Merry Christmas from Germany and Austria!

Merry Christmas to all my friends and colleagues. I am writing this from the Cologne Airport as we get ready for our flight to the Austrian alps in Salzburg. We leave for Vienna this morning along with Sathish, Vasanthi,Aashish and Chetna... Looking forward to visit Mozart's home town  and the sights from the movie Sound of Music at Salzburg. Unfortunately Ranjini and Samiksha could not join this trip as their visas didn't get through. Also looking forward to meet Prasoon Sharma from my previous project in the UK. Prasoon flies in with a few of his friends from Stockholm..
More pictures from Vienna,Salzburz and probably Prague if the weather permits.Until then ciao and tchuss!

An Illustrator called Super Mario

Mario Miranda, who for so many years captured the vignettes of Indian life and polity passed away today leaving a void that of an great artist,cartoonist whose characteristics Mario had imbibed in his repertoire as a painter.He along with RK Lakshman were the finest in their field atleast in an Indian context and I have always enjoyed what they have sketched whether it being Times of India or the erstwhile Illustrated Weekly of India. I still haven't understood why B&C had to shut down the Weekly 19 winters ago. I am sure space wasn't the reason. Mario, like any seasoned cartoonist was sensitive to societal happenings and instantly sketched the context through his characters - Who can forget the immortalised "stereotypical images of the Anglo-Indian secretary Miss Fonseca, actress Rajni Nimbopaani or the Catholic girl Petrification Pereira" week after week in the Illustrated Weekly. Those were the days when laying hands on a new magazine like the Weekly, Sunday, Blitz or the Caravan meant you had access to the latest in the world of journalism and bi-partisan news. I was, as a high school  kid inculcated into reading these at the (CFTRI) Food Research Institute Gymkhana in Mysore while my father played endless hours of table tennis with his colleagues from the scientific fraternity. Table tennis with hot tea and bajjis during breaks and the Weekly defined a typical rainy evening when you couldn't go to the 2 clay courts to play tennis. These were the years that growing up meant reading up a lot as television was still nascent and it was easy to follow such icons who would be heroes until probably Sachin Tendulkar,Shahrukh Khan and the likes came to the scene.  Following Behramji 'BusyBee' Contractor (Free Press Journal and later the Mid Day), MV Kamath, Pritish Nandy, Mario Miranda, Khushwanth Singh and Anil Dharkar (Illustrated Weekly), The ever controversial Russy Karanjia (Blitz) and Vir Sanghvi (The Sunday) was a regular habit then in the limited window I had to the media world. 
With the passing of every stalwart from that era only brings fond and nostalgic memories. It was only last week when the ever young Dev Anand passed away. 2011 has already taken away a lot of artists..While tributes are pouring for Mario, the best one was probably from a tweet  "After a singer, painter, actor, photographer, art director and filmmaker, God needed an illustrator in the heaven of 2011!"


Living in Germany these days, the Mario painting that comes to mind in the German winter is the Floh Markt (flea Market) from the collection 'Germany in Winter'. More on the Floh Market experience sometime soon

The Flea Market - Winter in Germany, Mario Miranda

RIP Mario, You will be missed.

A Super Cause

Sometime ago, I wrote about the Mathematical genius Anand Kumar and why i admire him. Expectedly enough, Anand is in the new again today for being selected as one among the 20 pioneering teachers identified by a UK based magazine. While I am not sure of the methodology behind this rating nor the award and recognition this carries, what strikes me most here is the model that Anand has adopted and the phenomenal success he has managed to achieve


Read my previous post on Anand Kumar here


From Rediff.com 5th December 2011
Anand Kumar, founder of Super 30, a free coaching centre in Bihar which helps economically backward students crack the IIT-JEE, has been selected by UK based magazine Monocle among the list of 20 pioneering teachers of the world.


One of Monocle's recent editions is an education special looking at the sharpest schools, some pioneering teachers, tech stars and bikes for the new term.


Anand Kumar and his Super 30 initiative is the only entry from India in the select list. He has found mention in the category 'Class act-globe Top 20 teachers' for the way he has been able to groom students from the poorest sections of the society consistently over the last ten years.
Apart from Anand, others to find place in the list include names like NeilTurok, Pierre Keller, Munir Fasheh, Sarah Elizabeth Ippel and others from different parts of the globe.
According to Monocle magazine, due to his revolutionary teaching and commitment to the cause, Anand is as popular as any Bollywood star.
Recently, Asia's reputed magazine Asia educator had also done a detailed feature on Anand's struggle and the making of Super 30. It described him as an 'incredible Indian'.
Last year also, Time magazine and Newsweek wrote highly about Anand. While Time described Super 30 as the "best of Asia", Newsweek included Super 30 in the list of the best 'innovative school'.
Several international magazines, including Europe's Focus, have praised Anand for his Super 30 initiative. Besides,Discovery channel, NHK Japan, Aljazeera, and French 24 made documentaries on him. Some of the Bollywood directors are also interested in making a film on Super30.
Discovery channel made an hour-long documentary on Anand Kumar, while a film made by a British producer won the 'Viewers' Choice Award' in the Los Angeles film Fest.
Anand Kumar, who could not go to the Cambridge University for higher studies due to extreme financial constraint after the death of his father, started the Ramanujam School of Mathematics in 1992 and founded the Super 30 in 2002.
His Initiative, Super 30 provides free food, stay and rigorous coaching for nearly a year to 30 poor and talented students selected through a two-tier examination process.
Most of the successful candidates have come from the most underprivileged sections of society.
In the last eight years, the novel initiative has helped 212 students clear the IIT entrance test. During each of the last three years, all the 30 students of the institute made it to the IITs, drawing worldwide attention.
The students have to pass a competitive test to get into Super 30 and then commit themselves to a year of 16-hour study each day, Anand Kumar said.

Bonn - Salz and Brot

My work as a consultant brings me to the beautiful city of Bonn in Germany this autumn Bonn is my home for the next few months. We are doing a large SAP implementation for a leading company in Gemany. Moving into Bonn has been quite pleasant thanks to the coterie of friends,colleagues and the professional help from home finders and other agencies help me relocate in Germany
 
After the initial stay at a hotel for the first couple of weeks in a distant suburb of Sankt Augustine, the time it actually took me to finalize an apartment, meet the landlord and get the agreement in place. I was ready to move into my new home in the Bonn-Beuel district, my blissful abode that will shelter me and keep me warm until the next year. Bonn Beuel is not a very happening district in Bonn and is often called the wrong side of the Rhine ;-), but am more than happy with this place...I finally was ready to move in and on a Wednesday morning in October, my colleague from work Norbert Fuchs helped me drop my bags to my apartment before heading to work. My home is a nice little apartment, something of a cross between a studio and a 1 bedroom apartment. But I must say that its very well furnished and has good heating, something without which you would never be comftable despite the Rhine valley being the warmer region in Germany. My apartment complex itself has mostly Europeans living in i t and I love my pad especially since its street facing and for the tranquil residential quarter not to mention a 3 min walk to the nearest S Bahn station. Of all the things that accompanied me moving to an apartment, one that will be in my memory would be the house warming gift that i recieved from my colleague from IBM Deutschland, Norbert..A big loaf of bread and a pack of Salt.

My House warming gift from my German Colleague

Norbert did explain the rationale and the intent behind these gifts-Bread(Brot) to imply that one would never go hungry and Salt (salz) to replace tears,spice up the life and to bring good luck-All so well intended
A lovely tradition that reminds me of my home in India where everyday life is so full of activities driven by customs and traditions and seeing something like this in the middle of Europe brings no less Joy. More on my life in Germany in these pages soon..

Fathoming Debt

The BSE Sensex Shed 700 points today and its now 49 Rs to a Dollar- Its surely is a sinking feeling, Gloomy outlook and bloodbath on Dalal Street today, will it be more value depreciation? Can confidence and trust alone help overcome solvency issues? especially when funds from Europe are making their way into the American banking system. European and specifically its banks needs recapitalization more than anyone else now. Countries must learn from Germany which has a large trade surplus and can afford to export capital.

This week, it was the turn of Italy to be downgraded after rising credit risks, shaky asset markets and weakened growth coupled with gloomy outlook. The developments this week has all the making of a terrible horror sequel to what happened in 2008 but this time around, the victims are developed nations. We have heard of two polarized arguments about fiscal policy during such debt driven crisis.

1. Austerity doesn’t work
2. You don’t get out of debt by taking on more debt

And if I can add a third one “ You don’t print currency to tide over 1 & 2” Greece is a clear example of basing their policies on ignoring argument #1.

Then there are countries like the US and the UK where policy is based on accepting argument #2

Unfortunately for Greece, It neither has the ability to depreciate its currency nor bank on its prowess to export into a slowly recovering global economy. Greece today finds itself in a position that leaves debt restructuring probably the only option for any hope of revival.

Meanwhile, I only hope that the European union and the Eurozone countries come forward together and help bailout Greece before the diehard adherents of the post Keynesian school of modern monetary theory profess their new science of macroeconomics by asking for a abolishment of the Euro as they have always advocated that the Eurozone can not be a fair play ground for a common currency. 

Home schooling - Thinking outside the familiar boxes

I clutched onto my English newspaper and braced myself for the nearly 3 hour wait for a connecting flight to Manchester at the Frankfurt Airport recently. An elderly English couple was quite vocally and proudly talking about the various achievements of their two children who now were top executives at technology companies in Berlin and Munich. They realized I spoke English probably after seeing a copy of the International Herald Tribune on my lap. A conversation began soon and they were happy and kind enough to tell me about what I could expect at Manchester and gave me tips about the places I should be seeing and scotches I should taste if I ever get to Edinburg. The couple introduced themselves as Andrew and Emma , proud parents and talked at length about how they managed to educate their two sons all by themselves until they reached college. Until I heard this, there was really nothing about that meeting or conversation that would have remained in my memory .They told me about how a few of their close friends who were young parents in the 1970s decided to educate their children in their countryside homes. Could I even imagine this back home in Bangalore or Mysore where I grew up. Today, my wife and I are more than grateful to my daughter's teacher at school for helping her at school and being a constant source of inspiration for Samiksha and solace to us. I casually asked Andrew if his children ever aspired to go to a regular school for the sake of the group camaraderie, the sport teams, the school outings which are all such an integrated part of schooling and also growing up. He replied in the negative and instead retorted that the kids had their own time to do everything -play in the rain, snow, practice acrobatics and he proudly said how they never had to wear uniforms or face the tedium of a regimental life at school and a life that also ensured no bullying and vicious girl cliques! Thinking back about my own childhood and the school, it certainly seemed envious atleast for a few moments to imagine never having to go to a school for a full 12 years during childhood. I was now curious as to why the Andrews' (will use the first name as I never bothered to asked their second name) decided to home educate their sons. And, surprisingly again, it wasn't the cost of schooling, commute or fear of anything but a simple craving to keep their children away from the highly mechanised and organised school curriculum which they believed was far away from reality. According to them, schools often tend to distance children away from cultural, ethnic and spiritual diversity. This surprised me even further after i learnt that both Andrew and Emma were educated in the London Metropolitan area and both were University graduates. Emma added that, they even considered living an intensely rural life to help the children get 'educated'. Upon probing further on the intent and the strong belief, I realized that this couple were very clear on their thoughts on home schooling and making such a decision for them was easy as they earnestly had rejected anything that was urban and added an assembly line approach to life (queues, grading). Andrew told me how his sons enjoyed a bit of farming and tending the cattle during their childhood, something they miss, but fondly remember while living busy corporate and result driven lives in Germany.


On the flight, I couldn't but think about such a life back in India where even the government would probably hound you to a school to statistically improve the 'back to school' campaign. I did a bit of searching around and discovered that India too has a lot of home schooling believers and a rising number of parents (mostly urban) who have begun exploring the possibility of a stress/school free education for their children. I am not sure or qualified enough to say whether such kids will have a smooth transition into the Universities or whether they would grow up into serious, right thinking. I personally don't know of anyone who is home schooling their children in Bangalore.

I am not even sure, if I as a parent can make a decision that Andrew was able to. I fear that my daughter's life options could be restricted if she grew up to be innumerate but also realize that every choice we make as parents opens and closes a few avenues of opportunities. But that acquaintance at the airport has me thinking about another perspective, an idea that was experimented with, about 30 years ago by this couple who were so certain about their beliefs and lived a day to measure and evaluate the results. I hope to see a day when i am able to think outside the familiar boxes and, be better equipped to experiment.

A Year Old in IBM

I completed a year at the Big Blue today and the ride has been wonderful so far with a lot of learnings, newer acquaintances  journeys and challenges. Assignments that have challenged  me to think and think more in true IBMs style, cross continents peddling and implementing ideas. Something that I have always enjoyed. Newer experiences in Oracle package implementations and now a foot into SAP. It surely is working and working well...Test Consulting, Retail and Supply Chain consulting and people and project management is what I do these days..Wonderful collaeagues,peers, mentors and bosses -Thanks All!

An eventful year full of learnings, travel to newer places, recruiting with a fresh objective, consulting, playing the businessman,salesman,solutioning and delivery, not to forget the numerous friendships made. True Blue happiness!

Year 2- Here I am ready to complement IBM's year # 101! cheers

The Crusader and his ordeal

Indian rights activist Anna Hazare who had announced an indefinite hunger strike to demand tougher anti-corruption laws  in the form of the Jan Lokpal Bill was detained early this morning. What began as an early morning swoop on the anti-corruption crusader was to later turn out to a mammoth support of the man and his mission.  The 12 hour drama today was nothing short of poor management by the UPA team with the ministers trying to explain that they had no choice but to arrest Anna. The government surely shot itself in the foot today and  as a salvage counterop should now try to contain the public acrimony and the outrage. I fervently hope that there is some sane soul within the government who can follow the “buy peace and show reason” approach. All is still not lost and the government (for the sake of this country and its helpless citizenry) try and cut its losses and engages Anna Hazare rather than confronting him. Whether that happens will be as much a function of the voice of sanity within the UPA while mass support for Anna’s campaign gathers.
  What is more baffling is the ineptitude of the UPA government -It took 9 months to arrest Kalmadi ,4 years to arrest Kanimozhi and Raja but just 3 minutes to arrest Anna Hazare. Hope saner sense prevails

An evening at the Cavern Club

During a recent business trip to Liverpool, I was fortunate and thrilled to visit the Cavern Club, located in close proximity to the new swanky shopping district in the heart of Liverpool called Liverpool One. Mathew Street on which the Cavern club is located is barely a 5 min walk from the serviced apartment that i stayed. My colleague at work, Dave Prescott ensuring that I did not miss visiting the cavern club and took me and a couple of colleagues from the project to the Cavern Club. Cavern Club is more know as the launch pad of the Beatles after they made their first appearance on 9th Feb 1961 and another 291 more times. 

John Lennon's statue outside The Cavern Club,Mathew Street,Liverpool

Dave,I and Sudheer , The Cavern Club, Liverpool

The Cavern club is now a must see tourist spot for anyone who were associated with Beatle mania. My assumptions about the Cavern club not being a trendy spot 50 years on was shattered in no time as we entered the front room of the Cavern. This is where you can have your photograph taken on the cavern stage which has all the names of the bands that have played there. We could locate Queen, Sir Elton John, Rolling Stones, and Paul Young on the wall among the many more recognizable stars of my era and before. But the Beatlemania still lingers on thick and clear in the Cavern Club even today. After all, it is the world's most famous club made famous by the iconic Beatles and Liverpool's very own sons. John Lennon, Paul Mc Cartney,Geroge Harrison and Ringo Starr were the Fab Four of that decade and many more years after that who sang, crooned and visited this club a 292 times creating a piece of treasured history. There is a statue of John Lennon just outside the club where I very promptly had my picture clicked with 'him'. After all, Wasn't John Lennon the one who once said that The Beatles were more famous than Jesus? Some following he sure had. Once inside, we did manage to click pictures of ourselves near the stage, the wall with the Beatles mural before getting ourselves a drink and settling in a comfortable corner to enjoy some timeless live music. I also managed to pick a fridge magnet for a souvenir to remember the evening and the wonderful legacy of the Beatles. Special thanks to my good friend Dave for ensuring we experienced a real piece of Liverpool's history that evening before I headed home en route Manchester.

The football rivalry between Manchester and Liverpool is another post by itself, but will write about it another day..

Discovering A Litre of Light.

I have had to get my wisdom tooth extracted last evening and subsequently work from home today to avoid hurting my jaw by speaking and disagreeing (meaning more speak) .My Jaw is still numb from the anesthetics and the painkillers that I have been on. Anesthesia is definitely wonderful while it lasts; the aftermath is well, soul awakening to say in the least. Nothing more to write about my tooth since its gone anyways..But, here is something very sustainable that I found worth sharing this evening. It’s a simple concept and the project is called a “Liter of Light”. This is all about innovation and the usage of science to benefit the populace and I was out rightly impressed when I first heard about the concept and the wonderful people behind this. Being an ardent admirer of chemistry and the chemical reactions that have been harnessed to benefit mankind, there was no way this one could have escaped my attention. Isang Litrong Liwanag (A Liter of Light), is a sustainable lighting project which aims to bring the eco-friendly solar bottle bulb to under privileged communities world wide. Designed and developed by students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), The Solar Bottle Bulb is a device based on the principles of  simple chemistry and tries to solves complex problems with easily replicable technology to address some of the most basic things that developing communities aspire for – Light.

The technology is so simple that its hard to believe. The technology is operational in the slums of a few cities in Manila in the Philipines. All it takes is a 1 liter PET bottle filled with water with a few tea spoons of bleach and fit snugly into the roof with the lower half of the bottle indoor and the upper part exposed to collect Sunlight which then passes through and refracts itself into all directions to provide a bright white light inside the dwelling- Bingo isn’t it.  And the man behind this project – Ilac Diaz, who established the My Shelter foundation that aims to create a system of sustainability and reliability though its capability building and employment projects using simple technologies and nurturing social enterprise..And the costs, almost nothing and a refill- The water in the is at its radiating best for about five years!

All information is from the My Shelter foundation, The least i can do is to promote this wonderful idea on my blog for the benefit of my few friends who read my blog frequently..

Social media and the intangible dollars

I frequent two sites for social and professional networking- Facebook and LinkedIn, and have tremendously admired both of them for the ideas that they are. While Facebook has helped me get in touch with many schoolmates and childhood friends, LinkedIn on the other hand  has helped me project myself fairly well in the professional space and a large part of it helped me change jobs last year when prospective employers assessing me with an insight into the work that i had done in these years.

In a sizzling debut last month on the New York Stock Exchange, investors sent stock in LinkedIn, the social-networking site for business professionals, soaring 109 percent on its first day of trading. While the enthusiasm subsided a tad the next day, LinkedIn’s shares still closed the week at around $93, more than twice the company’s initial offering price. This put the value of the company, which made $15 million in profit last year, at more than $8 billion. whew!!

One thing that comes to mind rather frighteningly is, whether this stunning performance echoed the late 1990s, when the bubble around dot-com companies began to inflate. On its first day of trading in 1995, Netscape stock doubled in price. Yahoo shares rose 154 percent on its 1996 offering. TheGlobe.com shot up to $97 from $9 in its first day of trading in 1998, giving it a valuation of about $850 million. I read up a bit on this first-day mania and almost shockingly discovered that LinkedIn’s first-day trading gain was the fifth highest since 2001, but the top three were Chinese Internet stocks like Baidu, which zoomed 354 percent on its debut in 2005, with Nymex No. 4. And, even more surprising has been the optimism shown by the analysts.

 While the business models have certainly matured and improved over the past decade, I am, like many others, hesitant to believe that the markets are on the cusp of another tech bubble or that the markets are returning to the days when unprofitable new companies could be valued at billions of dollars. In the whole aura of ecommerce and dotcoms, the tangibles again suddenly seem to be “eyeballs,” the site visitors and site stickiness. I must also confess here that being a student of brand building and marketing management. I have even now not convinced that premium be paid based on TRP ratings. I don't think one remembers every commercial during a sitcom - I just flip TV channels when there is a commercial. So much about tangibles.

In the case of LinkedIn, It is not a company you have to value on page views or visitors. This is a company that grew revenues by more than double and also turned profitable. The hottest segment of the internet market space is certainly social media companies and can sustain ventures like Groupon (remember, they raised a billion dollars and are now valued multiple times of that billion)

And the barometer for the segment, Facebook, which is widely expected to go public next year. Some experts peg the value of Facebook at 80 Billion...Whoa, My company, the Big Blue just about managed a billion dollars for every year that its been around and with atleast a couple of business school worthy case studies around redefining strategies. It is also believed that LinkedIn benefited from all of the attention Facebook has managed to garner. I shrug to imagine whether the new blue is gonna be bigger than the big blue. Personally, I hope not

Of course, the big question to which I certainly don't have an answer is whether LinkedIn is destined to become the next Google or Amazon, or whether it will go the TheGlobe.com way, which became a penny stock when the dot-com bubble burst..

LinkedIn, which has millions of subscribers with a largest country contribution being from India does have a revenue model. It offers what is called a freemium business model: users can create free profiles or they can pay a subscription fee for a premium account with special features. Good, but hard to consider it a billions raking model. I can, but, surely tell you that having an updated profile on linkedin helps. Fortune recently carried a cover story on how linkedin can fire up your career and why you should have a profile on Linkedin if you are serious about managing your career. Exchanging business cards is almost passé with "join my professional network " becoming more obligatory.

Ravi Shastri, A gentle genius

This is a re-post of the original write-up I wrote on www.mouthshut.com on December 28, 2005, but wanted it on my blog as a tribute to a cricketer I admired during my school days. There have been far better students of this game, but there is something special about Ravi and the way he shaped his game and career always acknowledging his limitations.

A Gentle Genius at that one! How many cricketers can one think of who came into the Indian cricket team as a 5th bowler, a batsman at the fall of the 9th wicket going on to open the innings as a batsman, share the ball with the much acclaimed bowlers and also captain the country with such aplomb in all these disciplines .The only name that comes to my mind is Ravi Shastri. 

Ravi Shastri, whose inclusion and retention in the team for many years was often debated by many, was one of the best thinking cricketers that India has produced. After all one does not find true all-rounders anymore these days thanks to the hectic international cricket seasons and more test playing nations. Ravi Shastri managed a fine balance between sensible bowling, reasonably good batting and was often called as a ‘Sheath Anchor’ by the commentators and pundits of the game. How can anyone forget his ‘Armer’ ball which felled many a Martin Crowe, David Boon, Mike Gatting, Salim malik et al. His escapades with the bat are again praise worthy, six sixers in an over off Tilak Raj albeit in a First class match, his mastery of the famed leg glance often called the ‘Chapathi Shot’. He was the only one who could play the leg glance on a high rise ball on the off-stump!!! Bowlers like Bruce Reid, Craig Mc Dermott, Rumesh Ratnayake, Even Chatfield, Wasim Akram etc who have bowled to him would testify as to what an unorthodox player he was. Ravi Shastri as an individual accepted his weakness and tailored his game accordingly. The third man fence or the Long On fence would be his destined fielding position more because of his long strides. Right from his days at the Nirlon Sports Club in Bombay, The Ranji & Duleep Trophy matches and Test cricket, he has always taken pride in representing his home club, state, gymkhana or the nation. His integrity and passion towards the game is unquestionable. Who can forget that fist clenching and pumping whenever he got a wicket or scored a six during the slog overs. His passion for the game and the way he matured as a cricketer of repute is something admirable. His double hundred at the SCG is something no Shastri fan would ever forget. Ravi Shastri did go a long way to be a permanent member of the team, his technical mastery of the game helped him captain the side for a very short time. I always felt that he definitely deserved a longer stint as a captain, but then those days had better captains. This era also saw the Shastri-Srikkanth opening pair as one of the most dependable opening pairs, the other been Boon-Marsh. Talking of his cricketing brain and captaincy, even Sachin Tendulkar once said that Ravi Shastri was his favorite Indian captain-some tribute to this great brain. His cricketing ability combined with attention to details, mastery of language and some good contacts built during his playing days brought him closer to Mark Mascarenhas,the chief of WorldTel. In fact it was Ravi Shastri who introduced Sachin Tendulkar to Mark and WorldTel thus helping the maestro to manage his career and contractual obligations. His success as a player representative and ace commentator are definitely some of his exploits off the field. Sometime back there was also some talk of his ability as a coach. I am not sure as to how much justice he could do to that job, but BCCI should look more to exploit his administration abilities and rapport with players, media (does anyone remember his famous TV show in the early 90s). Finally I always admired him for his grit and resilience. Though I would never say that he was the best cricketer we ever had. I would always say that ‘Here was one ordinary guy who dared to do everything’. Whew… what a career he’s had... That’s something today’s youngsters should emulate. Hats off to the champion in Ravi Shastri..

Didis,Ammas and self made leaders

I recently wrote a post titled "Make way for the feminine" on the occasion of International Womens' day. India and particularly her voters have really seemed to have made that happen by electing two women into power in two states which are as disparate and distant from each other -yet politically and economically important states in the union. West Bengal elected Mamata Banerjee and Tamil Nadu choosing Jayalalitha as their leaders and subsequently elected as chief ministers. Both these victories were huge one sided victories for these ladies and in both the cases unseating established political systems that had ruled for long. The key,according to me here is not anti incumbency as poll analysts always like to put it across, but a clear hope that these women will deliver a corruption free governance. It is percieved and that  that women tend to be less corrupt than men . I happened to read the World Bank’s recent policy statement on gender equality, Engendering Development, asserts a strong relationship between relatively high levels of female involvement in public life and low levels of government corruption. Numerous surveys and statistical evidence have shown that countries with large number of women in politics and leadership roles have lower levels of corruption.

Whether the new incumbents at Writers building and Fort St George will live up to the expectation of reigning in corruption and providing good governace is seen. But these dynamic ladies have always made it clear that they mean business. And in the first few weeks in office, they seem to be making all the right noises. Hoping once again that these ladies will usher in a change, a change that this country needs so badly...A change that these self made leaders are expected to bring in especially when the country is struggling to get the Lokpal bill straight and through and bring back billions stashed away in tax havens around the world.

One of the most candid interviews i have ever seen on TV.. Featuring Dr. J Jayalalithaa
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=43516720611501596#

The Mathematician's ward

It was very heartening this morning to see the IIT-JEE results and achiever stories splashed all over the newspapers. IIT JEE is certainly one of the toughest exams to be clearing when one is 17 to get themselves in the country's premier institutions for engineering and sciences. I have been quite closely following the results data almost every year and more specifically look out for a specific piece of data for the past few years. About 5 Lakh students appeared for Joint Entrance Test (IIT-JEE) this year and competed for approximately 9000 seats in the 16 IITs (yes, even they are growing) indicating an admission rate of 2%, the most competitive in the world. It is said that major universities across the world have around 9% admission rate. This itself makes the IITs so much tougher and only 10,000 or so manage to crack the test every year. And about 30 of them are special and come from Anand Kumar's Ramanujam School of Mathematics in Patna,Bihar. The data that i am curious to see in the newspaper this morning is how Anand Kumar's wards have fared this year. As in the past, there is not much surprise as 24 of the chosen 30 managed to clear. The past two years saw all the 30 making to the elite institutions. The focused and now famous IIT grooming programme is called the Super30. For the past 7 years, Anand Kumar has relentlessly groomed hundreds of kids from the economically poor sections of our society. Every year as art of his Super 30 programme, Anand hand picks 30 brilliant and meritorious students through a qualifying test (which of late has thousands of aspirants) and takes care of their lodging, boarding and other expenses or just simply create a conducive environment for about a year. The students, on their part just need to be focused and perform to the best of their potential without having to worry about any financial constraints of their families. Much has been written about Anand and the success his innovative Super30 idea in the media. Anand has been a recipient of many a award. Anand believes in spotting the right talent and providing an environment suitable for the talent to bloom. He is now trying a newer experiment where he wants to set up such incubation schools and identify and enrol top talent from the poorer sections earlier rather than the crop of class IX. He intends to set up such schools and try innovative teaching methodologies that can shape up children to be ready for the premier institutions. It has been proven many a time now that when children develop inquisitiveness; they grow up to be better individuals.

I will certainly be following Anand train his energies and resources towards grooming smarter kids in the coming years. Hats off Anand! You are truly a change maker that this country is proud of..

Digital dilemma

My obsession with e-books began when our decently large book shelves at home began overflowing with paperbacks and hard covers accumulated over years of not very glorious academic pursuits and the struggles en route couple with a passion to buy and read different genre of books and periodicals. On a recent business trip to the US, I bought myself  the inevitable - The Amazon Kindle, at a black Friday door buster  Target sale at Waterbury,CT at 5AM braving unusually unapologetic crowds wanting to lay hands on anything that was on sale. This was a paradigm shift in the way Ranjini and I read our books or rather stored them and the thought of not having to sell prized paperbacks to the recycler by weight was only too comforting.  During my growing years, I have borrowed books from the lending library, photocopied sections for reference, pooled money with friends and my brother to buy a comic or a novel. Piracy and copyrights were unknown then. We are now, again and almost back to those days with the Kindle and other book readers offering digital copies of literally every book for a trivial amount or sometimes even free. Do the publishers and authors care about protecting the digital rights or, are they just contented that more readers are reading their books now. Amazon has never bothered (at least, so far) to stop a registered Kindle user from passing their account credentials and have multiple copies delivered to any number of devices. Digital rights management experts disagree that this is a miss from the copyright owners despite knowing that there are thousands of pirated copies firmly residing on Kindles around the world. At least to me it seems that both the print brand and the online brand are thriving-at least on Amazon. The entire business of books is undergoing a transformation where some forms of books are better served digitally say maps, newspapers and magazines. Talking of maps, I never got a chance to drive in a new country or city having your co-passenger reading out instructions from a paper map. By the time, i got a chance to drive on the American interstates or the British motorways, the GPS and the SatNav systems had come in making it even easier to navigate. Of course the added benefit being the ability to find the nearest restaurant or a fuel outlet when you needed them most and the even fancier 'alternate routes' . Recently when i was given a complimentary copy of the AAA British road map by the car rental agency from where I hired a car to drive through the Welsh countryside, I could hardly differentiate it from a school atlas!

So not only the change in format helps in this case, but also the form. Meanwhile more and more publishing houses are going digital silently with a belief and faith that buyers of the print version will continue to buy while those who could not afford to get a copy might still get a chance to read them. And sooner the publishing fraternity understands that only people who pay generally would pay anyways. The key to the survival of wonderful stores like Borders and B&N could well be here...

Maybe, the printed book can survive too.

Responsive Retailing

I spent the last few weeks at my client's office at Liverpool in the UK interacting with my extended team and the client. My client is a leading home shopping group in the UK and the nature of their business includes serving the shopping aspirations of a large population of elderly and 'differently abled' people though the various ‘distance retail’ channels via the internet, mail order or telesales. Distance retailing has been seeing growth, with more and more consumers utilizing this convenient and efficient way of shopping. My client like any other responsive retailer continues to find innovative solutions for their supply chain, planning and replenishment systems, all with the view to ship faster and importantly ship accurately.

Retailing is a large and diverse industry that regularly and directly touches most people's lives. Understandably, it attracts a lot of consumer and media interest. I have worked for various retail houses in the US and Europe in the past both from offshore and onsite but this trip was special due to some new learning around responsible and ethical retailing. I was as curious when i heard this term first as retailing is known for its wafer thin margins and corner cutting strategies. Ethical retailing was mostly restricted to consumer protection, merchandise insurance, returns and education about product information and consumer laws. One development that caught my attention during this trip to the UK was seeing a customer invoice in Braille. This, to me is a very right step towards inclusiveness and being responsive to a section of the society that depends on Braille for transaction and access to information. Dave Prescott, my colleague from the IBM UK office later told me how the law in UK requires agencies to be able to present utility bills in Braille when a customer demands it. This is indeed coming a long way from having separate access points in buildings, embossed floor numbers on elevator switch buttons for differently abled people. While the SKU attributes themselves may not have much influence on the buyer psyche in this case, features such as tele-ordering, invoices in Braille will empower the visually impaired to be a part of the retail movement. The new responsive retailing - the new order..

How the tsunami pushed back the energy movement

It couldn’t have been any more disastrous than the past week for the Japanese, an earthquake measuring 8.9 on the Richter followed by more tremors, a Tsunami which pushed walls of sea water as high as 3 meters inland, consuming towns and cities, Nuclear power generation plants exploding due to overheating thus exposing the remaining population to a generation of life threatening radiations. And not to mention, severe cold and snow hampering rescue operations. In no time, one of the most advanced countries in the world, a tech-superpower has had to spend many more days without food, water not even mention electricity.
And as I write this, my emotional bandwidth already on a low partly because the anti nuke lobby world-over would now press for a complete ban on ‘clean’ energy thus taking away whatever little hope we as Indians had about overcoming the great energy crisis that we have endured since Independence (with all due respect to Dr Homi Bhabha's visionary three stage energy strategy that managed to light our lives in the past 6 decades) A Volcano erupted adding to the misery of victims and survivors from the catastrophe on Friday, 11th March. This seems like a prelude to the actual event in 2012 as famously predicted by Lawrence E. Joseph in his bestseller book Apocalypse 2012 where he predicts the likelihood of a planet-wide catastrophe in the year 2012 with some scientific evidence too. Fortunately science and human spirit is bigger than a work of fiction, something that the Japanese proudly showed the world after their unforgettable nuclear disaster 65 years ago. A nation that prides itself on technology, precision and passion in every sphere of life is today, having to depend on governmental aid and help from rescue workers to search for their loved ones, many of whom are missing. There have been miracle stories of survivors as in any calamity thus bringing in hope to many.  There have been instances of survivors being pulled out of rubble days after the tsunami struck and equally unbelievable stories of miracles and divine intervention\ when a man was found floating in high seas about 12 kilometers away from the shore with his house. The Japanese have traditionally been a nation prepared for earthquakes and Tsunamis, but this time, nature was even more unforgiving to this wonderful nation. And, as many would have expected, shortages and rationing of essential supplies including petrol soon showed up and began causing hoarding, Super markets displayed ‘no stock’ signages everywhere and where ever there was a little food available, edibility came only after radiation exposure tests as common food items like Spinach and Milk were found to contain traces of radiation exposure.. The story of dogged resilience and reconstruction began alongside rescue. While it will take possibly years of reconstruction to bring back normalcy into the lives of the Japanese populace – The Japanese will, am sure and hope will steadily rebuild their nation – Something, they have done with aplomb a few times now.
Meanwhile, I skeptically wait the fate of the Jaitapur nuclear power plant in coastal Maharashtra in western India and pray that good sense prevails upon our policy makers to continue with the project with full cognizance of the security issues. Fossil fuels (coal, gas, oil) are the main energy source in India but it will soon become insignificant given our burgeoning population and rising energy needs. Energy experts have already pegged India’s energy deficit by Y2050 at 400 Gigawatts  India needs a good multipronged energy strategy with an ability to harness all available forms of energy. And the best part about India is that a large majority of us believe in our scientists and technologists – but will they deliver?

Make way for the feminine

Wishing all my colleagues, co-workers,friends and the women in my life (Amma ,Ranjini my wife and Samiksha our daughter) a happy women's day today. The International Women's Day (8 March) is a global day celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future. In some places like China, Russia, Vietnam and Bulgaria, International Women's Day is a national holiday.

It is said that the Suffragettes campaigned for women's right to vote. The word 'Suffragette' is derived from the word "suffrage" meaning the right to vote. International Women's Day honors the work of the Suffragettes, celebrates women's success, and reminds of inequities still to be redressed. The first International Women's Day event was run in 1911. 2011 is the Global Centenary Year, Coincidently IBM known for its workforce diversity is also celebrating its centenary. IBM celebrates International women's day on the 10th March. This year is special for all of us at IBM as IBM has been recognized by the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology as the Top Company for Technical Women. I am a proud IBMer now. You can find this cause on face book as well. Just search for "Women@IBM" and help the cause..

This evening, i received a women's day message from my cousin sister, Gowri. Gowri is an achiever and has climbed reasonable echelons in the Insurance and financial Industry and resides in our nation's financial capital, MUmbai.I think this is a wonderful message rightly highlighting the imortance of women and the need for a mature understanding of women and their contributions. The article itself is from the Times of India -Speaking tree series, but worth a thoughtful read.

Light is the nature of the sun, waves the nature of the sea and coolness the nature of wind. What endows a deer with placidity and a lion with aggression are their own original natures. Similarly, women and men have their own unique natures that distinguish them from each other. 

The vast sky is the eagle's birthright. In the same way, a woman has the potential to soar into the endless sky of strength and freedom. But before this freedom can become a reality, woman must prepare herself through steady effort. It is the thought that she is powerless and saddled by numerous limitations and weaknesses that inhib­its her. She must first eliminate such thinking. The fiber of a women's existence is her motherly love, compassion, patience and selflessness, and she should never abandon these qualities at any cost. If women reject their feminine qualities, it would only add to the imbalance currently being experienced in the world. 

The forthcoming age should be dedicated to re-awakening the healing power of motherhood. This is the only way to realize our dream of peace and harmony for the world. If woman is to relate to man and man to woman, both must cultivate greater understanding, mental maturity and intellectual discrimination. If these are absent, discordant notes, arrhythmic patterns and unrest will be the hallmarks of society. Equality must be created in the mind. The inner strength of women flows like a river. If the current of a river encounters a mountain, the river will flow around it. If there is a cluster of rocks, the river will flow through them. Some­times, it may flow under or over them. Similarly, feminine strength has the capacity to move toward the goal, overcoming any obstacle it encounters. We should remember that equality is not a matter of power or position. It is a mental state. 

Women and men should honor the heart with the same importance they are giving to the intellect. They should strive to work in a way that reconciles intellect and heart, and be role models for each other. Then, equality and harmony will come about naturally. 

Become humble. Remain a beginner till the end, like a child endowed with tremendous faith and patience. That is the best path. Such should be our attitude towards life and the experiences life brings to us. Then we will keep on learning. Our bodies have grown in all directions but not the mind. For the mind to grow and become as big as the universe, we should become a child. So, move forward. In your respective areas, feel the suffering of the people and work hard. There is a lot to learn. Let us do what we can do

Shrunk Syntax

I recently read an article about how younger people were no longer using emails to communicate but instead chose text or short little messages understandable by only those who text short messages. Suddenly formulating and constructing sentences has become a burden for everyone just until recently when most of us though we had arrived if we were using email. Forget snail mail, it's really hard to remember when i sent a personal email to someone and got back a reply. Most of my friends no longer stay in touch with email. "You should have texted me" or even "scrapped me" (oops) they would probably say. I fail to understand whether communication has shrunk or worst, have the ideas and thoughts shrunk that one can express only in teeny weenie little messages on facebook, orkut, twitter etc. Blogging is already considered passé and tweeting is in. Schools who used to ask their wards to write an essay in no more than 600 words would be soon asking kids to tweet their creative ideas in, say a dozen words. The whole trend is turning out to be a gadget makers convenience as the opportunities for them are as clear as the trends. It just takes someone to figure out how to serve the public's falling attention span with the ever shorter and more perfunctory communication, itsy-bitsy sentences, sentences without verbs, dropped vowels. People want information in smaller packets today and very soon twitter and texting will be too prolix for the evolved. The apps that drive the market and the devices  will shrink the human expression to down to a nub that can be hosted on a touch screen no larger than the size of a biscuit. Don’t be surprised if you are not heard if you cannot express something in a single character...K? Very soon, each letter of the alphabet will have assigned words..

watdya thnk? cmmnts pls?

Choices and FDI in retail

A signboard at a home furnishing retail outlet screaming Buy 1 get 1 free caught our attention this evening more so because the brand that was being advertised and was on sale was Bombay Dyeing bed spreads which normally is never marked down. Following the instincts, and of course the prospect of striking a cool deal, went into the store to be greeted by a salesman who began pulling out neatly packed packs of bed spreads. It had been a while since we had this kind of a shopping experience where we were standing across the counter( in a now vanishing Kirana or Mom & Pop corner store) and waiting for the salesman to pull a dozen or so designs for us to choose from. While we were fortunate to find something that we could pick from the limited options we were allowed to choose from. We picked the bags and left immediately after paying. I keep wondering if this model of business will sustain any longer as consumers would like to look, touch,feel and evaluate before buying any product. One of the easiest ways to chase me out of a store would be for sales man to ask if I needed help (sorry! But I can manage myself) and often try to politely say, no, thanks, just looking around. I am not a believer of window shopping but definitely want my share of peace and privacy at any store and I am 10 on 10 times sure of what I need or not need. I always wonder how people manage to still enjoy shopping when being confronted by enthusiastic sales personnel (unless they are security guards in disguise shadowing suspect store lifters). Retail has been kind to me and has fed me and my folks for years and I am a supporter of FDI in retail including multi-brand retail. You will agree with me if you have shopped at a Dick’s Sporting Goods, Sports Authority,Target , JC Penny or even Big Bazar here in India. Any attempt so far in India to allow FDI in retail has been met with stiff resistance and the argument has been that large multi-nationals would sound the death knell for the corner store thousands of which today form the retail horizon in India. Developing economies have successfully built efficient supply chains (the recent onion crisis was largely due to the agricultural supply chain deficiency and the role of the middlemen) and reined in inflation by allowing multi brand retail.

As a consumer, choice, efficiency and easy availability and stable pricing is all people care for  and many are realizing this and the poor corner store bloke may be soon left with no patrons unless, he innovates to provide an experience to his shopper who has turned towards the large organized and glitzy retailer ( look at the crowds at Big Bazar and you will know what i am talking about). In an age when even Idlis and Dosas are franchised and soon, the small shop at the corner of the road could be left to fend for himself with his bags of unsold onions…How would a  whole generation of micro entrepreneurs innovate to take on the mighty?

A 100 years of IBM

IBM is marking the 100-year anniversary of its founding on June 16, 2011 with a year-long initiative that engages local communities and thought leaders around the world on the theme of changing the way the world works. Over its century of existence, IBM has played a leading role in transforming business, science and society. These dimensions form the basis for the three themes driving IBM’s Centennial: Reinventing the Modern Corporation, Pioneering the Science of Information and Making the World Work Better. Together they provide a basis for understanding how the rise of information technology has changed society and the world.
IBM Centennial celebration highlights will include:
IBM Lecture Series IBM will partner with leading universities around the globe to engage the next-generation of leaders in a discussion about driving change and innovation. The lectures will offer an instructive view of the role IBM has played in transforming the dimensions of the modern era over the past 100 years, based on our key learnings about leadership and progress in an increasingly integrated and technologically enabled world.
Digital Experience IBM will create a new digital experience to celebrate IBM’s Centennial with rich, interactive experiences. It provides a destination for IBMers, clients, partners, alumni and friends around the world to engage in IBM Centennial-related programs. The site will feature 100 Icons of Progress – signature stories that describe IBM’s impact on the world during the last century including archival assets and the opportunity, where relevant, to engage IBM experts about how the past is going to propel IBM into the future. The Web site URL is: www.ibm100.com
100 Marks, 100 Stories IBM has created 100 unique visual “marks" to represent the 100 Icons of Progress. Each mark incorporates the number 100 plus illustration and photography to represent a key breakthrough or milestone, such as the First Salaried Workforce, the Punched Card and Space Exploration. They are designed to be shown individually to tell a single story or as a collection to tell multiple stories about the richness of IBM's history. Each week, IBM will publish new Icons of Progress. The design work was lead by VSA Partners in collaboration with Ogilvy & Mather and SYPartners.
IBM Colloquia Through a series of business and academic forums around the world, IBM will convene key influencers to share insights and spur conversations about future advances in science and technology and how they will affect such fields as health care, natural resource management and the IT industry. The colloquia will bring together scientists, academics, business and government leaders at IBM Research laboratories around the world to discuss how these emerging trends will impact business and society.

Free eBooks for the Kindle

After I bought the Amazon Kindle some months ago during a black Friday sale, I haven’t bought a single paper back. While browsing around, I found this cool site (http://fkbt.wordpress.com/about/) which lists and also provides a link to get free books from Amazon.com. Well, you could also get to Amazon.com and navigate to the eBooks section to download from the list of top 100 free books.  This website is actually an interactive blog from the author of the best-selling Kindle book - Free Kindle Books and How to Find Them, here’s a quick summary of the daily free book offerings from Amazon as well as the thousands upon thousands of books, short stories, and more available for you to read on your Kindle for no charge from numerous sites in addition to Amazon.  This blog also gives you the insider tips, tricks, and information you need for your Kindle!

Enjoy...