Pilgrimage – Some Experiences

Posted on March 5, 2007 by indra

We are back after almost 10 days and for all these days I have not written any thing. But naturally, while I was moving along visiting places of religious pilgrimage, and some times the places of historical importance, my mind was very active. I shared some of my views with my brother Ashok, his wife, Bibha and Yamuna and now I shall like to write about at least some.

Why is the government of India so indifferent in doing something to keep these places clean and tidy so that the religious tourists who are the aam aadmi in majority can have feel of an healthy safe ambience in these places? Is it because the government tries to prove itself secular by allowing the religious leaders, priests, and pandas do whatever they wish to do to exploit the common illiterate millions of India? Why can’t the departments of tourism of the state and centre provide at least good clean toilets and some eateries that provide healthy food and water? ‘Bhent Dwarka’ is considered as the residential portion of Dwarkadhish Krishna with temples or residences dedicated to all His major queens and a place dedicated as the meeting place of His friend Sudama with Him. It is just filthy infested by unscrupulous pandas telling all sort of stories to the believers, mostly the lowest in the society and persuading them to part with the maximum to get rid of all the sins committed and to get easy access to heavenly abode. At least the leadership of RSS, BJP and VHP, who claim to be the protectors of Hindu religion and culture, the Sankaracharyas, and other religious heads, must do something about it. They must appreciate the requirements of the younger educated, intelligent, and affluent Hindus too who are interested in visiting the places. It will also be financially much more paying to those leaders. Can’t these institutions provide at least some well printed authentic brochures and literature about the places for the pilgrims?

I wish they took these steps before the younger generation that matters gets disenchanted.

During this period, Laluji presented his railway budget too and has become the hero for the turning around the railways with huge profits. I do also congratulate him along with others. But can’t the railway stations be made more ‘aam aadmi’-friendly? How can the old persons go through the steep stairs to go to the different platforms? How do the disabled persons do it? We hear hundreds of the railway stations are getting modernized to world-class standard. Why can the department start with the railway station in NCR that is visited by many foreign visitors? I found the Nizzamuddin Railway Station as one of the filthiest one with almost missing provision for taxis and other public transport.

How long the government and the bureaucrats go on making promises with nothing visible happening on the ground level? Let them come out of the offices and do something positive to change the things to help the people.
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Read an interesting features:
‘The 50 Most Important People on the Web’

‘Generating the Big Idea’
Strategy guru C K Prahalad on the ‘pyramid’

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I Am Away And Leaving “My Friend” Behind

Posted on February 22, 2007 by indra

The people of our age have been directed by the scriptures to visit places of religious importance that perhaps can get them a suitable place in the heavenly abode, if there is one. And with that sort of incentives, religious tourism has flourished over years. Adi Sankaracharya re-established Hinduism, and for the community created four dhams at four corners of the country- Badrinath in the north, Jagannath Puri in the east, Dwarka in the west, and Rameshwaram in the south. And this feat by him established the integrity and the span of the nation at that point of time.

We have been to Jagannath Puri in Orissa, and Badrinath in Himalayas of Uttaranchal. This time we shall be visiting only one in the west, Dwarka in Gujarat. We are leaving for Vadodara on 22.02.2007. Ashok is posted there in RPF as assistant commissioner. We shall stay with them, and visit Dwarka from there .

Dwarka has another significance. It is the capital of a kingdom where Krishna shifted to avoid Jarashandha of Magadha (present Bihar) who kept on attacking Mathura.

We shall cover Somnath, the temple of Shiva that Mahmood Gazanavi demolished and looted, and from then onward India started slipping in the hands of invaders who established empire and rules, because of the lack of one strong central power in the country and disunity in the Indian kings. Our next stop will be Porbandar, the place made famous for Mahatma Gandhi. After visiting Gir Forest, that is the only where one can see the lions, we shall return back to Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar, the capital of Gujarat. We may go to Sabarmati Ashram, established by Mahatma Gandhi, from where Mahatma led the Independence movements. And then we return to Vadodara.

Vadodara was the place where HM established its truck plant at Halol in collaboration with Isuzu Motors of Japan. I used to visit the place quite regularly in those days as General Manager, corporate project planning. It was for explaining the project to the people from financial institutes, or for discussing the project and equipment planning with the Japanese technical teams. Isuzu truck project didn’t go along for long because of high yen value. I consider the abandonment of the Isuzu truck project was a loss to the commercial vehicle sector of India. Isuzu was a great name in trucks those days. By that time, Tata Motors didn’t have commercial vehicles of world-class designs, the reason that made it acquiring Daewoo Commercial vehicle plant in South Korea. Later on, Birlas transferred the property built to GM when it entered India. Unfortunately, none of the old people from HM are there, neither I know anyone in GM plant. I wish I could visit the GM plant.

While at Vadodara, we shall also be visiting a world heritage site at Chmpaner about which I read in newspapers, though I might have gone to the place in those days. Really I don’t remember. We shall celebrate Holi with the family in Vadodara, and on 4.3.2007 we shall leave for Delhi.

Perhaps, it will not be possible to blog during the period. I shall miss something, but I can’t help. I don’t wish to inconvenience myself andYamuna while in holidaying mood.

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Some Recommendations oF National Knowledge Commission

Posted on February 21, 2007 by indra

Sam Pitroda is credited with bringing about the telecom revolution in India. He heads the National Knowledge Commission initiated by UPA government. Some of the remarks of Pitroda, as chairman of NKC, about the reservations for OBC in higher education got a lot of media attention. Recently, the commission submitted its report to the Prime Minister. Among many recommendations, the three related to library, translation, and importance of English interested me. We have been traditionally book lovers. My grand father and then my uncle created some library at home and helped the younger generation to get into the habit of reading good books. I remember in the sixties and seventies, the government provided some assistance too. I envied American counties when I visited their libraries. It serves all age groups of the society, Interestingly, Santa Clara library had some Hindi books and VCRs of Hindi pictures too. Here are the commission’s views on library.

1.Library and information services are fundamental to the goals of creating, disseminating, optimally utilizing and preserving knowledge. They are instrumental in transforming an unequal society into an egalitarian, progressive knowledge society. Developments in information communication technology (ICT) have enabled libraries to provide access to all, and also bridge the gap between the local, the national and the global. It is imperative that all libraries (public, academic, research and special) change gear and develop at an accelerated pace. NKC recommends a permanent National Commission on LIS in not more than three years, to become an important part of the development process.

I expect all the metros and towns such as Noida to take some initiative and establish good libraries with all facilities such as a cyber café and a children’s creativity corner besides books and magazines.

On translation, the NKC has some excellent studies regarding its potential to create employment.

2.There is an urgent need to expand the quantity and improve the quality of translation of different types (human, machine-aided, or instant) and in different domains (literary, scientific c, technical, business) that would provide greater access to knowledge across the country. There is inadequate dissemination of good quality translations, which would provide a benchmark and create incentives for more private activity in this area. This therefore requires some amount of public intervention as a set of measures to kick-start a process of encouraging private initiative so that the large commercially viable provision of high quality translation in different areas becomes feasible. The direct and indirect employment generation potential of translation activities is very high, and could absorb a substantial part of educated unemployed youth. Translation can easily develop as an industry in the country. Going by the experiences of other countries, in a country like India with its many languages, as well as the huge potential for foreign language translation, the entire translation industry has the potential eventually to employ between 200,000 and half a million people.

Unfortunately, in absence of good translation of the literatures of the Indian languages, the authors are not getting the recognition as those writing in English are getting.

3.On language, NKC considers that ‘an understanding and command of over the English language is a most important determinant of access to higher education, employment possibilities and social opportunities. And those who do not know English well enough find it exceedingly difficult to compete for a place in our premier educational institutions. This disadvantage is accentuated further in the world of work, not only in professional occupations but also in white-collar occupations overall.
English is beyond the reach of most of our young people, which makes for highly unequal access. Indeed, even now, no more than one per cent of our people use it as a second language, let alone a first language.

NKC recommends to teach our people, ordinary people, English as a language in schools. Early action in this sphere would help us build an inclusive society and transform India into a knowledge society. In just 12 years, it would provide the country’s school-leavers with far more equal access to higher education and, three to five years thereafter, much more equal access to employment opportunities.

NKC recommends that the teaching of English as a language should be introduced, along with the first language (either the mother-tongue or the regional language) of the child, starting from Class I in school. This phase of language learning should focus on using both languages to create meaningful learning experiences for the child without disproportionate emphasis on grammar and rules.

English should also be used to teach some non-language, content subjects, starting from Class III in school. It would also help reduce the divide between English medium schools and regional language-medium schools.

The nearly four million school teachers all over the country, regardless of their subject expertise, especially teachers at the primary level, should be trained to improve their proficiency in English through vacation training programmes or other short-term courses.

The classroom needs to be equipped with appropriate supplementary audio-visual and print material. Resource libraries could be set up in every classroom, comprising of a collection of books, magazines, newspapers, audio-visual material and posters, appropriate to the age of the students, on a variety of subjects.

Language learning opportunities should also be created outside the classroom through specific bi-lingual radio and TV channels, which could be introduced for formal and informal teaching and learning of English. Knowledge clubs could be formed to discuss and disseminate knowledge as well as extend the use of English outside the classroom.

With China going in big way to teach English to every citizen of the country, India must move forward without any bogey or politics of culture and tradition.

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Indian Power Shortage A Management Matter

Posted on February 21, 2007 by indra

Around 56% rural households and 12% urban households still do not have access to electricity. The power ministry has a plan to provide power to all by 2012. Has it something to do with the lack of generation capacity created over the years? Most of the people in India think that as the main reason of the shortages. And even a consultant such Boston Consulting thinks, ‘nowhere is India’s weak infrastructure more obvious than in power’.

Surprisingly, the peak power shortage hovers around 12.5% since 2001. According to India’s ministry of power, in the previous financial year up to March 31, peak demand exceeded supply by about 10,500 megawatts, or 11.6%. In China, electricity demand in the first six months of the current year exceeded supply by 700 million kilowatt hours, according to the China Electricity Council. And to overcome this unreliable supply, many Indian enterprises invest in their own power generation plants. About three-fifths of Indian manufacturing is supplied by such power, compared to less than a fourth in China.

But let us look at where does India’s generated electricity go?

For every 100 units of power generation, consumers pay for only 60 units. According to the planning Commission, power theft in 2005 was 20% of the total power generated in India. And in money value, it was over Rs 22,500 crore.

Technical loss is also 20% because of transmission at low voltage over long distances instead of at high voltage. The central Electricity Authority estimates that T&D losses should be 10%. And for every one percent reduction in T&D loss, International energy agency estimates that India can save an additional capacity of 800MW. That will be sufficient to fulfill the total requirement of a state like Himachal Pradesh.

Every one percent increase of PLF can result in additional capacity addition of around 1300MW. As per an estimate, about 30,000 MW of thermal capacity needs renovation, which can generate 5,000 MW of additional capacity. Power Load Factor- the measure of the performance of power station-in 1997 PLF was around 60% that should have been around 80%. Some central and private plants have improved to around 72% but the state-owned plants have dipped further below 50%.

So basically, India can leave behind its power shortage jus by three actions:

1.The authority concerned must be ruthless and cut down the theft.

2.Power ministry must heavily invest in high voltage power transmission on priority to reduce T&D loss.

3.All the existing plants must follow strict maintenance and refurbishing plans to keep PLF high.

However, additional generation capacity is necessary. Every Indian household must get electrified and must get the demanded power. An average Indian consumes 520 kgoe (kg of oil equivalent) of energy against a world average of 1688 kgoe. The Chinese consumes double 1090 khoe and the American over 15 times 7835kgoe.

India must go for a GDP growth much higher than 9% that it is attaining today. And it will be manufacturing and services sectors only that can make that happen. The planners must see that no enterprise and entrepreneur get constrained because of the shortage of power.

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), for every 1 percent rise in GDP growth rate, India’s power sector needs to register a growth of 1.5%. India needs to multiply its energy supply by 5 to 7 times today’s consumption to attain even a growth rate of 8% over the next two decades. For the higher target, the energy supply must increase many more times.

Potentials are abundant.
Hydro:                Present 32,326 MW; Potential 1,50,000 MW
Wind: Present 5,300MW;                Potential 45,000MW
Biomass:     Present 381 MW;                Potential 19,000MW
Solar PV: Present 110 MW;                Potential 20MW/sq. km
Geothermal: Present 20kw-1MW; Potential 2000 -10,000MW
Ethanol:                Present 1 mtoe/year; Potential 10 mtoe/year

According to the power ministry, the 11th plan will have the capacity addition of 68,870 mw. Besides, inter regional transmission capacity would be increased to 37,000 mw by 2011-12 from 16,500 mw (end of 10th Plan).

Government plan of power to all by 2012 will require an investment of $100 billion (Rs 4,50,000 crore).

But the past history of the implementation of the power projects has been discouraging. Capacity addition as percentage of 5 year Plan target has been dismal at 54, 47, and 42 for VII, IX, and X plans respectively.

We can only hope it will improve in XI plan. And the way out for this will be the cutting down of the administrative delays and political interferences; and using dynamic project managers with total autonomy and accountability. Can the Indian Power Industry Repeat the Performance of Telecom Firms?

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A $10 Laptop- An Utopia or Endeavour Worth Attention

Posted on February 20, 2007 by indra

Many projects of a cheap computer affordable by the children of even the poorest of the families and with Internet connectivity have been undertaken. The ides is to give a gadget that can ease the life through knowledge sharing to the best.

As reported, the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore has come with a prototype design for the laptop that currently costs $ 100. However, in three years’ time, the cost could come down to $ 10 (Rs 450) through innovation. Also, the huge volumes of production can further reduce the price.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology had been working on a laptop for $ 150 and offered it for the Sakshat programme. As it appears, HRD ministry has a plan of its own and backing up $10 laptop. Prof. Balakrishnan of the Indian Institute of Science and Prof Ashok Jhunjunwala of IIT Madras, are working on the project.

IISc has designed the prototype low-cost laptop that currently costs $ 100. As reported, the scientists working on the project could bring down cost rapidly to $ 50. Also the sheer volumes (of laptops) required will further bring it down.

The ambitious plan is to bridge the digital divide and provide digital literacy for the poorest of the poor.

Recently launched, interactive, one-stop, education portal, Sakshat that is available gratis to anyone who wants to use it, is an effort in that direction.

CII has also come in the fray. Shiksha India is a Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) initiative. It has developed a collaborative e-learning system and a portal http://www.eshikshaindia.in. The idea is to help students understand difficult concepts better. Anyone can access it free of cost. The portal has courses designed for students in the 12-17 years age group on subjects like physics, biology, chemistry, English and geography. The lessons are in three languages – English, Hindi and Tamil and will gradually have translations in other languages as well.

A lot of effort is being made use digital gadgets to ease and improve the education and learning for all. The ministry is also planning to create virtual laboratories and a virtual technical university to combat and mainstream the battle to bridge the digital literacy gap. The “anchor” institutions in the country are being roped in for the project. IIT Delhi will anchor virtual labs. IIT Kharagpur will anchor cognitive learning and the virtual technical university. While robotics will be responsibility of IIT Bombay, promotion of online courses will be by IGNOU and NIOS.

The technology will take away the need of teachers. And the schools will need to employ more and more facilitators to make students use the gadgets and sources of learning.

Read The face of the $100 laptop

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‘Eklvya’- The Mahabharat-ian Story and The Film

Posted on February 19, 2007 by indra

I don’t know how many of those going for seeing the movie ‘Eklvya’ know this saddest story of Mahabharat, that has a strong lesson about the capability one can attain through self study and practices, and that provides a good glimpse of the society and, that too of the shameful behaviour of the teacher of the time.

Eklvya was a tribal clan of those days. He dared to go to Dronacharya, the teacher of the princes of the Kuru clan, and begged him to teach archery. Dronacharya refused. Eklvya decided to go on his own. He created a statue of Dronacharya and started practicing the archery under the sight of the statue treating it as his guru (teacher).

And then one day Dronacharya happened to go from the same forest where Eklvya was mastering the art of archery. A dog with Dronacharya strayed and went near Eklvya, started barking and disturbing him. Eklvya used his arrows to fill the dog’s mouth and made him silent. The dog returned to Dronacharya with arrows in mouth. Every one was stunned, who could be the master archer who could fill a dog’s mouth without letting a drop of blood fall. The dog led Dronacharya and his group to Eklvya. Drona inquired Eklvya, who his teacher was. Eklvya reply humbly that it was Drona himself. And instead of appreciating his humility, Drona asked Eklvya to give him the thumb from his right hand as ‘guru dakshina’ and de-capacitated him forever.

Last Saturday, we went to watch Eklvya the movie of Big B. And his acting as Eklvya of the twenty-first century is one of the best that I have seen till date. I always wished that Big B got chance to portray some great classical characters such as Chanakya or Ashok, or Akbar. Amitabh was just superb. All of us liked the film.

In Sunday ‘Times of India’, I found a review of Shobhaa De in her special column. I couldn’t but agree and appreciate her views.

Vidhu Vinod Chopra has made India’s first ‘Greek Tragedy’. Paradoxical though this sounds, one can’t think of a more apt way to describe the gut-wrenching horror of it all, as the superbly-structured plot unfolds to reveal dark secrets about a princely family, dealing with the aftermath of the mysterious death of the rana’s wife.

Eklvya is a provocative film. It has the power to wake you up because it gets down to basics – the eternal Mahabharat-ian debate between dharma and adharma. Instead of moralising, the film boldly opens up a challenging dialogue that compels us to ask a few tough questions. Eklvya’s interpretation of dharma forces an unexpected resolution (it disappointed me).

It is really a tribute to the filmmaker’s courage in going ahead with a subject that travels well beyond known territory and goes into a long, oppressively unlit tunnel, leading to an even denser hell. A hell that perhaps, is present inside all our wicked hearts. Rarely has commercial cinema in our country taken such a tricky route, combining mythology with modern day machinations, sentiment with sadism, tradition with attitude. It explodes mediaeval beliefs while pointing out that they still persist in 21st century India – a sad fact of life, so evident in the way we deal with contemporary social issues.

In a way, Eklvya is an ageless epic, filled with pathos, betrayal, guilt, brutality and sacrifice. Polarities tear the protagonists apart, as an honour-bound royal guard believes he is fulfilling the duties of his forefathers, even if they involve pandering to the decadent demands of the impotent (possibly gay), rana, consumed by his own inadequacies, raging against fate, and wreaking revenge against the one person who can save his life. Whether or not Eklvya makes box office counters ring, it is a moving film.

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Mobile Phones, Prosperity and India

Posted on February 18, 2007 by indra

Many years ago, one evening I was waiting for an advocate in his residence in Salt Lake City, Kolkata. Suddenly, his young daughter came in the room and started talking on phone. She continued talking even after her father came in and we started discussing the legal matters for which I had gone there. I must have taken an hour, but the girl was still talking. And as I could overhear, it was all about the class, teachers and friends. In those days, normally there used to be only one fixed line receiver in a middle class family. I wondered how the advocate allowed her to talk so long,, as the phone used to be quite costly those days. It was not only at home but also in corporate offices, we had to maintain a watch on the cost.

In last few years, India has at least sorted out the telecom problem. Telecom services in India are the cheapest in the world. With entry of Vodafone, the price will go further down. At least this is what Arun Sarin promised after the take over of Hutch Essar. Wharton has come out with a paper asking India to emulate what it did for telecom sector.

But more importantly, a study by McKinsey provides correlation of telecom penetration with GDP.

The mobile phone has become a ubiquitous symbol of prosperity in many developing countries. But what is its true value to their economies? McKinsey determined the contribution of both wireless operators and wireless-related companies, such as content providers and handset manufacturers, to the GDP of the three countries. As per the study, auxiliary players contribute nearly as much to the GDP as do operators-in China’s case, twice as much. These numbers, however, exclude the benefits that mobile phones bring to their users-say, from saved time. Here is the way McKinsey arrived at that figure-the end-user surplus.

We had to calculate the average revenue per user (ARPU) at the time a handset is purchased, starting with the first handset bought in each country. We used these numbers as a proxy for the value users place on their phones and assumed that it doesn’t change over time. By subtracting the contemporary ARPU figures from the historical one (ARPUs fall as subscriber levels increase), we could estimate the current end-user surplus for each country. The value was considerable: around $4 billion for both India and the Philippines and $37 billion for China in 2005.

Although our figures are approximate, they are probably conservative because they don’t reflect advances in the coverage and quality of network services, which would raise the value. In a parallel exercise, we surveyed more than 600 workers in China who travel for their jobs: taxi drivers, plumbers, and salespeople, for example. Mobile phones, we found, offer these workers timesavings of nearly 6 percent-a productivity gain worth some $33 billion in 2005. Part of the value of these gains goes to operators as service fees, and workers hold the remainder as part of their end-user surplus.

By promoting the use of mobile phones, regulatory and industry players can amplify such gains, as well as the contributions that wireless industries make to GDP. In fact, although wireless had an impact on the GDP of each country, the differences among them correlated strongly with penetration: from 2 percent of GDP in India, where penetration was lowest, to roughly 5 percent in China and 7.5 percent in the Philippines, where it was highest. For India, we forecast that a 10 percent increase in penetration would add $2.3 billion to the end-user surplus and a further $6.2 billion in operator revenues.

In India, the number of phones has soared from 83 million in 2004 to 200 million today, teledensity of about 18 phones per 100 people, with mobiles outnumbering fixed line by 4 to 1. India will have 250 million mobile phones before 2007 is over. Telecom companies are eyeing 400 million phones by 2010. In mobile subscribers, India now ranks fourth behind China, USA and Russia. However, the penetration of mobile in rural India is still low because of the basic infrastructure. Telcom operators must go for outsourcing and sharing of the facilities in the interest of the people. With better connectivity, more and more skilled people in rural India will start contributing to the GDP.

I am sure the mobile phones have added to the productivity and cut down the wasted time. And it has brought prosperity too, as many of the service providers such as the vegetable vendors, or the massage man expressed to me.

However, I still hate the sight of people- men and women, keeping on talking on mobile phone while on morning walk or the ring tones in the cinema halls.

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FM’s Budget Again- A Humble Submission

Posted on February 17, 2007 by indra

I have been wondering over my fanatic excitement with the FM’s budget speeches in February every year. Many a times, I left my serious work and came home to listen to the speech and the reactions of the experts. Dr. Pranab Ray started live show of budget on NDTV. And thereafter, it became very popular too. Why have I kept on hearing the budget speeches so religiously for all these years? Was I benefited anyway? A number of times I sent some suggestions too. Once I wrote that the government must provide an insurance cover for all the high-IT paying employees of the private companies to cover their old age medical problems. Basically, the system does believe in communicating back to the queries or suggestions of ‘aam adami’. It is the same today also.

However, I have some questions from the present finance minister who shall be presenting perhaps his fourth budget this year after the UPA came in power.

What happened to the repair of the huge number of water bodies scattered all over the country and the upgradation of existing ITIs that he promised in his first speech? Will he provide the number completed? And if nothing significant has been done why should he keep on making promises? What right he has to emotionally charge the people and then break the dreams?

How many kms of roads were 4- and 6-laned last year by NHAI?
How much generation capacity in MWs got added?
How many additional villages were connected by roads and provided electricity connections last years under Bharat Nirman?

I remember FM promises to cut down the time and cost of doing business in India. Recent World Bank report provides our real performance record in this regard.

“India fares dismally in a global comparison of business practices, notwithstanding all the international attention it is getting. India is ranked 134th among 175 countries in overall ease of doing business. India’s most miserable numbers are in dealing with licenses (155th), paying taxes (158th), and enforcing contracts (173rd).”

“Even in South Asia, India ranks near the bottom in case of doing business (6th) and starting a business (8th), dealing with licenses (7th), paying taxes (8th), enforcing contracts (6th).”
How can our lawyer FM and then the economist PM expect huge FDI to flow in the country with so poor a condition? Can the FM tell the countrymen why can’t this be improved in a time frame? What are the bottlenecks and why can’t that be removed?

It would have been prudent if FM and the government emphasized on actual physical achievements rather than providing the expenses made in crores under different headings.

FM Sir! Please make the speech simple and understandable by ‘aam adami’.

And all these budget promises turning as into non-performing expenditures morose one and me too. And then I tend to believe Business Week’s headline “India – 163 years behind China?” And still Sachs report predicts India becoming the second largest economy by 2050 pulling US down to third behind it. And it may be earlier if India can hit a GDP growth rate of 10% or more.

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Shivratri- The Significance

Posted on February 16, 2007 by indra

“A seat made of precious stones, a bath in delightfully cool water, a splendid apparel bedecked, sandalpaste perfumed with musk, jasmine and champaka flowers arranged upon Bilva leaves, incense as well as a lamp, lit…Clarified butter, milk porridge, the five-fold food, a cooling drink of milk and curds with plantains, a variety of vegetables, aromatic water and scented betel – all these offerings… have I conceived in my mind out of love and devotion; do accept them, my Lord.”
Adi Sankara

Ancestors of Hindus were very creative and created huge number of Gods, perhaps more than their own total population at that time of history. They continued doing so as their population increased. However, after the Vedic era of Gods representing various manifestations of nature, three of them- Brahma, Vishnu, and Mahesh or Shiva remained the main.
Today, February 16, 2007 is Shivratri. All the temples are full with devotees. I took my wife Yamuna to the Shakti Mandir in sector 40 of Noida for rituals- milk bath of Shiva and offering of His favourite fruits and flowers. She was on fast till noon too. I don’t go for almost any now. Reason is age and perhaps the lack of mental strength. My religiosity now is limited to reading and writing. Here is a story about Shivaratri.

According to a legend in the Shiva Purana, once Brahma and Vishnu were fighting over who was the superior of the two. Horrified at the intensity of the battle, the other gods asked Shiva to intervene. To make them realize the futility of their fight, Shiva assumed the form of a huge column of fire in between Brahma and Vishnu. Awestruck by its magnitude, they decided to find one end each to establish supremacy over the other.

Brahma assumed the form of a swan and went upwards and Vishnu as Varaha went into the earth. Nevertheless, light has no limit and though they searched for thousands of miles, neither could find the end. On his journey upwards, Brahma came across a ketaki flower wafting down slowly. When asked where she had come from, the ketaki replied that she had been placed at the top of the fiery column as an offering. Unable to find the uppermost limit, Brahma decided to end his search and take the flower as a witness. At this, the angry Shiva revealed his true form. He punished Brahma for telling a lie, and cursed him that no one would ever pray to him.

The ketaki flower too was banned from being used as an offering for any worship, as she had testified falsely. Since it was on the 14th day in the dark half of the month of Phalguna that Shiva first manifested himself in the form of a linga, the day is especially auspicious and is celebrated as Maha Shivratri. Worshipping Shiva on this day is believed to bestow one with happiness and prosperity.

Shiva is equally repected in Tamil literature. Shiva is considered the supreme dancer too. He is Natraj.

Tirumular, the author of Tirumantiram describes the dance of Shiva in verse in Tamizh or Tamil.

“He dances through the Vedas,/ He dances through the fire of Kundalini,/ He dances in Bodha, the pure consciousness,/ He dances in all three worlds,/ He dances with gods,/ He dances with celestial beings,/ He dances with rishi-munis,/ He dances with Parashakti,/ He dances with jivas,/ He is the supreme dancer!”

“He performs the dance of Atbudha – the dance of wonder. It is also called the dance of Sadashiva. Shiva is incomplete without Shakti while Shakti is incomplete without Shiva. When Shivashakti dances it is Atbudha or the dance of wonder”.

The story of Tirumular is equally exciting. He was a Siddha Yogi who lived in the Himalayas. Once he travelled to the southern regions to meet Muni Agastyar. At Podigai Hills in Tamizhnadu, he witnessed a herd of cows standing and crying around the dead body of the cowherd, named Mulan. Moved with compassion for the cows, Tirumular left his own body and entered the body of Mulan. Mulan came alive, and then took the cows to their village. When Tirumular turned- Mulan returned to the spot where he had entered Mulan body, he was taken aback to see that his body was missing. He attributed this to the grace of Shiva and accepted his fate. He remained in Thiruvavaduthurai and became a recluse. He meditated under a Peepal tree. In the state of samadhi, he would utter verse in Tamil. His followers wrote and recorded them.. Tirumular during his life span uttered 3,000 verses of high philosophy and came to be known as the Tirumantiram. Tirumular says: “Chanting ‘Shivaya Namaha’, again and again, will make your body red, then gold, and in time, shall behold the golden feet of the Lord and finally witness the fantastic dance of the golden feet too”.

I am happy today that the present generation is pretty religious-minded, if the number of temples in Noida and crowd there can be taken as a measure.

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India Matters Today

Posted on February 14, 2007 by indra

Tata Steel’s acquisition of Anglo-Dutch steel maker Corus for $12 billion created a flutter in London and in the global steel sector. Tata Steel suddenly became the fifth largest steel company of the world by hop-step-jump technique from its backbencher rank. CSN of Brazil lost. It was not only a win for a company but it was a great success of Indian management talent that is gradually getting recognized.

And then came the Hindalco’s acquisition of Canadian aluminium major Novelis for $6 billion that makes Hindalco to be the 5th largest aluminium company in the world (currently ranked at 13). It is the world’s ninth largest copper producer with 0.5mtpa capacity. Hindalco will also be the world’s largest flat rolled product company, and will control over 20% of the world flat rolled capacity in aluminium. It will get an operating presence in 11 countries with 36 facilities, and will add nearly 13,000 employees to its rolls. With Novelis annual turnover of $8.4 billion, Hindalco will have a turnover of approximately $11 billion.

The story of the recent acquisitions by Indian companies doesn’t end there. Acquisition of a forge shop by Mahindra and Mahindra and the other acquisition a subsidiary of Philips Netherlands by Moser Baer are smaller but very significant for the Indian companies. Videocon and Suzlon have already made bigger deals for organic growth to get into global club and ranking. And many more acquisitions by companies such as Wipro, Ranbaxy, and even the smaller ones, are at planning and negotiation stage.

But more important is the story from telecom sector. It was two months after Li Ka-Shing’s Hong Kong headquartered Hutchison Whampoa expressed its intention to put its 67% stake in its Indian joint venture with the Ruias of Essar for sale, Vodafone, the world’s largest telecom company, has won the bidding war with an aggressive price of $18.8 billion (more than the combined payouts by Tata and Birla for Corus and Novelis respectively) for the whole of Hutch Essar, India’s third largest private sector mobile operator. The UK-headquartered Vodafone and its India-born CEO Arun Sarin went for this huge amount to enter the Indian telecom market, as India is now growing at a faster pace than even China. Could anyone think of this happening few years ago? And the entry of Vodafone will mean lot for the people of India. It will mean further reduction in the tariff that is already the lowest in the world. It will increase the competition among the major players and so consumers will get better services. Vodafone is already talking of expanding in rural India and working on a $25 handset. Is it not something exciting for the Indian economy? I don’t know how leftists react to this development.

Many foreign companies are now looking at the Indian market with great interest. Could one even imagine that an Indian brand of food industry will make the Americans and Europeans interested in buying it? US spice king McCormick was to buy MTR Foods of Bangalore for Rs 350 crore. But as per the latest information, it is the Norwegian foods-to-metal group Orkla is buying it for $100 million (Rs 450 crore) nearly three times MTR’s current turnover of about Rs 150 crore. Orkla will use MTR’s manufacturing facilities to lower its costs by outsourcing manufacturing to India. And perhaps all the inputs will come from the farmers of the country.

It is good that the big Indian companies are buying out to come in global club of the big ten in its sector fast. However, the people of India would have been more benefited if they had been setting up plants and facilities in the country. These acquisitions abroad will not create the employment, direct and indirect, for the teeming millions, which is the biggest priority of the nation.

——————————————-
India: Another Overseas Trophy Deal
Metals Merger: India’s Birla Thinks Big
India calling
India Cheers Vodafone Mega-Deal
Vodafone’s Passage to India
Vodafone pledges $2 bn investments, low tariffs
Varroc acquires Imes
More M&A in the pipeline for booming India
The world is waking up to a New India

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