दृष्टिकोण – Indra's Viewpoint

HCL Infosystem, the leading player in personal computer has finally come out to solve my problem. All these months since I got my PC curtsey Anand, I thought how nice it will be if in Pipra, my home village we can have PC that can serve me when I go there. And as it seems, it is possible now or it will be possible very soon, if I am to believe the news in Business Standard about a new initiative of HCL Infosystem to increase PC penetration among rural mass.

The company has developed a PC that can run on car battery, effectively solving the problem of unavailability of power in the rural area. Solar or renewable energy packs could provide the power needed for recharging. My brother Alok has already got the solar system and he uses that for TV and music system as well as lighting. Even after,57 years of Independence, we don’t have electricity in my village like lakhs of other Indian villages.

Chairman and CEO of HCL Infosystem also claimed that the battery was a more effective tool than UPS.

One of the major hurdles faced by the industry in the villages that power supply is erratic and unreliable. This has resulted in lower PC penetration in India. It will address effectively to the issue of e-governance and building of a sustainable IT infrastructure.

Further, if the government takes some more initiatives of some more tax breaks by the state and central governemnt, the price of PCs in India that has already reached as low as Rs 15,000 (US $350) can go down to around Rs 10,000. Why can’t the government give some subsidy, when it is wasting so much on commodity items? It will be only one time on capital investment that will be upgrading the knowledge base of the society.

HCL is offering innovative financing scheme to increase PC ownership among common people. It has launched a scheme that means only Rs 499 installment per month. Banks may come out with more lucrative schemes.

Changes in PC depreciation norms from three years to one year may provide further incentive for entry of PCs in the rural sector. I am seeing my dream of outsourcing and BPO reaching villages realized. Will it not be a great day? With entry of PCs and the internet, the dream of PURA (Providing urban facilities in Rural Areas) will go a step further..

India will move fast now and get globally connected. I am sure for some of those in USA who are having their parents in villages of India, it will mean a great thing. I grumble, if it would have been possible some 20 years ago. i would not have sold my properties in my village.

Some more good news .. And now a computer at $200

The ever- improving ability of PCs to display high-quality pictures is largely due the increasing power of graphics cards, sometimes known as GPUs or Graphics Processing units. Nvidia is an American company and specialist in producing graphics chips and works with Intel closely. Here is what Dave Kirk, the chief scientist of Nvidia said.

For decades, the processing power of computer chips has doubled roughly every 18 months, as predicted by the Intel founder Gordon Moore. However, as miniaturization continues, further progress is running into the problem of dissipating the heat generated by the chips. GPUs don’t face this problem, and typically double in power every six months. GPUs get faster much more quickly. A CPU gets 10 times faster over five years. A GPU gets 1.000 times faster. GPUs will open the door to better, and useable, handwriting and speech recognition technology that take enormous amount of processing power. Kirk sarcastically predicts- “The best days of the over-priced Rolls-Royce PC are probably over. That market is not growing so much. Austin Mini PC is going to take over world wide.

Anand is still to marry and we keep on insisting on him that he must do that soon so that we can enjoy a festivity in the family. So I quote this joke from Sunday Times of India.

Biz behind marrying Gate’s daughter

Jack, a smart businessman, talks to his son.

Jack: I want you to marry a girl of my choice
Son : “I will choose my own bride!”
Jack: “But the girl is Bill Gates’s daughter.”
Son : “Well, in that case…”

Next Jack approaches Bill Gates.

Jack: “I have a husband for your daughter.”
Bill Gates: “But my daughter is too young to marry!”
Jack: “But this young man is a vice-president of the World Bank.”
Bill Gates: “Ah, in that case…”

Finally Jack goes to see the president of the World Bank.

Jack: “I have a young man to be recommended as a vice-president.”
President: “But I already have more vice- presidents than I need!”
Jack: “But this young man is Bill Gates’s son-in-law.”
President: “Ah, in that case…”

This is how business is done!!

The UPA made a promise in its Common Minimum Programme (CMP) that states, “The UPA government will immediately enact a national Employment Guarantee (REG) Act”. Naturally, it must keep the promise and the left is pressing for it. What does it actually mean for a lay man? Every household in the rural areas of India shall have a right to at least 100 days of guaranteed employment every year for at least one adult member, for doing casual manual labour at the statutory minimum wage. However, the cost of the promise is worrying all but Mr. Sitaram Yachury.

Each person-day would cost Rs 100, of which Rs 60 would be wages and Rs 40 for materials and administration. The states would bear only 20 per cent of the costs but will be liable to provide unemployment allowance (at a minimum of one-third of the prevailing minimum wage) in case the administration fails to provide the necessary employment. For 100 days this would mean Rs 10,000 per poor rural household. Since there are approximately 4 crore rural households below the poverty line (BPL), the total annual cost of the guarantee would come to Rs 40,000 crore. That would be about 1.3 per cent of current GDP. In a 4-year phasing, it could start at 0.5 per cent of GDP and go up to 1 per cent by 2008-09.

\So is the estimate of Rs 40,000 crore correct? As Sunil Jain (Business Standard, October 25, 2004) has pointed out, the more relevant number for rural households eligible for the scheme is 15 crore, not the 4 crore assumed by the government. And the associated fiscal bill rises towards a huge Rs 150,000 crore per year, or about 5 per cent of GDP! Can the government bear this expenditure on this count? Will it be the biggest dole ever or a programme that will generate employment in the long run for India’s hungry millions?

And then should it be a Scheme or an Act? If it would have remained a scheme, it could have been scrapped or changed easily in case of financial difficulty. If passed by Parliament as act, the REG will become law which will make it binding on the government to provide employment. And the law would require the assent of Parliament to be withdrawn or even amended, if found so in interest of the country. A failure on the part of the government could flood it with legal cases. Is the government worried on this count? Perhaps, it is not. After all, why should it bother about the long term impact?

The scheme or act whatever it is, it is certainly a wonderful thing to happen in a country with huge a population that remain unemployed and poor, if executed effectively. But will it be so done? There are many questions that are to be answered. Who are the beneficiaries? Can’t more of undeserving members backing the ruling party take the advantage leaving back the really needy ones? Can those in the unorganised sector earning below the prescribed minimum wage, claim to be included? Are we having proper identification of BPL households? As understood as on the day, gram panchayats will issue the necessary “job cards” to applicants. The applicant fulfils the eligibility conditions of rural residence, adult age, and willingness to do casual manual labour at the state’s minimum wage for agricultural labour. As it appears, being a member of a BPL household is not an eligibility condition. And then a very serious question appears. How serious will be the scope for fake muster rolls and doctored job cards? Will ultimately the funds be eaten up by the “neta (politician), babu (bureaucrat), jhola (NGOs) and thaila (middlemen)”? This has been the concern of every one from Late Rajiv Gandhi to a commoner on road. The delivery mechanism must first be made effective so that this scheme benefits the intended group.

And then the prime minister declares that the rural poor will get the job in their own village. Is it possible to create jobs in every village worth creating some permanent national asset? Why should the beneficiary not move to the place where the work is needed? Is it just for reaping political benefits? Politics must not rule over logic and reality must not be overlooked.

Why do we go on talking about the big costs right at the initial stage? Will it not be good enough to start with the fund already available with Gram Sadak Yojana and the Food for Work programme and to see the effectiveness of the delivery system in a smaller area?

Some suggestions forwarded by many experts must be looked into seriously:
” Focus on improving existing programmes of food for work and rural employment generation and its delivery system..
” Involve the state government in more accountable manner. The incentive for leakage and abuse must be looked into seriously. The gap between the central government responsibility of funding and the predominantly state/local responsibility for its administration must be minimal possible..
” Let the legal guarantee for the scheme be the responsibility of the respective states, including the responsibility for bearing the unemployment allowance (in case a state fails to provide employment to eligible applicants).
” Ensure states’ commitment to the programme
” Implement in a phased manner over four or five years, allowing for modification from lessons learned.
” Make the scheme more visible locally and monitor regularly.
” Involve some IT majors such as Infosys and Wipro to make the scheme more transparent and effective.
” Let media keep a watch on the scheme.

Let the programme not bring a national fiscal crisis.

Hardly one can perceive that manufacturing, especially automobiles or auto ancillaries can become a female domain because of the labour-intensive nature of work, multiple shifts and faraway factory locations. I saw a good number of women employees on shop floor in Western countries but I couldn’t think of doing that in India. Years ago, I found an auto component manufacturing company UCAL manufacturing carburetors near Chennai. The company was using very young girls in production. They were all from nearby villages. After certain amount of training, they proved to be good at the work with lesser error rate. At the same time the company was employing them at a lower cost. And that was perhaps an exploitation that is usual in manufacturing sector with smaller scale. At Hindustan Motors, we were never free to employ women even for the jobs suitable for the women such as the computer sections or planning and design. At one time I suggested for employing the female candidates for labour welfare department and for training in soft skills and attitudinal improvement. My argument was that the female employees will improve the work culture and reduce the arrogance of the male employees with the CPI-M dominated trade union. May be that we could have solved many problems easily. But it never happened. I was surprised to read the story in ‘Business World’ issue of December6,2004. $275 million Anand Group is one of the companies voted as ‘Great Places to Work’ based on the ratings for credibility, respect, fairness, pride, and camaraderie.

Anand group- manufacturers of auto components like shock absorbers, fuel filters and hydraulic brakes company is specifically targeting women for filling vacancies in operations, product development and finance. Currently, only 11 per cent of Anand’s 5,300 employees are women. The management intends to take it up to 30 per cent by 2007.

It’s not desk positions, but the shop floor, for which the bulk of the hiring is taking place. Given the stringent labour laws for women working in manufacturing, like getting an approval from the labour officer for working third shifts, or beyond 10:00 p.m., it’s a great feat. But is it for proving the gender equality only or some thing more? Why then is Anand trying to enhance the percentage of female employees?

At Anand, women perform all the tasks their male counterparts do. But Anand group has found women to do it somewhat better. The move started as social responsibility has triggered an increase in the group’s productivity. Women normally start work at the age of 22-23 years and stay on for 5-6 years, till they get married. The process keeps the workforce young and nimble.

Women are preferred in Anand Group to men in all positions – from working on the shop floor to supervisory positions at various plants, and even management at the plant and corporate levels… wherever there’s a vacancy. This is unlike other auto ancillary factories, where women are hired for their dexterity in handling smaller parts like screws and rings – works that rank low in terms of value addition.

Pays and perks aren’t differentiated on the basis of gender. Fifteen out of the group’s 32 plants have hostels for women close by. A lady doctor visits each hostel once a week. Each cluster has a female management mentor.

Is it not something great happening in manufacturing sector too now?

The news items in printed media in just one week are clear indication of good demand for persons seeking employment. It is not only USA and UK, Indians are in demand every where. See these news items:
BEIJING, NOV 15: Indian businesses are bringing more Indians to live and work in China. The number of Indians is growing rapidly, especially with many multinational firms employing qualified Indian professionals at much cheaper salaries than their Western counterparts

China seeks Indian English teachers: New Delhi, India, Nov. 19 (UPI) — China’s education minister is visiting local universities and schools in India in search of language teachers to meet the growing demand for English in China. (a New Delhi’s NDTV report).

MNCs as well as domestic companies are hiring in big way. The $12.5 billion software services industry has created some 550,000 software and 280,000 back-office positions. The sector is growing at 30 per cent a year. Outsourcing is forecast to hit $50 billion by 2009, according to India’s National Association of Software and Service Companies. India’s IT-savvy, low cost, English-speaking workforce is attracting a growing number of multinationals. MNCs are increasing the headcounts in existing establishments. And surprisingly, the companies are moving beyond metros and even to smaller towns.

<iMicrosoft to hire hundreds more in India: HYDERABAD, NOV 15: Microsoft Corp will hire several hundred new staff at its new Indian campus in the next year. And the work being done is high-tech as Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer indicated recently. “The work we are doing here is very high level creative engineering.”

US Firm to Hire 1,700 People in India: BANGALORE, SEPT 22: Real estate and data service provider First American Corp’s Indian arm plans to recruit 1,700 software and back-office workers over three years to take its staff strength to 4,200. First American is the latest to announce expansion in India’s booming offshore service sector, in which data operations that require low-cost English-speakers with accounting skills are growing strongly in the wake of an expansion in call centres.
<b GE,which has its second largest R&D centre outside the US in Bangalore, will be adding another 700 scientists to its rolls to take the total strength to 3,000. The Bangalore centre is also set to get some big product development projects.

Dell to invest and hire more in India: November 24. Terming India as its fastest growing market in Asia Pacific with 43 per cent year-on-year growth, hardware major Dell said it will invest more in the country and raise headcount.

Infovision to up headcount by 1,500: NOVEMBER 30, 2004 KOLKATA: Anticipating huge growth, Infovision Software, the leading Medical Transciption (MT) company said it planned to increase the strength of trained people to around 2000 persons in Mumbai and Kolkata in the next three years.

NEW DELHI: Samsung India Electronics would double headcount at its two R&D centres to 2,000 engineers in the next three years.
BANGALORE: German software maker SAP AG will add close to 1,300 software professionals for its India operations during 2005. “We will be adding 1,300 people – 800 developers in R&D and 500 people in services and consulting next year,” SAP AG board member Peter Zencke told reporters here.

Wipro intends to double staffs: BANGALORE, OCT 8: Wipro Ltd sees its staff doubling in the next three years as outsourcing booms. Wipro expects to keep adding about 1,000 people a month to its 35,000 staff. Wipro plans to hire at least 3,000 IT professionals at its brand new software development-cum- BPO hub in Kolkata

<i<bInfosys To Hire 4,000-4,500 Techies MUMBAI, OCT 12: Infosys plans to hire 4,000-4,500 in rest of year. 4,547 of the 5,010 staff it hired in the past quarter were for Infosys’ software business. The rest it hired for its back-office business.

1.8 lakh IT jobs this quarter: Survey DECEMBER 01, 2004: NEW DELHI: The IT and IT enabled services in India will witness a 13 per cent growth in employment numbers over the last quarter as per the findings of Ma Foi management consultants in its first Ma Foi employment survey. The survey predicts the creation of some 60,000 new jobs each month in the current quarter in the Information Technology and related sectors – the highest amongst the 18 sectors involved in the current survey.

Demand for India’s information technology services is red hot as the industry expands into new areas such as manufacturing and retail from finance. So the hunt for talent is on. The companies scout many technology colleges for selecting the right candidates. Some are even paying stipends to students in niche areas such as physics. The companies are also spending huge amount on providing training in-house to the new recruits to make them meet their skill requirements. The training now includes coaching on customs and foreign languages such as German and Japanese, as the companies scour the globe for new markets. But all these news items leave behind some questions. How many of these boys are from the rural areas? Is the basic education improving? Are they able to join some good colleges after a poor schooling? It is unfortunate that the quality of education in majority of schools and colleges all over the country is extremely poor. Most of the teachers can’t provide the knowledge of even the two languages that they teach, as they themselves have not improved to the standard that is expected by the customers of their students today. A very intensive and extensive programme for the teachers of languages is essential, if we want to keep our lead in IT and ITeS. But what can we expect from the politicians running the education? They are busy in changing the history books that will hardly serve any purpose. And there is hardly many Budhadeo Bhattacharyas who can outright tell the ABTA teachers in his state to come out of their mindset and teach good English to their students.

Coming to engineering colleges, the conditions are no better, though the number of colleges have increased many folds because of privatization of the professional education. Beside the shortage, the education standard of the teaching staffs in most of the colleges is extremely poor. As I know, more than 70 per cent of faculty members teaching Bachelor of Technology (BTech) courses in private colleges were themselves only BTech qualified. Some thing must be done on priority basis to come out of the situation and if the country wants to remain a leading force in IT related sector. ‘The Chinese are coming in big way and will certainly rule the IT business too.

It is not only ITand ITeS, but other sectors are also hiring. A report from the textile sector says: The textile sector provides employment to more than 30mn people, compared to around 8 lakh in IT. In the next two years the textile sector is expected to generate at least another million jobs. Other manufacturing sectors are also on move. But here also the industry requires skilled hands, as the equipment in all sectors are now more sophisticated. Trade schools are failing to impart the right skill. The students are not properly selected and guided to learn the skills. No one knows what happened to the promises made by the finance minister to improve all the ITIs in his last budget.

I follow some all-India examinations keenly. News related to results of IITs, and IIMs entrance examinations and of IAS always interests me, though usually I hardly know any one appearing for these examinations. It takes me to my younger days through the memory lanes. I am sure the students and their parents all over the country spend some sleepless nights and are very excited. The Indian society has started giving special status not only to those who succeeds but also to their parents. Sometimes, it is by community facilitations or enhancement of values in marriage market through heavier dowry- the age-old curse of society. However, these are not my concerns. I have some strong views about these examinations and want some changes to get built up in the systems.

Firstly the maximum age limit must be lower. Even in 1957 when I appeared for my IIT-Kharagpur examination, I found students with Master degrees joining with us. All like who were, straight from Intermediate science, felt disadvantaged in scholarship examination as well as in first year in which mostly science subjects were taught.

Those appearing in examinations must not get more than two opportunities to clear. I have seen students appearing years after years till they reach upper age limit. It is really unfair for the really better ones and perhaps more intelligent candidates. It prohibits the selection of the deserving candidates. In one extreme case that I came across, one boy came to me for an interview for a position of fresh engineer 5 years after passing out engineering from Roorkee University, as he was trying to get into IAS and all those years he was appearing for that. Was it not something undesirable? It must be happening even now.

The examination system must also discourage the use of coaching classes for succeeding in the examinations. The coaching has become an industry with many thousands of small and big institutions all over the country. The institutions have developed the knowledge of the pattern of questions that are asked and prepare their students for them. It has given rise to many unscrupulous means to extort money from the candidates and sometimes also to get the papers out. And then good ones are so costly that the students with financial constraints get further disadvantaged. I feel the examinations must judge the knowledge and intelligence level of the candidates. It must be made pattern less. The manner of setting papers must be made so random that the coaching doesn’t give much advantage. It may even be made open book. Imagine even the reduction in number of questions in recent CAT examinations invited negative criticisms and was termed ‘foxy’.

The paper should include a set of questions that judges the value preference of the candidates too– the probability to go to even unethical means to achieve ones personal goals. On the same line, I recommend that the examination must judge the innovative capability of the candidates. I don’t know whether it can be designed, but perhaps it has become a necessity with the falling moral level and lack of innovativeness in administrative services.

The IIMs must not allow candidates without experience for their regular courses as in many Western countries. Particularly, I feel miserable when I hear some who has just passed out and graduated in engineering from IITs joining IIMs. It is a shame for IITs and the whole education systems. It is a waste of money and time to study engineering for 4 years and then to join a management course without experience of the industry just for a fatter starting salary. The engineering background will be of no help in the candidate’s professional career rather it will confuse the employers. Even the industry should discourage it. IIMs must inculcate in the students entrepreneurships as the major objective, so that more of them can start some enterprises of their own and provide job opportunity rather than getting into a subordinate role in an established enterprise.

Gradually more and more positions in government should be open for qualified people from outside the IAS system, say from private and public enterprises and educational institutes or from among NGOs. Main thrust must be one finding out persons with stronger moral values and innovativeness that is missing today in the cadre. The country wants officers in administration who can stand strongly both morally and physically on right path in interest of the country rather than licking the politicians’ feet or get cowed down by mafia leaders.

If you agree to my views, will you please e-mail it to all for whom it matters?

Projects delays and Cost overruns: My development dream may seem Utopian. Is it unavoidable? Does it mean lack of better project management and better managers for the projects and that also in this land full with great project managers who compete and excel with world managers in all shorts of projects?

The Infrastructure and Project Monitoring Division of The ministry of statistics and programme implementation in its latest notes report that “on 605 projects worth Rs 267,815 crore, about Rs 105,146 crore have already been spent. But around 248 projects are way behind schedule. Another 149 projects, though approved, have not even been commissioned, and 46 other projects are waiting for their completion schedules to be updated. Only a small number of 22 projects are ahead of schedule, while 14 are on schedule. “The overall cost overrun with respect to original cost is 21.5 per cent, mainly because of delays, which range from one month to 13 years!

How can any sane citizen relish this story of government delays and colossal waste of public money on projects ‘for the people’? Why can’t we improve our productivity and complete the projects in time and perhps ahead of the target dates? It is certainly doable.

Conditions for business in India: The World Bank’s study, known as Doing Business in 2005, has come out recently, with a wealth of comparative data showing the ease or difficulty of commencing a business, hiring and firing people, accessing credit, closing a business and firing workers. Just to give one aspect- Singapore requires just seven procedures and takes eight days for a business to be started. In addition, the cost that the businessman incurs is just 1.2 per cent of the income per capita. The corresponding figures for India are 11 procedures, 89 days and 49.5 per cent of the income per capita. Even China, with its suspicion of private industry, takes 41 days in 14.5 per cent per capita income to start up a business.

How can there be more FDI unless these policies are undone? Will the babus in the ministries allow this to happen even though the economist PM or Lawyer FM may wish that to happen and happen fast?

India’s position in knowledge economy: In a study made public recently, the World Bank declares that despite India’s impressive performance in the last few years, its overall position has not shown any significant improvement in knowledge sector. Despite significant advances in telephone, computer and internet penetration, India has fallen slightly behind because so many other countries have advanced even faster. Our tele-density, internet expansion, and computer penetration is far behind. Government is to cut down the tariff and improve the core infrastructure to move fast.

Corruption the biggest speed-breakers of growth: Transparency International in its recent report has ranked India a lowly 90 in a total of 145 countries- India has scored quantitatively 2.8 on a scale of 10. And TI estimates that Indian taxpayers lose a whooping $ 7 billion per year in bribery and similar deals. May be that this estimate is on lower side.

In an article “India Reform Initiative” on why corruption is so rampant in India, Utkarch Kansal describes how impossible it is for a common man to own a roof, provide good education to his children and hope for a peaceful retirement in India using normal and honest means. But how can we digest it, when people behind it are the best brains of the country who start their career with big dowry booty?

Indians form a third of world’s illiterates: The 2005 Global Education Monitoring Report, which incorporates the 2001 census data, has just been released and the India’s ranking slips down one place further – 106th out of the 127 countries surveyed.

” One in every three illiterate persons in the world. With 34% of the illiterate population in the world,

” India has the largest number of illiterates by far, with second-placed China at 11%.

” Enrolment ratio – at 82.3%, almost close to the world average – ranking 94th
” India’s adult literacy ranking, from 121 last year to 105 this year thanks to the change from 1991 figures to 2001 figures. Yet, the adult literacy rate at 61.3% is still way below the 76% average for developing countries and 81.7% global average.

” Survival to class 5 has actually declined marginally to 61.2% from 62% last year, and is way below the global average of 83.3%.

” The gender-specific index is the most worrying. The average years spent in school for boys, at 10 years, is close to the global norm (10.7 years) and the average for developing countries (10.1 years). But, for girls the figure drops to 7.9 years, way below the global average of 9.8 years.

Some remarks: And then I find World Bank president making a remark recently in an article published in “Times of India” -“Despite the impressive gains made by India in the assault on poverty in the last two decades, more than a quarter of India’s one billion people are still below the official poverty line; that amounts to more than 250 million people, about a quarter of all the world’s poor, living here in India. Perhaps a few hundred million more remain vulnerable to slipping back into poverty by a single shock such as an illness or natural disaster.

That is not all. India’s huge numbers of illiterate people, children out of school, people suffering from communicable diseases, and infant, child and maternal deaths all amount to massive proportions of the respective world totals.”

Some trade practices of Indian businessmen: When I find my trader friends such as Mr. Maheswari following a cheaper and easier way to import textiles or toilet papers to fast buck, I get pained. Surprisingly, Mr. Maheswari is a mechanical engineer himself, but he couldn’t answer my query about the reasons why he can’t get our manufacturers develop the same products at better price.

And then I get a comment on my entry on India”s century. I quoting it below and you may go on my site and access it.
“The Indian engineers I have interviewed have poor fundamentals. Sure there are a few who have spectacular skills. But I believe Chinese engineers on average have better fundamentals in Mathematics and Science compared with the equivalent javascript/ejb/buzzword-of-the-year engineer that is produced by India.”

Who is wrong myself or the writer of the letter? Can’t someone highlight this comparison and provide some factual data based on experience, as I am not qualified enough to disapprove it?

Life teaches us many lessons, if we want to learn. Life gives many an alarm in time, if we can understand. Some of these lessons may help others and they may escape the troubles, if they believe in it fully.

” Hygiene and health: We learn to go in ‘always in haste’ mode, as we grow. We don’t take the necessary hygienic precautions of cleaning the teeth twice properly and after the meals and get into dental problems. I was taught right early in life to brush the teeth before I can get something to eat. But perhaps my guardians never knew or thought it necessary to teach me the right way of brushing the teeth. I got into my professional life which absorbed me a little too much. By the time I learned it, it was already too late and I had lost some precious ones.
I took my job seriously. I was to establish perhaps that though I am from a remote village, but I am the best I started working very long hours forgetting every thing about my own health and never gave due importance for other family matters. After long hours in factory, when I used to return I always went for a walk around in the colony with my wife. Perhaps we were the only couple who kept that practice on even after the onslaught of TV after that historic Asiad that brought colour TV in India. But instead of walking for an exercise, it used to be slow pleasure walk. I would have avoided my heart surgery if I could have been waking at brisk pace. Today, 5 km a day of 35 km every week walking has become the necessary part of my life. When I start in the early morning my chest appears to me very heavy, but gradually it gets normal. I can only suggest that walking must be a part of every one’s life. I am recommending walking as other exercises, workouts, or yoga require stricter self-discipline.

” No substitute for hard work: Let me advise everyone who wish to take my advice. There is no substitute to hard work. Intelligence may have something to do with DNA, but no one can stop you from working hard in your profession. You do not get tired by hard work, if you start liking the work you do. I have worked for 12-14 hours for months and years without a break for Sundays, sleeping hardly 3-4 hours, attending my father in late hours who was sick for a long time either at home or in hospital in my campus, and working on my writings at early hours for an or hour or two every day. I enjoyed everything. Whatever, I could do or attain in my life may not be extraordinary, but it is only because I could work that hard and no one of my colleagues could do that.

” Saving for future: Though I was never in managing my finance, I tried to save and invest for future needs of mine. I might have inherited this from my maternal side. Very early in life, I started saving and it continued. I save by putting the coins in a container made for it that were and are easily available even today. I did that even during my foreign trips. You feel good and sometimes enjoy, when you spend for satisfying your near and dear ones. However, I feel bad after spending. Saving must be made a habit. You must have money; otherwise no one will respect you. Without money you can’t realize your dreams. And it is possible to save and save a good enough amount once you decide. But saving requires some amount of will power. You must not divulge your savings so often and so easily, otherwise it goes willingly or otherwise. Don’t bother even if you loose some. It will come in its own way. You should not to the extent of being called miser, it gives a miserable feeling. If you have helped some one financially and he has not returned, don’t bother and grumble too much, don’t have guilt. After all that was your duty to help someone in need.

” Manage family relations: Under all circumstances, you must find sufficient time for all the members of your family depending on the closeness of the relations. After all, we work and earn only to live a good family life. I feel guilty today that I didn’t spend sufficient time with my family and particularly children. I can’t reverse the time and I can’t get that experience now even if I go out of the way to get it. It is nearness that builds closeness of relation.

I have not made a big list of lessons. But all these have come from very much inside. You may take it or leave it. Decide yourself.

I have some serious complaints with our editors and reporters. As someone said rightly, media is one powerful weapon that can make or break a nation. Why is our media failing? Why is it not creating better tastes for its readers? Why can’t it help in building human resources necessary for Number One nation globally? Why has it been changing to purely commercial affair counting profit every quarterly?

While media go on reporting about Amar Manis and RK Sharmas day in and day out, it hardly bothers to write about about the great managers doing great jobs, great research workers bringing laurels to the country, and great doctors achieving world-class medical standard at much cheaper cost, and other great Indians doing a brand selling of intellectual India abroad.
Why should Kanchi seer’s news be so widely covered when we all know that police may even be much partisan? Say, if he is proved innocent, how much damage has already been done not only of seer’s image, but also of all having faith in him? Can we believe Jayalalita who would have been in prison and not in chief minister chair, if the legal system would have been fast and fair?

Recently two great sons of the country- Dr. Raja Rammanna and Mulk Raj Anand passed away. Hardly any newspaper or news magazine did any honourable reporting about their contributions leave aside bring out a special issue or cover story. Small screen media is busy in covering useless political issues and cheap politicians and building their images. .Sometimes it is Gudia episode, sometimes it is Jaheera turning violent> The hot news goes for days and with same intensity and same importance in all the channels and then then there is a total black out even if the news proves to be total false. Is it not expected that the media becomes a little more responsible?

You go on writing pages about Tehlaka, and coffin scam, but you hardly bother to follow promises made in last national budgets. In last budgets, the FM promised work on renovation of water bodies, and starting of the irrigation projects that are pending. Roads and electricity are other critical sectors. The media can play an important role and bring out the real picture so that the project can keep the cost down and are completed in time. Media hardly report about the progress against the promises. Why can’t the newspapers and news magazines come out with special issues on road sector or electricity power issues or rural development problems? Very lately, the new government had appointed many celebrities to head many institutions of national importance, media hardly give any features on their background for the readers. Is it not important?

The government has two large manufacturing sectors that every one knows- the defence production and railway workshops employing more than half a million people, media hardly talk about them, even though these units are hardly operating at 20% efficiency. Thousands of its employees are taking their salaries and wages without doing any work. Perhaps the outsourcing could have made these manufacturing units trim and efficient. It would have created a large number of self employed people.

Union leaders are extorting money from management just to keep the factories running. Factories are closing down because of these corrupt practices of trade unions and their leaders. At one time Dehri-on-Sone in Bihar and Ranchi in Jharkhand were coming up as industrial towns, but the trade unions played havoc and all the factories are sick or gone. But media hardly write about it and play a role to save the situation.

We all see many of the news magazines publishing the special issues on the best B-Schools. I don’t understand what is that great about them. So many of these special issues are only confusing the prospective candidates. A very pertinent question has been asked by someone about the B-School- Why isn’t there a single Indian B-school in the list of top 40 management institutes of the world (in lists prepared annually by the likes of Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Business Week and The Economist) considering that the CAT is considered a far tougher entrance exam than the GMAT which takes Indians to the US? Why can’t media produce some investigative reports about these so called highly demanded business schools? I know at least some or many are there only for minting money by showing a rosy picture of a good future to the candidates. Many don’t maintain even a photocopy machine in their premises to help the students.

Why can’t the media play a positive role by helping the government in correcting the deficiency of national policies in improving the governance? Media can publish more of success stories. Many people against all the odds of systems and society are doing great work. Media must report it. It can make these religious leaders to correct the evils of the society. It can build image of the right and forthright political personalities instead of those who manipulate to be in media’s good books and get the maximum coverage.

I have been writing about China recently. I found a news item last week that present the interesting indicator of a country’s development. It is quite informative too.

BEIJING, NOVEMBER 15: Some 55 years after the Communist revolution, the Chinese government is pulling out all stops to foment a new kind of upheaval: ”Toilet Revolution.” The majority of the Beijing city’s public toilets are little more than smelly holes in the floor. Municipal authorities want to change all that in time for the 2008 Olympics.
”Toilets represent the level of development of a country or region,” says Yu Debin, deputy director of Beijing’s Municipal Bureau of Tourism. Yet, More than one-third of all tourist complaints in Beijing are toilet-related. Assisting the mainland in its toilet revolution is the Singapore-based World Toilet Organisation whose mission it is to ”continuously generate awareness of the importance of a good toilet environment.”

There are no flushes and the mess piles up until evening, when a ”pump truck” makes the rounds of the neighbourhoods, sucking up everything from the pits. Small wonder then that a multi-million dollar toilet renovation of the city’s public toilets is underway. According to Beijing municipal authorities, over $10 million a year will be spent till 2008 on transforming the city’s bathrooms into ”luxurious lavatories.” The city has come up with a rating system of 1 to 4 stars for its public facilites and government figures show that the capital already has 88 four-star toilets. By the time of the Olympics, visitors will never be more than an 8-minute walk from a star-rated toilet.