National Holiday in India Too???

After Kirani James won Grenada first ever Olympic Gold, the government has declared Tuesday afternoon a holiday. So when Mary Kom wins India's first ever women Olympic Gold medal, we should declare a national holiday too.. Right? :)

Read more at BBC News

Bye 2011! Welcome 2012!

As another year comes to an end, I can't stop myself from looking at the year gone by and remember the key moments of the year. As the famous quote goes, 

We don't remember days, We remember moments

This was an year characterized by change. Also this was an year when everything looks the same as the last year.  When i look back, the moments that WOWed are few but the moments that brought a change in me were a lot.. 

WOW Moment:

2011 will be remembered - for India's World Cup Win. Personally, my WOW moments happened after the matches: quarter-finals (Excited in Tawang Cold that i was going to see India-Pakistan @ Mohali LIVE), semi-finals (No Words can describe the elation, the pure joy of walking & sharing the triumph with fellow cricket fans in the stadium and the people from Mohali) & finals (Spontaneous Outpouring of Delhities on the streets). 

In the field, it was not Dhoni's Six in the world cup final that wowed me..  but Gambhir-Kohli innings at the final. Finally, Indian Cricketers did not choke and had the winning mentality. Thank you! Gary Kirsten!. We miss you!! 

WOW Moment - 2:

Anna Hazare's Protests caught media and public attention. India Media gots its 'Tahiri Square' Moment. From the perfect timing ('No News' seasons) to well-planned strategy & tactics, ensured that India took a step closer to its Lokpal bill dream. Hope this would be the beginning of much more active participation of civil society in the major policies of the government. 

Surprisingly all the major nations had one protest or the other. US - Occupy Wall Street Moment. UK - London Riots, etc.. 

WOW Moment - 3

 By far, this would be my most traveled year. Memories of 2 Wonderful Trip Posts here - Assam & UK

Hope 2012 to have many more memorable moments for all of us. Wishing you all to have a lot more memorable moments in 2012.

Indian Leaders! Where are you?

As the nation moves to a new year, the lack of leadership especially political leadership is the biggest national problem. As I am back in Tamilnadu, I am able to experience it - better than ever  The state today is grappling with multiple political issues

1. Fight with Kerala regarding Mullai-Periyar Dam
2. Fight with Central Government regarding KoodanKualam - (while the entire state is grappling with daily 4-hour electric power cuts. )
3. Srilankan Tamil Issue - Mostly on the Fringes

Thankfully, the rains are good this year. Otherwise, the age-old struggle with Karnataka for Cauvery waters would have started again.  None of these issues have easy answers or solutions. 

Successful 'Past' Protests:

Protests like Siliguri & Lokpal has given enormous confidence to other protesters that continuous & sustained protests by a minority will bring desired results in today's media covered India. So expecting the protests to die away (like yester-years) is not going to happen. 

Compromises & Quick Decisions:

So the government requires to be quick on feet. Need to be quick to 

1. Kill Protests - right at the budding stage. Like how Karunanidhi shut off colleges to prevent any pro-Srilankan Tamil protests during the final stages of Srilankan Army - LTTE war. And it involves compromises & quick decisions. And the nation requires have a leader who is trusted by the nation and who brings states/groups to accept compromises. 

2. Make Decisions - Prolonging decisions like Telengana State Formation is not going to help both the parties. 

3. Create Process to handle fasts & protests: As creating a policy of not negotiating with plane hijackers, the government needs to create a policy of not negotiating with people who pressure by fasting or protesting. 

Require 'Connected' Leaders:

And government & political parties can be quick only when they have leaders and not managers on the top. And the recent advances in communications and technology means these leaders can afford to be connected 24*7 with the people. 

Why I love this nation?

While Leninist China can bull-doze over people's wishes, India's democracy needs it to take care of the wishes of a small group. But that is exactly the reason i love this nation - even though it is painful. 

I want a free India!!!

As Indians we are proud about our democracy and hard-fought freedom won from the British. But even after sixty years, India is still not free from corruption, racism, etc.. And the recent incident in Kashmir  makes me to add "Freedom of Religion" to that list. 

Indian Constitution clearly states that

"all persons are equally entitled to freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess, practice and propagate religion."

So as a Christian, I should not have any fears about 

1. Claiming that I am a Christian
2. Proclaiming that Jesus is the way and the truth and the life (From the Bible).
3. My Belief that "Choice of Religion" should be also decided by market forces. And people should have access to all information and have 'real' freedom of choice

But regularly i do fear. And the recent arrest of Pastor Khanna - based on a youtube video of a few baptisms (Video does not have any information about where & who took baptisms), only increases that fear. A lot of times, these incidents are shoved under the carpet and are ignored by the media. Thankfully, this time around - Times of India gives voice in its opinion article today - Break Those Walls - 

Worries about conversion pass over the individual's right to religious freedom, guaranteed by the Constitution

 This is not the first time that such arrests of Christian ministers happen over "forced conversions". And I am not naive enough to believe this would be the last time. My only hope is that there is an increased awareness among the common man about these incidents. 

Escort Services Advertised through OLX.IN - Is it Legal?

Adult Services & Online Classified:

Like all other industries, even prostitution benefited from the rise of online classified - by cutting the middle man in the process. But in USA, this led to a major controversy. Craiglist - USA's leading online classified player, was forced by law enforcement to pull down its separate section on erotic/adult services.

But considering the taboo around prostitution and the general public image around prostitution, I was not expecting a similar controversy in India. So it was a  surprise for me to see adult ads in OLX when I was posting my ad for selling my split ac.The ads were clearly showing the fee for a single night and contact phone number for the services. 

Adult Ads in OLX

As per the Indian constitution, organized prostitution is clearly illegal. (Thanks Wikipedia). But the ad clearly shows the existence of organized prostitution. For an ignorant customer, it would seem as if Olx is aiding prostituion by the perpetrators. Hope OLX figures out mechanisms to stop these ads before a similiar controversy erupts in India.

Currently Running Ad on OLX.in

One among Seven Billion People!!!

Want to know where do you stand among Seven Billion People in the world. Visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-15391515 and know the exact number of human births before you. My details are below.

While the world celebrated the birth of symbolic seventh billion child in UP, India, let us not forget the idea about choosing the seventh billion girl as a girl child. Plan India picked seventh billion child as a UP girl child  to bring exposure to the "missing children" in India.

According to a recent UNICEF report, around 50 million Indians are missing today because of female infanticide. Here hoping for a day when female infanticide disappears from my country.

P.S: Also read "Are we really seven billion of us" in BBC News. 

Paying more for pizzas than for the maid

Pizzas

In the recent article on New York Times - "Why I left India?" by Sumedh Mungee, he made a interesting point on how he paid more for Pizzas rather than his maid. And all of us are used to the same. In today's India, we pay for our meals than we pay to our maids for their monthly labor. 

Thanks to the cheap workforce, we never even give a second thought to these inequalities. In my opinion, Domestic Helps & Maids are a sheer waste of human potential and a drain on the Indian economy. Until India frees this unproductive workforce from domestic duties and convert them to productive workforce, India will never become a economic superpower. Hope the situations change soon in India. 

P.S: Though i can understand Sumedh viewpoints on disagreeing to the compromised life in India, I agree with more with Navin Kabra's answer

Photo Image: Courtesy Seth W. 

When will India taste true secularism?

Recent Delhi University Controversy over the inclusion of AK Ramanujan's Ramayana is a proof that we, the Indian people are pseudo-secularists. 


Though we pride ourself that we are a secular nation, we allow

1. Indians to be banned and driven out of nation because of their expressed opinions in a book in a supposedly free country.
2. Artists/Painters to be driven out because of their work that supposedly offended a particular religion
3. Schools to use the stories from their religious holy book as a part of their "x minute moral hour"
4. We never raise an issue when religions & religious rituals are a part of "secular" governments, "secular" firms, "secular" colleges and "secular" schools

Makes me to doubt that I will ever see a truly secular India in my lifetime.

Indian Flag

P.S: Secularism in my mind means absence of religions or religious rituals rather than presence of all possible religions and religious rituals. 

State Education Minister Appears for Class X Exam

Times of India reports about Puducherry education minister sitting for Class X Exams. When i read this, the questions that come up are

1. First of all, how did they let a person who has not passed even X Standard to become a education minister. It shows badly how our political situation is screwed.
2. Even if he has done poorly, will anybody fail the minister?

Yes. It happens only in India. 

It happens Only in India

A toll plaza attendant is shot dead by a car owner since he was ready to pay the toll tax of Rs. 27/- (Around 0.6 USD). You can call it road rage or drunken driving. But this happens only in India. And the culprit is still free after committing  such a brazen crime. 

Ref: Toll Plaza Attendant shot dead at Gurgaon

Google takes a crack at Online Movie Distribution in India

Majority of successful start-ups in India are focussed on adapting a foreign idea to Indian environment. And sometimes, these start-ups do so a good job that foreign company can never enter India. e.g. SnapDeal & Groupon.. makemytrip.com, etc.. 


So it is rather interesting when Google India tries to do the same. Its entry to online movie distribution through www.youtube.com/boxoffice is one of the shrewdest moves by the company in recent times. As US statistics show, movie rentals contribute a significant amount to internet data traffic.  And in India, a paid model will never work. So Google is killing two birds - by taking a leadership role in online movie distribution through its youtube and this also helps it to position itself along with India TV Channels in the minds of the advertisers. 


Launched three months back,  YouTube Box Office channel has already got over 11.5 million views in India and is the #20 most subscribed (all time) channel in India. And they have recently started telecasting 2 box office movies

1. Shaitan
2. Pyaar Ka Punchnama

Please note that both these movies are being telecasted ahead of their TV release. 

Reference: Google India Blog: YouTube doubles the movie treat on YouTube Box Office

Fight Against Corruption should be from the bottom

Though I liked what i saw on TV about Anna's fast (i.e. Civil Society winning a battle against the political class), I am not a big fan of Lokpal bill. So in that context, I found this article - It shouldn't pay to pay bribes to be good & a must read. My 2 cents

1. Corruption should be fought from the bottom. i.e. We as a group do things the hard way rather than getting things done easily (but illegally). i.e passing a exam for driving license by studying rather than paying money.  
2. Incentive for an individual to catch corruption should be higher than the value of the corruption itself. Otherwise, the corruption would never be caught. For e.g. if a traffic police gets 100% of the fine laid by him on the violating professional, Actual traffic violations in India would come down drastically. 

Not Guilty does not mean Innocence

It has become a habit among Indian Politicians to interpret "Not Guilty" Verdicts as "Innocent" Verdicts. "Not Guilty" verdict simply means that crime was not proven without any reasonable doubt. So it really irritates me to see Narendra Modi & BJP Team showcasing the Supreme Court verdict on Gulberg Society Riot case as a victory of innocence for Narendra Modi. 

It is and will always be plain to everybody in Gujarat & in India that Narendra Modi went against the secular fabric of our nation when the state & its machinery(police) remained inactive & mere spectators during the the riots (Ref: NYTimes Article). If anybody wants any proof on the impact of the riots on the secular fabric of the nation, hear to any intelligence officer pointing to the increase of the terrorist recruits in India after Gujarat riots. So whatever the verdict comes from the court, Narendra Modi & BJP would always be "guilty" in my eyes. Until BJP accepts responsibility and take just action against the miscreants, fasts and speeches would not win the votes of the minority. 

Hindi Diwas

Some days should not forgotten! And Today (Hindi Diwas Day) is one of them! The sad day when Indian parliament (the 'supposed' pinnacle of its democracy) decide to pick the language of the majority over others as the single official language of the nation. If you don't know me, my views are

1. We all have to recognize that India is actually a 'nation of nations' - which united for the first time on August 15, 1947. Thanks to its policy of princely states, even the British did not completely control the Indian sub-continent. 
2. Personally, my 'tamil' culture & my 'religion' are the two things that contribute to my identity. And culture is maintained and a lot of times synonymous to the language. So in my dictionary, enforcing the language of the majority is the same as enforcing the religion of the majority on me. Leninist China can do it with its mandarin but not a democratic India. (Even you think all people in China speak Mandarin, please google)
3. Not all the languages of India are mutually intelligble. 

15 years later, 70(official estimates)  - 500 (other estimates) tamils lost their lives to fight-off against this Hindi. You can read more about it @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madras_anti-Hindi_agitation_of_1965. Thanks to it, other languages can be used as the official language by other states. (Point to Note: Not even half the states have Hindi as their official language)

On a side-note, the anti-Hindi agitation of 1965 was led by another 'Anna' who fought against the majority Congress in the state. And the new "Raja" belongs to Anna's DMK Party. To prevent more Rajas rising up, sadly another 'Anna' has to rise up.. :)

War For Talent - Does A War has to be vaged for Talent?

Read a very nice article about "The Talent Myth" written by Malcolm Gladwell. A Must Read Article for all who believe that superior talent & star-power alone are the reasons for a success in an organization.

Though the author primarily establishes his thesis through a single company (Enron), I do believe the principles (to a certain degree) applies for the most companies. Some points that i liked and are relevant too.

• Some organizations have started believing more in stars rather than the system. But the organizations that are most successful at that task are the ones where the system is the star. (e.g. SouthWest Airlines where the people do tend to give raises based on seniority)
• In today's world, asking people to think outside the box has become a fad statement.  But if everyone had to think outside the box, maybe it was the box that needed fixing. 

Do read the article. 

Indians in Time Top 100

Sonia Gandhi, Indra Nooyi and Ratan Tata find themselves in this year's 100 Most Influential people list prepared by Time. For knowing the complete list, do visit here.

Annual Venture Capital Investment Skyrockets to 166% in 2007

On a 2004 survey on impact of private equity in UK, 77% of companies said that without private equity, their business would not have existed at all or would have developed less rapidly. But this critical component - Private Equity, needed for the survival of entrepreneurs ,was missing for a long time in the Indian economy.

Good news is that things have started changing. A recent report by Dow Jones VentureSource brings out the huge increase in the number of deals and the amount invested by the venture capital funds in India.Venture capitalists invested around $928 Million in 80 deals in entrepreneurial Indian Companies in 2007, the highest total ever.

Some interesting statistics from the report

• Nearly 48% of all venture financing deals in India were for Information Technology (IT) companies.
  
• The most popular recipients of venture capital in the IT industry were companies in the Web-heavy "information services" sector
• Service-oriented companies in India -- both in the technology fields and the non-technology areas of hotels, taxis and similar services -- continue to attract investment
• Of all the companies in India that received venture funding in 2007, nearly 73% were already generating revenues or profitable

But the best thing is the prediction by Ms. Canning , Director of Global Research for DowJones VentureSource that "this is only the beginning for the venture capital market in India". Her belief is supported by the fact that in 2007, around 79% of deals in India were for seed and first rounds and a lot of these companies will continue raising venture capital as they progress toward profitability and liquidity.

Though the going is good, we still have a lot of catching up to do when we compare ourself with the amount of venture capital funding in USA. (>$20 Billion)

An economy that does not have a strong venture capital sector is one that displays symptoms of deeper economic problems
- J.P. Cotis, Chief Economist OECD

P.S: VentureBeat also has a spreadsheet with the segment wise breakup.
Thanks startupdunia for the info.

Where is Stanford University of India?

Right from the day, TATA Nano was revealed in Auto Expo, the question - 'Why such innovative products are generally missing from Indian market?' has been haunting me. Why does Entrepreneurship & Innovation has always been belonged to 'all talk and no action' category? What are the barriers to innovation and entrepreneurship in India? And is there anybody working on those barriers so that the future entrepreneurs do not have to face them?

Pranav in his recent article in Startup Dunia lists down the missing pieces of Indian entrepreneurial ecosystem, the foundation on which hundreds of innovation should have happened

• Non-Existent Early Stage Funding
• Inability to attract and hire good talent
• Spark or Tipping Point that sets Indian Entrepreneurial scene in fire.

Add to this

• A general lack of political initiatives trying to create an ecosystem that breeds innovation. [In India, Entrepreneurship is never an electoral issue, while in US, Barack Obama has already promised to take all steps to make sure that the next Google happens in US]
• Focus of Indian Engineering Colleges on creating employable graduates rather than on creating entrepreneurs. Which of the Indian Engineering Colleges is ready to play the role of Stanford university in the creation of Silicon Valley style environment? Remember it is Engineers who beget ideas.
  

Guy Kawasiki has a few advices of his own on How to kick Silicion Valley's butt?

Photo Source : code_martial

MacBook Air in India

When Steve Jobs revealed the World's Thinnest Laptop - MacBook Air in MacWorld Conference & Expo in January 15, 2008, I thought it would take a few years for the product to hit the Indian market. I was planning to save enough money in the meantime, so i could be one of the first persons to buy it in India. But today's news on CNN-IBN disrupted all my well laid out plans.

MacBook Air and Time Capsule, the latest products from the staple of Apple Inc. is expected to hit nationwide franchises and retail outlets in India within the next two weeks. Personally I am at odds on how to interpret this action by Apple: whether to intrepret it as a mark of Growing Economic Clout of India (as our Indian Media would like to believe) or A Classic Situation of a Miscalculated Supply that has outstripped the Demand. Whatever it is, I am not complaining!

Hope the good times continue for India with regard to other latest Apple Products.

P.S: Can anyone explain the reason for Rs.25,000/- Price Difference of MacBook Air sold in India and abroad.

Price of MacBook Air in India - Rs. 96,100/-
Price of MacBook Air Outside India - 1799 USD (Rs. 71,447/-)

Indian Parties Need Internal Democracy

We, the Indians take huge pride in the claim that India and USA are the two greatest democracies in the world - one country has the oldest democracy while the other has the largest. But differences between these two democracies have never been this acute, as in recent times.

• In one country, a huge democratic process is going on to select the Presidential candidate. And the whole world media is going gaga about it. Hundreds of Party men are voting to choose the person, who is going to lead them in the elections and every person in the party are given the option to have their say.
• But in the other country, one high powered committee of the party decides the Prime Ministerial Candidate. [Read Indian Party declares PM Candidate.] Even this looks democratic, when it is compared to the selection process of the opposing party, where the Prime Ministerial Candidate is decided in 10, Janpath.
  

In a recent beautiful article 'The Indian Chromosome', Islamabad-based freelance columnist Dr. Farrukh Salem narrows down the reason for the differences between two neighboring nations , sharing the same chromosome and culture, to a single fact - "Democracy or One Nation being able to elect its leaders". Democracy has been India's greatest asset in the last sixty years and it would remain so, even in the future.

But to fully enjoy the benefits of the democracy, it is time Indian parties chose to give voice to their party cadres. Yeah! India is a country with high power distance. But with the changing Indian Culture, changes in the perception of Youth and the advancements in the technology, Indian party leaders are running out of reasons for not being able to give the choice of choosing the prime ministerial candidate to its cadres. Simply by giving a voice, a party would be able to attract much more members to its rank.

Hope Indian parties realize the need of a thriving and healthy internal party democracy. Otherwise they would be wiped away like some of the Indian firms which were never able to adjust itself to globalization.