(via Business Standard) Pranab Bardhan from UC Berkeley talks explains how the corruptions in India is more destructive that in China or our South East Asian counterparts. Some of the systems put in place by the British are being exploited. Interesting to speculate on the several ways in which our corruption is qualitatively different from that in East Asia and on their differential economic effects. >>>
Why Indian Corruption is more Destructive
November 26, 2009 by Shrikant26. 11. 2009
November 26, 2009 by Shrikant(via Indian Express) Words from a full-page ad. In Solidarity with all the martyrs and victims of 26/11 Mumbai Terror Attack. Ad by Taj Mahal Hotel, Mumbai, and space contributed by – The Indian Express.
There are no handbooks for facing tragedy. There are no schools for learning to live with loss. But with every challenge there is an opportunity for discovery. With every sadness there is a chance for inner growth. These lessons were brought home this past year when so many reached out to us in so many ways. To our loyal guests and many friends around the world; to the courageous staff of the Taj, some of whom we have lost; to the security forces, police, and firemen; to the city of Mumbai, we offer our heartfelt gratitude. Today we take a step forward. Tomorrow we’ll take many more.
A Festival of Kabir
November 16, 2009 by ShrikantI was very lucky to hear about it and attend the festival of Kabir in Pune. Watched all the four documentaries by Shabnam Virmani a must watch. >>>>
DVDs for all the four documentaries will be available at Either Or at Sohrab Hall opp Jehangir Nursing Home.
Inspiring Talk ….
November 16, 2009 by Shrikant(via Raja Bellare) A talk by Benjamin Zander, great example of an inspiring teacher, symbolizes passion and the ability to transmit it. Gave two points for jaw dropping and one for inspiring. must watch.
An impatient workforce – Crawl before you run
November 13, 2009 by ShrikantToday Infosys announced that its employees will have to work in areas of technology for at least 6 years, master it, before they become supervisors or managers. However this action was not a proactive one, but reaction to a number of customers complaining of shoddy and bad quality work. There is a lesson here, for all associated with the software services business.
Infosys has a challenge – they have over one lakh employees on their payroll, many of them hired in the last 3-4 years, a phase of rapid growth. In a previous article, I had predicted that delivering consistent quality will be a challenge as the size of the workforce increases. The fundamental problem with the service business has been, and is, that to increase revenue, you have to increase employees. Globally, things have slowed down; customers are experiencing top and bottom line pressures and re-evaluating all their expenses. They want a better price for what they are getting, or better quality for what they paying. They can no longer afford or tolerate shoddy work.
Professionals are not developed overnight. For any professional, be it an engineer, doctor or lawyer, building competence and a good resume is a 10-15 year process. The last 10 years made sub-quality employees feel they are invaluable because many companies were trying to hire them, not because they were good, but because of huge hiring targets adopted by many companies to support their growth. This, in turn, led to hiring managers resorting to poaching from one another. Needless to say, young employees got a big high, a “I am a legend” feeling, since anyone and everyone, would get multiple calls from headhunters every single day.
Today’s young generation has got used to rapid response and instant gratification. Thanks to the internet, their ability to get information, talk to someone, chat or message is pretty much instant. This gratification is causing an expectation mismatch in the real world, where they now want to be instant experts, instant managers and even instant CEOs.
I was told by a child expert that if a child starts walking directly without crawling, there are serious implications in brain development. Certain parts of the brain does develop when a child crawls; and other parts develop as the child transitions from crawling to walking. The view is that any child will be challenged in certain attributes if any stage of the normal growth process is bypassed.
Similarly, competence, character and a value system grows when appropriate amount of work is done at each level. Infosys has defined the first stage of the career pipeline - any fresh hire will do real technology work for six years. I sincerely hope the rest of the industry follows this lead, especially headhunters, who are mainly responsible for distorting employee expectations. Fresh hires who had hardly finished one year in their job were lured with higher salaries and better positions and multiple companies hiring them, all of which is only doing disservice to both clients and these new employees. If the whole software services industry aligns to this methodology proposed by Infosys, then in six years, we will not only have a very competent workforce, but also position India as the first choice to outsource to. For now, there must be a candid recognition and admission that we are definitely challenged. It is time to get off the treadmill and crawl a bit.
CEOs take Chidambaram to task at India Economic Summit
November 12, 2009 by ShrikantThe India honeymoon is coming to an end. Many of the CEOs at the India Economic summit sounded critical of India’s perceived ineffectiveness in tackling socio economic problems.
Chidambaram was told that problems in India were aplenty, but the government did not seem to be acting with a sense of urgency.
Indira Nooyi, CEO PepsiCo, was candid and upfront, we have talked about all issues and what needs to be done. It is time to show progress against the action and the progress has to be faster that it has been. I know the problems are enormous, the issues are growing exponentially while the solutions are coming at a very slow pace. That’s not a very good equation to contend with.
Of course Chidambaram defended himself with the number of programs launched for women and the poor, however admitted that the government was not organized for swift action. Also the impact of the programs had to do more with accountability.
Other CEOs echoed her sentiment leaning on words like “imperative” in reference to growth and development of education system, gender inequality and infrastructure growth. When we talk of infrastructure we can’t lose sight of all the elements which are imperative.
You can’t fool all the people all the time. The Indian honeymoon is over, everyone needs to focus on the fundamentals clean water, education, healthcare, public transportation, gender equality and demand honest accountability. Do not get fooled or confused with activity over progress.
Not only Third world but Third rate
November 12, 2009 by ShrikantWe are definitely ranked as a third world country in the world. You can definitely be a poor country that is rated high on education, ethics, governance. etc. Some of the events over the last few days justifies India is a third rate country.
- A new survey shows we are the top shoplifters in the world and the retail industry is still in its infancy
- Manu Sharma was assisted by the Delhi government (run by the good old granny) to get parole and was found partying and misbehaving with girls at a Delhi nightclub.
- Madhu Koda again supported by the Congress party to be Chief Minister looted hundreds of crores of rupees. He is definitely the tip of the iceberg and is only representative of a normal politician. The Congress is trying to create a clean image by investigating him. First fully aware you shit on the floor and then clean it. But when you clean it you bring in sensationalism.
Anyway time to wake up or keep sleeping.
The Best Beer in India
November 10, 2009 by Shrikant
Hamara Government So Raha Hai
October 26, 2009 by ShrikantJust back from Sikkim after a 10 day holiday. A state as beautiful as Kashmir but not as popular or controversial. I would like to convey what our driver Mr Bhutia told us on our way to our 1st stop in Peling. I have not edited any of his statements. The state is beautiful, scenic but crippled with bad infrastructure especially the roads. On our way from Siliguri to Peling in West Sikkim, our 1st stop, the roads had not been repaired for 10 years, some patchwork here and there. While China has built a 4 lane highway all the way to Nathula Pass, they worked day and night and completed the 520 km stretch from Lhasa to Nathula in 3 years. It is a wonder how they did it ? Lhasa is already connected with a high speed train to Beijing and this will be extended to Nathula. Our journey from Gangtok to Nathula a distance of about 50 kms took 3 hours. The previous day our journey from Lachung, North Sikkim to Gangtok a distance of 120 kms took 6 hours with one stop for tea. Sikkim generates enough revenues to the tune of Rs 1 lakh per family but where does the money go ?
It is a matter of time China will use this infrastructure to take over Sikkim and Bhutan and they are pretty much committed to break India into 32 pieces.
Till 1973 we were happy people with whatever we had. The politics of Indira Gandhi and joining India has ruined the state and its people. In those days we were innocent, honest and lived happily with whatever we had, Kam Kaho Kushi Raho.
The above are not my statements but straight from the mouth of Mr Bhutia, a local resident in Sikkim. Our prime minister makes mother hood statements daily but has no clue the infrastructure our not so friendly neighbours are laying to our door step. A war will only open a can of worms.
We continue to sleep at the wheel. Wake up call will be difficult but who is to blame ? Frustrated and disgusted whenever a really bad patch came, he would comment, “Saheb hamara government so raha hai”. My reply kya kare! clueless sympathizing with the clueless.
Finally, Tata Group gets it
October 11, 2009 by ShrikantWhile reading about the innovation gyans from his highness, the great Narayan Murthy, a question cropped up, which Indian company or industrial group has really tried to address the Indian market differently. While always in the news, Reliance and Birla groups, with friends in powerful positions continue to corner scarce resources like coal, gas, aluminium, etc., I must commend the Tata Group which has been quietly developing and launching products for the Indian middle class.
Over the last year they have launched products in automobile, hospitality and finally mobile, that has challenged the status quo in their respective industries. In automobiles they have launched the world’s cheapest car, Tata Nano, which has broken the rules of the game. Their launch price of US$2500 was half that of the next expensive car. Talking to an engineer, who was part of the design team, my question to him, how did you do it ? His answer, the car Industry has always enjoyed good margins, we have only sacrificed margins to make it affordable. Lets us look at the hotel industry next.
Five years ago in the Whitefield suburbs of Bangalore, a hotel called Tata IndiOne was launched. The room was available for Rs 999 a night, with buffet breakfast available for Rs 50. This was a no frills hotel with must have basics well done. Clean sheets, spotless bathrooms, wireless internet, Lcd TV, etc. What you did not get was room service delivering coffee or snacks in the middle of the night, no spa, no swimming pool, no gym, stuff you anyway never used on a business trip. This model has been scaled out across India under the brand Ginger serving over 22 cities. The model is a commercial success with occupancy rates, the highest, of any hotel group in India and the return per square foot better than any 5-star hotel in India. This has not only disrupted the expensive hotels but also ensured that the hotels at the same price point improve their infrastructure and services. A positive social impact for sure.
Most recently they made a unique foray in mobile telecommunications via Tata DoComo by launching a GSM service with per second billing, something most consumers wanted but no telco dared to offer, because it would have cannibalized ARPU (average revenue per user) by more than 20%. Lot of consumers were being taken for a ride with overloaded networks and dropped calls. Even a 5 second call with Hello yelled on both sides and no success in sustaining a conversation yielded one Rupee. A call that was 2 minutes and 5 seconds was charged for 3 minutes. Telcos and TRAI (of course in deep slumber) allowed this to happen for a number of years till the Tatas came and changed the rules of the game. The bad news is that all their capacity and available SIM cards are sold out and we have to wait for more.
I always rated Tata organizations to be as lethargic as the government of India. However they seem to be one of the few industrial houses in India that still cares for the middle class citizen. A group with ethical standards that are an exception not the rule in India. Lets pray, they keep walking and for the time being No Tata please.
