the telephonic interaction between Gupta and his friend and partner Raj Rajaratnam took place – by Barack Obama, then newly anointed President of the United States.

The Task Force’s web site www.stopfraud.gov boldly explains itself as the broadest coalition of law enforcement, investigatory and regulatory agencies, comprising more than 20 Federal agencies, 94 US Attorney’s Offices and state and local partners brought together to combat fraud.

Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York and handpicked by Obama, figures prominently on the Task Force Leadership’s list as co-chair of The Securities and Commodities Fraud Working Group. The intensely secretive and formidable nature of this task force makes the fact more obvious that even if Gupta claimed the Clintons to be his close friends, his proximity to the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would not have yielded him any reprieve or an “insider information” to help him cover up his tracks before his trial began.

The Good vs The Good

Gupta’s legion of well-wishers, most of them from India, made spirited attempts to garner support for their hero -- the first Indian American to occupy a chairman’s chair in a global company and Corporate America – through www.friendsofrajat.com that bears testimonials of friends, including billionaire Mukesh Ambani, the chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries limited and Adi Godrej, chairman of the Godrej Group. The site has a vertical providing information on Gupta and legal briefs from the case from the defendant’s perspective.

Gupta’s lawyers also produced six character witnesses that included his daughter, a professor at Harvard who testified on the former McKinsey head’s good deeds.

All these attempts were unfortunately scuppered when the judge maintained that a person dishonest in many ways could still be interested in giving to charity. On his part, Bharara said, “Almost two years ago, we said that insider trading is rampant, and today’s conviction puts that claim into stark relief. It bears repeating that, in coordination with our extraordinary partners at the FBI, we will continue to pursue those who violate the securities laws, regardless of status, wealth, or influence. I thank the members of the jury for their time, attention, and service, and the dedicated career prosecutors from my office who so ably tried this case.”

Both, the judge and Bharara were obviously working for the good of the citizens, investors and the government of the United States.

The case of the Ss

How could a man of Gupta's stature get tangled in a web like this? He ought to have known what constituted non-public information when it came to trading of valuable stocks on the NYSE. Here was a gentleman who eschewed virtues of good corporate governance, having steered the McKinsey ship for more than a decade.

Fellow Mckinsey-ite and famed management guru Tom Peters has quoted Gupta in one of his articles titled “A Brief History of the 7-S (McKinsey 7-S) Model” on his web site www.tompeters.com, detailing how Gupta, while speaking at a seminar in Dubai in 2008, reproduced and stressed the importance of the 7-S framework, 28 years after Peters and two associates had written the article for Business Horizons. (See: http://bit.ly/Mz7rrl ).

According to the article, Subordinate Goals meaning “of higher order" and the last among the seven Ss -- the others are Strategy, Systems, Structure, Skills, Style, Staff – is a guiding concept that, with its values and aspirations, goes beyond written conventional formal statement of corporate objectives. “Subordinate Goals are the fundamental ideas around which a business is built. They are its main values. But they are more as well. They are the broad notions of future direction that the top management wants to infuse throughout the organization,” the article says. (See: http://bit.ly/MH3i0T ).

It was probably around this time in 2008 that Gupta developed a bond with Rajaratnam, now labeled as “a snake in the grass” by members of the jury who voted in Gupta’s case. Had Gupta taken a cue from the effectiveness of the 7-S framework that he disseminated to the business community worldwide, he would have very likely avoided this pitfall.

Or better still, had he in his role as a member of the Board of Directors at Goldman Sachs who had access to realms of documents and presentations on the development at the Securities and Exchange Commission, laid his hands on the Directors Roundtable document prepared by Morrison Foerster in November, 2009, he could have succeeded in making amends and avert this grave disaster.

This presentation titled “The “New” SEC: What Does It Mean to You?” has very relevant and eye-opening declarations. It talks about increase in SEC cases in 2008, backed by an explicit graphic image on the investigations opened and cases filed; the SEC being under pressure in 2009; and tough talk by the new leadership under SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro and Head of Enforcement Robert Khuzami, who is among the Task Force group headed by Bharara, as the Director of Enforcement for the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Khuzami has been quoted in this presentation making a telling remark: “As head of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, the staff and I will relentlessly pursue and bring to justice those whose misconduct infects our markets, corrodes investor confidence and has caused so much financial suffering.”

Another statement from him says that the Task Force will improve their chances of identifying wrongdoers and thus restoring confidence in the markets.

Clearly, head honchos from Corporate America, including Gupta, must have been aware of such developments and public statements made by authority figures from the SEC and, thus, firmed up and kept their books and telephonic interactions squeaky clean.

While Gupta and Peters enjoyed sharing the McKinsey 7-S framework with the business community in Dubai, the SEC had also created an equally alliterative framework – Swift, Smart, Strategic, Successful.

Needless to say, the SEC managed to put into practice all its Ss methodically in eventually nailing Gupta, Rajaratnam and their third convicted partner Anil Kumar.

There are, and could have been several such pointers, in documents and presentations, warning corporate heads to smarten up. One such document, titled “The Importance of Having and Following a Strong Public Company Insider Trading Policy” was published in Business Law Today’s October 2011 edition by the American Bar Association. (See page 4: http://bit.ly/KcQX4h – sourced from Google Scholar ).

On page 13 of this document, an article titled "Insider Trading: Ambiguous Statute as Warning" by Bloomberg Finance L.P. and published in 2011 takes several digs at the law on Insider Trading. It is likely that Gupta's lawyers were not aware of this article while fighting his case.

The Financial Fraud Public Service Announcement video, posted below, featuring Michael Douglas might have come a little late to alert Gupta about any misstep, even unintentionally. The video shows Douglas as the financial executive in the movie "Wall Street" followed by an appeal by him exhorting people to report securities fraud, including information on insider trading, to their local FBI Field Office or online at http://www.fbi.gov.

Is it likely that Gupta may have overlooked all of the other signs? Maybe. Or, could it be that deep inside, he always wanted and yearned for freedom in his professional dealings? Read excerpts from “A Case For Corporate Freedom” written by Gupta in 1998 to get an insight. (See: http://bit.ly/MhUKiV – sourced from Google Scholar).

Related article: Getting to The Root of Fraud And Corruption -- http://bit.ly/LuPSHv