I had a very pleasant Qatar experience. The flight from Riyadh to Doha, the short transition in Doha and the flight from Doha to Chennai were all, overall, a pleasant experience.
More or less for the first time in middle east, I got the special meal request, responded to. Kudos to Travelocity. These guys operating from US have a good customer service team (reads US location, I don't know whether this team is Bangalored or not!).
They picked up my request, registered with Qatar Airways and did make the pleasant difference to my intra Middle East leg.
The Qatar experience was good, I may repeat some journeys through Qatar Airways. Lately, I am looking at alternatives to Air Arabia which is an airline I like in its ideas and execution. But Sharjah transition does not give you a feel good, which perhaps Qatar gave me this time.
Customer experience does demand efficiency as the bed rock but variables like courteous behaviour and ease in environments like airports does get a combined branding of promise for airlines and airports, I believe.
Now Travelocity and Qatar Airways have both increased their share in my mindspace as a traveller. Not for extraordinary things, but for basic things well done in a friendly manner.
There is a lot to learn, when one is satisfied as a customer in any services.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Sunday, May 10, 2009
A Mixed Feeling..
I will be breaking my daily posting
for the first time tomorrow.
It is a mixed feeling.
The break is one way due to
traveling which may be routine
in the life of a person living away
from family.
But the mixed feeling is not because of travel.
It is because of the destination.
My destination is my voting booth.
Yeah, I am traveling for
casting my vote.
A couple of weeks before
I had resigned to not going to India.
There were obstacles.
There was a sprain in the left knee
which scared me traveling to and
fro without much rest.
As such I am prone to
knee pains during air travel.
And if the travelling is both ways
in a matter of 2 to 3 days,
I was not sure - I was saying No
to myself!
To make matters worse,
my on line reservation failed.
I was snappy and called up
my wife to say I am not coming.
She also added a note:
it is too hot here, you did the correct thing.
I also consoled myself
that NRIs are so far away,
not every one could go to India and vote.
There has to be another solution.
The Election Commission should
do something about it.
There must be a way to enable
votes, may be votes on line.
What is not possible with today's
technology, that too, for India?
Then came an email
campaigning against wasting vote
for the politicians who do not deserve our
vote in the first place.
this forcefully presented
argument, what with
the perks that MPs enjoy,
the costs that go from
the tax payers,
so on and so forth -
was a bolt from the blue.
i was as such
persuading people one way or other
to cast their vote.
this email against voting
was heavy for me.
i made a passionate appeal
to the associates from whom
the appeal not to vote had come.
i do not know what happened to
my appeal.
but i was very emotional about this appeal.
i thought only casting the vote
is the true tribute to
the sacrifices our
forefathers made,
through their sufferings
and sacrifices.
this vote has not come that easily to us.
there are a very few countries
which went for an adult franchise
for everyone without
any discrimination in terms of
caste, religion and gender.
by not casting the vote
because we do not agree with the way
the politicians conduct themselves,
we only strengthen
vote bank politics which encourages
voters to elect politicians who
divide India.
India needs very badly
those votes which are cast
without caste, religion or any
sub national interest in mind.
Those votes are with us,
who can think independently
and trust the best among the
candidates with our vote and
demand our rights from the
representative we elect.
By absenting from this process,
we weaken democracy.
An eerie silence befell upon me
after my hard and impassioned
persuasion with voters who were
unlikely to vote..
What was I doing after all?
I felt invited.
It was as if India was beckoning me.
It was as if my motherland valued
that single vote I could cast.
I did not take much time to rethink.
When I called up my mother,
she said something to me,
that summed up my mixed feelings:
"so this trip you are making as
citizen of India"
Tomorrow, this blog hour,
I will be mentally in Creatiwe!
In the midst of clouds,
my thoughts will be
around what I could write in
Creatiwe!
It is a mixed feeling,
not because I am traveling and
taking a break from my blog,
but because my
destination is for my voting booth,
thousands of miles away and
still close to my heart,
as close as my motherland!
for the first time tomorrow.
It is a mixed feeling.
The break is one way due to
traveling which may be routine
in the life of a person living away
from family.
But the mixed feeling is not because of travel.
It is because of the destination.
My destination is my voting booth.
Yeah, I am traveling for
casting my vote.
A couple of weeks before
I had resigned to not going to India.
There were obstacles.
There was a sprain in the left knee
which scared me traveling to and
fro without much rest.
As such I am prone to
knee pains during air travel.
And if the travelling is both ways
in a matter of 2 to 3 days,
I was not sure - I was saying No
to myself!
To make matters worse,
my on line reservation failed.
I was snappy and called up
my wife to say I am not coming.
She also added a note:
it is too hot here, you did the correct thing.
I also consoled myself
that NRIs are so far away,
not every one could go to India and vote.
There has to be another solution.
The Election Commission should
do something about it.
There must be a way to enable
votes, may be votes on line.
What is not possible with today's
technology, that too, for India?
Then came an email
campaigning against wasting vote
for the politicians who do not deserve our
vote in the first place.
this forcefully presented
argument, what with
the perks that MPs enjoy,
the costs that go from
the tax payers,
so on and so forth -
was a bolt from the blue.
i was as such
persuading people one way or other
to cast their vote.
this email against voting
was heavy for me.
i made a passionate appeal
to the associates from whom
the appeal not to vote had come.
i do not know what happened to
my appeal.
but i was very emotional about this appeal.
i thought only casting the vote
is the true tribute to
the sacrifices our
forefathers made,
through their sufferings
and sacrifices.
this vote has not come that easily to us.
there are a very few countries
which went for an adult franchise
for everyone without
any discrimination in terms of
caste, religion and gender.
by not casting the vote
because we do not agree with the way
the politicians conduct themselves,
we only strengthen
vote bank politics which encourages
voters to elect politicians who
divide India.
India needs very badly
those votes which are cast
without caste, religion or any
sub national interest in mind.
Those votes are with us,
who can think independently
and trust the best among the
candidates with our vote and
demand our rights from the
representative we elect.
By absenting from this process,
we weaken democracy.
An eerie silence befell upon me
after my hard and impassioned
persuasion with voters who were
unlikely to vote..
What was I doing after all?
I felt invited.
It was as if India was beckoning me.
It was as if my motherland valued
that single vote I could cast.
I did not take much time to rethink.
When I called up my mother,
she said something to me,
that summed up my mixed feelings:
"so this trip you are making as
citizen of India"
Tomorrow, this blog hour,
I will be mentally in Creatiwe!
In the midst of clouds,
my thoughts will be
around what I could write in
Creatiwe!
It is a mixed feeling,
not because I am traveling and
taking a break from my blog,
but because my
destination is for my voting booth,
thousands of miles away and
still close to my heart,
as close as my motherland!
Saturday, May 9, 2009
THE FIRST EXPERIENCES AS A BLOGGER
Ever since I created the blogs in Tamil and English, I have kept my postings going. There was, no doubt, an intial euphoria, communicating to the people who are important to me as friends, associates, relatives and colleagues.
My first posting was done very passionately. Each day, I am trying to touch a different subject and reflect on it. Choice of a subject has never posed a problem. In fact now when I read, when I think or reflect on what an interviewee is talking aboout, often, a question pops up in mind: is it a good idea to blog about this?
Often, these pop ups come and go very fast. No deliberate blocking. No unblocking either.
And almost to an assurance of 100% none of the pop ups comes to be written.
Nonetheless, there is a sense of being bugged by several ideas, impressions, observations, thought processes and what have you, for being blogged. It is as if thoughts are competing with themselves and ideas are trying to be forceful on me with a strong intent to be blogged about.
This is a strange, yet highly energizing feeling. And I see myself doing many a thing fast and in time, with my subconscious driving me to save those minutes for settling down in sofa to blog today.
While NDTV is always in the background like a base tone at home, like a thamboora in a concert, the fingers that were flip flopping channels with the TV remote are now busy typing.
There are several changes in me, a rather addicted netizen, post initiation into blogging, that two in two languages. One important change is I come out of mail box (frequency of getting in hasnt come down). I bye pass my inbox now after a peep. I know there is some serious thing by the evening I need to complete before going to bed and that is much more valuable to me.
I think this is a pleasant experience. But this no way implies the experience is complete. There is a longing for readership or followership to use the Google expression. My netizenship quotient being higher than my circle of friends, relatives, well wishers and associates, this is going to be a challenge.
Then what has been achieved in real real terms? Oh, it is plenty. I am in touch with my roots. I am reflective about my most distant past. I am reminiscing a lot. It is as if, I am reliving the seasons of my life, all over again. This is a unique experience. There is a concentration of nostalgia and there is a flight into whatever out of my life, I would love to be brought into my showcase.
If I had taken a notebook and started writing every day a bit, I may not have achieved this much. While who is going to read this and how much are going to remain challenges, if there is a friend who would not mind reading and discussing this, I have something to share with that friend of mine. Quite something. This gives me a sense of accomplishment.
Am I nervous as a blogger about what I write and what reactions could be?
The only that makes me nervous is no one reading and no one reacting! The first experiences as a blogger are remarkable. I would love to carry on. Let the show go on. Some day, there will be spectators, that is what I can tell myself through my blog!
My first posting was done very passionately. Each day, I am trying to touch a different subject and reflect on it. Choice of a subject has never posed a problem. In fact now when I read, when I think or reflect on what an interviewee is talking aboout, often, a question pops up in mind: is it a good idea to blog about this?
Often, these pop ups come and go very fast. No deliberate blocking. No unblocking either.
And almost to an assurance of 100% none of the pop ups comes to be written.
Nonetheless, there is a sense of being bugged by several ideas, impressions, observations, thought processes and what have you, for being blogged. It is as if thoughts are competing with themselves and ideas are trying to be forceful on me with a strong intent to be blogged about.
This is a strange, yet highly energizing feeling. And I see myself doing many a thing fast and in time, with my subconscious driving me to save those minutes for settling down in sofa to blog today.
While NDTV is always in the background like a base tone at home, like a thamboora in a concert, the fingers that were flip flopping channels with the TV remote are now busy typing.
There are several changes in me, a rather addicted netizen, post initiation into blogging, that two in two languages. One important change is I come out of mail box (frequency of getting in hasnt come down). I bye pass my inbox now after a peep. I know there is some serious thing by the evening I need to complete before going to bed and that is much more valuable to me.
I think this is a pleasant experience. But this no way implies the experience is complete. There is a longing for readership or followership to use the Google expression. My netizenship quotient being higher than my circle of friends, relatives, well wishers and associates, this is going to be a challenge.
Then what has been achieved in real real terms? Oh, it is plenty. I am in touch with my roots. I am reflective about my most distant past. I am reminiscing a lot. It is as if, I am reliving the seasons of my life, all over again. This is a unique experience. There is a concentration of nostalgia and there is a flight into whatever out of my life, I would love to be brought into my showcase.
If I had taken a notebook and started writing every day a bit, I may not have achieved this much. While who is going to read this and how much are going to remain challenges, if there is a friend who would not mind reading and discussing this, I have something to share with that friend of mine. Quite something. This gives me a sense of accomplishment.
Am I nervous as a blogger about what I write and what reactions could be?
The only that makes me nervous is no one reading and no one reacting! The first experiences as a blogger are remarkable. I would love to carry on. Let the show go on. Some day, there will be spectators, that is what I can tell myself through my blog!
Friday, May 8, 2009
THE NEED OF THE HOUR IS A BIT OF IRRATIONAL EXUBERANCE!
What happens when speculators are hurt? Everyone else starts speculating. Because when times are good, it is the irrational exuberance (some times, an excess dose of it) brings the valuations which breach the boundaries of fundamentals, which, in a way, catalyses the market and makes it liquid for several asset classes. Of course, the communities of analysts, rating agencies and regulators are to keep a watch and let the ordinary investor know their perceptions, some of them directly and some of them through the Government and public fora.
So what is new about this? When recession has not slipped into depression, the rational investor with a low appetite for risk is unable to reduce cash levels much and is still on the horns of dilemma. The reasons are two fold: an assured bottoming out is better for him than making the right timing, a little later he can pick up assets, even if slightly higher valuations than in the bottom, as direction would be clearly established. Secondly, when things are hazy for an investor with low risk appetite, it is difficult to decide time horizons for investments. Out of bottom, time horizons come clear, because there are more investors getting in along with whom, one can enter. Without them, it is too much of a traders' market and such a company may go against the grain of the genuine long term investor.
A bit of irrational exuberance may be the right answer for this situation. Just a bit. You need a small section of investors who can hold on with their investments by entering the market now using the attractive valuations and hastening a view of bottoming out and revival of growth in sectors helpful to lift the economy out of the gloom.
Who can be this investor? There was a time when these investors came dime a dozen to the market because of easy and abundant credit - quantitatively as well qualitatively, thanks to the greed of bankers, insurers, analysts and a whole lot of players who could not resist the bubbles that were inevitable with a lower interest regime running longer and longer and with more or less vocal support of Alan Greenspan and the Government who missed the evolving story.
Now, even if Govt pumps in money after money into banks, insurance companies and corporates, these investors are not returning to the market. There is resistance to exuberance. A lot of rationality has now suddenly taken over the sentiment.
Government can just spare a fraction of the money it is dumping in to buy controls into banks and the like, and invest it in the market, with an exuberance that reflects its confidence in the changing economy - whether rational one or irrational one hardly matters.
The money sunk into balance sheets with bottomless pits is not really producing an impact. Government should also be an investor. So, perhaps the regulator. These should enter the arena, not as a trader, but an investor who wants to enter ahead of the institutional and individual investors. An investor who will dare money and time it now and help market bottom out, rather than let people keep speculating about the bottoming out.
This is one contrary view I would love my blog readers to react to. Earlier Governments and Regulators acted pro cyclical and landed where they are. It will take quite some time for a strategy to transition out of the pro cyclical measures into long term counter cyclical measures. During that transition, certain amount of irrational exuberance within dosage permitted and with fiscal and monetary controls synchronizing to gain control over such exuberance, ahead of any new damages to the system start kicking in, does not appear to be a bad idea.
So what is new about this? When recession has not slipped into depression, the rational investor with a low appetite for risk is unable to reduce cash levels much and is still on the horns of dilemma. The reasons are two fold: an assured bottoming out is better for him than making the right timing, a little later he can pick up assets, even if slightly higher valuations than in the bottom, as direction would be clearly established. Secondly, when things are hazy for an investor with low risk appetite, it is difficult to decide time horizons for investments. Out of bottom, time horizons come clear, because there are more investors getting in along with whom, one can enter. Without them, it is too much of a traders' market and such a company may go against the grain of the genuine long term investor.
A bit of irrational exuberance may be the right answer for this situation. Just a bit. You need a small section of investors who can hold on with their investments by entering the market now using the attractive valuations and hastening a view of bottoming out and revival of growth in sectors helpful to lift the economy out of the gloom.
Who can be this investor? There was a time when these investors came dime a dozen to the market because of easy and abundant credit - quantitatively as well qualitatively, thanks to the greed of bankers, insurers, analysts and a whole lot of players who could not resist the bubbles that were inevitable with a lower interest regime running longer and longer and with more or less vocal support of Alan Greenspan and the Government who missed the evolving story.
Now, even if Govt pumps in money after money into banks, insurance companies and corporates, these investors are not returning to the market. There is resistance to exuberance. A lot of rationality has now suddenly taken over the sentiment.
Government can just spare a fraction of the money it is dumping in to buy controls into banks and the like, and invest it in the market, with an exuberance that reflects its confidence in the changing economy - whether rational one or irrational one hardly matters.
The money sunk into balance sheets with bottomless pits is not really producing an impact. Government should also be an investor. So, perhaps the regulator. These should enter the arena, not as a trader, but an investor who wants to enter ahead of the institutional and individual investors. An investor who will dare money and time it now and help market bottom out, rather than let people keep speculating about the bottoming out.
This is one contrary view I would love my blog readers to react to. Earlier Governments and Regulators acted pro cyclical and landed where they are. It will take quite some time for a strategy to transition out of the pro cyclical measures into long term counter cyclical measures. During that transition, certain amount of irrational exuberance within dosage permitted and with fiscal and monetary controls synchronizing to gain control over such exuberance, ahead of any new damages to the system start kicking in, does not appear to be a bad idea.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
INDEPENDENT CANDIDATES ARE LIKE COINCIDENCES
Independent Candidates are like coincidences. You cannot ignore them. You cannot read too much into them either. In the Indian elections this time around, there are a number of pleasant coincidences, I mean, independent candidates.
While Capt Gopinath and Meera Sanyal, both come from very impressive and successful corporate and banking backgrounds, I found Meera Sanyal much more confident, a pointer to the fact that South Mumbai has a clear politically conscious and politically neutral electoral constituency, relative to South Bangalore.
While South Bangalore had the main candidate in Ananth Kumar, whose campaigns by email were, a breath of fresh air for me, the main candidate of South Mumbai is undoubtedly Milind Deorah. Milind's campaign was largely positive, except for the irritability shown towards Meera Sanyal, which in long and short is: how can one come to politics with sabbatical leave and go back to banking profession in case of non election? This is not the way political profession is pursued.
I, for one, strongly disagree with Milind Deorah. This goes against the very philosophy of what educated, sucessful and socially committed individuals can do for the nation. In case the proposals placed before public by Meera Sanyal are accepted by the voters, she is going to quit her regular job and go to Parliament with no assurance she can get back to her work, in case she is not reelected in the next election. That is sufficient investment of oneself for the social cause.
In case her proposals are not approved by the voters and their mandate to her is not to go to Parliament, how can that mandate become one for not going back to work?
Assuming what Milind proposes is the right thing, no professional can ever think of bringing new arguments and proposals before voters. How does that improve the choices for the voters? And with the repeated mandates what have the political parties really achieved - which is what an independent candidate wants to question and bring about change in the way we look at political power.
It is not at all important whether independent candidates get elected. They do amplify voices that go unheard in the cacophony of psychopants of party leadership. They bring new arguments and they bring in new focus on their constituency. They are needed to oxygenize Indian polity and they can point to changes as may be badly needed in our politics, ahead of others. They do not have to worship anyone and for that reason withhold any view.
The presence of Independent candidates like Meera Sanyal makes Indian elections and political processes more acceptable. They are most needed pleasant coincidences: you may not read much into them but they are catalysts we can ill afford to ignore them.
While Capt Gopinath and Meera Sanyal, both come from very impressive and successful corporate and banking backgrounds, I found Meera Sanyal much more confident, a pointer to the fact that South Mumbai has a clear politically conscious and politically neutral electoral constituency, relative to South Bangalore.
While South Bangalore had the main candidate in Ananth Kumar, whose campaigns by email were, a breath of fresh air for me, the main candidate of South Mumbai is undoubtedly Milind Deorah. Milind's campaign was largely positive, except for the irritability shown towards Meera Sanyal, which in long and short is: how can one come to politics with sabbatical leave and go back to banking profession in case of non election? This is not the way political profession is pursued.
I, for one, strongly disagree with Milind Deorah. This goes against the very philosophy of what educated, sucessful and socially committed individuals can do for the nation. In case the proposals placed before public by Meera Sanyal are accepted by the voters, she is going to quit her regular job and go to Parliament with no assurance she can get back to her work, in case she is not reelected in the next election. That is sufficient investment of oneself for the social cause.
In case her proposals are not approved by the voters and their mandate to her is not to go to Parliament, how can that mandate become one for not going back to work?
Assuming what Milind proposes is the right thing, no professional can ever think of bringing new arguments and proposals before voters. How does that improve the choices for the voters? And with the repeated mandates what have the political parties really achieved - which is what an independent candidate wants to question and bring about change in the way we look at political power.
It is not at all important whether independent candidates get elected. They do amplify voices that go unheard in the cacophony of psychopants of party leadership. They bring new arguments and they bring in new focus on their constituency. They are needed to oxygenize Indian polity and they can point to changes as may be badly needed in our politics, ahead of others. They do not have to worship anyone and for that reason withhold any view.
The presence of Independent candidates like Meera Sanyal makes Indian elections and political processes more acceptable. They are most needed pleasant coincidences: you may not read much into them but they are catalysts we can ill afford to ignore them.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
THE NANOCADE!
The decade that is at our doorsteps is a Nanocade!
There are several evidences that suggest this:
Micro finance is going places: Grameen Bank is expanding in US and has already started operations in New York!
We all have seen how disruptive Nano is for the global four wheeler market. While Nano is
going to take time for delivering a full measure to the aspiring middle class and first time
four wheeler buyers in India, the likes of Nano like Reva and all are very well accepted in Europe.
Smaller nations like Afghanisthan are at the centre of foreign policy of US!
Smaller parties are planning to rule the nation through new fronts.
The small is daring the big in this election. Meera Sanyal, Capt Gopinath and Mallika Sarabhai are daring to compete with bigger candidates.
IPod relatively smaller than its cousins in electronics, is ruling the roost.
The Nano thinking is all pervasive: even Tatas have not stopped with Nano in the motors; TATA housing has big plans in the affordable segment of sub 10 lacs category: they are raising 1000 units in Thane and are tying up with SBI for distribution of application forms. Of course, TATAs earlier also entered budget hotels segment.
Budget airlines buck the trend and flourish when bigger airlines struggle.
Bharti Airtel talks big about the small customers from the rural areas. FMCG is growing through the small villages and towns. Tier II is expected to overtake the metros and big towns in regard to consumption of durables.
The whole business world is afraid of the small Swine virus!
Slumdog Millionaire won most nominations upsetting major contenders. The theme was around success of the underdogs from slums.
Child artistes are making big waves both in cinema and endorsements. Even child directors are on the horizon, right?
Smallest food delicacies like Idli, Vada Paav and all become big industry. Even an IIM graduate makes it big with Idli Shops!
Saches beat products with larger packaging!
The smaller players in the erstwhile economic order like Brazil, Russia, India and China are overtaking the rest of the globe changing the order.
The small corporate world of Asia is producing the largest number of billionaires.
Laptops are competing with each other for becoming slimmer, lighter and smaller.
Smaller alternative sources of energy are gaining ground.
Bloggers are flourishing as the most read writers. No longer they are marginalized.
Marginalized sections of society are aspiring to share power in every sphere of activity.
The small groups of activists are daring and challenging bigger lobbies and institutions successfully.
Smaller nations are able to halt imposition of one sided rules of trade and investments by the bigger nations like never before!
Twenty twenty has changed the rules of the game and has created a whole new global market. Who would have thought earlier Cricket will reach even US?
If all these are not signalling the inevitable arrival of Nanocade, perhaps a lot more are!
Consider the nanoisation producing new jargons:
large cap, midcap, small cap and nano cap (to represent the sub small cap stocks)
sensex, nifty, nanex (to represent the tiny stocks)
nano syllables (less than a mono syllable)
maximum, minimum, nanimum (breaking known minima)
micro finance, nano finance (smaller credit than usual micro credit)
top line, bottom line, nano line (profit at the bottom of pyramid)
Small is not just beautiful, small is powerful. The Nanocade has arrived!
There are several evidences that suggest this:
Micro finance is going places: Grameen Bank is expanding in US and has already started operations in New York!
We all have seen how disruptive Nano is for the global four wheeler market. While Nano is
going to take time for delivering a full measure to the aspiring middle class and first time
four wheeler buyers in India, the likes of Nano like Reva and all are very well accepted in Europe.
Smaller nations like Afghanisthan are at the centre of foreign policy of US!
Smaller parties are planning to rule the nation through new fronts.
The small is daring the big in this election. Meera Sanyal, Capt Gopinath and Mallika Sarabhai are daring to compete with bigger candidates.
IPod relatively smaller than its cousins in electronics, is ruling the roost.
The Nano thinking is all pervasive: even Tatas have not stopped with Nano in the motors; TATA housing has big plans in the affordable segment of sub 10 lacs category: they are raising 1000 units in Thane and are tying up with SBI for distribution of application forms. Of course, TATAs earlier also entered budget hotels segment.
Budget airlines buck the trend and flourish when bigger airlines struggle.
Bharti Airtel talks big about the small customers from the rural areas. FMCG is growing through the small villages and towns. Tier II is expected to overtake the metros and big towns in regard to consumption of durables.
The whole business world is afraid of the small Swine virus!
Slumdog Millionaire won most nominations upsetting major contenders. The theme was around success of the underdogs from slums.
Child artistes are making big waves both in cinema and endorsements. Even child directors are on the horizon, right?
Smallest food delicacies like Idli, Vada Paav and all become big industry. Even an IIM graduate makes it big with Idli Shops!
Saches beat products with larger packaging!
The smaller players in the erstwhile economic order like Brazil, Russia, India and China are overtaking the rest of the globe changing the order.
The small corporate world of Asia is producing the largest number of billionaires.
Laptops are competing with each other for becoming slimmer, lighter and smaller.
Smaller alternative sources of energy are gaining ground.
Bloggers are flourishing as the most read writers. No longer they are marginalized.
Marginalized sections of society are aspiring to share power in every sphere of activity.
The small groups of activists are daring and challenging bigger lobbies and institutions successfully.
Smaller nations are able to halt imposition of one sided rules of trade and investments by the bigger nations like never before!
Twenty twenty has changed the rules of the game and has created a whole new global market. Who would have thought earlier Cricket will reach even US?
If all these are not signalling the inevitable arrival of Nanocade, perhaps a lot more are!
Consider the nanoisation producing new jargons:
large cap, midcap, small cap and nano cap (to represent the sub small cap stocks)
sensex, nifty, nanex (to represent the tiny stocks)
nano syllables (less than a mono syllable)
maximum, minimum, nanimum (breaking known minima)
micro finance, nano finance (smaller credit than usual micro credit)
top line, bottom line, nano line (profit at the bottom of pyramid)
Small is not just beautiful, small is powerful. The Nanocade has arrived!
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
BANGALORE AND BUFFALO
President Obama is essentially taking his election campaign into tangible action and in the process, does use the campaign language for iterations and policy making. Bangalore is an
expected reference when it comes to any discussion on outsourcing. In fact, Bangalore is a verb today. If your job is Bangalored, it signifies the job is outsourced to any country which is not yours, not necessarily India.
Should Indians and Indian techies at that react to Obama's tax proposals? Is Obama not entitled to carry forward the mandate of people? And aren't democrats, leave alone Obama, known for anti-outsourcing stances? And inspite of the political lobbying against outsourcing, hasn't India become a global destination for outsourcing? And is Bangalore not a brand that stands tall on its promise and delivery?
The questions are worth pondering over. We all, including Indians, need to see the unique context in which the electoral rhetoric against outsourcing is extending itself into tangible action against tax incentives for companies who have been blamed to create jobs outside USA.
No doubt it is protectionism back in its original elements. No doubt it is a reversal of liberalization in trade and services.
Now the questions that will eventually arise - which I am sure, over long term, Obama will pursue for a resolution, would be about the sustainability of enterprises that look inward and try to produce with supply constraints on talent both in quantitative and qualitative terms. Having said that, I would like to add, this will be an area of opportunity for disruptive IT Companies of India to think through new business models which seek to protect jobs in US with a goal of making tax effective solutions that seek to achieve a higher component of on shore collobaration and a dominant share of business transformation projects at the higher end of the value chain,
rather than, focusing on the labour arbitrage model. It is quite possible that these companies may use the multi-ethnic and multi-lingual resource base in US for setting up on shore, near shore and off shore units where Americans are employed in all these zones - a prospect which leads to creation of more jobs for US citizens and a prospect that can lead to fresh tax incentives from Obama.
While the emerging markets do hope to decouple from the US and Europe and do emit such signals off and on, a US which takes longer for recovery is the worst that can happen to, among others, emerging markets like India. We need US to revitalize its economy, boost its business and consumer confidence and boost its trade and investment with the rest of the world, particularly the new engines of the world which have mitigated the risk of a deeper and longer recession than the world has experienced earlier.
Does this mean India should remain silent? I think India should hasten all those possibilities where there is a generation of US jobs through its Corporates eager to increase global foot prints. Obama or US or anyone has not said anything against Indian employers in their land or Indian Investments in their markets. With valuations being what they are now, the Indian corporates with global aspirations should enter US in a big way, create jobs in US as well as in India. There are Indian Corporates like Bharti Airtel who are known to outsource processes from outside India, perhaps US or at least the developed world. This potential needs to be further unlocked.
Secondly, India should take up with US the double taxation treaty for a review and negotiate for right terms and conditions in the changing scenario.
Thirdly, India should explore the low hanging fruits of collaborating with US for establishing nuclear plants making use of the Indo US nuclear deal. I read during the height of deliberations on the nuclear deal in India, that each nuclear plant creates at least 5000 jobs in USA.
Fourthly, Obama administration is keen to boost investments in alternate energy. India has a great potential to do Indo US joint ventures in wind energy and solar energy. India can become a potential investor in such projects both in US and India. The green agenda of Obama is good not for just US but for countries like India whose economic well being is, often, dominated by high oil prices.
Fifthly, as US Corporates will need the Indian talent anyway, India should lobby with their help for easing of Visas as a barter for the Obama agenda of protecting jobs. The Corporates will need to either outsource or immigrate a certain component of the talent. This will be inevitable and this should be institutionalized.
Sixthly, there may be scope for employing Americans in key positions in the Indian BPOs and KPOs - even if this will not boost numbers to a high US count, the rhetoric will be dented and the sentiment can ease a bit, which is also important, if not all important.
As a Bangalorean, I am glad Obama needed Bangalore as a powerful expession of his push on the tax incentives to US Corporates outsourcing from rest of the world. As an Indian, I am confident that sooner than later, the lobby for outsourcing will only get strengthened and excesses of the day will get corrected. Then it will no longer be Bangalore Versus Buffalo. It will be Bangalore and Buffalo - generating a value that exceed the sum of the two.
expected reference when it comes to any discussion on outsourcing. In fact, Bangalore is a verb today. If your job is Bangalored, it signifies the job is outsourced to any country which is not yours, not necessarily India.
Should Indians and Indian techies at that react to Obama's tax proposals? Is Obama not entitled to carry forward the mandate of people? And aren't democrats, leave alone Obama, known for anti-outsourcing stances? And inspite of the political lobbying against outsourcing, hasn't India become a global destination for outsourcing? And is Bangalore not a brand that stands tall on its promise and delivery?
The questions are worth pondering over. We all, including Indians, need to see the unique context in which the electoral rhetoric against outsourcing is extending itself into tangible action against tax incentives for companies who have been blamed to create jobs outside USA.
No doubt it is protectionism back in its original elements. No doubt it is a reversal of liberalization in trade and services.
Now the questions that will eventually arise - which I am sure, over long term, Obama will pursue for a resolution, would be about the sustainability of enterprises that look inward and try to produce with supply constraints on talent both in quantitative and qualitative terms. Having said that, I would like to add, this will be an area of opportunity for disruptive IT Companies of India to think through new business models which seek to protect jobs in US with a goal of making tax effective solutions that seek to achieve a higher component of on shore collobaration and a dominant share of business transformation projects at the higher end of the value chain,
rather than, focusing on the labour arbitrage model. It is quite possible that these companies may use the multi-ethnic and multi-lingual resource base in US for setting up on shore, near shore and off shore units where Americans are employed in all these zones - a prospect which leads to creation of more jobs for US citizens and a prospect that can lead to fresh tax incentives from Obama.
While the emerging markets do hope to decouple from the US and Europe and do emit such signals off and on, a US which takes longer for recovery is the worst that can happen to, among others, emerging markets like India. We need US to revitalize its economy, boost its business and consumer confidence and boost its trade and investment with the rest of the world, particularly the new engines of the world which have mitigated the risk of a deeper and longer recession than the world has experienced earlier.
Does this mean India should remain silent? I think India should hasten all those possibilities where there is a generation of US jobs through its Corporates eager to increase global foot prints. Obama or US or anyone has not said anything against Indian employers in their land or Indian Investments in their markets. With valuations being what they are now, the Indian corporates with global aspirations should enter US in a big way, create jobs in US as well as in India. There are Indian Corporates like Bharti Airtel who are known to outsource processes from outside India, perhaps US or at least the developed world. This potential needs to be further unlocked.
Secondly, India should take up with US the double taxation treaty for a review and negotiate for right terms and conditions in the changing scenario.
Thirdly, India should explore the low hanging fruits of collaborating with US for establishing nuclear plants making use of the Indo US nuclear deal. I read during the height of deliberations on the nuclear deal in India, that each nuclear plant creates at least 5000 jobs in USA.
Fourthly, Obama administration is keen to boost investments in alternate energy. India has a great potential to do Indo US joint ventures in wind energy and solar energy. India can become a potential investor in such projects both in US and India. The green agenda of Obama is good not for just US but for countries like India whose economic well being is, often, dominated by high oil prices.
Fifthly, as US Corporates will need the Indian talent anyway, India should lobby with their help for easing of Visas as a barter for the Obama agenda of protecting jobs. The Corporates will need to either outsource or immigrate a certain component of the talent. This will be inevitable and this should be institutionalized.
Sixthly, there may be scope for employing Americans in key positions in the Indian BPOs and KPOs - even if this will not boost numbers to a high US count, the rhetoric will be dented and the sentiment can ease a bit, which is also important, if not all important.
As a Bangalorean, I am glad Obama needed Bangalore as a powerful expession of his push on the tax incentives to US Corporates outsourcing from rest of the world. As an Indian, I am confident that sooner than later, the lobby for outsourcing will only get strengthened and excesses of the day will get corrected. Then it will no longer be Bangalore Versus Buffalo. It will be Bangalore and Buffalo - generating a value that exceed the sum of the two.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Challenges of an interconnected world
In an individual's life, there are 3 phases of maturity, namely dependence, independence and interdependence. In the pre-internet world, more or less the larger groups of individuals also evolved into these phases of maturity in socio-cultural, political and economic contexts.
Post-internet, there is a much faster pace about the evolution of individuals, families, societies, nations, regional groupings with the result, the world is at once shrunk and complex. In all these evolutions, there is a key element: choice. Choices individuals make. Choices families, societies and various political and economic groups make. Choices that suit value systems and choices that undermine value systems.
The internet age has led to a kind of interconnectivity which overrides the phenomena of interdependence that was evolving in a slow pace through various socio economic groups.
This interconnectivity challenges the choices of yesterday as also the values of yesterday. This brings in a barrage of choices that defy almost all known contours of the games as they were played and controlled in the erstwhile divided interdependent world.
The unified interconnected world is at once simple, small and inclusive by way of connect and complex,too huge and exclusive by way of choices.
Today's interconnected world has made the individual life very complex. On the one hand, the interconnectedness is opening flood gate of opportunities to a knowledge world that knows no borders; on the other hand, the disconnect for the knowledge-individual from the traditional umblical chord with the smaller, compact groups like family, neighbourhood, native town or village community, sub national and national groupings is phenomenal.
The disconnect is, without doubt, perilous for social good to be realized within manageable turfs. Due to this disconnect, one does get lost out of the original purpose that was keeping the rhythm of day to day existence and harmony of life in tact.
As the mindspace of the individual keeps expanding tuned to an ever changing cyber environ, there is a huge threat of an information-fatigue and obfuscation of purpose of life.
A fanatic netizen is prone to hyper act and loose the valuable, stable and natural defences that lie in her own roots and in the course of getting interconnected to the virtual world, can very well be disconnected from the real world.
At a higher level of social plane, the challenges are palpable. Identities are getting destroyed. New identities are getting created, but there is no value system to cling on to, any more, as every value system is perceived to live shorter and shorter.
Each knowledge individual is evolving into multiple identities that keep questioning the fundamentals of the hitherto accepted social, political and economic philosophies -, there is now, as it were, a new equation in which all values are to die and no values matter that strong as these appeared to be in a world which was less interconnected but more interdependent.
While the destruction of old order is so much assured, there is no light that leads to a new path that can elevate the human life, in the perception of various sections of the society.
The ripples that keep circling in the net are far too many to ignore in the context of individuals and are at the same time far too weak to transform the humanity, as these often seek to.
How does, then, an individual who is part of the system take care of herself? What does a family do, if it is faced with an impact on the individual who is unable to settle and stabilize? At each level of impact, the questions that arise can keep echoing the dilemmas of the interconnected world, without an answer.
I think, at the end of the day, it is a journey for all social groupings - not individuals alone. The families that care for the individual need to connect to her through the same universe of choices, adapt to the same tools and techniques. This may perhaps help the interested entities find new ways of bonding with and sharing identity with the individual. This may help the disturbed entities find a foothold in a world to which the individual has been transported, apparently without his family or social roots.
Let us face certain realities without remorse: if I can chat, blog and community-group with my children, I am in better touch with them. I continue to be around in their mind space through the web space.
A parent, a teacher, a friend, a boss or an Institution is in better touch with respective target groups and constituencies to be engaged with through the medium and means of today's interconnected world.
The other day, I was insisting with my sister about installing Googletalk , who is, given a choice, inimical to these tools. The trouble is regardless of phone and mobile being around, the way i navigate into the channels of the day, I do not navigate through the tools of yesterday, I do not want to loose my people because of this and would rather persuade them to be part of the shift.
Suddenly through the last decade or so, there is an abundance in all our lives which we are not able to cope with. Today one needs to achieve more, but also has to read more, write more, see more and share more. Today's communications can be continuous with no measure of the conventional time limiting its continuity. Time has lost its definitions in the perennial flow of the world wide web.
Even if one counters the abundance theory with joblessness, look at what the jobless would have done a decade ago and what they do now. There is an abundance of activity for everyone.
Do families need to care at all for the lost individual, as usual? I would say they need to care even more, but they need to become part of the shrunk globe and be in the virtual neighbourhood of their wards. Being physically around is by no means being in touch with them. The world is interconnected. Families cannot afford not to be.
Post-internet, there is a much faster pace about the evolution of individuals, families, societies, nations, regional groupings with the result, the world is at once shrunk and complex. In all these evolutions, there is a key element: choice. Choices individuals make. Choices families, societies and various political and economic groups make. Choices that suit value systems and choices that undermine value systems.
The internet age has led to a kind of interconnectivity which overrides the phenomena of interdependence that was evolving in a slow pace through various socio economic groups.
This interconnectivity challenges the choices of yesterday as also the values of yesterday. This brings in a barrage of choices that defy almost all known contours of the games as they were played and controlled in the erstwhile divided interdependent world.
The unified interconnected world is at once simple, small and inclusive by way of connect and complex,too huge and exclusive by way of choices.
Today's interconnected world has made the individual life very complex. On the one hand, the interconnectedness is opening flood gate of opportunities to a knowledge world that knows no borders; on the other hand, the disconnect for the knowledge-individual from the traditional umblical chord with the smaller, compact groups like family, neighbourhood, native town or village community, sub national and national groupings is phenomenal.
The disconnect is, without doubt, perilous for social good to be realized within manageable turfs. Due to this disconnect, one does get lost out of the original purpose that was keeping the rhythm of day to day existence and harmony of life in tact.
As the mindspace of the individual keeps expanding tuned to an ever changing cyber environ, there is a huge threat of an information-fatigue and obfuscation of purpose of life.
A fanatic netizen is prone to hyper act and loose the valuable, stable and natural defences that lie in her own roots and in the course of getting interconnected to the virtual world, can very well be disconnected from the real world.
At a higher level of social plane, the challenges are palpable. Identities are getting destroyed. New identities are getting created, but there is no value system to cling on to, any more, as every value system is perceived to live shorter and shorter.
Each knowledge individual is evolving into multiple identities that keep questioning the fundamentals of the hitherto accepted social, political and economic philosophies -, there is now, as it were, a new equation in which all values are to die and no values matter that strong as these appeared to be in a world which was less interconnected but more interdependent.
While the destruction of old order is so much assured, there is no light that leads to a new path that can elevate the human life, in the perception of various sections of the society.
The ripples that keep circling in the net are far too many to ignore in the context of individuals and are at the same time far too weak to transform the humanity, as these often seek to.
How does, then, an individual who is part of the system take care of herself? What does a family do, if it is faced with an impact on the individual who is unable to settle and stabilize? At each level of impact, the questions that arise can keep echoing the dilemmas of the interconnected world, without an answer.
I think, at the end of the day, it is a journey for all social groupings - not individuals alone. The families that care for the individual need to connect to her through the same universe of choices, adapt to the same tools and techniques. This may perhaps help the interested entities find new ways of bonding with and sharing identity with the individual. This may help the disturbed entities find a foothold in a world to which the individual has been transported, apparently without his family or social roots.
Let us face certain realities without remorse: if I can chat, blog and community-group with my children, I am in better touch with them. I continue to be around in their mind space through the web space.
A parent, a teacher, a friend, a boss or an Institution is in better touch with respective target groups and constituencies to be engaged with through the medium and means of today's interconnected world.
The other day, I was insisting with my sister about installing Googletalk , who is, given a choice, inimical to these tools. The trouble is regardless of phone and mobile being around, the way i navigate into the channels of the day, I do not navigate through the tools of yesterday, I do not want to loose my people because of this and would rather persuade them to be part of the shift.
Suddenly through the last decade or so, there is an abundance in all our lives which we are not able to cope with. Today one needs to achieve more, but also has to read more, write more, see more and share more. Today's communications can be continuous with no measure of the conventional time limiting its continuity. Time has lost its definitions in the perennial flow of the world wide web.
Even if one counters the abundance theory with joblessness, look at what the jobless would have done a decade ago and what they do now. There is an abundance of activity for everyone.
Do families need to care at all for the lost individual, as usual? I would say they need to care even more, but they need to become part of the shrunk globe and be in the virtual neighbourhood of their wards. Being physically around is by no means being in touch with them. The world is interconnected. Families cannot afford not to be.
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