This August we celebrated his 80th Birthday .He has been the Commissioner at the Coochbehar Municipality . Earlier he held several important social  responsibilities  like being the President and Secretary of Coochbehar Kshatriya Samity , National Federation of P&T  Employees Union and so on . Born in Rangpur District in Bangladesh he was one of those taking the brunt of India Partition. He was a brilliant student never missing a centum in maths ! That’s why I felt so happy when my son too scored a centum in his 12th CBSE Board exam. However post partition he was forced to take up  a job very early during his graduation. He worked with the State Government for some time before joining the P&T department and  retired as the Head Postmaster of Coochbehar Head Post Office.

He was a person of extreme discipline , honesty and integrity . Disillusioned with the communist rule in Bengal he  joined the Congress party later in life. He always received tremendous respect and affection from everyone in the society irrespective of  their political affiliation. I lose count of how many needy people  he helped with his own personal resources . He never cared for his health when it came to duty for people’s happiness.

His leaving has been really royale .So many flowers , garlands and wreaths were placed over him  with  messages pouring in  and there are so many to accompany him till he is taken to the creamatorium made me feel proud of being his son. The procession carrying him went  past the entire city stopping at Coochbehar Municipal Corporation, Kshatriya Samity , Khagrabari Shiva Yagna  temple, and the district Congress party office   with his body wrapped in party tricolor and slogans of “Upen Barma Amar Rahe” .

As a father he always  gave me whatever I asked for since my childhood – right from toys  to expensiive  books , coaching or funding my studies at premier institutes ( education loans were not available that time) inspite of his very modest salary and many other responsibilities . Once he was to go to an outstation  for departmental training for six months when I was very young –about four years or so . Fearing he would go on training without taking me with him I used to tie my tiny hand in his sacred thread while sleeping ! I wish I could do so this time too  and not let him go – but  by now I lost the purity of childhood ! I keep praying that he is born soon in the best circumstance in my surrounding. My Daddy is the best. I really regret so many days I could not call him , I could not spend the kind of time he would have liked me to spend with him , I am really really sorry dad … but now you would be always with me through my prayers.

In my speech I stressed on the need to draw a Vision 2015 for SAE India Southern Section – how the section would look like  five years hence ? If India continues on  its growth trajectory , with the Detroit embracing a slow death , why cann’t SAE International HQR  be shifted to Chennai  ? With more than 30 % of its cost going into electronics /automotive infotronics , we need to discuss allied technologies around automotive engineering rather than focussing only on  core designs . With growing interest  in aerospace  engineering , proposed an additional conference on Aerospace technology besides holding the usual national students convention. SAE aims to advance the research, design and development of vehicles which operate on land,water,air and space.

      I had  a great evening with Adam Gilchrist on this Saturday . Attended the event on an  invitation from the Australlian embassy.Gilchrist  came as  the brand ambassador of University of Wollongong, Australlia to promote the university in Chennai  . His brother was an alumni of the institute and Gil’s father  used to coach there.That’s how Gil got involved with the university . No prize for guessing that many of the questions they volleyed were around the recent attacks  on Indian students in Australlia. They downplayed the subject citing the stats that out of a huge Indian population in Australlia , number of such incidents are really very small and are usually blown out of proportion by media . They don’t know that my latest trick ( am sure many other Indian parents  also do the same) of keeping Aniket under check is to tell him that if you don’t make it to a good University in  US or IIMs , your next destination is going to be Australlia !

I asked him  what keeps him going ? He said , it was the desire to sacrifice for whatever you want to do. He feels , for success , there should be absolute desperation to be totally committed to whatever you are doing. He was citing the example of his missing a catch off  VVS Lakshman on one occasion ( world cup final or semi final)  just by a few inches and after a post match video analysis he saw he could have easily reached out by those  extra few inches  and taken the catch had he been totally desperate to do so . So his conclusion was that ,  to be successful , whatever you are doing , at that point of time that is the most important work for you  in the  whole world . While explaining what he did to bring a change in fortune for Deccan Charger  from IPL1 TO IPL 2 , he  gave two key reasons –(1) Leadership programme on cultural appreciation since there were seven different nationalities playing in the team including  the support staff , and (2) creating an environment where players would love to be in. To him ,  the shift from IPL 1 to IPL 2 was the biggest challenge in his cricketing career. While citing some of the difficult moments  of his wicket keeping he remembered  experience of  keeping  during VVS Lakshman’s  knock of about 290 runs at Eden and keeping against Michael Bevan , since Bevan himself  had absolutely no idea of what he was bowling !

Transformation of  Deccan Charger from IPL1 TO IPL 2 can definitely  make a good corporate lesson. I am sure  Gil  is writing on this .

Indian psyche adulates sacrifice. It is this state where Rahul’s father laid down his life trying to take the country into a new century. Contrary to his cousin Varun , Rahul has been  very matured ,striving to develop the organization , working with the Dalits and poor , understanding their problems  even though taunted severely by his  jealous peers in politics . The lure of a cabinet berth could  not deter him from his conviction . At 37 plus , he has sacrificed his youthful luxuries to stand by his mother and prove a point . He could have enjoyed a royal  luxurious life under  the Z plus security cordon  - there was no need for him to join politics with the damocles sword hanging over him. People cannot fail to take note of this sacrifice. You will not hear any scandal about him the way you hear about many of the politicians of his age. His personal integrity is beyond question . People found a Buddha in him who has left his royal abode to work with the people defying all threats and sarcasm . People especially the youth wanted such a leader – the state was starving so long for a youth leader who can be a role model to them.Naturally the response was simply unimaginable .The youth in TN found their role model – their leader , excited with the prospect of a change in the state. The worries  of a political tsunami in other political camps was quite palpable when one after another “celebrities  turned politicians “ were in undue hurry to issue their statements  denying intention to join the Congress. This further validates Rahul  magic is working in TN !

2. When will Nandan Nilekani share his unique id roadmap ? He seems to have good number of well wishers suggesting what could make the best id and how it should be done . On assuming charges he commented , he was losing his own id in giving an id to each Indian citizen ! Reality speaks a different story though . Almost every alternate day Nandan is hogging huge column centimeter – something he did not even enjoy while being at the helm of Infosys affairs. No trace of ID roadmap yet – what it would be ? We see only Nandan’s interviews – presented in different fashions in different media !

3. When will Rahul Mahajan become a true Mahajan ? As if the drug episode in Delhi , a failed marriage are not enough , now get ready to watch Rahul Mahajan’s Swayamvar !

4.Why is there so much media outcry  with the police nabbing Lalgarh Naxalite leader Chhatradhar Mahato in disguise of journalists who even carried an OB van to interview the tribal leader ! After all isn’t it media that introduced the Tehelka games ( I wonder if Tehelka has not already found a place in Oxford dictionary) ?

5. Do I need to be ultra careful about all ladies in politics whose names (when written in Indian language)end with the alphabet ‘T’ – Mayavati , Jayalalitha, Mamata ?

6. Why  are  Ramalinga Raju , his brother Rama Raju  and Srinivas Vadlamani   ,the trio arrested in Satyam fraud are still not put to lie detector test , so common a practice even in many petty crimes ?

More later…

The aim of the Manufacturing Panel is to work towards making Indian manufacturing globally competitive.

Manufacturing sector contributes significantly to GDP growth, employment generation and overall economic development and efforts would be to identify opportunities before us.

The Committee also aims to identify factors hampering industrial growth and seeks to redress these factors.

I made the following observations as part of my presentations :

There is tremendous potential in Tamil Nadu to grow and excel.TN draws third highest FDI in India, sees 8% growth in GDP , second in IT , with USD 62 B TN is the fastest growing state in India.

FDI into manufacturing sector in India is only about 10% of that of China

Opportunities before us : Offset programme , Aero park, MRO ,Component sourcing.

Rule of competition is changing from Company Vs Company to Supply chain Vs Supply chain – managing collaboration is therefore the key

Can TN be the global design and R&D hub ?

Can TN be the destination for Design to Build ?

The panel is under the guidance of Mr P Murari , IAS(Retd) and the Ex Secretary to the President ,Government of India.He is a great inspiration – a man full of energy and ideas .Several luminaries of the industry at the CXO level  are part of the panel and a few senior bureaucrats of the state with deep understanding of manufacturing competitiveness have been inducted in the panel as special invitees.KPMG is the knowledge partner .

Hope we can make some contributions to the economy.

Traced this picture from an old archive.IIM-A Synchrony 2007 in Chennai  followed signing of an MoU between two alumni associations of IIT Madras and IIM Ahmedabad.The president of the Alumni Association of Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, Satish Kumar, and the head of the Management Sciences department of IIT-Madras, L.S. Ganesh, signed a memorandum of understanding  to formalize the partnership and use their combined pool of resources and experience for the benefit of B-schools in and around the city.

Mr. Satish Kumar said the MoU would help to leverage the pool of abundant experiences and resources in technology and management among the alumni.

The Chief guest to the event was the Cognizant Vice Chairman ,Mr Lakshmi Narayanan. He gave an excellent talk on entrepreneurship.

I spoke at the eleventh edition of Shaastra , Shaastra 2009 at IIT Madras. It was a good feeling to come back to your alma mater after a gap and speak on “ Adaptive Organization” .How organizations can be designed to face increasing volatilities and behave in sense and respond mode  rather than the conventional  predict and control  modes. Gave examples of Fortune 100 companies. Explained  the advent of molecular economy following the maturity of information economy. Molecular economy revolves around bio technology, nano technology,material science and cognitive science. Compared to our ability of magnification of 100 X in 1930s – just enough to see a bacteria ,Watson and Crick’s deciphering  DNA  in 1953 , today we can magnify objects by more than  10 billion times.This provides us a greater understanding of molecules that control chemicals and biological functions and super-miniaturization of manufacturing. Thus we have today  the ability to see ,simulate and manipulate matters at molecular levels.Towards the end of information economy we have a highly connected economy with multiple autonomous entities adding to volatility of the environment we live in . With the progresses in molecular economy , we can successfully design an adaptive organization that can operate in sense and respond mode offering guards against such volatilities.

The talk was received well . Obviously I chose to speak on  a subject of business in a technical summit !  Who wants to get caught  at the techy’s conference ?

This year Shaastra saw great participation from industry , most prominent one this time was Boeing . As robotics was the theme  in  Shaastra 2008 , aerospace or air show was the theme this year . Met Dr Bala Bharadvaj ,Director of Boeing Research and Technology in Bangalore. He made a nice  presentation  and reinforced Boeing’s commitment to the institute and passion for aerospace engineering . You would feel proud to know India is one of the three countries outside of US to host Boeing’s  research and technology centre. IIT Madras’s centre of innovation was another  highlight. Hope Shaastra 2010 will revolve around molecular economy !