The Road Ahead

Save yourself from yourself

2013-05-09T11:01:00.002-07:00

Social media addiction is not limited to teenagers only.

A large number of Adults also are strongly crippling their life because of Social Media/Smart phone Obsession. (However they won’t agree at all with this)

In many cases though not all, It may be a serious psychological disorder when the person feels restless if he does not see any updates in social media platforms. You will find large number of people simply scrolling their phones all over the time. If you inquire you will find that they may not be doing anything meaningful. Because of aloofness and lack of social activities, they want to gratify themselves by the no. of likes or updates of their pictures, status messages, notifications etc.

On a dangerous note below are some of the examples of misusing social media to harm and impair your life-

- One girl was replying on Whats App while riding on a scooter with one hand and she did not see an open flowing sewer and fell into it. Though she was saved from any serious injuries, the gory experience of taking a dip in the cesspool will not fade away ever from her memories

- One boy was an obsessive listener of songs on his phone. he would always cross roads with loud music. He almost killed himself in an accident while crossing the road

- People pretend to talk on the phone or fiddle with apps to avoid eye contact or other interactions in company of others. When you express displeasure they will try to explain the concept of priority. If they are hooked to that stuff in your physical presence, you are of low priority to them

- People are not able to focus on their jobs in office, because of distraction from these devices. Many times they may access all the banned sites, search jobs and what not. This leads to decrease in productivity and increase in stress as work may be of low quality and deadlines are not respected. Banning smartphones and tablets will help both the employees as well as the employers

- More and more no. of young working people are getting addicted to alcohol. Martin ( name changed ) recalls that for him not even a single weekend has passed in last 2 years without having alcohol. Erratic work life and traffic snarls are the justification he gives for embracing this habit. Earlier people use to drink in a company of at-least one person. Now Social media allows them to go solo and extract the pleasure by chatting with friends/strangers through different applications like Skype, Facebook, whats app etc

- Self-induced Insomnia is another major problem faced by social media junkies. they will go down to increase the data plans, even though it will be unwise to do so going by the rising trends in inflation

- For an ambitious person, who want to become a VP, CEO or CFO, these devices are equally helpful in sabotaging his/her ambition. There was one guy who was very ambitious and Goal oriented person, he wanted to be the VP in the bank he was working by the age of 35 years. But that was some 4 years back. Now he only does only one thing on weekends and in his spare time - Facebook, watching cat videos, Whats app and numerous other such fruitless (he won’t agree though) applications. Interestingly he does not even believes that there is any problem in such things. when asked about his plans of VP, he told that he does not get enough time now a days to keep himself updated. Though deep down he knows that he is deviating from the path which will give him real and long lasting happiness. If you close your eyes and try to imagine the best moments from your life, chances are bleak that those will be from your virtual life indulgence.

- Recently in a first ever disciplinary action of its kind, Three Indian navy officers are to be dismissed from service over their Facebook updates which reportedly included details about where their vessels were docked

- Ironically writing articles on topics like this may also classify as non-constructive use of social media as it will burn up some minutes, which could have been invested somewhere in a more worthwhile cause

So the bottom line is that though there are some very good uses of smartphones and applications, one should be able to balance/limit/discontinue their use if it seems to be intruding into other responsibilities or plans of his/her life

Finally as actor Kay Kay Menon says, " Time spent on these social media platforms is the worst form of communication. I agree under communication is bad but this type of over communication is worst. If I really need to talk to someone, then I pick up the phone and call that person or pay him or her a visit. This constant need to communicate makes people lose their integrity”

The Anti-Social Social Media

2013-03-08T07:28:00.001-08:00

Whats Up or Whats App?
Robin moved to Pune recently to join an IT company. His lips were tanned by smoking over 40 cigarettes daily. Yellow rotting pit will be an appropriate description for his mouth. The relative inconsistent timings and volume of work in the initial days gave him the flexibility to be high on booze whenever he was free. He religiously drank on Friday, Saturday and Sundays. It was also not an uncommon sight to see him drinking on some of the weekdays as well for reasons best known to him. If you keep yourself into these kind of activities, naturally you will not be having any good socially accepted hobbies like- singing, drawing, reading, playing musical instruments, hitting the gym for a workout, learning a new language and many more. You will be cut off from the real world. But who the hell needs the real world and real people when all narcissism and self-indulgence can be done in the virtual world?

People with these traits are very active on social media sites and lately are the earliest adopters of these innumerable android apps and gadgets. The audacity with which people adopt and influence others to do the same is alarming. I met Robin after 7 long years. I used to remember the intellectually stimulating discussions we used to have in the engineering days. He was able to convince his most challenging opponents by his arguments, expressions and his articulations.

Now he was talking to me without making eye contacts. His shoulders were down and he was continuously scrolling the Whats App application on his Samsung smart phone. I was just wondering what can be so important which is making him obsessively retard our face to face communication. He did keep the phone in his pocket finally only to say excuse me to me after 1 minute. Someone has again pinged him!
Etiquette say that if you are with a person, you can very well say to even your parents that you will call them back in few minutes. But who cares?

Personality disorder
It was almost the end of the second and the last round of placements at the prestigious Imperial Institute of Management. Abhay was feeling the heat now. Placement season will soon be over and he is yet to get a job. He was a heavy user of social networking sites. As an addict of facebook he used to spend some 18-20 hours a week on it. All of a sudden facebook has become an enemy of him. A flurry of messages congratulating the placements of his friends started to bother him too much. There was a sudden personality disorder in him. He used to keep himself closed in his room and stopped talking to his classmates. Notably amidst this chronic depression, he did not put any facebook updates like –“Feeling so down today”, “I want to be left alone”, “I want to leave this mad race and this cut throat competition”, “I have run out of luck totally”, “I am wondering if my life really worth anything?” These were the exact things which he used to discuss with his closest friend Shakkal, every time he visited him during that tough phase. As they say, “Life is like a box of chocolate. You never know which you are goanna get”. He got a job just before the end of studies in a top International consulting firm. The company was very employee friendly. No swiping machines were there. Work from home facility was there and no dress code was there. Abhay started to show a different side of personality disorder. He was updating his every move on facebook. He wanted others to feel the same way he felt when he did not have job and others were making those fervent status updates. “Feeling on the cloud nine”, “No swiping, no dress code. Life cannot get better than this”, “Sipping a cup of coffee with my favorite snack! Me working from home;);)!! ”. The reality was that he was not made part of any project. He knew it very well how dangerous it is to be without work when you are drawing an outrageously high salary by Indian standards. Still he was putting up those artificial status updates to gratify his ego.

Power, Greed and the Honest Criminal

2013-02-18T07:51:00.000-08:00

A short story inspired by some real life events

Rains were below expectations and farmers were losing hope to earn modest returns on their harvests this year. They would be happy even if the money they invested comes back to them. They can always earn ‘more’ the next time. Ehsaan was different from the lot. He dropped out from the village school after class 8th, but over the years he mastered the art of making money. Being from a pious Muslim family, the pedagogy he received from his parents made him an ardent servant of the God, and he never dared to break any precepts which were endowed on him by his elders. In spite of the fact that his day to day activities left hardly any time for him, he made sure to offer prayers five times a day and spent some happy moments with his family.

He used to do farming on his small piece of ancestral land and the output from which was hardly enough to support the family of five which included his parents, his wife and his sixteen years old daughter ‘Alia’.

From his savings and contribution of his wife’s maternal belongings he purchased two buffaloes. He took proper care of them and they obliged him by giving around 25 liters of milk each per day. As he was known for his honesty, most of the villagers including some of the upper caste Hindus took milk from him. He never adulterated the milk and so the customers kept on increasing. Wisely he reinvested the profits in buying more buffaloes and stopped only when he had 15 buffaloes and it became too difficult for him to manage them.

The village did not have any banks at those times. People use to hide their belongings in their houses or put them in the lockers of their relatives or friends on whom they have trust. And such was the level of integrity and uprightness that in the last 10 years there was not even a single case of betrayal of trust by the trustee of their valuables.

Ehsaan saw the gruesome side of poverty all through his childhood up to his marriage. There were days when they have to sell the utensils and his mother’s silver jewelry to douse the fire of their hunger. Rather than allowing his present to hurl him off into a state of oblivion, he decided to use his unbridled enthusiasm and energy to create a future for him as well his family. Alia was 22 now and both her parents were concerned to find a good match for her. Ehsaan was quite relieved as now he can arrange a modest dowry in order to find a right match for his daughter. He had much expectation like the groom should be good looking, God fearing, caring, sensitive, faithful and most importantly unswerving from his goals. So many qualities in one person? Does not look like an easy task to find such a person. But Ehsaan will not settle with anything lesser than this. After all Alia was the real inspiration behind all the years of hard work he has done. When he used to come home after working for almost all of the day in fields, one word ‘Abbu’ mixed with the cute smile from little Alia used to refresh and rejuvenate him. She helps him to forget the unbearable pain his body was experiencing because of pushing its limits way too often.

He had earned enough to marry her daughter and the surplus was just enough to allow him to start a seed agency. He has done the calculations and with the support from the Government ‘Kisan Empowerment Yojna’ he was hopeful that this business will be a great success.

Life is not that fair. Ehsaan was soon going to realize this fact. Things can become fatalistic very quickly. There is a time when all the unbridled enthusiasm, those quixotic dreams, and path of propriety will bring you back to the origin of the journey. Something unpleasant was going to happen very soon.

Let us go back in time. If anyone has read about the class system in India, he will find Rampur Village as the model of the very detestable class system. The upper echelons of the masses will not allow people from lower one’s to do certain jobs. The one in power want to hold on to that power and the oppressed class is always bullied, harassed and persecuted for wrongs. And these wrongs are never actually wrong. To make things worse the village was not open for trade with other villages or cities. There was an underlying fear among the ruling classes that with free trade the oppressed people will also make them skilled and will demand equal rights to work in what they are good at and what will bring them more benefits.

Pandit Shankar Upadhyay was the main moral force in implementing these immoral practices. He even colluded and conspired with the Village Panchayat head Raghubeer Shashtri, to decimate and mutilate the economy and thus the lives of majority of villagers.

Surprisingly Shankar was still revered by all the villagers, irrespective of the school of thought he believed in. There were many examples when Shankar eroded his personal reserves to help the needy. One such instance was the floods of July when most of the mud houses were destroyed and villagers were left to die. Shankar opened up his grain and coal Go-downs for the villagers. This move was a blessing for the villagers as the got a roof for themselves for nearly 5 months. He also made sure that no person sleeps without food and thus he obliged with ample quantities of rice, wheat and pulses to feed the hungry souls. This startling contrast showed the better side of a person who wanted to do good for the poor people but at the same time cannot risk his position and power by abolishing class system and trade restrictions imposed on its villagers.

The confidence and the good-will he generated in the minds of villagers was overwhelming. Shankar became a bank. All the villagers use to deposit their hard earned money with him. He ensured that the money is safe. People also borrowed money from him and he use to charge only a modest interest. Such was his uprightness and integrity; he never used the villager’s money for his business ventures. Being an economic scholar himself, he knew the consequences of playing with the money of villagers whose lives were actually hung by the proverbial thread of their money deposited with him. If that thread was broken they will die.

Taking the family tradition of business and power forward, his son Dhaniram, inherited all his qualities in stupendous amounts. Someone has told him that there is serious money in liquor business. So he wanted to start a spirits manufacturing plant Hashimabad, a nearby city which was witnessing immense industrial growth because of it being a logistics hub and easy availability of skilled but cheap labor. He has done his calculations well and to set up a project of this proportion he needed huge funds. Even loan from a bank will require large investments from his side. Shankar simply did not have that much money. The only option was to sell the Go-downs, but Dhaniram knew Shankar will never agree to this. Still he tried to persuade his father but he got the reply, “I will allow you to sell the Go-Downs only over my dead body”. Dhaniram was sad to hear this but he didn’t lose hope. He has plan B in place. He knew that the villager’s money in his father’s locker was just enough for him to kick off his plant. He also knew that once he is able to get on to the gray side of his father’s character, he might get the money. From then onwards he tried to brainwash his father. He brought many successful businessmen from the city who would speak at length to prove the profitability of the Liquor plant to Shankar. Shankar was indeed impressed and starting taking and even suggesting improvements in the plan. But deep inside knew that risking the money of villagers will be a complete betrayal with the innocent souls. The battle between family and society started in his mind. After struggling for some weeks he gave away to his family’s interest. He allowed his son to exploit the villager’s deposits.

At the same time Ehsaan has finally find the groom for Alia with all the qualities he desired. The ‘Nai’ (middleman) was able to settle a good deal of exchanging gifts and cash or more precisely the dowry amount. Alia was happy too she was very much impressed by the mannerisms of Abdul the groom. The whole family was busy in preparations for the marriage totally unaware of the equinoctial storm they were about to witness.

Dhaniram took all the money to his confidant and business partner Ajay hoping that they will get the loan soon as now the initial deposit was been arranged. To his despair, Ajay ran away with all the money and never came back. Dhaniram was busted. He shivered by the thought of telling this news to his father. He could not gather courage to face him. He wrote an apology letter to his father and told him about the vow he has taken. Dhaniram has taken the resolve to come back only when he has enough money to pay back. But that was far from possible. It was the hard earned money of his people and this poor fellow has not even earned a single penny in his lifetime. How will he be able to arrange the money?

The letter reached Shankara and it was like someone has staggered and strangulated him at the same time. It took quite some time for him to regain composure and realize the gravity of the situation his son has forced him in. The news will spread like wildfire and people will come to him for his money. The thought of parting with his properties, bungalows and other assets terrified him.

He tried to console him by thinking that he has done nothing wrong. It was his son who has done wrong. He was a very honest person in the eyes of the people and he will remain to be the same. This logic might not seem to cut much ice, but he was confident of his innocence and believed that Panchayat will not try him for this embezzlement.

The news reached the poor families. Women started hauling and weeping in masses as they had a strong premonition that the money will not come back. No different was the atmosphere in Ehsaan’s house. Abdul’s family has send the message of breaking the engagement as now they were sure that the Ehsaan will not be able to fulfill the dowry obligations. It was heart rendering. Elders from the effected houses decided to go to Shankara house and demand back the money.

Shankar expressed his helplessness and refused to concede any blame on his part. He said, “Each one of you know that I can never be unfaithful in guarding your money and valuables. Hope all of you remember the tough days of floods and how I helped you with my personal money to get over that difficult phase.” He was indeed true. The villagers were dumbfounded. But the larger question here is that if a person whose responsibility is to see that no one misuses the public money be called innocent and honest in case he shirks his responsibility? The very fact that he allowed all this to happen under his nose and with his consent will make him culpable in the worst way possible and he should not be exonerated so easily.

Disparaged by the turn of events the villagers decided to take this matter to Panchayat head Raghubeer. Raghubeer a loyal of Shankara assured the villagers of Justice. True to his colors he went to Shankara’s house and detailed him of the situation the very same night. The situation was really serious but Shankara want to be out of it without much loss. He had a treaty with Raghubeer. The judgment was fixed in few hours. Shankara bribed him with 100 beghas of land. Both were happy. Shankara will remain in Power and Raghubeer will accumulate more wealth. Win-win situation for both of them. For the villagers it was not only a lose-lose situation but it was a question of survival and death.

After feigning investigations for a couple of weeks, the Panchayat declared its Judgment. Sarpanch Raghubeer said, “It is very sad that villagers are today accusing the best people of our village with treachery and fraud. There is no such evidence against respected Shankara. No one was forced to deposit money with him. And the money was also not personally peculated by him. It was done by a friend of his son over whom Panchayat has no Jurisdiction. However the false accusation against Shankara has led to deep harm to his character and credibility. This Panchayat thus announces a penalty of 2000 rupees on each of the villagers who complained against him. ”

It was like putting salt on the severe bruises which Shankara has given to the villagers. There was no way for them to compensate the loss and carry on. The farmers have taken loans from money lenders. They would soon start looking for their neck. Where will they go? How will they pay for processing the promising crops they have this time. There was simply no answer. Ehsaan’s daughter went into depression and committed suicide by hanging in the room. His wife could not take this setback and died because of a heart attack few months later. Ehsaan himself was not able handle this catharsis and he lost his mental balance. He can be often spotted without clothes and is being referred as gutter snipe by the people from powerful and rich families.

The story was no different in other families. 23 farmers committed suicide after police cases were filed against them for nonpayment of the loans. They were constantly harassed by the lending sharks. Yes there were some good people in Government who send money for waiving off the loans of the farmer, but that money also found its way to the coffers of the people like Shankara and Raghubeer. Some farmers have to sell all their leftover belongings including their small mud houses and small strips of land. To arrange food for their children they have to do other inhuman and difficult tasks like scavenging, digging roads, mining etc.

This is the story of whole of the country where less privileged poor and middle class people are exploited everyday till their last breadth. We should try to find answer too many questions. The most important is to set accountability. Was the fact that Shankara is honest holds any water when he allowed the public money to be ripped off knowingly and in full consciousness? Is he any less than a murderer of all these innocent souls? If we are able to disallow any sort of impunity to him, we can avoid these totally unnecessary sacrifices which the poor people are doing for the sake of these illegal, immoral and egoistic masters.

Note:This story is purely a work of fiction and has no resemblance to any place or person living or dead. Though it has been inspired by some of the sad incidents across the country

Toll Plaza Pvt. Ltd.

2012-12-11T07:49:00.000-08:00

Our media houses by their innate nature always highlight the reaction. They forget the genesis of a problem. Let us take the latest real life case study to prove our point. Toll plazas have become a preferred business vehicle for minting illegal money in least possible time and in the safest possible way. If some reports were to be believed than the Pune-Ahmednagar highway was upgraded by the government with a budget of 100 crores. And the modus operandi of our government is that they make/upgrade the road and sell it to the toll Sharks which can be seen operating under different names like UP toll plaza ltd, Eastern toll ways ltd etc.

Initially these companies will agree on ‘modest’ profits of 20-24 crores. The government gives them rights to collect toll for say a period of 10 years in the Pune-Ahmednagar highway case. In return the government recovers their cost which was 100 crores and says some 20 more crores adjusted for inflation.

Now let us do some math:

They assumed a maximum of 10 lacs collection per day (In fact it is 13-16 lacs). In 1 year it will be

1000000*30*12 = 360000000 or 36 crores

In 10 years it will be 360 crores. (We are not assuming any increase in traffic density)

And it does not end here.

The insatiable greed for riches among the pseudo literate toll owners is so high they start to make things real dirty.

Toll is collected based on the expected vehicle density. Initially the toll agreed is based upon the vehicle density which is not fixed and can be calculated at a future point on the discretion of toll owners.

Suppose vehicle density decided was 25000 vehicles per day. Suddenly they will start showing the density as less than 10000 per day. This argument alone is enough for them to get the toll collection extension from 10 years to 30 years with inflation adjusted toll prices going north every year. For 30 years this collection will in fact cost (calculated at 15 lacs collection per day): 1500000*30*12*30 = 1620 crores

With hikes in tolls every now and then this will easily cross 2000 crores

So with investment of 120-140 crores the returns are humongous at

2000-120/120 * 100 = 1567 %.

Can you think of a better business plan than this one?

The numbers are just speculative and may be different from actual figures. There is no source available to verify that what was the total expenditure? What percent was funded by the government? What was the state’s contribution? Is the vehicle density figure correct? Is the eternal tax collection justified? Are we not paying double? Where the money from toll collection is going?

There is a great need of urgency from the citizen of India to unravel this mystical business. If everything is in order then both the government and the toll companies should not shy away in making their record books public.

The burden of this corrupt business is borne by the taxpayer. We all are tired of this but barring few NGO’s no one has stand up against these powerful toll companies. In most of the toll plazas they have employed the rotting, good for nothing and anti social minds from the 2^nd, 3 tier cities and also from some villages as toll plaza staff. With absolute zero training for customer service, these people create all sorts of havoc for the vehicle owners. They slang, intimidate and humiliate even the senior citizens and women passengers. They are trained for just exploiting money out of the pocket of the vehicle owner. They won’t allow slightest of the deviation in their collection plan when ironically they are allegedly doing all sort of scams as discussed above.

There might be very small percentage of good employees also but largely this whole toll collection company idea is a corruption juggernaut.

There is a high probability that the government has a hand in glove with them. Other wise why no action been taken against these errant companies which continue to hoodwink the taxpayers by these perennial tax collection regimes?

This ill practice is throughout the country, but neither the center nor any political party has spoken against it till now.

One political party has tried to reign in these toll plazas by asking people not to pay any more taxes on Mumbai-Pune expressway as well as to nearby toll plazas. Something grossly wrong was happening and MNS has tried to put an end to it. Its chief has even said that they will take the matter to the court. We should all appreciate the efforts this party in these directions and should make the use of every opportunity to highlight this on a national level so that this agitation against the evil permeates to the other toll plazas across the country as well.

For the information of the reader, it is the responsibility of the center to provide funds for the building Highways and roads. States also rope in to develop the center funded projects. We have already paid for those funds in the form of taxes. So why shall we pay these unreasonable toll taxes to warm the pockets of these selfish and greedy toll companies and their allies?

The case of Subjective Integrity and Propriety

2012-11-24T22:11:00.002-08:00

Pt. Nehru had a very beautiful dream of a modern India. A socialist to the core, he never wanted India to turn into a country where the rich continue to be richer and poor the poorer. Thus he tried the mix of socialism and capitalism. He was inspired by the social principles of Russia but at the same time he was wary of a communist regime like China. He thus thought that the state will control the production and businesses to keep a check on the undesirable capitalism. His bureaucracy of Red tapes and licenses resulted in what he never wanted. Unknowingly his policies gave birth to some of the biggest business houses while the businesses of others with less influence within the political class were stillborn. This led to acute gaps among the rich and the poor and some of the agonized poor took shelter in the world of crime to reach their aspirations and to enjoy the pleasures of the materialistic world which they had done only in their fantasies lately.

In 1991, with some improvements in the policies in the name of reforms, other players also started to compete against the incumbents. The concentration of crony capitalism decreased but its scope increased manifolds. In every sort of business, one has two options – either go through the compliances honestly or be in hand in glove with the government officials to get the task done. There were some who always kept on cribbing with the policies while there were others like Dhirubhai Ambani who studied the policies and adapted to them in the best possible way.

To understand corruption in the strata of our society let us divide them into three classes – the upper class, the middle class and the lower class.

The upper class is either comfortably settled in the business houses or they are into dynasty politics. Politics and the big corporate houses are inseparable. Both of them want more of each other. The business family wants to put there representative in the Government to get the windfalls of various kinds. Many corrupt politicians wants to get into business to rule out any uncertainty over their political career. They are the least bothered about the problems like inflation, drought, and healthcare because they never face such issues. They are the parasites who thrive on the hard earned money of the other less privileged classes.

Middle class are those set of people who have anyhow kept themselves educated and values of hard work and submissiveness are ingrained into them. To classify them honest will be unfair to the privileged class we have discussed above. There may be honest people but unless they are into position from where their integrity can be judged, it will be incorrect to declare them morally clean. Honesty sometimes is the lack of opportunity and there are some evidences which testify that a middle class person if promoted to the condition of authority can be equally corrupt and will not leave any stone unturned to write letter of recommendations to allocate some natural resources to his ally/business friend.

Traditionally the children of middle classes have tried to become doctors, engineers, and they also fill the enormous government positions in clerical or administrative kind of jobs. Many doctors working in government hospitals exploit the patients. The timing of a government hospital is from 8 AM to 2 PM for regular duty. These doctors have their private properties but they never give away the government houses as it make their lives ultra-convenient. They wake up at 7:30 AM go to the Superintendent’s office to mark their presence, come back to their house get ready by 9:30 or 10 AM and go back to their respective departments. They complete the formality of seeing the jostling patients till 11:30 only and immediately after that they go to the tea room to do gossiping. After around 45 minutes of gossiping they come back to their offices and continue to see the patients for another 1 hour or so. In total they are doing the duty for 2-3 hours. Then where will the rest of the patients go? They will go to their houses and clinics. As they pay a monthly allowance to the superintendent, they are allowed to do private practice right under his nose even though they are strictly prohibited by law to do so. I can challenge an inquiry team to visit any government hospital and their residences; they will be caught red handed minting money.

Many engineers in government companies give away contracts to unqualified contractors. They also use substandard material in construction of bridges, buildings and other important civil structures. Some of them are honest but seldom do they find any courage to complain against the corrupt system in which they are operating.

And then there is the epitome of corruption the ‘Sarkari Babus’. Agreed their salaries are less but if they take it as a justification for corruption this is going to create a huge social divide among their peers. This is because they are in a position to use corruption in their favor while indiscriminately exploiting the rich and the poor. Whether it is the case of passport, RTO, Railways sometimes they become so much engrossed with the easy money that they forget their limits. When a peon in the office of a minster is found to have net worth of over 200 crores of rupees, it is bound to raise eyebrows.

Let us now take the example of a self-made corrupt and how he created a difference in the lives of his loved ones. Suraj (fictional name) lost his right hand at the age of 14 as a result of an accident. He lost interest in studies and was heading towards a state of total despair and depression. By the time he reached his 20’s he had decided to earn money without caring about the means of earning. Though uneducated and especially abled, he was gifted with focus and hard work. He had figured out that LPG gas is his ticket to the world of money and power. He studied the various policies of Government and figured out that he can easily get an LPG agency with the handicapped reservation. He applied and he got the agency. He started making modest income of 10 thousand initially and 30-50 thousand per month after some years. This was not enough to quench his thrust. He decided to take the plunge in the world of corruption and starting selling cylinders in ‘Black’ while exploiting every loop hole in the policies. The city was expanding and the demand was increasing with some 50-60 thousand cylinders per day. Initially he started with 20-30 cylinders which brought him a profit of 5000-8000 Rs per day. Slowly and steadily he was selling some 200 cylinders per day with the help of the wide network and he started realizing profits of around 30-40000 per day. He is earning around 100 lacs per annum. This is outrageous, even an engineer from the best engineering college and from the best MBA college cannot earn this much in salary even in the first 10 years of his career.

The story of Suraj and others in the middle classes tells us that when it comes to easy money corruption becomes subjective and being corrupt no longer is seen as wrong, it becomes just the right thing to do and the one who are not able to do it are classified as losers not in fact ‘honest’.

If for an instant you thought that people in private organization are hardworking and honest, you may be well wrong. The fact that the management and board of various companies is many times accused and convicted for crony capitalism rest the case if corruption is an anomaly for them.

If we talk about the employees who have no say in lobbying or manipulating account books, they have other mechanisms by which they time and again prove that corruption is not an alien term to them. Not voting at all year after year clears their stand on corruption.

Since corruption has become order of the day, it is next to impossible to obliterate it.
What is possible is Hope of a perfect world and whoever stands up against the corrupt should be supported irrespective of how inconsequential his intentions and actions may seem today.

The corrupt rate of growth

2012-10-28T09:17:00.000-07:00

The growth rate of the socialist India before 1991 was termed as ‘The Hindu rate of growth’. This term was coined by Indian economist Raj Krishna but was widely used by many authors, journalists and critics all over the world. The Hindu growth rate was a symbol of stagnating growth. The growth was around 2-3.5% while many other ‘non Hindu’ countries in the South Asia were marching well ahead of India. One of the reasons for this was the contentment of the Indian society and the fatalism that their present actions have no bearing on the future.

Though India was able to come out of the ‘Hindu rate of growth’ with the help of easing of the economy, the growth which we saw till 2007 was the ‘Pseudo growth’ because merely by saying that we are witnessing a growth rate of 7-8% we do not become efficient and effective. Since there was a huge growth deficit in the past, the difference created this surge in growth.

Our real test was to be started with the receding of the 1^st wave of growth phase. We needed more reforms based on careful analysis of the Internal as well as external factors. Unfortunately no analysis took place and what we saw was financial terrorism of astronomical proportion. When corruption can bring the growth of a country from 8% to 4%, it should qualify as terrorism as a handful of people are responsible for playing with the tax payer’s fund.

Naturally the growth which we are currently seeing is the ‘corrupt rate of growth’. It does not ends here the inflation keeps on increasing because the sources of funds which can reduce it are diverted to the coffers of corrupt ministers, contractors and corporate who are agents of cronyism. If we continue to go with this corrupt rate of growth we will definitely witness a negative growth. There will be famines, droughts, epidemics etc. as we will not have any funds for the public use. All the money will be with the above mentioned people who will flee to other countries to make sure that they remain unaffected.

Why UPA 3 is Guaranteed

2012-10-20T07:20:00.004-07:00

Recently the country is seeing some sort of protests and agitations against the our Honorable Government, Politicians, Bureaucrats and the System itself.

However these agitations cannot be called as the movement of the 'Aam Aadmi' as the actual common man of the country has not given its certificate of support to these movements. It may be surprising and disconcerting to some of the charged up young working classes of the country who have started taking deep interest in the Indian Politics albeit via the cozy comforts of virtual world of blogs, Facebook, twitter etc.

Just have a look at the results of 2009 General elections for Pune, Maharashtra:

General Election, 2009: Pune
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Congress	Suresh Kalmadi	2,79,973	38.12
	BJP	Anil Shirole	2,54,272	34.62
	MNS	Ranjeet Shirole	75,930	10.33
	BSP	D. S. Kulkarni	62,981	8.57
Majority			25,701

Pune had the population of around 28 lacs in 2009 and the voter turnout was 7,34,370.

Statistics prove that some of the tainted party have a assured vote bank, irrespective of the amount of negativity and exploitation they bring to their constituencies or to the country. This CVB (confirmed vote bank) will again try to do the same for the bribe of 5000 Rs (example) of which they receive 100 Rs as down payment from the political goons. The number of the currency note is noted down. Now if the corrupt party wins they can go to the party goons and reclaim their 4900 Rs. Needless to say that these CVB people will definitely vote for the most corrupt party to get their share of the looted booty.
The anti corruption activists are doing their part. can we not do ours and make sure that these CVB's become inconsequential. All it takes is some commitment to enroll ourselves in the electoral list keeping aside the excuses we have and vote for the candidate we feel is best.

If we cant do this, it is guaranteed that IAC or some other honest politician will only end up in diverting the votes of the best alternative we have to the most corrupt party of the country.

Let us put corruption first - A peek into the history

2012-10-20T07:07:00.001-07:00

Corruption in India – Some parallels with the history

Now let us go back to history to understand the Psychology of a corrupt. Though the story might sound mythological and lack evidence but still it draws parallel with the current monarchs and rulers who are ruling us albeit in the shield of democracy and constitution. In the year 326 B.C. Alexander was marching towards India, the land of opulence and unexplored treasure. He first encountered King Ambi, who instead of showing resistance to the unwanted infiltrator chose to be submissive and became a vassal of him. His next encounter was at the Jhelum river with King Puru who declined his superiority and chose to be contumacious. Though he was defeated in the battle, he never ran or surrendered. Alexander was impressed by his tenacity and fearlessness. When brought before Alexander, he was asked for his wishes and expectations. Puru told Alexander that he wanted to be treated like a King. Alexander asked him to be elaborate on this but he said that the one line he said is enough. Alexander was so impressed he actually treated him like a king. He gave back his kingdom along with some more land from his previous victories. This treatment melted Puru emotionally; he became the loyal partisan of Alexander. Many other people under his rule accepted the supremacy of the Greek Empire. An invader is an invader and supporting him when he is going to destroy and loot the country is a sin. But in this case Puru clearly demonstrated that a human being shows signs of detachment from the well accepted principles and ethics when huge personal gains are put into the equation.

Consider the current scenario. The Genesis of the ruling party is the dynasty politics. Dynasty politics, coupled with some of the most unfortunate events in the late 80’s resulted in an unintended enforced regime, which by the face of it is not an authoritarian one but it becomes one when democracy and its values are misused. Today merit has no place in our ruling party or any party for that matter. Look at the obsequiousness of the politicians. Irrespective of the gravity of the corruption, they will never call a spade a spade and will keep on repeating the concocted stories and irresponsible arguments to hide the shameful acts of their masters.

Who will guard the guards?

This question becomes all relevant when everything is in the hand of the politicians. They are the policymakers and it is all but natural for them to make the best policies for them and reject the one’s which might bring slightest of the inconvenience to them. Thus they will sing together in one tone and will show their exuberance by thumping tables in the parliament when bill for increase in the MP’s salary is announced. On the contrary they will tear apart the anti corruption bills like the Lokpal.

Becoming an MP is such a feast for the politician that he will not relinquish his position no matter if he gets a call from his age, conscience or most importantly the people who have sent him there with a selfless purpose to serve them. Recently one of the highest ranking ministers of the country visited a college with his huge entourage. The college ground was destroyed to make a helipad for him. And if that was not enough, he denied walking from the helipad to the nearest exit which was just 30-50 meters. To accommodate his wishes a small road was dug from the helipad to the exit so that his high end Mercedes can reach the door of the chopper and he does not sweat or feel a pinch of heat. From there he was taken to the air conditioned hall where he was supposed to recite a speech. He had special commandos working for him like his servants. He could not settle in the chair, he could not pour water in his glass; he could not carry the piece of paper carrying his rehearsed speech to the microphone. For everything there was the servant or the commando or whatever you may call it.

This is just a page from their super luxurious lives which ends only with their demise and till then they continue to get themselves pampered on the tax payer’s money.

So when the question of parting with this lifestyle or to continue to serve their masters like a sycophant comes, they always chose the latter. One of the ministers of the ruling party admitted this in front of the camera. When asked if he is the minister of the country or the minister of his party? He lost his cool and left the discussion midway. The sane thing for him from the political point of view was to recite some soft words for the country without compromising on his sycophant adrenaline gush. Such was the level of catharsis and love for his political demi Gods, he chose to ignore the important question on the responsibility as a minister he has for his country and its citizen. He bluntly said, “We will do everything to teach lessons to the clunks who try to malign the name of the best people of this country.” He further added that he is ready to die for his Political masters because they are the reason for his existence and not the ordinary citizen. Sorry Mr. Minister but you have got it wrong. You are not there because of your leadership. You are there because the people of this country had voted for this party. You should be ready to die for the people of the country and not the deified mortals you have discovered in your leadership.

2012-10-09T06:32:00.000-07:00

Let us put Corruption first

India Today – Has the threshold of patience being reached

Recently Union Home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, said in a function in Pune – “People of this country have a very weak memory. They will forget the Coal scam very soon just like they forgot the Bofors scam”. Though after the media and public mew he clarified that whatever he said was just to prolong the vivacity of the evening. The reality on the other side is that he was dreadfully serious. Each and every word uttered out of his mouth was as serious as the condition of the country which is at the verge of a collapse. It was as serious as the condition of a young girl who had been gang raped and her identity is divulged to the media by the incorrigible police; It was as serious as the starving families of the farmers who have committed suicide because of the failure of rains and the unpardonable mismanagement by the Agriculture ministry; It was as serious as the expressionless face of a mother whose child has died in her arms because she does not have any money to buy the medicine which cost thousand of rupees; It was as serious as the meddlesome eyes of a child worker who gets lost in the imaginary world whenever he sees more fortunate children and the inequality in this world.

Many of us will agree that Shinde’s words were very serious and real. It does not need any special attention of one to be aware of the catastrophic corruption we are seeing today. 2G scam, Coal scam, Thorium scam, Granite scam, Irrigation scam, fodder scam, NRHM scam, Aadarsh scam and the list is never ending. There is no point in discussing the scams again. People like to forget them and let them do that. Now it is time to focus on the way to either move away from corruption or whole heartily embrace it. The middle path of ‘chalta hai’ will be a strong disservice to the less fortunate people of this country.

Dream of a corruption free India – A Utopia?

Lately we have seen few individuals who have tried to give corrupt people a run for their money. Though they remained defiant in their efforts for some time, slowly they are losing steam because they were not able to figure out the cohesive which can keep them united. Their fight which was supposed to be a revolution is fizzling out in the form of an unsuccessful melee. On the other hand the corrupt have been able to up the ante of corruption with the help of unity of money, resources, windfalls etc. They have been instrumental in managing such a colossal Empire which is much more difficult to manage than a multinational company.

However the CEO’s of various companies can learn lessons from these crusaders of corruption. Just take the case of coal and irrigation scams. Let us not get into the details but it is irresistible to accentuate this interesting piece of parody – One of the minister is a director of one of the many companies he is having stakes in. He lobbies for the allocation of the country’s resources for his company. He gets the desired resource almost for free for his company. The valuation of the company goes up he reaps the windfalls. This minister also helps to get contracts of Irrigation to his business partner and friend. When the contractor fails to complete the work, his payment is held back by the Government for some or the other reason. This minister again writes multiple letters to the Government to expedite the release of money for the contractor with no mention of the shoddy work if at all was done by the shoddy contractor. All these communications are preserved for future generations to consider them as precedence of The Great corruption the country has ever seen. The bottom-line is that if the government documents cannot be evidence of this humongous corruption, nothing else can.

Why Indian MBA’s won’t be affected by the Great Recession

2011-08-07T06:09:00.000-07:00

Most of you will be surprised by the title what I have chosen for this article. Why my attention is only on Indian MBA? What about the average worker of the Indian workforce? A banker in a public sector bank, a software engineer, a retailer etc
The reason is simple. The opportunity cost of doing an MBA is very high. Almost all the students take loans ranging from 5-20 lacs of rupees. So there is always the pressure of how fast and easily the loan can be repaid. This in turn is directly proportional to the package you get in your final placements. So it is important that people with highest stakes in the whole downturn game should be well informed where they stand now. It is also imperative to avoid unnecessary hysteria and rumours about the current slowdown.

Recently there was a discussion in one of my class regarding why customers tend to remember more negative experiences rather than the positive ones. There is no clear explanation for the same but yes it is true that people remember things which occur less frequently. And recession and slowdowns are events that occur after relatively long cycles.

Just have a look at these comments coming up on the face book from last 3-4 days:

“If US sneeze, whole the whole world is going to get the cold. They have just delayed it. Experts say it’s inevitable. The problem is we would be amongst the most unlucky ones. Scared and keeping my fingers crossed”

“Given the state of the world, AA+ is the new AAA...”

“4% drop in index is a worrying signal.....”

“Bloodbath started in global markets....Shocked after hearing the bottom estimates from the experts.....”

There is no shortage of muddled ideas in economics. People from different sectors and backgrounds make all these statement every day. But the fact of the matter is that these statements cannot stand the test of a careful economic analysis.
Though these opinions seems to be instinctive and they come out whenever there is slight problem in the global economy, comments like these amplify small issues which can be otherwise be sorted very easily. But once it becomes a global phenomenon it becomes viral and keeps on getting worse.
Everyone seems to be taking about the double dip recession. Double dip or W shaped GDP growth graph means that the economy which was recently in recession comes out of it for a while with positive growth but again goes south in a short span of time and thereby creates the horrifying double dip curve.

There can be three perpetrator of the nose dive of current economy:
1. Euro debt crisis
2. Flat consumer spending
3. Reduced government spending

My personal opinion is that we will not see the double dip recession but slow growth is inevitable.
Now coming to the larger question of why India will not affected by the Great Recession? The answer is simply because as I said above there will be nothing like Great Recession going to happen in the near future. There will be only minor hiccups for example IT exports might get affected.
One would say that almost 50% of revenues of Indian IT companies are coming from US and the plunge in the US markets will be devastating for Indian IT companies. I would say let it be. Let them learn the hard way that there are other opportunities in India and other emerging economies like BRIC countries. They should focus more on Indian clients just like IBM is doing business of $2 bn in the Indian domestic markets. And employees in the IT sector should come out of the cocoon of software development. There are thousands of other things in the world they can do apart from writing codes. Gone are the days when a person who is dismissed from an IT job can afford to sit for 12 months because he cannot find another IT job.

Let us now discuss about the MBA students graduating from prestigious colleges of the country like IIMs and IITs. The beauty of MBA education is that it gives you a wider perspective of things. An MBA student gets exposure about various kinds of subjects like Finance, Marketing, Operations, Consulting and HR. It makes them feel confident that there are enough opportunities in the market. For instance consider the agriculture scenario in China. China has realised that if they want to bring prosperity to its farmers, they have to pull them out of agriculture to other sectors like manufacturing and services. So every year they are pulling out 1% of its agriculture dependent workforce into manufacturing and other emerging sectors.
In India majority of people are dependent upon agriculture but the contribution of agriculture to Indian GDP is still less that 25%. It means that our manufacturing sector needs bright MBA's to bring smiles on the faces of People who are stuck in low paying agriculture jobs.

Manpower Employment Outlook Survey ranks India second after Peru in terms of recruitment programme. The survey, which covered 33 countries, reveals that although the global slowdown will certainly impact the hiring plans of employers in India over the next three months, it has the second strongest hiring capacity globally, with a net employment outlook of 19 percent.

In the worst case if the slowdown is really severe that these MBA graduates can always bank upon public sector companies who are in fact very keen to recruit in the gloomy recession days. I know one of my friends who graduated in 2009 from IIM Bangalore. He got a package of 5 lacs per annum in a famous public sector bank. He worked there for 2 years and then switched at a much higher package. Though his journey was a bit difficult but it teaches us that if we keep on with the perseverance and hard work we will eventually get rewarded.

Apart from following the crowd there is always the less travelled road of entrepreneurship open for anyone. There are a lot of businesses which are seemingly recession proof like hospital, restaurant, growth consultancy, agriculture consultancy, coaching institutes etc.
If going the business way is not your cup of tea then you can think of gaining a PhD from Top ranked institutes like Harvard, Wharton, LSB, LSE etc. or IIT’s and IIM’s in the domestic scenario. If PhD does not sounds interesting to you then try your hand at teaching. With the brand of IIT/IIM you can easily get annual packages ranging from 12-20 lacs in 2nd seed private B Schools in India.

All these statistics brings hope and hope is really a beautiful thing. There is no point in crying over the spoilt milk. The right thing is to keep learning and updating one’s knowledge and skills. No matter how grave the situation is, end of the day it is smart and intelligent people who help the economy to grow and help us realise a world where everyone will be employed and will be contributing towards the development of his nation.

Return of the Ice Age- Can mankind avoid its extinction

2011-05-29T03:34:00.000-07:00

Snow laden New Delhi in the year 2030

Ice age refers to a period of long term reduction in temperature which results in the expansion of ice sheets and glaciers around all the continents starting from northern and southern parts of the earth. There are many different reasons for the steep drop in temperature. One of them is the change in the orbital positions of the earth around the sun. One other theory attributes it to the dynamics between earth and the moon system. But these types of incidents are out of control of the mankind and we cannot do much against the nature’s fury.
Then why there is a lot hue and cry over climate change and global warming?
There are reasons for it. The main reason is the man and his unquenchable thirst to exploit other resources and living creatures on earth.
If we look at macro level perspective of the forest exploited each year we will find that some 60000 square kilometres of forest cover is depleted each year. It approximately stands at 3-6 billion trees being brought down each year.

If we look at the fossil fuel scenario it is not different either. Global annual consumption of these fossil fuels results in some 20 billion tonnes of CO2 each year. Natural processes are able to neutralise only half of it. Rest of the CO2 attributes the green house effect which accelerates the increase in temperature. This increasing temperature then lends impetus to the glaciers and melts them undesirably and artificially. So what will happen if the glaciers melt? It is going to just raise the level of seas by some meters. Why should be we worried about it?
The notion that nature will balance everything by its routine and reflexes is totally wrong. This time the damage will be catastrophic and it will trounce the mankind. A new world order may establish and it might take millions or billions of years for life to come back to our planet earth. I don’t think that anyone of us will like to give this gift to our coming generations.
The main reason of our laxity and ignorance of the climate change is the availability and convenience which fossil fuels offers us. There are not many serious attempts being made to find alternative energies like solar or hydrogen fuels. For India, the meagre clean technology budget of 270 million USD is a testimony to it.
Once contacted, one of the powerful European countries replied on the question of fossil fuels, “We have enough amounts of fossil fuels for 2030 and there is no need to worry for a foreseeable future”.
Agreed they have sufficient fuels to last for a reasonable period say 100 years. But what after that? And who will take the responsibility to damage the environment by emitting dangerous gases.
If developed countries are spoiled by cheap fossil fuels, developing countries are doing nothing other than following them. The fact that countries like India and China were not ready to sign the new emission norms in Copenhagen also bring out a very grim picture of the attitude of these developing nations towards climate change.
To understand the pernicious practices of these countries, one only need to spent some time in the financial capital of India- Mumbai. There are some 20 lakh automobiles in Mumbai. They consume a daily of approximately 60 lakh litres of total fuels combined. Just imagine how many swimming pools can be filled with this much of oil!
It takes some 15-20 minutes to cross roads in Mumbai. One would say that with the development, all these things are unavoidable. People have to commute and we cannot ask them to go by cycles or horse cart to the offices. Indeed that is true. But there is a lot which can be done to reduce this eternal traffic and also the emission to half, and also to make some human beings responsible towards their environment and their coming generations.

Most of the upper middleclass in cities like Mumbai all over the world are spoiled by money. The moment they enter a high paying job, the desire to own a vehicle is born in them. When they have enough they become owners of the gas guzzling machines from Honda and Volkswagens’. They want to have the bigger and more powerful machines, irrespective of the fuel it consumes or the harmful gases it emits. More than 80 percent of them are travelling alone in their cars which wastes a lot of road space provided by the government. All of this contributes more and more to the traffic jams and pollution. It also puts an unnecessary strain on the public transport system which is already unable to bear the rising demand.

Since it has become their habit, the government of all countries should take measure again them and teach them a lesson. Some solutions can be to ban the use of big SUVs, ban diesel for private cars, put heavy parking fee to discourage private cars, bring mandate for carpooling and penalise those who drive single.
Some people will say that all these regulations sound insane.

Yes they may be insane, but once people realise that there is a limit to which we can exploit nature, they will become more responsible towards nature, towards themselves and more importantly towards the coming generations. It will also catalyse the research for clean tech energies globally and will help us to get freedom from the Oil cartels and will take us towards a new world order in which snow fall will be only in Greenland and not in New Delhi or Dubai. There will be no more CO2 and other greenhouse gases, there will be no Tsunamis. There will be life for all living beings and that life will be a really happy life.

Unregulated Capitalism in India- A mockery of the Proletarian

2010-04-23T23:42:00.001-07:00

Recently I was watching television news debate on the increasing influence of Naxals. There were 3 people who were speaking against and one in favor of them. While use of violence by Naxals cannot be justified, Ignorant and diffident attitude of Indian Government towards some specific tribes and areas cannot be justified either.
But how does this all relate to capitalism? Is there any connection between capitalism and Naxalism? Answer is yes. Before moving further into this saga let us first try to understand the structure of our Democracy and the challenges our Nation is facing.
India is a democratic country and people here enjoy various kinds of freedoms like: freedom of speech, freedom of vote, freedom of ownership and many more. In contrast if we look at a communist country like China, things will differ a lot. People there don’t have a right to choose their leaders. They are expected to believe in the government and its decisions. If they have any opinion different then the government they are scrutinized and if found improper or anti Government they are punished also.
Now if we have to choose between the China’s communist system of Governance and India’s democratic setup. Which one is better?
To arrive at any conclusion let us first analyze the socio-economic condition of both the countries. China leads India by a mile in terms of economic development. It is called the Manufacturing Hub of the world and is also fast catching up India in the IT services playground. Lately India was the preferred choice of outsourcing countries because of the command of the Indians on English Language. Today Chinese are also fast catching up. Mass English speaking classes are being organized all over the country to prepare the vibrant youth of china, which understands only one religion and that is Money.
China has far better Infrastructure than India. Better Bridges, Roads, Transport are examples of their supremacy compared to the same in India. If poverty is what we define as families living on less than 40 INR a day and falling short of meeting the basic requirements of food, medical and schools in India, the same poverty does not exists in china at all.
If you go into the most remote areas of north china, the families will be having Television, scooters and other basic amenities apart from the adequate food supplies. The credit to all this goes to the communist system of China. Most of the people in China do not own properties; they have only rights to use the property. This practice keeps a check on the kind of Land Sharks very much Infamous in India. We cannot conclude that there is no corruption in the system. But In spite of corruption things move very fast in China. Anyone who has been to China before and After Beijing Olympics will be able to realize and appreciate the efficacy of the Chinese Communist System.
Coming back to India, Some 25% of its population falls below the poverty line and some 42 % of the population falls below the international poverty line which is $1.25 a day. There are people who are not able to reach the basic needs like: food, medicine and shelter. Leave alone the possibilities of education to their children. They live in absolute abject desperation which forces them to eat things like grass, mud and corpses of animals. Moreover when they find no way out of this pathetic situation they take up arms against government or commit suicide.

Consider these two scenarios:
1)
Somewhere in a remote village in Bihar, A family was starving as they had no money to buy some food. Rain God was merciless and there was nothing for them to go and sell in the market. Head of the family returned home with a corpse of a Goat. Digged out from a nearby field. Out of desperation, the family cooks and eats the dead animal. All of the family members died by eating the rotten meat.
2) On the same day, a party was happening in a famous five star Hotel. It was a star studded party with WWW (Wine, Woman and Wealth) and high profile guests like: Cricketers, Politicians, Actors, and Models etc.
There was enough food and lot of it was wasted. Even if a small amount of it has been provided to the family mentioned above, we could have saved their lives.
If we discuss this in TV debate, most of the elite community will come in support of IPL and other such organization. They will say that we are a Democratic country and Individuals have rights to do business in the way they want.
We are a Democratic country but we are not a developed country. Primary Objective of all sections and organizations in India is to work synergetically for the upliftment of the underprivileged. All of us should focus on creating opportunity for them so that they can earn their living.
IPL is the worst example of Capitalism and there is no room for this kind of unnecessary event in India. Government of India has to tighten up the screws of bodies like IPL who are exploiting the emotions of people of India. Our hard earned money is being channelized into the coffers of these self-proclaimed Commissioners and CEO’s. Ironically they don’t even pay taxes.
IPL has sold broadcast right for 10 years for some 20000 crore INR. Most of which will be used for the development of people belonging to IPL or their relatives. Had this body being governed by Indian Government at least some amount could have reached to the one that deserves it.

So we have to take the positives of the communist system of China and very carefully complement our system with the same. Let us first reach a level without compromising with the lives of our Proletarian. If we continue to live in Hubris and always turn a Nelson’s Eye to the problem of the poor while citing the excuse of Capitalism and Development, I am afraid to say that we will not be any different from the British who colonized and exploited India for their personal gains.

THE CAT HAS DIED

2010-02-06T21:00:00.000-08:00

Bangalore 5 am. Alarm rings Rahul checks his cellphone and with a sad look, he stands up. There is no escape now. This year he has promised to himself to get into a very good B –School, and to achieve this, he knows that he has to be fully committed else he will not be able to make up this time also. Any one who has been in touch with professional education in India will know very well how hard it takes to get into a prestigious B-School like IIM’s, XLRI, FMS, SIBM etc., Rahul was also among the thousands of working IT Professional who want to pursue MBA and subsequently pursue their dreams which otherwise would have started fading in their current job.

‘CAT’ as it is famously known is the combined management aptitude test conducted by the IIM’s every year. Each year somewhere around 3 lakh students appear in this test.
Apart from the IIM’s many other institute of high repute like NITIE Mumbai, Mica, and Great lakes Chennai consider the CAT scores. So obviously the stakes are always very high for this particular exam. Given this scenario it becomes extremely important that the authorities conduct this test in the fairest way. There is no room for any discrepancies of even single mark and not even to a single student. As expected the IIM’s were doing the job perfectly and deserves special appreciation. But CAT 2009 was an exception to this.

“CAT may go online this year”. This was the latest surprise news from the IIM’s.
Change no matter how much trivial brings with itself some amount of fear, some amount of apprehension and some amount of uncertainty. Those who can adapt to the change are successful others vanish. Being an eternal optimist Rahul decided to deal with the CAT. “If not pencil and paper let us bell the cat with the help of the mouse”, thought Rahul. He religiously attended all the computer based mocks conducted by his coaching institute.

The online test was suppose to begin on 28th of December and will continue till the period of 10 days. Two slots each day will mean that there will be 20 different question papers!
Rahul has taken the slot of 5th December and his close friend Neelam has taken the slot on 6th December. They both met in the coaching and he was always seeking her help in Verbal doubts. As soon as the first slot exam was over, rumors were in the air about the level of difficulty of questions, number of questions and the type of question. Day by day their nervousness was increasing. The year long preparation will boil down to the last 2 hrs and 15 minutes. Neelam was consoling him and he was doing the same to her.

Few people say that nervous energy brings out the best of the performance out of an Individual. But it was not all about nervousness. There was high level of discrepancies in the whole online process. IIM's tried emulate other universities like Stanford, MIT, Oxford which uses the services of GMAC testing agency. IIM's also tried to delink them from the Admission process but surprisingly they did not find the GMAT scores good enough to to be used for admission process. What they wanted is a special exam meant only for the IIM's. So for the same purpose they decided to take the services of Pro metric testing agency. Pro metric is a US based firm. It may be providing testing services for campus recruitment etc. but to organize an exam of National level importance pro metric was never ready.
What was ready and bound to happen was a disaster on the CAT D day. The very day on which our CAT died. On the first day of the test, servers at several test centers failed.
There was complete panic among the students. The failure of the servers continued through out the CAT window. It will be confusing to describe the factors which finally resulted in a fiasco so it will be better if we point them out for the of the readers.

Reason for why our CAT became sick:

Test servers throughout the test window kept on crashing. IIM's and pro metric gave the reason that a virus attack has happened. Can anyone please tell us the name of the virus?
One of the students was writing the test. Being aware of the system failure he has already written 8 quantitative questions on the paper. Suddenly his system restarted. He called the pro metric team. They asked him to go to a chair near by and wait. He was waiting for almost one hour. After one hour they called him that the system is ready. He went happily to restart with the test. You know why he was happy? He has already solved 8 questions and still 2 hrs were left.
Though pro metric claims that they have carefully developed the question bank, questions which were coming in the exam were far below the standard of CAT. Almost everyone solved 45 out of 60 questions. Most of the people who worked hard didn't get the chance to showcase their talent. So it became a luck game more than an aptitude game.
In one instance one student got to see the list of answers for his question set! This is one of the instances which came into light. There may be many more which might have gone unnoticed. What ever pro metric claims this thing is not at all acceptable.
Although there was a non-disclosure agreement. But people kept on disclosing the questions to each other. And few actually got repeated with just the change of numeric values.
With the cognizance that the pro metric software is virus prone. Can we be 100 percent sure that what we have thought and marked as correct answer is getting saved as the correct answer only or at least getting saved at the first place or not.
IIM's have rescheduled the test for some 20000 students on 30th and 31st January. These students got a complete 2 months extra for the preparation. The pattern and level of questions was already known to them. Is this fair?

Even after a lot of request and protest by the students. IIM's are still firm on their stand that there was no problem with the online test and things are alright.
If they say so we agree. But why it is then few institutes like MICA have rejected the CAT scores this time. And IIM's too have brought down the CAT score weight age in the overall selection from 90 to 50.

These were the few reasons why our very own CAT became sick in December 2009. An emergency medical service was required but she didn't get at the right time. So she left us. Now unless IIM's revert back to the friendly paper pencil test or take the services of credible GMAC whose GMAT score is accepted worldwide, I am afraid our CAT will ever come back to us.