Infosys- A Company with Difference

Posted on May 10, 2009 by indra

Many a times even the individuals become the brand of the company they serve. NR Narayan Murthy and Nandan Nilekani have been synonyms of Infosys, and perhaps unofficial ambassadors of India in the world of technology world over. Perhaps after getting out of active roles as the CEOs of Infosys, they are the only two in India who have written two books that have become pretty popular and perhaps best sellers. Nilekani’s ‘Imagining India‘ was voluminous and chalked the history and provided solution for all the important sectors of India. NR Narayan Murthy’s ‘A Better India, A Better World‘ is a recent publication in market. It is a collection of his speeches and will be inspiring for the new entrepreneurs of the country. Infosys has been a company with difference.

As I read a cover story in ‘Business Today’- Indian IT’s Darkest Hour, I feel like rejecting the conclusion outright. Major IT companies of India fortunately have wonderful people in its leadership role. And real good leaders bring a better dawn after the darkest hours. Was it not an achievement of a sort that ‘from 1998 to 2008, IT services have grabbed a 51 per cent market share in the global outsourcing market’?

Coming back to Infosys, according to Reputation Institute (RI), Infosys is among the 17 Indian companies figuring in the list of the ‘World’s Most Reputable Companies’ in 2009.

Infosys is betting big. “We want to be among the three largest IT services companies globally,” declared S. ‘Kris’ Gopalakrishnan, CEO& MD of Infosys recently. Some may doubt because of its cautious approach, but it has history of attaining what it wanted. I had been a fan of the company and its leaders. I really can’t but admire the way the founders rotated as CEOs. Infosys is a benchmark for the sector and others too. Infosys has ‘created an organization that continues to grow as leadership changes’. Smadja Independent non-executive director, Infosys says, “I know of few companies that have taken succession planning as seriously as Infosys.”

I am quoting a portion from NR Narayana Murthy ‘A Better India, A Better World’ that tells how a leader creates wealth for the country.

“On a chilly Saturday morning in winter 1990, five of seven founders of Infosys met in our small office in a leafy Bangalore suburb. The decision at hand was the possible sale of Infosys for the enticing sum of $1 million. After nine years of toil in the then business-unfriendly India, we were quite happy at the prospect of seeing some money at last. I let my younger colleagues talk about their future plans. Discussions about the travails of our journey thus far and our future challenges went on for about four hours. I had not yet spoken a word.

Finally, it was my turn. I spoke of our journey from a small Mumbai apartment in 1981 that had been beset with many challenges, but also about how I believed we were at the darkest hour before the dawn. I then took an audacious step. If they were all bent upon selling the company, I said, I would buy out all my colleagues; though I did not have a cent in my pocket. There was a stunned silence in the room. My colleagues wondered aloud about my foolhardiness. But I remained silent. However, after an hour of my arguments, my colleagues changed their minds to my way of thinking. I urged them that if we wanted to create a great company, we should be optimistic and confident. We have more than lived up to our promises of that day. In the eighteen years since then, Infosys has grown to revenues in excess of $3 billion, a net income of more than $28 billion, 28,000 times richer than the offer of $1 million on that day. In the process, Infosys has created more than 70,000 well-paying jobs, 2,000 plus dollar millionaires and 20,000-plus rupee millionaires.”


I wonder why many more companies could not create so many millionaires. Was it the greed to keep everything for generations in family to follow? If they would have done that, India could have been different today

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Surging India’s Spirit

Posted on May 6, 2009 by indra

India is unique. One can enjoy its various colours of spirit even in the heat of extreme summer election that has revealed how even the representatives of Dalits may be the richest candidates , how the members of parliament multiplied their assets multifold while in chair and how over the years the battle of election has transformed one of the riches.

But there is also another India, where some young men are writing a new history for India. A woman from Manipur works against gun violence. Another one fights against the land mafia in Kerala despite a physical threat. An activist couple fights for the Dalits. A young writer leads a movement in Bundelkhand to fight famine through water conservation.

Another set of young men and women are busy to innovate and enrich. They start media networks, work towards advanced crop technologies and train talent in the rural sector. If for one the power of innovation lies in tapping into the unorganized cycle rickshaw market, for another it lies in providing an online platform for jets. If for one the phrase out-of-the-box refers to a sports management or a backpacking company, for another it translates into selling puja kits.

For one, it meant giving up a high-powered job to start his venture, a one-of-a-kind that offers consultancy services in real estate. For an IIT engineer, it was to turn farmer and to work towards production of affordable food and become an inspiration for other farmers in Tamil Nadu. For yet another, the son of a politician, it was to forgo politics and start a media company, giving competition to one of the biggest news agencies in his state. And what about the woman engineer who has dedicated herself to setting up rural BPOs? These are people who prefer to beat the crowd and stand out. These are youngsters who swim against the tide and use unique ideas as a means to change.
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/index.php?option=com_content&Itemid=1&task=view&id=36126&sectionid=36&issueid=101&page=archieve

And the rural India is surging as a consumer market to sustain the big companies, be it mobile operators, car or motor cycle manufactures, or white goods and electronics manufacturers.

A new breed of entrepreneurs is trying their hands and minds in sectors that one would not have imagined few years ago.
While some are busy with floriculture, the other group is trying their luck by producing Italian cheese.

And there are some frugal innovators who can’t get unnoticed by reputed foreign media too.

A recent report from Monitor, a consultancy, points to LifeSpring Hospitals, a chain of small maternity hospitals around Hyderabad. This for-profit outfit offers normal deliveries attended by private doctors for just $40 in its general ward, and Caesarean sections for about $140-as little as one-fifth of the price at the big private hospitals. An Indian hospital chain has pioneered “beating heart” surgery that causes little pain and does not require general anaesthesia or blood thinners. This is just one of many innovations in health care that have been devised in India. Its entrepreneurs are channelling the country’s rich technological and medical talent towards frugal approaches that have much to teach the rich world’s bloated health-care systems.

I am sure the Indian voters will rise to the occasion to elect the best among those who are contesting election 2009. That could have made the journey of India among the best of the developed country fast.

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Election 2009: Dilemma of Gautam Buddh Nagar Voters

Posted on April 29, 2009 by indra

I was in Salt Lake, Kolkata for the last two and a half months for winding up some landed property near Hind Motor factory. I was also to find another client for leasing the house of Salt Lake on rental. As it was getting delayed, I was getting restive. I wanted to leave Salt Lake as soon as possible to reach Noida in time before the Election Day. I am a voter only in Noida. Finally I left Salt Lake on April 16, 2009.

Since I have come, I am busy in getting our election identity cards corrected, as our names have been removed from our sector. The election in Noida will be on May 7, 2009. I have been writing on the problems of the voters. Who can help us in getting us know more about the candidates. If we can’t get involved in selecting the candidates as citizens, at least we must know sufficiently well about the candidates in race. I tried to get the help of TOI as they publish a special pull out for NCRs very week. But I didn’t get any response.

I waited for the affidavits to come on election commission’s website. And now it is available. Unfortunately, it is in Hindi. And as it appears to me, the candidates are very casual in putting their details. I wish the election commissions could have sought the suggestions from the voters’ focus groups to make the information voters-friendly.

Strangely, 26 candidates are in fray with around dozen as independents too. Besides four known strong political parties of UP i.e. Indian National Congress, Samajbadi Party, Bahujan Samaj, and BJP, candidates of some ten other parties are also fighting the battle. I wonder if the numbers could be restricted somehow to around 4-5. Electoral reforms are must in the national interest.

I have tried to look at the affidavits of the candidates of the four main parties. Perhaps age wise, all the candidates are of the right age between 40-60 years, not too old as in many constituencies.

Because of my lack of knowledge of legal aspects, I can’t judge the severity of their crimes. But all the four have listed the multiple cases against them. Some keep rifle and revolver too. I don’t know if it is for self defense or for status, or for crime. I wish someone knowledgeable looks into the affidavits and enlighten me about the criminality aspect of the candidates, if he thinks the voters must know about it.

On basis of education, the Congress candidate is better placed as Ph.D and as author of number of books and papers. He is professor by profession. But I doubt if his capability is better than others to serve the community. He had been MP, but he doesn’t mention his achievements in his handouts. The handout of the Congress candidate has his e-mail address. I wrote to him asking his plans for Noida’s development. Can he get a captive power plant for Noida? Can he get a water treatment plant to ensure the quality drinking water for Noidites? Unfortunately he didn’t reply. Interestingly, the Congress candidate has a website too and has been a four-time BJP MP from Ghaziabad.

BJP candidate is an MBBS from University college of Medical Sciences, Delhi University. I don’t know how good he is as doctor. He owns two big hospitals Kailash, in and around Noida. The hospitals are doing good business, and are moderate in consultancy charges. We did also find it pretty good when we visited it for certain treatments. The hospitals are popular with middle class Noidites and retired government officers too. Will he get a dispensary or health care centre in each village of the constituency and use telemedicine to provide the quality services to the local patients? I wish the doctor makes it part of his manifesto.

Samajbadi Party has put in the least qualified candidate. He is only intermediate. As it appears, there were problem in selection of SP candidate.

The BSP candidate is a commerce graduate, and perhaps owns a flourishing food products business.

All of them appear to be pretty rich. Perhaps unlike in past, the personal assets have become the necessary parameter to get the nomination of the bigger parties. The party fund used to come to help a candidate in good old days. It is no more a practice or it may be reserved for bigger leaders.

It is interesting that I could find the names of the candidates and some information through Google search too. I am also surprised that some are setting up their websites for election purposes, but those are still not ready.

BSP has selected a very resourceful candidate who can deploy all his management tricks and money power with Maya’s social engineering to win the race. He is an industrialist (BRS Foods Ltd and ‘Paras’ brand) and multimillionaire. And see what types of loose talks are spread to win. I asked a local who sometimes accompany me in my morning walk. When I asked him about the prospect of the doctor, please note what he said. “Sir, the people will not make him win. He has sucked their money in the name of treatment. Who will vote him?” He was seeing BSP winning with thumping majority. Perhaps the BSP candidate may be of his caste. If BSP candidate wins, the local’s prophecy will come correct. And if he wins, will he encourage the villagers to keep cows and buffaloes and ensure that each village gets a milk collection centre so that the villagers can get some daily earning?

Unfortunately, I have not met with any of the candidates of Noida, and so must be the majority of the senior residents in Noida. I got reminded of a similar election in USA during my last visit. I saw a candidate standing with some of his followers on a crossing and shaking hands with passersby. I was amazed. I did also talk with him. Why don’t the candidates in India try to have first hand contact with voters? I feel they want to remain at a higher platform and love to keep distance with the common people.

I wish the voters share their experiences about the candidates, so that the right candidates can be selected. But I appeal as usual to vote for one of the two candidates from the major national political parties-BJP or Congress and not the other two as they have not been able to pull up the development parameters of UP during their rule.

But never vote for any candidate who has changed side and opportunist and if you know that he is criminal or corrupt.

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Global Indices: Do Politicians Bother?

Posted on April 23, 2009 by indra

UNHUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT, 2008: From 127 in 2004, India has slipped to 132 in the Human Development Index

UNICEF STATE OF THE WORLD’S CHILDREN, 2009: Infant mortality rates though improved from 67/1,000 in 2004 to 57/1,000 live births, but India trails many small countries.

IFPRI GLOBAL HUNGER REPORT, 2009: India, at 66th position, ranks below Bangladesh in underweight children and child mortality.

IFC/WB DOING BUSINESS REPORT, 2009: India is the most difficult country to enforce contracts in a court or otherwise at 122.

WEF GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS REPORT, 2008: With its inadequate infrastructure, inefficient bureaucracy and tight labour laws, India, at 50th position, is no match for China.

UN MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS REPORT, 2008: India trails Sri Lanka and Maldives in meeting targets set in the Millenium Development Goals.

GLOBAL CORRUPTION PERCEPTION INDEX, 2008: India’s rank has fallen from 72 in 2004 to 85 even as China, with which it was on par till last year, maintained its position at 72.

UNIDO REPORT, 2009: India, at 54 (down from 51 in 2000), trails China by 28 positions on the Competitive Industrial Performance Index.

INDEX OF ECONOMIC FREEDOM, 2009: With a shackled judicial system, excessive regulation and a “mostly unfree” reputation, India is at 123.

TRAVEL & TOURISM COMPETITIVENESS REPORT, 2009: India ranks low at 62 with inadequate tourism infrastructure.

Source-India Today

Should not the India’s ‘arrival’ on the global stage get reflected in the global indices? Should not the political parties get it integrated in its manifestos and try to achieve a respectable ranking among the developing countries?

With the stalwarts among the politicians claiming the record grain production and buffer stock, how shameful is India’s 66th position (out of 88 countries) with huge number of underweight children and child mortality? Could it not be reduced if these politicians would have made real effort to improve the ineffectiveness of the Public Distribution System and the Mid-Day Meal Plan?
Why shouldn’t the government once committed see that it meets the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set by the UN, notably reduction of poverty, bridging the gender gap and improvement in healthcare?

But most importantly, I feel shocked when the economist Prime Minister talks of everything else but the justification for India lagging behind in economic and business reforms measures where he could have done the best. Why should, after 17 years of liberalization, India ranks poorly in indices of both openness and competitiveness? Why does India rank as one of the most unfriendly destinations for investors? Why does it take so long to start a business and longer to get licences, regulatory approvals and credit? Why couldn’t the economist and administrator Prime Minister do something significant in these fields, as every one of his alliance partners would have heard him with respect on these subjects? Surprisingly, according to WEF India ranks 52 in transport and communication. In regulatory environment, India is at 64, way below even Indonesia at 16. The United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) Report of 2009 ranks India lower at 54 from 51 in 2000 in the competitive industrial performance rankings. I wish the Prime Minister would have put his focus on the development parameters instead of managing persons such as Amar Singh and Lalu Yadav and get media accolade of becoming smart politician.

Interestingly, while the issue of black money slashed by unscrupulous Indians in the banks of tax havens has very lately got media attention, there was hardly any effort made to cut corruption from the system. Is it not a shame that Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index of 2008 places India at 85 rank lower than 72 in 2004. And if we go by the surveyors, “around 30 per cent of Indians, officially below the poverty line, have to fork out Rs 900 crore as bribes to public servants in order to get their basic work done.” Can there be anything more important than that? Can they ensure that the rice intended for the poor will reach them, even if they make it free?

How long will get Indians deceived? Will the country vote for the right candidates? Let us see if India and Indians can change.

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Some Great Recent Indian Achievements

Posted on April 20, 2009 by indra

While the mudslinging between the two prime ministerial candidates are amusing and sometimes on bad tastes, India recently had some real achievements in its bag.

The launch of Tata Motors’ Nano created a benchmark for Indian manufacturing sector with a huge potential to invade the global market. Within 15 days of opening the registration process for Nano Tata Motors has sold nearly 500,000 application forms, and raked in Rs 15 crore (at Rs 300 each). The bookings that began from April 9 will close on April 25. It is still difficult to guess how many genuine Indians buyers will put in their money. I like many had bet for a million. It is up to the company to speed up production to ensure the fastest delivery. It must simultaneously solve some of the drawbacks such as engine noise reported in the press by those who test drove it. I am sure the designers who could develop so great a car can find easy and cheap solutions to do that also.

IPL is another Indian innovation to create a unique entertainment and business model. I am not sure if the government denied it the security coverage because of political reasons or out of genuine limitations. The speed with which the organizers shifted IPL-2 to South Africa is certainly an example of great efficiency and management superiority. Why can’t that be the same in other areas of business activity? Why is India still laggard in the global ranking as a country for doing business? As reported, India lost a potential of making $2 billion. But should it not be the reason to be proud that IPL has become a case study story for a reputed American university?

And then the Satyam saga that shocked the nation ended well and in pretty short time. Perhaps this is one thing that the government handled well with efficiency that has enhanced the image of the country. Finally, Satyam is in safe hands with Tech Mahindra.

But the biggest performance is the ongoing Election 2009 of the most populous democracy of the world. The people world over are watching this with great interest. As reported in the ‘The Economist‘, ‘The scale is mind-boggling. It will be spread over five stages, taking four weeks and involving 6.5m staff. In 543 constituencies, 4,617 candidates, representing some 300 parties, will compete for the ballots of an electorate of 714m eligible voters. In 828,804 polling stations, 1,368,430 simple, robust and apparently tamper-proof electronic voting machines will be deployed.’

Are not the achievements varied and unique? Can’t Indians take pride and then solace in it?

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Enterprising India

Posted on April 18, 2009 by indra

Indian politicians are busy in personal mudslinging- weak, weeping, communal and what not. Media doesn’t carry any report, if any of the parties are concerned about the extremely poor record of the project executions, be it roads, power plants, or ports. Neither the ruling ones claim nor those in opposition question. One of the king makers wish to put the country in reverse mode by banning English education, computers, and even tractors for creating employment. How long will the people of India tolerate the nonsense of this class who happens to be either the kings or the king-makers too? Should it just be overlooked all together? But how is it possible when media is selling only this stuff 24×7? It is really frustrating.

For a change look at this man who is older than me, leads the second biggest business house of the country with some of the most innovative companies of the country and keeps pushing,

“Cut costs. Think out of the box. Even if the world around you is collapsing, be bold, be daring, think big.” It is Ratan Tata. As one friend of mine writes, he is the richest man on the earth. Let us look into what ‘Business Week’ reports briefly about some of his companies.

Tata Motors has turned itself into the talk of the global automotive industry with its $2,000 minicar, the Nano, which goes on sale in India soon, and is far along in developing a follow-up, a low-priced electric vehicle.

Tata Chemicals is working on a low-cost antimicrobial water system that uses no electricity, and a UV-blocking nanomaterial that keeps paint from getting bleached by sunlight.

Tata Power is planning to unveil soon an advance in a smart electricity grid.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) for decades has been advising outside clients as varied as British Airways, U.S. engine maker Cummins, and Dutch bank ABN Amro. TCS was behind a new mobile-phone technology, for instance, that provides Indian farmers with valuable agricultural data.

Three Indian companies, Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries (RIL), diversified conglomerate Tata Group and IT bellwether Infosys Technologies – have entered Business Week magazine’s list of world’s 50 most innovative companies.

No. 26: INFOSYS TECHNOLOGIES: Of all of India’s IT giants, the tech-services outsourcer has been the most conservative when it comes to acquisitions, giving it plenty of cash to spend now if it chooses.

No. 15: RELIANCE INDUSTRIES: The $35 billion oil-and-gas company is known for executing world-scale projects frugally and on time. Reliance also enjoys huge profits: It refines the lowest-grade crude oil to earn fatter margins than rivals like Shell and Chevron.

No. 13: TATA: Tata can still dazzle, even if its takeovers since 2007 of steelmaker Corus and Jaguar Land Rover look ill-timed now. After making Asia’s fastest supercomputer, the $85 billion company just launched a $2,000 minicar, the Nano.

Interestingly, Tata Group and Reliance Industries have been ranked ahead of American industrial conglomerate General Electric (17), German car manufacturer BMW (20), Japanese auto firm Honda Motor (22) and telecom major AT&T (23), among others.

That is not all. As many as 47 Indian companies have made it to the list of world’s biggest 2,000 companies by US magazine Forbes. RIL, State Bank of India, and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation are among the top 200 companies ranked 121st, 150th and 152nd, respectively. All the three have improved their ranks considerably from their last year’s positions. Four Indian companies, Hero Honda Motors [Sun Pharma [Indian Bank [and Jindal Steel and Power Ltd are the new entrants to the list.

However, none of the Indian companies have managed to find a place among the top 100 firms this year as well. When can it happen?

Interestingly some among the companies are manufacturing and metal ones too such as Hero Honda Motors, Larsen & Toubro, BHEL, Tata Motors, M&M, SAIL, HINDALCO, and NALCO.

Five Indian companies are also among ‘the world’s 25 unsung innovative companies’ of Business Week too.

As reported in Business Week, ‘in spite of these many challenges, India is slowly but surely making a mark in the global supply chain. Indian manufacturing companies are vendors of choice for global automobile multinationals. Leading carmakers such as Hyundai, and Suzuki Maruti, even to smaller extent, General Motors, Toyota, and Ford (F) are supplying cars from its plants in India to the rest of the world. India becomes more lucrative because of its frugal manufacturing as well as frugal even with design and development that is very expensive in the developed countries.

At a time when global auto majors are struggling, carmakers in India have been able to expand their overseas presence with exports from the country registering whopping 57.04 per cent growth in the last fiscal. India touched 3,31,539 units in FY09 as against 2,11,112 units in the previous financial year.

And it is not only automobiles. A recent news report from ship building is equally exhilarating and talks tones about India’s manufacturing. India joined a club of select nations. The keel for the country’s first indigenous aircraft carrier was laid that will be launched in 2011 and is scheduled to be delivered to the Indian Navy in 2014. With this project India has become the fourth nation, after the US, Russia and France, to be capable of designing and constructing full deck carriers.

It will be manufacturing that must make India lead the global competition, as it is the core sector. Many more surprises from many sectors are still not known.

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Sayonara! Salt Lake

Posted on April 16, 2009 by indra

It was in 1982 that I bought this plot of land in Salt Lake. When my simple mother from a very rural background saw this land, she exclaimed, ‘Dear Son! Didn’t you find any better place?’ We had built a house at Bodarhi earlier to provide a better quality of life for our parents. So we took some time to start the work on this Salt Lake house.

It was 1989 that we could complete ground floor, though the structure for all the three floors were ready by that year. My mother stayed in this house on a Diwali night, though she didn’t see the house completed. She would have been the happiest, as she longed for it the most. In a very sudden cerebral attack, she went in coma and could never recover. She died on February 28, 1989. It was the year when Rakesh graduated from IIT-Kharagpur and left for MS at Purdue University, USA and my father breathed his last on September 24 after a long illness. Rental advance from the ground floor helped me in meeting some of the expenses of Rakesh. Interestingly, my father never saw AJIRA. Perhaps, that was his destiny.

We then finished second floor and gave it on rent but unluckily to a miscreant who created the worst nightmare of my life for me. It was only in 1997 that Rajesh and Shephali managed to negotiate the deal, though a pretty good cost of Rs 5 lakh from my hard earned provident fund money to get rid of the demon.

By 1992 end, we had completed the second floor. We built it a little better for our living. In January 1993, we had a number of functions related to the marriage of Rakesh and Alpana in the premises. By the time, the house had got its name AJIRA that included the first letter of all the names in the family, but meant courtyard of a house and also one that doesn’t get old in Hindi.

In 1996, on advice of Mr. Bhatter we left Hindustan Motors’ flat and started living in AJIRA. It provided some financial advantage of house rent. But as HM under new management of CK Birla decided to retire every one strictly at 58 years, I was to retire in 1997. Many things were happening in AJIRA. The unscrupulous tenant had created a legal mess. Because of a lack of experience in this field, I got involved into the local politics and suffered physically as well as mentally. For the first time, I found myself totally helpless. None actually helped in real sense of the term. Rajesh got married with Shephali from AJIRA. After the marriage along with the guests I left for New Delhi to join Harig Crankshafts as President.

Rajesh and Shephali continued living in AJIRA. In 1999, Rajesh also left Calcutta and went to USA for his MS. Thereafter, we gave the first and ground floor on rental and kept the second floor for ourselves.
I got my heart attack and surgery in 2000 and the same year in October, I decided not to work anymore. AJIRA helped us as son and took care of our usual monthly expenses, as my sole major employer in life HM didn’t provide a good enough superannuation.

Last year in January, Shannon also visited Salt Lake. I was waiting for that to happen. When we were in US in September-November 2008, the plan to sell Salt Lake house got initiated. It was the part of the winding up plan seeing the age. Ultimately, like a typical Indian parent, we shall have to live with or near one of the three sons.

We came to Salt Lake in February 2009 to outright sell AJIRA that was built with a lot of pain of all the family members. But the offer of a School of Financial Studies for a lucrative rental changed the minds of both Anand and Rajesh. Moreover, the offer for the outright sale was nowhere near the target. In the meantime, seeing the damage to the wooden fittings and structures under closed condition for many years, we decided to vacate the second floor and put the whole building on rental. We sold, gifted, and transported all that we had collected for more than three decades with a heavy heart.

Ultimately, yesterday on the first day of the Bengali year (Poila Baishakh) the draft agreement got signed, and I am leaving today for Noida. I don’t know if I shall come back again in AJIRA to live. So Alvida (Sayonara) AJIRA! Let me live with its sweet and sour memories and my ‘Karma’.

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India Still Shining

Posted on April 7, 2009 by indra

While the election news coverage on all the 24-hours channels is getting menacingly boring and to a great extent agonizing, many things though sparingly reported keep the hope for innovating and shining India alive. Why should not I and many who belong to my clan be with those?

IIT-Bombay is organizing TechConnect 2009 for industry professionals to view its research projects and prototypes and to explore opportunities to commercialize IIT-B’s researches and technology. It will showcase 42 exhibits across manufacturing, ICT, defence, energy, healthcare and processing industries – ranging from mobile jammers, prosthesis for children with bone cancer to treating cancer cell by heat and drug via magnetic nanoparticulates to IT for agriculture and even local area public transport.

DRDO’s BrahMos: India can soon claim to be among the first in the world to be ready with a supersonic land-attack cruise missile and then perhaps with a hypersonic one. Sivathanu Pillai, the chief executive officer and the head of the Indo-Russian BrahMos, an acronym from the Brahmaputra and Moskva, has made the BrahMos Land Attack Cruise Missile Mark II real despite opposition from the Indian Army that kept upping its demands and reducing the size of the targets in the tests. Pillai aims at arming Indian army’s artillery divisions with a missile the world had not seen. The BrahMos that is fully debugged is ready. The recent successful demonstrations of the BrahMos have scuttled the move in the army to import the Tomahawk or its clones.

IIT-KGP: After three years of research, IIT-Kharagpur, along with the Tokai University of Japan, has invented the novel injection that uses a micro needle to extract blood or deliver drug painlessly by using the suction-based pressure that a female mosquito uses to suck blood.

India-born Sanjay Jha tops among US CEOs: Motorola’s India-born chief Sanjay Jha has emerged America’s top paid CEO. With a total payout of over USD 104 million in 2008, Jha is the only CEO to get a compensation package exceeding USD 100 million, with Occidental’s Ray Irani at a distant second with USD 49.9 million.

Despite worldwide recessions, global hotel chains, as many as 37 international hotels brands are knocking at India’s doors to invest in India’s attractive hospitality sector.

Despite the industrial slowdown, the engineering giant, Larsen and Toubro, got around $1 billion worth of orders in the last week of March. Its order backlog has risen 13 per cent to Rs 77,000 crore, from Rs 68,000 crore in December 2008.

BHEL, the power equipment giant PSU got orders worth Rs 59,687 crore in FY09, a rise of 19 per cent over FY08. The total order book is around Rs 1,17, 000 crore. BHEL is doubling its current manufacturing capacity of about 10,000 Mw to 20,000 Mw by 2012.

Reliance Industries (RIL) commenced gas production from the KG-D6 block in the Krishna Godavari basin. India will save $9 billion in oil import bill annually with the beginning of production from the fields. Bringing a deep sea discovery such as the one made in the Krishna-Godavari basin into production within six-and-a-half years is a record against the global practice of 9-10 years.

Luxury car maker Mercedes-Benz India plans to increase its headcount by up to four-fold at the research and development centre in Bangalore in the next few years and will invest Rs 150 crore. It will increase its headcounts to between 500 and 1,000 engineers for its R&D centre in Bangalore in the next few years that employs currently about 200-220 people.

Aircraft maker Boeing Co., opened recently a research and technology centres in Bangalore, only the third such outside the US. With ongoing research collaborations with the National Aerospace Laboratories, the Tata group and the Indian Institute of Science, Boeing expects this centre with around 30 scientists to build technologies for future planes. According to Boeing projection, India would need 1,001 aircraft worth more than $105.0 billion over the next 20 years.

The $15-billion engineering and industrial product company of the US, Eaton Corporation, plans major expansion of its India operations aimed at making the country a hub for its global research and development activities and has decided to recruit over 600 engineers over the next two years.

Many Indian companies have also undertaken innovation as its route to go global. Praj Industries sells technology and engineering services to global firms that set up ethanol plants. It has just announced a breakthrough: the cellulosic biomass to ethanol technology, a second-generation process to extract ethanol from corn cob and sugarcane bagasse, both waste products in food production. The new technology will enable companies to produce ethanol from food waste, not food. Its scientists are also working on taking the company from the second-generation to the third in biofuels.

The world scientific fraternity recognizes the India’s talent. The highlights of the Battelle/R&D Magazine report state: [India] is becoming a top player in biopharm, automotive, IT/software, and IT-enabled services. India adds value to its customers’ products with large scale/low cost intellectual property.

MNCs are still building manufacturing facilities in India. Volkswagen India, the wholly-owned subsidiary of the world’s third-largest vehicle maker, will produce Polo, its top-selling model, at its greenfield plant at Chakan that is an e580-million plant, with a manufacturing capacity of 1.10 lakh car.

Nano has kept on getting terrific reviews from all corners of the world. Business Week, New York Times, Economist, and many put excellent coverage of this cute car that has all the potentials to become the car for the world.

I keep on searching the right material to read, and surprisingly I keep on finding many. It may be about the powerhouses that Indian entrepreneurs have built over the years or about the startups or mini global companies that keep on surprising with its performance through innovative approaches.

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Seven Wonders of India

Posted on April 6, 2009 by indra

In this election season, one can hardly expect to see something like ‘Seven Wonders of India’ on the most respected 24×7 news channel. I have been watching Pranay Roy from his star News days. Today Pranay has created a media empire of his own.

I have been watching the serial on ‘Seven Wonders of India’. Whenever I missed I felt bad about it. Beside TajMahal, the wonder of wonders, selected among ‘Seven Wonders of India’ on NDTV were Jailsalmer Fort, Nalanda, Minakshi temple, Konarak, Khajuraho, Dhola Vira, and Red Fort. And I wonder why Ajanta Ellora and Hampi didn’t get into the list. But as Pranay Roy explained NDTV has selected 7 out of shortlisted 21 out of total of 222 sites from all over India. It had two spiritual wonders too- Tawang Monastery and Golden Temple.

Rightly described as the eighth wonder of the evening, the dance performance of Aiswairya Ray Bachchan and her group was one of the most wonderful one that provided entertainment to the celebrities and suited the ambience of the occasion. But perhaps the most exciting was the dresses and costumes made out of textiles and weaving of various regions presented by models. And last but not the least was the fantastic music through drums of India.

We have not been to three of the seven wonders- Minakshi temple, Jaisalmer fort, and Dhola Vir and the spiritual one, Tawang monastery. I am sure god permitting we shall make it soon. Some dignitaries talked of going and seeing the places of interest in foreign countries. I went to see many places in Europe and Japan finding some space in between my business trips. Let me confess I didn’t enjoy the visits as I was not knowledgeable about its history. I have been visiting many places in last few years, but I hardly find visitors that belong to the class of people that were present at Pranay’s function. Perhaps that is one reason that these places do hardly have good hotels and other basic infrastructures. I wish they would have been visiting the some of the 222 wonders in India.

I wish some of the big business houses would have been volunteering offered to government to undertake the task of developing the infrastructures or protection of these wonders. I saw Konark for the first time in 1965. I vested it again in 1970s and found a lot of surface erosion. Perhaps the numbers of our heritage sites are too large to be maintained suitably with the government budget. It requires technology and research too, for the prevention of deterioration, besides educating the people visiting it to avoid mutilating it.

One of the coordinators of the function talked of creating heritage sites for the Gen Next. I am sure the creation such as Akshardam near Noida is one that will meet the expected standard. And I wish BJP instead of talking to construct Ram Mandir at disputed site proposes to help building Nalanda International University as the grandest in the world in which Indians of tomorrow could take pride.

And then I request NDTV to market prepare and market DVDs at nano price, the total of the sites state wise and that of the finale function too.

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Heart Gets Mend Itself

Posted on April 3, 2009 by indra

I had my heart problem. I had to undergo surgery. My uncle has also a bad heart but he did some herbal treatment. Years ago, Dr. Akhilesh Thakur, an MD and my brother-in-law had narrated me a story about the self mending of heart trouble of a woman vendor of vegetables. When the woman was brought in the hospital, the doctors diagnosed that her heart was blocked and required surgical operation. She could not afford the cost, lived on medicine, and soon started selling the vegetables going from village to village. After some years, the woman was again brought in the hospital but this time for a fracture. While she was getting treated, the cardiac doctor who had attended her earlier wanted to find out the condition of her heart. Surprisingly, the woman didn’t show any sign of heart trouble. The doctor then investigated further and found that the heart had developed a new artery to feed the heart. Perhaps the amount of physical exercise she had to do for living led to creation of the artery. That was Dr. Akhilesh’s explanation.

I read a news item today that confirms what Dr. Akhilesh concluded.

An international team of researchers that included a Canadian-born Indian neurosurgeon Dr Ratan Bhardwaj has found that the heart can regenerate itself. “We have shown for the first time that the heart is capable of regeneration,” Dr Ratan Bhardwaj – who gave primary inputs for the research under lab supervision of Jonas Frisen at Stockholm’s Nobel Medical Research Institute – told TOI just after the research paper was published in the prestigious journal, Science. (TOI, Kolkata, April 3, 2009)

I wonder why Dr. Akhilesh and his peers couldn’t have continued with some research on the subject and got the credit of the research team mentioned in the news report.

Here is another case of opportunity lost for an indigenous Indian product as reported in Business World.

According to the Gujarat-based Psyllium Husk Processors Association, in 2007-08, India produced 9 million tonnes – 98 per cent of the world’s total production – of Isabgol, a traditional Indian laxative made of psyllium seed husk. But the bulk of this produce was exported and sold as ‘value-added’ products in the US and Europe by multinational companies (MNCs) such as Procter & Gamble (P&G), Kellogg’s, Reckitt Benckiser and GlaxoSmithKline. Interestingly, Isabgol is widely used in the US and Europe as a breakfast cereal and is marketed as health food according to Dr Anita Gupta, senior gynaecologist at GM Modi Hospital in Delhi.

PS: Interestingly, when I searched for’ Broken heart can mend itself’ on Google, I came across a number well written poems with the same caption. The lyrics proved to be right.

I wish I would have taken my 5-km morning walk as seriously as I do take today. Further, I wonder why none of the manifestos for Election 2009 include setting up a Yoga Centre in each village as preventative measure to keep our population physically fit. Perhaps, it may sound against the secular image that all parties are trying to project.</font

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