Blog entries

Silver Screen @ 100

mrityunjay — Mon, 14 May 2012 09:08:36 +0100

Time has come to raise a toast to Indian celluloid that's a century-old. It's a moment of great national pride and glory for all cinema lovers. Significantly, completion of 10 decades of movies is creating a buzz in the land of cineastes.

Lights, camera, action!

It was an era where working in cinema was a taboo, where a man with vision and courage made it possible. Mumbai's affluent crowd had no idea of witnessing something ground-breaking. Minus sound everything was perfectly set on...

Satyameva Jayate

Bikram — Thu, 10 May 2012 08:09:57 +0100

DisclaimerThis post is being written without seeing the 1st episode that went on air today but that is for a reason. Read on to find out.

Satyameva Jayate went on air today and the cyber world is full of comments about the pros and cons of doing such a show, its format, its timing, its tone and delivery etc. I thought I would focus on the intent of the show and see what does it mean for us as Indians to do a show about our issues?

For as long as I can remember the underbelly of India...

Asian Century: Cautious Optimism

Ujjwal K. Chowdhury — Wed, 09 May 2012 10:40:14 +0100

With the American economy still stuttering and eurozone is in deep fiscal distress, the centre of gravity of global power and business is shifting eastward towards Asia. Here, there is, in varying degrees, growth and prospect of more growth. More importantly, there is hope, something which is in short supply, in many parts of the rest of the world.

Ten years ago, the three largest economies -- the US, the EU and Japan --- accounted for two-thirds of the global economy. Today, it is le...

Indian Mandate in the Paradigm Shift in Global Economy

Ujjwal K. Chowdhury — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 05:00:00 +0100

The recent trends and issues in global economy are marked by a few highlights: decline or stagnancy in the growth-rates of most developed economies, rise of BRICKS nations, Euro Zone crisis, failure of several banks and financial institutions, Occupy Movement in several Western Cities against 'corporate greed', decline in ecological standards globally, natural catastrophes hitting all too frequently, rise of global terrorism taking a huge economic toll, militarization in Western economies to ...

CSR and Media: What Next?

Ujjwal K. Chowdhury — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 05:00:00 +0100

CSR as reflected in mainstream Media

Reflection of CSR in particular and development issues in general in mainstream media in developed and developing nations has been of low in general, except on certain days (like World Health Day or World Environment Day). There are very few exceptions and far in between. Programs like Living on the Edge in Star Channel once are very few. Specific dedicated pages in newspapers (general or business) or a CSR program every week in a business channel is stil...

Innovations in Media & Communication

Ujjwal K. Chowdhury — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 15:10:26 +0100

Innovation is something that every organization needs today. This need is doubly assured for the domain of media, communication and entertainment. No content of media or its delivery etc can survive with the audiences without constant innovations.

Major innovations in contemporary media hover around CONVERGENCE in every sphere of media functioning: consumption, ownership, content creation, marketing and delivery.

People consuming media are doing it through all vehicles: offl...

Why this Babugiri, Babugiri Di

Chandran Iyer — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 09:15:48 +0100

When Shashi Tharoor, the Congress Member of Parliament called the NRI's as the National Reserves of India while coordinating the panel discussion on Partnering for Prosperity at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas 2012 held at Jaipur, he managed to have an emotional connect with the NRI audience who gave him an applause. "We consider NRIs as National Reserve of India and this is the reason we invite you to come and invest in India which holds tremendous investment opportunities in the sectors of educ...

It is all in the minds!

Ujjwal K. Chowdhury — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 18:36:17 +0100

As I am writing this short note from Dubai, I am reminded of a young man in early 40s, Subhra Das, from the shores of Brahmaputra, in Assam, with whom I had dinner at his house in Dubai.

He is the Marketing Head (Exec Vice President) of the leading Middle East telecom company, Du Telecom, and the man behind Subhra Soul music (jazz). Hardly in his early 40s, and has already launched 6 telecom companies in Asia and Africa, he is now thinking of integrating interactive target-specific co...

Innovation Dharma Part 2 - Driving Success with Innovation

Bikram — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 18:38:44 +0100

Innovation is something that is as close to life as our own thoughts, perceptions and feelings. Consider a situation where you have achieved a certain position in your life, and you are quite happy with yourself. Now, you might get laid back and feel yourself as the king of the world. But eventually, people will begin to forget you and your achievements, because another person has achieved something bigger or has something better to present to people. Thus, you end up becoming a blemishi...

In The Defence of Sachin

Bikram — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 18:50:51 +0100

When I started writing a blog for this website, never did I think that I will write one on cricket, followed by another one on cricket. India, after all, is a huge country with several issues that merit a discussion every day. This month, for example, we had the controversial Railway budget (check up some sites if you already haven't to get an idea of the mess that followed); the budget, the big one, which had the critics frowning as it usually does; and of course, the emergence of the young ...

Terrible times for Indian cricket

Bikram — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 13:54:20 +0100

Will our collective obsession with Indian cricket wither away? As and when our team manages to have a sequence of big wins – which it will, cricket being an unpredictable form of sport – any such question will sound comically preposterous. The reason: no matter how badly our players might have performed till the sudden turnaround, the popularity of Indian cricketers can be only matched by Bollywood stars: an iconic player like Sachin Tendulkar being as big as Shah Rukh Khan. We love them madl...

12 NRIs felicitated at NGI Excellence Awards, 2012

mrityunjay — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 06:00:00 +0100

New Global Indian Excellence Awards 2012 held at Jaipur on 5th January. NGI Knowledge Exchange, India's Onus, a networking platform for Indians across the world, hosted an award ceremony at Hotel Clarks Amer, Jaipur. On this occasion, 12 persons of Indian origin (PIOs) were felicitated for their contribution in various fields. Awards were given to the ...

Yearning for an Innovative India

Bikram — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 06:00:00 +0100

India is dreaming of becoming an innovative society. Everybody in every nook and corner is talking about innovation, but are we talking to ourselves as to how it will happen, what it will take to make it happen. There are so many challenges in terms of our culture which we have to face. How do we plan to address these issues? How serious are we?

Indian culture is plagued with many prejudices. Its deep religious ethos, caste system which remains deeply entrenched, a patriarchal cultu...

Bureaucratic India, Diplomatic India!

Kanchan Banerjee — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 01:40:05 +0100

The land of Chanakya is often undermined by her people who have less faith in its bureaucratic culture. Many times people say that no matter what, a communist country like China and a capitalist nation like the US can be an epitome of patriotism. Sometimes the democratic formalities may appear to be a form of dictatorship by the ruling and the rich few, aided and abetted by unscrupulous bureaucrats that hurt their feeling towards the government and the nation - a thought shared by many Indian...

Decoding undiluted Bhartiya Culture

Bikram — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 08:59:19 +0100

I was taking in the garden with my friend, Utkarsh. My five-year-old daughter was busy playing on her own. We were talking about women values in our country. Looking at the GenNext, it was hard for any of us to even understand what is meant by women values. Soon, an old man from my neighborhood happened to pass by.

He saw my daughter and said, Maa. My daughter responded normally with Namaste Kaka. Suddenly, we recalled the great words of Swami Vivekananda, "In the West, every woman ...

The Republic Day Blog: The Presidential Dilemma

Ujjwal K. Chowdhury — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 12:58:14 +0100

By dint of being a Republic, India can elect its constitutional head, the President. The entire governance in the country runs on "the pleasure of the President" on paper. However, it has rarely been the case when the institution of Presidency has made a difference to the governance of the nation in all these 62 years.

The first President Dr Rajendra Prasad had an advisory role to the Nehru government and was almost like a father figure. Dr Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan had brought in a ce...

Celebrations: Wisdom of Bharat and the rest

Bikram — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 02:59:31 +0100

One of the purposes of celebration is to address the human needs of entertainment. Popular impression of entertainment is watching movies, going for outings, dance and music. Technically, entertainment is all about bringing in such variations in life that is different from routine activities and brings refreshment to both mind and body: to ease stress and make us livelier. If we do not entertain, life will still take its own course. Hence, entertainment brings pleasure and enjoyment in life, ...

INNOVATION DHARMA Part 1

Bikram — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 17:29:42 +0100

Hare was the greatest fool on the planet as he went to rest thinking he has achieved a certain milestone and it would take the tortoise a huge time and effort to get there.

Revisiting the story of 1990's in India, it was a time when Indians were aspiring to touch the western world, and we were being led onto by some sensible and augmented leadership qualities. The era reopened the doors to brands in a bigger manner with aspirational movers and shakers like Pepsi and Coke, again coming...

A Remedy worse than Disease

Chandran Iyer — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 07:01:34 +0100

About the system of justice it is said " laws are like spiders' webs. Small insects fall into them and get trapped, but large insects like the bumble bees break through them and escape". Thus a clerk in a government office who is caught red handed by the Anti Corrupt Bureau for demanding a bribe of Rs 200/- to move a file from one table to the other languishes in the prison while people who are accused of getting kickbacks worth crores of rupees remain untouched by the law in most of the case...

Falling rupee mystery!

Kanchan Banerjee — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 19:18:35 +0100

Rupee's worth is at an all-time low! The US Dollar (USD) to Indian Rupee (INR) exchange rate on November 22 was highest ever: 52.42 – almost 19% - 2nd highest drop in recent history. I'm not an economist. However, the numbers do not make sense. My common sense tells me that India's GDP growth rate is steady and much higher compa...