Academic Mediocrity

Ever since I entered the precincts of B-School, I was always fascinated by academic excellence. It was deep rooted ideology where I desired to counted not among the best but the very best. A feeling of ecstasy used to run down my spine with the sheer mention of academic brilliance. The very thought of great minds at work with their stupendous effort leading the charge of developing the world we desire for, just made the field of academics a fascinating one. To be a part of the world where we still are not guided by the whims and fancies of an eccentric corporate beast, just seduced me.
But it was never so easy to begin with. As the ones who shall be leading the intellectual brigade , one needs to be thorough with whatever he is pursuing academically with a proof. And that proof is CGPA on the higher side, an abhorrence for corporate culture , leftist leanings and ascetic lifestyle. On a scale of 10, I will score the highest on all the parameters but the first one. Having identified this as my weak link , I wanted to have the first mover advantage. But as is incorrectly Well Begun is Half Done, I just lose the zing in the end. Even the system must share certain blame where dishonesty does not lead to competition of equals but of unequals.

My Weekend Sojourn.

At this ripe age , I am finally doing what I should have done ages back. I am flirting with fire, i am flirting with seduction or to say it blatantly I am try to woo fairer gender. Accompanying me here are my batch mates and my fully nurtured frustration.
As a religious schedule , I reach out to City Centre looking dapperly dressed, The most Hip and Happening place in the Salt Lake, if not whole of Kolkata. And Oh My Mime, there you realize the fury of God's creativity. Items , Babes just line up to show what they have : Assets and we just do not let them down. It is quite obvious I seem to think , that why men in their prime in the company of other men be milling in the crowd had it not been "Dostana". But I have a feeling , they enjoy it. Knowing very well whats on store why would you play with fire. Boy they play and play amazingly well.
Ladies from all genre are a treat to watch. At times it becomes extremely difficult to not ogle at maternal ladies still in their prime with meticulously dressed sarees and that deep cut neck blouse that keeps male hormones working overtime. You just cannot stop wondering why Bong Babes are still ruling the roost in Bollywood. The answer is "They Just Have No Competitor".

To understand the magnanimity of the prowess of these Bong Babes , one of my friends aptly quotes "Bengal ! Improving India's average". Infact when we stare at their assets , there is lurking feeling that they just relish it. At times we the hunter is hunted , but this is what adds to the Bong babes Sensuous charm.

Sitting at one of the most prominent balustrades just overlooking the Tea Junction, we are unleashing the terror of eve teasing. Not a single damsel passes which is not registered by our probing amorous eyes. At times we just do overdo things much to the annoyance of their male counterpoints. However justification is easily derived from Keats "A Thing of Beauty is A Joy Forever".

Our flirt with ridiculity has taught us a lesson that we always wanted to be taught . Brain * Beauty = Constant. Then what else would explain cogently the fact that their boyfriends are a just a shade of them. The babes are silken , lustrous , sensuous ,while the blokes are just another brick in the wall. Is it the money power that is dictating it. We have that sniff that it is exactly that.It should not be any other reason, therefore money commands power , MBA delivers it and once rejuvenated for academics excellence we head straight to our places reinvigorated to make the best of the time before we come back again.

How to build creativity.

It is the oft quoted , most abused and seldom followed phrase that corporates have unleashed to propel their profits. It masquerades as a serious attempt to bring semblance and order to the way businesses are run. I am talking of Out of The Box Thinking. The focus is so much on the end result that the process which lays the foundation is given the royal ignore. However as human race finds itself in tumultuous times , with its lot of miseries increasing rather than decreasing , the time has finally come to develop that process , that bloody process analogously nurtured by Greg Chappel but decried and ridiculed unbound by one and all, which actually laid the foundation for India's cricket stupendous success.

As individuals there are certain things that we can do to inculcate that mode of thought process. To begin with always think of half glass empty. It is the first and needless to say the foremost step in realization and actualization of the problem. The half glass full is of no concern but the other half is.

Then follows the process of following the course of action that will lead us to remedial measures. It starts with having diametrically opposite view of the world. As famously quoted by the George Bernard Shaw "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man". The idea is to develop alternate thinking , inculcating the ability to seep through the intricacies and just grasp enough details of the problem that you attack the problem in an unconventional way.
Another important component is that of conviction.If faith can move mountains , conviction can cause dogmas to loosen their strangle hold. To convince others who are equally dogmatic and rigid , we need to be supremely convinced in our conviction.It is no easy task to make others change their carefully ideology . But this is where we have to demonstrate that zing where we make things happen. Believe it might seem intransigent but Earth was never the centre of the Sun.

The Receding Hairline : A cause of Anxiety

I am just out of my teens. I am flirtin with manhood and yet I find myself in a precarious situation where with every passing day I carry less of burden of what should have been more: My Glowing Shiny Silken hair.

What a loss it has been and what is even more astounding is the acceleration it is picking with increasing course curriculum and tighter exam schedules. My french beard to an extent is compensating for the loss in density but now that I am flirting with the idea of shaving of that frenchie , I find it very scary to let only my countable silken black blades of grass do the scalp hiding and machoism flaunting stuff.

Everyday time and again as I stand before the mirror I find numbers decimated . Even friends and foes alike have started exemplating the receding curve to IS-LM models in economy in an effort to lend some enthusiasm to menial macroeconomics. I also join the gang but somewhere down the line that fear lurks, is the fact of the matter so evident.

But now that the inevitable in imminent , I am on lookout for the positives. I think a frenchie might just compliment shiny lustrous bald. It will catapult me into the league where I will consider myself to have seen it all and now aloof. It will make me further oblivious of how I look. It will help me in fighting the dreaded inflation monster with reduced spending on expensive luxury hair care products. Wow ....a Whole new world of untrodden confidence and debonair carefreenes opens up.

The Financial Fun

Ever since Lehman liquadated , hopes of millions of MBA aspirant hopes have gone down the drain.People hoping to make moolahs as coveted I-Bankers are realignig their focus . The sky rocketing salaries that used to put  a government servant savings at the fag end of his career seem miniscule are for a discounting. And believe me that was impending , long overdue and most important desirable. This crisis is a reminder that a world is far more rewarding , far more satisfying and far more enjoyable  but is waiting for it takers. After such  a mad rush, a hiatus , a sabbatical is aiding to refocus on what we missed out.

Ask any B-School graduate and you see the tinge in his eyes lighting up witht the mention of I-Banking. All the different fields of study were playing truant to the lots of bucks offered in the financial industry. Social sciences labs were yearning for researchers , the Chemistry labs had no takers for test tubes, inventory level was building up in laboraties. However something extremely opposite was happening in Bschools. Makeshift B-Schools were springing up. The already limited infrastructure was being stretched to the limit of failure point and students who at the very first instances had their minds on technology were forced to walk the trodden track. Infact diversity seemed to be a thing of the past. It was a factory asembly line . And then the inevitable had to happen . This crisis will bring some element of realism in the things as they stand now. Management education as value addition needs to be prioritized by the students. What most B-Schools have become today are mere just placement agencies. Any slowdown , and the truth is staring at you wide out in the open. The journey of two years needs to be nurtured , developed and most importantly enjoyed. It is a process of learning , it is a transformation from frivolousness to strategically taking risks . It is a womb of two years. But the problem that IVF has just killed the fun via Coaching Institutes.

So what you sow is what you get. And the coming times will separate the wheat from the chaff.

Waiting eagerly for the bloody good times.

Coming of Age

Time just flies away. Things have never been the same. We are in times where epoch making events are shaping the course of future. Events such as liquidition of Lehman , failure of AIG and sell out of Merill Lynch do not normally have to be looked from the side of what caused it. The more pertinent question is "What does it Augur for the Future of Financial Markets". Will it bring down curtains to an era of unregualted financial market or replace this by a system of regulation as has been prevalent in the UK. A recent statement by the top bankers of UK, reiterated their immunity to the financial meltdown in the US. As the finacial markets are chain linked , breaking of one in the series can lead to demise of the whole system . Infact with super volatile derivatives , which Warren Buffet describes as "Recipe for Disaster", it is no surprise that more cards will fall as time unfolds and the magnanity of the problem is just anybody's guess.

As a brief for the uninitiated , Lehman liquidation has shaken the foundation of investors. If people from worlds best B-Schools cannot manage an Investment Bank,questions are being raised about the efficacy of the system. One reason is that the system has become so much regimented from top to bottom that dissent is just not accepted as part of the decision making process. The most critical part of the business success , the human element has been relegated to the backbench,playing subservient to process orientation which just does not account for the wide array of economic situations.

The need of the hour to once again bring democracy in the organizations. Conformance to orders , decimation of challenging superiors is a just not acceptable when the investors from different spheres of lives have pit in their money.

This is also a lesson for Indian Regulators of what they need to imbibe in their system. To let a system be solely self regulated is letting another crisis unfold. We cannot rely on the capitalists for taking holistic view of things. It is for the regulator to decide what is good for the country and let things churn out accordingly.It has happened in the past that the banks in ndia have gone bust, but their capital base being so small did not cause media ripples. Now that the economy is growing , a rudderless ship will lead to devaition that will be too much to regulate in the future. 

The event is an eye opener and the regulators in India . It is just that are they "Awake"!

DoorDarashan par Paas Se!

DD is attempting to regain its past glory. Though it is the mouthpiece of the government, of late it has shed some of the inhibitions which prohibit it from openly decrying government. In fact it has slowly slid into a of non confrontation where the ethos of journalism are not compromised. Although it has miles to go before it catches up with giants of news reporting such as New York Times, yet a comparison in terms of quality of reporting between the two will not be completely out of place.
What distinguishes DD from other run on the mill type of channels is its earthy attachment to roots , a massive funding by the government and some smart people behind the scenes who are still not solely guided by TRP ratings. One such person happens to be Rajiv Mehrotra , whose bouquet of programs include his series of conversations with men and women who define our contemporary world , a PSBT sponsored 'Open Frame' series . It is an epitome of news reporting where the issues of grave concern are not myopically pushed under the carpet but discussed , debated and above all allowed to come the way they naturally exist. It envisages a belief that putting everything in order is not the motive but letting out inchorence is not bad reporting either. It is a jewel in the crown of the public broadcaster.
Besides social programs such as 'Ehsaas' , which portray the belittling of values in a highly materialistic society ,which affluence has decimated . One more thing that makes DD very enabling is its abhorance for Bollywood and its protagonists. When the world is debating over Saif and Kareena standoff at IIFA , DD is the only one seeming and lending sanity to its viewers by clearly black outing the news story.
However this is just one half of the story. The other side presents a picture of dismal performance despite its brand, its unmatchable reach and its clout. One such instance is the IPL , which had pervaded the minds of puerile Indians, where DD had gone overboard in its news coverage. At prime time , when the news reader has just cricket to discuss with his set of as good as anyone on the street panelist , you feel the abysmal depth to which issues of concern have plummeted. The basic premises is "How the hell am i bothered with it? ..Why should a public broadcaster waste resources over a show that is for commercial purposes of the few and the inconsequential. Will it be not better to devote the same resources for spreading the wings of education?' A daily one hour show , handled by the subject expert teachers will do much good in spreading education to people in the hinterlands for whom private tuition is not a possibility despite the crumbling public schooling system. With government promising and advertising its Bharat Nirman , this show will gel very well in the scheme of things.
Another place where it has a lot of ground to cover is the way it conveys information. Though the
public news is for good , concreting the information , making it self explanatory will do the ultimate goal of the government intent

NREGS : A Remedy for the Ailing.

The flagship pro gramme of the UPA government has come under heavy flak of late. The underpinning to this is based on the castigating of the efforts of the government by the CAG , which believes huge amounts of funds have been siphoned off without accountability. In fact it categorically states that only 3.2% of the targeted households have benefited and even there the work done has not been in commensurate with the goals of nation building or more dramatically Bharat Nirman . Imagine you are getting paid for digging a hole and filling it , although the civic amenities at large across remain dismal. The other concern expressed is the practice of fake rolls , which I believe is politically motivated as after all , the village is still viewed from the insular point as the monomer of votes where the sarpanch wields enormous clout. The third though not not observed to my knowledge by the CAG but conjectured by me is the improper planning .We have to realize that a work is only not done or completely done . There is nothing such as partially completed project . Imagine erecting poles for transmitting power . If four piers are to be erected will it suffice to erect three and consider the task completed 3/4th even though no one still derives any utility from the project.
NREGS , though very sane in motive , from the very beginning suffered from bad planning further aggravated by dysfunctional mechanism in place to overview its execution. But as half of India reels from being ostracized from the mainstream , abandoning it midway is no good either. The right course of action ought to be to check the pilferages ,target it more aggressively at the intended beneficiaries and effective monitoring with a self check mechanism in place an independent authority.

Now comes the more pertinent question of How to achieve that? Considering the awareness level of the masses is next to ignorance , an effort must be made before introducing the NREGS in a district , of educating the masses. Government schools can play a pivotal role and so can the post master whose accessibility is unmatched . A drive preceded by the pro gramme itself can help in minimizing the confiding of the scheme by the people with vested motives.

A monitoring committee needs to be formed which should report to the central authority implementing the scheme. Now there is every fear that the monitoring committee can play subservient to the chieftains of the area. To overcome that lacuna , it must be mandatory that the committee comprise the local leaders especially the ones from the opposition party as they can act as a counter to the forces of subservient.

Over the years too much has been made of e-governance. We need to realize where people do not access to basic amenities of life , internet and e-governance sound nothing less than Greek . These technologies might serve the purpose in urban areas , however they can never be efficacious in dealing with rural problems. These pioneering ideas do not connect with the masses. Mediums of communication though very effective , have been put in the dumps. A new initiative in the form of community radio , needs to be resurrected. It can be a very effective medium of imparting of latest government initiatives. Here we need to make the local school the primary body responsible for overseeing the functioning. Believe me of all the government agencies , the school still has the capacity to deliver , for it has diversity which can sustain any project.

Some other Utopian ideas that have found favor such as Smart Cards (as is currently being implemented on a Pilot basis in Andhra Pradesh ) , transferring money to the account of the beneficiaries directly . Although the latter scheme has many takers the problem is opening a bank account is still not a task that many insolvent people cam accomplish, nevertheless a suitable structure can be put in place to overcome the encumbrances.

At the legislation level , the government needs to regulate the working conditions . Regulated working hours , equal pay for equal work , gender sensitivity and promoting activities which can be done from the realms of the homes especially targeted for women. As society we can engage women to work only in economic activity , after all they are the conscience of social fabric too.

The Party of Petty Politicians.

Venue : Ashoka Hotel , Chanakyapuri, New Delhi
Location : Delegates Convention Centre
Conference Topic: What Next after Now.
Speakers: Sonia Gandhi,Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi,Robert Vadra,____,______,(for the the last minute invitees), Manmohan Singh.

With just a month away the top brass of the Congress is finalizing a strategy to counter the much dreaded anti incumbency. Hectic preparations had been underway for this square table conference being presided by incumbents who's who in order of clout they share.

Rahul Gandhi: This year has been pretty good for our party. Compared to last year where we lost 4 of 5 Lok Sabha elections, this year we lost only 3 (Though he forgot to mention that they were the only elections held ). With this improvement the party cadre is feeling rejuvenated especially the youth of the country , who need to be brought into politics .
(Delegates look for cover , the import of this is really unsettling for them. Most of the are on the wrong side of forty or are not scions of Gandhi's.
The only one's rejoicing are the BabaLog , but a sudden reminder of the necessity of winning elections , kills the joy in the incipiency.)
In fact the TRUTH is , which Gandhiji preached , we will not hide the lies , propagate secularism and the great contributions made by Nehru Gandhi clan. This is more than a winning strategy practiced by us. It should not fail us this time too. As alumnus from Harvard , we need to market a package. just as SRK did in Chak De India. Connect cricket with Politics , it encompasses youths as well. (:) :))

Mani Shankar Aiyar (Intervenes to corroborate the facts): As sports minister we organized a cricket tourney in Amethi, to a resounding success(looks to Rahul for affirmation, who still has stoicism ). This is in continuation of the Oil diplomacy which I have preaching much to the inaction of mine.

MMS: Inaction is pardonable , however i never got the link between cricket and oil diplomacy. As this is historic occasion and mutually acceptable people all round , please explain the crucial link..

MSA .. Ahemm , (still at a loss to figure out the import of what he meant , switches to hindi but fearing the recognisibility , drops his plan midway , turns to his vernacular... Tamil).

P Chidambram: (till now aloof , lightens up) ..... gives that characteristic smirk , nudges in tact approval .

I between is heard a big yawn, turning around the meeting welcomes the somnolent HRD minister. Always a wily customer, he has come with his plans of utopian social equality.

MSA sees an opportunity to escape the grilling. He changes tack and points quite objectively to the harm the policies of Quota have done to the image of Congress.
However AS , with the IQ of an amoeba and the unfailing commitment to Gandhi Parivaar, fears no one.

AS : I cannot be blamed for all the ills plagung the Congress. I am what I am and Soniaji knows that. (Loks wickedly at MMS , his bete noire. Then tactfully makes up the case to oput the blame on FM for the inflation as the real enemy.).

PC : (For the first time loses his charming smile, for he is under attack.) I am supremely confident that inflation will moderate and prices will subside, when will that happen is as good as anybody's guess, but there is no need for panic. The worst is yet to come . keep that for that moment. I have already issued all the instruction to the finance secretaries and the RBI governor who have promised to take fiscal as well as monetary steps to rein in the inflation monster. As per action items from my side, I have curbed using official car to lower fuel consumption, switched to wearing T-Shirts and Shorts instead of crisp starched dhotis and abandoned the habit of owing a shawl in the simmering delhi summer. All these measures reaffirm my commitment to global warming and energy conservation.

With his side of the story over and he having convinced his commitment to the common man , PR dasmunshi picks the ends from where PC left..

PR Dasmunshi : (Wearing that artificial seriousness which make the gullible viewer impossible to differentiate between matters of grave concern and soccer related stories. A bellicose debater whose foundations of debating lay on volume of the argument rather than depth, starts and all hindi stalwarts start turning in their grave after such a gender bender bizzare )
DD News is the mouthpiece of Congress... I am plannig to give party tickets to LCS for his unflittering sycophancy to the ideals of Soniaji. From now on every day we shall telecast shows that will malign our political oponents under the garb of saving secularism. I have managed to buld a strong team of undercover congress agents disguising as independent journalists who will take the offence to the oppositions camp.

Uniquely Singapore

Singapore, a tiny speck of island at the southern tip of Malaysia in the Indian Ocean seems to be yet another nondescript island. With a population of merely 47 lakhs, that is one third that of Delhi, it hardly brings in awe. But that is exactly where we tend to go awry in our impression. This small island belies all our conventions and wisdom when we think of things small. It is a giant if the parameters change from physical to economic and social considerations. And more so if we consider the rapid strides made by the country in a very small period of time. The country of Singapore got independence from British only in 1965.

This island nation is an agglomerate of 50 isles, well connected by an extensive network of roads. It has a population of 47 Lakhs comprising people mainly of Chinese descent followed by Malays and Indians. As expected from its demographic profile, the languages spoken here are Mandarin, Malay, Tamil and English (language of administration). This diversity brings to fore the cosmopolitan nature which remains one of the reasons for its rise as economic power. However not lagging far behind is the Political and the Social Infrastructure that the country has nurtured. At political spectrum, it follows the Westminster Model, a system derived from the parliamentary structure in the United Kingdom. In this multi party system, the People's Action Party has been the dominant force. On Social Front, ,just to gauge the efficacy of it's social programs, the country boosts of an impressive life expectancy rate of 79.9 years, a literacy rate of 95.4% and most importantly a tradition of upholding and promoting Democratic traditions, an integral component of any endeavor for sustainable and people driven growth. In fact to supplement this, it has laid utmost emphasis on educational sector. The country boosts of an impressive array of Technical Institutes collaborating with the industries and institutions considered to be the best in the business. As a corollary, people from the most diverse places throng to this place for pursuing their dreams. A non resident population of 10 lacs just highlights the point.

On the economic front, Singapore is a model to be emulated. A country of the population size one third of Delhi has a GDP of one fourth of that of India. It has one of the highest per capita incomes in the world at a staggering $47,000. With robust economic fundamentals, ably supported by the highly trained as well as motivated workforce, which can credit itself for being at the higher end of productivity, the country's economic parameters are an economist and social reformer's delight.

Coming to the micro parameters, the country clocked a GDP growth rate of 7.4 in 2007, and in future this is expected to hover around 5%, which is nonetheless impressive considering the fact that the world economy growth rate will come down from a current peak of 4.5% to a meagre 3%, on account of US and European economies plunging into a recession. Even at its current growth rate of 7.4, it has reigned in inflation at 1%, just goes on to show a robust manufacturing sector and enough liquidity in the market to cushion for capital investments. The country has a healthy budget balance of 0.3% (Exports - Imports) , that will keep to remain steady, pointing to a favorable trade balance, on account of robust manufacturing and lucrative educational sector. These conditions conducive for economic well being are ably supported by low commercial banking prime lending rates of 5.3 %.

These factors have lured investors in investing in the country. A bludgeoning forex exchange reserves to the tune of $210 billion, comparable to that of a giant like India, reinforce the confidence of investors in its economic fundamentals. At the same this foreign influx has led to very interesting implications for the world economy. With the US sub prime crisis, the financial institutions the world over have come under severe strain. With the number of loan defaulters increasing, meeting loans demands under crippled liquidity has become more and more challenging. In order to ward off the crisis, they are on prowl on new sources of funding such as Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF), which are government owned, which on account of massive inflows is flush with funding prowess. In some recent instances, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) of the United Arab Emirates has injected $7.5 Billion to get 4.9 stake in Citigroup, the Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC) said last week that it will inject 11 billion Swiss francs into UBS AG, Switzerland's largest bank. But this is where the catch lies. Politically and Strategically, this trend is not seen positively by the Western Governments, who suspect political considerations of the stakeholders can dictate the flow of money, putting at risk their economies. A similar situation popularly known as the "South East Asian Crisis", serves as a reminder of the vulnerabilities they are exposing themselves. But with overriding economic compulsions, it is widely seen in the western circles to opt for the Singapore SWF, for they offer a lot in compatible with Capitalist ethos. So here emerges a vicious circle where the flow of money os circulated generating lucrative returns. The point that I am trying to convey through this is the increasing role that is being played by the Singapore Government, without putting at unease their Western counterparts. It will go a long in strengthening the Singapore's economy, boding well for the posterity.

However the area of concern emerging for the economy is the appreciation of Singapore $ to the American $. As, is being felt throughout the world, the appreciation of local currency with respect to US $ impacts growth adversely. Besides influencing trade balance with a major trading partner i.e US, foreign institutional investors also shy in investing in the country. Some countries counter this by intentionally depreciating the local currency with respect to the US $ such as China, just to make their exports competitive in the international markets at the cost of imports. But with oil prices at an all time high of $100, a judicious mix of economic prudence and political maneuvering is required. This is where the litmus test for the policy makers of Singapore will lie.