Entrepreneuring India

Posted on August 4, 2008 by indra

I try to think over about my positive outlook towards Indian economy. I love to keep before me the celebrities like Abdul Kalam and CK Prahalad as icons of hope of a prosperous super power India. Kalam did that with ‘India 2020’ and Prahalad has his ‘India @75’. What does sustain my hope? Outlook Business has stories of some entrepreneurs who have successfully created niche companies. Each of the stories is exhilarating. I could never think of these unique business models. Here are the selected few:

SKM Egg Products manufactures egg powder that it exports to 24 countries at a factory, capable of producing 4,600 tonnes a year at Choagapalayam village near Erode in Tamil Nadu. About 40% of its Rs 100 crore revenues (for year ended March 2008) came from Japan, and another 40% from Europe.

Naval Kishore Singh, 73, a former employee of Tata Steel, has used his expertise at catching deadly, poisonous snakes. His income from the venom extraction exceeds Rs 1.2 crore with Christian Medical College, and Bharat Serum as main clients. Interestingly, Singh has no office and operates from a tea stall in Jamshedpur.

Narayana Peesapaty sold his flat to get into a business of producing edible cutlery using sorghum as base and vegetable pulp-spinach, beetroot and carrot to add color and nutritive value. Narayana has applied for process patent, and dreaming big. He is also developing an edible plate that can go well with a pizza. It will be something like those ice-cream cones.

Sandip Taware’s Bhagirathi Hatcheries is one of the estimated 1,000 emu-farms that produce about 33,000 tonnes of emu-meat in India. Emus are Australian birds, and its meat, as claimed, is healthier. Interestingly, India produces 1.9 million tonnes of chicken meat every year. Is it not a great story of enterprising Indians? Could one think of such an enterprise few years ago?

Central Parking Services with its 1200 employees and annual revenue of RS 45 crore in 2007-08 provides parking management solutions: designs car parks, installs equipment and manages them.

Acme Tele Power Ltd of Manoj Kumar Upadhyaya, http://www.acmetelepower.com/ an electronics engineer from Shahjahanpur’s government polytechnic, is now a company with Rs 1,800 crore revenues for 2007-08 with presence in 17 countries with already secured seven patents (additional 14 pending approval) in energy management solutions.

Appachi Cotton based in Pallachi, Tamil Nadu presently with revenue of Rs 30 crore aims to strike big through organic textiles route. It has been growing organic cotton through contract farming over 400 acres in Karnataka that is likely to increase to 1,000 acres in next two years.

KAM-Avida Enviro Engineers, a now a Rs 25 crore company, makes and maintains sewage drain cleaning equipment and in the next three to four years will have four lines of business: drain cleaning equipment, compacting garbage disposal trucks, industrial vacuuming machines and street sweepers.

Sunny Water Sports, http://sunnywatersports.com/Default.asp an Rs 5 crore manufacturer of boats, has now more than 110 types of boats to offer, and became the first local manufacturer of two storeyed luxury boats two years ago. Cost arbitrage apart, Sunny Water Sports has been able to keep its client satisfied on quality standards and timely delivery.

Many young men and women in the country are trying to put their ideas in to business enterprises and even don’t hesitate to quit good jobs for the same. . Finance is not very difficult for these successful startups with many venture capital firms looking for good businesses to invest in. And many successful celebrities such as Nandan Nilekani find pleasure in encouraging them.

It is this entrepreneuring India that will change the face of India and bring it in the league of prosperous nations.

Posted in economy, industry | Leave a comment

Mamta! Please Spare ‘Nano’

Posted on August 4, 2008 by indra

I was myself against Tata Motors using fertile Singur land of the marginal farmers for setting up the manufacturing plant for Nano, a car that if prudently produced and distributed can bring about a revolutionary change in manufacturing sector of the country. I was also skeptical, with all my experiences of working in an automobile firm itself, about the cooperation of the unions of West Bengal that is essential for getting a global scale plant operate at the best productivity level. However, once the West Bengal government has agreed with the decision on location, the project must go on with full speed. The plant must get the machinery and equipment commissioned, workers trained, start production fast and put Nano in market. All the technocrats and managers of the country appeal to Mamta for giving up her protest now and stop her men to do anything that further delays the start of production. Let us see if Leftist unions resist the temptation of creating problems for the project.
Mamtaji! Tata Motors have many other challenges to face with increasing inflation and the input cost to make the car that Tata has promised at $2500 to the world. Most of the competitions from all over the world are looking at Tata Motors and doubting its capability to make it. An article, ‘The Nano: Tata’s Costly Promise‘ in the latest issue of Business Week has raised the same doubt. The engineers of Tata Motors have taken a task to prove that Indians too can innovate and create a world-class product that others can envy. All of us must consider ourselves a stakeholder in the project and provide the moral support if not anything else.

Nano is small and rugged enough for rural India. It will help the aspirations of many getting realized with fuel efficiency of 23 kms or more for a litre of gasoline. I find many farming families with better yield and minimum support price of the produce can afford it. What can be a better offer? As reported, the demand already is already outpacing the potential supply expected from the plant. Engineers and manager of Tata Motors, as promised are working overtime using all means at their disposal to innovate ways to produce Nano at the promised price.

And that is the reason of my earnest appeal to Mamta. Her political gain through these protests and demoralizing effects of the management staffs working on the project will be just meager compared to the huge loss the nation and not the company will have, if the project doesn’t succeed. And time is a great factor today for that. Very soon the competitors including Bajaj and Renault tie-up are also coming out with the competing products. West Bengal will loose second chance of being a major player in auto industry.
————
Latest Mamata’s Menance
August 24: Singur siege date -Plan to surround Tata Motors site and keep away ‘outsiders’


Singur divides businessmen as Tata Motors faces fresh Trinamul fire

Posted in indian politics, industry, manufacturing | Leave a comment

My Expectations from Bihar’s Biggest Three

Posted on August 3, 2008 by indra

Let me clarify that this is entirely my own list of biggest three that I came out with the information from my friends and media reports. And one shouldn’t feel bad about it rather should excuse me as I have remained out of the state for most of my life so I hardly understand the intricacies of the built-in politics of the state.

One thing that is common to the three is their IPS background and to me it means discipline and certain aspect of honesty. All three suffered from the ruling class because of their forthright approach to the responsibility entrusted to them.
Initially I had suggested Nitish government through media to bring in some tough outsiders such as Kiran Bedi or Gill to overcome the caste-biased politics and influences in Bihar to improve upon the horrible law and order situation that he inherited. But perhaps Nitish was right in selecting the police head from the insiders. To some extent, he has succeeded in repairing the image of the state and in improving the law and order situation related to kidnapping industry that some say flourished in Bihar because of political patronage.

And today I am really happy to know that DN Gautam has got into the chair heading the police in Bihar. With all his records of toughness towards the political dons without fearing the consequences from political bosses, he appears to be the best choice. I wish him a great success, more so I wish he establishes and leaves behind a system that makes the perception of the Bihar police as lastingly efficient and effective. Gautam would have conceived a game plan in his mind over the years of working experiences in the state to get the things right for the state that he would carry out when he himself occupies the chair. He must execute and complete the same during his tenure. It is necessary that the perception about the law and order condition in Bihar get a total positive change in the outsiders who matter, and who wishes to invest in business in Bihar. Can Gautam make the police responsive and people-friendly? Can he get rid of the immense influence of the middlemen in the department? Can he involve the community at grassroots level, particularly in rural Bihar, to establish peace and orderliness?

I know Kishore Kunal of Mahavir temple fame for his great contribution to the religious establishments and healthcare. I consider his unique endeavours to get Dalits as head priest in temples of Bihar as path breaking and socially very much contemporary and necessary. I wish he could get a good primary school, a trade training centre and yoga teaching facility attached with each temple all over rural Bihar. With lack of modern healthcare infrastructure and mechanization of farming that has taken out the physical work to a great extent from the men and women in villages, Bihar needs the spread of yoga in rural regions badly and so it needs building of skills to get a respectful employment. As I came to know of his interest in establishing super specialty hospitals, I wish he could get one in every district headquarter of the state. I am sure he can market his mission among the business houses and NRIs interested in doing so.

Abhayanand has become a legendary figure because of his Super 30 model that has attained 100 percent hit in IIT-JEE this year. As I understand from media, he has a wonderful plan to do something similar specially for the minority community that has historically remained under-priviledged and deprived. It is unfortunate that the quest for IITs and IIMs has overshadowed all the education goals of the parents and the students in the state and the country. They hardly know that it is the excellence in education that matters even for much coveted IT industry. A student can pursue any subject, but must attain excellence in it. Interestingly, some highly positioned employees of Microsoft India have English language as their domain knowledge. The domain knowledge may relate to physics, mathematics, chemistry, or anything else. An excellence can make the student equivalent to any IITian in today’s business world. They can very well understand that, as a graduate degree in any such subject is the minimum educational requirement for entrance in IIMs. Many big companies such as Infosys, Wipro, or Satyam take in the good graduates with many subjects other than engineering. However, besides the subject of graduation, the student must develop a good capability for communications in English and know computer operation as tools. Can Abhayanand ji spread this among the student and teachers community of the state?

Unfortunately, the state needs more good colleges at the district and block level, and the earlier philanthropic endeavours from the members of community to establish that, is missing. The state is also failing to attract those business houses that are establishing private educational institutions in the other states. Can Abhyanand, Kishore Kunal or for that matter any other person or group take the task of marketing education potential of Bihar among the prospective investors of the private sector? After all Bihar is feeding many institutes in Southern states and in many part of the world with proportionately large number of students.

Let the three succeed and leave behind a great legacy of their own.

PS: I wish someone could pass on the write-up to them.

Posted in indian politics | Leave a comment

The world’s oldest top 10 jokes

Posted on August 3, 2008 by indra

We knew PJs in IIT days. I myself was never good at it. In Hind Motors, I clearly remember two persons- Mr. Raju and Mr. KP Gupta, who were in demand to entertain with their jokes. However, I was thrilled by the endeavour of the team members who worked on compiling the list of the world’s oldest top 10 jokes. I wonder why they couldn’t lay hand on some Chinese or Indian jokes. Can some knowledgeable Indian help?

The Dave Historical Humour Study defines a joke as having a clear set-up and punch line structure. The team has created the history of the joke that goes as far back as 1900 BC. It also provides a unique and compelling insight into how jokes have evolved over the years, both globally and in the UK.

The world’s oldest joke is revealed to be an ancient Sumerian proverb dating back to 1900 BC. The Sumerian version of this joke occurs in tablets dating to the Old Babylonian period and possibly even dates back to 2,300 BC. The Dave Historical Humour study spent two months trawling the annals of history to produce the first report of its kind into the world’s oldest recorded jokes.

1. Something which has never occurred since time immemorial: a young woman did not fart in her husband’s lap (1900 BC – 1600 BC Sumerian Proverb Collection 1.12-1.13)

2. How do you entertain a bored pharaoh? You sail a boatload of young women dressed only in fishing nets down the Nile and urge the pharaoh to go catch a fish (An abridged version first found in 1600 BC on the Westcar Papryus)

3. Three ox drivers from Adab were thirsty: one owned the ox, the other owned the cow and the other owned the wagon’s load. The owner of the ox refused to get water because he feared his ox would be eaten by a lion; the owner of the cow refused because he thought his cow might wander off into the desert; the owner of the wagon refused because he feared his load would be stolen. So they all went. In their absence the ox made love to the cow which gave birth to a calf which ate the wagon’s load. Problem: Who owns the calf?! (1200 BC)

4. A woman who was blind in one eye has been married to a man for 20 years. When he found another woman he said to her, “I shall divorce you because you are said to be blind in one eye.” And she answered him: “Have you just discovered that after 20 years of marriage!?” (Egyptian circa 1100 BC)

5. Odysseus tells the Cyclops that his real name is nobody. When Odysseus instructs his men to attack the Cyclops, the Cyclops shouts: “Help, nobody is attacking me!” No one comes to help. (Homer. The Odyssey 800 BC)

6. Question: What animal walks on four feet in the morning, two at noon and three at evening? Answer: Man. He goes on all fours as a baby, on two feet as a man and uses a cane in old age (Appears in Oedipus Tyrannus and first performed in 429 BC)

7. Man is even more eager to copulate than a donkey – his purse is what restrains him (Egyptian, Ptolemaic Period 304 BC – 30 BC)

8. Augustus was touring his Empire and noticed a man in the crowd who bore a striking resemblance to himself. Intrigued he asked: “Was your mother at one time in service at the Palace?” “No your Highness,” he replied, “but my father was.” (Credited to the Emporer Augustus 63 BC – 29 AD)

9. Wishing to teach his donkey not to eat, a pedant did not offer him any food. When the donkey died of hunger, he said “I’ve had a great loss. Just when he had learned not to eat, he died.” (Dated to the Philogelos 4th /5th Century AD)

10. Asked by the court barber how he wanted his hair cut, the king replied: “In silence.” (Collected in the Philogelos or “Laughter-Lover” the oldest extant jest book and compiled in the 4th/5th Century AD)

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

IITs and Coaching Mills

Posted on August 2, 2008 by indra

In many of my write-ups on IIT, I raised the issue of the damage that the coaching mills sprouted all over the country, are causing. I was happy to know that the director and the dean of IIT- Madras have similar views. As reported in Times of India on July 31, M S Ananth, the director of IIT-Madras said, ”I am looking for students with raw intelligence and not those with a mind prepared by coaching class tutors. The coaching classes only help students in mastering (question paper) pattern-recognizing skills. With this, you cannot get students with raw intelligence.” Mr. Ananth also expressed his opinion against the students missing their Class XII classes to attend coaching.

It was not always like that. I sat for my entrance examination in 1957 and Rakesh, my eldest son did that in 1989. There were no coaching institutes in those days. We appeared in our Intermediate science or higher secondary examination, and there after for IIT entrance examinations. I remember I appeared for ISM, Dhanbad too. While BE College Shibpur near Botanical Garden was the center for IIT, Scottish Church College was for ISM. I don’t remember if I had seen even any question papers of the examinations in previous years. By 1989, Agrawal Classes and Brilliant Tutorial had started providing correspondence courses for preparation. I had subscribed for one of them for Rakesh. None of us could even dream of taking more chances to get into IIT or ISM.

I personally feel that IITs have failed to eliminate the ingress of the coaching industry for the entrance in IITs. In my writings I had mentioned also of the open book examinations practiced at IIT that confirms that the setting of question papers can be done in a manner that can’t be taught by coaching. I firmly believe that the directors and faculty members of IITs must devise innovative means to get the coaching mills shut, and it is very much possible unless they themselves have some vested interest. The curriculum must be one of Class XII standard, may be of CBSE. It also must discourage multiple attempts.

Further, I will disagree with Mr. Ananth about the testing the capability of communication, as it will give advantage to those coming from elite private schools. But I shall certainly like that the prospective engineers must have aptitude for engineering and creativity and the entrance examination must test that, as I hate IITians joining IIM just after graduating. I shall like to see them as brilliant engineers who can compete with the best in the world.

It is great that IIT is lifting the veil from the cut-off controversy. IIT must innovate the examination in such a manner that the candidates can take examinations on line and can know about their scores just after completing the examination.
————–
PS: VIEW: The idea deserves to be considered
COUNTER VIEW: Tweaking JEE won’t help

Posted in education | Leave a comment

CK Prahalad’s ‘India@75’

Posted on August 1, 2008 by indra

Recently, the Thinkers 50 2007, the new ranking, produced by Suntop Media in association with Skillsoft placed CK Prahalad at number one as the most influential living management thinker of the time. Prahalad has come out his dream plan called India@75. And according to him, India@75 may be very ambitious but achievable.

CK Prahalad believes that India has the potential to actively participate in shaping the emerging world order. But India must acquire enough economic strength, technological vitality and moral leadership to do so. Here are six targets of India@75:

1. India builds a base of 200 million college graduates-that is just 16 per cent of India’s population. I would like to see 500 million certified and skilled technicians and universal literacy. This is possible in 15 years, if leaders focus on this goal as a priority.

2. India must become the home for at least 30 of the Fortune 100 firms.

3. India accounts for 10 per cent of global trade
.
4. India becomes a source of global innovations-new businesses, new technologies and new business models. The bottom of the pyramid, the 800 million Indians, can become a major source of breakthrough nnovations.

5. India aims to have 10 Nobel prize winners, prreferrably for the work done in India-unlike Indians getting the Nobel Prize for the work done elsewhere.

6. India becomes the world’s benchmark on how to leverage diversity.and a benchmark for the practice of universality and inclusiveness with its unique opportunity as a home to all the major religions, 15 major languages and hundreds of dialects, and a complex range of cultures, food habits and rituals-all the diversity one can hope for. If India is not the laboratory to practice diversity and inclusiveness, nobody else is.

Prahalad elaborates why he thinks, India@75 as achievable.

In 1929, when Congress declared Poorna Swaraj as the goal, did it seem likely?

The Green revolution, the White (milk) revolution-and the development of space technology are all worthy inspiring successes.

When in 1994, I suggested to a select group of CEOs that they must build multinational firms from India (Indian MNCs) rather than be paralysed by the entry of multinationals in the Indian market, it looked far-fetched. Very few, if any Indian, CEOs thought it was possible at that time. Today, Indian MNCs are a reality.

Similarly, 10 per cent growth and 10 million new jobs per year (10/10 programme) looked impossible in 2000. The idea was ridiculed. One was reminded of the traditional Hindu rate of growth of 3-5 per cent. But India is growing at close to 10 per cent; some states are growing at 15 per cent plus. India is yet to generate 10 million new jobs a year. But that can happen if we put our mind to it.

It was just 10 years ago that most managers and politicians had declared manufacturing in India as a dead end. “We have no hope against China,” they said. Today, manufacturing is alive and well and growing rapidly. India is becoming a manufacturing hub. Exports of manufactured goods are at $91 billion (Apr. ’07-Feb. ’08) and growing at more than 15 per cent. Others are taking note. Investments by Hyundai, Nissan, Ford, and Nokia are a small indication that not just Indians but others also believe that India can build excellence in manufacturing.

India was not known for its quality. Today, many Indian firms have demonstrated that they do not lag behind anyone in quality-be it in software development, manufacturing fine chemicals for pharmaceutical industry or in automotive component manufacturing.

Western models do not easily fit with the needs of Indian markets; especially as we focus on straddling the economic pyramid. The challenge is to build “world class products and services” at a new price-performance level (new value equation) that has never been tried before by established MNCs. India has a very large number of examples-$30 cataract surgery (Aravind Eye hospital), $2,500 car (Tata Nano), $0.01 cell phone minute (Airtel), $0.01 shampoo in a sachet (Hindustan Unilever), or $25 micro loans. Many such experiments demonstrate that we can straddle the pyramid and that this can be done commercially. We can “do good and do well”.

India should not replicate the development process of the West or China. India must leapfrog. Simply stated: avoid landlines, go wireless; avoid paper ballots, go electronic; avoid bank branches, go mobile and digital.

Is it not an awefully inspiring, providing hope to all that I keep on writing in my blog?

PS: The Thinkers 50 2007 list is still dominated by North Americans (37 of the 50 gurus are from the United States). While CK Prahalad is at number 1, three more thinkers of Indian origin are Ram CHARAN at 22, Vijay GOVINDARAJAN at 23, and Rakesh KHURANA at 45 in the Top 50. As yet, no Chinese guru has emerged.

Posted in economy, governance | Leave a comment

Nuclear Deal Trust Vote: Casualties in Win

Posted on July 31, 2008 by indra

Man Mohan Singh had to win the trust vote, as it posed a challenge for his survival. He won it ultimately, but it did some consequential damage for the nation. Was it a tarnished triumph? Are the new groupings not worse?

UPA with Amar Singh playing the major role will certainly be perceived as more corrupt. Why should the share prices of Anil Ambani’s companies go higher? Amar Singh asked for some concession for Anil Ambani and imposition of certain tax for RIL of Mukesh Ambani. As reported, he had sought the heads of Chidambaram and Deora too as a cost of support. At least leftists didn’t have liking for any specific business house. None of them were CBI scanner of disproportionate asset.

Mayawati as such the biggest threat to India with her type of political ambition and interest in asset accumulation has now the leftists as her sympathizers. Smaller unscrupulous party heads such as Dev Gowda will help in spreading her wing. Will leftists back her in her empire-building plan? Will the leftists visit Badalpur where the palace of the queen is getting ready? Many columnists thinks all her monsterous projects such as Taj Expressway and Ganga Expressway and its execution by her pet construction company are to accumulate the money required to let her dream realized. It is only because of her political strength that the leftists had to go to her tea and dinner. Is it not a great damage?

And what a horrendous damage to the image of Indian democracy! Can the cross voting and abstaining be without cost? Why should the media go silent on the Rs 1 crore shown to all the millions of the citizens? Where is its investigative journalism?

After the CBI threat, Mayawati withdrew her support. The leftists did the same soon, as they oppose US more than the Nuclear Deal. But Man Mohan Singh would have tried to avoid the bitterness with Parakash Karat. Why should Prakash Karat who worked with the government go to do all that he did to get the government defeated? Why should the breakup become a personal prestige issue? The leftists moved to Mayawati who they hated to give any importance earlier. The intense personal endeavours to collect MPs in ones and twos were the indications of the intensity of bitterness. The grouping made Mayawati the uncontested queen of the group and made her to see her dream of PM chair getting realized. Further to get her on their side, the leftists had to back her on CBI issue that related to her Rs 52 crore assets. Mayawati has gone stronger after the trust vote.

Man Mohan Singh had to take help of Sibu Soren also who has sold his votes for a price known to everyone. So the UPA is now more tainted than what it was earlier. Barkha Dutt says, “When Shibu Soren returns to the Cabinet, the PM can’t disassociate himself from a decision he once so bitterly opposed. And if it turns out that the BJP MPs who brandished bundles of cash in Parliament were telling the truth about being bribed, the PM’s squeaky clean image could take a knock as well.”

I still will like to go for an inconceivable solution of understanding between Sonia Gandhi and Advani for the glory of democracy that even Karan Thapar suggests.

Some Views from Media:
1. Housewarming by Barkha Dutta
2. Cash Strapped by Rajdeep Sardesai
3. Bonfire of Morality by Vir Sanghvi
4. Is it really conceivable? By Karan Thapar
5. Trust Vote – Winners & Losers by Surjit S Bhalla

Posted in economy, governance | Leave a comment

Indian Growth Story- Gloom or Bloom

Posted on July 30, 2008 by indra

What happened in Lok Sabha on July 22 must have heartened many, though the climax with Rs 1 crore on table might have made some morose too. Record high inflation is hurting the majority of middle class badly. Interest rate is causing further damage. I don’t understand why following the textbook rules, the banks must increase the interest rate to reduce inflation. Stock market has made many poorer. The India’s foreign exchange reserves remain still at around $300 billion. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has lowered India’s growth forecast to 8 per cent in 2008-09 (9.3% in 2007-08). According to some, the figure may go lower. One of the global rating agencies, Fitch lowered India’s credit outlook. FM advises not to mourn 8% but to celebrate: “Very few countries and hardly any large nation except China are growing at eight per cent, and eight per cent growth will still be higher than the average rate of 5.8 per cent achieved during the six years of NDA rule.” I hate him comparing with NDA rule after four years in office.

However, many have positive outlook for India’s growth.

A group of top economists from Ernst & Young believe that India is on track to surpass China in growth. “We believe this is India’s moment,” declares Keystone Chief Economist William T Wilson.

Interestingly, the companies are ready to face the situation and to change strategies for keeping the growth going. For instance, big IT companies such as TCS and Infosys were in the auto component design space for a few years now. Now even the relatively smaller ones such as KPIT Cummins Infosystems, Onward Technologies, Neilsoft and CADES among others are getting into the automotive design business for better margins and higher growth in these times of economic slowdown.

Private sectors are moving fast with many achievements. New airports at Hyderabad and Banglore have come in operations. The country’s biggest private sector port has started working in Andhra Pradesh.

A yet to be released white paper, ‘India’s Role in the Globalization of the IT Industry’ by Evalueserve, a KPO, forecasts, “India will create the second largest IT services labour pool after the US within the next seven to eight years. By 2015-2016, the number of professionals working in the IT industry will grow ten-fold (from 2001-2002) and the total revenue will grow 22 times.”

Indian outsourcers are competing well with MNCs and going global. The increasing complexity of contracts with big U.S. customers; growing wage pressure at home; the rising value of the rupee; and a fierce counterassault by IBM, Accenture, and Electronic Data Systems (EDS) (recently purchased by Hewlett-Packard Company) have obliged the Indian companies- Satyam, Wipro, Infosys, Tata Consulting Services, Cognizant Technology Solutions, and HCL Technologies- known by the acronym SWITCH, to go global and create new multinationals that are much less India-focused. The battle between the fast-growing Indian outsourcers and the big U.S. firms shapes up as an intriguing test of the ability of companies from emerging countries to go toe-to-toe with the best that the West has to offer. And the world is to wait and watch who wins.

With a total of 282 outsourcing contracts valued at $49 billion in total contract value (TCV) and $10 billion in annualised contract value (ACV), the IT outsourcing industry notched up record business during the first two quarters of the current calendar year, according to TPI, the sourcing data and advisory firm. IT companies such as Wipro (25%) and Satyam (45%) are still making pretty high profits in Q1. Even manufacturing companies such as Hyundai projects to double export figures this year.

Private business houses and its associations are still ambitious and wish to keep the India’s growth story exciting. According to Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), “India can record a GDP growth rate of about 8.6 per cent during 2008-09, given the increasing capital expenditure by the private sector and the healthy incremental capital output ratio of around 4.”

Mumbai-based Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) expects the Indian economy, driven by large capacity additions, to expand by 9.5 per cent during the current year. According to CMIE estimates, fresh investments of Rs 4,44,708 crore over 400 projects were announced in the first quarter (April-June) of this financial year alone. This comes on the back of equally robust numbers in 2007-08, when more than 3,000 new projects, entailing investments of over Rs 17 lakh crore, were announced. There were 14,450 projects with committed investments of more than Rs 61 lakh crore at the end of 2007-08 with maximum number of projects covering key sectors like power, services, construction, mining, machinery, chemicals, metals and metal products.

How can with impending slowdown the capex boom in India would have continued? How could more and more fresh investments get announced every quarter?

Let the politicians not spoil the boom party even in the gloom of terror created by the sick minds.

Posted in economy | Leave a comment

Obama, India and Indians

Posted on July 29, 2008 by indra

Obama has raised the expectation levels of Americans very high. Many youngsters and liberal American foresee a golden era for US under Obama. I don’t know how would this intellectually better president-in-making fare. Will he be able to pull up the American economy? Will the middle class get a better deal in healthcare? Will he be able to encourage more American youngsters for higher education? Will he be able to more actively involve American automakers and research labs to find an effective solution to replace the gasoline in vehicles that Americans drive?

Indians too have great expectations because of his liking for Hanuman and his statement on Indo-US Nuclear Deal. As reported today, Obama also has said, “Pak should stop terror in Kashmir and close all militant camps”. It heartens every Indian. I wish India invited him in time and he chooses to visit India, the largest democracy making it first to any country outside US.

Many Indians are hoping for a better deal on the issue of their visa. I wish Obama takes a rational approach. While in US in 2005, I found many young Indians working hard for many years after passing out from a reputed university in US, but feeling totally insecure about their future because of their visa status. All those graduate engineers with master degrees from American universities would have contributed much better, if they could work fearlessly. Why can’t US issue green cards and even make them citizens? After all, they are not menial workmen from across the borders. Many of the highly educated Indians could become entrepreneurs helping American economy more intensely.

Will Obama be doing some thing about those young Indians, who after so many years in US hesitate to go back to India and start the career all over again?

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Politics of Sethusamudram

Posted on July 27, 2008 by indra

Why can’t the government and lawyers spare Rama?

By one affidavit, Rama loses his historicity, and by another affidavit Rama destroys the Sethu that his monkey army built. Can lawyers and courts decide on faith? Can even the scripture stop me from worshipping a broken idol or a place, tirthas and kshetra?

I keep on reading Tulsidas’ Ram Charit Manas completing it once very month because of some faith of mine. Can any one stop me? Should any one denounce my action or make it illegal?

However, I personally don’t side with the group that is against Sethu Samudram project as such, if it is technically and economically viable. Even if Rama gets incarnated today, He will also vouch for building it and perhaps ask the modern Nal and Neel to do that. And by naming the Sethu after Rama or by building one another grand monument in a well-located place in Rameshwaram, the memory of Rama can be perpetuated. Rama will accept the offer, even though the political parties opposing the project may not agree.

Interestingly, according to Tulsidas Rama did only appreciate the bridge that Nal and Neel built. He did worship Shiva but not the bridge itself.

However, through Nariman the government has already created a controversy, and many have shown dissent to his references. Unfortunately, the project that has already cost a lot gets further delayed. Hundreds of Ramayanas have told the story of Rama. Late Father Kamil Bulke of Ranchi University has written one great book ‘Ram Katha ki Utapati’ about the evolution of the story through ages. None of them may be taken as history. What is the point in quoting Kamba Ramayan or Padma Purana?

Perhaps in India one can’t think of any project even though it is in national interest. Either politicians or some activists will stop that on some pretext by going to court. And the court can sleep on it for decades, if not a century.
—–
Related News Stories
‘Setu doesn’t exist’: Govt relied on scholars

Tamil experts doubt Centre’s Setu destruction theory

Centre’s stand testing Hindu tolerance: Jaya

‘Ram himself broke Setu’

Scholars slam government claim on Ram Setu

·The Setu story

Posted in economy, governance, indian politics | Leave a comment