Blogging

" Extremly amazing mode of communication"-This is what I said about blogging in my very first post 5 months back when i entered this virtual world.
In this 5 month journey I have definitely tried and witnessed an appropriate exploitation of this fascinating concept. This Thursday's Business Line also presents a case of the same but I cannot agree more with Frederick Noronha when he says about blogging in India that-

"In a country where we are great at simply mastering the technology -- rather than applying it efficiently to our own needs -- we're probably missing the point here too. Blogs have the capability to empower the citizen, simply because entry barriers are so low, and it's easy to express oneself on them.
While we can crow about how influential blogs have shown themselves to be, fact is that India is hardly a nation of bloggers. For a country of a thousand million, we have just a minuscule number of blogs.
Bloggers seem to be working in isolated islands, rather than building synergies with more traditional media. This probably results in bloggers 'talking to themselves'."

The complete post can be read here.

The table below clearly shows the standing of India with respect to the rest of the World in exploitation of this channel. Moreover, as for every 100 people in India who tried blogging, only 40 continued after a while. Hence the figures are even more worse than this.

Have the issues that require attention dried up in India? Or it is so that we have become completely averse to the everything happening around us?

I am damn sure that we can do far better than this; at least on this campus. Merely 10% of the 'highly enlightened and intellectual capital' of India on this campus contributing their bit, I feel is far below par.

Manish Saini

Sources -

1. Number of Blogs per country
2. Population

Indian railways: The Chaniging Face

Whether its lalu or Mamta Banerjee at the helm, Indian Railways has definitely geared itself up for this new millennium.

First the whole awful ordeal of ticket booking was turned into a pleasant 15 minute virtual experience called ‘i-tickets’. While I was still debating the implications of the success or failure of latest pilot project of the Indian railways – ‘e-tickets’, I find another surprise waiting in my mail box today.

“Dear and Valued Customer,

We are happy to inform you that we will shortly be launching a Loyalty Program - A Scheme for Frequent Travelers (SOFT), wherein members will earn loyalty points for buying AC Class (except 3AC) tickets & will be able to redeem these points for FREE railway tickets.”

All this along with some animations and a promise to reach back to me very soon. More on the above scheme can be read in detail over here.

Today, when the competitive environment in air travel is pushing the companies to offer out of the way discounts and schemes, Indian Railways an organization which is virtually enjoying monopoly, comes up with a loyalty scheme. Man!!! The way they are changing is just awesome.

To just know more about their activities I did a small research and here is what I found –

1. Railways is planning to use RFID to track is wagon fleet and parcels.

2. The Rail Tel Corporation, has started to build a nationwide broadband and multimedia network by playing optical fiber cable along 62,800 kilometers of railway track by utilizing railways' 'right of way.

3. Realizing their astounding aversion from the field of ergonomics, the Indian Railways have decided to redesign their bogies starting first at the high end customer level.

4. To improve security and enhance reliability in its railway network, the Indian Railways is deploying GSM-R network in place in two zones within this quarter of 2006.

5. Southern Railway has been operating its road vehicles using bio-diesel since 2004. Its general manager V Anand flagged off these vehicles from the Perambur Loco Shed in Chennai.

6. Flexible Ticketing: The Centre for Railway Information Systems has centralized the purchase and management of unreserved tickets with the use of simple and innovative technology.

Traveling through Indian railways is definitely undergoing an oceanic change. This small picture on the surface definitely gives a hint of lot more happening deep inside out there. And the good thing is its all happening for us to witness. We are definitely going to be a lot richer in bedtime stories for the coming generation J.

Manish Saini

The harmony of Worlds

You would find a column on Astrology virtually in every newspaper and every magazine on the newsstand (This is not a debate on astronomy and astrology). Majority of the people I meet would definitely ask me my sun sign. I believe that in India, astrology runs in our blood. Every thing we do has to fall in congruence with the “auspicious moment” as declared by astrology.
I have always been fascinated by the thought of knowing the future but had my doubts in believing astrology as a science till I found an analogy to explain the rationale.
First of all, let us understand the origin of astrology in the words of Carl Sagan –
A few thousand years ago, the idea developed that the motions of the planets determined the fates of Kings, dynasties, empires. Astrologers studied the motions of the planets and asked themselves what had happened the last time that, say, Venus was rising in the constellation of Goats; perhaps something similar would happen this time as well. Astrology developed into a strange combination of observations, mathematics and careful record-keeping.
Now, as I see, astrology developed into a forecasting technique which used Historical Data.
If I talk about the Technical Analysis of the shares, calculation of Value at Risk and RAROC, Time Series analysis, Regression……aren’t these themselves tools for forecasting based on similar technique i.e. using historical data.
The next argument would be that these analyses give you just an approximate idea. But so does astrology.
Astrologers have developed very sophisticated and comprehensive models like the Vedic Sidereal Model. As all forecasting techniques tell us that greater the amount of historical data taken better the accuracy, then astrology must be able to predict far more accurately; and so is it. But, had every one been able to master the science behind financial models, every one would have been Warren Buffet or George Soros. Thus the only condition for a near perfect future forecast is that the person handling the model has a thorough knowledge of the science he is dealing with.

“An argument for those who find ‘despising astrology’ as a fashion statement.”

Creativity at its Best

Just happened to come across an awesome practical application of the phrase “A problem can be solved in a million ways”.
On the famous AB Road of Indore is located an institute called IPS Academy. Just close to it there is a very narrow bridge over which two loaded trucks cannot pass simultaneously; hence is an accident prone zone. The only solution I visualized whenever I crossed it was widening of the bridge.
But, hats off to the Indore Municipality’s creativity; they came up with such a low cost solution that I have starting doubting my MBA.
They simply built up speed breakers on both the sides of the bridge (.

When Words Fill In The Blanks

Some times there are things and feelings which are beyond expression and when you happen to read something or hear what you have always tried to put into words….u just jump out of the chair saying…..exactly!!! These three dialogues from “Before Sunset” made me do it -

• Happiness is in doing and not in getting what you want.


• People come with big idealist visions of becoming the new leader that will create a better world. They enjoy the goal, but not the process!

But the reality of it is that the true work of improving things is in the little achievements of the day.
The people that do the real work, the people that are the most giving, hard working and capable of making this world better, usually don't have the ego and ambition to be a leader.
They don't see the interest in superficial rewards, they don't care if their name ever appears in the press, they actually enjoy the process of helping others, they're in the moment!

• Memory is a wonderful thing if you didn’t have to deal with the past!

Before Sunset happens to be one of the best movies I have ever seen but to enjoy it you will have to watch Before Sunrise first!
Enjoy
Manish

The Gandhian Spirit

Be it in Bilgaon’s micro hydel project or in the Tilonia Project of non violence education Gandhi’s experiments with truth still continue even 58 years after he left. If Dilip’s post summarizes the change these experiments have undergone then the Telecom Italia’s add does indicate the manifold effect of these experiments in a changed world.

Marty’s day does revive this Gandhian spirit in most of us. We realize that something of the sort of Bilgaon or Tilonia to happen we need to keep this spirit alive and hence we at IIM Indore organized a small blood donation camp.

Statistically, for any city, the yearly requirement of blood is merely 1% of the total population of the city. Indore has a population of around 30,00,000 which means only 30,000 people need to donate blood once a year. Medically a person can donate 1 unit i.e. 300ml of blood every 3 months hence we require merely 7.5 thousand people to donate blood 4 times a year. Interestingly not even this 0.25% of people is available from this historical city.

I hope a small contribution of 85 units from the IIM Indore family would in some way help revive the Gandhian spirit and not confine it merely to the statues on squares.

Swades Remade

After a 14 hour of tiring journey three chaps from the Planet I drove into a land where they were going to have a brush with reality over the next two days.
This land of “Mogli” (the character from Rudyard Kyping’s Jungle Book) now popularly called Seoni, is situated on the Satpura Plateaus of Madhya Pradesh, India. The visit was a part of the project which IIMI had taken to provide professional assistance to the district government with the “100 day assured employment scheme (NREGP)” launched by the central government.
To have a better understanding of the topography and demography of the place, we happened to visit Block offices, Panchayat offices and attended Gram Panchayats in villages over the next few days. But this turned out to be a remaking of Swades for all three of us.
We always knew that India as shown in Swades does exist; but it is easy to brush past it in an AC theatre and digest it over a discussion on a dinner table. But when confronted with this India in reality, our purpose of existence was shaken to the roots. I remember my hands shaking in a gram panchayat when Mr. Tiwari (from Green Brigade, an NGO) tried to explain the villagers that this scheme has an assured employment of 100 days and at no point would they be cheated.
I thought that how can somebody cheat these people who are struggling to live from hand to mouth. And the answer I got was “In The same way as people like you and I turn a blind eye to what we have seen and realized”.
Even if I fail to deliver what we are expected to of this huge project, one thing which I am damn sure of now is that I am not turning a blind eye this time.

City Beautiful - An analysis

City Beautiful - Chandigarh, the only planned city in India which has been immitated throughout the country in one form or the other. Designed about half a century ago it has survived all kinds of pressures on its infrastructure and still retained the tilte. But would it survive the another half?

Let us do a small analysis -

The whole infrastructure of the city including water, sanitation, transport system is built for approximately people based on following alculation -
(48 sectors)x(4 sub parts)x(1200 houses each)x(5 people each) = 11,52,000 people which is I guess a fair estimate.

The population according to 2001 cencus is 9,00,914 people with a decinnial growth rate of 40% approx. Leave apart the transient population.

This means that we wiil approach the limit within this decade.

Repurcussions -

a) Transport system sufferes first due to an unexpected explosion in the number of vehicles. Parking can be taken care to some extent through underground planining. But Safety on roads would definitely go down (But the Traffic Police till now is doing a wonderful job). First impact of it which is quiet visible now would be on the pollution. Next to go would be the squares - some of it has started already. Not to mention that these squares do add to the overall beauty of the city.

b) Water and Sanitation system poses pressure on Sukhna which has already been too much disfigured what I saw of it a decade and a half back. Again a major source of physical beauty would get on the verge of disapperance.

c) Even if these pressures are taken care of and We start building sky scrapers and say in a span of next 30-40 years we create something on the lines of New York. How many parks would exist is the question?

d) For the subject of the impact of these changes on the people of the city beautiful - I guess the answer can be found in the Desmond Morris's book - 'Human Zoo' which does describe impact of such an expansion on people taking cues from the human evolution.

Thus the real question is - If the administration is really aware of all these things what is it doing currently to face these challenges?

Above all, as citizens of City Beautiful, what is that we need to do is the question?
Can we really sit back thinking it to be a passing phase and wait for it to receede?

Manish

Jobs Gallore

Approaching the end of the last term, there is only one thing on everyone's mind - Job!
Well, I am not going to discuss the plus and minuses of starting your own business or joining a multinational. Its just that the management education prepares you for everything and anything. The only thing to be found out is what one actually wants to do! Some like Bhagat Singh know from the begining what they were born for, some like Sidin find it out in the course of ones life and some just regret of missing it on their death bed.

Kim Woo-Choong rightly says "Every Street is paved with Gold". One only needs to open up his eyes to look the world around.

In Jasdeep's Words the best job in this world is something like - Being a "Test Driver" for Ferrari. Man! they pay you for Driving a Ferrari, skidding it around and trying out what not.
Just on my way to set out, to look for something similar, I thought of droping in a few words around.
Manish

A Random Thought

History speaks of Holland as the home of letters, science and art, and undoubtedly the most learned state in Europe. The per capita number of laureates and scientists that the state produced is unmatched till today.
Such a heaven, today, is out of this world.
But there is one interesting point to ponder - What is required to be a successful scietists apart from inquisitve thinking and sound basics? "Money"!
Be it Keplar or be it Einstein - why is it that almost all the famous scientists have to be poor?
Now if I link all of these thoughts - A budding scientist has a sound head over his shoulders, needs money to fund his researches and most probably is poor!!
So, why not impart the knowledge of business subjects to science students so that in future they could fend for their endeavours for themselves.

In the name of welfare - A chapter for Freakonomics

A survey done by the Excise Dept. in Tamil Nadu some time in the mid 1970s gave an estimate of yearly liquor consumption of 25 lac litres in the state. While the figure for Karnataka stood at 75 lac litres. A repeat survey after a decade showed an increase in consumption of around 10,000 litre in Karnataka while Tamil Nadu during this period had overtaken Kaarnatka.

The figures shocked the whole state as this was a period when prohibition act was in force. Every department took whatever measures it could and gave all kinds of explanations.

But as Levitt says – “You need to talk to the right people and look at the right data to get the right answers”.

Following is an excerpt from an interview with a laborer conducted by an organization doing field survey to unravel the causes. This one interview unraveled facts which went on to solve this whole mystery –

Q. How much do you earn in a day?
A. Rs. 12 - 13

Q. How many people are there in your family?
A. Eight. My four children, my parents, myself and my wife.

Q. How much do you spend on food daily?
A. Rs. 6

Q. Rs. 6 for a family of 8! Is it enough?
A. Sir, we belong to a "special class" of people according to the Govt.* My children are entitled for a meal in the school, my parents under Old age pensioners (OAP) scheme are entitled for free rice while my wife being pregnant now and then also falls under one or the other program of Aanganwaadi.

This was a big slap on the face of Welfare Activists.

So much in the name of welfare.


*He was trying to point out that he fell under BPL families category.

Disclaimer: This complete story is an excerpt of an interview with a director of a prominent NGO for whom I was doing consultancy on a project. In the process of capturing the theme I might have distorted a few facts. Kindly ignore them.

One Night @ The Call Centre

A 289 pager by Chetan Bhagat, the author who shot to fame through his 5 point someone. I admired the way the book was advertised by the promoters even before the launch and so couldn’t keep my hands off the book as soon as I saw it on the stands.
As expected, Chetan hasn’t changed his witty, dark writing style. But his overemphasis on this style makes him sound very clichéd at times. The best thing about the novel is its strong characterization.
A story knitted around 6 call centre agents’ life; I prefer calling it ‘One Shift’ rather than ‘One Night’ when almost the hell breaks loose on them.
Chetan, through his character Vroom, has epitomized the discussion for pros and cons of call centre boom in India. While other characters add on spice to the story, through Shyam, Chetan seems to have addressed a problem which almost each one of us is going to face – a bad boss.
On the whole, the purpose of the novel is quiet noble - "To make the youth of today more conscious of the choices one makes in life". But 289 pages leads to over dramatization and the story seems to drag at various points.
I would rate it 3 out of 5.

Bhopal: A case on Brand Management

1945 - 2 big cities of Japan were nuked to ashes. 2 decades later, if one talked about Japan he only talked about its technological and Business Acumen. "Hiroshima and Nagasaki" were burried with the dead in the summer of 1945.
21 years have passed but even today if you hear of Bhopal, you recall the bloddy night of 3rd Dec 1984 and the events that followed (The Bhopal Gas Tragedy). Somehow the name Bhopal leaves a bad taste on ones tongue.
An accidental journey through the city of Bhopal (better known as The City of Lakes) left me spellbound with its natural beauty. I have already seen a number of Jaws fall when I tell them about the beauty of Bhopal.

The semi mountanious terrain of Bhopal gives a feeling of troting on a hill station. A panoramic view from the top of "Manav Sanghralya" (a unique mueseum which is a remake of traditional lifestyles) over the 'Baddi Jheel' leaves one wondering if it was really true.

But even 21 years later, a majrity of the world hasn't seen or even realized this face of Bhopal. Even being a state capital hasn't changed its perception much.
These Politicians and bureaucrats seem to need real good lesons in Brand management and a few case studies like that of Tyenol (The famous J&J drug crisis).

Birthday Thoughts

There are few things I have been always confused of. And celebrating birthdays is one of them.
Now, what do you think is the best way to celebrate a birthday -
1. Party around-cutting cake, blowing candles, dacing whole day long.....
2. Organize a Hawan in your house or any kind of Pooja (Prayer)....
3. Distribute clothes and food to the needy....

Or is there still a better way?

I always prided myself that I am not the normal kind who goes on banging his head whole night long just because one more year of my life was wasted. I always believed that blow off a candle, is a sort of signalling Darkness to overcome your life. So, its better to light up a 'Diya' and invite a bright future.

This break, Preeti knocked me with a brilliant thought -
"Manu, don't you think that B'days are days when we must actually thank our parents to bring us into this world? Don't you think its we who should give presents to our parents rather than the other way round? Isn't it a day to be celebrated in honour of our parents rather than ours?.........."

Now this is something which never crossed my mind...........

One Stupid Day!

To:

preetikoushish@yahoo.com

What if I was the child in the photograph; What if I as a six year old, I had to be on the run, separated from my family because terrorists were behind my father (its a true incident); What if I had to be a breadearner for my family and dropout of the school after eigth (again a true incident).

One stupid day - one stupid paper - is that all that makes you the BEST!!!! Some would call it destiny and some might call it luck.
But this one thought has troubled me for quiet long now.

Even I, like all others have worked hard to get here. But it just happened that for all of us, the things fell into the right places at the right time. And now if I am at the right place,shouldn't I put my skills to the best use?

Would selling toothpates and soaps be a proper utilization or would simply making money for people who won't ned it anyways be a proper utilization? Just have a closer look at the photograph above and tell me!

"The only thing necessary for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing."
- Edmund Burke

My Favourite Poetry

IF

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

-Rudyard Kypling

Happy Diwali

In Hindu Mythology there are 33 crore Gods and Godesses. If one has to simply recite the name of all of them, it will take him 10 years and 167.44 days (assuming it takes 1 second to recite one name).

Lord Vishnu, according to Hindu mythology is the one who looks after this world created by Brahma and destined to be destroyed by Shiva. I remember my mother telling me that Diwali is one occasion when all the Gods and Godesses assemble in Ayodhya to celebrate Lord Rama's return to his home. She always inspired me to devote my maximum time praying to God on this day coz if some God/godess is passing by, may be if he/she listens to me, he/she might drop in. :-)
Nice naa.......

Evrytime I visit a shrine i always have a list of things to ask from God but whenever I am infront of him I find myself completely at loss of words. I just wonder what would happen if he/she decides to drop in sometime :-)

On this Diwali may everyone is ganted his wishes!!!
Jai Siya Ram ji

Who Was Responsible?

Refrences to this post -
1. http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1525714,0006.htm
2. http://www.tribuneindia.com/2005/20051015/jal.htm#2

For the last two days, i have been trying to write down this post. But the issue is so sensitive that everytime I start it, I find myself at a loss of words.

Seriously, being runover by a train is not the way I would like to die. Its very difficult to understand the kind of stress Amit was in when he took such a decision. Moeover unless the graphologists analyze the suicide note, I won't deny any kind of foul play either.

Having a fair knowledge of all the things happening out there, every now and then i would ask myself one question - Who do you think was responsible? And everytime I get the same answer - the Parents.

I have seen a similar situation in my house when my cousin brother got enrolled with NIT Bhopal in 95. But the way his father handeled the situation is what I admire him for. He didn't hesitate to write even to the President of India about the incidents which made his son leave the college.

In Amit's case I am surprised that his parents didn't even bother to bring the case to the notice of the college authorities. As far as my experience and judgement of my Alma Mater goes, there are all kinds of people out there. But rationals overweigh.

I have been through all those ragging drills myself. Its hard to be alone out there. During ragging, life is like a pressure cooker with emotions boiling inside. What you need is a small vent to blow them off. A child simply needs an assurance that his parents are always there when he needs them. But it seems that this option for Amit was closed.

I am no psychologist and leave Amit's case to their best judgement. But its hard for me to imagine my present life without the support of my parents. I would surely have been as good as dead.

Amit, May your soul rest in peace!

Check Check Check......

Ohh....
Seems like its working...... Ok. Lights! Action...

Some time back in one of the HR classes I attended, there was a real heated discussion on the pros and cons of blogging. Since then I have been debating that should I or shouldn't I start it myself. Though late but I don't regret that I finally decided in favour. I guess I must thank jam, Chandoo and Govar whose blogs have been an inspiration.

For quiet a long time I have believed that "Whenever you open up your mouth, you let the world look into yourself". But the place where i have reached today, I feel its important to speak, to let others know what you think and what you believe in.

Let me see if I can do some justice to this extremly amazing mode of communication which is almost on the verge of redefining this world.