Just In Case Matured

Mr. Dhoni, please don't get disheartened!

2012-01-05T22:15:00.001-08:00

If I would have been in Dhoni's place today, then I would have been the happiest man around. Because at last after close to dozen innings spanning over two continents my team registered 350 and and then 400.

My best batsmen got some good batting practice. One opener came to party, middle order with hiccups still managed to deliver and tail enders batted like brave hearts.

Whatever the score card may read I know my team has gone through the last onslaught in the hands of quickies on grass laden coagulated, homogeneous bouncy turfs. The nightmare is over.

This is positive.

Cricket is a funny game. One day you are at the top of world, other day you are sulking. However how you sulk matters. And India today despite all, whatever the experts may say didn't played like meek opponents searching for opportune moment to surrender.

And salute to the little master, despite the 100/100's evading him, he possibly is playing the best cricket ever (on second thoughts he is playing like this forever!). We are now waiting for Mr. Sehwag, Mr. Kohli (please don't drop him) and Mr. Dhoni to join the party. Mr. Dravid, well I know, his 100 is due.

Aussies watch out. Waka is not going to be the same.

500? Any one?

2011-12-23T21:25:00.000-08:00

Just say India win the toss and bat on Boxing Day. If Virender Sehwag receives half the strike, if he repeats his 1.19-runs-a-ball scoring rate of two years ago, when he batted through a day in Mumbai for 284, and if he doesn't get out, he will bring up his 500th run shortly before tea on the second afternoon, at 2.32pm to be exact. If he goes a little faster, as fast as in the Indore one-dayer last fortnight, the clock will say four minutes past mid-day when he crosses for run number 500. "Run" is a misnomer, actually: there'll be not much running, mostly a whole lot of standing and swatting, if Viru becomes Test history's first 500 man.

Four hundred is the record, set by Brian Lara in St John's. Curious to think, that's not so much more than Len Hutton's 364 in 1938, a mere 36-run rise in 73 years, a case of arrested evolution, an anomaly - now, a sitting duck in Wisden's books. Already Sehwag has blitzed the one-day record 16 days ago with his 219 in Indore. And he is the one who can repeat the same feat in test too. Making the Wisden book look a bit younger.

So will it be?

Is Your Gen Y Recruiting Strategy Getting ROI?

2011-12-15T05:21:00.000-08:00

After quite a lull companies are beginning to advertise for new positions and recruiters are becoming busy again. This is a good sign that the economy is starting to improve. However, the market is growing more competitive, and a one size fits all approach to recruiting won't cut it anymore. Recruiting today seems to be a rush job. Recruiters get a position description and scour the internet for a match. Recruiters find a CV that matches the position description and send an often canned, cold and generic email. Recruiting has become less and less personalized.

Many companies do not embrace a diverse recruiting strategy that mirrors the current diverse pool of applicants. I've seen minimal use of cross generational recruiting; meaning lack of adapting the recruiting strategy and approach based on different demographics. This approach is not always the best means to attract certain qualified talent, particularly Gen Y talent. A Baby Boomer will not respond to the same style and approach of recruiting as a Gen-Y'er.

Generations view things differently and thus expect different ways of being recruited. With an ever changing and more diverse workforce, recruiting must become more unique and customized if organizations wish to attract the best possible Gen Y talent.

Gen Y's those born from 1979 to present : are one of the largest demographics entering the workforce. It is estimated that this generation will make up approximately 46% of the workforce by 2014, so attracting and retaining them is critical to organizational success. So, what are some things to consider when recruiting Gen Y?

First Contact: Gen Y values a personalized touch. A canned and generic email will often turn them off immediately to a potential new position. If sending an email inquiry to a potential Gen Y candidate, use their name, not "dear candidate". Take the time to discuss why you think they may be a fit for the role as it relates to their own experience. This lets them know you have actually reviewed their CV and job goals and not just mass emailed based on a keyword search. Gen Y also values details, so for the quickest possible response, include the job description, and why you see them as a fit in the first correspondence.

Response: Gen Y is a tech savvy generation. If first contact regarding a possible new role peaks their interest, they waste no time in responding. They utilize the technology at their finger tips (Wifi, Blackberry email etc.) to promptly express interest. They expect the same in return. If your organization has high interest in the candidate, then don't let communication lapse. Respond proactively, promptly, and personalized with establish next steps.

Expectations: Once the time for the first conversation has been set, use that time to set clear expectations with the potential Gen Y candidate. Take the time to explain in detail what they can expect in the new role and from the organization, and what would be expected of them. Be congruent, honest, and transparent about everything from salary and work life balance, to culture and roles and responsibilities. Gen Y is very tuned into organizational culture. One of the main reasons Gen Y talent tends to leave an organization within the first year is because what they were told they can expect is not the reality. Try and prevent this from the first conversation.

Interviewing: Be prepared for Gen Y to ask detailed questions regarding not just the potential role but the organization overall. Gen Y views interviewing as a two way process. Often recruiters don't have the specific information required to answer certain questions. If this is the case, make sure the people the candidate interviews with are knowledgeable of the various parts of the organization and can answer specific questions.

Offer: If the process leads to making a job offer, then do not only do so in writing, but also make the personalized phone call. This call should come from the person who will be the candidate’s direct supervisor. Often disconnects exist between recruiting and the actual departments and managers who the employee will be working with. Gen Y values open and honest communication in all directions. Having the opportunity to speak directly with the individual they will be reporting to offers them the opportunity to begin to build a relationship immediately and get any last minute questions and concerns addressed.

After the offer is accepted, the next step is on boarding, but it doesn't end there. Recruitment is phase one, once the employee joins the organization focus must be placed on engagement and retention. I will discuss more about these topics in future posts.

Steve Jobs: 1955 -2011

2011-10-07T04:11:00.000-07:00

Statement of SAP co-CEO Jim Hagemann Snabe on Steve Jobs (English version). Recorded on Thursday, October 6th at 12:00 p.m. at SAP headquarters in Walldorf, Germany.

Procurement & HR: realizing each other’s value.

2011-05-02T02:15:00.000-07:00

The worlds of human resources (HR) and procurement have become increasingly entwined as the greatest cost to most organizations these days is that of human capital. To better manage this important and complex resource, HR and procurement professionals have had to collaborate and strategize more than ever before.

The evolution of the “traditional” procurement organization.

The “traditional” procurement organization has evolved to a “Sourcing and Procurement Services Organization” or “Strategic Sourcing Organization.” This elevated, more strategic function of procurement is working closely with HR now more than ever before. Sourcing professionals usually handle the high-value, high-risk, high-reward, and highly complex types of purchases (mainly focused on services or specialty items) where procurement is focused on the operations side (“procure to pay” and “invoice review and recovery”). The trend is clear and is likely here to stay — more HR services are now purchased with sourcing and procurement departments used as an intermediary. To be effective, HR and procurement teams must understand how to unlock value from one another by building a relationship that helps generate efficiencies and, ultimately, more effective acquisition of talent and other HR-related services (e.g., healthcare insurance) for their companies.

We've reached a tipping point in the HR/procurement relationship.

No longer “new” to one another, HR executives and procurement professionals are at a stage where their partnership has reached a certain level of maturity. HR executives — once used to managing their own supply base, developing relationships with vendors and negotiating their own deals — are bringing their procurement counterparts to the table. Likewise, procurement teams are striving to add value and show that they are not just a formality that needs to be managed in the purchasing process.

Creating value is not as easy as bringing HR and procurement teams together and asking them to collaborate. The teams must establish a strong working relationship that starts with a foundation of mutual understanding and respect for one another's competencies.

How can HR and procurement teams best collaborate to unlock their combined value?

The Steps:

1. Speak the same language.

Anyone who works amongst peers of the same discipline every day has a tendency to speak in their own language. To set clear objectives and manage processes effectively, HR/procurement teams must understand one another clearly. Avoid HR/procurement-speak and, in instances where it's unavoidable, explain what terms mean. If you don't understand what something means, ask. For example, if the procurement team is discussing “aggregation” (combining buying power in specific categories within the various business units within a company), it may not be a familiar term or idea for the HR executives with whom they are working. It would be important when discussing aggregation to be sure everyone in the room understands the concept so that they can provide input on where aggregation would be optimal.

2. Trust and value one another's expertise.

Procurement and HR teams must engage with one another without one side trying to dominate the other. Both parties must come to the table with the understanding that the ultimate objective is to meet the business goal (i.e., secure the right talent and HR services for the company's needs) and that, in partnership, they will deliver a more valuable solution. Without this foundation of trust and respect, working together toward that end goal becomes increasingly complex and tedious, which can create detrimental results.

3. Remember your soft skills when establishing your partnership.

HR/procurement is an area where a hard-skills approach must be balanced with a soft-skills approach. The procurement team must position itself as a strategic partner to HR, guiding the department in the direction it recommends vs. “taking over” negotiations or vendor relationships. HR must remember that procurement's agenda isn't necessarily contradictory to its own, and should be open to other ideas and recommendations. Having a candid dialogue and leveraging the expertise, experience and knowledge of both parties, will lead to a more effective solution for the company.

4. Create a consistent approach to vendor relationships.

Uniting HR and procurement has provided companies with a single view of their supply base, rather than each HR specialty knowing only about its own suppliers. This can lead to cost efficiencies due to scale/scope of services provided to the overall organization. However, most organizations that have procurement teams still have a large portfolio of HR services providers to manage. Creating a consistent approach to vendor relationships not only helps the vendors come to expect a certain working relationship with your company, but can help ensure consistency in management of that relationship between procurement and HR as well. A consistent approach to managing and negotiating with suppliers can eliminate gray areas between HR and procurement during the process, while also helping to generate efficiencies throughout the partnership.

5. Bring services purchasing expertise to the table.

HR/procurement is vastly different from materials purchasing. Buys of services are more often based on relationships and are not returnable. Bringing a pure cost savings mentality to HR/procurement can hinder an HR/procurement team's relationship from the onset — value, not cost savings, is the ultimate goal. Staff quality and agency service levels are just as important as generating cost efficiencies.

Form a partnership and a consistent method of delivering value.

At the end of the day, clearly defining roles from the onset and throughout the decision-making process is critical to a combined HR/procurement team's success. Who makes the final decision? Who has the lead on the decision timeline? Who is in charge of the process? Those organizations that get it right stand to improve in their efficiency, value, and risk management. Those organizations that allow ineffective procurement/HR relationships to continue are missing a great opportunity to unlock value in their human capital strategy.

The 10 Commandments For 21st Century Customers

2011-02-09T21:50:00.000-08:00

1. It's all about the customer ... and they know it. Customers want a 100% satisfying experience every time they use your products or come in contact with your company. If customers don't experience it from you, they'll quickly turn elsewhere.

2. The customer always knows best. Always give them what they want ... not what you want ... or what you think research tells you they want ... or what the ad agency said worked for a former client like you. Even if customers don't know what they want, they certainly know what they don't want.

3. Know Your Customer. Understand their needs, likes, dislikes and expectations. Customers are not nameless, faceless entities. Listen to their feedback through measurable, real-time Voice of Customer programs and just by talking with them.

4. Get Customer Feedback and Act Quickly. The internet has given customers a forum where they can make you or break you. Customers want to give you their opinions and concerns. Make sure they tell you ... before they tell your competitor ... or the internet internet! Once you get their feedback, acknowledge it and act quickly.

5. Always Tell Customers The Truth. Customers can smell a lie a mile a way. If you lie, customers will sooner or later will find out the truth. If they don't, the media or somebody else will.. If you lie once, they'll never give you the chance to lie to them again.

6. Customer Service Is Only A Small Part of The Equation. Top quality service is a given. Customers expect a whole lot more ... like two way communication and feedback ... uniquely personalized experiences that provide them with 100% satisfaction 100% of the time ... easy to navigate web sites ... low prices ... free shipping ... and these are just for starters. Don't be lured into a false sense of security thinking you have great customer service and that's all you need to do.

7. Always under-promise and over-deliver. Customers have high expectations and don't like to be disappointed. One of the keys to maximizing customer experience is to continually exceed their expectations. As they say in show business, "always keep them coming back for more!"

8. Customers Always Have Choices and Options. They can always find other solutions, products and companies who are willing to give them what they need. Customers know that somewhere in the world exactly what they want exists, and all they have to do is go online to find it.

9. Always Maximize The Customer Experience. Today's customers don't settle or accept product shortcomings as easily as their parents and grandparents did. Customers expect maximum satisfaction from every product experience at every touch point they have with you.

10. Never Forget Rule Number One.

My Favorite Flintoff Moments: Various People Talk

2010-09-16T06:27:00.000-07:00

Adam Gilchrist - Former Australia wicketkeeper

A lot of people would talk about 2005 and the effect he had on the series in general. Everywhere I looked in that season he was there everywhere; every time I batted he seemed to bowl and generally I got roughed both in Tests and ODIs; he was on the billboards, he was ever-present in the newspapers; he got inside the mind so much that one night when I went to say good night to my wife I saw Andrew Flintoff! What I really liked about him was his work ethic: in The Oval Test in that series, on the fourth day, he bowled about 14 overs on the trot starting in the first session and carried past lunch. That showed how desperate he was to win. Then I loved the way he celebrated the Ashes victory as I've always been one to celebrate well, too.

Matthew Hoggard - Former England team-mate

My favourite Fred moment came during an Under-19 game in Zimbabwe. We were playing a Test in Bulawayo of all places, and we were struggling to get wickets. At that time, Fred had been told he couldn't bowl because he was suffering from spine curvature in his back, but Bumble [David Lloyd], the coach, told us to put Fred on anyway. He bowled about four overs, got five wickets and he bowled freaking rapid. That was Fred through and through. He wasn't supposed to bowl, he did bowl, and he didn't look back.

Micky Arthur - South Africa coach

The moment for me was the spell he bowled against us at Edgbaston last year - it was phenomenal. For those eight overs he bowled, he captivated the audience to such an extent that it became the Freddie Flintoff show. Only he had the ability to do that. Whenever he bowled you felt something would happen and hence our guys had a huge amount of respect for him.

Sourav Ganguly - Former India captain

The thing about playing against Andrew Flintoff was he kept coming at you. I always felt he was a better bowler than a batsman. I remember the NatWest Series final distinctly where even though we won, we had to actually play out of our skins to get past him. He was young then and kept getting better from there. On the field he was a huge competitor, played with a lot of passion for England, someone who improved consistently since the Lancashire days when I saw him for the first time. My only disappointment is he could have achieved a bit more with the talent he had, but injuries robbed him of that.

Dale Steyn - South Africa fast bowler

I never really played much against him, so I really can't speak much about his skills. But I do remember he was quite a crowd-pleaser. I didn't play the Test match at Edgbaston in 2008, as I had a broken hand but the distinct memory was that each time he turned to ball the crowd lit up.

Michael Henderson - Veteran broadsheet columnist

My favourite Flintoff memory was the final Test of 2005 at The Oval, when he pounded in on that Sunday, determined that England should take a first-innings lead when it seemed Australia might move ahead. It was an act of considerable physical courage actually, with England needing to draw the game to win the Ashes, and he ended up with his second Test five-for. The crowd could sense that here was someone playing with heart and soul, and it reminded me of Ian Botham in 1981. Everyone forgets the final Test of that summer, also at The Oval, when he bowled something like 80 overs in the game for ten wickets, running in and in and in, as if to say 'we may have won the series, but it hasn¹t ended yet, and I'm going to play my heart out until it does.' In both instances, it was the end of a glorious summer.

Stephen Brenkley - The Independent correspondent

My favourite Flintoff moment, and there have been many in England shirts, was actually right here at this ground [The Oval], playing for Lancashire against Surrey, when he hit Alex Tudor several times over the boundary. He finished his innings on 135 not out from 111 balls, and it was then that we realised we had something special on our hands. It took him some time to prove it, but boy did he go on and prove it. And boy, will England miss him. The moment occurred in some half-forgotten quarter-final of the NatWest Trophy. But what isn¹t forgotten is the way Flintoff took on Tudor, who was then England's fast kid on the block. The previous summer he had actually smacked him for 34 in an over in a Championship game at Old Trafford. But this is the performance that sticks in the memory.

John Etheridge - The Sun cricket correspondent

I think my favourite Flintoff moment was when he scored 167 against West Indies at Edgbaston, and one of his many sixes sailed into the stands, straight into the hands of a spectator, who dropped it. Later, we discovered the spectator was Colin Flintoff, his dad, and Fred had great fun at his expense, saying: "He never could catch, he always told me he had a brilliant pair of hands, but that's the final proof, in front of the world, that my dad couldn't catch a cold." So that was great fun, and it summed him up as well as anything. It showed him hitting a six, it showed a bit of humour, and it showed him as a great family man. It encapsulates him perfectly.

Mike Selvey - The Guardian cricket correspondent

My favourite was him catching Steve Harmison¹s first ball of the 2006-07 Ashes, that infamous wide in Brisbane that went straight to second slip. He caught it so nonchalantly, it was almost as if he knew it was coming. Had he been somebody who watched the edge of the bat and not the ball it might have kneecapped him, or hit him straight in the bollocks, which would have been even funnier. Instead he just caught it and threw it away, as if it wasn't a big deal really. It was as if they had worked it out beforehand.

Keep Bleeding: 17th most successful song in the US from 2000 to 2009, on the Billboard Hot 100 Songs of the Decade

2010-08-10T07:11:00.000-07:00

Lyrics:

Closed off from love
I didn't need the pain
Once or twice was enough
And it was all in vain
Time starts to pass
Before you know it you're frozen

But something happened
For the very first time with you
My heart melts into the ground
Found something true
And everyone's looking round
Thinking I'm going crazy

But I don't care what they say
I'm in love with you
They try to pull me away
But they don't know the truth
My heart's crippled by the vein
That I keep on closing
You cut me open and I

Keep bleeding
Keep, keep bleeding love
I keep bleeding
I keep, keep bleeding love
Keep bleeding
Keep, keep bleeding love
You cut me open

Trying hard not to hear
But they talk so loud
Their piercing sounds fill my ears
Try to fill me with doubt
Yet I know that the goal
Is to keep me from falling

But nothing's greater than the rush that comes with your embrace
And in this world of loneliness
I see your face
Yet everyone around me
Thinks that I'm going crazy, maybe, maybe

But I don't care what they say
I'm in love with you
They try to pull me away
But they don't know the truth
My heart's crippled by the vein
That I keep on closing
You cut me open and I

Keep bleeding
Keep, keep bleeding love
I keep bleeding
I keep, keep bleeding love
Keep bleeding
Keep, keep bleeding love
You cut me open

And it's draining all of me
Oh they find it hard to believe
I'll be wearing these scars
For everyone to see

I don't care what they say
I'm in love with you
They try to pull me away
But they don't know the truth
My heart's crippled by the vein
That I keep on closing
You cut me open and I

Keep bleeding
Keep, keep bleeding love
I keep bleeding
I keep, keep bleeding love
Keep bleeding
Keep, keep bleeding love
You cut me open and I

Keep bleeding
Keep, keep bleeding love
I keep bleeding
I keep, keep bleeding love
Keep bleeding
Keep, keep bleeding love
You cut me open and I
Keep bleeding
Keep, keep bleeding love

Bengal politics’ shifting colors

2010-08-01T23:52:00.000-07:00

As the CPM-led government has moved to the right, Mamata Banerjee has put to use the same weapons the Left had earlier used

With Mamata Banerjee’s convincing win in the West Bengal civic elections, the writing is clearly on the wall for the state’s ruling Left Front. This is no wind of change; it increasingly looks like a cyclone that is likely to sweep away over three decades of the Leftist rule in next year’s state elections.

But a closer look at the reasons for Banerjee’s victory will remove some illusions. To be sure, after three decades of misrule, the people of the state are fed up with the Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPM, led front. It has presided over the steady decline of the state. It has successfully banished industry, so much so that Salt Lake, Kolkata’s posh suburb, looks like a retirement home as the younger generation has been forced to seek jobs in other states and countries. But the tragedy is that the Communists did not even push their social agenda.

Some of the country’s best social sector schemes were first tried out in states that had nothing to do with the Left. Take Maharashtra’s employment guarantee scheme, or Tamil Nadu’s midday meal project. The Communists did push through a radical land reform programme and revive panchayats, policies that fetched them a loyal following. But their long stint in power brought attendant evils, a story told tellingly on TV screens across the country when tribals brought down the palatial homes of the CPM cadre in dirt-poor Lalgarh. Over the years, the exploited had become the exploiters, just as had happened in the Communist countries, just as it happened in Animal Farm. And their long stint in power led to hubris, a hubris that led straight to Nandigram.

To its credit, the government of Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee realized there was no alternative to industrialization. The solution he came up with was to move to the right, as they had done in China, with Bhattacharjee casting himself in the role of Bengal’s Deng. Alas, he had reckoned without the anger of the people and without Banerjee. She used the same weapons that the Left had used with such devastating effect—a heady mix of populism and raucous street protests. Banerjee has opposed land acquisition; she refuses to raise prices to reflect costs; she makes no bones about her opposition to the privatization of moribund state units.

Her ambivalence towards the far left Maoists is well known. In short, she projects herself as the champion of the poor against CPM oppression. The tables have been turned—it’s not Bengal that has deserted the Left, it’s the CPM that has moved to the right. Whether her populism will help the people of Bengal, though, is another matter altogether.

Point in case: Check the rallies. One from the past (CPM led). The other recent (Mamata led). Colors have surely changed

Mamta Express

2010-07-25T22:45:00.000-07:00

WAIL MANTRI

Like a huge tree growing inside its house, the UPA is unsure if Mamata Banerjee is there with the coalition to provide support or drill a hole through its roof. Is she with the Congress or against it? It’ll be a while before Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi figure that out

Every time they feel a Mamata migraine coming on, Congress leaders look back at UPA I with nostalgia. A hardboiled Communist leader like Prakash Karat was easier to handle than the mercurial chief of the Trinamool Congress. The remark, made with wry humour in a private conversation, came from one of the Congress party’s chief political managers.

How do you solve a problem like Mamata Banerjee? As her star rises in West Bengal, the enfant terrible of UPA II couldn’t care less about Delhi and its stuffy expectations. Mamata is on a roll and she’s not about to be tamed, not by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, not even by Sonia Gandhi. Sitting in a room full of files in Delhi’s Rail Bhavan is no match for the heady excitement of shrieking populist slogans to a mammoth crowd, like the one that filled Kolkata’s Esplanade on July 21 for the Trinamool’s annual martyr’s day rally.

In the 14 months since UPA II assumed office, relations between the Congress and Mamata have grown increasingly fractious. Once indulged as the giant killer of the 2009 Lok Sabha polls for her stunning victories in Left-dominated Bengal, Mamata is now regarded with suspicion and irritation. She’s the recalcitrant ally, unpredictable, untrustworthy and a law unto herself. Is she with the Congress or against the Congress? The party can’t seem to decide as it grapples with the aggressive and demanding nature of Mamata’s politics. Sheer pragmatism demands that they stay together because they are poised to make history when Bengal votes next year. Yet the Congress cannot shake off apprehensions that Mamata may be a cross too heavy to bear.

There are four main pressure points in the Congress-Mamata relationship. One is the growing gulf between the Manmohan Singh government’s expectations from its railways minister and Mamata’s perception of her role in the Union cabinet. The gap widened some more after the recent train accident at Sainthia, which fetched Mamata (and the government) damaging headlines about an “absentee’’ minister, 16 rail disasters in 14 months and 269 deaths.

The second is the clashes that occur with annoying regularity on policy issues. If the government managed to sneak in decisions to decontrol petrol prices and divest 10 percent of its stakes in two public sector undertakings, Hindustan Copper and Coal India, it was only because Mamata decided she could afford to make a magnanimous gesture to the Congress after she captured yet another CPI(M) citadel in the Kolkata municipal polls in June this year.

This third is her flirtation with suspected Naxalite sympathisers. She has clashed with home minister P Chidambaram on this dalliance several times and another one is looming on the horizon after her vow at the martyr’s day rally to get the Union government to call off its anti-Naxal operations in Lalgarh.

The fourth, and perhaps the most worrying for the Congress, is the prospect of being devoured by Mamata in Bengal as she plots with single-minded determination to wipe out the CPI(M). The exodus from the Congress to the Trinamool is turning into a flood as assembly polls draw nearer with anxious Congress MLAs ready to negotiate any terms with Mamata to secure their political future in the next dispensation. Virtually every local leader of note is now with her. The Congress is left with just two, trade union leader Pradip Bhattacharya and state unit president Manas Bhunia. Perhaps the biggest blow was the exit of Mohua Moitra, handpicked by Rahul Gandhi to lead his aam aadmi ka sipahi team in the state.

The Congress is bracing itself for relations to reach a flashpoint when negotiations on seat sharing begin closer to the assembly elections. Mamata has made no bones about her ambition to lead a Trinamool only government in Bengal, not a coalition arrangement with the Congress, and has already stated that she will not concede more than 40-45 of Bengal’s 294 assembly seats for the Congress to contest.

Party leaders are haunted by fears that the Congress in Bengal will go the way of Uttar Pradesh where the decline began after former prime minister Narasimha Rao sealed an asymmetrical pre-poll arrangement with the BSP for the 1996 assembly elections. The BSP contested 300 seats; the Congress fought just 100 and has remained on the margins of UP politics since. Mamata may prove to be a meaner negotiator than the BSP’s Kanshi Ram and the Congress fully expects her to leverage her position in the Union cabinet to get the best bargain possible in Bengal. If the party gives in to Mamata, it will be a blow to Rahul Gandhi’s plans for a nation-wide resurgence of the Congress. If it doesn’t, the alliance could move perilously close to breaking point and give the CPI(M) an advantage.

Mamata’s mercurial moods make it impossible to predict what’s in store for the Manmohan Singh government and the Congress in the coming months. She blows hot and cold, leaving Congress managers with an annoying feeling of being bested by a mere woman. Mamata seems to revel in being stereotyped and her handlers in the Congress respond with typical patriarchal condescension.

Congress circles are full of anecdotes about Mamata’s erratic behaviour. Like the time she rang up the cabinet secretary at midnight to demand the last-minute inclusion of 10 new projects for West Bengal in the railways budget papers to be approved by the Union cabinet in the morning. She was so insistent that the cabinet secretary gave in. But there was hell to pay at the cabinet meeting with finance minister Pranab Mukherjee ticking her off as if she were a naughty schoolgirl. She burst into tears and one of the ministers kindly offered her a handkerchief to wipe her face. But Mukherjee was unmoved. He told her sternly that he would allow her to announce the projects when she presented the railways budget in Parliament but he could not sanction money for any of them at gunpoint. All 10 projects remain Mamata’s pipedream.

Unfortunately, Mamata lends herself to the kind of criticism coming her way as a non-performing railways minister. She barely spends a week every month in Delhi and although her aides shuttle between the capital and Kolkata with files, they only carry papers that need immediate attention. So while routine work has not suffered, there’s very little strategic planning on burning issues like safety, upgradation of tracks and equipment, staff recruitment to fill the 95,000-odd vacancies, expansion and raising resources through fare hikes. Senior officials complain that they hardly get to meet her for discussions because even if she is in office, she is preoccupied with political work.

Her list of demands for the Union government is endless. She wants the CPI(M) government in Kolkata dismissed. She wants the assembly polls advanced to November this year. She doesn’t want Union ministers to entertain West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya. She has refused to allow the government to pass the Land Acquisition Amendment Bill, thus holding up a slew of projects, including the prime minister’s flagship Dedicated Freight Corridor. She wants the women’s reservation bill amended to include a quota for women from backward castes and minority communities. And her latest salvo is a demand to call off the anti-Naxal operations in West Bengal.

For a reform-minded prime minister like Manmohan Singh, Mamata’s nonchalant handling of her railways portfolio must be frustrating. It’s been left to Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia to let off steam on the PM’s behalf. He has written three letters to Mamata already expressing concern on various issues connected to her ministry. In one, he reminded her to pay more attention to safety upgradation measures and advised her to raise passenger fares to meet rising costs. In another, he rapped her for the delay in the Dedicated Freight Corridor project, which has pushed up costs from Rs 43,000 crore to Rs 80,000 crore. Mamata has not replied to any of Ahluwalia’s missives.

But there may, after all, be a method to her seeming madness. Perhaps it needs a streetfighter like Mamata, with almost fanatical devotion to her cause to the exclusion of everything else, to batter the CPI(M)’s Bengal fortress. The Congress failed for 30 years. Mamata, on the other hand, seems poised to succeed. Unfortunately, the Manmohan Singh government may have to pay the price in terms of governance to help release years of pent up anger and frustration in Bengal.

OFF HER RAILS

Mamata Banerjee’s over-the-top populist politics and her obsession with West Bengal often bring her into conflict with the demands of being a member of the Manmohan Singh government and a partner of the UPA. Some instances:

While Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has described Naxalism as the biggest threat to internal security, Mamata Banerjee told a mammoth rally in Kolkata last week that she will put pressure on the Union government to call off anti-Naxal operations in Lalgarh

The government is keen to pass the land acquisition amendment bill to facilitate the purchase of land for infrastructure, industrial and other projects. But Mamata has refused to even consider supporting the bill till the Bengal polls are over next year and almost walked out of a cabinet meeting to underline the point.

The PM, through Planning Commission chief Montek Singh Ahluwalia, advised Mamata to hike passenger fares in this year’s railways budget and close down non-profitable lines. Fares have not been raised for 10 years. Mamata turned a deaf ear on the plea that she has a social responsibility to the people of India.

After supporting the women’s reservation bill in the Union cabinet, Mamata suddenly changed her mind when the proposed legislation was introduced in the Rajya Sabha. She embarrassed the government by instructing her MPs to absent themselves from Parliament, prompting Sonia Gandhi to wonder aloud in a television interview about Mamata’s volte face. She further embarrassed the government by inviting the main opponents of the bill, the Yadav trio, for lunch to make common cause with them.

Mamata has consistently ignored reminders to get the flagship Dedicated Freight Corridor project rolling, resulting in a huge cost overrun. The estimated completed cost of the project is now Rs 80,000 crore, almost double the original estimate of Rs 43,000 crore. Mamata has declined to make Indian Railways pay service tax for two financial years, 2009-10 and 2010-11. Her excuse is lack of funds. The exasperated finance minister, Pranab Mukherjee, tried hard to persuade her and even offered to take payment in installments. But Mamata stuck to her stand. Ultimately, Mukherjee was forced to waive the tax for last financial year but is still hopeful of getting her to pay up this year.

Despite a phone call from Sonia Gandhi’s political advisor Ahmed Patel requesting Mamata on his boss’ behalf to attend the UPA premonsoon session coordination meeting, she flew to Bengal following the train disaster at Sainthia. That was understandable. What upset the Congress was her failure to send a representative, considering another missing ally, Sharad Pawar, was represented at the meeting by Praful Patel.

As Octopus Ponders Final Choice, Parrot Tips Dutch to Take World Cup

2010-07-09T00:09:00.000-07:00

German, Dutch and Spanish television stations are preparing to broadcast live from an aquarium in Oberhausen, Germany, on Friday, when an octopus named Paul, whose handlers claim he can predict the outcome of World Cup soccer matches, will attempt to call the last two games of the tournament.

Paul the octopus, the Oracle of Oberhausen, has successfully predicted all six of Germany’s World Cup matches so far — after going four for five in the European Championships two years ago. No one knows how he does it, but for a while it made him the most popular invertebrate in Germany, stealing headlines even from the coalition government. He “predicts” by choosing a mussel from one of two possible containers, both marked with national flags.

The only blemish on Paul’s record to date was his prophecy that Germany would beat Spain in the final of Euro 2008, a match the Spanish took, 1-0. Perhaps learning from his mistake, this week the octopus chose not to eat from a box decorated with a tiny German flag when it was lowered into his tank before Wednesday’s semifinal, dining instead on the Spanish mussel.

After the Germans did indeed lose on Wednesday night, a number of Paul’s fellow citizens called loudly for his death, suggesting that he had jinxed the team.

Mr. Tharoor! We are no fools!!!

2010-04-16T01:42:00.000-07:00

For the past few days, front pages of all newspapers and headlines of all news channels have been full of Shashi Tharoor. Already famous, he is now more famous for two additional, exciting reasons. One, the news relates to the famous game of cricket and its even more famous T20 version, IPL. And two, the news centres round a gorgeous young lady Sunanda Pushkar, unknown till yesterday, now famous all over, again for two more reasons, not unrelated to Tharoor. One, she has been recently seen in many social functions with Shashi who has admitted that she is his close friend from Canada. And two she has been given — according to the IPL boss Lalit Modi, free shares and according to Pushkar, Sweat Equity — 25 per cent stake through Rendezvous Sports World Private Limited (Rendezvous Company) which is 26 per cent partner of the consortium (Rendezvous Consortium) that owns the Kochi IPL franchise. The franchise was awarded on March 21 last to the Rendezvous Consortium to get which it is Shashi, not Sunanda, who seems to have sweated quite a lot. A more exciting, but unconfirmed, news is that Shashi is waiting for divorce from his second wife to marry Sunanda. This is where the catch is for both Shashi and Sunanda in the Rendezvous affair.

A few facts are critical to know why Shashi and Sunanda are in the news. An Unincorporated Joint Venture (UJV), namely the Rendezvous Consortium, made a stunning bid of $ 333 million to get, and got, the Kochi franchise of IPL. How stunning the amount can be judged by comparing it with the bid of Mukesh Ambani. In 2008, Ambani won the Mumbai franchise for $112 million. The brand value of IPL has since shot up, according to London based Brand Finance Plc, from $2.1 billion in 2009 to $4.13 billion in 2010. So IPL is no cricket affair; it is a huge money spinning game. The person who lost the Kochi bid to the UJV was Gautam Adani, rated as the world’s 13th richest man. But, who is this UJV, which had made this gargantuan bid? The UJV is known by the name of Rendezvous (Rendezvous Company), which is the prime mover and 26 per cent stakeholder in the UJV. From the day the Rendezvous JV won the bid, the intriguing question was who were behind this faceless body. To add to the curiosity, the spokesperson of the UJV officially said that the names of its constituents were ‘confidential’.

Lalit Modi, who was obviously upset at some unknown entity, not his cronies, bagging the bid, announced in public that among others, Rendezvous Company was the main constituent of UJV, which got the Kochi franchise, and that UJV has given 25 per cent of its shares free to Rendezvous Company. That’s where the issue hit the ceiling.

Disclosure of the Shashi-Sunanda connection immediately brought in politics with the BJP and the CPI(M) asking for Tharoor’s head. So what started off as an issue of cricket and big — and bad money — has finally become an issue of corruption and politics, besides sleazy gossip about the personal lives of Shashi and Sunanda.

What I find silly and I vehemently object to the use of the word ‘sweat equity’ to describe the 25 per cent stake which Rendezvous Company got from the UJV. The UJV is an unincorporated body of which Rendezvous Company is a constituent. The UJV cannot issue shares. What it actually did was that it gave, without charging even a rupee, 25 per cent stake in the UJV to Rendezvous Company. Sunanda Pushkar is said to be an 18 per cent shareholder in Rendezvous Company. So she is entitled to 18 per cent of the 25 per cent free shares through her holding in Rendezvous Company. What Rendezvous Company has got is not sweat equity as Sunanda or her associates claim. The law says that sweat equity can be given by unlisted companies but subject only to the rules prescribed by the government.

The general rules are: the maximum sweat equity that can be issued in one year is 15 per cent of the capital; it can be issued not free of cost, but only at a fair value determined by independent valuation; the shares so issued are barred for sale for three years. There are more rules. But this much is adequate here. Being unincorporated, the UJV cannot issue equity first, and so there is no question of sweat equity being issued by the UJV.

What Rendezvous Company has got is a quarter of ownership free of cost and not shares or sweat equity in an incorporated company, which comes at a cost and has a totally different meaning and character in law. For Rendezvous Company to get the 25 per cent free shares (poorly morphed as sweat equity) from the UJV, the alibi given by its director Pooja Gulati is almost a joke. She says that it was “in exchange for the management services rendered by it”. But not a word on what management service it has so far rendered or is capable of rendering in future, or on what experience or expertise Rendezvous or any one behind it, had in the field of cricket or IPL franchising. No one associated with the UJV including Rendezvous claims or proclaims any prior experience of IPL or cricket management. One need not exert any further.

Obviously the UJV got the Kochi franchise because someone behind Rendezvous had ‘sweated’ to get it for them. This is where Shashi Tharoor’s name comes in. He is the self-acknowledged, and the proclaimed, mentor of the UJV. He is also the close friend of Sunanda, who gets through it 18 per cent of the free ownership and her share of the cake is said to be Rs 70 crore, all free. That she is the close friend of Shashi, the mentor of the Kochi franchise, and she gets shares worth Rs 70 crore free, make it a square. Then, is it Shashi’s sweat and Sunanda’s equity?

Why towns are saying 'Try Me' to Google

2010-03-11T03:29:00.000-08:00

Communities across the country are going gaga over Google.

With hopes of becoming a test bed for the online search giant's ultra-fast Internet network, Topeka, Kansas, temporarily changed its name to Google.

Duluth, Minnesota, created a spoof YouTube video mocking Topeka's effort, pledging to rename every first-born male Google Fiber and female Googlette Fiber.

Highlands Ranch, a suburb south of Denver, is gathering community members to form a human "We Love Google" sign at a local high school football stadium.

"We know we have to do something unusual to get Google's attention," said Jamie Noebel, community-relations manager for Highlands Ranch.

Google announced plans last month to a build a fiber-optic network that would offer residential Internet speeds of 1 gigabit per second - about 100 times faster than the speeds available to most Americans today.

Put another way, users would be able to download a high-definition movie in less than a minute, compared with more than an hour on speeds currently available.

The company said the service may reach up to 500,000 people and asked communities interested in becoming a trial location to essentially submit an application by March 26. Google says it will weigh factors such as "community support, local resources, weather conditions, approved construction methods and local regulatory issues."

The test community or communities will be selected this year.

Google has long had a testy relationship with traditional broadband providers, battling over issues such as "network neutrality" - an effort to prevent companies such as Comcast and Denver-based Qwest from offering tiered pricing for access to their networks.

Google doesn't necessarily want to be an Internet service provider. It's using the "experiment" to show that faster broadband speeds can be offered by companies other than cable and telecommunications firms.

"We'll manage our network in an open, nondiscriminatory and transparent way," Google states on the project's Web page.

Google will have to dig up roads and connect fiber-optic cables directly to homes, similar to the network upgrade Verizon has undertaken in its local phone-service territory.

By working directly with local governments, Google can cut some of the red tape that often slows such buildouts, such as right-of-way issues.

And city officials across the country are showing they're more than willing to work with Google.

Longmont in northern Colorado is quick to note that the city owns its own electric utility, giving Google easy access to infrastructure it may need to roll out the service.

"There's a lot of hype out there, but once you get through the hype, we've got a lot of attributes," said Tom Roiniotis, director of Longmont Power & Communications.

He said the St. Vrain Valley School District is planning a YouTube video contest to promote Longmont, which also owns an 18-mile fiber-optic ring that Google can tap into.

Permalink: http://www.ndtv.com/news/world/why-towns-are-saying-try-me-to-google-17530.php

Time magazine on Sachin Tendulakar's journey as a cricketer

2010-03-10T23:39:00.000-08:00

When Sachin Tendulkar travelled to Pakistan to face one of the finest bowling attacks ever assembled in cricket, Michael Schumacher was yet to race a F1 car, Lance Armstrong had never been to the Tour de France, Diego Maradona was still the captain of a world champion Argentina team, Pete Sampras had never won a Grand Slam.

When Tendulkar embarked on a glorious career taming Imran and company, Roger Federer was a name unheard of; Lionel Messi was in his nappies, Usain Bolt was an unknown kid in the Jamaican backwaters. The Berlin Wall was still intact, USSR was one big, big country, Dr Manmohan Singh was yet to "open" the Nehruvian economy.

It seems while Time was having his toll on every individual on the face of this planet, he excused one man. Time stands frozen in front of Sachin Tendulkar. We have had champions, we have had legends, but we have never had another Sachin Tendulkar and we never will.

Budget Highlight 2010

2010-02-26T00:15:00.000-08:00

Poor Monsoon – affected Rabi and Kharif crops

India weathered the crisis well

Supporting and delivering services and not giving directly to the citizens

2009-10 – Challenging year attributed to 2008-09 Q3, Q4

GDP

FY 2008-09 - GDP 6.7 % Substantial fiscal expansion

Q1 2009-10 – GDP 6.1%

Q2 2009-10 - GDP 7.9%

Q3 & Q4 – expected higher than 7.2%

Hope to reach 10% GDP shortly

Negative growth in agriculture

Renewed growth in Manufacturing – Dec 2009 – 18% (highest in past 2 decades)

Since Dec 2009 – food prices transmitted to other non food items

Budget to reflect Govt’s vision for development

Ensure better management of Food security

Move towards Fiscal consolidation

Make growth more broad based and ensure demand supply are better managed and matched

Need to review the public spending, mobilize resources

Exit strategy from Expansionary fiscal stance in past 2 years

Fiscal consolidation

Explicit reduction in Domestic Public Debt FM to come out with a report

To introduce Simple Tax system which includes Voluntary compliance

Direct Tax Code (DTC) – To be in a position to implement DTC from 1-April 2011

GST – To finalize the structure of GST and implement by 1-April-2011

Disinvestment program – PSU

Oil India, NHPC, NTPC, Rural Electrification Corp; NMDC, SVJN

Raise Rs 25000 Cr in FY 2010

Proceed to utilize Capex for social sector for creating new assets

Unlock value for all stakeholders

Adhered to fiscal roadmap

Simplify FDI regime

Defined indirect investment by foreign companies in Indian Companies

Automatic route – Payment for Royalties etc

Clarity and predictability for FDI policy

Banks

To extend geographic coverage of Banks

RBI considering additional banking licensing to Pvt Sectors and NBFC (if meet RBI eligibility criteria)

Rs 1900 Cr as Tier I capital in 4 Pub Banks infused

Rs 16500 Cr infused to maintain min 8% Tier I Capital Ratio in Public sector banks

Increase lending to rural economy

Interest subvention of 2% preshipment export credit – extended to 1 more year (handicraft, handloom, carpet and SMEs)

SEZ

– 127% growth

Ensure continued growth – boost export and employment

AGRICULTURE

Rs 300 Cr – Rashtriya Krishi Vikas yojana

Need greater competition, need to take a firm view of retail trade

Extend period of repayment of loan from Dec 31-2009 to June 30

Additional 1% interest subvention who repaid Crop loan in time increased to 2% (effective rate of 5% P.A

Infrastructure

Rs 1.73 Lakh crore for Infrastructure (46% of plan allocation)

Allocation to Road Transport increased to Rs 19,894 Cr

Allocation of Rs 16,752 Cr for railways

Freight corridor (Del-Mum)

IIFCL authorized to refinance

Rs 48000 Cr for Bharat Nirman

Rs 5400 Cr for urban development

Pollution levels

Development of clean energy

Establish National Clean Energy Fund; Funding for research in clean energy technology

Rs 20 Cr one time grant for Zero liquid discharge; Hosiery exports Tirupur, TN

Rs 200 Cr to Goa – tourism, increase green cover

Mission clean Ganga – double allocation to NGRVA in 2010

Competitive bidding for coal block for Power

Draft food security bill ready

Education

Rs 31,036 Cr for primary school

Plus states to access 3675 Cr for elementary education

Rural Development

Rs 66100 Cr for rural development

NREGA allocation stepped up to Rs 41000 Cr

Rs 22300 Cr for Health Ministry in FY 2011

Rs 10000 for Indira Awas Yojana

To create a slum free India at the earliest

Rs 1.38 Lakh Cr for social sector spending

Khadi reform program with ADB USD 150 million signed in Dec 2009

National social security fund for unorganized sector Rs 1000 Cr (initial allocation) weavers, rickshaw pullers etc

Health insurance cover to below Poverty line 1 Cr smart cards have been issued. Extend to all such MG NREGA beneficiaries who worked for more than 250 days in last year

New Pension scheme –

Govt to contribute to each NPS account Rs 1000/month

Min contribution Rs 1000, Max Rs 12000

Available for another 3 years

Allocation Rs 100 Cr

To benefit 1 lakh NPS subscribers

Appeal St Govt to contribute similarly

Skill development

Target 50 Cr skilled people by 2022

Now 15 Cr

21 high growth sectors

Create 10 lacs skilled manpower

Textile Ministry to train 30 lac person over 5 years

Empowerment of women

Improve female literacy rate – sakshar bharat

Allocation of Minority welfare Rs 2800 Cr

Financial sector legislative Reforms Commission to be set up to reform the Financial Sector and govt organizations

350 recommendations have been implemented and 450 under review.

UID numbers

To meet 1st set of UID numbers in FY 2011

Allocated Rs 1490 Cr to the authority

A SYMBOL for Indian Rupees (just like Dollar, Japanese Yen, Pound Sterling, Euro)

Allocation of Rs 147,344 Cr for Defense (include Rs 60000 Cr for capital exp)

Law and order and security – under control

Recruit 2000 youth in paramilitary forces

Gross Tax receipt Rs 4.76 lakhs

5.5% Fiscal deficit target in FY 2011 [Rs 3,81,408 Cr]

(7.8% in 2008-09, 6.9% per revised estimate)

4.8% Fiscal deficit target in Fy 2012

TAX PROPOSALS

Sound Tax admin

Tax reforms is a process and not an event

Saral II Form for salaried tax payers – simple format of only 2 pages

Income Tax (Personal)

Rs 1.6 lakhs to Rs 5 lakhs – 10%

Rs 5.0 lakhs to Rs 8 lakhs – 20%

More than Rs 8 lakhs – 30%

Additional Deduction of Rs 20,000 for an LT Infrastructure bonds

Contribution to Central Govt health scheme –

Surcharge reduce from 10 to 7.5%

MAT increased to 18%

To encourage R&D – weighted deduction on in house R&D from 150% to 200%

Deduction for payment to National Lab, Research associations, College etc for scientific research of 175% (from 125%)

Weighted deduction – approved research – social 125%

Profit linked deduction – changed to Investment linked deduction

Boost tourism sector –

Investment linked deduction – for 2 star hotels and above

Housing and Real Estate

– pending projects to be completed within 5 (from 4 years) to claim deduction from profits

Tax Audit

40 lacs – audit required – increase to 60 lacs

Receipt exceeding Rs 10 lacs increased to Rs 15 lacs

Presumption tax

Small tax payers increased to Rs 60 lacs

TDS - Rationalize

Allowed if tax is deducted at any time

Increase interest on tax deducted but not deposited from 12% to 18%

LLP

If converted Pvt Companies – not subjected to Capital gains tax

Revenue loss of Rs 26000 Cr in a revenue year

INDIRECT TAX

3 fiscal stimulus package – helped improve significantly

Partially roll back rate reduction of Excise and enhance non petroleum products

Partial rollback in Excise Duty 10% from 8%

Petrol excise duty increased by Rs 1 / lt

Excise duty on Large Cars, SUVs Cars increased to 22%

Restore 5% duty on Crude petroleum

Restore 7.5% duty on Petrol and Diesel

Raised excise duty on all non smoking tobacco

Raised import duty on Gold and Silver

Dearer: Refrigerator, TV, AC, Cigarettes, Jewellery, Cars, Petrol, Mobile Phones,

Cheaper: Toys, Latex, Medicines (16% - 10%), CDs,

Service Tax rate unchanged at 10%

Rev Gain Rs 20500 Cr

Tweets by Tweeple on Sachin: Only few

2010-02-25T01:11:00.000-08:00

yuvsingh09: Sachin Paaji..I remember ad where that little kid is playing with the car and his father tells him: "Bas Kar" and the kid replies...

juniorbachchan: SACHIN, YOU GIVE US INDIANS A GREAT REASON TO BE PROUD. AND THE REASON IS YOU!!!

ShashiTharoor: Had a v busy day &cldnt tweet earlier, but thx to Parl adjournment caught more than few glimpses of Sachin's magnificent 204*. What a champ!

udaychopra: So heard about Sachins double century...wish I could have seen it...but anyway I decided to celebrate by dedicating my breakfast to him...

ShashiTharoor: Gave 15min Asianet interview in Malayalam on Sachin's accomplishment. At age when ppl assumed his stamina was flagging,he makes his highest!

juniorbachchan: SACHIN. Master, idol, LEGEND!!! Congratulations!!! What an innings.

priyankachopra: Oh my god!Just read about sachins double century!Mannn!I slept thru it!! :( feel so proud to be born at a time when I can witness greatness!

kjohar25: His name is TENDULKAR and he is a LEGEND!!!

vivek_oberoi: I've always said...."if cricket is a religion....sachin is god!"

Riteishd: HISTORY has been created by d Master . In future people will always remember where they were when SACHIN scored 200* runs. Atyanth abhimaan.

realpreityzinta: Sachin ! You are my hero ! You make us so proud :-) Team India rocks because Sachin shocks the opposition !

anandmahindra: On my way to ndtv Indian of the year awards.But wonder if any other indian matters tonight after sachin's double ton...

LalitKModi: Sachin - the greatest ever Player ever - without any doubt.

warne888: yes yes yes !!!!!! well done Sachin my friend ... congrats and well done !!!!! awesome ...

kapoorkkunal: I finally know what god really looks like!! He is about 5"5, maharashtrian and plays cricket!! Tendulkar bapa morya

There were millions, I picked few....Phewww

Belated Happy new year

2010-01-12T05:57:00.000-08:00

Sorry for being late. Happy new year 2010 to all of you. God bless.

Debate: ICANN Bringing the Languages of the World to the Global Internet

2009-10-30T21:58:00.000-07:00

Well I am not sure, how much of help it will be, to any one! If you look around the addresses are non relevant, when it comes to aggregating (the information). Why bookmarks were invented after all? Why there are vernacular versions of OS? Why keyboards are there for regional language's? I guess the whole vernacular thing is in run from the time WWW was invented. Typing the web address in your language is not going to solve anything, the information that the addresses serve will!

99% of the Chinese, Russian, Spanish, German or Japanese websites serves information using the language that people understand there. So it's not going to have any difference! Amazingly except Government Websites (gov.in, gov.nic.in) in India all .in and co.in's serves information in English! So it will be of no help for any one who don't know English (mere typing the web address will not serve the information in their language)! Going by the theory even if I manage to type timesonline.co.uk in Hindi, it will be of no help for me if I don't know the language in which the information is getting served from the address!

The only people who stands to benefit out of this are the localization guys! May be they have a big business here! Thanks to ICANN the much hyped IT industry, which is reinventing the same wheels again and again will have a new business to look for!

Take in case Hindi: Not every one understand traditional Hindi aka traditional Chinese so may be inventing Simplified Hindi may help like Simplified Chinese! For example on can visit this Page: http://www.google.co.in/intl/en_in/labs/suggest/about-hi-search_hi.html the language is easy to understand. However in the same page there is no Hindi for Transliteration! So here comes the bazooka! And same goes for Bengali etc etc etc.

More on this later.

Mahalaya: Online (Birendra Krishna Bhadra)

2009-09-15T06:29:00.000-07:00

The greatest record of all time. no one can beat this:

Mahalaya Part 01

Mahalaya Part 02

Dedicated to all Bengalis Across the world

Permalink: http://frogdust.blogspot.com/2009/09/mahalaya-online-birendra-kishore-bhadra.html

Important Alternate Laws

2009-08-29T03:50:00.000-07:00

LAW OF QUEUE: If you change queues, the one you have left will start to move faster than the one you are in now.

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LAW OF TELEPHONE: When you dial a wrong number, you never get an engaged one.

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LAW OF MECHANICAL REPAIR : After your hands become coated with grease, your nose will begin to itch.

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LAW OF THE WORKSHOP: Any tool, when dropped, will roll to the least accessible corner.

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LAW OF THE ALIBI: If you tell the boss you were late for work because you had a flat tire, the next morning you will have a flat tire.

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BATH THEOREM: When the body is immersed in water, the telephone rings.

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LAW OF ENCOUNTERS: The probability of meeting someone you know increases when you are with someone you don't want to be seen with.

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LAW OF THE RESULT: When you try to prove to someone that a machine won't work, it will!

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LAW OF BIOMECHANICS: The severity of the itch is inversely proportional to the reach.

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THEATRE RULE: People with the seats at the furthest from the aisle arrive last.

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LAW OF COFFEE: As soon as you sit down for a cup of hot coffee, your boss will ask you to do something which will last until the coffee is cold.

The Wood Frame Story

2009-08-19T08:17:00.000-07:00

When I started working, the buzz word around the industry was data centers. Every one, who was worth the salt, was planning for a data center. One cold May morning (Come on Bangalore was like that decades back) my boss called us for a meeting. It was about data centers. He said wrap up your socks guys we are going to be big here. We will offer “holistic services” to the data center majors and the upcoming data centers. He showed us a presentation about Exodus (it was still around and making news) and how 65% of the internet traffic relies on them and how much services they would need or breed of its kind would need to sustain and grow. Ultimately those were the days of internet and the growth story. We came down to the hallway and Ravi our ephemeral sales head said, this is going to be good all boss wants us to sale more and may be add some more innovative services. So after a brief sojourn we started our planning, after all boss had numbers in mind and he translated that beautifully.

My first stop was at a consumer Durables Company, (which was in to telephony also -not naming it here) and we met the systems head, who was arguably the most unsmiling face I ever met (till date). On a grump note he dictated out the requirements and it took him approximately 2 hours 32 minutes (yes K recorded the time) to tell us that the company has plans for data center. Did we hear correct was the first look we gave him! Hurriedly we jotted down the scope and the deliverables. We almost ran back to office and then what started can be called as an epic. The Singporean IT major I was working with was not all that tech savvy and in the sales department all we had was a slow dialup connecting us to the outer world. Google was still not known and Wiki was unheard of and the only way we could get some information was through internal literatures.

We decided hurriedly that this was our day in the space. We spoke to every one we know, you know the partners the big principals. Every one started sending us the best pricing possible (all laptops, servers, switches, desktops, routers, cables, connectors, racks etc etc) and we collated all of that and presented it to our solution architect Keshab. Keshab was at loss and was wary of the fact that none of us had any experience in data centers, we had done some projects by then in the network integration space, but come on, Keshab said, ”Guys do we really know what we intend to do here?” I still remember Ravi’s words, “Sara daal denge aur koi aacha sa naam de denge, jaise ki, the Wood frame Solution”. (We put all of that and will name the solution wood frame solution). Kehsab asked, “Ok! But what on Earth is Wood Frame?” Ravi with his blemish baritone replied, “It sounds good, nothing else matters!”

Well that’s how the journey begun. We posted it to our clients and sold 1000’s of gadgets since then over the two years. After years I met Ravi, and we had a quick drink (this was the time I was on the verge of starting on my own), I asked him, “Anna you remember the wood frame?” He laughed and said you won’t believe I still sell Wood Frame’s in the name of adaptive computing for a large company (lets not name the company).

Aren’t the companies across the world still do the same? Aren’t they selling wooden frames to there customers?

Read these Excerpts:

“Planning for the data center is critical, and gaining an understanding of your precise needs allows XXXX to tailor a solution specifically for your demands. After consulting with customers, current and future business needs are translated into optimized facility and system designs. Pinpointing the correct architecture and cooling capacity avoids costly over-shooting and delivers a solution that grows as you grow. Industry roadmaps, partnerships and XXXX’s engineering bench-strength in data center optimization allow our customers to deploy solutions that scale with their business needs. Services around data center design; layout, thermal flows and power optimization are combined with customized hardware to provide solutions that meet specific customer needs.”

“At XXX, we envision a world of many clouds, both public and private, that are open and compatible. We offer an extensive portfolio of products and services and are fostering open communities and partner ecosystems to make this vision a reality. It all starts with the delivery of the XXX Cloud, a public compute and storage infrastructure service, which is due out later this year.”

Isn’t it the same wood frame story? Every one is selling everything shrink wrapped. The world has just got smarter.

What Parents Should know about Swine Flu:

2009-08-12T02:04:00.000-07:00

If your child has fever, throat infection, body ache, consult doctor.
Must go to a doctor at any government facility meant for swine flu.
Swine flu testing is done only at government hospitals.
Nose and throat swabs will be taken and tested.
Child will not be quarantined if there are no symptoms.
If clinical symptoms exist, child will be hospitalised, and tamiflu will be given only if the tests are positive.
Act early to ensure quick recovery.
Rapid screening advised by private hospitals not legal.
Do not go for rapid screening as it's not 100 per cent accurate.
In times of crisis the worst thing is to panic so if you or your family member is having flu-like symptoms without wasting time go to the nearest designated hospital or doctor and get tested if he advises.

If you have any queries don't listen to rumours and panic, call toll free helplines: 1075 or 1800-11-4377.

Swine flu is certainly curable with timely intervention, correct diagnosis and a five-day medication.

Some specific precautions to be taken against H1N1:

A mask to cover your nose and mouth is a must. These are not just regular masks but a special one called N-95 which filter microbes in the air that you inhale and exhale.
A mask is a must when you are in a high-risk situation particularly when you have to go to a hospital to get tested and you have to be in the waiting room. Also keep the mask on when you are in a crowded place.
Cover your mouth surely while coughing and sneezing turn your head and cough into your shoulder.
Wash your hands in case there is body contact with someone who's got cold and cough.

Swine Flu Guidelines

2009-08-12T01:55:00.000-07:00

Following are guidelines about swine flu from the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in Delhi...

SWINE FLU SYMPTOMS: WARNING SIGNS IN CHILDREN

Fast breathing or troubled breathing
Bluish skin colour
Not taking enough food or fluid
Becoming irritable
Difficulty in waking up
Flu-like symptoms recur
Fever with rashes

WARNING SIGNS IN ADULTS

Difficulty in breathing
Pain or pressure in chest, abdomen
Dizziness
Severe or persistent vomiting
Not taking enough food or fluid
Flu-like symptoms recur

TACKLING SWINE FLU: THE HOME GUIDE

Isolate affected people, minimise contact for 7-10 days
Stay at home, away from work, school and public places
Frequently wash hands with soap
Use wet cloth for cleaning, dusting
Use disinfectants for cleaning
Get plenty of sleep, be physically active
Drink plenty of fluid, eat nutritious food
Use face mask or handkerchief while coughing, sneezing

Chris Brown: Forever

2009-08-08T02:25:00.000-07:00

Lyrics:

1, 2, 3, 4.

Hey Hey Oh...
Hey Hey Oh...

It's you and me moving
At the speed of light into eternity yer,
Tonight is the night to join me in the middle of ecstasy.
Feel the melody in the rhythm of the music around you, around you
I'm gonna take you there, I'm gonna take you there
So don't be scared
I'm right here baby
We can go anywhere, go anywhere
But first it's your chance,
Take my hand come with me

[Chorus:]
It's like I've waited my whole life for this one night
It's gonna be me you and the dance floor
'cause we've only got one night
Double your pleasure
Double your fun and dance
Forever (ever, ever)
Forever (ever, ever)
Forever (ever, ever)
Forever girl forever
Forever (ever, ever)
Forever (ever, ever)
Forever (ever, ever)
Forever on the dance floor

Feels like we're on another level
Feels like our loves intertwined,
We can be two rebels breaking the rules
me and you, you and I
All you got to do is watch me
Look what I can do with my feet
Baby feel the beat inside,
I'm driving you can take the front seat
Just need you to trust me
Oh ah oh
It's like!

[Chorus]

It's a long way down,
We're so high off the ground,
Sending for an angel to bring me your heart
Girl, where did you come from?
Got me so undone,
Gazing in your eyes got me singing what a beautiful lady
No "if"s, "and"s or "maybe"s
I'm releasing my heart and it's feeling amazing
There's no one else that matters
you love me and I won't let you fall girl
Let you fall girl oh
Ah ah ye yer
I won't let you fall, let you fall
Let you fall oh oh
Yer yer
Yer yer
It's Like!

[Chorus]

Oh ah ah ah ah ah
Yer
Forever (ever, ever, ever)
Forever ever ah.

Permalink: http://frogdust.blogspot.com/2009/08/chris-brown-forever.html

Gammon may get blacklisted. Well that's the sign of times. Alert: All construction company(s)

2009-07-28T04:41:00.000-07:00

My earlier article Construction Industry: Talent Management Primer I highlighted on certain issues that are so critical for the growth, stability and maturity of the industry. Let me give you an inside view of the industry (as close as it can get).

The industry is actually disorganized. There's not much of effort that goes in doing something that I one may appreciate. Let me analyze that for you. In this industry all that matters is:

1) Amount of concreting done per day

2) Number of labors in the site (augment when client is around)

3) Do not sort out any labor issues, including the licenses

4) Ensure that the production should happen without fail and ensure that if the batching plant is suppose to give 60 MQ per hour (One can get around 45 at the best) show the production and charge the client. You know client billing / subcontractor billing

5) All labor colonies are always in shits and shambles

6) Mess facility offered to the engineers and supervisors are pathetic

7) No one speaks to the Project Manager as he has iron hands and can do any damage

8) Don't care about quality and project delays, money will be made through litigations, arbitrations and insurance

9) Entertain key client contracts and never furnish a proper MIS

10) Allow people to get closer to a ring and then allow the ones who are really close to do things that justifies

11) A junior engineer and a senior engineer and construction manager’s salary are almost at par at times

12) Mechanical is the most unlooked after department

13) Machine maintenance only happens for books and fuel. (You know what I am referring to)

14) No regular updates to the senior management to the client

15) Accidents are a norm. Always buy low quality gears

16) Compromise if it is necessary to avoid the axe

17) Hiring of engineers: Almost all junior engineers are jokes, they are there because they are required for client contracts

18) Gross violations of labor laws and other administrative laws

19) One who is doing well always gets the backseat

20) The only person who makes sense in this industry who can take all the shit and can make money for himself/herself (though this gender is rarity)

21) It's not at all man's world. It's a money making world by compromising

And there are many more.

This all stems from poor practices that have been carried out for decades. Most of these companies are family owned and they have no clue about what needs to be done. They just don't care.

This needs to stop. The companies needs to pull there socks back. This are hard times and hard times one cannot get away by doing any thing. It's the time the companies need to put in practice that can take them to a level higher.

A small thank you to people who matters and to the rest

2009-07-26T23:52:00.000-07:00

Its not everyday you wake up in the morning and think and count about who matters to you the most. It’s not everyday that you try and find the ones who have contributed in your life in one way or other. I have many people who shaped my life to what it is today. May be I will try and summarize the efforts of the few here (possibly this is one way to say thanks to them):

Ma and Baba goes first on the list for everything under the sun

Wifey dear has to be second, as she stood by me during the most difficult phase of my life

Chichu and Rishi: My niece and nephew. Just darlings. They are the sweetest in the world.

Kaustav: Undoubtedly a great friend and some one who have managed to instill back the confidence I lost some where. A great pal to have. He did something, which will always remain special, i.e. he believed in me when the rest did not. He, Varsha (a doting lady she is the best half between them), Adi (good to see a wonderful kid who is been bought up so nicely), Uncle (his father; still the angry young man, and some one who can teach a lesson or two to any one in corporate India), Auntie (the lady with iron grips and some one who is always there for people), Rinki (his sis, humble and well learned; though have not interacted much as she lives abroad, but small anecdotes suggests that she is a super woman) and off course Jini (Ok she managed to cure my phobia: the great Bengali golden retriever, who loves to have aalo posto and bhaat) are family. Anytime there for you pal.

PG Days mates: Shout and they are there for help, Rahul, Suman, Krishanu, Bijay, Utpal, Bidhan, Soumya, Shreyam, The great mamu of all subho, papai, deep just great people. When we all stayed together never ever we thought that we are inseparable and the saga continues......Thank you people.

My Students: Oh they are the best in the world. They just made me what I am today. I am so indebted to them, so indebted. All are great. Guys like Nitesh (Morgan Stanley), Srikant (Citibank), Soumik (Reliance Retail) etc are doing so well for themselves but still they remain grounded to their roots and gives Kaustav and me the respect, which is so scarce in today’s world.

Our Cricket Team: Well how can I not mention about these two great brothers Toto and Dodo (Dipto and Dipon). Wonderful kids so well bought up by their parents, so well behaved and intelligent, a precious delight. Arijit ahem we call him haadi (that cooking utensil in Bengali) a great guy who is always behind his girlfriend and nagging her to do the gym), Vishal (a new friend yet we feel like being together for so long), Shishu: The great Shishu (pity if you don’t know him) and every one else apart from them.

Kaushik : Laziest amongst us all will agree:)) Such a great guy, humble but knows business when it matters

Ritzu: One must ask him what it is to be like Ritzu? And what it takes to be like Ritzu? Its difficult, its truly difficult. Ritzu is only one. A great friend and loved and hated at the same breath by all.

Supravat: Great associate. Has can do it all attitude, Just that he misses out on everything so often.

The list continues…..

May be some day I will try and compile all.

For today, may be this is all I can compile. Thank you People, thanks a lot for being there.

OK Last Minute life saver pack: Pooja "the crown princess of Doon": I leave her here and then I am dead. Can't take that risk. Wonderful lady, just one needs to live with her whims and fancies:))))

from an INFOSCION to a POLITICION - Nandan's Chronicles - 2

2009-07-22T05:08:00.000-07:00

Credit for the blog post: http://ideasinfinitum.blogspot.com/ (The blog where it is published)

Credit for the Blog Post 02: Nitesh Surana (Morgan Stanley India) - A dear friend

Presented on "AS IT IS" BASIS

------------------------------------------------

Continuing my tryst with capturing the life and times of Nandan Nilekani in his new avatar as a Cabinet Minister, here is what he had penned after his first day in the Parliament.

The last entry stopped when the House was just about to begin. Let’s see what happened thereafter…

The House was in pin drop silence as the Speaker to her Chair. I was brimming with anticipation and excitement!!!! Manmohan had informed me that my introduction was one of the important points of the agenda. I hoped that I will be able to make my speech properly. After so many interviews and conferences, I was nervous today!!!!

After the Speaker indicated that the proceedings of the House could begin, Manmohan formally introduced me to the entire House. He mentioned that as the head of the Unique Identification Authority of India, I was responsible to ensure that each and every Indian had a digital smart card as a proof of his existence. Manmohan spoke about why I was selected and also some references to the various projects executed by me in Infosys were mentioned. The House listened with rapt attention. I was asked to say a few words and I did exactly the same!!! I thanked the Government of India for having given me this opportunity and I assured the House that I would strive to successfully deliver this project. The Speaker then formally inducted me into the House and before the proceedings could move any forward, there was a small commotion on the other side of the hall. It was Minister of Textiles who had a comment to make before the next point on the agenda. He made a request that I should be attired in a more austere way instead of a flashy suit. It did not go well with the image of a minister who should live to serve the common man and should be less ostentatious in his habits. I stood up to reply. I offered my apologies to the Honourable Minister and assured that I shall be in a more acceptable dress next time. I felt that he was right. We also used to have corporate dress code in Infosys. So it s here as well!!!!

I sat down and felt somebody nudging me. I turned around and to my surprise; it was the former Indian skipper and one of my favourite batsman Mohd. Azharuddin. I remembered that he had recently won the elections. I smiled at him and mentioned to him that I used to like his game very much, shaking his hand. No Rolex, I noticed.

Azhar told me that he would “fix” me an appointment with an Italian designer who had designed his dapper Kurta suit. An Italian designer in Milan doing Kurtas!?!?!?!

I made a note of this and reminded myself to give this example to Friedman for his next book,” The World Markets are flattened”. Since there was no doubt about the “Fixational” capacities of Azhar, I told him to give me the details and I would consider.

The proceedings of the House went on with numerous bills being debated and passed as I sat as a passive audience waiting for my project’s turn to come up. After the lunch break, it was the moment for me!!!! MY PROJECT”S FIRST REVIEW CAME UP FOR PRESENTATION. I was at sea. My laptop did not have any reserve power. I went to Manmohan and apprised him of the situation. I was sweating. He calmly replied that this would not be a cause of concern. I was flummoxed!!!!

The Speaker asked me to explain to the House on what were my plans for the Unique Identity Project. I replied that I have a plan prepared for 30-60-90-120 days’ milestones and I have presentation to make for which I need a power socket, a projector and a screen. I had no idea what was going to happen after this.

The next couple of minutes were a complete jolt for me. I was completely in a tizzy. Let me just summarize what happened.

A Joint Cabinet Secretary Committee was set up to judge the feasibility of my request. The Under Secretaries for the Ministries of Power, IT and Broadcasting will prepare a Viability Report after scrutinizing National Security threats to my request. This was because the power socket comes under Power, laptop comes under IT and projector comes under Broadcasting.

I have also been told to reconsider my timelines of 30-60-90 days and start thinking in terms of years. Probably, they are right. I did not have the foresight in this matter.

The summary of the issue is that I need to come up with a more inclusive, democratic, comprehensive long term plan for this project to be executed over the next five years. I have also been given a presentation slot 3 months from now (by which the issues related to the power cord etc will also be resolved).

I am filled with mixed reactions. I was planning for a quick resolution; the management wants a strategic solution. I come out of the House and text Murthy, “You won’t believe it but these guys work just like us. I am on a NATIONAL BENCH for the next three months!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Credit for the blog post: http://ideasinfinitum.blogspot.com/
Credit for the Blog Post 02: Nitesh Surana (Morgan Stanley India)

The movie Festival Begins: Second Movie

2009-07-09T02:06:00.000-07:00

The Second Movie on Air today:

"Night Train"

Permalink: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Rn6xJGxkNI

The Channel Link: http://www.youtube.com/user/gmcsfilms

Permalink on my Blog: http://frogdust.blogspot.com/2009/07/movie-festival-begins-second-movie.html

The Movie Festival Begins

2009-07-08T06:39:00.001-07:00

The first movie to go on air today is:

"Wall Street Chronicles"

Permalink: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIQjTuVhaw4

The Channel Link: http://www.youtube.com/user/gmcsfilms

Permalink on my Blog: http://frogdust.blogspot.com/2009/07/movie-festival-begins.html

GMCS Short Film Festival Summer 2009: Curtain Raiser

2009-07-04T03:02:00.000-07:00

The 1st GMCS Short Film Festival, is all set to open on July 07, 2009 and will feature a showcase of much-acclaimed adapted versions of recent films of international origin.

Displaying the latest productions and hosting their performers and directors at GMCS 112, the GMCS Short Film Festival covers a line up of adapted versions of highly praised films produced during the last few years.

The festival will celebrate the diversity of cinema, art and culture; the movies are produced, directed, scripted to suit the Indian diaspora by young Chartered Accountants.

This unique festival will be available at My Channel in Youtube and here.

Stay tuned for more information.

Railway Budget 2009: Salient Features

2009-07-04T01:08:00.000-07:00

Salient Features of the Railway Budget:

Request increased budgetary support for Rs 5000 cr in fiscal year 2010
Provisions for new lines at Rs 2921 cr vs Rs 1100 crore
To spend Rs 1750 crore on gauge conversion
To set up Northeastern rail development funds
New 'Izzat' scheme: Poor to get 25-rupee monthly tickets for 100-km travel
All students will receive a 60% concession on tickets
Non-stop train services between select cities
12 new point-to-point train services
Safety is our first priority; improved safety signalling system will be in place: Mamata
Integrated security systems have been placed in 150 sensitive stations
Recruitment drive to fill-up backlog of SC/ST and women candidates
800 new locations for ticket reservations; 3000 new un-reserved ticket counters
Passengers can buy un-reserved tickets from 5000 post offices
Multi-functional utilities like bookstores and STD booths will be made available in stations
Railways will extend a helping hand to physically-challenged people
We will put at least one doctor in every long-distance train
Toilets to be similar to ones in aircrafts; facilities for every journey longer than 2 hours
We have decided to develop 50 world-class stations: Mamata
The Railway must set an example of inclusive growth: Mamata
Mamata says the old mindset of economic viability must be substituted with social viability and that Budget should be based on social viability
Mamata Banerjee presents Railway Budget in Parliament for the third time

Steel Sector: The challenges ahead

2009-07-01T07:34:00.000-07:00

The development of the steel industry since the end of the Second World War can be seen in three distinct phases.

Lets begin by considering developments over the last 20 years of the last century. This period witnessed a dramatic slowdown in the rate of growth of steel demand following the end of post-war reconstruction in Western Europe and Japan. It was also the period following the second energy price shock of 1979. The beginning of the 90s saw the collapse of the former Soviet Union, a collapse in its economy and a collapse in its internal demand for steel.

This 20-year period was one of rationalisation and reconstruction in the industry. There were closures of many plants in Western Europe and North America. With the introduction of new technology in steelmaking, casting and rolling, there were dramatic increases in labour productivity. Nevertheless, there continued to be excess production and falling prices for steel. Many steel companies suffered considerable losses in this period and unlucky shareholders and owners of steel companies saw destruction in the value of their businesses.

By 2000 the outlook started to change. The increases in efficiency in the industry were passed on to customers and this increased the competitiveness of steel, enabling it to recapture business lost to competing materials. Strong growth in steel demand in China absorbed the excess capacity that had developed in the former Soviet Union.

Governments realised that state aid in propping up inefficient steel companies was counterproductive and there was a move towards privatisation of the industry. This was particularly the case in Latin America, South Africa and Western Europe. In the case of India it took the form of liberalisation of the steel market which enabled a dynamic private sector steel industry to develop alongside the Steel Authority of India.

Lastly and perhaps most important of all, the steel industry realised that its failure to match its production to the real demand for steel and the temptation to chase marginal business at low prices destroyed the business for all.

Today we see a remarkable re-birth of the steel industry. We have seen six years of strong steel growth not just in China but in all parts of the world. The profitability of steel companies is at an acceptable level for the first time in a generation.

The new consensus in the steel industry is recognition that they are now truly a global business. Competition is positive for innovation in the industry and growing the market for steel against competitive materials. In the 21st century, sustainability is the key focus for the industry. Consolidation can help develop a more viable long-term structure for the business.

We believe that steel can and will be profitable over the complete business cycle. We see that demand for steel is growing strongly in both industrialised and developing countries. We know that steel is the most sustainable, recycled and innovative material.

We see steel as providing a safe and highly-skilled workplace for the employees. We see steel striving to minimise its environmental footprint and we believe that state aid is wrong if it distorts fair competition in the markets.

With this vision for industry, what do I believe are the key challenges that all steel companies face around the world today? I have identified six themes. These are: climate change, raw materials, people, capacity investments, growing the market in construction, and the image of steel.

Climate change

Lets start with the issue at the top of political agendas of the G8 countries today and it is climate change. The steel industry accounts for between 5 and 6% of total man-made CO2 emissions. This is less than accounted for by transport or power use by the general public, it does mean that the steel industry is in the frontline in making a contribution to fight global warming. We have seen that policies applied only in the Kyoto countries are not working in terms of making any reduction in total greenhouse gas emissions.

Today we know that China produces over 50% of total CO2 emissions by the steel industry and that this global problem requires a global solution.

How best can the steel industry help reduce CO 2 emissions? First, the industry needs to apply the best available technology everywhere. Whilst many steel plants are close to the limits of what can be achieved with present technology, there are many steel plants where energy efficiency and CO2 emissions fall far below the global best. Therefore the industry needs to either close or replace those plants.

Steel has a major role in the light-weighting of vehicles. With recent developments in ultra-high strength steels, steel provides a much more energy efficient solution than, for instance, aluminium. The sector needs to maximise the recycling of end-of-life steel. Steel is already the most recycled material in the world without government subsidies or intervention. Every ton of steel re-applied makes a big saving in net CO 2 emissions.

Lastly and most importantly, as an industry the sector needs to have the responsibility to undertake longer-term research on new technologies, to radically reduce the CO 2 footprint.

The industry advocates a global approach, but will a global approach work? I think the answer is yes, provided the approach is based on technology and best practice and does not seek to place an absolute cap on emissions for developing countries since the steel industry in these countries wishes to grow to meet the social and economic aspirations of its population.

Do I believe China will participate? Again my answer is yes, since the Chinese authorities know that concentration of steel production in the most efficient steelmaking plants is essential to improve the environment in their country.

Raw materials

The next issue is raw materials. The earth is made of iron. There is no shortage of iron in the longer term. However, today over 70% of the total seaborne trade in iron ore is dominated by just three companies: CVRD, Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton. As a result, the steel industry has seen a dramatic increase in the price of raw materials, including iron ore. It is crucial and important for the sustainable development of the steel industry to break out of the stranglehold that these three companies have on raw material supply. We are confident that this will occur over the next few years and India clearly has an important role to play.

People

The number-one priority for the sector is to create an accident-free workplace. The rate of accidents is falling but the goal is clear and it is zero. The sector should adopt a set of six principles to guide their safety policies.

The six principles are:

that all injuries and work-related illnesses can and must be prevented
that management is responsible and accountable for health and safety performance
that employee engagement and training is essential
that working safely is a condition of employment for everybody
that excellence in health and safety supports excellent business results and
that health and safety must be integrated into all business management processes

The industry ultimately deserves to be judged on how it treats its people. Steel is no longer a dirty and dangerous unskilled work environment. The sector belongs to high-productivity and high-tech industry requiring a highly-skilled workforce. The sector needs to encourage the best young graduates to join the industry.. The legacy of poor financial performance in the last 20 years of the 20th century was that not enough universities around the world were teaching ferrous metallurgy and that needs to change.

Capacity investments

The next issue is capacity. The sector believes that they are all in one business environment. Steel industries that have a comparative advantage and are most efficient in the production of steel should be able to export their products. There is no economic right for a particular country to balance its exports and imports. Having said that, at the present time the sector is concerned that some of the capacity expansions that is happening in China are leading to sharp rises in exports from that country. And all in the industry agrees that there is no fundamental reason why China has a comparative advantage in steelmaking and therefore it is unlikely that a strategy based on investment for net exports of steel is sustainable in the long term.

Growing market in construction

The last two issues are areas where the sector sees great opportunities for the industry, but ones that can only be fully grasped if steel companies work together. The first of these is growing the market for steel in construction. Construction is already the largest single market for steel and the sector have only started to scratch the surface of opportunities available to it.

To penetrate the market for steel in construction, particularly for residential construction the sector needs long-term market development investments by companies working together.

Image of steel

The last and perhaps the most important challenge of all is the image of steel. The industry is proud of the contribution that steel makes to modern society. It is indispensable in the welfare of mankind. However, recent surveys undertaken indicate that most of the population is ignorant of the contribution steel makes and as a result the sector cannot be satisfied with the image of steel in the world today.

A poor image for steel in society ultimately affects the choice of steel in products. A poor image of steel in young people affects their career choice. A poor image of steel in governments affects the choice of policies made on issues which affect the ability to serve society. Lastly, a poor image of steel in the financial community affects the valuation of companies and the availability of investment capital.

For all these reasons we believe a major positive challenge for the industry is to ensure that the image of steel in the general public matches the new vision for steel that the sector hold in the industry.

Lastly the future of the steel industry depends on how successful the industry is in attracting and retaining the highly skilled talent that will be required to keep the industry competitive, productive, and technically competent.

Bibliography:

1. cardiff university : Paper 52 - New Steel Industry Challenges

2. hindu business line: Steel industry facing challenges — `Only fittest will survive'

3. fitch reports: Russian Steel Industry Continues to Face Challenges

4. fitch research: Worldwide Steel Outlook -- Excess Capacity Expected into the Medium Term

5. columbia university: Challenges facing Japanese steel in today's global economy [academic commons]

6. british library direct: Challenges Facing the Steel Industry in Attracting and Retaining Engineers

7. ils steel industry notes: The oulook

8. ils research commons: The sectors we serve

Construction Industry: Talent Management Primer

2009-06-30T22:22:00.000-07:00

The construction industry is the second largest industry of the country after agriculture. It makes a significant contribution to the national economy and provides employment to large number of people. The use of various new technologies and deployment of project management strategies has made it possible to undertake projects of mega scale. However, the industry is still faced with some major challenges. The biggest one is the "The human Capital Acquisition, Retention and Development". With the sudden slowdown the churn has been suspended for the time being, however we expect a third homecoming very soon.

The industry will always remain an enigma for the outsiders. It is possibly one of the most capital intensive, human resources intensive and riddled with myth sector in the world. Last few years we have spent quality time in understanding the various nuggets that drives this industry. Our experiences have been varied. With quality information on highway projects, flyovers, hydro power, rapid mass transit systems, Metal and Minining SEZ, Mega housing projects, thermal power, public transport facilities, bridges, cross country pipelines, urban sanitation, sugar plant, chemical plant etc and an understanding of the inside ring view of how these projects are tendered, planned, how costing happens along with allocation of manpower and machineries and at the end the execution I think we are now qualified to offer our insight’s on what drives this industry.

I and my colleagues will agree that it's the human capital that makes all the difference. India post liberalization has neglected the infrastructure industry to the hilt and was more focused on the services sector (I am from the same industry. It employed even the cows, which trespassed the facilities once. Incidentally some of the cows I know have made big for themselves), however the shift gradually happened some time in the mid 2000, when people woke up to this opportunity. They could see a gold mine that has been neglected for long. This ushered in the frenzy where every one started building one project after another and started committing money that was unheard of. The EPC (contractors) were the one's who ripped the benefits of this frenzy. From mere few hundred Crores suddenly they are close to a billion dollars companies with 10,000+ manpower and order books which were close to Lakhs of Crores for some I know.

However as I have said that services industry rode the maximum of the bike call liberalization, it created a void. There were times when the civil engineers made beelines in front of the services company's to get a job, which created demand supply gap and the industry remained stranded with only few choices for years. With the peak one could see the crunch. The industry was not equipped to supply so much of talent and the one’s who were part of the industry made big for themselves by switching jobs or else participated in poaching and then switching and re-switching. The industry as it was in its infancy when the peak happened suddenly crumbled under the pressure.

I know company's who are in existence for 80 plus years but had no HR departments till some years ago; the administration was the one who were saddled with the responsibilities of maintaining the HR stuffs. So Provident Fund, ESI and other statutory obligations suddenly became the part of talent management. This was a big body blow for the industry, till people woke up to the challenges and started building the department. Most of which were Greenfield and with no focus and with the absence of right strategy these departments and professionals were asked to do only recruitment, which boiled down to searching, poaching and re-searching the limited sets again and again, which resulted in a bigger chaos.

When we started our talent management and talent assessment practice couple of years back, we were startled with the revelations we had about the industry. The HR practices were minimal and the only focus was to hire, hire and hire. With no standardization in terms of compensation, acquisition, retention and development, what we faced was an 800 pound of gorilla ignorance and myth about HR as a whole.

Our work with one of the nation's largest infrastructure company has cultivated some fruits today as we could identify the rot layers, standardized certain practices and enabled management of retention with learning and development.

Let me share some pointers about what we have learnt and what we have delivered:

- OLD GAURD: HR is all about finding the people when it is needed.

Change: It's much more than that. It is about identifying the right capital at the right time, retain and develop the people.

- OLD GAURD: Hire any one

Change: Hire the right one

- OLD GAURD: HR is a cost center

Change: HR is a profit center

- OLD GAURD: It drains people out because of constant fear of getting sacked or replaced

Change: It is about people and it ends there.

- OLD GAURD: HR cannot identify rot. Cannot do competency mapping. Have no clue about the workings and the technicalities

Change: It can identify the rot, can assess people of their capabilities and can save millions if pressed right

- OLD GAURD: Do it for ISO and other mandatory regulations

Change: If you don't practice, you perish

- OLD GAURD: Admin and HR is same

- Change: Thank you the systems are different

Talent management in the company’s we serve is no longer a step child of ignominy. The top management acknowledges the same and we have many points to prove on that count.

Last couple of years we have been able to save lot of direct and indirect costs. We are hopeful that another couple of years we will be able to provide more gains to the company’s we work with and the industry as a whole.

Companies we work with today are focussed on developing their talent's. They have put insustainable practices for:

Sourcing, attracting and recruiting qualified candidates with competitive backgrounds
Managing and defining competitive salaries
Learning and development processes
Performance management processes
Initiated retention programs
Structured their promotion and transitioning strategies

To know more you can mail the Infrastructure practice department of ILS or can speak to a lead consultants.

Website: http://www.ilsnetwork.org

Find out yourself or perish

2009-06-30T00:54:00.000-07:00

Why one needs to assess his or her strengths? Why one needs to identify the core elements that make them tick? Why one needs to identify the negative shades in their lives? Why one needs to identify who they are?

In today's world, which is the true reflection of the phrase "dog-eat-dog", it is important for one to identify and reconnect with oneself. It is critical for one to identify what it is that will make them stand by the winds of change.

With changing times, employers are becoming more and more demanding. They are looking for quality traits in individuals that will stand by the tide of times. They are scanning the intrinsic and extrinsic behavioral patterns and aligning it with their organizational goals. Human capital is so much more important for them.

Uncertain times have challenged the very existence of the strategies, which were sacrosanct for talent acquisition till date. What was OK yesterday is no more Ok with the top management today. They are looking at ways to reduce the incapability and inconsistency burdens in their organization layers. They are looking for true sets. By true sets they are clear about what they need. They are clear about what values the true sets will bring in. They are clear about the receivables and deliverables, and to add they are clear about the time period in which these true sets needs to perform.

My experience shows that well-qualified candidates are always in demand. Today the issue for employers is two-fold (1) having enough qualified candidates and (2) selecting the candidate who best fits both the culture and the specific business situation.

Apart from changing times the cost of selecting the wrong person for the job is potentially devastating for an organization. For example, conservative estimates put the cost of replacing a manager at three to four times that person's annual salary. Multiply those across several instances and you have a huge expense that is mind boggling.

Today’s organizations are facing a market with not enough qualified employees to fill necessary job roles. In order to stay afloat and gain competitive advantage, these companies are becoming and getting prepared for future performance with a “ready now” workforce. Companies no longer view human capital as a commodity but as an asset, and they recognize the criticality of investing in a talent acquisition strategy, as a way to identify, attract and engage high performers.

Organizations are not leaving any stone unturned to negate the wrong identification process. Across the industry, across each and every sector employers are looking for talents that can fit in to their situations and can be able to multitask and perform when times are demanding.

That's why it has become so much more important for one to identify their uniqueness, their strengths, their latent energies and negative shades. It is important for one to identify their strengths and motivations toward work. They need to outline their learning style, communication style, management style and leadership preferences. These are the traits the employers are searching for today.

Whether one is a mid career professional, an executive or else starting their career, it is important for the one to establish, re-establish and hone the skills that will make one tick.

It is important for one to assess oneself and identify the areas that they need to improve upon and areas that can be harnessed for better tomorrow.

However to do this one need to have solution partners who will engage in a one to one model with the individual and will formulate a basic and advance level plan that will help the individual to excel.

Internet offers many tools and solutions online where one can actually fill some forms and can get a basic report about who they are and what they are capable off. But this is highly debatable. These interfaces do not offer the assessors to understand the people in totality. First these assessors are algorithm and number based systems, which are tuned to generate only limited sets of results and it does not verify the other important element like people in actual. The people in actual is lot different from the one online.

For today's demanding talent marketplace one needs to find organization which can offer a blended solution i.e. tests and one to one interactive engagement model to individuals for their assessment needs.

In Kolkata a boutique strategic human resource management company call ILS is doing this to the perfection. They are able to offer individuals with blended results based assessment solutions. They are focused and their consultants have spent quality number of hours doing and perfecting this system.

If you are looking for some thing of this sort, you can possibly get in touch with Kaustav the consulting partner for more details.

The company’s website is http://www.ilsnetwork.org

A generation call MIKEY

2009-06-26T23:09:00.000-07:00

I belong to the generation which grew up with a staple diet of his songs. Born in a remote part of India, in our days the only English song that was popular and was played in pandals during festivities was that of Michael. To begin with let me admit, none of us could ever make out what actually the songs were all about, but we loved the tunes, we loved the beat and we knew that nothing can make you dance so much as his songs (or music).

My elder B was rather a fortunate man, he lived in the silicon valley those days and had access to all the great albums that he and his contemporaries churned. I still remember that Sony Walkman he bought for me and two tapes, one was Thriller and the other was the making of the Thriller (VHS Tape). All of us (my cousins) would sit through the tapes or listen almost religiously everyday and would applaud whenever the man use to get up for the final shot, which incidentally was the song.

He was lauded and ridiculed. He broke down barriers and built them around himself. He soared to heights unimaginable with his music, and he made the ignominious front page of gutter tabloids worldwide.

For Michael Jackson, the spotlight was always present, and the rest of the world followed.

Many reams are written about all these and many pages have been devoted. All I will do here today is-- put a small tribute in my way to this legend called Michael, the god of entertainment and the father of the music videos.

Michael's Top 05 for me:

01. They don't care about us

02. Black or White

03. I am bad

04. Thriller

05. Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough

Michael's best video:

01. I am bad

Reason: Last night it was every where and first time ever I didn't smile, I didn't hummed the beats, for the first time ever I switched off the TV, because tears rolled out.

Thanks Michael. You will always live in us.

TOI & TNN. What a shame!

2009-06-20T00:02:00.000-07:00

I changed track after a month to write about something, which is so threatening and has the ability to damage the social fabric that ties us to the basics of faith. When we approach a doctor do we check whether he is Hindu, Muslim, Shikh or Christian? No we approach with the faith in the system that tells us that they are part of the ecosystem that thrives by serving the humanity irrespective of class, race, gender or religion. Times of India and Times News Network (Yogesh Naik: The reporter) has reported today this piece, which is disturbing and can threat the very existence of this ecosystem. (Read it by clicking here. See the headline.)

I understand these are trying times. With low advertising spend the media houses are looking for sensationalizing every bit of information that has the potential for mass consumption and can some how offset their low advertising earning's/revenue's. Boosting the paper sales is Ok, but resorting to irresponsbile reporting to enhance the circulation of the broadsheet, which is read by millions and more is a shame.

How news of these color passes through the editors table? Definitely it gets on to the front page because it has the blessings of all.

See the comments here. Some are sensible but it has already started taking a turn. You can see the communal colors once you move forward. Read the comments by clicking here...

It's Curtain for India

2009-06-14T21:49:00.000-07:00

Thank you very much. The innings and the outing for this year ends here. Revenge has never been so sweet. England managed to bounce India off the tournament, the way they were whacked off last season. Here goes the defending champs down the drains of hype and hoopla. I from the start was never enthusiastic about India's chances. And in my last post I lowered the ratings and the percentage of win to 20%. However I never thought that defending champs will crash out this way.

To tell the truth I am in no mood today to write any further. Only will add that thanks to IPL, every player gained from it except the Indian's. Thanks Mr. Modi for putting the country through this shame. Don't get me wrong, I have reasons for these. May be once I feel like giving an explanation I will do so.

Calypso Blues

2009-06-12T21:49:00.000-07:00

Well first thing first. I missed out on this occasion. I behaved like a true blue fan and picked up the last outing of the West Indies as the guide for the verdict. I overlooked Bravo (who was very ordinary in his IPL stint) and Edwards (I under estimated his short balls and speed). The Indian's were right on spot after that great Indian batting debacle, by getting the opening duo cheap. Some where the brilliance of Bravo and the rest over shadowed the efforts of the invincible. Some where the threat is now big. Indian's looked so vulnerable to short balls and balls coming off round the wicket (a good ploy by the Indies). Something wrong with Dhoni. Why on earth he is playing with all the burden on his shoulders? He is natural power hitter, but he looked so ordinary yesterday. Good to see Yuvi back in form in totality. About Gambhir, much less I say is better. He has spent lot of time in the middle, but that has done no good to his form and confidence. Rohit Sharma must understand that he is no Sehwag. He looks to me as a spoilt brat now. Going up to the commentators and then giving statement like, "I should have waited there, but that's not the way I play, I play this way, and it's OK if I have failed in this occassion". How immature that could be.

Come on people, you are playing the world cup not the IPL. Some one needs to tell this bunch that they are representing India not a team owned by some uber rich kids with money at disposal any time.

Nothing much to write back home. Only the Indian think tank needs to get in to the slot and now figure out how they can win the rest of the games and keep the net run rate good to enter semis. The battle is tough, but like all other die hard Indian fans I remain enthusiastic.

India's chances by all means are down to 20% for winning this championship now. Every team has watched them and they know what needs to be done to tame this so called paper champions, who are behaving as if they are the best in the world.

If West Indies can retain there performance then they have a good chance. I give SA a thumbs up on winning this competition.

PS: Ishant Sharma should know that bowling with mangalsutra's on is not the only thing he is suppose to do, he is suppose to field also.

PPS: Lalit Modi was around and must having the joy of seeing how he has managed to instill club play among this bunch of super talented people, who have started neglecting there national duty.

PPPS: Good to Sachin around. He looked so anxious. Some one who was really worried about the side. Missing you and Sehwag so much.

The calypso beat

2009-06-11T22:41:00.000-07:00

Here comes the super 8. In reality I have nothing much to write now as I guess I have already put in my thoughts about what needs to be done. The Indian's need to stick around with the game plan that suits them the best in these conditions. However one may have noticed that I am clear from the day one about the seam bowlers and what they should be doing. The results are for all to see. Zaheer pitched the ball right up there to the batsmen and he was unplayable at times. He landed the ball on the seam and the ball did the trick for him. These are not very suitable conditions for swing because the cold seems to beat down the friction that is required. Had the weather been anything between 17-18 degrees celcius then seam and awing would have been perfect. Wicket to wicket and on the seam, pitching it up is the key.

About the rest of the team they look in harmony, however the niggles they are nursing is a cause of concern. I hope each of them had adequate rest and are ready to go.

West Indies may have displayed good cricket till now and they were ruthless with Aussies, but I feel Indian's have an edge over them. It is now palpable that without Gayle the team has nothing much to talk about. However Gayle is the big cat. Some one needs to bell him.

If Windies bat first they should be restricted to 140-150 and if Indian's bat first then 190 + is a good score. Even if Gayle is around this is defendable.

My verdict for the game India wins (chances though is 60%). I hope Gambhir plays his usual game this time.

Irish Coffee had wine

2009-06-10T21:34:00.000-07:00

Lets not get in to how and how well India won the match. Certain intuitions I had, came right. Ireland would have collapsed like a house of cards except those easy run out chances. From no where they went on to score 112 in 18 over's and the last 3 over's yielded 40+ runs for them.

They bowled well and looked like they have spent quality time in analyzing the faults and vulnerabilities of the Indian batsmen. They kept Gambhir and Sharma on the edge through out the innings and got Dhoni cheap. Gambhir again showed his vulnerabilities, he needs immediate attention. He should speak to the ex cricketers or coach at the earliest. He is a weak link. So is Irfan. Rohit sharma looked at unease! What was the problem? He was looking uncomfortable. His facial expressions were bizarre. He must have cold or else hard partying last evening (as per IST) had it's effects. But surely he is not well. Same with Irfan on the runup he was gasping for breath and one can see that he was trying to clear his blocked nose! Well if that's the case they need medication and some rest immediately.

In cricket I have learnt one small thing, if you are a right handed batsman and you are missing out on your bottom hand (kind of slip) when trying to play a drive, it means that you are unable to connect (all wrong timings) or else you are committing yourself. That's exactly what was happening to Rohit Sharma yesterday.

Dhoni with his attitude looks dangerous for the team. Again no Raina. He should have allowed Raina to come out as he needs some batting practice too.

Good to see Zaheer. He seems to be better than what he was with Bangladesh.

India's biggest threat as of today is opening pair, the death overs and some slimy fielding. Bowlers except the slower ones are extremely vulnerable at the death overs. If Ireland can do this think about the others whom we are going to face at super 8 starting tomorrow.

More about Super 8 later.

Some great Incidents and Comments: Borrowed from Cricinfo and other sources

2009-06-10T05:38:00.000-07:00

In stark contrast to the IPL, which had sponsors even for Lalit Modi's dental fillings, the World Twenty20 has seen a return to cricket as usual. "We call a boundary a boundary. We call a six a six. If we had a spade handy, we'd call it a spade," explained ICC president David Morgan helpfully. However, IPL commissioner Modi's response was laced with sarcasm. "Who would want to sponsor a dreary event like this?" he sneered. "Maybe the ICC should have approached the pharmaceutical giant Roche and worked out a deal to get Valium on board as the title sponsor," he winked, giving further evidence of his ability to see a branding angle to almost anything.

This was also the week in which fans discovered that Ajantha Mendis is an anagram of Masthead Ninja, Nasser Hussain discovered that you shouldn't make critical comments about Anil Kumble when he's standing behind you in the commentary box, and Ranil Abeynaike discovered, to everyone's amazement, that Brett Lee's slower delivery is slower than his normal delivery.

The big news of the tournament is the early exit of heavyweights Australia, who were soundly thrashed by Sri Lanka and West Indies to be bundled out in the group stage. "I really can't think of a reason why we lost," said Ricky Ponting, the captain, after the Sri Lanka game, choosing to overlook rather obvious ones such as Chris Gayle rearranging Brett Lee's figures, Ajantha Mendis rearranging Ponting's own stumps, and Andrew Symonds rearranging his personal priorities in favour of a few pints at the local pub over playing in a World Cup. "Aha! I've got it. We're no longer coached by John Buchanan! No, wait… ," he signed off, leaving hurriedly to prepare for the Ashes.

Headline of the week

"Cricket is no longer so boring": a Dutch newspaper the day after Netherlands beat England. Well said, though it forgot to add that neither are the Dutch any longer a bunch of clog-wearing, pot-smoking, tall, blond, pancake-eating, flatlands stomping, fjords-traversing, road-cycling, bread-baking people.

Headline of the week II

"Clogs 1, Clots 0": The Sun, as ever, takes the narrower, short-term perspective.

Greatest contribution to the 80s revival

Rubel Hossain, of Bangladesh, who not only thinks this is the 80s, but also thinks he is West Indian. Else, what is with the bouncer barrage?

Reorientation of the week

Undergone by all viewers who suddenly, rudely, realised there are no such things really as "DLF maximums" or "Citi moments of success". In the real world, they are called sixes or great catches and run-outs.

Are you a Pakistani in disguise?

Stuart Broad's infamous last over against Netherlands embodied two time-honoured Pakistani traits. The young Broad hit a magnificent yorker length, preventing any boundaries and keeping Netherlands under pressure, much as the two Ws so often did. Unfortunately, in missing three run-outs and dropping a catch in six balls, he also fielded like a Pakistani.

No, we're Pakistan

Incensed that young Broad had stolen their thunder - and West Indies had tried to against Australia - Pakistan roared back against England to prove that there is no worse fielding entity in the world. Their fielders were nutmegged by a bloke 70 yards away, they were beaten by spin, they dropped five catches, and turned ones regularly into threes. Had they not taken the field at all, they might have conceded fewer runs.

Cricket Australia's loss is

The AAA's (Australian Anglers Association) gain.

Bling innings of the week

Chris Gayle, for smashing Australia all over and out of the park and making Brett Lee feel and look as quick as Mark Ealham. Gayle's boundary-heavy50-ball 88, including one monster six to monster all others, all but took West Indies to the second round. In all fairness, though, Gayle could have been bowled for a first-ball duck and it'd still be the most bling innings of any week.

Bling innings of the week II

Not to be out-blinged by mate Gayle, Kevin Pietersen hit back against Pakistan. Having missed the first-game loss to Netherlands, KP put pain and injury aside and country ahead by putting Pakistan to the sword with a 38-ball 58 to set up a crucial win. A painkiller-fuelled Ashes awaits as a prize, as does, surely, a knighthood.

Conspicuous absence of the week

Shahrukh Khan, Preity Zinta, Shilpa Shetty, Katrina Kaif: doesn't Twenty20 come with Bollywood stars free?

Comeback of the week

Fake IPL Player

Quote of the week

"It would be sad if we don't make it, but I have never attached too much importance to Twenty20 cricket, as it is fun cricket. I mean it is more for entertainment, even if it is international cricket. It is all for the crowd."

Younis Khan puts the loss to England into perspective. Unfortunately, it's the wrong perspective.

Quote of the week II

"In this form it is better to take it easy and have fun. It is like WWF."

Younis tries to explain Twenty20 some more. Exactly like WWE, in fact, what with the steroids, the pumped-up bodies, the crazy soap-opera storylines, the fixed matches, crazy chairmen with no qualms about nepotism... oh wait, did he mean Pakistan cricket or Twenty20?

I've seen the future… and it is shorter

Scotland's "match" against New Zealand, which was reduced by rain to seven overs a side.

Glass-breaking moment of the week

Ireland's six-wicket win over Bangladesh, to guarantee their spot in the Super Eights. They have now beaten Bangladesh in a Twenty20 international and an ODI. What chances of a Test win within the next two years?

Background lurker of the week

The Ashes

Spell of the week

Ajantha Mendis' three-wicket spell against Australia, which not only knocked out the Aussies, but proved that they play spin as well as the English do opening ceremonies.

Wicketkeeping spell of the week

Kamran Akmal has had an awful couple of years behind the stumps where he has struggled to catch even a cold. But since Younis has taken over, his keeping has steadied: so much so that a man who was averaging a drop a game, has not missed one for at least eight international games now. And a record four stumpings against Netherlands - including an outstanding one off a Shahid Afridi faster ball - suggest he may be getting his 2005 sheen back. All Pakistanis, touch wood.

The fastest bowler in the world this week

Was a Dutchman.

Credits:

Cricinfo.com

Cricinfo.com Editorials

Page 2 Cricinfo.com

ESPN

Irish Coffee

2009-06-09T22:46:00.000-07:00

India and Ireland have both qualified for the Super 8's and their groups are decided so in terms of criticality in this tournament nothing rides on this match. But India won't want to go to the next round with a shock defeat, nor will Ireland want to go without a fight after beating Bangladesh - which, by the way, they didn't consider an upset. At any rate they are yet to lose a Twenty20 international from the five they have played.

This is threatening. India still looks rusty. Many reams have been spent on qualifying the merits of the team by the media and great's of the game but I still feel there's much more than the eye's meet. Viru's acrimonious exit have thrown open many questions that one may need to deal with once back in India. This match looks difficult to predict with all honesty. On pen and paper India leads and may get in to Super 8's as group champions. But ... But... I am not sure.

All cricketing senses tell me that Ireland will crash land in this match and they may collapse as a house of cards but there determination is not allowing me to have the great comfort from these intuition’s.

India needs to put in above 180 on the board if they bat first. Raina needs to kick in at number 3, Dhoni can wait. Yuvi and Rohit are the two players who needs to fire the cylinder. Gambhir is yet to get on the board. Yuvi looks good. Rohit needs to hang in there for at least 10 overs and ensure that the runs are scored at 8-9 runs per over.

If India is chasing then the bowlers needs to do there bit. Lot rides on spinners and slower ones, for once I guess we can have more bats on the team than bowlers. However dropping Zaheer will not be a good idea. Ishant needs to keep the ball tight and Pathan needs to get his swing going.

Certain key areas India needs to focus on:

Bowling: Please stick to basics. Don't try anything great. Pitch it up to the batsman. Try to land the ball on the seam. Let the ball do the talking. Only try and put some extra pace to bounce it up to the batsman after the mandatory 6th over. Ensure that each over has atleast one dot. Avoid wides and No's (especially the front footers). Do not go negative because negative in this game means more power to the batsmen who are looking for quick runs. Try scalp atleast a wicket or two in the first 4 overs.

Fielding: Be aggressive and charge the ball. Restrict the quick two's. For sixes nothing much can be done but for fours slide and chase as much as possible.

Batting: Wait for the ball. It will seam and the air will aid. Avoid the blood rush. 50 runs in the first six can set the tempo. Do not loose quick wickets, not atleast in the first six. Loft the ball in the begining over the mid wicket, you are assured of runs there if is timed well. 180 plus is a winning score.

The Pitch: The pitch has behaved well. Lets hope it remains the same

My prediction for the match: India wins.

India Vs Bangladesh: Post match analysis

2009-06-07T22:24:00.000-07:00

Ok, something's are so apparent that they can be seen through blurred visions. Lets not get so jubilant with India's win. This wasn't a regulation win. It came with battle well fought in the middle overs.

Zaheer is nursing his injuries and is short on confidence. Did any one notice, on the run up he dropped the ball before he bowled the first ball? Enthusiasts may ask so what? But that is that my dear friends. He is low on confidence, which showed on his bowling and fielding. Playing RP is a better idea. Viru couldn't make it again, we don't know what's happening at that front! Gambhir is still to regain his confidence, again a 50 but after what struggle!! Didn't I tell you last time that he is struggling? But the highlight remains, this 50 is better than the warm up one against Pakistan. He was able to middle the ball well in this match, but still not finding the gaps frequently. One more match, if he stays there till the last then I guess Gambhir will be ready.

Irfan is good with bat than ball nowadays it seems. What happened to his famed swings? Ojha impresses, he is one player I chose in the pre analysis to watch out for. Dhoni somehow looks high on attitude! Why on earth he came to bat at number 3? When Raina is available for the spot! What he trying to prove? He is good batsman, but surely not in the class of Raina! Raina needs few balls to get adjusted with and that's his spot.

Rohit Sharma is wasted as usual again on the opening slot. He is fine middle order case, please stick him there, May be Raina can be promoted if Viru is not available for the next few matches. One more observation, why on earth Yusuf Pathan was not sent when the spinners were bowling!? He is the best player of spin on the side and some one who can clear the fences with ease. He should be utilized properly.

The fielding remains an enigma, Yuvi took a brilliant catch and then he dropped a dolly! How do I compare?

The only highlight of the match is Ojha and Yuvi. T20 world looks like Yuvi's favorite hunting ground and he brings in power to the team, delighted to see that he is in form.

Team Bangladesh came as a real surprise. They look much better than what they were may be couple of years ago. Cannot leave behind Junaid now. He makes in to my list after his impressive 41. Tamim still remains my black horse. He is good but needs maturity, after hitting the ball so well throughout the over he should have concentrated on rotating the strike rather than trying to charge, he paid the price. Ashraful will always remain an illusion to me, such a good stroke player and crafty bat he always misses out when it matters the most! Naeem Islam impressed me a lot. This Bangladesh team is good. Would like to see them progress to the next level. They should win the rest matches.

I promised a belter and it was a belter. That 25 runs loss of Bangladesh is immaterial in front of the goose bumps and uncertainties they were able to provide throughout.

Last but not the least, good to see India rested their ghost from the past behind. Well done team India on that front.

Small analysis of Netherland Vs England

2009-06-05T21:22:00.000-07:00

England needs to do some soul seraching. They need big hitters, some one who can clear the rope with ease. Bopara can do that, Shah possibly yes, Collingwood yes but what about the rest? England with their pathetic field placement and below par fielding gave away this match. England needs to find some answers soon or else resurrecting the pride (inventors of the game) will remain the elusive dream always. They invented the game and others honed it. What a pity. It was the type of start the event desperately needed on a cold, grey, damp day which forced the opening ceremony to be cancelled. It didn't seem the most astute scheduling to open with a game involving a minnow, but now the tournament is alive.

Good to see that the minnows stunned the Goliaths. This what cricket is all about.

Some great moments:

The Pre Analysis: ICC World T20 India Vs Bangladesh on 6th

2009-06-04T22:36:00.000-07:00

This is going to be a belter by all accord. Both team meets each other after a long gap. After 2007 World Cup debacle, when Bangladesh ousted India from the prelims they gave a shocker to the world. They qualified for the super 8 leaving the men in blues in absolute disdain. Much water has flowed through Padma and Ganges after that. India in between went on to win the World T20 the same year under the leadership of Dhoni, and proved their mettle in other formats in the succeding years.

Bangaldesh till date has played only 10 T20 games with a win loss percentage of 0.42. However these statistics are for the people who savour the taste of mere numbers. Overall Bangladesh's statistics is not impressive but they've competed in all most every game. Their most famous win came against West Indies in the 2007 edition of this tournament, when their heavy duty duo, Mohammad Ashraful and Aftab Ahmed, knocked West Indies out in a vicious manner.

It is in Twenty20 that Bangladesh are the most dangerous because they have aggressive players equipped to deliver in bursts. A 9 ball 21 or a 22 ball 47 can be devastating in T20's, and that's one of the strengths this side has.

However it's the nerves that is rarity in this team. The volatile nature of the batsmen means that if they don't start with a bang, then they are unsure over how to approach a run chase. Often it comes down to a pair of trigger happy's to salvage the innings and that's where the uncertainty between attacking or nursing the strike can seriously hamper Bangladesh.

Shakib Al Hasan, Tamim Iqbal, Mashrafe Mortaza and Ashraful are the key players to watch out for. Personally my dark horse is Shakib Al Hasan.

Bangladesh needs to hold on to their nerves and have to ensure that their batsmen remain cool and calm (they seems to be very very aggressive) and the seamers need to fix their line and length. Too much wayward and they should know, they have to deal with Rohit, Mahi, Yuvi, Viru (if he plays), Gambhir (can be the real booster of a match for him), Raina and the seasoned rookies down the line who can hit almost anything.

India comes in to the game as the hot favorites and they are tipped to encore the epic tale of 2007. The squad displays immense talent and the most balanced side of all. A superb opening pair, a trio of three outrageously gifted timers of the ball to follow, a clutch of allrounders, crafty medium pacers and seamers, tidy spinners and a captain+batsman+wicketkeeper who has balanced the demands of leadership with honing his own game. Every successful team needs a astute leader, and Dhoni has fit into that role with ease. These are some of the game's best players and when packed into the same XI. Our Men in Blues is the toughest team to beat. The top order is excellent, the middle brings in weight, the fielding is athletic (offlate have dwindled a bit), the spin squad is brimming, and the pace department top rate.

However the team has a major problem in hand i.e. fatigue both physical and mental. All these players have played a lot of cricket, both domestic, international and in the IPL, and there is a concern that a few are carrying injuries of concern. Zaheer Khan sat out the second half of the IPL and India's warm-up's and he will remain critical on medical grounds until the final eleven is announced.

Pragyan Ojha, Rohit Sharma and Ishant Sharma are players to watch out for. My dark horse remains Suresh Raina.

Certain key areas both the team needs to focus on:

Bowling: Stick to basics. Don't try anything great. Pitch it up to the batsman. Try to land the ball on the seam. Let the ball do the talking. Only try and put some extra pace to bounce it up to the batsman after the mandatory 6th over. Ensure that each over has atleast one dot. Avoid wides and No's (especially the front footers). Do not go negative because negative in this game means more power to the batsmen who are looking for quick runs. Try scalp atleast a wicket or two in the first 4 overs.

Fielding: Be aggressive and charge the ball. Restrict the quick two's. For sixes nothing much can be done but for fours slide and chase as much as possible.

Here is an interesting depiction of how run's were scored in 2007 edition

The Pitch:

The Trent Bridge pitch is very unpredictable, and pitch quality depends to a large extent on the groundsman’s work just prior to a match. Regular ground conditions present teams with a flat wicket and a low bounce, making the ground conducive to Twenty20 cricket. However, there have been several occasions at which the Trent Bridge pitch has produced dramatic batting collapses as well as very low scores. So both teams watch out.

Overall Verdict:

India wins. Expect to see Bangladesh giving a good fight. They are underdogs and comes to the game without any baggage.

Best Odds:

(Implied Probablity)

Let's see the result.

World T20 Fixture

2009-06-04T04:09:00.000-07:00

Ok I am little late in posting this fixture and may be you already have an access to this. However I thought, it's good to update once again. Between I am Live for all the matches that features India. And will cover the matches of interest on days India is not playing. More analysis and more fun to come. Stay tuned.

Date and Time	Match	Weather

Fri Jun 5 17:30 local \| 16:30 GMT	1st Match, Group B - England v Netherlands Lord's, London	10 - 16° C

Sat Jun 6 10:00 local \| 09:00 GMT	2nd Match, Group D - New Zealand v Scotland Kennington Oval, London	11 - 17° C

Sat Jun 6 14:00 local \| 13:00 GMT	3rd Match, Group C - Australia v West Indies Kennington Oval, London	11 - 17° C

Sat Jun 6 18:00 local \| 17:00 GMT	4th Match, Group A - Bangladesh v India Trent Bridge, Nottingham	7 - 13° C

Sun Jun 7 13:30 local \| 12:30 GMT	5th Match, Group D - Scotland v South Africa Kennington Oval, London	10 - 17° C

Sun Jun 7 17:30 local \| 16:30 GMT	6th Match, Group B - England v Pakistan Kennington Oval, London	10 - 17° C

Mon Jun 8 13:30 local \| 12:30 GMT	7th Match, Group A - Bangladesh v Ireland Trent Bridge, Nottingham	8 - 16° C

Mon Jun 8 17:30 local \| 16:30 GMT	8th Match, Group C - Australia v Sri Lanka Trent Bridge, Nottingham	8 - 16° C

Tue Jun 9 13:30 local \| 12:30 GMT	9th Match, Group B - Netherlands v Pakistan Lord's, London	11 - 18° C

Tue Jun 9 17:30 local \| 16:30 GMT	10th Match, Group D - New Zealand v South Africa Lord's, London	11 - 18° C

Wed Jun 10 13:30 local \| 12:30 GMT	11th Match, Group C - Sri Lanka v West Indies Trent Bridge, Nottingham	N/A

Wed Jun 10 17:30 local \| 16:30 GMT	12th Match, Group A - India v Ireland Trent Bridge, Nottingham	N/A

Thu Jun 11 13:30 local \| 12:30 GMT	13th Match, Group F - TBC v TBC (D1 v A2) Trent Bridge, Nottingham	N/A

Thu Jun 11 17:30 local \| 16:30 GMT	14th Match, Group E - TBC v TBC (B2 v D2) Trent Bridge, Nottingham	N/A

Fri Jun 12 13:30 local \| 12:30 GMT	15th Match, Group F - TBC v TBC (B1 v C2) Lord's, London	N/A

Fri Jun 12 17:30 local \| 16:30 GMT	16th Match, Group E - TBC v TBC (A1 v C1) Lord's, London	N/A

Sat Jun 13 13:30 local \| 12:30 GMT	17th Match, Group E - TBC v TBC (C1 v D2) Kennington Oval, London	N/A

Sat Jun 13 17:30 local \| 16:30 GMT	18th Match, Group F - TBC v TBC (D1 v B1) Kennington Oval, London	N/A

Sun Jun 14 13:30 local \| 12:30 GMT	19th Match, Group F - TBC v TBC (A2 v C2) Lord's, London	N/A

Sun Jun 14 17:30 local \| 16:30 GMT	20th Match, Group E - TBC v TBC (A1 v B2) Lord's, London	N/A

Mon Jun 15 13:30 local \| 12:30 GMT	21st Match, Group E - TBC v TBC (B2 v C1) Kennington Oval, London	N/A

Mon Jun 15 17:30 local \| 16:30 GMT	22nd Match, Group F - TBC v TBC (B1 v A2) Kennington Oval, London	N/A

Tue Jun 16 13:30 local \| 12:30 GMT	23rd Match, Group F - TBC v TBC (D1 v C2) Trent Bridge, Nottingham	N/A

Tue Jun 16 17:30 local \| 16:30 GMT	24th Match, Group E - TBC v TBC (D2 v A1) Trent Bridge, Nottingham	N/A

Thu Jun 18 17:30 local \| 16:30 GMT	1st Semi-Final - TBC v TBC Trent Bridge, Nottingham	N/A

Fri Jun 19 17:30 local \| 16:30 GMT	2nd Semi-Final - TBC v TBC Kennington Oval, London	N/A

Sun Jun 21 15:00 local \| 14:00 GMT	Final - TBC v TBC Lord's, London	N/A

The season Begins: Analysis of the warm up game

2009-06-03T21:40:00.000-07:00

So here we are at England for the World T20 championship. I sat through the first match early morning to see how Indian players are coping up after the IPL. Though it was a warm up match yet Oval donned the look of world semifinals, after all it was India Vs Pakistan after a long time. The last time these two team met at SA, history was created with India pulling out a sensational win and went on to write the history.

But that was then. IPL was yet to begin and players from all over had only tested the club cricket format in England and in parts of Australia. The idea of sitting through the match was not only to watch a thriller but as mentioned earlier to see how the players are coping. The initial huddle before the match I felt lacked the warmth, which we are so used to. I could see it was a forced huddle to show solidarity. I guessed so much. These are the same set of players who have gunned for each other only few weeks back and setting the camaraderie from the word go is going to take some time.

The first over Kumar I felt was anything but ordinary, he lacked pace and was unable to land the bowl on the seam (something you expect from all the seamers in conditions like this). Though he had a prized scalp as the bowl breached Hasan's bat, took the inside of the pads and went on to hit the stump. The delivery was slow and possibly somehow had got the seam on the way. What followed after was a small jump and jubilation, but as mentioned the warmth was missing. Then Kamran came on pitch and suddenly the tempo raised, with Harbhajan dropping a sitter, both the guys went on to score in hurry and almost every ball was flying to the boundary. RP did the same mistake as Kumar or Irfan did. All of them did not stick to the basics of bowling wicket to wicket and trying to land the ball on the seam. Trying to angling too much, they went wayward and were stuck for everything.

Ishant showed maturity and did the right thing once he was called to bowl. He pitched it up to the batsmen and contained them from hitting, till Raina pulled this absolute brilliance by taking off Kamran through a direct hit. Shehzad grew impatient and in a bid to score over the bowler he tried hitting a on the body bouncer low but fast and got the top edge. Afridi seems to have lost the plot, no serious cricket for Pakistan must have costed them a lot. He went on to slash the first ball only to be caught by Dhoni off the first slip. This is the first time I could see some sense of belonging between the Indian mates as they were jubilant and were on each other for the first time. Good for the team.

Younis, Mishbah, Arafat and for a brief Shoiab pulled the scored till the end and put a decent total on the board. Oval is big and unlike the smaller boundaries its fences are stretched, which possibly is the reason why there were no sixes in the first innings.

Gambhir opened with Rohit and both of them showed there professional sides, something that Pakistanis missed throughout and what culminated was a professional run chase (thanks to IPL). The commentators were agog with both the openers, showering with them with praise but I did not see any reason why that should be done. Pardon me for my rudeness, but may some one tell the commentators that Gambhirs 50+ runs were not well scored, but was struggled scored. I have played a bit of competitive cricket both in the division as well as in the state level, I can see the body language, Gambhir was panting after each run and I can bet he was praying that he should survive. His flicks were natural and got him three boundaries but the rest was either desperate or were routine regulatory shots to gain quick singles and doubles (you expect that much from these players right). When Gambhir charged out to smash Umar Gul over the cover point not every one has noticed that his feet's were trembling, which shows lack of confidence and inability to time the ball. Incidentally Gambhir left every raising deliver through out the innings. Rohit Sharma though was more astute, he showed vulnerability against the wrong ones.

The running between the wickets was superb and personally I felt this was one the best running between the wickets Indian's have displayed ever. If they can continue with it then they can give hard time to the opposition this time in every match.

Personally I feel allowing Sharma to open the innings is not a good bet. With quality seamers (which Pakistan definitely has but lacked on edge this morning) he may find the ball moving in and out frequently to be difficult to contend especially if it remains cold and windy as it was yesterday. Gambhir has spent good 20 overs in the middle it gives some credence to his maturity and hoped have boosted his confidence a bit, but he needs to middle the ball as much as possible. The team camaraderie looks better and running between the wickets is good. The Indian's need to pick up the fielding bit as except Raina no was exceptional, may be Rohit Sharma in patches. The seamers needs to work on their length (more nets please), Ishant Sharma looks in good nick and good to see that he has forgotten his IPL debacle. India's main concern is that fifth bowler. Harbhajan was good but may not be very effective this time but he is an old gun and he understood that keeping the line tight is the only option in the second over itself. He varied the pace well.

With Zaheers injury unknown and Viru opting out of the field, India any ways is short of two quality players. Had Viru would have been around today and have spent those 20 overs along with Gambhir it would have done tonnes of good for the team. Viru also needs to get back the form as early as possible. What was good to see is Mahi in action, his keeping is definitely world class now and he looked good with the bat. Those 9 runs were the testimony of his skills. He middled the ball well and both the shots, on the covers and the on drive were executed with perfection.

India needs to do more nets I feel personally. As most of key players like Yuvraj, Viru, Zaheer (with his injury) is yet to get that ample confidence, which is required in this kind of competitive cricket.

However what ever it may be India Own and that's important for die hard fan like me.

PS: Pakistan seems to have missed both the buses. That is T20 and Competitive professional cricket. Umar Gul looked like his old self like in IPL 2008, bowling no balls and wides except I could see that he has got a new ball in his armory, the raising deliver, it's quick and on the spot. The new pacie Md. Aamer looked impressive but I feel he is not ready for the format yet. However he can be a surprise package. Tanvir was good in patches and Arafat resembled our Pravin Kumar. So basically Pakistan needs to work on the bowlers. However they look like laggards, almost no cricket has costed them heavily. Fielding was ordinary and ghosts from the past still lingers on them when thinking about turning a tough single in to two was unheard of.

PPS: RP needs to shed his IPL moments. Thats past now and have to work on his length. What worked in SA will not work in England at this time of the year when it's windy and cold. The pitches are hard (unlike England) and seems to aid quickies a bit. With no rough patches spinners will have tough time.

PPPS: Irfan should understand these are his conditions, same here, he needs to work and length and as he is a natural seamer he should try and allow the ball to land on the seam, let the ball do the talking. Stick to basics.

PPPPS: Pravin Kumar should augment his batting skills. He is a good hitter and that will come handy. Except one few exceptional overs I am not predicting anything great for and from him. But it's cricket you never know. He should ball wicket to wicket, pitch it up to the batsman and should refrain from trying too many things. He can contain the batsman and that is also good in T20.

PPPPPS: Rohit has a god's gift. He is natural timer. Take a cue from Manjerakar another great I have seen who always had lot of time to play the ball in his days. Except he wasn't aggressive as Rohit. Wait for the ball and then hit it hard. He can do it. Gambhir must try and play the second fiddle at least for two opening matches and should try and play through all the twenty overs. If he can do that then India's chances in the later league and knockout stages will be good. Lastly Ishant is doing well but more nets. If India again wins this time don't be surprised that it's Sharma Square that did for them. Because you heard it here first.

Last Script: The analysis continues

Excerpt from my new book: From Lilburn to Kalighat

2009-06-02T00:29:00.000-07:00

EXCERPT FROM CHAPTER 01;

The mean Street

Walking down the Street the first thing I noticed was the filth. The last thing I wanted to witness after not so stable stay at Bangalore the city I lived for almost a decade. The horrifying feeling gripped my heart, I can hear the pounding and the less descript road spoke to me,” Welcome Home”, this is where it will start again! Is it?

Entering Masis house I was unwelcomed by Laxmi the maid servant, who was waiting for me to trash inside the room, which I am going to share with three more people, whom I haven’t seen before, I don’t know who they are, what their identity is? What they will be like? Questions, questions and questions, but then they were there always! On that late winter fateful day when I left Bangalore, the city of choice for reasons self created, I was hounded by questions from every quarter, why you did this? What went wrong? We never thought he will be like this? My god he is one bastard, who have screwed all our happiness, why didn’t we recognize him? I had nothing to answer, nothing to speak, nothing to defend, I was this useless creature who was victimised for reasons unknown, but reasons self created! This dichotomy was killing me since it all started.

Yes, it all started with an ambition. An ambition to scale the pinnacle of success, to create the magic, which the great Indian middle class is made of, after all I am one of them. Working through the ups and down, here I am 2003, the year it all started, my reason to live, my life, my journey towards the fame and fortune (or was it self created dream again). Life was never the same; a sensation crippled my senses for the next two years. I was blinded by the hype that I cannot fail! The clear and present danger (is it the filth? Is it the arrogance? Is it the self destruction?) remained unknown to me till that fateful month of October 2005.

The room was small, and a strange nauseating feeling was engrossing me. I felt I am about to die! Hurriedly to turn my attention I dialled that number. For the last one and half months I am trying the same number everyday every 10 minutes, the result remained the same, no response and after two attempts an arrogant click ended the call midway. Desperately I text and threw the phone away.

I have no idea what’s stored for me? What I am going to face? Hurriedly I turned the my back to see that no was around and wiped my tears, I threw myself to the wooden log covered with blankets and wept hard as I don’t know how long this will be my bed. As I was turning upside down to rest my back I saw a face, “Hey morning! This is Vijay!” I was amazed; I was shocked! Last many months since the ordeal started no body have been so warm to me! Hesitantly I replied back, “Morning”. I can feel that my mouth is dry and I am grasping for words! Is it the same me, who friends would call chatterbox and people in business termed as “Man with exceptional oratory glib”! That was so untrue! Here I am trying to respond back and all lost between words!!

“I have to get out of this place” was the only bell I could hear; the inhospitable surrounding suddenly turned a little less hostile with this man’s presence but has added more woes to me that words can’t define. I checked my watch and turned to Vijay to find out whether I can get some food? I mumbled, but he picked up, “Right Joe, just call for it, that’s the good deal of staying in paying guest, you pay for the food and get it when you want”. He had question marks all over his face, but then I was sure that was more for the hesitant first approach I had. Nonchalantly he waived his hand and said, “Ok let me call that for you”. I was so thankful to him.

I tried to concentrate hard. Ok let me run through my checklist, I have following people to call, and then I must get out of this place and try mix with the rush so that I remain less noticeable.

Links: ABNA Submission 2007

Author: Rana Dutta

Can we ensure that Social Networks are not used for Hate or Communal Causes:

2009-06-01T07:09:00.000-07:00

Social network site like Facebook, Orkut (the ones which are popular) are increasingly becoming a podium for people to vent their anger and hatred. I use Facebook to the hilt and actually enjoy the stay there but at times I am scared of looking around some profiles, which at times are talking about holy wars and at times are around because they can post anything that can demean one country, community or society.

The lessons and experiences of atrocities are so visible that every media that worth the salt is talking about banning the democratization of content. It may sound foolish but I agree. Because unfortunately millions out there who uses this sites every day have no clue about why they do it! For many it is there virtual self, which can accompolish stuffs that they cannot in real world.

For communal forces who are disliiusioned and according to me the biggest crime to humanity are having a free run in these spaces. You have pedophiles who are looking for there next hunt, you have holy warriors (don't know why they called so, because for me holy warriors are the one who are there to save humanity, but these guys are around because they wish to wipe out communities!!), self taught medics and what not.

Each one are potentially dangerous as the others. An elite group of Facebook employees, tasked with identifying content that violates the site's nebulous terms-of-service, is sitting at the heart of a free speech battle that could have far-reaching consequences across the whole of the Internet.

Facebook banned two Holocaust denial groups, but it took an overwhelming flood of criticism to get the site to take action. According to the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights group, the proliferation of such hate groups is not isolated to Facebook. The Center recently investigated social networking sites across the Internet, releasing a report claiming that the Web has witnessed a 25-percent increase in "problematic" groups.

The report also says that Facebook's ability to police hate groups will be nearly impossible, since the site employs 150 people to monitor 200 million users.

Here are some small guidelines and learnings from the web:

1) Sending any personal info or incriminating pictures to someone on Facebook is a huge mistake for many reasons. One of the worst possible outcomes is getting blackmailed for money, sex, or, well, anything these sickos dream up. Really, whether they're using a fake profile or not, it's a horrible idea. Heard about story of an 18-year-old who blackmailed 31 male classmates after he posed as a girl and asked for nude pictures. That's lesson enough.

2) Sure, it can be harmless to impersonate a celeb online or create a fake profile for a movie character. But seriously, there's a definite line you shouldn't cross when pretending to be someone else and it can lead to dire consequences for you. Maybe it's not as extreme as the Moroccan man who was jailed for 43 days after creating a fake Facebook profile of a prince, but you never know. Just steer clear of it.

3) Self-Incrimination: Do we really have to explain this? In a recent post a Shoplifter posed with her stolen merchandise, the many photos of drunk underage teens, and, most recently, the album featuring a couple who killed and ate an endangered iguana in the Bahamas.

4) Social networking sites has been blamed for a lot of things, fairly and unfairly, but in public opinion, the worst offense has been their indirect involvement in suicides. Obviously, there are a lot of factors responsible in each case, but there does seem to be links between social networking and a rash of suicides, and obviously theres the case tragic of Megan Meier, who killed herself after a classmate's mom impersonated a teen boy and harassed her over Myspace.

5) Many media have reported on numerous incidents of people getting in trouble because of their online behavior. Now, people are becoming victims because of what they're doing on the Web too. In England, a man was convicted of murdering his estranged wife after she changed her relationship status to "single." So, be careful of who can see your profile and what you're doing, no matter how harmless it seems.

6) Nigerian Scammers: Oh, you thought this only happened via poorly worded emails, right? WRONG. Once people got wise to their old ways, these con men are turning to social networking sites for new targets. This time, they're hacking into people's accounts and impersonating them to ask for money, usually with some weird sob story.

Some more examples of Banned Facebook Groups:

1) Assasinate Evo Morales Here's a good way to get your group banned -- call for the assassination of a political leader. Titled 'Global Collection to Hire a Sharpshooter to Liquidate Evo Morales' was taken down by Facebook since it bans threatening violence. No surprises here.

2) Surrey, BC Terrorist Group A Facebook group supporting the International Sikh Youth Federation, a banned terrorist organization, was taken down by Canadian Police. Authorities were tipped off to the group because its page depicted a young person holding a prohibited gun, which was eventually traced back to 49-year old Bahadur Sandhur. Police seized it and two others when they investigated his home.

3) Dead Babies Group Facebook took down a group called 'Dead Babies Make Me Laugh' after the UK Sun was flooded with outraged calls and emails. A running joke on campuses, the group included fake anecdotes about killing babies, but mothers weren't laughing even though the group was created and classified as being "just for fun."

4) I Need Sex Group Laura Michaels of Bristol, England, created a Facebook group called 'I Need Sex.' According to the UK Sun, the group had more than 100 members after being up for only one hour. Michaels claims to have ended up sleeping with 50 of the group's members -- literally half of the group. Facebook opposes this type of personals-ad use, so the group was taken down.

5) KKK group Facebook recently shut down a group called the 'Isle of Man KKK.' The group called for the elimination of newcomers from the UK island and featured a picture of a hooded Ku Klux Klan member. Thankfully, Facebook's terms of service prohibits content that is hateful or threatening.

Do you really think it is a safe world out there? Be cautious.

Availability Engineering

2009-05-29T03:07:00.000-07:00

It's not only associated with IT assets but with other departments also. Availability is primarily used by the IT staffs to relate with the availability of the IT services in the organization. However other departments can also take a cue from the same and a process can be implemented to ensure that productivity and efficiency are not lost because of non availability of the resources. By intertwining Human asset engineering and Workability quotient Matrix an organization can achieve avalability index for each and every department. So apart from network gears, applications, databases and equipments other forces that actually runs the organization can also be made available despite of forced closures (bandhs), floods, earthquakes etc etc.

The premise to this remains very very simple:

For example I am hit by a flood. I am small business. All I have is 50 staffs and all my staffs are located in one geography and every one is stranded. The flood has taken my data center down. I visualized this and have created a stand by center (hot, warm, cold) 100 miles away from my geography, so now I can switch open all my work by activating this mirror, but wait, who is going to perform the duties as all are stranded?

This basic never get answered by any one. The reason remains that one can replenish the hardwares and softwares but not human capital or rightly said human asset.

At our company, which is a small consulting outfit and does niche work in the area of feasibility, assessment, value engineering and strategic management we have devised a simple solution. Despite what may happen even if one human resource is standing the work will go on. And how we have achieved that:

By re-engineering our work process. We have distributed the work space in various parts of the city with every batch of work (each activity is defined as a batch of work) that is happening gets updated instantaneously on web, on email, on phone, on paper and on files located at every ones house. So we afford to the have the luxury of loosing instant data at the time of happening. And technology plays very small part in it. We never enter office together, we ensure that one person knows exactly what the other is doing and vice versa, we ensure that every one works on a collaborative framework, where each piece of knowledge gets shared among each other except the financial data.

This definitely throws some challenges essentially in terms of data sharing that may happen with the outsiders, but why is law there for? We ensure that the contracts are stringent and we spell out the penalties so well that rarely one may think of sharing an important piece outside. Is this is dictatorship? No this is human asset engineering blended with workability matrix. Interesting isn't? More on this later....

The curious case of performance

2009-05-28T22:33:00.000-07:00

The stream collaboration effect has thrown some questions. What is with performance? How we can systematically imbibe the effect of it in the model? I am planning to encompass the set of roles, skills, activities, practices, tools, and deliverables as key denominators for each and every block.

What is interesting to note that the forces that act upon the model are predefined! History glass tells me that each of these sequels and prequels are almost look alike! A food for thought.

The model looks good. Still not sure it is making any sense to do such deep study, which may not yield any result at all. However I am enjoying this phase of development and it certainly is helping me individually to learn hitherto unknown stuffs.

The Stream collaboration Effect

2009-05-28T01:50:00.000-07:00

This remains one of the close subjects. I have been researching for a while now, to draw similarities between ecosystem of survival through adding different study streams as fundamental economy blocks. It's about building the blocks one by one, which are interdependent on each other. Drawing parallels from the various streams of study I am building a framework that can be a model of showing interdependencies that exist in the global economy. For example I have drawn similarities between Geography, History, Science and Arts. I have denoted a specific legend for each of these streams.

Legends:

1) Geography: Boundry of restriction for travel.

2) History: The rise and demise of empires for reasons that are apt

3) Science: A collaboration between rational thinking, execution and brilliance

4) Art: Timing

The real interesting part of collaborating all these in a graph shows that one is interdependent on each other and they behave exactly the way the other behaves. If one is good the other shows positive coordinates and vice versa.

Now the challenge is to incorporate a dateline and then simulate the collaboration effect. All precisely done can we see a definite model that can classify the way economy will behave? The main ingridient that remained to be simulated is the breach conditions (violations).

I am hopeful that model will see the day light by next spring.

Quick Facts about Mamata

2009-05-22T06:04:00.001-07:00

Born in Kolkata, Mamata Banerjee completed degrees in work education from Basanti Devi College and an LLB from Jogesh Chandra Chaudhuri Law College under Calcutta University. She started her political career with Congress (I). In 1984, she became one of India's youngest parliamentarians ever, beating veteran Communist politician Somnath Chatterjee, from the Jadavpur parliamentary Constituency in West Bengal. Losing her seat in 1989 in an anti-Congress wave, she was back in 1991, having settled into the Calcutta South Lok Sabha constituency. She retained the Kolkata South seat in the 1996, 1998, 1999, 2004 and 2009 elections.

What is with dreams?

2009-05-21T22:31:00.000-07:00

What is it with dreams? Why we dream? Why we try to achieve something, which is vague at times? And when these dreams gets shattered, when we fail why we get mocked? Wasn't it was told to us that dreams are important?

Then why mock when ones dream gets shattered. Since last two weeks I have seen things happening to some one else which happened to me some years back. There are similarities and I saw the desperation on that man's face. He reminded me of days when I faced uncertainty, gloom and was almost perished. Don't want this guy to meet his nemesis so soon. Don't want him to loose out because he dreamt.

Famous Player Looks

2009-05-12T03:30:00.000-07:00

A Letter to Mr. Khan

2009-04-27T01:59:00.000-07:00

Dear Mr. Khan,

Let me congratulate you first on joining the big league (though it happened a year before) of money spinners by exploiting the only religion in India, which has a secular base and fundamentally strong followers totaling a billion plus. Which translates to TRP’s, merchandise revenues, fan followings for other interests and what not!

The little pigeon told me last summer that you made some money and rest assured the world that this time it would not be any different. I heard from the same source that you played this game of crazy delight for some time and add to it you have adequate public speaking capabilities to re-engage, reinforce and rejuvenate the masses. Plus you have a thinker behind you, who is touted as one of the best coach, trainer, philosopher and management thinker the game ever had and has a fancy designation Director of Cricket Operations (like a COO? Beat that any one). Off course surrounded and supported by your Chief Coach, Assistant Coach, Wicket-Keeping Coach, Bowling Coach, Assistant Coach for Strength Training (COO’s Son!), Team Director, Trainer, Physiotherapist, Fielding Coach and save that COO’s or DCO’s (whatever) second son is slated to join the party or company or franchise (whatever) soon and four skippers (who they are?? I watched only one bloke does everything till date?? Where are the rest??).

That surely have augmented your skills of “balanced growth using disruptive practices” (it sounded good and compliments the designations you have in the team- confusing at times like coach and trainer etc etc.) and your ability to mesmerize the Mango public (aam janata- the common stupid’s to be precise) like us! What is so cool about the company, the team, the franchise or whatever this potpourri can be termed as has lovely spices to suit the palette of ego’s that one has who heads the team, little confusing though the bloke who tosses the coin, you or the chief of all operations or the team director or the coaches??

The thinker who is so cool about his origin (save the day I am no racist and I religiously pray to god who did all monkey business to gain my devotion), the culture and the greatness that he is been soaked with till his play days (well last checked, he never played the game though in any levels), which included the greats like Steve, Mark, Ricky, Warne, Glenn, Lee, McGill, Hayden, Gillespie, Andrew to name a few. Phew! I doubt that they ever needed the coach, the COO, the thinker, the Operator etc etc, the balanced scorecards or six thinking hats! And four skipper theory etc etc I doubt. I doubt. And I doubt the credibility and sanctity of the coolness.

Let’s analyze few points to begin with about what you own (only you know, rest like us ogle the stores at shoppers stop, pantaloons and the likes to understand what exactly this is all about):

Functional: Critical to analyze. What is the functional prowess that the cool stuff has? The fancy designations, the star power (off course rest are the lesser mortals), the advertisements, the four something (orgy of thinking and balance), the news bytes or the columns that every broadsheet in the country devotes to whatever you do or your cool stuff does. Players I doubt, save the race, except four rest have no future in any formats as the thinker has brilliantly murdered the functional capabilities with clinical precision in the coolest way.

Practical: Only one in the team or the four or all in team? Huh that’s a question I pose. I mean you never played the Kerry Packer’s day and night circus ever at this level, your cool guy have always been at the dug out taking notes (Save the news print do the revolt or andolan to save the world from global warming, god he uses so many notepads and so much of compute time all causing great danger to the climate), the fancied designations who supports the cool thinker or the rookies who played the best at team Kalighat (Jai ho!) and lot of matches at Stadiums across the nation.

Utilization: What is that? I pose a question again! Who is utilized for what?

Career Progression: None has. Save the three.

Job Clarity: Laugh Out Louder! Dance it out! On Dance take the Chance! The bloke surely is confused, I mean where the three others?! He only tosses and does everything!!!

Attitude: Very very High! High on ego, high on corporate management books led innovations and tactics and strategy

Salary: Fabulous. Paid for no work. Made to sit out. And the cool guys love mates, errr sorry house mates ahh I am doing all wrong, the country mates gets the chance!

Ambition: For the team “Korbo, Lorbo, Harbo Re” (for the cool guy, will do anything to loose), For the cool guy and his supporters “Korbo na, Lorbo na, Harbo na, Khali Tamasha korbo” (for the cool guy, will not do any thing, will not loose anything, will have fun on others wallet)

Potential: What is that?

Happiness: Excuse me elucidate further

Openness to learning: Foursome and more to come

Motivation: As good as the ambition

Relation with supervisor: Sorry can’t gauge that bit dude (sounded like a pep talk)

Decision Making: Four heads plus the cool guy plus the support and overall you, who needs to have that one decision maker

Relation with Colleagues: You must be joking buddy hum ek hain (we all are one), in the dug out, filed huh how do I know its your cool stuff

Loyalty: Paisa hai to sab kuch hai

Business Realties: Merchandise yes, TRP’s I doubt, Advertisements and sponsors (off course Pepsi goes Coke comes all with that great aging calculation in accounts) yes, the crazy delight (the cool stuff yaar) no one knows!

Business Realities Part 2: Rajasthani delicacies and Punjabs Sarson da Saag and Mumbai’s Vada Pav are tasting better than the Rosogolla’s

Future: Khuda Jaane

Initiative and Zeal: Send the doers back home or in oblivion, treat them like shambles and have a group of thinkers to play Cricket 2007 EA Games PC edition.

Mr. Khan I am sure if this small letter reaches you it will not be given any critical acclaim(Sob, Sob) as the thinker may say, gosh that’s not the way to write management pieces and you may feel your ego (or ID) has all it takes to ignore an open letter in this democracy of craziness. Or may find the wake call!

HE HE not the nature one…:D

Yours Truly,

The Possible Owner who missed to Own one Pair of your Socks from the RBK Outlet because of cash crunch and an accountant wife!:((

IBM talks to buy Sun Microsystems break down

2009-04-06T01:52:00.000-07:00

IBM's talks to acquire its computer rival Sun Microsystems for $7 billion have broken down.

IBM withdrew its offer after Sun terminated IBM's status as its exclusive negotiating partner, according to reports.

The collapse of negotiations is likely to hurt Sun's shares as a purchase was regarded as a positive move for the once-feted Silicon Valley company. A deal would also have helped IBM compete more effectively against rivals such as Hewlett-Packard.

Sun was said to be unhappy with IBM's offer of $9.40 per share or below. It was unclear today if talks would resume.

When the news of the deal came out two weeks ago, shares in Sun Microsystems almost doubled to nearly $9. The deal would have been likely to prompt an antitrust challenge in the US because a combined IBM and Sun would have a 42 per cent share of the computer server market.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Sun had demanded assurances from IBM that it would proceed with the deal in the face of regulatory challenges, fearing IBM's offer left too much room for it to walk away.

IBM, meanwhile, was concerned about the size of payments that would be received by senior Sun executives and engineers under Sun's "change of control" agreements, according to The New York Times. Such agreements are intended to compensate employees if they lose their jobs when a company is acquired.

After initially discussing a price of between $10 and $11 a share, IBM had lowered its bid to $9.55 and then reduced it further over the weekend to $9.40, according to The Times. Sun then notified IBM that it was terminating exclusive negotiations, and IBM withdrew its its offer.

"Sun is now sort of damaged goods," said Peter Falvey, a technology banker at Revolution Partners. "If IBM got under the covers and didn't like what they saw, then what does that mean for other potential buyers?"

Sun shares had risen to $8.49 on Friday, from $4.97 on March 17, the day before talks between the two technology companies were first reported.

The collapsed talks are expected to damage the smaller Sun more than IBM, the world's largest technology services provider, which has fared relatively well despite the global economic slump thanks to its outsourcing business and its shift from hardware to higher-margin software sales. The takeover, if it eventually goes ahead, would be the largest acquisition in the history of IBM.

Sun posted an 11 per cent decline in quarterly revenue for its quarter ended December 28, while gross margins shrank to 41.9 per cent from 48.5 per cent from a year earlier. It is said to have been seeking a buyer for several months.

The Journal reported that Sun's board was split over the prospective sale, with a faction led by Scott McNealy, Sun's chairman and co-founder, opposing the deal and a group led by Jonathan Schwartz, the chief executive, in favour.

Other potential buyers could include Hewlett-Packard or Cisco, which may be looking to expand their product lines to compete with IBM.

Fujitsu and Dell have also been mentioned as hardware companies that might want to acquire Sun.

Sun rose to prominence selling high quality computer servers in the 1990s but never fully recovered from the dot-com bubble burst earlier this decade. Analysts also say it has failed to capitalise fully on its software assets including Solaris and Java.

Tim Ghriskey, chief investment officer for Solaris Investment Management, which manages about $2 billion, said the latest developments could be part of negotiating tactics and that Sun is likely to strike a deal at around $9.40 a share and that IBM remains the most likely buyer.

"Like any acquisition candidate, they are trying to force the highest bid possible," Mr Ghriskey said. "IBM doesn't necessarily need these assets. But I think they could probably benefit from them at a reasonable price."

Buying Sun would hand IBM a clear lead at the high end of the $45 billion server market fought over with Hewlett-Packard.

Analysts have said Sun's software could also help IBM compete with Microsoft as well as Cisco Systems, which some see as IBM's biggest rival in the long term. Both Cisco and IBM have been expanding beyond their traditional products to new technologies such as "cloud computing," in which companies store data and computing power in remote data centres accessed over the internet, rather than buy their own computer equipment.

Credit: http://business.timesonline.co.uk

URL: http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/technology/article6042955.ece

Correspondent: Mike Harvey, Technology Correspondent, San Francisco

A Mail from a frustrated victim of chain mails:

2009-03-24T01:14:00.000-07:00

I wanted to thank all my friends and family and other knowns and unknowns who have forwarded chain letters to me in 2003 & 2004 & 2005 and on and on and on:------

Because of your kindness:

* I stopped drinking Coca Cola after I found out that it's good for removing toilet stains.

* I stopped going to the movies for fear of sitting on a needle infected with AIDS.

* I smell like a wet dog since I stopped using deodorants because they cause cancer.

* I don't leave my car in the parking lot or any other place and sometimes. I even have to walk about 7 blocks for fear that someone will drug me with a perfume sample and try to rob me.

* I also stopped answering the phone for fear that they may ask me to dial a stupid number and then I get a phone bill from with calls to Uganda, Singapore and Tokyo.

* I also stopped drinking anything out of a can for fear that I will get sick from the rat feces and urine.

* When I go to parties, I don't look at any girl, no matter how hot she is, for fear that she will take me to a hotel, drug me then take my kidneys and leave me taking a nap in a bathtub full of ice.

* I also donated all my savings to the Amy Bruce account. A sick girl that was about to die in the

hospital about 7,000 times. (Poor girl! she's been 7 since 1993...)

* Still open to help some from Bulgaria who wants to use my account to transfer his uncle property of some hundred millions$.

* Made some Hundred wishes before forwarding those Ganesh , Tirupathi Balaji pics etc now most of those 'Wishes' are already married (to someone else)

IMPORTANT NOTE:

If you do not send this e-mail to at least 11,246 people in the next 10 seconds, a bird will SH** on your head today at 6:30pm

India’s Choices: Part 1

2009-03-18T06:18:00.000-07:00

Is terrorism a choice that one makes because it meets the end? Well enough if that’s true then why our neighbors harness the same! Aren’t they able to meet there ends? It’s tough to judge from where we sit, but the devils are looking through us. We have the most volatile and dangerous neighborhood, isn’t it scary enough! What are we joyous of! We are more vulnerable than any country in this world!!

At one end we have sepoy mutinies and militant camps and thousands of refugees flocking in (Don’t question that ! It happens every time, I experienced that first hand, have seen it from childhood to be sure put this on account that my native is on that porous border which we always talk about but no one never ever did anything about it).

On the other here is one country which we are not sure about who is running it! AMAZING!! And they are a nuclear power!! On the other side we have a civil war that is on for god knows how many years!! Little far away there is country which is ruled by military junta and the other which doesn’t know what is in for future, because everything you can count on is destroyed there!!!

And then a big daddy superman is feeding these neighbors everything they need to bolster there armies (or militants) to kill and destroy us. This big daddy is power and energy hungry and they are slowly eating up our mountains.

The OSCAR moment

2009-02-24T06:58:00.000-08:00

AR Rahman OSCAR 2009 Speech

Permalink: http://frogdust.blogspot.com/2009/02/oscar-moment.html

Key Features of Interim Budget 2009-2010

2009-02-16T06:07:00.001-08:00

Key Features of Interim Budget 2009-2010

The Gross Domestic Product increased by 7.5 per cent, 9.5 per cent, 9.7 per cent and 9 per cent in the first four years from fiscal year 2004-05 to 2007-08 recording a sustained growth of over 9 per cent for three consecutive years for the first time. The growth drivers for the period were agriculture, services, manufacturing along with trade and construction.
Fiscal deficit down from 4.5 per cent in 2003-04 to 2.7 per cent in 2007-08 and Revenue deficit from 3.6 per cent to 1.1 per cent in 2007-08.
The domestic investment rate as a proportion of GDP increased from 27.6 per cent in 2003-04 to 39 per cent in 2007-08. Gross Domestic savings rate shot up from 29.8 per cent to 37.7 per cent during this period.
The Gross capital formation in agriculture as a proportion of agriculture GDP increased from 11.1 per cent in 2003-04 to 14.2 per cent in 2007-08.
The tax to GDP ratio increased from 9.2 per cent in 2003-04 to 12.5 per cent in 2007-08.
Annual growth rate of agriculture rose to 3.7 per cent during 2003-04 to 2007-08. The foodgrain production recorded an increase of 10 million tonnes each year during this period and touched an all time high of 230 million tonnes in 2007-08.
While manufacturing sector recorded growth of 9.5 per cent per annum in the period 2004-05 to 2007-08, communication and construction sectors grew at the rate of 26 per cent and 13.5 per cent per annum respectively.
Exports grew at an annual average growth rate of 26.4 per cent in US dollar terms in the period 2004-05 to 2007-08. Foreign trade increased from 23.7 per cent of GDP in 2003-04 to 35.5 per cent in 2007-08.

OUTLOOK FOR THE YEAR 2008-09

Despite the global financial crisis which began in 2007 impacting most emerging market economies, 7.1 per cent rate of GDP growth in the current year makes India the second fastest growing economy in the world.
Fallout of global slowdown on Indian economy were countered with fiscal stimulus packages announced on December 7, 2008 and January 2, 2009 providing tax relief to boost demand and increasing expenditure on public projects.
Government accorded approval to 37 infrastructure projects worth Rs.70,000 crore from August, 2008 to January, 2009 alone.
Under PPP mode, 54 Central Sector infrastructure projects with a project cost of Rs.67,700 crore given in-principal or final approval and 23 projects amounting to Rs.27,900 crore approved for viability gap funding in 2008-09.
India Infrastructure Finance Company Ltd. (IIFCL) to refinance upto 60 per cent of commercial bank loans for PPP projects involving total investment of Rs.1,00,000 crore in infrastructure over the next eighteen months.
In addition to RBI taking number of monetary easing and liquidity enhancing measures such as reduction in cash reserve ratio, statutory liquidity ratio and key policy rates, Government has taken specific measures which include extension of export credit for labour intensive exports, improving pre and post shipment credit availability, additional allocations for refund of Terminal Excise Duty/CST and export incentive schemes besides removal of export duty and export ban on certain items. A Committee of Secretaries set up to address procedural problems faced by exporters.
Record US$ 32.4 billion FDI received in 2007-08 and notwithstanding financial uncertainty and slowdown, FDI inflows during April-November, 2008 were US$ 23.3 billion recording a growth of 45 per cent over the same period in 2007.
FRBM targets for the current year and for fiscal 2009-10 relaxed to provide much needed demand boost. However, medium term objective is to revert to fiscal consolidation at the earliest.

INITIATIVES AND ACHIEVEMENT

Agriculture

Plan allocation for agriculture increased by 300 per cent from 2003-04 to 2008-09. Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojna launched in 2007-08 with an outlay of Rs.25,000 crore to increase growth rate of agriculture and allied sector to 4 per cent per annum
during Eleventh Plan period.
Agriculture credit disbursement increased three times from Rs.87,000 crore in 2003-04 to about Rs.2,50,000 crore in 2007-08.
To strengthen short-term cooperative credit structure, revival package in 25 states involving financial assistance of about Rs.13,500 crore is being implemented.
Interest subvention to be continued in 2009-10 to ensure that farmers get short term crop loans upto Rs.3 lakh at 7 per cent per annum.
The Agricultural Debt Waiver and Debt Relief Scheme, 2008 was implemented by June 30, 2008 as scheduled. Debt waiver/debt relief amounting to Rs.65,300 crore covers 3.6 crore farmers.
Despite higher procurement cost and higher international prices during the last 5 years, the central issue prices under Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) maintained at July, 2000 level in case of Below Poverty Line (BPL) and Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) categories and at July, 2002 levels for Above Poverty Line (APL) category.
Minimum Support Price (MSP) for common variety of paddy increased from Rs.550 per quintal in 2003-04 to Rs.900 per quintal for the crop year 2008-09. In case of wheat, increase was from Rs.630 per quintal in 2003-04 to Rs.1080 per quintal for the year 2009.

Rural Development

The corpus of Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) increased from Rs.5,500 crore in 2003-04 to Rs.14,000 crore for the year 2008-09. A separate window for rural roads created with a corpus of Rs.4,000 crore for each of the last three years.
As against 60 lakh houses to be constructed under Indira Awaas Yojana by 2008-09, 60 lakh twelve thousand houses constructed between 2005-06 to December, 2008.
Panchayat Empowerment and Accountability Scheme (PEAIS) proposed to be expanded.
'Project Arrow' to provide new technology enabled services through post offices to common man and support effective implementation of social sector schemes like NREGS, while promoting financial inclusion.

Education

Major initiatives including a new Centrally Sponsored Scheme launched to universalize education at secondary stage in the year 2008-09.
Outlay on Higher Education increased 9 fold in the Eleventh Five Year Plan. Ordinance promulgated for establishing 15 Central Universities. In addition to 6 new Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) in Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Orissa, Punjab and Gujrat which started functioning in 2008-09, two more IITs in Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh are expected to commence their academic session in 2009-10. 5 Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) announced earlier have become functional. 2 new schools of Planning and Architecture at Vijayawada and Bhopal have started functioning. Teaching is expected to commence from academic year 2009-10 in four out of six new Indian Institute of Management proposed for the Eleventh Plan in Haryana, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Tamil Nadu.
Due to revision in Educational Loan Scheme by the Government number of beneficiaries increased from 3.19 lakh to 14.09 lakh and amount of loan outstanding increased from Rs.4,500 crore as on March, 31, 2004 to Rs.24,260 crore as on September 30, 2008.
500 ITIs upgraded into centers of excellence. National Skill Development Corporation created in July, 2008 with initial corpus of Rs. 1,000 crore.

Social Sector

Authorised capital of National Safai Karamchari Finance and Development Corporation (NSKFDC) is being raised from Rs.200 crore to Rs.300 crore.
Scope of the pre-metric scholarship for children of those engaged in unclean occupations expanded and rates of scholarship doubled in 2008-09. Annual ad-hoc grant increased by about 50 per cent as compared to earlier rates.
Rashtriya Mahila Kosh to be strengthened by enhancing its authorized capital.
'Priyadarsini Project' a rural women's employment and livelihood programme will be implemented as pilot in the district of Madhubani and Sitamarhi in Bihar and Shravasti, Bahraich, Rai Bareli and Sultanpur in Uttar Pradesh.
146 lakh persons benefited under Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme in the current financial year.
Two new schemes - 'Indira Gandhi National Widow Pension Scheme' to provide pension of Rs.200 to widows between age groups of 40-64 years and 'Indira Gandhi National Disability Pension Scheme' to provide pension for severely disabled persons.
Widows in the age group of 18-40 years to be given priority in admission to ITIs, Women ITIs and National/Regional ITIs for women. Government to bear cost of their training and provide stipend of Rs.500 per month.
22 States and Union Territories initiated process to implement Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana for BPL familities in the unorganised sector and 60 lakh thirty two thousand persons covered for death and disability under 'Aam Admni' Bima Yojana (AABY).

Public Sector Enterprises

Turnover of Central Public Sector Enterprises increased from Rs.5,87,000 crore in 2003-04 to Rs.10,81,000 crore in 2007-08 and profits grew from Rs.53,000 crore to Rs.91,000 crore. While number of loss making enterprises came down from 73 in 2003-04 to 55 in 2007-08, number of profit making enterprises has gone up from 143 to 158 during the same period.
Government approved implementation of Guidelines on Corporate Governance in Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) in June, 2007.
Corpus of National Investment Fund created out of disinvestment proceeds from Central PSUs stood at Rs.1,815 crore as on December 31, 2008.

Financial Sector Reforms

NPAs of Public Sector Banks declined from 7.8 per cent on March 31, 2004 to 2.3 per cent on March 31, 2008.
As a result of initiating process of amalgamation and recapitalization of Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) with negative net worth, 196 RRBs merged into 85 RRBs. The Government has contributed Rs.652 crore for capitalization of RRBs upto December 31, 2008.
Number of reforms undertaken in the last four years to deepen and widen the securities markets and strengthen the regulatory mechanisms for these markets.
The Companies Bill, 2008, undertaking comprehensive revision of Companies Act, 1956 to enable adoption of internationally accepted best practices, has been introduced in the Parliament.

Tax Effort

Comprehensive reforms of tax system both direct and the indirect tax system have enabled the tax administration to enhance its functional efficiency and provide better tax payer services leading to increased compliance. Rates of Union Excise Duties and Service Tax rationalized for eventual shift to the Goods and Service Tax on 1st April, 2010.
109 marine vessels sanctioned for the Customs Department to prevent movements of contraband goods across the country's sea borders.

Administrative Reforms

The enactment of the Right to Information Act at the Centre and in many States ushering in greater accountability of the public servants.
Recommendations of the Sixth Central Pay Commission approved by the Government has benefited over 45 lakh Central Government employees including Defence Forces and Para-Military forces and over 38 lakh pensioners.

REVISED ESTIMATES

The total expenditure at Rs.7,50,884 crore in B.E. 2008-09 revised to Rs.9,00,953 crore in R.E. 2008-09 showing an increase of Rs.1,50,069 crore.
Plan Expenditure gone up from Rs.2,43,386 crore in B.E. 2008-09 to Rs.2,82,957 crore in R.E. 2008-09.
Non-Plan expenditure increased by Rs.1,10,498 crore in R.E. 2008-09 over B.E. 2008-09.
Revised Estimate 2008-09 for Non-Tax Revenues increased from Rs.95,785 crore in Budget Estimate 2008-09 to Rs.96,203 crore.
Revised Estimates of gross tax collection projected at Rs.6,27,949 crore as against B.E. 2008-09 of Rs.6,87,715 crore, primarily due to pro-active fiscal measures initiated to counter the impact of global slowdown on the Indian economy.
Revised Revenue deficit to be at Rs.2,41,273 crore (4.4 per cent of GDP) as against budgeted figure of Rs.55,184 crore (1 per cent of GDP).
Fiscal deficit to go up from Rs.1,33,287 crore (2.5 per cent of GDP) in B.E. 2008-09 to Rs.3,26,515 crore (6 per cent of GDP).

BUDGET ESTIMATES

Total expenditure for fiscal 2009-10 estimated at Rs.9,53,231 crore. Plan expenditure estimated at Rs.2,85,149 crore and Non-Plan expenditure at Rs.6,68,082 crore.
Budgetary support in Plan B.E. 2009-10 in comparison to B.E. 2008-09 increased for Department of Rural Development, Department of Road Transport & Highways, Railways, Ministry of Power, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion and Department of Information Technology to meet the requirements of rural and infrastructure development along with higher allocation for Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports and Ministry of Culture to ensure adequate resources for hosting of the Commonwealth Games. Allocations to flagship programme which directly impact 'Aam Aadmi' fully protected.
Rs.30,100 crore allocated for National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme for the year 2009-10. In 2008-09 employment of 138.76 crore person days covering 3.51 crore household already generated.
About 98 per cent habitations covered by primary schools under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. Allocation for this programme increased by 571 per cent between 2003-04 and 2008-09. Allocation of Rs.13,100 crore proposed for 2009-10.
Rs.8,000 crore allocated for Mid-day Meals Scheme for the year 2009-10.
Allocation of Rs.6,705 crore proposed for Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) for the year 2009-10. New WHO child growth standards adopted for monitoring growth of children under ICDS.
386 projects amounting to Rs.39,000 crore sanctioned till December 31, 2008 under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). Allocation of Rs.11,842 crore proposed for the year 2009-10.
Rs.7,400 crore allocated for Rajiv Gandhi Rural Drinking Water Mission, Rs.1,200 crore for Rural Sanitation Programme, Rs.12,070 crore for National Rural Health Mission, Rs.40,900 crore allocated for Bharat Nirman for the year 2009-10.
A provision of Rs.100 crore in the Annual Plan 2009-10 made for Unique Identification Authority of India.
RIDF-XV proposed with a corpus of Rs.14,000 crore. Separate window for rural roads to continue with a corpus of Rs.4,000 crore.
Interest subvention of 2 per cent on pre and post shipment credit for certain employment oriented sectors i.e. Textiles (including handlooms & handicrafts), Carpets , Leather, Gem & Jewellery, Marine products and SMEs extended beyond March 31, 2009 till September 30, 2009 involving an additional financial outgo of Rs.500 crore.
Government to recapitalize the public sector banks over the next two years to enable them to maintain Capital to Risk Weighted Assets Ratio (CRAR) of 12 per cent.
Allocation for Defence increased to Rs.1,41,703 crore which includes Rs.54,824 for Capital Expenditure.
Major subsidies including food, fertilizer and petroleum estimated at Rs.95,579 crore.
For the fiscal 2009-10, with Centre's net tax revenue estimated at Rs.5,00,096 crore and Revenue expenditure at Rs.8,48,085 crore, revenue deficit is estimated at 4 per cent of GDP and fiscal deficit at 5.5 per cent of GDP

JAI HO!!!

2009-02-12T05:05:00.000-08:00

JAI HO!

Permalink: http://frogdust.blogspot.com/2009/02/jai-ho.html

Tarzan Soundtrack - You'll be in my heart by Phil Collins: One amazing I love hearing again and again

2009-01-23T06:15:00.000-08:00

The Lyrics:

Come stop your crying

It will be all right

Just take my hand

Hold it tight

I will protect you

from all around you

I will be here

Don't you cry

For one so small,

you seem so strong

My arms will hold you,

keep you safe and warm

This bond between us

can't be broken

I will be here

Don't you cry

'Cause you'll be in my heart

Yes, you'll be in my heart

From this day on

Now and forever more

You'll be in my heart

No matter what they say

You'll be here

In my heart

Always

Why can't they understand the way we feel

They just don't trust what they can't explain

I know we're different, but deep inside us

We're not that different at all

And you'll be in my heart

Yes you'll be in my heart

From this day on

Now and forever more

Don't listen to them

'Cause what do they know

We need each other, to have, to hold

They'll see in time, I know

When destiny calls you, you must be strong

I may not be with you

But you got to hold on

They'll see in time, I know

We'll show them together

'Cause you'll be in my heart

Yes you'll be in my heart

From this day on

Now and forever more

Yes you'll be in my heart

No matter what they say

You'll be in my heart

Always and always

Just look over your shoulder

I'll be there

Always

Source: Youtube.com

Artist Credit: Phil Collins

Album Track: Tarzan Soundtrack - You'll be in my heart by Phil Collins

Six members of Satyam top brass involved?

2009-01-21T05:55:00.000-08:00

Investigations into India's biggest corporate fraud have revealed more dirt. Sources have told NDTV that at least six members of Satyam's top management may have been involved in the scam and that former chief of Satyam B Ramaliga Raju may have been siphoning off money since 2003.

The sources also revealed that B Ramaliga Raju, may have faked over 6,000 salary accounts to divert salary into false accounts.

Raju may have flouted KYC norms in opening the accounts, they said. STPI certificates obtained by NDTV show Satyam's transactions.

The sources said that Raju may have pledged fixed deposits to go into fictitious accounts, adding that Raju's deposits with foreign banks were maturing in third quarter of 09.

Even as investigations in the Satyam saga continue, efforts may be on to sell it either as a whole or in pieces.

Is Satyam up for sale and if it is, who are the buyers? These two questions can change the fate of more than 50, 000 employees of Satyam.

As the Satyam saga unfolds, the mystery over Satyam's buyers is also unfolding. NDTV has learnt that Tech Mahindra is still interested in a merger option with Satyam. In fact, the company is keen on a deal at the earliest. Besides, it s also willing to do its independent due diligence of Satyam. However, Tech Mahindra is not willing to take on non-business related liability of Satyam.

The new board members also agree that they have offers from various suitors.

But many suitors might be interested in buying parts of Satyam rather than the whole company. Satyam gets almost 40 per cent of its business through SAP and suitors may be interested in getting that business. Moreover, even the BFSI business will be a target for many buyers. Essar has already evinced interest in Satyam's BPO business.

However, most eyes are on companies like Larsen & Tourbo (L&T), which through Satyam may be looking to give their infotech business the required scale.

L&T already has a 4 per cent stake in the company and its top officials have already made the rounds of the corporate affairs ministry, further fuelling reports of its interest.

But, the big concern, which will have a direct impact on Satyam's valuation, will be its liabilities and how much of it will have to be borne by its new owners.

Source: http://www.ndtv.com