Sudeep D'Souza

Why leaders should have good communication skills?

2021-07-17T00:36:00.003+05:30

We all start our careers in the junior levels and then work our way up the corporate ladder. As you rise up in the hierarchy it is very important to have good communication skills and to keep improving them, this includes both oral and written communication skills. Here are some of my thoughts on why communication skills important

Leaders need to inspire

The team is going through a difficult phase, could be tough deadlines, things not working according to plan, unexpected roadblocks and so on. It is at this time you see leaders stepping in and inspiring a team to march on, to continue to strive forward and overcome this tough period. A leader should be able to raise the morale of the team and to remind them that they are capable of overcoming all challenges. This is done by communicating with the team effectively and inspirationally.

Leaders need to show vision

Leaders should always understand the bigger picture. They should be able to communicate this bigger picture to the team. This bigger picture needs to be clearly articulated to the team so that each one of them understands it and is on board to achieve it.

Communicate team achievements

All of the achievements need to be communicated by the Leader to the Stakeholders in a clear and concise manner. This will keep the team motivated and at the same time ensure the confidence of the Stakeholders in the team.

Ensuring open communication in the team

A team that communicates well tends to stay together and work in a coordinated manner. Most teams are inspired to communicate better, when the leader of the team communicates well.

The following tips can help leaders communicate effectively

Know your team well
Practice what you preach
Listen actively
Admit when you are wrong
Do not procrastinate/delay to communicate bad things
Be clear and concise
Use story telling to communicate ideas and thoughts

What I have realized over time is that one needs to start becoming more extroverted as they move up the corporate ladder or enter into entrepreneurial activities. They should not be shy to state their thoughts and opinions and should be ready to speak up both in public and private. Those that communicate well tend to rise up and get recognized quickly.

Distributed Teams - Team Timings

2020-04-03T19:22:00.000+05:30

Usually when we work in the office there is usually a check-in time and a check-out time and break out meeting times, so the whole team is together at the same time and working together and interacting and sharing and contributing.

When working at home or at a remote location, we do not take timings seriously. What happens is that each one in the team starts to work at their own timing taking mostly family into account and chores to do and just being lethargic in the morning. We get into the mode of saying if I eventually put in 8 hours that would be enough.

The truth is this destroys the rhythm of the team. One might be a morning person, another a night person, another likes to work in bursts and so on. This makes people waiting on each other endless and delays tasks getting done leading to frustration and doubts if the person is actually working.

Set a timing for the team, connect over a group conversation where everyone checks in and then work through the day being connected with each other and then break off at a set time.

Distributed Teams - Reporting Status

2020-04-02T19:03:00.000+05:30

When working in distributed teams one must remember that each one cannot see the other, so there is always that lingering thought that people are not working. When in the office one sees the person at the desk and hence assumes that the person is working. Secondly when working together, you always overhear conversations so you get a sense of what is happening.

Hence it is very important for everyone to share the status of what they are working on along with any dependencies and challenges they are facing with everyone else. Any changes to the task timelines also need to be communicated so that everyone is on the same page. Over time you will notice members of the team getting comfortable and candid in their status as long as an open communication without prejudice is maintained.

It is also very important to respond as soon as it is done to inform everyone else that it is done. Do not wait until the end of the day to inform other members of the team. This way it becomes clear to all the progress being made in the project.

Some teams maintain shared excel sheets, others use tools like Trello, Microsoft Teams, Bitrix, etc. What ever it is, encourage all to update it freely and openly.

Do not ever try to get everyone to send the status to one person, that person filters, collates and then distributes it. This will give you the status of the tasks through the lens of one person, which need not necessarily be the exact status of the project depending on the persons view of the project.

Distributed Teams - Vision and Tasks

2020-04-01T19:08:00.001+05:30

In these challenging times, almost a third of the world is not working together in an office. This is not new, the tools and methods have been developed almost from the time the internet started becoming mainstream. With outsourcing the remote working concept had really developed into a way of life for many especially in the information technology industry.

I would like to look at different aspects of remote working that have helped me through my career of working with remote teams for over 20 years.

Vision is very important. The team should have a vision of what they need to achieve. Vision could be to develop a new process, a new product, achieve 99% up-time, response rates, etc. The team should have a goal to work towards, a north star. This helps the team to stay focused and on track even when not together.

Once the team has a vision, it is very important to break this vision down into tasks. Tasks should have a clear definition (set of steps), a defined outcome, an estimate and a deadline. Yes, there might be times one can't define any of these but the important thing is to note down the task with the information that one has at the moment and then as one works through the task, you can add more tasks or modify the one you are working on to add more clarity. Do not wait to get complete clarity on a task as you would get it only when the task is done. Which would be too late as there would be no reason to define the task any more as it is already done.

Last but not least, meet often for a short quick meeting with the entire team to discuss challenges, progress and clarifications. There are many free and paid online collaboration tools that can help one with the vision, the tasks tracking and the online meetings. Use them if you have a team !

Composing a Masterpiece

2020-01-03T18:44:00.000+05:30

In an orchestra there are many individual great and very accomplished players of various instruments. Yet when they all play to the same composition together they bring out something special that they could never bring out when they play individually. And if they all play their own tune it never sounds great. Sounds more like noise.

Its the same with any team or a startup, there are many accomplished members of the staff but unless they all play to the same composition they will not produce the music of success. And if they all play their own music it never sounds good and it feels like the team is pulling in different directions.

That's where a composer plays a very crucial role, to write the music the way they envision it and then get everyone on the team to play to that composition.

This needs to be fine tuned everyday so that the orchestra plays in tune and is able to adjust to the everyday changes that are bound to occur.

Who is the composer in your team? Who writes the music for your team? Is your team ready to write the next masterpiece?

Monkey on your back

2019-09-28T15:23:00.000+05:30

Ever feel like you are being weighed down by a ton of monkeys on your back. Well if you do, then you allowed those monkeys to be put on your back.

Lets step back a bit and understand what is a monkey? A monkey is a task you gave a team member to work on and you expect them to take care in doing it to completion, but instead of completing it they bring it back undone to ask you expecting an input or a decision from you to move ahead.

The moment you take it upon yourself to give them an answer you have successfully taken over charge of that monkey and now it is stuck with you until you give an answer. Now think about it, if you start accumulating monkeys like this what would happen.

You would have to figure out how to make time to handle these monkeys as they get brought back to you to firmly take them and put them back on your team members back.

Remember that if you do not get rid of these monkeys they end up one on top of the other and the longer you keep them the more of a stink they create.

Being Relevant

2019-09-26T14:42:00.000+05:30

The IT industry is a very fast changing environment and there are new languages being invented, new technologies being uncovered and new methodologies being proposed. At the same time there are better equipped smarter and more enthusiastic youngsters that are passing out of university all excited to be part of the world building the next exciting thing to hit the technology market.

Given this situation its quite a challenge for someone who has already been working in the industry for sometime to continue to stay relevant and know and understand all the time what is happening and at the same time being acquainted with the technology and the tools that the people are using and the customers are demanding.

But it is important that one does stay acquainted and relevant to the changing times. If you don't then there is every chance that one can get rolled over by either the technology or by the super smart young kids coming out of university.

Learning never ceases and if you stop learning that would be the start of your decline. There is no reason now to stop learning in this age of online courses (coursera, udemy, many more), YouTube and many more platforms.

Keep Learning. Stay Relevant.

Task Execution Vs Task Leadership

2019-09-24T14:39:00.003+05:30

Ever been in this situation, you give a task to a member of your team and every few minutes the person would come back to you and ask you for feedback or queries and then you feel you are going nowhere with the task (as many a time you do not know the answers and would have to research) and the person feels that they have put in a lot of effort.

Alternatively you have the situation where you give a task to the member of your team, they understand what is the end goal of the task, they take all the inputs from you that you have to offer, go back to their desk and do all the research needed to execute, come back with a plan, resources needed and an activity list to execute the task and on approval sets about silently executing the task and only providing you periodic updates on the progress.

Which of these two team members would you prefer to work with? The answer is quite obvious and this is task execution vs task leadership. Its easy to find people who can execute tasks, but that leaves you to do all the thinking and making the plan. This slows down execution and can leave a lot of things on your desk waiting to be completed.

Find team members who can show leadership in understanding of what needs to be done and then doing whatever it takes to get it done rather than team members who can only execute what you give them to do. This is what differentiates a great team member from a good team member.

RakPages.com : Ras Al Kaimah's emerging business platform

2015-08-08T13:32:00.000+05:30

RAK Pages is focused on bridging the gap between consumers and businesses. Rak Pages stands for Ras Al Khaimah pages and is dedicated to the residents and businesses in Ras Al Khaimah.

According to Wikipedia, Ras Al Khaimah has over 250,000 residents. Most of the information about businesses has been passed on by word of mouth and is not centrally located. Rak Pages aims at being the one stop information portal for any business or service requirement for the Ras Al Khaimah residents.

RAKPages.ae is an online business directory that e-enables businesses by providing an online platform. This platform:

Identity: Allows for up to date information about the business which is not limiting to the business name, location, contact information and description of the activities of the business.

Showcase the business: Various ways to showcase businesses

Photos,
Printable and physical vouchers, promotions, gift coupons and flyers,
Leader-board spaces on the website
Location map
Contact form
Trendy links with photo viewer
Mobile app

Connecting clients with businesses: Businesses can get qualified customer leads through the contact response from our call center and online application after receiving approval from the client to pass on their contact details to the business.

Bringing businesses to the doorstep of residents: By marketing the business through vouchers, coupons, promotions that are physically distributed across Ras Al Khaimah, we will take the service offerings of the businesses up to the door step of the residents. Thus, increasing footfalls into malls and private establishments.

24/7 access of information to residents: RAKPages is available on the web and the mobile platforms iOS and android. This provides any time access to the users to get comprehensive information about any service or product that they are seeking.

Benefits to the Business

RAK Pages.ae has immense value to the businesses:

Quickly setup with no infrastructure cost. They can get a website through a URL unique to the business that they can share and publicize.
The website is easy to use to update information about the business including photographs, vouchers, promotions, contact information and description of the services.
Connect with customers by sending news about offers at the business
Attract customers through vouchers sent directly to their mobile phones
Help the business connect with international customers through the internet.
Proven cost effective platform to promote the businesses.

Water Politics

2014-01-04T10:48:00.000+05:30

Its amazing how the actions of one party that is less than 2 years old can get the whole nation to sit up and watch by just changing the policy on how water is billed to the residents of that state. With just that one move they manage to get prime time TV debates and every other state trying their best to replicate that model although it should not really be too hard given the amount of money each state already spends on subsidies. Water is becoming increasingly a resource that needs to be carefully consumed with a growing population and greater pollution of the existing water bodies it is becoming harder and harder to find cheaper sources of water.

Countries like Canada with the 5 great lakes have the largest body of fresh water available at their fingertips and since they are all glacier fed lakes they are perpetually being refreshed with more fresh water. The Arab countries with the desert and all the development taking place have to use desalination plants to meet their water needs. Every drop of fresh water is expensive to make and even then its not the very best quality of water and its at times cheaper to get gas for your car than to buy water.

India lies somewhere in the middle of these 2 countries - we neither have abundant water nor do we have no water. Its just that we manage to politicise the issue of water. Whether it is water sharing agreements between states or the price of water in the urban areas its all politicized and this trend is dangerous. Serious effort should be made to manage the water we have and use it efficiently or else our future generations are going to pay a severe price for water.

Golconda Fort - Hyderabad

2013-10-16T11:12:00.003+05:30

Pictures of the fort

Panoramic pictures of Hyderabad city from atop the hill on Golconda Fort.

Blog on dental hospitals

2013-04-23T18:41:00.000+05:30

Mona has worked with dental hospitals over the past 3 years helping them with their social media strategy and IT related strategic plans. You can read more about her experiences in her blog on dental hospitals.

Given below is an extract of an article she has written about dental hospitals

There are more than 1500+ dental hospitals in Hyderabad. Consultations cost anywhere between Rs. 100/- to Rs. 300/-. It is a business that functions a lot on word of mouth and references. However, if you are someone like me who came to Hyderabad and don't have anyone to point you in the right direction, then this is the dental review blog for you.If you call up JustDial, they will redirect you to the one that is paying them the most and who is in your area, ofcourse. However, for me, teeth are personal and sensitive and after horrible experiences, i decided to come up with this blog - To share information on good dental hospitals and in my own way give back to society.

If you refer to JD's reviews they are fake and from what i've seen on most review sites, there is no way of assessing the genuiness of the complaints as none of the people posting put their real name and contact details.

You can continue reading this article by going here.

Landing a programming job

2013-04-19T08:00:00.000+05:30

It is getting harder for freshers to break into the software industry and land a good job especially if you are from a tier 2 or 3 colleges. So what can you do.

The answer to this is very simple – the industry is looking for people who can do a task that is given to them – when you join the industry the key is to be able to “write code” as that is what you will be hired as a fresher to do. Let us say you go for a training you should ask yourself at the end of it – can I write code and if the answer is NO – then you will find it extremely hard to get a job in the software industry.

The key is to get a computer and get comfortable with it. The more you work on the computer the more comfortable you will get at it. So go for the training and come back to your PC and you need to work hard at it writing programs – what programs? – You may ask and the answer is simple – any program that will teach you the concept that you learnt.

You can find these programs to code at these locations

Mindqjobs.com and we have a section on programming and their solutions.
Click here to get a list of programming questions - 50 programs for software engineers looking for jobs
Any book will be able to give you enough samples to understand and learn.

Do not copy-paste the sample and execute it and say you tried it out. Read the sample – close the source – try and do it without looking at the source – if you run into difficulties stop what you are doing – go back to the source – read it once again – close the source and come back to the computer and fix the problem – that is the only way you will learn and get confident. The key is to be able to implement things on your own.

Let us say, now you have the required knowledge and the confidence that you can program given the problem – you may ask – How do I now get a job? Write about the tougher programs that you have programmed or what you have learnt on a blog. Some examples of blogs of students that have trained under me are

Include this URL in your resume. You should be able to write these programs if asked to at the interview and I can assure you that in 8 out of 10 cases you will land yourself a programming job. In any circumstances do not lie about your skills or experience – even if you get through the interview your shortcomings will be exposed and things will get tougher once you start working.

Who best fits the QA Role ?

2013-04-16T16:30:00.000+05:30

For those of you who are not too familiar with these terms I would advise you to read my first article - Quality Assurance Vs Quality Control where I have spoken about my understanding of the two terms and it kind of leads into this article.

I have been asked this a few times by professionals who do QC (essentially testers although testing != QC) - "How do I move into a QA role?" and I have also read in a few websites and newsgroups for QA and QC where one looks at moving from a QC role to a QA role like a natural progression in ones careers.

Since I have played the QA role I would first talk about some of the things that helped me perform this role.

Since the QA role expects the person to have a holistic view of the process of software development it is important to have a bit of experience in all the facets of software development right from requirements to design to development to deployment. Its only when one understands all of these elements in software development can one be competent enough to be able to define a process.
Its important to understand the business for which the process is being developed. The process that is developed for software product development will be different from software services. Hence it is important to understand the business so that the appropriate process can be developed or enhanced.
The person implementing a process needs to understand the implications of a process change. Process change is a mindset change - you need to get everyone else to think like you and then get them to implement the process. Hence it is very important to gradually move them to where you want the process to be. Hence reading some theory and saying oh it will be great to have it lets roll it out may backfire very badly its important to understand the implication of each step of the process and implement it gradually showing the benefits of the process that is being implemented.
A QA person needs to be an evangelist - he needs to convince a lot of people that he/she knows what they are doing. Hence it is good to have good communication skills and marketing abilities to be able to sell the benefits of the process. Secondly the experience of the person in implementing what the person is preaching will go a long way in convincing everyone that what is being implemented will work.

Hence as you can see just understanding the testing phase of a project development lifecycle or being very good at testing and identifying defects in the software does not gaurantee that the person will be good playing the QA role. Hence it is important to understand that moving from QC (aka Testing) to QA is not a natural progression of ones career.

Advertising as primary revenue stream in startups

2013-04-15T10:45:00.000+05:30

Over the last few months I have seen a lot of business ideas that base their revenue generation through advertising. In my experience this is a very dangerous strategy for a startup. Let me narrate my experience about implementing this strategy on a website that Inforica had developed called mindqjobs.com.

We launched this website in the last week of december 2012 with much fanfare with the assumption that we will get the traffic to monetize through advertising. The assumption was made on the fact that the website was to be used by the students of a software training institute Mindq Systems which number in the 1000s every month. We started off by putting Adsense and the pennies started to flow in almost immediately. Thats right, all we got were pennies which added up to a few dollars every day, an amount barely enough to pay for hosting the site on a shared server. One of the reasons is because the traffic was from India and not the west, so you end up making very little in terms of CTRs and CPCs. About a month later one fine day we get a mail from Adsense saying that our adsense account is banned for illegal traffic and that was the end of adsense on the website.

We then went on to try out other ad networks such as Komoona ads. We get absolutely nothing from this ad network, just a few cents every day which we continue to get as of now. We got an account on infolinks - this made the whole page very ugly by linking up text to extra information and it was not the kind of user experience that we desired on the website. Another ad network that we tried out is Chitika - the issue with this is that it is targeted towards search pages and not content pages so they have very few ad types. The new one that I am trying out now is Tyroo - this is an ad network where you promote products and you earn commissions.

Based on my experience this is my feedback for all those considering an advertising as their main source of revenue

Ensure that you have 10's of thousands of page views per day with a majority of the traffic from the west.
Adsense is by far the easiest ad network to implement with the least amount of work. They have a wide array of ads suitable for every kind of page and the kind of revenue you earn from it is much more than any other ad network we have come across.
Have one person full time only evaluating and trying out ad networks and changes to your web pages so that you manage the fine line between a good user experience and good chances of a click through.
There is very little control that one has over the ad network and if all your revenue is dependent on a third party you have very high risk inherently built into your revenue model that can drive you into the ground very easily.
Since traffic takes time to build up so ad revenue takes time to build up and also there is no guarantee that the ad revenue is directly proportional to the growth of the traffic although a pattern develops over time.

My personal opinion is that ad revenue cannot be your primary source of income of your product unless you are a google, facebook or linkedin and none of us are that when we startup. Ad revenue should only be a supplementary source of income. Build something that a customer is going to love using and is willing to pay you for it. That should be your primary source of income.

10 guidelines to be a valued associate

2013-04-13T10:59:00.000+05:30

Its appraisal time and everyone wants to be the most valued associate. But how do you become the most valued associate - here are my thoughts

Creating a belief that you can meet your commitments. Given a task you will do what ever it takes to complete it in the allocated time.
Take pains to ensure that the task is done with minimum defects or issues. This can be achieved by multiple practice runs or by a lot of testing.
There is an eye for detail to ensure that simple things are not overlooked and there is no compromise made on quality.
Shortcomings of delivering the application are noted and brought to the attention of the superior as soon as they are identified so appropriate action can be taken. Do not wait to be asked for status to bring this up.
Having the knowledge to deliver and train others so that you gain respect within the community. Should have the passion to learn new things and apply them in ones work.
Documenting what is being done so that anyone else can take over and continue if you have to ever leave the task mid way.
Being open minded and inclusive in discussions and meetings.
Having good communication skills both written and oral. They should have the ability to write well written emails or be able to hold a discussion comfortably with clients and fellow associates in the organization.
Being able to admit ones faults and shortcomings and put action plans in place to rectify them.
Not being afraid to challenge the norm and work on actionable points to improve the organization.

With inputs from Vidhyashankar Kannan - you can read his blog here.

Startup events in Hyderabad

2013-04-12T16:00:00.000+05:30

Was reading this small write up in the times paper about the NASSCOM initiative to create 10000 startups and over the last one month I have been part of 3 startup events in Hyderabad focused
primarily towards students and encouraging them to take the entrepreneurial plunge rather than take up a campus recruitment offer.

Startup Weekend University

Startup Weekend University is similar to a regular startup weekend event except that the combination of students to experienced professionals is 70% students and 30% professionals. We had about 75 participants and the event was held at the beautiful BITS Pilani, Hyderabad campus over 3 days with many students staying on the campus. The students were primarily from BITS, IIT, IIIT and Vignan University, Guntur with a few students from other colleges in the city.

The event was a highly successful event in showcasing that students can build products over the weekend that have a business side to them. There were 13 startups formed over the weekend and all of them had a working prototype to show the judges on sunday evening. There were ideas ranging from playing puzzles to win free food orders to home automation systems where hardware was fabricated at the venue.

The event kicked off on friday evening with pitch fire (1 min to tell everyone what your idea is), voting for the top ideas and team formation. By 11 PM on friday night we had 13 teams ready to start building their startups. Saturday was filled with mentoring sessions with successful founders, investors, CEOs of companies and product building using the resources that startup weekend provides. Sunday saw final demos being presented in front of a panel of judges that run incubators and accelerators.

Idea Carnival

TiE along with Hyderabad Angels and the Uber Accelerator conducted an event called Idea Carnival at IIIT, Hyderabad. This was a 2 day event with students from IIIT, IIT, BITS and ISB that attempted to put together a business model and a wireframe/throw away prototype over 2 days to be presented to a panel of judges that consisted of almost 10 angels. It was amazing to see the confidence of the students in putting forth their ideas and business models to a large audience in Avasa Hotel.

Ideato

Ideato was an event conducted in IIT Hyderabad by the students of IIT Hyderabad for the students of IIT Hyderabad. They got about 35-40 students to spend a weekend to ideate and validate their ideas. The ideas were very exciting from creating videos out of images to local search and coupons.

Other articles I have written about startup weekend

Staying the course

2013-04-11T17:12:00.001+05:30

Life can be challenging for an entrepreneur. The inherent risks of running the venture are high and thus each
day presents their own challenges. The risks are there as the number of people that can do a job is limited, the money available on hand is limited, the number of customers you have is limited and vendors do not give you attention as you are small. Any one of these can change every day and you will notice that you have ups and downs in quick succession - just like you are going on a roller coaster. This can play with the mind of the entrepreneur in a very significant way.

The important thing is to keep evaluating your position with respect to your employees, customers, suppliers and money flow as often as possible and take actions accordingly. There are days when it would seem impossible to manage all of this and you feel like throwing in the towel wondering if it is all worth it. It is at this time you have to go back to your vision and believe completely in your vision and then stay the course to reach that vision. That is where it is very important to have a vision as an entrepreneur.

Forming a vision is like dreaming and can cover

What kind of an organization you want to create - its values, beliefs?
What kind of work do you want to do in case of services?
What kind of a product do you want to build in terms of a product?
Understand who are your best customers, suppliers and employees - figure out how you are going to work with them in the future to grow your business and organization?

Your vision should create assets (Read Post on Assets and Branding) - assets can be in the form of a very good customer list, a fantastic set of employees, suppliers who answer your call on the first ring :) and products or services that more and more customers want. If you have this vision and you feel you are moving towards it then it is a lot more easier to stay the course and reap the rewards in time.

Passport Renewal Application

2013-04-09T23:26:00.000+05:30

Its been 5 years since I have applied for my daughters passport and I wrote a series of articles at that point of time on the process

The process now has changed significantly and so much for the better. I got the passport in about a week after applying for a tatkal passport. Let me go over the steps here. Please note a few things with respect to my application

It was for a minor.
It was a renewal of a passport that expired less than 3 years ago.
There was no address change. The address on the expired passport and the new passport is the same.

Step 1 : Create a login

Create an account on https://portal2.passportindia.gov.in/AppOnlineProject/user/userLogin. Give a valid email id as you will need to validate the email id after registration.

Step 2 : Apply for Fresh Passport / Reissue of Passport

Once you login, click on the link that says apply for fresh passport / Reissue of passport. Follow the instructions and download the PDF and complete it. If you are using Adobe 10 then you can save the PDF. Use the offline method where you have to fill in the form > Save an XML file on your desktop and then upload it onto the site.

Step 3 : Schedule a date

On the same site you have to schedule a date at the Passport Seva Kendra. There are slots that open up every day at 4:00 PM and within about a minute they get filled up. The important point to note is that they open up at 4:00 PM on the server time at the passport office and this time is located at the top left hand corner of the screen. Keep applying for a slot right from 3:55 PM continuously refreshing the time. If you stay idle then it times out the session and you will have to login again. Do not login with the same id on multiple computers it will log you out of all the sessions. Do not give up, it took me 3 days to figure it out and finally get a date. Each day they open up the slots for 1 day about 4-5 days from the date you try to make the booking.

Step 4 : Collecting the documents

You can get the list of documents needed by going to this URL - https://portal2.passportindia.gov.in/AppOnlineProject/docAdvisorSecure/attachmentAdvFresh. Select the appropriate choices and it will give you the list of documents needed. You will have to carry photocopies of these documents and also the original on the date and time that you got a booking for in the Passport Seva Kendra. In addition to these documents I was asked to give the photocopy of the fathers passport and the mothers passport. You do not need to carry photographs. They are taken in the passport seva kendra.

Step 5 : Submit documents at the Passport Seva Kendra

Report at the allotted time at the passport seva kendra. Its a 4 step process

Get the documents verified and get a token. At this point they will put the photocopies of your documents in a file.
Your original documents are scanned, photograph is taken and fees collected. At this point they will collect the fees based on whether the application is tatkal or normal.
The documents are verified online that were scanned in step 2 vs what is present in the file.
The file is submitted and a receipt is given to you and the old passport is stamped.

Step 6 : Passport is sent to your address by speed post

The passport is then dispatched to your house by speed post. The status of this can be viewed on the website by logging in. The day the passport is dispatched you are sent an SMS on the registered mobile number.

The process is very simple and straight forward now. The documents can be photocopied at the passport seva kendra as there is a photocopy center inside and also there is an ATM to withdraw money if needed. The kendra's are air conditioned and there are chairs to sit down and wait for your turn. You have to wait for your token to come up on the big TV displays and then go to the appropriate counter. It took me about 2 hours inside the kendra to complete the entire process.

Technology Entrepreneurship Certificate

2013-02-05T08:30:00.000+05:30

This is the certificate I got for successfully completing the Technology Entrepreneurship course on Venture Lab.

The courses here are really good and I would advise all those that can do these courses to take them up.

10 Reasons to join mindqjobs.com

2013-02-01T10:26:00.002+05:30

Inforica in collaboration with Mindq Systems launced http://www.mindqjobs.com. Mindqjobs.com is a website that is going to cater to the needs of the student community. Here are 10 reasons why every graduating student that is preparing for a job or for higher studies has to join Mindqjobs.com.

Browse the job board for up to date job information that is curated and posted.
Create a professional looking profile by using the Resume Builder. Once your profile is ready share it as a standalone URL to everyone and then track who has viewed the profile.
Use the online material to prepare in various topics such as Quantitative, Logical, Programming languages and so on.
Take tests in different topics and see how prepared you are in terms of speed of answering questions and also accuracy.
Connect with others through the discussion board and discuss common topics.
Find solutions to common programming problems in different programming languages. Many technical interviews involve answering programming logic problems and this can help you build up that logical capability.
Evaluate your typing speed on the website and improve on it which shows proficiency with computers.
Get access to professionals to review your profile and ensure that it is written in a professional manner.
Access to downloads such as sample resumes and programming problems for you to try out.
Take sample tests of competitive exams. The IBPS bank exam and more exams are coming soon.

The Entrepreneur mindset

2013-01-15T08:55:00.000+05:30

Just read this very insightful quote by Oliver Emberton, Founder of Silktide - Most people spend their money to get the most utility - fun, food, whatever. Entrepreneurs spend their money to make the most money.

This picture is worth a million words. As a consumer we spend money on things for personal gratification - things that give us pleasure, satisfaction, meeting a need, motivation, enlightenment, satiate our ego or whatever else that makes us feel better. They do not help us make more money unless the money is spent on buying an asset of value. An an entrepreneur one needs to spend money on creating assets that will help create more money. This goes back to an earlier post that I wrote on Building your brands and assets. It is these brands and assets that you can monetize and generate more money.

As an entrepreneur it is very important to think this way. Its important to take stock of the assets you have and evaluate if these assets are being monetized properly and at the same time figure out what new assets can be created that can be monetized even more.

Whats a good idea to startup with?

2013-01-08T09:10:00.000+05:30

How do you select a good idea that can make money and the picture above illustrates very nicely what such an idea can be. Ideas are plenty and if you put your mind to it you will come up with so many ideas that it becomes overwhelming after a bit. But which of these ideas can be converted into a company that can make money?

We all end up doing what we do well and what we can be paid to do - because that is the easiest thing to do. We know how to do the work and we get paid for it so the rewards are instantaneous. But can we do this day in and day out for the rest of our lives - the answer is no because its not what we want to do. The passion will be lacking. When there is no passion there is no yearning to be the best or to give quality or to go to all lengths to ensure that the customer is delighted. When this does not happen you will start to lose customers and the business will not sustain.

It is important to focus on ideas that you want to work on and are excited to work on and then hope that it all comes together by becoming an idea that you are very good at doing and a customer is willing to pay you for doing it. Hitting this sweet spot happens over time and significant effort.

Hotel Review : The Claridges, Surajkund

2013-01-05T09:06:00.000+05:30

Back in July, I got to spend a couple of nights in The Claridges, Surajkund. The hotel itself is very nice and spacious and is located about 25 km from the airport. As you enter the hotel the lobby and the reception is very spacious and inviting.

The room
The room is very spacious and airy. All the amenities that one expects in a 5 star hotel are present. We did not get much time to spend in the room as it was quite a hectic 2 days filled with meetings and discussions.

The swimming pool
The swimming pool is really nice. We spent a lot of time in the pool - might explain the lack of time spent in the room :). The swimming pool is next to the spa and it is an elevated pool with nice privacy. The water was warm and just lovely to lounge in for hours together. They do not sell swimming gear at the hotel so make sure you carry it and also they are quite strict with the clothing in the pool.

Restaurants and Bars

Dhaba - is a north Indian restaurant that has a rustic feel to it. The food is good and very tasty but also very very expensive. The bar Azure is a great place to just relax and have a drink. The Coffee Shop serves up a very good breakfast in the morning and there was not a single dish that I did not like - they were all tasty.

Other facilities
We used the conference room facilities and they were quite impressive and well equipped. The only issue we faced was with the internet connection. They also do have a gym that is well equipped and a spa. Although I did not visit the spa those who did go for a treatment came back very happy and contented.

The hotel is very nice to spend a day or two in away from the hustle and bustle of Delhi to just relax and unwind. There is not much to do in the immediate vicinity of the hotel unless you have a vehicle of your own. Call cabs do come to the hotel if you call them well in advance. Spur of the moment activities to do outside the hotel without transport is non existent unless you are willing to pay the heavy price of hiring a cab from the hotel.

Windows 8 : Hibernate Vs Sleep

2013-01-04T08:30:00.000+05:30

By default the Windows 8 operating system does not come with the hibernate option. When you close the lid the computer sleeps by default. This is how I left my system for the first couple of days but what I quickly realized that even though I was doing nothing - my computer was just sleeping and so was I, my battery would be drained by morning. There would be absolutely no charge left by the time I put on the laptop in the morning.

Thankfully Microsoft has not removed the hibernate option in Windows 8 - you just have to search for it under the many menus and you will find it or just follow the steps in this article and you will be there in a minute - http://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/how-to-enable-windows-8-hibernate-option/

The option to find the menu to hibernate is quite hidden and a pain to do each time so what I have done is configured the sleep button to hibernate. Now I have no issues with my battery and my laptop does not feel like a heater each time I put it on. The hibernate option is much improved in Windows 8 and my laptop is able to hibernate in less than 10 seconds.