Reflections

Attrition : Follow up

2011-07-16T08:49:00.002-04:00

Last week one of my friends put in his papers after spending about 2 years in his organization. The company in question is a US based MNC which is primarily leverging the cost arbitage to drive efficiencies for its US product development and professional services work.( Like most captive offshore units set up in India in the last decade.)

The guy in question had joined the organization about 2 years back and had been sent to the US for a 3 month training and transition before moving the product team to India. With a thin client facing team in US, the entire technology team was moved to India. Pretty much the model upon which the Indian IT industry has been built by the likes of Wipro, Infy and being emulated by others like JP morgan, Goldman Sachs etc for the last 10 -12 years or so. With attrition being so common in India, all the organization had to do was get another guy with the similar background and technology experience and fill in that position.

So why I am even discussing this story here ? Well as a result of this guy quitting, the US team decided not to hire someone in India and instead hire someone locally in the US. The agrument to justify this decision is indeed compelling.This position was moved to offshore ( or best-shored) about 5 years back to India. In a span of 5 years, my friend was the 3rd guy to be hired for this position and being trained by the team in the US.

The US team had just got frustrated .. training and hiring folks only to see them leave after 2 years. This despite giving a double digit salary increase to this guy in the 2 years span.The math here quite simple , Hiring and training costs : About 15K, Salary to this guy :15K, overhead( for time zone differences and communication : another 10K. Total 40K. Spend may be another 10K ( or may be more) and you end up getting someone who will work in ur timezone and will probably stay on with the organization for the long term ( and as bonus not ask for the double digit salary hike).

So the question : Is attrition and the Indian Engineers penchant to only work for the salary leading to a early demise of the Indian Offshoring model ? Admittedly this situation would have occurred sometime in the future but I think this incident of my friend is not one off. Recently , we saw a big UK based bank moving call center jobs back to UK citing poor quality as the reason. I am pretty sure Attrition is somewhere adding to the poor quality -- remember attrition rates in the BPO sector is abnormally high ( ranging from 20% to 50%)

So again going back to the question which I raised in the previous blog posting .. why is attrition rate in India so high ?

Attrition: Meritocracy or Mediocrity?

2011-07-01T08:58:00.002-04:00

The job market in India is booming!!.And How? almost all companies have announced plans to increase hiring in the years 2011-2012 with some of the usual suspects like Infosys, TCS saying they will hire 30K+ this year - as laterals and as campus hires. (Another interesting point to ponder over - why do companies like Infy, TCS keep hiring campus grads letting go of an equal number of experienced folks every year. But will talk more on that in another post). And this boom is certainly not limited to IT sector. I see sectors like Banking, Finance, Infrastructure showing a positive hiring outlook as well.

One of the consequences of this hiring boom is attrition and voluntary exits across the various organizational levels. (But more visible in the junior and middle management levels). And managers, business leaders and HR executives have been looking for innovative ideas to stem attrition and keep the staff on payrolls for longer durations. Here is my take on the attritions we are currently seeing in the India markets. Not trying to offer any solution, but just raising a few questions which may lead us to the root cause.

Starting with a real life case. There is a bunch of guys who join X company straight out of college. They have similar backgrounds and scores in college and not much differentiates these guys while in college. Couple of years down the line, after going through 2-3 appraisals, at least a few of these will turn out to be better than others in terms of performance or interpersonal skills or learnability/adaptability or hardwork(going the extra mile) - the parameters which differentiate boys from the men in the real world. Which implies that the better performing guys are given a bigger raise and are up for promotion sooner than the average guys. Now what do the others "average" performers do? In the pre-liberalization era, these guys would stick there neck out and work hard to make themselves count and try to match better performing guys in the next appraisal cycle and try to outperform the achievers ( Such a healthy competition can be used by an effective manager/leader to the organization's advantage)

But in the growth scenario we are seeing today, all the average guy has to do is post his resume on a job site. Brush up his technical skills and voila - he lands a job which is paying on par with high performers/achievers. So he moves on and joins the other company and enjoys similar remunerations/perks as the guy who has worked his ass out to get to the top. So here is the question - are we in the quest for growth - fostering the Mediocrity? Isn’t the appraisal system supposed to reward the good and provide opportunities for the average to improve? Is Meritocracy leading to mediocrity?

Now I know some of you may say that the appraisal was not fair - my manager screwed up and could not get me a better rating, my appraiser is partisan to this guy who is also his fuseball or TT buddy etc.. But honestly in all these years I have been through appraisals, admittedly such cases exist but they are far and between. One or two exceptions do occur; otherwise the appraisal system in general has been good and fair. (I have worked for 3 $5billion+,20K employees organizations and have been through the 3 different kinds of appraisals in these companies.). So is it ok to provide the average guy with the same perks as the high performer?

Of course, in all fairness different companies have different yardsticks to measure the "good-fit" guy. But does this average guy go on to become a top performer in the next organization?(may be because of a better work culture, better opportunities) That would be worth tracking and finding and may form nice thesis for someone doing a PhD in organization behavior. Any takers ;)

Again in my own defence, I don’t say that this is the only reason why we are seeing attrition rates in double digits %. There are other reasons including better opportunities being thrown by the economy in terms of the work you want to do, the technology you want to embrace, the size of company you want to work with etc etc . These are reasons which acceptable but honestly I don’t see more than 10% of the overall attrition rate being caused by these reasons. Again another interesting research subject would be – to find out how many of the employees/workers who have been rated in the top 20% in their peer group actually quit and move to another company? And why do they quit? Higher studies, even better opportunities or just in search of greener pastures?

Inflation - points to ponder over !

2011-07-01T02:02:00.000-04:00

After corruption, the next hot topic for among general public in India has to be Inflation. Be grandfathers talking of how they used to get Rice at Rs 1/kg or the housewives nagging over the price of Onions or potatos....(The recent diesel/lpg/kerosene price hikes have only added more fuel to the fire :),inflation effects one and all. Just that the effect is more profound on some sections of the society than other and the effects are so subtle that sometimes you don't notice this at all.

Consider this example (taken from a article I was reading in a business magazine a few days back). Your regular office parking guy charges 1000 bucks for a month to let you safely park your car at your reserved place.(Yeah yeah I know only a privileged few get this honor and BTW this is not my office I am talking of. Parking in my office is free provided you reach early enough to get one ;)) Now say he raises his rate to 1200. You being the privileged guy will say.. 200 bucks wat the heck.. I will pay and get going. But did you even notice that that's a 20% increase in parking ( remember inflation in India is still hovering around a "high" 8-9%.)And now this guy is collecting this 20% increase not just from you but from many others like you. So the money multiplier effect kicks in since the parking management now has 20% more disposable money at hand.

Which raises the question .. Is inflation (especially food and essential commodities) in India a supply driven or Demand Side driven? My guess it is combination of the two. So what can we collectively do about inflation (apart from fretting about it and blaming the government for it). Here are some things I can think of.

Reduce Wastage of Food: Food contributes the maximum points to inflation numbers in India currently. So reduce the food wasteage both from supply side and demand side

Demand Side: Consider one example here. My office cafeteria used to offer free food during lunchtime to all employees till the month of May. After finishing up the lunch, like in most corporate cafeterias, we are supposed to empty our leftovers from the plates into a bin and then put the plates for wash. The Bin would usually become full - with most people taking more than what they can eat and throwing the stuff into the bin. On a given day, the facilities guys said that they have 2 full bins of food leftovers only. However from the month of June, the Company decided to stop giving free food and instead asked the employees to start buying food by paying. Guess what -- most people starting getting lunch boxes from home and the bin which would usually overflow was not even 1/4 full !!!! . Imagine the affect on the food demand if all the corporate and government offices adopt this approach or at least ask people not to waste food !!

Similar demand side changes can be effected at homes. Usually moms cook more rice or food in general at home - the thinking being that if someone is more hungry than normal - he should not be left wanting. But this leads to is huge wastage of cooked rice and food everyday at home. (I am sure most middle class Indians can relate to this). Instead the moms and ( the cooks for the working modern moms) can take a step back and ask the people at home how much hungry they are - that would help reduce some consumption led demand as well.

Supply Side: Encourage organized retailers like Reliance, More etc. They have a strong supply chain and logistic support system which will help from reduce wastes during transportation and storage. Today Food Corporation of India(FCI) godowns/granaries are full but still the food prices are not going down simply because of the lack of the proper supply chain and distribution mechanisms. Not to mention that most godowns have poor storage standards and with Rats/Rodents infesting most of them. (That this is allowed by the FCI officials points to the another nexus - the corrupt FCI guys say that x kg of grains was eaten away by the rats and then sell these x kgs in the open market to distributors and retailers)

So the question is - what can you as a consumer do to control price raise and inflation? Think about it. There are many things we can do (like -do not rip your cars and bikes on road. Ripping decreases you fuel efficiency thereby increasing overall fuel consumption and demand). Can you think of more such ways? Simple but profound innovations??

Corruption Corruption everywhere !!!

2011-06-19T00:45:00.005-04:00

this blog may be a little late in the day. But havent had the motivation write on something for months ( or is it years;) now. But finally have got over my bumpiness and laziness.And yeah have been thinking abt the noise and high( or it is super high decibel) campaign against corruption that the indian civil society( the new name of the middle class intelligensia)is waging.

As I was thinking about it, i starting with the most basic question ? What is the root cause of all this corruption ? It is not that corruption is unique to India. It is exists in every part of the world and at almost every level. Politicians, bureaucrats, government officials and even private sector employees ( vendor gifts and holidays anyone) in every nook and corner of world indulge in the act of corruption. So what is the root cause of it ?

Well i think there multiple reasons why people are corrupt and support corruption. here are some the possible reasons.

1. GREED GREED GREED !!! : I think this one word signifies a lot. And it leads the various other reasons . How else would one explain the fact that someone like Kanimozhi (who probably wud have inherited crores from M Karunanidhi as a legal heir) is accepting favors from the likes of Unitech and DB realty. The fact remains that the human being is always greedy and is never satisfied with what he already has. That is where the problem starts.the more you get, the more you want !!.

2. Compare and Perish !!! : Consider 2 guys who are best of pals from college, have very similar backgrounds, got similar scores in academics but as luck would have it, one of them got into a government job and other into private sector.As most of us know and would agree, the rewards if you do your job well is much higher in the private sector than in Government and so the government job guy starts feeling left out in the race when compared to his dear pal over years. So what does he do ? Start looking at other options to earn money and that is when he thinks of under-table earnings etc ( it is afterall easy money rather than quitting a cozy government job and trying his rusted skills in private sector. So the point here is dont compare your wealth and success with someone else. You don't know the efforts and sacrifices it took for that success.

Mind you, both of these above root causes have a positive shade to them. And a little greed and comparison is not necessarily bad because it can induce a healthy competition and get you thinking.Especially with the comparison thingy. The key word here is healthy and the line between healthy and unhealthy is rather thin. And that is where the value systems each of us builds becomes very important. Part of what the value system should teach everyone of us to where to draw this very important line.

So the fight against corruption which the Indian civil society is waging really has its roots in the value systems. We may fight to get our black money and get it back now. But there will be another generation of corrupt guys who will learn how to circumvent lokpal or any other bill and continue the corrupt acts.

Can we create a system where by the next generations of leaders have the right values ? Is there a value system test which we can ask the future leaders to take before the can fight elections ? (simply because politicians and law makers are considered the most corrupt and also can be most influential in stemming corruption because of the power they wield) Points to ponder and innovate on !!! .

India and the Digital "divide"

2010-02-12T08:13:00.003-05:00

Hmm trying to blog on something after a really long time. Work has kept me very busy off late and this blog is well... about my recent work experiences. My current job profile is taking me places ( literally tat is :) ) .. exposing me to the digital divide which exists in this country. Well I am not talking of the usual rural-urban divide which the media often highlights and says that IT in rural india will solve all the problems but a divide of a different kind. Read on ......

Picture this .. you are to visit the IT head office of one of the largest PSU banks in the country for a meeting.(The head office is located in the heart of the "cyber" city of India).Like a good IT guy who is meeting the client, you email the entire meeting agenda and other documents relevant to the meeting...hoping that the IT head reads the whole thing and is aware of the meeting agenda.
Circa the day of the meeting .. I am at office and wat do I see ? The client contact has 3 copies of the documents/agenda nicely binded in the XXX bank folders.. whats more every single email yours which you have sent during the course of this project is nicely printed and labeled/filed in a cabinet next to the manager.. I look at the "paperless office" poster hang over the manager's head ....ahem . ahem ..

The next meeting also in the hitech cyber city ... but this time in the ghettos of government offices. I am entering one of the first "IT enabled" departments of the state Government for a meeting...and I am meeting the IT director.. As is usual in the babudom, the person I am supposed to meet is yet to come to the office for the day ( it is 11:15 am already .. the meeting was supposedly held at 11 am) ..
so I wait in the "cabin" of the director .. the assistant IT director's seat is next to the directors.He is scribbling something in a big register looking extremely busy but every 2 mins he switches on the monitor of a swanky dell desktop and checks on something for a few seconds and then goes back to the register. The routine goes on for a few minutes and then he checks the monitor again and says " Chey.. Sachin out .. India batting waste !!" .Voila it turns out that he checking the desktop only for cricket match score ....otherwise his "normal" work is to do fill in the daily transactions in a ledger which in turn will be entered into the system by a "computer operator" .
I want beat my chest like Saif did in Dil Chahta hai ………. So such goes the digital divide in the country … more the rural-urban divide later …….. yes. my work takes me to the heart of India .. the villages ………

Back in Action !

2009-01-02T02:12:00.003-05:00

yep ...... trying to get back to the blogging circuit ( it is one of my new year resolutions. Dekhte hai kab thak chalta hai :) :) ) ...... long time since I stopped blogging. A lot has happened since then...... have graduated from the Wannabe MBA status to a "real" MBA .. the sensex has gone topst-turvy hitting a low of 8K from the phenomenal 22-23K mark ....... Investment banks are history .. so are the dreamy "dream" jobs of my MBA classmates...... gotta think of a new tagline for me since now I am a so called "MBA" .....currently still looking for the elusive "perfect" job in a shitty job market ....... I am also back in my good old home country mera Bharat Mahan ! ... namma bengalooru as usual rocks with new Airport ..... the metro work going on full swing .........but the 11pm pub/bars closure deadline has many partying at home now ..with some even going to hyderabad or Mumbai just for the new year bash..... on the personal front a lot of my buddies are getting gridlocked in wedding vows....... 2009 promises to be a feast with a lot of travel ........ so hope to be able to write on my travels and travails..........

10 days into MBA !

2007-09-12T23:12:00.001-04:00

Just finished the first 10 days of MBA . Incidently it has coincided with my getting the internet connection from the good for nothing Comcast Cable service. (I say "good for nothing" because Comcast cancelled my Installation Appointment 3 times simply because they could not wait for 10 minutes). That gives me the opporunity to get write this blog. Over the next one year, as move to my coveted MBA experience, I would like seperate my MBA life from the Normal boy next door blog which I have been writing for the last 10 months . (ok kuch jyada ho gaya ) . You can already see that I have updated my Profile reflecting my new status.

Will be blogging more at http://lifeathult.blogspot.com from now on. So keep watching that space for more updates from me.

JetLag,House Search and Ts...........

2007-08-26T17:09:00.001-04:00

Into the fourth day of my 2nd US experience and things are finally beginning to look up ! First, I have been able getover the so called JetLag (I prefer to call it Lateral Time Shift ) which meant that I was awake for most of the time it was dark here ( Night Shift from USA for India ? Quite possible in the future) . Then in the day time I had to fight off the sleep (which I needed so badly) because I needed to search for a place which would be my home sweet home for the next one year. Finally my body seems to have got adjusted now to the time shift now.

And the house search meant I am talking to and meeting people completely unknown to me (like I talked to John, a Macho Realtor born in America for a 2 Bedroom Apartment, a Lithuanian Mother of three who wants to rent out her 3 bed Apartment,a Indian American who somehow wants to rent out the place to Indians only and so on ). Finally I have choosen the apartment being rented out by the American as my home for the next year and will signing on the dotted line sometime next week and moving into the place.

The search for the house took me to places like Wellington ,Somerville, Medford, Malden and some 20 T stations in between .( Ts are Bostonian way of saying Subways or Metro ). And had it not been for the convenient T systems, I think I would have spent a fortune in searching for my home. A 15$ weekly pass meant that I could travel any number of times to these places and the experience has been great to say the least. On Boston Ts , you are sharing space with students from India, China and what not countries talking in their respective Native languages, with old Bostonians who prefer the charm of the train to the hassles of Driving , with Spanish migrants from Latin America and perhaps most importantly with young Boston couples going for a date. (Boston Gals have off clean spotless backs, Necklines,hands and legs and thanks to hot "summer" days, they on display for free in the Ts.)

Another strange thing about the Boston Ts is that each of the routes have their own pecularity. The green line(each route is signified by a colour) for example turns into a tram/city bus once it is out of the underground tracks and in fact has to wait for the traffic lights to turn green (along with the cars/buses) before moving forward !!! The orange line trains are as long as a long distance train in Europe (ok they are not in 1/4th of the trains in India but for a city train,they are long). The red line trains don't have automated Voiceovers for station Information and the driver of the train himself shouts top of this voice "Attention everybody. The Destination of this train is Braintree. Brrrrrrriiiiinntreeeeeeeeeee.".

All in all a completely new experience. If you ask me if this is the most efficient subway System, I would say it is the best I have seen. Although somebody told me Delhi Metro is better but can't vouch for it myself.

First Impressions:Jet Airways will go places

2007-08-23T16:18:00.001-04:00

Well my first blog from Boston !. Reached here yesterday evening after a 22 hr long journey. And luckily the flight journey turned out to be a really good one. Kudos to Jet Airways for starting a service from Mumbai to USA and setting high standards in terms of service and convenience. Having already travelled in the likes of NorthWest Airlines(NWA),Lufthansa and Air India, I can very well claim that the service which Jet offered was the best among these. So what did Jet so differently ?

For starters Jet Airways is using a Boeing 777-300 ER, which is a brand new long distance aircraft from the Boeing stable. Apart from offering a 3 class configuration, the best part was the ample leg room which it provided for the economy/cabin passengers. That Apart , the aircraft has personal LCD screens for every individual. Now this is not new of course, but the quality of the screen and the movie/music collections was amazing. ( Especially for we Indians, loads of Hindi movies both old and new). Again the in-flight cabin crew were the best ( both in looks and the service which they offered :)). The flight attendents were really courteous and helpful. This is really required on flights originating from India. Quite a few of them are travelling in flights for the 1st time and are not even sure as to how tighten the seat belts.(The Flight attendents of NWA were the worst I would say. They never respond to any of your requests).

We were given Menu cards for the food/beverages and the beverages on offer were really good. Like how many of the airlines offer Old Monk Black rum on flights ? Also the Indian Food on offer was really tasty and edible(by Airline food standards) when compared the stuff which other airlines offer. Another convenience is a small kit which contained the essentials like Toothpaste and brush. (These may be Small things but go a long way in improving the overall service). All in all, a long international flight where I did not get bored at all. (And No, there was no pretty gal sitting next to me in the flight.).

Full marks to Jet Airways and I do sincerely hope they maintain the same service levels in the years to come . Interestingly, by the next year , Kingfisher Airlines will start off it's international operations and going the benchmark Kingfisher has set in India's domestic flight service levels , I think the stage is set for an interesting battle between the two India based Airlines to grab a pie of the growing travel on the India-USA route.

From Bengalooru to Boston........

2007-08-19T13:11:00.000-04:00

It is time to bid good bye to Namma Bengalooru (my Bangalore, the greatest city of the world) for the next one year atleast as I will be moving over to Boston on the 21st August 2007 to pursue my MBA. Till date most of my blogs have been focussed on the happenings in Bengalooru and India. But as I undergo multiple transformations and transitions (from the Silicon valley of India to the education capital of the world, from Cricket crazy India to the baseball madness of USA,from city of Rahul Dravid to the home of Tom Brady and perhaps most importantly from being a employee/worker to a Student,), so will this blog. From now on , expect me to write on stuff which are more US centric or rather more Indo-US centric ( perhaps things which impact we Indians in America. We now form almost 4% of the US population , not to mention the floating population of guest workers). Also will try and share my experiences of MBA and the multi-cultural milieu of which I am going to be an integral part for the next one year.

The journey begins with a 18hr long flight from Mumbai to New York City and from there on to Boston. So keep watching this space for more....... Next blog will be from the Perpetual Land of Opporunities.

Total Recall !!

2007-08-17T13:22:00.000-04:00

Yesterday while shopping around in a busy shopping place in Bangalore, I noticed a long queue outside a Nokia Dealer Store. (The queue was much longer than the First day First show movie tickets line for a Shah Rukh Khan Blockbuster). My first thought was that the dealer is offering some freebies (or rather some free phones) and when something is for free or on sale, people will inevitably queue for them. (This is true in every part of the world including the so called developed countries like USA. Thanksgiving sales anyone ?).

But only later did I realize that the queue was for the replacement of the defective Nokia Batteries for which Nokia issued a product Advisory/Recall Notice. If you are wondering what that means, then welcome to the world of recalls/advisories whereby a Manufacturer admits that the product or part sold is defective and offers to replace it(for free of course). This must have been the first instance in India where a company by itself is admitting to a defective product on a mass scale and is offering to replace it. (It is a different matter that the Nokia's Battery recall is worldwide and is not limited to India). Now why is that we in India don't see such product recalls often ? Is that our production system is super perfect and flawless, and hence anything "Made in India" is defectless ?

Nay, we all pretty well know the reason. In a country where 200 Million struggle everyday just to get one healthy square meal a day, who has the resources to check for the lead levels in the paint used in some high end toys, which will be bought only by the super rich ? (Only last week, Mattel Inc. the worldest largest toy seller recalled millions of toys manufactured by it for precisely this reason ).While the poverty and the lack of resources may a prime reason, I do believe there are quite a few other reasons as well for this lack of "Total recalls".

Primary among them is the "Chalta hai" (It is working so it is fine )attitude of our people. As long as the product is working and is serving it's purpose , we in India are "OK" with using the product(There are exceptions to this rule of course) even if the product for example is producing excess heat. The second and perhaps the more important reason is the "repair and use" economy on which Indian economy operates . So if a product is defective and is under the so called "warranty period", the dealer instead of outright replacing the product, will try and make the product somehow work by using his knowledge and experience and because of the first reason cited above, we readily accept the "repaired" product instead of the new one. Not many products in India have "Replacement Warranties" . Most are service warranties.

But given the flat world we are operating in whereby products are getting manufactured in the best place at the best price (Mattel's toys were produced in China), it is time we consumers in India also start demanding replacement warranties . This will not only help the Indian consumers , but will also induce better quality control among the suppliers who are located in India and source out products to other parts of the world. Given the sensitive issue which outsourcing is (Mattel's recall of toys is already seeing anti-outsourcing lobby raising it's ugly head again with a "I told you so" face ), I think we are better off learning the lessons from the Mattel and Nokia story to introduce better Quality processes and control. After all good (or better ) quality is something for which we all strive for in our daily lives !!

First Impressions:CHAK DE INDIA ! rocks

2007-08-12T08:27:00.000-04:00

Imagine you are at a Cinema hall. You watch the movie and the movie has a happy ending. At the end like in any movie, you have the names/credits scrolling out on the screen. In the typical Movie halls of India, as soon as the names start scrolling, people get up from the seats and start to walk out. But when you see that every single person in the audience has not moved an inch till the very end to watch the names/credits, you should know what impact the movie has had on the audience.

This is what precisely happened when I went to watch Shimit Amin's Chak De India, a beautifully crafted movie on an underdog Indian Women's Hockey Team going on to win the Hockey World Cup. The narration of the story was so gripping that it left the audience asking for more in the end. Hats off to Shimit Amin and Jaideep Sahni (the story, screenplay and dialogues are penned by him) for giving Hockey it's long due credit in a country where it is purported to be the national Game, but is hardly followed or played by anyone. (In fact ask any of the school going kids what India's National sports is, the inevitable slip of the tongue answer would be Cricket).

Shimit with the help of a power packed performance by Shahrukh Khan ( as a disgraced Indian Hockey Player , who takes up the challenge of Coaching the Women's Hockey Team to regain his lost pride), has packed the movie with the required patriotism, used the Male-Female chauvinism to his advantage and has brought out a movie which for sure will go down in the Indian movie history as a landmark film. (Apprently the movie is based on Mir Ranjan Negi, a real life Hockey player who coached Women's Hockey team which won the Commonwealth Gold medal in 2002 ). If Lagaan set the tempo for sports based movies in India, Chak De India takes it to the next level. So intense was the movie that the audience in the later half of the movie cheered to every goal which the hockey players hit on their way to winning the "Women's Hockey World cup".

But the real stars of the movie ought to be the small time actors and some real players who formed a part of the 16 member hockey team. Some of them really trained themselves for the Hockey game scenes and the training showed in the actual movie scenes. Also Shimit's filming of the hockey matches needs a special mention as it is very difficult to bring in the intensity into games which were actually not played in the first place !! . Some of the matches in the movie appeared so very real and seems like the production team has spent a lot of time and fortune to film these game scenes.

All in all , must watch movie for all our Cricket obsessed Indians. Shimit craftfully has even taken digs at Cricket in the movie and it makes the movie even more enjoyable especially for non-Cricket fans like me :). So go watch the movie for an entertaining and intense 2 hours !!. And I sincerely hope we Indians move out of the Cricket obsessiveness and take more interest in other games. (Or will it require another movie on say Football or basketball for this to happen ?).

Two more days !!

2007-08-08T13:03:00.000-04:00

Yes!! The D-day has finally arrived. Exactly 48 hrs later, I will be joining the Unemployed Inc. after having spent the last 4 year and 10 months of my life working for my boss, my company and my projects and of course the perennially insufficient monthly salary.Gosh !! it seems like yesterday when I passed out of my Engineering College and desperately wanted to join the workforce. The only thing I wanted in those years was "the job". But the 58 months of work have finally gotten on me and for the next one year , I thankfully will not being waking up in the morning thinking of my boss, my company and my clients.

So what will I be doing for the next one year ? Well I intend to take the time off to complete my MBA in Boston and also find time to get to some more interesting aspects of life. So my Formal trouser, shirt,leather shoes, tie, laptop leather bag etc will now tucked away in some corner of my wardrobe. And out comes my T-shirts, Jeans , sneakers and the good old backpack.I just can't wait to get back to my student days again. The fun we had hanging out with friends in the college canteen, the movies we enjoyed together, the fun we made of our professors .

Of course, the MBA being a Post graduate degree which requires substantial years of work experience, the crowd will be much more matured, but again that is what will make things more fun.Also the fact that the students of my MBA batch are all from different countries will make this one year even more interesting. We are going to have students from China to Brazil to Latvia to Russia to India in our class. The cultural mela will be amazing. Can't wait for the day I will be landing in Boston !!

Indian Idol Enters the last Eight Phase

2007-07-29T09:24:00.000-04:00

Yesterday's Indian Idol on Sony Entertainment Television saw the exit of Parleen Gill who on the day was atleast the 3rd best singer after Amit Paul and Ankita. But unfortunately performance alone does not make someone the "Indian Idol" . Had it been only performance on the given day, I bet Chang the dentist and Prasanth the Army man should have been out by now. Now I am not being too harsh on both these guys but after having set some exceptional benchmarks impressing one and all in the pre-Gala stage, we expected these two guys to be more consistent.

But over the last 3 weeks in the gala round,(where the stage has been reduced to last 8 from 13 in the initial gala stages) , Meiyang Chang and Prasanth have been the biggest disappointments. Both these contestants have excellent voices but unfortunately are not capitalizing on that. Add to that the looks factor of Chang and you potentially have a loved by one and all Indian Idol in Chang. But the basic thing an Indian Idol should have is singing and Chang has not been able to deliver on that front.

In fact the best two singers in the gala round have been Wild card Entrants Amit Paul and Ankita Mishra,one of them I strongly believe will go on win this event unless Emon or Chang come out with something dramatic in the next 2-3 rounds or Amit himself goofs up because of overconfidence. Amit Paul's performance of Pehla Nasha from the movie Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander was amazing and I think was sung even better than the original singer Udit Narayan.

So what next? My gut feeling says next two weeks will see the exit of Deepali and Puja one after other and unless Prasanth and Chang, come up with some great singing, they will be next in line on the exit door. So let's wait and watch .......

Human Resource Management

2007-07-28T07:20:00.000-04:00

Off late I have been hearing a lot of stories about the movement of people across organizations and as I have already written,it is a direct consequence of the Talent crunch we are facing world over. So here is a story which I picked up from my roommate and close friend about yet another guy switching companies in search of greener pastures.

The Protagonist here is considered the superhero by his boss and colleagues alike and everyone really appreciates the extra mile he stretches in order to complete his work and also help the other colleagues' in delivering results. Our superhero after spending more than a year with company realizes that the company's growth plans are not matching his own growth plans(in terms of Moving up the value chain and also with respect to rate of growth). So he decides to move on and sends the dreaded (to the management) email with subject line "resignation".

But 3 days into his resignation, while the whole floor knows that he is moving on and is already discussing "what next?", the management team has not discussed the matter with our superhero. The least a guy who decides to move on expects from the management is a 10 minutes honest face to face talk. But here the management team in question does not even bother. This seems to really puzzle our superhero and finally after waiting for 3 more days, he himself walks to the corner office on the floor to speak to the so called "Unit Manager" and get his resignation accepted. In contrast, when the superhero had left his earlier company to join the current one, the Vice President of the company had walked up to him to talk about the resignation.

If a person who is considered to be the superhero by one and all in the floor decides to quit and the management does not even care to talk to him, let alone stop him from leaving, what kind of message is going down to the junior staff and the others on the floor ? "I as the company's employee am not being valued by the management and this could happen to me as well tomorrow". So even if the superhero is not perceived well by the management team, the least they can do is have a face to face talk and get to understand the reasons for moving on.

As an organization, we need to make sure that every person on the payroll gets his due not just in terms of paycheck, but also in terms of the basic human respect. And the most a person needs this respect is when has decided to move on. Also in situations like this, the organizations can uncover some larger issue (may be something is wrong with one of the line manager?). So I certainly believe that this organization is forgetting one of the basic tenets of Human Capital Management.(And the fact that it is a consulting company makes things worse. People are the only asset a consulting company has.)

My friend has already decided to move on from this company (see this is the ripple effect I am talking ) as he is one of the most junior staff there and he revered our superhero and took him to be his role model.

Myth Shattered !!

2007-07-20T13:08:00.000-04:00

Have been busy off late with my preparations to head to the perpetual land of Opportunities - The United States Of America- for my MBA. Got done with one of the biggest pain points of travelling to the USA -the visa - over the last week. The Visa interview was pretty simple and lasted only 2 minutes.

Here is how it went about

Visa Officer(VO): So u r going for a one year MBA in US ?
Me : Yes , sir
VO: Looks at my funding and asks who is funding?
Me: Self and funds from School(loans, Scholarship etc)
VO (Looks at my passport): Oh you have an H1B from XYZ company.
Me : Yes, Sir.
VO: Did you work on the H1B?
Me :Yes sir 15months .
VO: Why did you come back?
me : Personal reasons.
VO: Show me your Degree certificates.
Me: Here they are sir.
VO : Oh you have a degree in XYZ engineering. What are you doing in a IT company?
Me : I do ABC stuff for my company sir .
VO(after listening intently) : You visa is approved. Passport will reach you in 2 days
Me :thank you !!

What is the "myth" I am talking of here? Well this is my 2nd visit to the American Consulate in the last 3 years and I found an interesting new addition to the entire visa stamping experience. The new addition is the manager of the Visa processing division of the Consulate who gives the Visa aspirants a pep-talk on do and don'ts of getting a visa. Apart from the usual "Don't lie", "No fake certificates", the one thing which shocked me was this statement by the Consulate manager. "What do you say when you are asked whether you intend to work in USA post your graduation?" So far the unanimous answer to this question in order to get the visa was "I intend to return back to India as soon as I complete my studies and serve my home country" and every damn so called "Visa consultant" wanted us learn this answer by rote. This despite knowing very well that no one wants to return to India without repaying at least some part of the hefty loan taken for the education and not many actually return without working unless of course you are on Full scholarship or have family business.

But the Visa Consulate manager's answer was "If you want to work in USA post ur studies, be honest about it. I mean how many of the visa aspirants for the F1 student visas want to spend 30K USD on US education and then not have the opportunity to repay it in the fastest possible way". This is the greatest myth I am talking off since I have heard the "No work in USA” statement from hundreds of aspirants of the coveted US Visa.

So next time any of you goes for the visa interview, make sure you are honest and confident about your intentions to go to US and the green Signal from Uncle Sam is yours for sure.

Is it really a Flat World ?

2007-07-07T05:26:00.000-04:00

When the NY times reporter Thomas Friedman wrote about the World being Flat , most of us nodded in agreement and were excited about the new order of the world. But seems like a few of us are still living in history and when the "few of us" includes the likes of Steve Jobs and his Apple, it really makes the "rest of us" feel sad. How else does one explain the fact that the Apple's newest toy the iPhone will launched in Europe and Asia only by the early 2008.

Last week Apple released the iphone in the United States and it seems to be selling like hot cakes. And given the media hype generated ( remember Media is now living in a real Flat world with me having access to likes of NY times, Washington Post etc sitting right here in India), it should have been appropriate that the phone gets a worldwide launch. Apple is only encouraging the Grey market selling and smuggling of iphone by not going for a Worldwide launch. Remember how the entertainment industry is fighting piracy ? . It is going for Worldwide simultaneous releases of Movies ( The Matrix -III, Spiderman-III did it ).Also remember that a flat world implies that nearly 3 million Indians today travel across the Altantic every year implying that anyone can buy the iphone in the US and ship it across to his/her friends and relatives back in India.

One would have thought that technical issues like band spectrum are stopping Apple from launching the iphone everywhere. But ask any one in the grey market and all they say is " GEt the phone sir. I will unlock the spectrum for Rs100/- and you can use it". So not sure how long we really have to wait for the official launch of Iphone. Meanwhile I am asking my cousin in the United States to ship the newest gizmo to me whenever he gets a chance to grab one or two :)

Indian Idol and Mass Psychology

2007-07-01T09:45:00.000-04:00

As the Bharat ki shaan Indian Idol( A rip off of the Original American Idol) enters the gala round stage, the audiences are being asked to vote for a talented set of singers. This week saw the end of Richa Aneja, who though a beautiful singer, I believe was a year or two early in trying to be the Idol of India. Nothing but her Childish voice did her in. But as they say, the show must go on and over the next few weeks , we will see the remaining 12 singers trying to outperform each other and win the Indian Idol.

One interesting aspect I observed over the last few weeks has been the role which judges and the organizers themselves are playing in helping the so called Janta to choose their idol. With not much separating the various singers in the show, I guess much will depend on how the Hosts, judges and organizers play out the game and in whose favor. For example, everybody who is a regular watcher of the show knows that Ankita is among the most talented of the gals but her Tom-Boyish looks go against her. But Ankita being the favorite of all the judges (and may be the organizers and hosts as well), they nicely fitted in a small trailer of how the rest of the participants in the Final 13 don't like her. This clearly is a playing with mass psychology strategy.

How you may ask? Well as an analogy just think of a typical road accident in India. You are driving your car on a main road at a decent city speed of 40kmph. All of a sudden, a guy on a cycle comes in from the cross road on the left to join the main road. Obviously you being the typical city driver don't expect this cycle and end up brushing your car's edges against the cycle. The cyclewaala falls off balance and gets some minor bruises. The good guy you are, you stop the car and check with the Cyclewaala if he needs some help. But a crowd gathers and for no fault of yours, you are held responsible for the accident and scolded left and right by the crowd. This is called the sympathy psychology. The mass hysteria is to support the weaker section or the suffering section. So by creating Sympathy for Ankita, are the organizers trying to increase the votes for her? Well only time will tell.

I guess the same thing is happening with Abhishek Kumar as well. Like what is the relationship between his being an Adopted child and his being a good talent. But still the Indian Idol showcased him as an adopted child. Obviously Abhishek will get some sympathy votes for this act of this. Let's wait and watch if this will help him win.

Apart from these gimmicks, we had the usual talents Emon, Chang, Prashant,Charu,Puja doing what they are good at !! Singing. Lots of people are putting their money on a gal winning the contest this time and the Ankita ploy may well be a part of the that plan. As of now if you ask whom I have put my money on? It will be a tough fight between Chang, Prashanth And Emon( with Prashanth having an edge as he will get more sympathy votes. He has been shown to be the sole bread earner of his family). I do believe one of these three will surely be the Bharat ki shaan this year . (Personally I have loved and voted for Chang). But can't say whom the organizers want to win. So let us wait and watch........

A Lifetime of Questions

2007-06-21T06:18:00.000-04:00

Questions in essence are the core of our lives. Every single day of our life, we have to answer someone or something. Can you think of a single day of your life when you did not have to answer a question?.More importantly these questions have a typical relationship to the phase of life your in . Sample this question set and the related phase of the one's life.

When you are a School going kid
1) Beta(son), which School are you studying in?
2) Which class are your studying in?
3) Beta, Can you Tell ABCD.. to your uncle(gosh I hated it when my dad used to ask me narrate this stuff to his Friends to show off. Could never get past P)
When you have just completed your schooling and are enjoying the innocence of Adolescence.
1) What do you want to do after school ? (Meaning in Indian context mostly do you want to be a doctor or Engineer)
2) Why don't you apply for so and so college? (this mostly depends on your class 12 score) . And god damn everybody has an advice for you in this phase.
When you are just out of College and have somehow landed up in some job.
1) Which company do you work for? What does the company do?
2) How much is this Company paying for a fresher?
3) Oh you work for XYZ company!!, my friend's son/daughter also works for the same company. Do you by any chance know him/her ?(Would have loved to know the Daughters but unfortunately ,such references are less in number)
When you have worked for 2-3 years for the same company
1) Oh you are still with the company? Don't you want to change? (translated looks like the guy is not finding any other job, poor chap.) Why the hell can a guy not stay in the same company for 3 years and still be happy ?. (Damn!! one more question)
Two years hence
1) When are you getting married?
2) Are you searching for some girl to get married? (I wonder why a 26 year old guy can't stay single and still be happy!!)

So what does the Future of my Questionable life look like ? I guess this what is going happen in the next few years with me.

1) Which company you are working for? (this will stay until you retire)
2) Can we go to the Shopping mall today ?(Guess who can ask this question)
3) Are you planning to buy a house ? or Do you stay at a rented place ?

And thus will go on a life full of Questions (and Answers of course).

This is Glocalization!!

2007-06-19T01:20:00.000-04:00

If you are looking for a profound example of the impact globalization is having on the simple things in life, picture this conversation between my friend who is located in US of A and me located in Bangalore( Bengalooru).

me : Hey buddy how are you ?
Friend : Doing fine man . Will call you over Gtalk this weekend.
me : I am doing to Belgaum(a Small sleepy town in Karnataka,India more known for it's state border row between Maharashtra and Karnataka) for a Cousin's marriage this weekend.
Friend: Wow!! you are going to Belgium. It is a beautifal country. And your cousin is marrying in Belgium. Lucky him. How did he manage that ? The world is indeed going glocal!!
me : hehehehehe.......

To Kill a Mocking bird..

2007-06-15T06:24:00.001-04:00

13 days since I opened my blog !! . Well have been busy off late( would love to say that although all I was doing was loafing around). Anyway had the chance to read Harper Lee's 1960 Classic "TO Kill a Mocking Bird" in between all the loafing around. A book which lives up to it's recommendations.( quite a few of my friends recommended the book and the movie as well).

It quite literally transported me back to my good old days of growing up. While I did not grow up in a small town like Maycomb( the book is based this small Southern US town), I could easily connect to adventures around the Haunted House of Boo Radley.(a strange neighbour who was never seen by the Narrator of the Story in all the years she stayed in the neighborhood). Growing up a large neighbourhood which essentially consisted of first generation Immigrants from Small Towns/Villages of India to the soon to be Silicon Valley of India(My beloved City Bengalooru), I had my share of strange neighbors and even stranger happenings around them. Like we had a house two blocks off my house, where an old lady lived with her 3 ferocious dogs. Imagine a small two bedroom apartment with 3 dogs and a lady !! . So ferocious where the dogs that we used to change directions the movement we saw the lady taking her dogs for a walk. When not going for an Walk, the dogs where tied to a heavy iron pole (incidentally a street light pole:)) in front of the house. Still can remember the day, when our friend group decided that we had had enough with the dogs and we had to something about them.

So one fine day in the Summer Vacations, we decided that we will throw stones at the tied dogs and scare them!! . And because all this had to be done without the lady seeing us, we decided we will hide behind the apartments in the next block for this Dare-Devil act. Everything was planned including searching for the right kind of stones to aim at the Dogs. So on the designated day, we friends grouped and waited for the dogs to be out in the open tied to iron pole. When the time came, we started taking shots at the dogs one by one. I had barely aimed my first stone at the dogs when I heard a clanking sound( The sound of window panes breaking ). Scared as we were, we ran helter-skelter and hid ourselves wherever we could. Apparently one of my friends in over enthusiasm had broken the old lady's bedroom window. Evening came and nothing happened and we thought the matter had been settled. (We all positively hoped that the lady had not seen us running).

But late in the evening (usually the time the lady takes the dogs for a walk) , I see the old lady headed straight to my home. Scared, I ran inside the home and hid myself. But I could hear the lady narrating the whole incident to my mom and worse, even telling I was involved with the gang of children who broke her windows . The lady left soon after and you can well imagine what my mom did to me after that. All I can say is that I had to limp to the playground the next day and mutely watch my friends play .

Now when I reflect back, I think Dogs are afterall the best friend a man can have but I guess it was all a part of growing up. A passing phase of life.

Maa Kasam !! Maine kuch nahi kiya ......

2007-06-02T01:20:00.000-04:00

This is what the BJP MLA Renukacharya is saying to the alleged sexual harassment controvesy involving a Nurse Jayalakshmi The "respected" is MLA is accused of having an affair with Jayalakshmi with pictures of the MLA kissing her in Public appearing all over the media a couple of weeks back.

And this week, the police filed a case against MLA Renukacharya for sexual harrassment . So what does our MLA do ? He of course denies the allegation . Politicians are experts in that , so nothing new here. But the way he defends himself is surely worth a blog . It reminds me of our 1970s Macho hero Dharmendra( Dharam Paaji to his fans) . Picture this statement from Renukacharya. "Mother promise, I am innocent. I have not done anything." . (Maa Kasam, Mein begunaah hoon. maine kuch nahi kiya aka Dharam Paaji style ). Also reminds me of my primary and secondary school days when we used steal chocolates/sweets of our privileged friends from the school bags/lunch boxes and when caught in the act, used yell out , Mother promise yaar , I did not do anything . XYZ stole them. Not me . Mother promise( with hands on the chest) " . Looks like our MLA went to school afterall :) but apparently is still to graduate from it .

If this was not enough, picture this statement from our MLA. "Jayalakshmi is characterless.She has relationships with many men. Mother promise , I have tapes of her deeds which I can release in the public . But I am worried about Jayalakshmi's future. So I won't make the tapes public. But mother promise , I have the tapes". Could not stop laughing until I rolled over on reading this . First the Mother promise thing, then then the "worry" about Future of Jayalakshmi. Talk of the soft corners which people have . As if not Releasing the tapes will make Jayalakshmi "Sati Savitri" . Innocent until proven guilty huh ???

Mother promise, If I ever meet this MLA, I will felicitate him for the free entertainment he is giving to people like me.

Non-Sense Cricket Commentary

2007-05-28T13:13:00.000-04:00

It was the usual lazy sunday Morning and I was getting my Sunday dose of "The Times of India". Surfing through the Times, I turned to the sports page and as with if us Indians, checked for the Cricket News. And Surprise Surprise .India had virtually decimated the Bangladesh team with a mamooth total and was poised to win the Cricket Test match. Although not a cricket aficinado , it was really long time( ok long is relative here.That is why it is said that the general Public memory is short) since India was in a position to win a test match. ( ok I am sounding a bit like a Die hard Cricket fan now .Afterall India was winning against the so called Minnows of Cricket World Bangladesh. )

Anyway since I did not have any plans for the day, I thought lemme catch up with some India-Bangla Cricket Action and watch India Win . So I switch the TV on and start Channel surfing for the Cricket Match. And Bingo, there was Dhoni playing his usual self hitting a sixer :). But what was this noise from the TV .. Dhoni ata Pata. bhoom rang.. bum bhuoooos sixer !!!!!!....Ai what happened to the Ravi Shastri Commentary I was expecting ?? It did not take much time for me to realize that the live commentary was in Tamil.Yes you read that right. Tamil.Here I am sitting in Bangalore watching an India-Bangladesh Cricket Match with Tamil Commentary!!!(Bengali would have made better sense) . One look at the Channel logo and the pieces start making sense .The Channel is RAJ TV ( the channel now famously patroned by M Karunanidhi, the DMK King and TamilNadu CM) and it is indeed telecasting the match live. But where is Neo Sports Channel which had bought Cricket rights after making much noise in the courts and news ?

Turns out Neo Sports exclusively sold the feedshare to RAJ TV for the Telugu/Tamil Audience. Well we all know the Linguistic inclinations of the Tamil Nadu( no offences here). But why the heck is the feed being telecast in Namma Kannada Naadu Bengalooru ??? Forget about Bengalooru, why is this being broadcast even in Cities like New Delhi, Calcutta ?? Got to Blame it squarely on the Neo Sports and the Cablewallas.

Neo Sports got the exclusive rights for the matches but does not have Feed Share agreements with TAtaSky/DishTV for the Flagship Channel . Also for some reason NEO is blacked out by Cablewallahs. Hence we have the feed of Raj TV(free to Air Channel) instead of the Neo sports .But my dear Cablewallah/DishTV/Tatasky this was just a test match, that too between India-Bangladesh and even worse broadcast at a time when interest in Cricket in India is abysmally low. So you easily got away with this one . But you better STOP this non-sense commentary( atleast for the majority of the people ) before the next "serious" India cricket match else atleast Bengalooru will be witness to yet another Cauvery Riot like scenario. Good for me ( I get an off from Office) but bad for the country and the people . So please STOP this non-Sense. Period.

The Global Talent Crunch

2007-05-26T05:27:00.000-04:00

You are the manager of a Global organization and are seeing a huge traction in new business opportunities for your organization as a whole . The proactive person you are, you want hire the best people in the business and build the team and the processes so that when the time comes, you are ready to grab the largest share of the opportunity pie. So you hand out a job description to the company HR manager/Recruiter asking him to hire the "best" available talent in the market.

The recruiter puts out the job postings in the local and national Newpapers(the conventional way), searches for profiles matching the requirement in jobsites like Monster.com, Naukri , Time jobs(Web 1.0 way) and finally even conducts a Virtual job fair on Secondlife.com (the web 2.0 way). And the end of it, you are handed out a set of resumes which more or less matches what you need. You interview a few of them, junk a few and finally put out an offer for a select few with joining Date :DD-MON-YYYY.

Come DD-MON-YYYY, out of the P number of people you offered the job to, only one of them joins the organization with the remaining P-1 being what is called as "no-shows". You as the manager had planned out the on boarding for P people ( Hell even the lunch table for P people was booked ) and are frustrated that P-1 people did not join your team . You reprimand the HR manager for not doing his job well and set him a deadline of having the P-1 people on-board by end of this week !!!. The poor HR manager panics and in turn takes his recruiting team to task for not having followed up with the potential new hires.

Finally what does the helpless Recruiter do ? Damned as he is,he starts contacting the remaining P-1 people and threatens them with Dire consequences like blacklisting,abuses thems and talks to them in a very unprofessional way while coaxing them to join the organization at the earliest. Do you think the any of the p-1 people will ever join your global company ? Not in their life !!. The recruiter is the one point contact for the new hires to understand the work culture and environment of the company and any sane job seeker would not like to join an organization which has a rude and unempathetic HR team.

So my dear Recruiter and the HR team, while I do understand your frustration, I believe you need to come to terms with the fact that good talent in today's booming times indeed scarce and this game of "no-shows" is going to continue for sometime to come . The Reality today is that we have a set of customers who are expecting innovations in product development and service delivery every single day, but unfortunately we do not have the set of people with the skillsets to deliver these innovations to the customers !!. So you have companies poaching people from each other and offering big carrots for hiring the "right" people. But what do you do if the "right" people are not available ? Afterall you have critical Client deadlines to meet.

Well the need of the hour is Re-training the existing human capital to suit the new world business innovations while at the same time hiring people who may not have the skills you require but have the smarts to learn the business skills you need and deliver the required Customer focussed solution. Easier said than done but it is always better than threatening potential new employees at Knifepoint.

PS : This threaten/abuse incident is true story and happened with one of the Big Four Audit Consulting Firms(Take a guess ,which one) recently when my cousin was looking for a job-switch. Do you think you and me ever join this organization ?

Liberalise Education ...

2007-05-24T12:35:00.001-04:00

A world reowned Finance Educational Institute whose degree/qualification is recognized worldwide raises objection to another Institution using it's trademarked Degree Name . The Latter institute as a survival tactic claims that the world venerated institute is illegally offering the course in the Country and obtains a Court Order restricting the International Institute from offering the course.Where e Well I am talking of the CFA charter which initially raised objection to ICFAI using the CFA trademark name. So ICFAI turned the table on CFA and asked AICTE( which regulates the Technical education standards in India) to ban CFA from conducting the charter's Examination till further notice as the CFA charter does not have the AICTE approval. AICTE agrees with ICFAI although it is not sure if the CFA degree comes under it's purview and imposes a ban leaving about 2000 students in lurch.

How Sad !! . The CFA is one of the world's largest Financial Chartered body and it's degree is recognized everywhere in the world. In fact the top honchos in many of the Investment Banks and Equity Research firms in India and world are CFAs.And given that India today is opening all the sectors for Foreign Direct Investments and is allowing domestic companies to invest in Hitherto non existent sectors like organized Retail, Micro Finance etc., I wonder why education is being left out.

I am not saying that the government has not done anything but we still have a long way to go. Take for example the Rai University. It is a Private autonomous University which offers all kind of courses. While I can't vouch for Rai's Quality, I know for sure that it will not have many takers in the market . The reason? It is not recognized by UGC ( the Archiac University Grant's Commission) implying that a Undergraduate from Rai University cannot do a Post graduation in any other University in India. ( I heard that Eventually Rai got an Affilation with other Indian university but never a Full university Status)

While I am not vouching for a Free for all pass to create universities, I would like to see something like TRAI(Telecom REgulatory Authority of India) rule over the University System in India and allow other private universities to operate. Remember what liberal educations policy has done to the Singapore ? Today it has become an educational hub of Asia with likes of Insead, France and University of Chicago(Graduate School of Business) having Asia campuses in Singapore . Wouldn't you as an Indian not like to have Stanford University to open it's Asia Campus in Bangalore, India ?

That would be wonderful and will surely give the likes of ISB,IIMs competition on one hand while providing the Indians the opporunity to get world class management Education without having to cross the Atlantic ocean. Hope the day comes pretty soon. Amen.