Earn While You Learn

Posted on November 14, 2007 by indra

As reported in media, students getting admission in Delhi University in undergraduate as well as graduate courses will soon be able to get part-time jobs too within the university setup. The part-time jobs on campus may include positions of research associate, library assistant, technician, cafeteria manager, website and database developer, counselor, physical education trainer, swimming coach, hostel caregiver, gardener, staff vehicle driver and security person. Academic performance of students and their financial needs will the criteria for getting the job. The remuneration will be at par with market standards, and students will be paid on the basis of the number of hours they put in per day. A research scholar gets Rs 8,000-12,000 per month as per the UGC standards. The research and teaching assistants working on part-time basis will get an hourly payment.

As such, any job of responsibility provides on job training and builds certain amount of professionalism and develops work culture. Opportunities of part-time jobs will provide will inculcate the respect for labour and may be bring equity among the mindsets of the students. I wish the system evolve, get mature and stabilize as it has in US.

The practice is almost universal in American universities. That’s the way my three sons in US completed their Masters. However, it will be the first-of-its kind plan for any Indian university. The system will prepare them better for the career without depending very much on the parents for financial support or on banks for loan to pursue their studies.

Anand showed me the food outlets where he worked initially before he could get an assistantship in a computer lab of Arizona University. I have been promoting the necessity to incorporate part time jobs for deserving graduate students as research assistant and teaching assistants in all universities. I strongly feel that the system may make many students interested in teaching and R&D as profession that today hardly is on the priority of the boys and girls studying in universities. Most of the time, it is because of the ignorance about the challenges and the opportunities of these professions that are foundations for a developed economy.

The new scheme proposes to allow students to work for 25 to 30 hours a month through the academic year, which starts from July. I wish the students could work for the time slot convenient to them without hampering their academic engagement.

Will the scheme spread to all universities, engineering colleges and schools of business management too? Will it also mean waiving off of various fees or certain concession on it that hasgone very high? I wish it did at least for those working as teaching and research assistants

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What ‘T’ Stands for? Trade or Toilet

Posted on November 13, 2007 by indra

Almost all of us know World Trade Organization that has played big role in globalization. But recently, I came to know of World Toilet Organization that had a summit and exhibition recently in New Delhi attended by many dignitaries including our Kalam. Years ago I wrote about Gandhi’s stay in Chmparan and his thrust on sanitation. The subject remains relevant even today.

With a rural background, I had been writing about the horrible conditions in villages. Open defecation is the only way. As I remember my grandfather and uncles with whom I lived during my early childhood getting up very early in morning and going for defecation outside in the fields with water in a ‘lota’. I also did the same whenever I visited my village home. Women had to wait for darkness of the night. But in those days, the social values and law and order situation were different. However, in rainy seasons, going out and finding a safe place used to be difficult. It was really awesome if someone fell sick. The situation remains almost same in rural India. But why should I talk of rural India, even in Noida, one of the richest satellite township, one can see or smell the misery created because of the open defecation near the main road in some areas by those working class who don’t have access to any toilet. And the number of such persons is pretty high. Unfortunately, many a cities including Noida has never planned to provide sufficient numbers of public toilets. After many letters to CEO to have a toilet complex in all the markets and bigger parks with Mother Dairy and Safal Booths visited by hundreds of morning walkers and customers, there are hardly any. Few years ago, I had to drive through the road of Bihar. It was horribly shameful situation with hundreds of women and girls using the roadside for open defecation. The driver couldn’t have driven without light and as he used to put on the headlight one could see them suddenly getting up and turning the faces in different direction in hundreds. When we traveled by train, we just couldn’t see outside the glass window in the morning when the train used to enter Patna. The memory of Khajuraho village was equally dismal. Government has taken up many programmes. One such is Normal Gram. I don’t know the extent the situation has changed. Even in Hindustan Motors, it was a pitiable conditions so far the toilets for workforces were concerned for many years. Unfortunately, it is mindset. Majority doesn’t feel it necessary to keep the toilets clean.

As Priya Sahgal reported on and from Sanitation Summit in ‘India Today’, ‘globally 2,600 million people defecate in the open. Of these, 700 million live in India.’ However, Bindheswari Pathak of Sulabh Sauchalaya fame wishes to half the number in India by 2015 and achieve ‘toilet for all’ goal by 2025.

Interestingly, even in 2500 B.C., Mahenjodaro had a highly developed sewage system that directed waste from every house into a sewer. Kolkata was the third city in the world after London and New York to have a sewage system in 1870. Yet in 137 years, only 232 of the 5,000 towns of India are connected to the sewage system. Sanitation Summit arranged displays of some toilet systems and accessories too. I am just getting tempted to mention some:

  The most hi-tech solution to conserve water are the incinerator toilets that don’t use a flush but one KWH of electricity for each cycle and produce a spoonful of ash.
  15 countries have by now adopted the Sulabh technology that converts waste into biogas, which can be used for cooking and power generation.
  An eclectic toilet seat massages, cleanses, dries and sprinkles perfumed water.

And then some pickings:

England’s John Harrington invented first water closet in 1596. He made only two, one for himself and the other for the Queen.

In US in 1996, a hairdresser invented a buttock stimulator for relieving constipation. An electrician, in 1992, patented the first electric chamber pot to keep warm in chilly nights.

In Switzerland, pay toilets give you 15 minutes after which the door opens automatically, even if you’re not quite done.

The world’s most expensive toilet seat was one bought by NASA from the Russians that cost $19 million (Rs 74 crore).

In Thailand’s Chiang Mai, elephants are trained to use human toilets, while in Korea toilets are called Hae-woojae, which means a sanctuary and a place to think.

Ben Afleck gifted the world’s most eclectic toilet seat to Jennifer Lopez. It cost $105,000 (Rs 41 lakh) and had rubies, sapphire, and pearls embedded in the plastic.

NewGen toilets have incinerators; seats that massage, cleanse with perfumed water; and portable toilets that fit into a rucksack with biodegradable starch bags.

Manmohan Singh’s ‘Bharat Nirman’ has many lofty targets for rural India: road, electricity for all households, drinking water, and telephone links. I wish public toilets for every village had been part of it.

More importantly, it must be mandatory for all the small and big enterprises including shops and public places such as petrol pumps, and restaurants on the road to provide clean and safe toilets.

Unfortunately, Pathak started well with Patna, but his business models was deficient somewhere, otherwise India would have attained ‘toilet for all goal’ by now.

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Booming and Blooming India-XXVII

Posted on November 12, 2007 by indra

My laptop crashed at 4 AM yesterday, while I was working for this entry. My desktop was inoperative since quite sometime. I got a shock, as I hardly knew anything why it happened. I was morose and thought I must get off for few days from doing this task so religiously every day. But it was difficult to even think of a life without browsing through the information that is changing every minute.

Being a Sunday, I was not very hopeful if something will happen so fast. But it happened.

I called Girish to wish him a happy Diwali and to complain why he didn’t call me to join the kids in firework last night. But then I enquired if he knew anyone who could help me in restoring my laptop. Girish told me about Neeraj who runs a cyber café in nearby market. I went there at 10.30AM and asked for the service. Neeraj responded well but he couldn’t come immediately as there was no one to look after the café. But he did come and took away the laptop to reload the operating system. By 4.30 PM, he sent the laptop and also confirmed that the hardware part is fine and I needn’t worry. Neeraj has sent that through a boy of 18 who works for him. The boy was quite conversant with computer systems. He has just read up to class X. I wish he could have further schooling.

But I couldn’t use my laptop for Internet, as the laptop required some reconfiguration Airtel, according to the boy that came from Neeraj’s shop. I called Airtel call center. The boy on the other side promised to get it done in next 48 hours by its service engineer, as I was not ready to do that myself on instruction on line. However, by 6.30 PM I got a call from the young man who came to fix up the Airtel part. My laptop was ready to allow me an access to the world of knowledge. Anand did rest, when he came on line at around 9.30PM, as I had informed Shannon about the developments.

Is the story not good enough a proof of booming and bubbling India?

PS I shall continue with the series again by next week.

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Renu Khator and CK Prahalad

Posted on November 10, 2007 by indra

Renu Khator

Perhaps the biggest joy for me in pre-Diwali news reports have been the information about two American Indians who have been awarded or rewarded for their outstanding work in their respective areas.

On last Monday, the Board of Regents of the University of Houston officially confirmed Renu Khator, 52, as its next chief executive. The University of Houston system, with a faculty of more than 3,000 and a student enrolment of 50,000-plus, is one of the nation’s biggest.

Renu is a small town girl, born in 1955 in Farrukhabad. Her father, Satish Chandra Maheshwari was a successful lawyer in the town. Renu studied in Mission School, Farrukhabad and graduated from the NAKP Degree College (affiliated to Kanpur University) in the town and later went to Allahabad University.

When her father settled the marriage, Renu was studying at Allahabad University in MA Part-1. Renu was against marrying without finishing her post-graduation. She went on a hunger strike. But her would-be husband Suresh Khator promised to help her pursue higher studies. And he kept the promise.

When Khator first came to the US in 1974 as a young bride, her English was poor. Her husband, Suresh Khator, an engineering student at Purdue University, translated for her while she was interviewed by the dean for school admission. She made the cut, earned high grades while learning the language from re-runs of “I Love Lucy” and “The Andy Griffith Show”, and never looked back.
Renu took up a temporary position, but in two decades worked her way to become provost at the university. On Monday, the Houston Chronicle observed that ”Khator spoke without using notes, and her easy eloquence seemed to impress all who met the university’s 13th president.”

Renu’s success story par excellence and shows what complimentary husband and wife can achieve.

CK Prahalad

Thinkers 50, an annual ranking of the top 50 management thought leaders in the world, has crowned C K Prahalad, professor at the University of Michigan’s Stephen M Ross School of Business, the greatest management thinker alive.

In this year’s Thinkers 50 – released in London on Wednesday – Prahalad (No. 3 last year) has trumped the likes of former US Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, strategy guru Michael Porter and Microsoft founder Bill Gates to emerge as No. 1.

Prahalad’s work with Gary Hamel set the strategic agenda of the 1990s. Now, with ”The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid”, he has established the social, entrepreneurial and economic agenda of our times,” said Stuart Crainer and Des Dearlove of Suntop Media, the organisation which brings out the Thinkers 50 ranking.

C K Prahalad is known to set the tone in whichever area he ventures into. In 1990 he coined the term ”core competence” with Gary Hamel, an idea that emphasises that companies should stick to their core strengths. In 2004, with his book ”The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid”, he nudged multinational firms to look at the vast untapped opportunity that lies in serving the world’s 5 billion poor. And from there, CK set his sights on the idea of ”co-creation” or how companies can involve customers in the innovation process in a book he co-wrote with his colleague Venkat Ramaswamy.

One magazine called him a ”One Man Idea Lab”.

While going through the story of CK Prhalad, I came across the names of a number of Indian management gurus: Three Indians in the top 50: CEO coach Ram Charan at No. 22 (up from No. 24 last year), innovation guru Vijay Govindarajan of the Tuck Business School at No. 23 (No. 31 last year); and Harvard’s Rakesh Khurana at No. 45 (No. 33 last year). Other names in the news reporting CK’s selection were of Jagdish Sheth, professor of marketing at Emory University’s Goizueta School of Business; Nirmalya Kumar, professor of marketing at London Business School; Bala Balachandran, professor at Kellogg School of Management; and Venkat Ramaswamy, professor at the Ross School of Business and also co-author of ‘The Future of Competition’.

And then some disturbing questions crop up in my mind: Why have so many of management thinkers gone to UK or US? Could have they risen so high in India? Why do we not hear or know the names of some distinguished management thinkers working in India? Is it because Indian corporate houses don’t hear them till they are not connected to US institutions? Why do media never talk about some of their outstanding works? Could Renu attain the same position here in India?

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Diwali – Down the memory lane

Posted on November 9, 2007 by indra

At this age I love going down my memory lane to recover some that can reflect the past.

I don’t remember if we celebrated the day in big way in our remote village. However, I clearly remember my great grandmother, a religious and child widow lighting earthen lamps that she made herself near the well, Shiva Chavutra, and the Tulsi plant in the courtyard.

I don’t have any memory from my school days at Birlapur. But I am sure we must be getting good special food on the day, as my grand father was very fond of good food that also on such occasion. Perhaps I had gone more mature by that time, and had started taking all the luxury of fireworks that as a child I would have loved as waste.

It was only the Diwali of IIT, Kharagpur that I vividly remember. The lighting competition between the halls of residences with oil lamps on the terraces and the fireworks in the ground between Azad, Nehru, and Patel Halls used to be the main attraction. But then it got discontinued. I don’t remember why.

During 37 years at Hind Motors, I don’t remember when but I started worshipping the Goddess of Wealth on Diwali (that is continuing till today) and lighting some candles. When the trio came and grew, we started buying some amount of fireworks too. But I remain scared with them. However, the main feature at Hind Motors used to be the club-organized fireworks in the island of the big tank in the colony where almost the whole lot of residents collected around the tank to enjoy. And that followed with usual exchange of greetings as a practice. For next few days, we used to visit known families to wish them prosperity.

After we shifted to Noida, we drifted further from the festivities of the day. We do hardly go out on this day. It is lighting and puja in the evening, and that’s all. Noida is rich, perhaps with per capita income one of the highest in Indian satellite towns. People are very religious too. Yesterday we went out to visit the homoeopath doctor of Yamuna. In three attempts since the morning, we could catch him only at 8 PM. But that made me see what is Noida like on Diwali night. For the first time I enjoyed the lighting of the residents all over and all types. Huge crowd in the extra sweet and gifts shops set up in all the markets scared me to go in, but I had to get in one to buy some, even though the prices were very high and we had seen report of fake chemical khoya on TV scaring us. And on the way back, we found vendors of flowers and even earthen lamps of all types making a very good business. This is perhaps the trickling down effect of prosperous economy and a way to judge the prosperity of the shining India.

I have two sources to know something about how we celebrated the Diwali- diaries of my grandfather and my own. I have a plan to look into it. But I wish my sons wrote me what they remember.

Happy Diwali!

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Two Bihars- Bahubali and Mushhar

Posted on November 7, 2007 by indra

Last Sunday, I saw two interesting reports. Both are good enough to shock any sensitive person of the country.

Here is the story of the Bahubali.

Anant Singh has become known to millions in one day courtesy media, and all for something that must ashamed any honourable person. His men assaulted media persons who wanted to finds out information about Resma Khatoon. Relenting to the media pressure, the CM had to get arrested Anant Singh. But who is this Anant Singh? I had never read about him. Here is something.

Anant Singh prospered under the patronage of his brother Dilip Singh, a minister in the Rabri Devi government. And at the opportunate time, he joined the present ruling party of Bihar. His story may charm some: When a dethroned Lalu Prasad Yadav put his pet horse, the polka-dotted Pawan, on sale at Asia’s largest cattle fair at Sonepur last year, Anant bought it by using a fake purchaser for Rs 1.11 crore. The grapevine in Patna had it that Lalu’s steed only heeded commands in English. Anant immediately renamed Rudal, after a Bihar folk hero, and said, “Abhi dekhte hain yeh angrezi samajhta hai ki Hindi (Let’s see whether he follows English or Hindi).” Rudal has company. A buffalo that Anant recently bought for Rs 65,000 reportedly bathes in the master’s swimming pool. As it seems, Anant would have used the village pond in his childhood for himself as well as for his buffalo. He is only living his childhood. And perhaps like all the modern Gabbaras, a perfect evening for Anant, Anand Mohan, Pappu Yadav, Shahabuddin, Sadhu and Subhash means party with lot of drinks spent in the comfort of one’s own home in the company of senior cops and politicians with a mujra performance by “scantily clad girls gyrating to Bhojpuri songs” to keep them all entertained.

Another report dealt with Musahar community:

According to my memory of the childhood, Musahars used to be pretty well built. I saw some Musahar wrestling with some higher caste ones too. But today things have changed. They got isolated and left out. A 2003 study by a student of the Indian Institute of Rural Management found that 90 per cent of the Musahar children below six suffer from malnutrition.
Musahar keep on shifting with their meager possessions: string charpoys, kitchen utensils and a few tattered garments.

Musahars is one of India’s most marginalized communities. They live in separate locations or habitations. They are believed to be tribals evicted when the British cleared forestlands. Powerful landlords usurped small plots given in compensation. According to a study, 60 per cent of Musahars were landless. Some own just small waterlogged, infertile plots.

As regards the origin of the community’s name, some Musahars claim it is because they ate rats. According to some, the name was given because of the tribe’s practice of ferreting out grain from rats’ burrows. I have seen them digging the mouse burrows in paddy field and taking out the grains from the holes. Naturally that can’t be a way of living.

The report was horrifying. The Musahars today hardly get two chapattis a day. I don’t understand why with so much publicized employment guarantee programme in almost all districts, Musahars are in such a pitiable condition. Why can’t hundreds of NGOs claiming to work for such people concentrate on the community such as Musahars and help them with all that can be done within the frame works of so many government programmes?

Both the stories are shocking and gloomy. But while one must go to the prison for the different crimes committed as don, the second require humane handling for upliftment. Musahars must be part of the inclusive growth. They can be trained for manufacturing handicrafts. A special programme must educate their children by providing all expenditures till they master some skills or get sufficiently educated and employed.

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The Indian Middle Class- some data, some views

Posted on November 6, 2007 by indra

The Indian middle class is emerging real strong and is surging ahead as a force to be reckoned with. The success story of India is to a great extent the story of the growth of this class. The Indian middle class was around 15% in 1996, and today it has galloped to 37% at present.

The two major visible aspects of the revolution that has happened in India are the role of IT sector and the women of the society in last two decades or so. The increasing participation of woman in the labour force to sectors that suit it well, have and will have a profound impact in the future of the nation in increasing the value addition to the traditional middle class with increased take home salary as well as living standard.

The McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) has published a new study. Here are some findings.

If India continues its recent growth, average household incomes will triple over the next two decades and it will become the world’s 5th-largest consumer economy by 2025, up from 12th now. Can one think of the scenario if the growth rate hovers around 10% or goes higher up? There may be constraints, but why can’t China be benchmarked?

In 2005 private spending reached about 17 trillion Indian rupees ($372 billion), accounting for more than 60 percent of India’s GDP. In this respect, India is closer to developed economies such as Japan and the United States than are China and other fast-growing emerging markets in Asia. Further, the aggregate consumer spending could more than quadruple in coming years, reaching 70 trillion rupees by 2025, according to the study. The life of the average Indian will change vastly by 2025.

Households earning $1 per person per day

In 1985, 93 percent of the population lived on a household income of less than 90,000 rupees a year, or about a dollar per person per day; by 2005 that proportion had been cut nearly in half, to 54 percent. By McKinsey’s estimate, 431 million fewer Indians live in extreme poverty today than would have if poverty had remained stuck at the 1985 level. May be, If India can achieve above 9 percent annual growth over the next 20 years, there will be none living a life of extreme deprivation.

Rural India has also benefited from this growth: extreme rural poverty has declined from 94 percent in 1985 to 61 percent in 2005, and it will drop to 26 percent by 2025 (if GDP grows at around 7%).
Today only 29 percent of Indians live in cities, compared with 40 percent of the Chinese and 48 percent of Indonesians, and the study projects the level of urbanization will increase to only 37 percent by 2025.

Middle Class

India will witness the rapid growth of its middle class-households with disposable incomes from 200,000 to 1,000,000 rupees a year. That class now comprises about 50 million people, roughly 5 percent of the population. By 2025 a continuing rise in personal incomes will spur a tenfold increase, enlarging the middle class to about 583 million people, or 41 percent of the population.

By 2025 the Indian middle class will dominate the cities. And about three-quarters of India’s urbanites will be part of the middle class, compared with just more than one-tenth today. About 400 million Indian city dwellers-a group nearly 100 million people larger than the current population of the United States-will belong to households with a comfortable standard of living.

And with better affluence, the middle class will certainly bring about some major changes in the governance and society that may be difficult to foresee today.Pawan Verma writes so correctly in the introduction of his newly revised edition of “The Great Indian Middle Class’: ” As India appears to be finally emerging as a global power, one overriding sentiment that infuses the middle-class world-view is a sense of pride.”

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Booming and Bubbling India-XXV

Posted on November 5, 2007 by indra

“It is undeniable that India is on a new growth trajectory. A trajectory where sustained economic growth of 9-10 per cent per annum – growth rates which were considered impossible even five years ago – seems possible for many years to come,” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told a conference organised by a business magazine. Indian economy is likely to expand at close to 9 per cent this fiscal and the government may take more steps such as relaxing norms for infrastructure companies to raise funds abroad for sustaining high growth, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said.

Sensex surpasses 20K: Stock market benchmark Sensex achieved the 20K milestone on 29 October in intra-day trading on all-round buying by foreign as well as domestic investors in blue chip stocks led by Larsen & Toubro and Reliance Industries.

Mukesh Ambani becomes world’s richest: Billionaire Mukesh Ambani became the richest person in the world, surpassing American software czar Bill Gates, Mexican business tycoon Carlos Slim Helu and famous investment guru Warren Buffett, courtesy the bull run in the stock market, following a strong share price rally in his three group companies — India’s most valued firm Reliance Industries, Reliance Petroleum and Reliance Industrial Infrastructure Ltd — the net worth of Mukesh Ambani rose to $63.2 billion (Rs 2,49,108 crore).

Sebi curbs fail to slow down markets: Indian stock markets shrugged off concerns of a short-term slowdown in foreign fund inflows, with the Bombay Stock Exchange’s (BSE) benchmark index closing at a new high, and fund managers saying that this was due to continuing inflows from foreign institutional investors (FIIs) and renewed interest from domestic institutions, including mutual fund (MF) houses.

Q2 good show keeps going: Indian Inc report high net up of Q2: HDFC 75%, SAIL 18%, Nestle 40%, Bharti Airtel 87%, and RCom 86%,….. India Inc seems to have warded off adverse macroeconomic factors, including a rising rupee and growing raw material costs, with better cost-management and by reworking their product portfolio.

India Inc invests : India is set to become a potential goldmine as investment announcements surge to Rs 1,75,629 crore for August-September 2007, bulk of which will go to Petroleum sector, especially in Orissa and West Bengal, according to Assocham’s Eco Pulse Study on ‘Investment Announcements’.

Goldman may invest $2 bn: Goldman Sachs, which has invested more than $1 billion in the Indian market, is ready to double or triple its exposure to the country, its chairman and chief executive said in a newspaper interview published on Monday 28 Oct. Dubai’s DP World to invest $500 mn in India: Dubai’s DP World plans to invest $500 million in India over the next two years to development infrastructure at its port operations in the South Asian country, including rail links and roads.

Cisco on track to invest $1.1 bn in India: Cisco Systems Inc is on target to invest the $1.1 billion (Rs4, 337 crore) it committed in 2005 to spend in India and plans to scale up its staff strength to 10, 000 people in India by the end of 2010, chief executive John Chambers, who is currently on a trip to India, said on 29 October.

Steel outplays other sectors: Steel seems to have outplayed other sectors in wooing investments, both foreign and domestic, as the sector is set to attract investment worth about Rs 3,00,000 crore within the next five years.

Rs 1-lakh house: After the National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme, the UPA government is working to launch another scheme for the aam aadmi. Tentatively called the Aam Aadmi Awas (AAA), its goal is to provide “affordable” homes that ensure “reasonable quality of life” for the “urban-rural poor.”

Harvard dresses up for growth courses in India: Harvard Business School will start an executive education programme in India next year, stepping out of its traditional East Coast venue in the US, targeting companies with global ambitions to address what it believes is the typical challenge in the booming economy–managing hypergrowth.

GFL to invest Rs 6,000 cr in wind power: Gujarat Fluorochemicals (GFL), India’s largest refrigeration gas producer and part of the Inox group, is diversifying into the power sector, and plans to invest over Rs 6,000 crore to produce 1,000 mw of wind energy within the next five years.

Indian markets among top wealth creators: Indian equity markets have been one of the top performing markets when it comes to wealth creation, witnessing an 89 per cent expansion in the total market capitalisation in 2007.

Global tech, local help: A knowledge processing and outsourcing (KPO) unit in Calcutta is teaching people in the US how to set up and use the latest electronic gadgets.

Airbus in talks with Air India for selling 12 superjumbo A380s: European aircraft maker Airbus Industrie is in talks with flag carrier Air India for sale of up to 12 superjumbo A-380 planes, as it looks for a greater presence in the world’s fastest growing civil aviation market.

US House of Representatives passes resolution honouring Diwali: The US House of Representatives has for the first time passed a resolution recognising the “religious and historical significance” of Diwali. The House Resolution 747, was passed by an overwhelming vote of 358 to 0 (with 66 members abstaining).

Infosys pursuing 15 global deals worth $100 m each: “Globally, Infosys is in the reckoning for at least 15 opportunities, all are $100 million-plus each. These are all overseas deals and typically take 8-10 months for closure. They are across various areas including hi-tech, retail, manufacturing, and Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI), ” Mr Kris Gopalakrishnan, CEO & MD, Infosys Technologies Ltd.

German pact to take science to industry: India and Germany will invest 10 million euros (Rs 56.8 crore) each to establish an Indo-German technology centre in New Delhi for industry-relevant research under a slew of agreements the two countries signed today. The agreements will expand existing scientist-exchange programmes and launch joint research projects in futuristic manufacturing, energy technologies and health research.

Cisco, Wipro announce strategic alliance: US networking firm Cisco and India’s third-largest software maker Wipro Ltd announced a strategic alliance to develop and deliver IT service solutions to help both companies meet their customer’s needs. Under the pact, Cisco and Wipro together will build new IT infrastructure service solutions that combine the US company’s industry-leading networking solutions with the Indian firm’s infrastructure and managed services portfolio.

Dow plans $100mn R&D facility near Pune: The Dow Chemical Company will be investing $100 million for a research and development (R&D) facility at Chakan near Pune.

FieldFresh targets turnover of Rs 500 cr: Field Fresh Foods (P) Ltd, a 50:50 joint venture between Bharti Enterprises and Del Monte Pacific India Ltd (DMPL), is targeting a turnover of Rs 500 crore in the next three years. At present the company is exporting fresh fruits and vegetables to key markets, including the UK, West Asia and Europe.

NCAER raises GDP growth forecast to 8.9%: The National Council of Applied Economic Research, which had forecast the country’s economy to grow by 8.5 per cent in 2007-08, has raised projection to 8.9 per cent on improved performance of agriculture and services sectors.

India to stay in talent top club till 2012: For 2012 ranking, India gets the 2nd rank on its demographics; 9th on its labour mobility and relative openness of the labour market; 13th on its proclivity to attract talent; 13th on its environment to nurture talent, but a poor 25th on education and 26th on FDI inflow.

India geared up to tap $31 bn drug outsourcing market: Contract Research and Manufacturing Services (CRAMS), is becoming one of the most promising opportunities for the Indian pharma industry. India, with its intrinsic competitive advantages, remains as one of the most preferred outsourcing destinations with the global manufacturing outsourcing opportunity estimated at $20 billion targeting $31 billion by 2010.

India’s exports rise by 19.26% despite rupee rise: India’s exports increased by 19.26 per cent in September this year, despite a rise in rupee value, while imports went up by a moderate 2.31 per cent.

HCL to set up 5 tech centres at Rs 1,000 cr each: The country’s fourth largest software exporter HCL Technologies will set up five technology hubs across the country which will entail an investment of Rs 1,000 crore each, and the new initiative would generate employment for nearly one lakh people in the next 5-7 years.

Suzlon plans exports to 40 countries: World’s fifth largest wind turbine manufacturer Suzlon Energy seeks to export its products to 40 countries including South Africa, South Korea and parts of emerging Europe.

India tops in carbon credit deals: India has registered the largest number of Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects in the world. The country accounted for 283 CDM projects out of the 819 registered by the CDM Executive Board.

HTMT to buy 3 overseas BPOs for $300 million: Hinduja TMT Global Solutions (HGSL), the business process outsourcing (BPO) arm of the Hinduja group, is in final stage of negotiations for acquiring two BPO companies in the US and one in the UK for a total consideration of around $300 million (Rs 1,200 crore).

IIT Madras, Bombay tie up with auto cos for low-cost robots: IIT Madras and IIT Bombay have entered into an agreement with a consortium of automobile companies to design, development and manufacture of low-cost robots that can be deployed on the shop floor.

India may add 78,000 MW in next five years: India may add 78,000 MW of power generation capacity in the five years to March 2012, according to Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia.

Japanese investments in India to touch $5 b: Japanese investments in the country are expected to touch $5 billion over the next three years.

For most who matter in the developing countries, India is becoming important, though many skeptical in India are counting the days the booming mood lasts. But look at the revolution that one sees on the street. “India’s economy is growing at over 9%, and younger consumers, especially those working in call centers, can now afford the personal digital assistants and Research In Motion (RIMM) BlackBerrys that, as recently as a year ago, seemed out of reach to everyone but wealthy businesspeople and other professionals.”

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Shocked and Ashamed

Posted on November 3, 2007 by indra

The whole Bihar must be under a shock and many like me must be ashamed too, as by destiny we are from Bihar. How long can the well wishers wait to stop getting the humiliating stories of feudal sick mentality and exploitation of the commoner?

I had been requesting our CM, who may be a gentleman to be ruthless. It would have been easier for him to be so if he could select an outsider belonging to a class of Gill or Kiran Bedi, or Rebiero to head the police administration. But perhaps he has his own political constraints and limitations. However, this is an opportunity lost forever even for him and certainly for the state.

Last summer I was in Patna and I asked every one I came across why the construction boom has not touched Patna when it is changing the face of the country all over. I know the answer now from a press report in TOI. “Such is Anant’s terror that his mere gaze at a building sends shivers down the occupants’ spine. The other day he was driving through in his Mercedes when he stopped by a building and got out – almost simultaneously the cops got a phone call with a quavering voice at the other end complaining that Chhote Sarkar was looking in the direction of his house. ”Usually, he gets the building his eyes rest on,” said an upscale Fraser Road shopkeeper.” And this don is an MLA of the ruling party. As the report says, he runs a parallel government, and keeps his own army. He claims to be the icon of an influential caste with Brahminical background but perhaps cursed to live a life of Ravana. Unfortunately, there is no Rama incarnated till now. By owning him the caste as whole gets degraded. As it happens, Anant Singh is pretty near to Nitish Kumar. I wish this were not true.

How can one think of development and investment to come with this sort of mafia strength in a state? Perhaps this is the answer to the question I keep on asking: “Why are the hundreds of proposals for the new projects of factories and colleges that the new government has approved, are not getting started?”

Nitish Kumar must use the revelations from media as tool to weed out the unlawful activities ruthlessly through the fast track courts. And I only wish that media is not partisan in its reporting. Let us remember it is the same class of people who enjoy the dances of the bar girls before the rally or kill Reshma. Bihar must get rid of that mentality by perhaps making the second rung political leaders and their followers to undergo an intensive training under gurus such as Ramdev or Ravi Shankar. I find media showing special likings for Laluji even when the roots for all the present maladies go back to his reign. The media covers Lalu’s ‘Chetawwani’ rally or may be ‘raillaa’ with lot of spicy stories rather than the endeavours of the present government to make things right and take the state on the path of development with so many good educational initiatives in the state.

If Nitish fails to crush these dons, he must confess and declare his helplessness publicly so that the people of the state can retire and take it as their destiny.

I get reminded of Late poet Dinkar’s urging the almighty (if He is there) to send back Arjun and Bhima. We need many Ramas, as Ravanas are large in number. Will they come and save Bihar?

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Hope and Endeavours Making Difference

Posted on November 3, 2007 by indra

While one way of going for inclusive growth is reservations, perhaps the most effective way will be bridging the gap between the needs of industry and the skill-sets of the socially disadvantaged. Many states have started initiatives that focus on training programmes to improve the employability of educated youth.

Over the last few years, AP has trained and helped over one lakh people from marginalised communities get jobs, while thousands have become entrepreneurs.

The AP government aims to create five lakh more manufacturing jobs by March ’09, and has started Jawahar Knowledge Centres to help poor students with engineering and other degrees improve their employability. Thousands who have thus augmented their skills have already landed jobs in companies like Infosys and Microsoft.

In Madhya Pradesh, over three lakh people have benefited from its District Poverty Initiative Project (DPIP). Those involved in the projects are heartened by the response from rural communities that are active partners in the project along with the government, NGOs and institutions like the World Bank. MP has been able to improve the employability of the poorest of poor.

According to Ravindra Pastor, coordinator of MP’s DPIP, “In the six years since we started with World Bank help, some 3,17,000 families have benefited. Of them, 56 per cent chose land-based activities, 22 per cent took up animal husbandry, the remaining started their own enterprise or took up jobs.” An independent survey reveals 29 per cent of the beneficiaries in MP are women, 25 per cent SC, 25 per cent ST and the rest economically weaker. Overall, about 40 per cent beneficiaries in various entrepreneurship and job-training schemes are women.

In Kerala, the standard instruction to state-run agencies is to help the poor generate self-employment. In 99.9 per cent cases, proposals from SC/STs for starting small-scale units are assisted, and put on the fast track.

However, some states are taking a narrower view to reserving the jobs in the industries of the state for its own people. As we all know it is troublesome and creates problems with huge immigrations in the country.Haryana is among the states, which stipulate that new industries give 25 per cent jobs to locals.

The hill states of HP and Uttarakhand too made it mandatory in ’03 for all new enterprises to allocate 70 per cent jobs to locals, though not on a caste basis. Between January ’03 and May ’07, 33,704 small-scale units were set up in HP with a capital investment of Rs 1,471.23 crore that meant 1,58,483 local jobs. Alongside, both HP and Uttarakhand are focusing on worker training.

The Velugu project (Indira Kranti Patham) has benefited 8 million women in AP, MP and Rajasthan. The World Bank has commenced a rural livelihood project in Bihar and is firming up similar projects in West Bengal and Orissa. Rajasthan emphasises on asset creation for inculcating a savings habit and making the beneficiaries bankable. “So far, some two lakh families have acquired livestock, started handloom-based enterprises or created land assets.”

Reservations do widen the social base of industry, but do not ensure retention or adequate wages unless backed by skill upgradation. States, NGOs, and private sector must get into skill building and training in big way. And with skill, one can get a well paying engagement easily in this vast world that is getting flat.

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