An Outsider's Perspective Of An Unusual Man

Economics of Socialism - Why it will fail.

2011-12-27T21:53:00.002-05:00

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class. That class had insisted that Obama's socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.

The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama's plan". All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A.... (substituting grades for dollars - something closer to home and more readily understood by all).

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little..

The second test average was a D! No one was happy. When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F. As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else. To their great surprise, ALL FAILED and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed. It could not be any simpler than that.

Remember, there IS a test coming up. The 2012 elections.

These are possibly the 5 best sentences you'll ever read and all applicable to this experiment:

1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.

2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.

3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.

4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!

5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.

Agriculture – A way Forward.

2011-05-08T10:27:00.000-04:00

Who believes the Central government when it says it can reform agriculture? Agriculture reforms is much tougher, it seems, than we imagined, to be a much more a high priority of the economic reforms. Even in economic reforms we don’t see any unity of thinking within the Cabinet. What the PM says is one thing; what the Kitchen cabinet says is another thing? Power Centers have extremely divergent views when it comes to reforms.

The farmer’s suicides continue unabated even the Debt Write-off has not helped the Farmers. Farmers suffer silently.

Few years back I had the opportunity to speak at leisure with late CK.Prahalad in Coimbatore. He said: “I think agriculture is not going to be reformed through agricultural policies. It is through large investments made by the retailers in their supply chains and could be a more effective solution to the sector’s problems than government policies” He gave me an example of Amul how it gave Farmers fair price for their milk. He said if we can recreate the Amul system everywhere then there is every possibility that Agri will grow at 6-7% annually.

“The amazing thing for me is Amul has 2.2 million farmers and processes 7 million kilograms of milk a day. It is the largest in the world. But most farmers have two or three buffaloes. And we look at that and we just don’t think that is a model to scale up in agriculture”.

The ideas of the government just don’t gel with the ground level reality. Government thinks loan write-off every few years and free power will keep the farmers happy and thinks that is the agriculture reform.

The reality is rural India does not want free power and loan write-offs. The Farmers in many states in India are realizing/realized that free power is doing more harm than good to them. They want 18 hours of good and reliable power and new technology in agriculture. Farmers know a lot about Israeli farming irrigation and farming technique but the Govt of Indian’s foreign policy of not having cozy relationship with Israel to keep a particular community is not helping the Indian farmers. The farmers want agriculture technology from Israel and want the government of India to help them in this regard.

Geographical information Systems plays a very important role in giving information to farmers through mobile phone. We should create an Agriculture Information system in every district that provides information on Agriculture technology covers a whole lot of thing like soil testing, information on weather, Fertilizers, Prices and others. Gujarat is the only state that has got Agri Information System (ARS). Every district Gujarat has an Soil Testing lab and the lab helps in establishing the quality of the soil and it suggests what kind of Fertilizer combinations should be used to get maximum yield. Its time we should establish ARS and Soil Testing lab in each and every district in India.

Research and Development hardly gets funding in India and agriculture is no exception. Indian Agri universities still depend on MS.Swaminathan for direction, they don’t want to explore others or for that matter the tie-up with top Agri-universities of the world.

The Engineering and Medical schools were opened up to private players in 1980’s and that enabled India to have skilled Engineering and Medical man power. Participation of private players in setting up engineering schools enabled the growth of IT and ITES sectors in India. Skilled Doctors meant India became a Medical Tourism hub, so in order to make Agriculture attractive we must open up agri education sector to private players.

The Industrial houses in India want to start agricultural universities in India and they are willing to have tie-up with foreign universities and invest in R&D but these proposal are not welcomed by the government of India. Tragedy is they don’t listen to the sane voices. Future of Indian Agriculture depends on how we develop drought resistant seeds that will enable good yield even in tough times.

We need atleast 100 more Agriculture universities to make Indian Agriculture Competative.

Farmers need education on Crops, Irrigation techniques, new methods of cultivation so farmers should attend a six week training program on latest trends in Agriculture. To keep the farmers updated on technology private participation is necessary, Big retailers such as Reliance, More, Future, Bharti should come forward to helping these farmers getting adept to new technology.

Big Tea companies such as Dilmah, Tata Tea procure from small and marginal plantation owners and they organize a meet every year and discuss about new tea plantation techniques, Market scenario and others. Big retailers should take a cue out them and organize a meet every year with Farmers.

Cold storage is key to get good price for the produce. Government of India should allow private players to open up cold storages. Funding for these projects are tough to come by and banks won’t led to setting up of cold storage so I would like to see Agri infrastructure fund should be created for this purpose. Agri Infrastructure fund should fund projects such as irrigation, Cold storage and logistics.

Agriculture subsides don’t reach poor and marginal farmers. Direct Cash Transfer is the way forward. All Kinds of fertilizers should NOT be subsidized only Nutrient based and highly essential fertilizers should be subsidized.

Irrigation is yet another key area. Interlinking of rivers in Gujarat has worked wonders and even desert like Kutch is now on the Agriculture map. Irrigation technique and maintaining the water table in Kutch is a case study in many Agriculture universities in the west. India has to learn a lot from Israel on Water Conservation and productivity. Israel has got the world’s best productivity per acre for any crop.

Israel is more than willing to share its Agriculture technology with India but the Govt of India is not willing to get these technologies from Israel.

India should develop a irrigation network that includes linking of rivers, linking of tanks and lakes. Architecture of these networks should be small to maximize the potential.

Don’t know govt will reform the Agriculture sector or keep them poor and treat them as vote banks. Reforms in this sector can’t wait. If Policy is not working! Logistics could break the impasse in agriculture! And we should make efforts to reform Agriculture and make them take policy decisions and make them work.

TN Elections 2011

2011-01-13T02:14:00.001-05:00

Tamil Nadu Elections 2011;

Tamil Nadu is a caste ridden society; Even Films depend upon caste equations to be successful. For instance Satyaraj’s films do well in Kongu region , Sharath Kumar films do well in the places where Nadar Population is concentrated and I can cite more examples of how film industry is caste ridden and politics of Tamil Nadu is no different. Caste Chemistry is one the deciding factors in elections in Tamil Nadu.

Balancing the Caste equation is a very difficult job. In 2001 elections DMK believed in Caste equations and forged a caste coalition in TN and they had to bite the dust. They did not balance the caste equation well.

Caste Equations has its own Pros and Cons. Puthiiya Tamilgam is a Dalit party that is based in South Tamil Nadu, If this party is in Alliance with DMK then Thevars who are a dominant caste in South will vote for the other alliance. In 2001 Puthiya Tamilgam was with the DMK led alliance and the Thevars in South voted the ADMK alliance and ADMK swept that election in south. Likewise, Dalit Panthers Party of India and PMK are arch rivals in the Vanniyar belt or North Tamil Nadu. DPI was in DMK in alliance in 2001 and the Vanniyars voted PMK and ADMK in 2001 elections. So managing the caste equations is very important. No party in TN can’t afford to have two Dalit parties in their alliance. The Caste heavy alliance is surely going to bite the dust. Caste is necessary to win and election but if is overplayed then that alliance is bound to lose the elections. DMK in 2001 realized that, Caste heavy alliance cost them the elections. The Alliance which uses the caste equations wisely and they should not be seen associated with any particular caste will win this elections.

Elections 2011 will be a make or break elections for Caste based Political Parties such as KMK,PMK and MMK. KMK has got a presence in West TN, PMK has presence in North TN and MMK has a presence in South TN. Gounders, Thevars and Vanniyars are three large caste groupings in TN and they have a political party to represent them, Nadars in South, restricted to 4-5 districts also have political party represented by actor Sharath Kumar. DMDK is pre dominantly a Naidu Party, funded by Naidu Businessmen’s but it has a presence across TN and it is not seen as a Caste based outfit by Political pundits and the voters of TN.

Tamil Nadu is all set for a straight fight between ADMK and DMK alliance.

ADMK Alliance – ADMK,MDMK, CPI CPM.

DMK Alliance – DMK, Congress, PMK, DPI

KMK and DMDK are yet to decide on the alliance. If the tie-up between ADMK and DMDK materializes then its advantage ADMK in elections 2011.if DMDK contests election on its own then its advantage DMK.

A factor every Psephologist fail to take into consideration while they do an Opinion polls is Conversion issues. Conversion is a issue and in many seats. Conversion is Coastal areas tilt the balance in Favour of DMK alliance. Couple of Muslim parties will upset the DMK alliance in Chennai and Cauvery Delta region.

If DMDK alliance with AMDK materializes then this elections will be too close to call.

When Radia killed the media star

2010-11-20T07:47:00.000-05:00

Courtesy #Barkhagate Article on DNA which many are not able to access : Written by G Sampath

When Radia killed the media star

Saturday, November 20, 2010 14:51 IST

The complete blackout of the Niira Radia tapes by the entire broadcast media and most of the major English newspapers paints a truer picture of corruption in the country than the talk shows in the various news channels andthe breast-beating in all the newspapers about the 2G, CWG, Adarsh, and other scams.

The website, NewspostIndia.com has this to say about this phenomenon, "The self anointed flag bearers of the third pillar were caught red handed as the Nira Radia tapes were leaked online by Open and Outlook Magazine. These tapes show the corruption nexus between top journalists such as Barkha Dutt, Rajdeep Sardesai, Prabhu Chawla and Vir Sanghvi and political parties and corporate lobbyists. Some print media outlets, such as Mail Today, and foreign media giants carried these revelations. However our very own prime time television news channels NDTV, CNN-IBN, TimesNow, Headlines Today etc. launched a cover up of the news from the public in order to protect their own."

It is quite possible that Barkha Dutt and Vir Sanghvi never lobbied for Raja or for anyone else. But it is quite clear from the tapes that they were by no means practising journalism in their conversations with Radia. What they were doing, is acting as liaison officers for political parties and business houses. In fact, if all those conversations were merely in the course of 'journalistic duty', why this strange black-out?

But what is really scary is that, despite living in a 'democracy' that boasts of a 'free press', if you were dependant only on TV and the big newspapers for the biggest news developments of the day, you would never have known about the Niira Radia tapes, and the murky role of mediapersons as political power brokers. Indeed, the main source of information on this scandal has been online media, such as newspostindia.com, various bloggers, and social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, and of course, the websites of Outlook and Open magazines.

The question that the Barkha Dutts and the Rajdeep Sardesais of the world have to answer is: How can you purport to be a news channel and ignore completely the biggest news break of the day for two days running (Nov 18 and 19)? Sure, say that those tapes are rubbish. Defend your journalists all you want. Do whatever, but how can you pretend to your audience — many of whom anyway have been listening to the tapes from the Open and Outlook and YouTube websites — that they never happened? I mean, how daft is that?

And even if those tapes, reportedly recorded by the IT department, were not authentic, the very fact that the entire broadcast media (bitter rivals for TRPs and ad revenues on normal days) ganged up to black it out shows that they have something to hide. Just as politicians bail each other out in scam-time, it appears journalists do the same.

Outlook prefaces its tape transcripts with the comments, "Radia's conversations show how even cabinet berths can be decided by this select oligarchy. Her interface with discredited (now former) telecom minister A. Raja, DMK MP Kanimozhi and Ranjan Bhattacharya, the foster son-in-law of former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, shows how she successfully lobbied for several cabinet berths. The transcripts suggest that journalists Vir Sanghvi and Barkha Dutt also lobbied for Raja with the Congress party. However, both journalists, in separate statements, decried the use of the label 'lobbyist' and termed their conversation with Radia as part of their normal journalistic duties."

At the same time, it is worth noting that neither Barkha nor any of the other journalists whose names have come up have denied that those conversations took place. So why not let the reader or TV viewer read or listen to the transcripts and decide whether Dutt and Sanghvi's conversations with Radia are a part of "normal journalistic duties" or amount to pimping for politicians and business houses? Or perhaps they were doing social service for the Congress? Play the tapes on your show, na, Ms Dutt, instead of tweeting about them? Why not let 'We, The People' decide, instead of you deciding for us all?

Newspostindia.com observes, "The media in the free world prides itself on impartiality. In India, they're in bed with the ruling elites. If these individuals or the companies they represent had any ethics or standards, we would have seen resignations by now."

Earlier this week, I had contacted the former Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) N Vittal for a story I was working on. He spoke at length about the vicious cycle of the neta-babu-lala-jhola-dada who have "scientifically perfected" corruption. But Vittal left out one vital link in the chain — the media professional.

NREGA ties Bhadohi in knots By Geetanjali Krishna.

2010-10-22T03:51:00.002-04:00

The other day, I met a few carpet manufacturers from Mirzapur who were fuming about the state of affairs there. “In spite of the best weaving wages that we’re able to pay, far too many weavers have now turned to other jobs,” one complained. The recession in the West led to a massive slowdown in carpet exports, reducing the number of orders for weavers. Many found alternative jobs under the NREGA (the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) and did not want to return to their traditional trade that offered fewer guarantees. So, when the market saw a slight upswing and carpet exporters began receiving larger orders, they discovered to their dismay that there were hardly any weavers left to execute the orders.

Recently, a desperate manufacturer actually offered Maruti 800s as weaving bonuses, and still found few takers amongst weavers! And to make matters worse, Indian carpets had to compete with much cheaper Chinese machine-made knock-offs that could be woven in a day (similar rugs in India could take human hands several weeks to weave). “It’s a vicious circle. Unless we get orders, we can’t commission weavers to weave carpets. But unless there are enough weavers to weave for us, how can we even take new orders?” they said. At the same time, they could also see why weavers, who were uncertain of their future and without a regular source of income, would want to leave at the first glimpse of a better opportunity.

No wonder then that people are wondering about the future of Bhadohi’s carpet industry that provides employment to around 3.2 million people in Uttar Pradesh. A couple of decades ago, most of the carpet production in this belt was of hand-knotted carpets. Today, this has changed. The bulk of the industry’s revenues comes from hand-tufted rugs that are cheaper to make and faster to produce.

That’s why my interest was piqued when I heard that on September 4, hand-knotted carpets of Bhadohi were finally granted Geographical Indication (GI) status. This means that hand-woven carpets in nine adjoining districts that make up UP’s carpet belt — Bhadohi, Mirzapur, Varanasi, Ghazipur, Sonebhadra, Kaushambi, Allahabad, Jaunpur and Chandauli — will now be allowed the use of an exclusive trademark, Hand Knotted Carpets of Bhadohi.

What would a tag like this really mean? According to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, it will prevent the unauthorised use of the registered GI by third parties, boost exports and bring economic prosperity to this handmade carpet-weaving cluster. At the level of promoting Indian carpets in world markets, this sounds great. For starters, it may be useful for curbing the cheap imitations that have eroded the market share of genuine Bhadohi carpets. It may also help establish Bhadohi carpets as an international brand.

At ground zero, however, for the thousands of weavers, dyers, washers and carpet design makers in the Bhadohi carpet belt, the fact that the carpets they create have GI status now has little meaning. What they know is that their source of livelihood is incredibly labour-intensive and skilled — yet they are not even assured of a regular monthly income. In fact, that is why many master weavers have preferred to forget their traditional skill honed over generations, and have chosen the unskilled road work that the NREGA offers.

If only the government offered employment guarantees to people like them based on their traditional skills ... for without weavers, the future of the Hand Knotted Carpets of Bhadohi looks bleak, GI or no GI.

This Article was Written by Geetanjali Krishna for The Business Standard. I completely agree with her argument.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People By Stephen R.Covey.. Review

2010-08-27T09:45:00.001-04:00

As the title of the book implies, Covey describes the seven habits of highly effective people and techniques for adopting the seven habits. Covey makes clear that an individual must make a paradigm shift before incorporating these habits into his/her own personal life. A paradigm is essentially the way an individual perceives something. Covey emphasizes that if we want to make a change in our lives, we should probably first focus on our personal attitudes and behaviors. He applies different examples via family, business, and society in general.

This book's focal point is on an approach to obtain personal and interpersonal effectiveness. Covey points out that private victories precede public victories. He makes the example that making and keeping promises to ourselves comes before making and keeping promises to others.

Habits 1, 2, and 3 deal with self-mastery. They move an individual from dependency on others to independence. Habits 4, 5, and 6 deal with teamwork, cooperation, and communication. These habits deal with transforming a person from dependency to independence to interdependence. Interdependence simply means mutual dependence. Habit 7 embodies all of the other habits to help an individual work toward continuous improvement.

Habit 1 discusses the importance of being proactive. Covey states that we are responsible for our own lives; therefore, we possess the initiative to make things happen. He also points out that proactive people so not blame various circumstances for their behaviors but they realize behavior comes from one's conscious. Covey also explains that the other type of person is reactive. Reactive people are affected by their social as well as physical surroundings. This means that if the weather is bad, then it affects their behavior such as their attitude and performance.

He also explains that all problems that are experienced by individuals fall into one of three categories, which are direct control, indirect control, or no control. The problems that are classified under direct control are the problems that involve our own behavior. The problems classified as indirect control encompasses problems that we can do nothing about. The problems classified as no control are those that we can do nothing about.

Habit 2 focuses on beginning with the end in mind. Covey wants the reader to envision his/her funeral. This may sound disheartening but his goal is to help you think about the words that you wish to be said about you; it can help the individual visualize what you value the most. To begin with the end simply means to start with your destination in mind. That gives an individual a sense of where he/she presently is in their life. One has to know where they are going to make sure that they are headed in the right direction. Covey also mentions that the most effective way to begin with the end is by developing a personal mission statement. After doing that, you should identify your center of attention. Are you spouse centered, money centered, family centered, etc. The he tells you depending on you core of interest, your foundation for security, guidance, and power.

Habit 3 is the practical fulfillment of Habits 1 and 2. Covey accentuates that Habits 1 and 2 are prerequisite to Habit 3. He states that an individual cannot become principle centered developing their own proactive nature; or without being aware of your paradigms; or the capability of envisioning the contribution that is yours to make. One must have an independent will. This is the ability to make decisions and to act in accordance with them.

Habit 4 deals with the six paradigms of interaction, which are win/win, win/lose, lose/win, lose/lose, win, and win/win or no deal. Win/win is a situation in which everyone benefits something. It is not your way or my way; it is a better way. Win/lose declares that if I win then you lose. Simply put, I get my way; you don't get yours. Win/lose people usually use position, power, possessions, or personality to get their way. The win/lose type of person is the person that feels that if I lose; you win. People who feel this way are usually easy to please and find the strength of others intimidating. When two win/lose people get together both will lose resulting in a lose/lose situation. Both will try to get the upper end of the stick but in the end, neither gets anything. The person that simply thinks to win secures their own ends and leaves it up to others to secure theirs. The win/win or no deal person means that if there is not a suitable solution met that satisfies both parties then there is no agreement.

Habit 5 deals with seeking means of effective communication. This habit deals with seeking first to understand. However, we usually seek first to be understood. Most people to not listen with the intent to understand but with the intent to reply. The act of listening to understand is referred to as empathic listening. That means you try to get into the person's frame of mind and think as they are thinking.

Habit 6 discuses combining all of the other habits to prepare us for the habit of synergy. Synergy means that the sum of the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Possessing all of the habits will benefit an individual more than possessing one or two of them. Synergism in communication allows you to open your mind to new possibilities or new options.

Habit 7 involves surrounds the other habits because it is the habit that makes all of the others possible. It is amplifying the greatest asset you have which is yourself. It is renewing your physical, emotional, mental, and social nature. The physical scope involves caring for yourself effectively. Spiritual renewal will take more time. Our mental development comes through formal education. Quality literature in our field of study as well as other fields help to broaden our paradigms. Renewing the social dimension is not as time consuming as the others. We can start by our everyday interactions with people.

Moving along the upward spiral requires us to continuously learn, commit, and do on higher planes. This is essential to keep progressing. At the end of each habit, there are application suggestions or exercises that help you become a more effective person. This is definitely not a quick fix it book. The concepts should be studied in order to be fully achieved. I think if you learn to use these 7 habits, it will change your life.

How to wipe out Islamic terror

2010-07-31T12:32:00.002-04:00

The Author of this Post is Subramanian Swamy Former Union Minister/ President of Janata Party.

This Article was published in The New Indian Express.

According to the latest Union home ministry Annual Report to Parliament, of the 35 states in India, 29 are affected by terrorist acts carried out by all kinds of forces. Terrorism, I define here as the illegal use of force to overawe the civilian population to make it do or not do an act against their will and well-being.

There are about 40 reported and unreported terrorist attacks per month in the country. That is why the recent US National Counter-Terrorism Centre publication A Chronology of International Terrorism states: ‘India suffered more terrorist acts than any other country’.

While the PM thinks that Maoists’ threat is most serious, I think Islamic terrorism is even more serious. If we did not have today the present Union home minister, PM, and UPA chairperson, then Maoists can be eliminated in a month, much as I did with the LTTE in Tamil Nadu, as a senior minister in 1991, or MGR did with the Naxalites in the early 1980s.

Why is Islamic terrorism our number one problem of national security? About this there will be no doubt after 2012. By that year, I expect a Taliban takeover in Pakistan and the Americans to flee Afghanistan. Then, Islam will confront Hinduism to ‘complete unfinished business’.

Let us remember that every Hindu-Muslim riot in India since 1947, has been ignited by Muslim fanatics — if one goes by all the commissions of inquiry set up after every riot. By today’s definition these riots are all terrorist acts. Muslims, though a minority in India, still have fanatics who dare to lead violent attacks against Hindus. Other Muslims of India just lump it, sulk or rejoice. That is the history from Babar’s time to Aurangzeb. There have been exceptions to this apathy of Muslims like Dara Shikoh, in the old days, or like M J Akbar and Salman Haidar today who are not afraid to speak out against Islamic terror, but still they remain exceptions.

Blame the Hindus

In one sense, I do not blame the Muslim fanatics for targeting Hindus. I blame us Hindus who have taken their individuality permitted in Sanatana Dharma to the extreme. Millions of Hindus can assemble without state patronage for Kumbh Mela completely self-organised, but they all leave for home oblivious of the targeting of Hindus in Kashmir, Mau, Melvisharam and Malappuram and do not lift their little finger to help organise Hindus. For example, if half the Hindus vote together rising above their caste and language, a genuine Hindu party will have a two-thirds majority in Parliament and Assemblies.

The secularists now tout instances of Hindu fanatics committing terrorist attacks against Muslims or other minorities. But these attacks are mostly state sponsored, often by the Congress itself, and not by Hindu ‘non-state actors’. Muslim-led attacks are however all by ‘non-state actors’ unless one includes the ISI and rogue elements in Pakistan’s army which are aiding them, as state sponsoring.

Fanatic Muslim attacks have been carried out to target and demoralise the Hindus, to make Hindus yield that which they should not, with the aim of undermining and ultimately to dismantle the Hindu foundation of India. This is the unfinished war of 1,000 years which Osama bin Laden talks about. In fact, the earliest terror tactics in India were deployed in Bengal 1946 by Suhrawady and Jinnah to terrorise Hindus to give in on the demand for Pakistan. The Congress party claiming to represent the Hindus capitulated, and handed 25 per cent of India on a platter to Mohammed Ali Jinnah. Now they want the remaining 75 per cent.

Forces against Hindus

This is not to say that other stooges have not targeted Hindus. During the last six decades since Independence, British imperialist-inspired Dravidian movement led by E V Ramaswamy Naicker, in the name of rationalism tried to debunk as irrational the Hindu religion, and terrorised the Hindu priestly class, ie, the Brahmins, for propagating the Hindu religion.

The movement’s organisational arm, the Dravida Kazhagam (DK), had venerated Ravana for 50 years to spite the Hindu adoration of Rama and vulgarise the abduction of Sita, till the DK belatedly learnt that Ravana was a Brahmin and a pious bhakta of Lord Shiva too. Abandoning this course of defaming Ramayana, the DK have now become stooges of the anti-Indian LTTE which has specialised in killing the Hindu Tamil leadership in Sri Lanka. Of course the DK has now been orphaned by the decimation of the LTTE.

Civil war situation

In the 1960s, the Christian missionaries had inspired the Nagas. The Nagas also wanted to further amputate Bharat Mata by seeking secession of Nagaland from the nation. In the 1980s, the Hindus

of Manipur were targeted by foreign-trained elements. Manipuris were told: give up Hinduism or be killed. In Kashmir, since the beginning of the 1990s, militants in league with the Pakistan-trained terrorists also targeted the Hindus by driving the Hindu Pandits out of the Valley, or killing them or dishonouring their women folk.

Recognising that targeting of Hindus is being widely perceived, and that Muslims of India are largely just passive spectators, the foreign patrons of Islamic terrorists are beginning to engage in terrorist acts that could pit Muslims against Hindus in nation-wide conflagration and possible civil war as in Serbia and Bosnia. Muslims cannot be divided into ‘moderates’ and ‘extremists’ because the former just capitulate when confronted. Recently, Pakistan civilian government capitulated on ‘kite flying’ and banned it because Taliban considers it as ‘Hindu’. Moderate governments of Malaysia and Kazhakstan are now demolishing Hindu temples.

Collective response

Hence, the first lesson to be learnt from recent history, for tackling terrorism in India is that the Hindu is the target and that Muslims of India are being programmed by a slow reactive process to become radical and thus slide into suicide against Hindus. It is to undermine the Hindu psyche and create fear of civil war that terror attacks are organised.

And hence since the Hindu is the target, Hindus must collectively respond as Hindus against the terrorist and not feel individually isolated or worse, be complacent because he or she is not personally affected. If one Hindu dies merely because he or she was a Hindu, then a bit of every Hindu also dies. This is an essential mental attitude, a necessary part of a virat Hindu (for fuller discussion of the concept of virat Hindu, see my Hindus Under Siege: The Way Out Haranand, 2006).

Therefore we need today a collective mindset as Hindus to stand against the Islamic terrorist. In this response, Muslims of India can join us if they genuinely feel for the Hindu. That they do, I will not believe, unless they acknowledge with pride that though they may be Muslims, their ancestors are Hindus.

It is not easy for them to acknowledge this ancestry because the Muslim mullah and Christian missionary would consider it as unacceptable since that realisation would dilute the religious fervour in their faith and also create an option for their possible re-conversion to Hinduism. Hence, these religious leaders preach hatred and violence against the kafir ie, the Hindu (for example read Chapter 8 verse 12 of the Quran) to keep the faith of their followers. The Islamic terrorist outfits, eg the SIMI, has already resolved that India is Darul Harab, and they are committed to make it Darul Islam. That makes them free of any moral compunction whatsoever in dealing with Hindus.

Brihad Hindu Samaj

But still, if any Muslim does so acknowledge his or her Hindu legacy, then we Hindus can accept him or her as a part of the Brihad Hindu Samaj, which is Hindustan. India that is Bharat that is Hindustan is a nation of Hindus and others whose ancestors are Hindus. Even Parsis and Jews in India have Hindu ancestors. Others, who refuse to so acknowledge or those foreigners who become Indian citizens by registration can remain in India, but should not have voting rights (which means they cannot be elected representatives).

Hence, to begin with, any policy to combat terrorism must begin with requiring each and every Hindu becoming a committed or virat Hindu. To be a virat Hindu one must have a Hindu mindset, a mindset that recognises that there is vyaktigat charitra (personal character) and a rashtriya charitra (national character).

It is not enough if one is pious, honest and educated. That is the personal character only. National character is a mindset actively and vigorously committed to the sanctity and integrity of the nation. For example, Manmohan Singh, our prime minister, has high personal character (vyaktigat charitra), but by being a rubber stamp of a semi-literate Sonia Gandhi, and waffling on all national issues, he has proved that he has no rashtriya charitra.

The second lesson for combating the terrorism we face today is: since demoralising the Hindu and undermining the Hindu foundation of India in order to destroy the Hindu civilisation, is the goal of all terrorists in India we must never capitulate and never concede any demand of the terrorists. The basic policy has to be: never yield to any demand of the terrorists. That necessary resolve has not been shown in our recent history. Instead ever since we conceded Pakistan in 1947 under duress, we have been mostly yielding time and again.

Bowing to terrorists

In 1989, to obtain the release of Mufti Mohammed Sayeed’s daughter, Rubaiyya who had been kidnapped by terrorists, five terrorists in Indian jails were set free by the V P Singh’s government. This made these criminals in the eyes of Kashmiri separatists and fence sitters heroes, as those who had brought India’s Hindu establishment on its knees. To save Rubaiyya it was not necessary to surrender to terrorist demands.

The worst capitulation to terrorists in our modern history was in the Indian Airlines IC-814 hijack in December 1999 staged in Kandahar. The government released three terrorists even without getting court permission (required since they were in judicial custody). Moreover, they were escorted by a senior minister on the PM’s special Boeing all the way to Kandahar as royal guests instead of being shoved across the Indo-Pakistan border.

Worse still, all the three after being freed, went back to Pakistan and created three separate terrorist organisations to kill Hindus. Mohammed Azhar, whom the National Security Advisor Brijesh Mishra had then described as “a mere harmless cleric”, upon his release led the LeT to savage and repeated terrorist attacks on Hindus all over India from Bangalore to Srinagar. Since mid-2000, Azhar is responsible for the killing of over 2,000 Hindus and the attack on Parliament on December 13, 2001. Omar Sheikh who helped al-Qaeda is in jail in US custody for killing US journalist Daniel Pearl, while the third, Zargar is engaged today in random killings of Hindus in Doda and Jammu after founding Al-Mujahideen Jingaan.

This Kandahar episode proves that we should never negotiate with terrorists, never yield. If you do, then sooner or later you will end up losing more lives than you will ever save by a deal with terrorists.

Moment of truth

The third lesson to be learnt is that whatever and however small the terrorist incident, the nation must retaliate—not by measured and ‘sober’ responses but by massive retaliation. Otherwise what is the alternative? Walk meekly to death expecting that our ‘sober’ responses will be rewarded by our neighbours and their patrons? We will be back to 1100 AD fooled into suicidal credulity. We should not be ghouls for punishment from terrorists and their patrons. We should retaliate.

For example, when Ayodhya temple was sought to be attacked, this was not a big terrorist incident but we should have massively retaliated by re-building the Ram temple at the site.

This is Kaliyug, and hence there is no room for sattvic responses to evil people. Hindu religion has a concept of apat dharma and we should invoke it. This is the moment of truth for us. Either we organise to survive as a civilisation or vanish as the Persian, Babylonian, and Egyptian civilisations did centuries ago before the brutal Islamic onslaught. For that our motto should be Saam, Dhaam, Bheda, Danda.

Poverty is no factor

What motivates the Islamic terrorists in India? Many are advising us Hindus to deal with the root ‘cause’ of terrorism rather than concentrate on eradicating terrorists by retaliation. And pray what is the root ‘cause’?

According to bleeding heart liberals, terrorists are born or bred because of illiteracy, poverty, oppression, and discrimination. They argue that instead of eliminating them, the root cause of these four disabilities in society should be removed. Only then terrorism will disappear. Before replying to this, let us understand that I have serious doubts about the integrity of these liberals, or more appropriately, these promiscuous intellectuals. They seek to deaden the emotive power of the individual and render him passive (inculcate ‘majboori’ in our psyche). A nation state cannot survive for long with such a capitulationist mentality.

It is rubbish to say that terrorists who mastermind the attacks are poor. Osama bin laden for example is a billionaire. Islamic terrorists are patronised by those states that have grown rich from oil revenues. In Britain, the terrorists arrested so far for the bombings are all well-to-do persons. Nor are terrorists uneducated. Most of terrorist leaders are doctors, chartered accountants, MBAs and teachers. For example, in the failed Times Square New York episode, the Islamic terrorist Shahzad studied and got an MBA from a reputed US university. He was from a highly placed family in Pakistan. He certainly faced no discrimination and oppression in his own country. The gang of nine persons who hijacked four planes on September 11, 2001 and flew them into the World Trade Towers in New York and other targets were certainly not discriminated or oppressed in the United States. Hence it is utter rubbish to say that terror is the outcome of the poverty terrorists face.

If we accept the Left-wing liberals argument, does it mean that in Islamic countries, the non-Islamic religious minority who are discriminated and oppressed can take to terrorism? In the Valley, where Muslims are in majority, not only Article 370 of the Constitution provides privileges to the majority but it is the minority Hindus who have been slaughtered, or raped, and dispossessed. They have become refugees in squalid conditions in their own country.

It is also a ridiculous idea that terrorists cannot be deterred because they are irrational, willing to die, and have no ‘return address’. Terrorist masterminds have political goals and a method in their madness. An effective strategy to deter terrorism is therefore to defeat those political goals and to rubbish them by counter-terrorist action. How is that strategy to be structured? In a brilliant research paper published by Robert Trager and Dessislava Zagorcheva this year (‘Deterring Terrorism’ International Security, vol 30, No 3, Winter 2005/06, pp 87-123) has provided the general principles to structure such a strategy.

Goal-strategy

Applying these principles, I advocate the following strategy to negate the political goals of Islamic terrorism in India, provided the Muslim community fail to condemn these goals and call them un-Islamic:

Goal 1: Overawe India on Kashmir.

Strategy: Remove Article 370, and re-settle ex-servicemen in the Valley. Create Panun Kashmir for Hindu Pandit community. Look or create opportunity to take over PoK. If Pakistan continues to back terrorists, assist the Baluchis and Sindhis to struggle for independence.

Goal 2: Blast our temples and kill Hindu devotees.

Strategy: Remove the masjid in Kashi Vishwanath temple complex, and 300 others in other sites as a tit-for-tat.

Goal 3: Make India into Darul Islam.

Strategy: Implement Uniform Civil Code, make Sanskrit learning compulsory and singing of Vande Mataram mandatory, and declare India as Hindu Rashtra in which only those non-Hindus can vote if they proudly acknowledge that their ancestors are Hindus. Re-name India as Hindustan as a nation of Hindus and those whose ancestors are Hindus.

Goal 4: Change India’s demography by illegal immigration, conversion, and refusal to adopt family planning.

Strategy: Enact a national law prohibiting conversion from Hindu religion to any other religion. Re-conversion will not be banned. Declare caste is not birth-based but code of discipline based. Welcome non-Hindus to re-convert to the caste of their choice provided they adhere to the code of discipline. Annex land from Bangladesh in proportion to the illegal migrants from that country staying in India. At present, northern one-third from Sylhet to Khulna can be annexed to re-settle the illegal migrants.

Goal 5: Denigrate Hinduism through vulgar writings and preaching in mosques, madrassas, and churches to create loss of self-respect amongst Hindus and make them fit for capitulation.

Strategy: Propagate the development of a Hindu mindset (see my new book Hindutva and National Renaissance, Haranand, 2010).

India can solve its terrorist problem within five years by such a deterrent strategy, but for that we have to learn the four lessons outlined above, and have a Hindu mindset to take bold, risky, and hard decisions to defend the nation. If the Jews can be transformed from lambs walking meekly to the gas chambers to fiery lions in just 10 years, it is not difficult for Hindus in much better circumstances (after all we are 83 per cent of India), to do so in five years.

Guru Gobind Singh has shown us the way already, how just five fearless persons under spiritual guidance can transform a society. Even if half the Hindu voters are persuaded to collectively vote as Hindus, and for a party sincerely committed to a Hindu agenda, then we can forge an instrument for change. And that ultimately is the bottom line in the strategy to deter terrorism in a democratic Hindustan at this moment of truth.

Tamil Rhymes- Tulika Blogathon 4

2010-06-05T02:59:00.002-04:00

I did want to participate in the first few blogathons but didn't find the time. Here is one rhyme my grandmom and mom used when we were very young at about two years of age.

Sainthaadu amma sainthaadu

Kannin maniye sainthaadu

Chella Kiliye sainthaadu

Kola Vilake sainthaadu

Sainthaadu amma sainthaadu

They usually put me on theit feet and swung me and I used to have fun. And I have seen my sister having fun with her son while singing this rhyme. This roughly translates to

swingback and dance little one swing back and dance

The apple of my eye, swing back and dance

Sweet parrot, swing back and dance

The light of my life, swing back and dance

Swing back and dance little one.

This song brings back fond memories of my childhood

Paradox of our time in history

2010-06-03T11:17:00.000-04:00

The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider Freeways, but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.

We've learned how to make a living, but not a life. We've added years to life not life to years. We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We conquered outer space but not inner space. We've done larger things, but not better things.

We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We've conquered the atom, but not our prejudice. We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less. We've learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less.

These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill.

Are we going to take some time to think where we are up to??

The Magic of Thinking Big by David Schwartz

2010-05-04T04:09:00.000-04:00

The Magic of Thinking Big by David Schwartz

What's the main idea? Success is determined not so much by the size of your brain as it is by the size of your thinking.

How does it accomplish this? In every chapter of the book, the reader will find many practical ideas, techniques, and principles that will enable them to harness the power of thinking big. Every technique is illustrated by a case history. In this way, the reader will not only figure out what to do, but see exactly how to apply each principle to actual problems and situations.

Give me an example. In the chapter titled "How to Think Big", an example is used of a successful realtor to illustrate the principle "see what can be, not just what is." In this example, the realtor has a knack for selling rundown, unattractive property- not by selling it for what it is, but for what it COULD be.

Who should get it? Everyone who wants to do better in life! So if you want to live "big" it all starts with thinking that way. Readers who like this book may also be interested in "Finding Happiness in a Frustrating World". And remember, think BIG!

On the other hand people would say the book is not enough. will argue that its easier said than done. We all know this kind of saying: "If you think you can, you will. If you think you can't, you're right", but what matters most is how to take action.

David Schwartz give us many great facts about thinking big. Unfortunately, his suggestions are rather short and not very well effective. To think big, one needs much more motivation and inspiration, which can be found in much greater and more complicated books like "Your best life now" and "NLP". These books challenge us more and give us better solutions.
At the end of the book, David Schwartz talked about "Setting Goals". Hey there, setting goals is the single most important and difficult task of one person'slife.

I'm not saying that this book is not worth reading. It's just that it's not enough. You may like this book if you're new to the concept of thinking big, but you'd need more and better books to really grasp the concept.
THINK, PONDER! Get the good points and look for better points in others.

Review of My Years in General Motors by Alfred.P.Sloan ... Inside Look at General Motors.

2010-04-02T13:38:00.004-04:00

Alfred Sloan can tell it like no other. From the early days of GM to the time he retired, this book chronicles the issues that faced GM. Marketing, segmentation, labor relations, competition, and many other aspects of managing an industrial giant. If you like this type of book, this is a classic. Prefer the tales and hype of the net economy, then this one will probably put you to sleep, though there are lessons here that anyone can learn from.

First, Sloan provides a fascinating overview of the early automotive industry in the United States. As someone who was raised in a "car family" (my father sold Fords and my uncle managed a GM dealership), the story of how Durant and then the DuPonts and Sloan built GM to overtake Ford and ultimately dominate the car industry is a captivating one. The fact that I spent the first decade of my professional career in the software industry, which in the 2000s roughly equates to the car business in the 1920s, only added to the allure of this book.

Second, as an executive in a central role in a business unit-dominated company I sympathized with the challenges that Sloan faced in getting control of such a distributed organization as GM in the 1920s. As Sloan describes it, his goal was "decentralization with co-ordinated control."

Third, it is sobering to read what can happen to a genuinely disruptive innovative organization over time. According to Sloan, GM was a pioneer on multiple fronts: the first to develop market segmentation of car brands and the roll-out of the annual model; the first to create a dedicated, central group focusing on body styling; the first to create a range of financial operating metrics across business units; the first to treat their dealers as an integrated part of their total operations; the most aggressive automotive firm in developing consumer finance (GMAC) for car purchases; a technical innovator in the commercial development of the diesel engine for locomotives; a leader in human resource incentive compensation models; and a leading inventor in consumer refrigeration (Frigidaire). Most amazing, from my perspective, was the work of GM's Post War Policy Planning Group, which before the German defeat at Stalingrad issued a detailed report that accurately laid out the contours of the coming Cold War and described how GM would compete in a bipolar political world. ("The net result of the foregoing general viewpoints...is that there will probably be certain lines of demarcation or division to the west, south and east of the Soviet Union, within which the Russian idea will predominate, and outside of which the American and British viewpoint will prevail.")

This is a highly readable account of the GM story. Sloan omits some unpleasantries. He does not mention the death of workers in the development of leaded gasoline, GM's role in supplying Nazi Germany through its Opel division in World War II, or the violence of some auto strikes. Most will find it fascinating reading.

Yes, this is a great book. It is a TRUE business classic. It discusses all the subjects involved in business from a CEO's point of view. I was amazed to see the amount of detail Sloan has gone through while writing this book, there are plenty of quotes from annual reports, memoranda, conversations, etc. However, some readers will be disappointed by the lack of insight into Sloan's personal life. This particular edition includes an introduction by Peter F. Drucker, who explains why this book is MUST reading for all MBA and business students, but also all people that want to be serious about management. Highly recommended.

The Polyester Prince- Book Review.

2010-03-04T08:22:00.001-05:00

Why aren't there more accurate biographies about Indian leaders? Or rather, why are Indian biographies usually worshipful eulogies of their subjects? The answer probably lies in the fate of Hamish McDonald's book on Dhirubhai Ambani titled The Polyester Prince.

Usually biographies in India are commissioned works -- sanitised and censored. As McDonald says -- 'No one (the subject of the biographies) drank, cursed, cheated or philandered. Their workers were part of the family. Almost everyone lived an abstemious vegetarian life, accumulating wealth only to give it away to temples, hospitals and schools.'

You name it and Reliance had been all through it – from stock market rigging, undercutting, under invoicing, non payment of duties, cheating share holders, havala, harshad Mehta, bofors and framing of Nusli Wadia, they are involved in every damn scam. Though Reliance gathered lot of International attention due to increasing profits and revenue, it could not avoid getting into controversies too due to n number of cases running against it. I feel ashamed on discovering that some of the political leaders whom I thought to be man of ethics where puppets in the hands of Dhirubhai. For those who tried to raise their voice against Reliance like Nusli Wadia, The Indian Express and a chosen few political leaders had a bad fate as with the ascent of time, Dhirubhai became bigger than the government and if the political party tried to take any step against him, he threatened to pull down the government.

The author says that the Indian political system was driven by the prices of polyester and he has made a right remark as Indian corporate war between the Wadias and Ambanis started with polyester and later on spread among political parties with one supporting the Ambanis and very few who were the real preachers of values and principals supporting the Wadias. But the influence of Dhirubhai on New Delhi was so strong that everything worked the way he wanted it to whether it was getting a license or getting action against his business competitors and creating troubles for him like it was done for Nusli Wadia. Dhirubhai manipulated the laws and customs rules in the way he wanted them to be and by the time government realized the loopholes in the rules, he had already made his buck. He exploited the Indian government, their rules and tax system to the best of his ability which is very clear from the fact that Reliance is the only company which never paid taxes even after three decades of listing and went on giving bonus and dividends to shareholders. It took too long for the government to react and it was only for Reliance that Minimum Alternate Tax was brought in action. There had been a sheer injustice against the competitors of Reliance as all of them were not allowed to flourish in a similar environment but at the end of the day what matters is the return on investment. This is where Reliance had been right there by declaring dividends and bonus to stake holders. So it would be right to say, it was government and the system which was at loss. Billions of rupees which should have gone to the coffer of government went into building Reliance Empire and also went for paying bribes to the government babus.

Rich, powerful, intelligent, shrewd but a man sans ethics and values – this is how the author has described Dhirubhai Amabni in his book.I hope by know all of you must be aware of the reason for the book being banned in India. Someone who smuggled entire factory into India, who purchased the government can easily get the book and the author banned in India if he dares to raise voice against him. I really appreciate this work of Hamish McDonald who went against the stream to expose Dhirubhai and his group to the public. It is an interesting and must read for those who are interested in India Inc but the only option left to them is to smuggle the book into India from some foreign location as Dhirubhai smuggled the entire factory set up at Patalganga because the book is banned in India.

The Polyester Prince is an accurate portrait of one of the most colourful, controversial and brilliant of Indian businessmen, who converted into an art; the bending and twisting of the stifling license-permit system to his advantage. It traces his humble beginnings at Chorwad in Gujarat to being in the Forbes list of the world's richest men.

Madness In Methods.

2010-02-20T02:07:00.002-05:00

In the play of Shakespeare there is a character called Hamlet who became famous worldwide. In this story Hamlet used to behave irrationally or even madly. But there was a method in his madness. That’s why there is proverb in English – “Method in Madness”.

Shah Rukh wants to give a red carpet treatment to Pakistani cricketers on the blood of innocent Indians slain by Pakistani terrorists from Kashmir to Mumbai'. I don't know how Pakistan has become a great Neighbour to have after killing so many Indians through Terror that emanates from there Soil.

The Media has taken upon itself to promote his new movie My Name Is Khan. India is facing very serious economic issues such as slow down, unemployment, Price rise and Internal security. Media instead of concentrating on the issues of National importance took up issues that are not worthwhile to discuss in main stream media.

I feel its a congress ploy to divert the attention from its failures ,Media played ball to the congress, May be media has taken huge money from Shah Rukh Khan and Congress to press ahead with there agenda of promoting a film and save congress from its failures.

As this drama was unfolding another drama was unfolding in New Delhi and this Drama was about Indo-Pak talks.

A few months ago PM Singh told in the Indian Parliament that India does not know to whom we should talk to, whether to Gilani or Zardari or Kayani. He said he does not know whom is in charge of Pakistan, Two months latter the The Honest PM Singh is singing a different tune, and he still dreams of Having Breakfast in New Delhi,Lunch in Lahore and Dinner in Kabul.

Pakistan never wants talks to end, neither do the Jihadis and India wants talks to end in a peaceful solution. These two are totally opposite to each other and yet Indian foreign minister insists to carry out in this manner. As long as this method in madness continues, common and innocent Indian citizens don’t have any other way except to get killed in one of such attack.

When Indian foreign minister says that terrorists want to disturb peace talks, he is indirectly but obviously saying that terrorists and Pakistan government are separate. But if they were really separate, then in last two decades, Pakistan government should have been able to control the terrorist cells and thus the terror activities happening in India. But it never happened. Pakistan has got terrorism as state sponsored weapon against India to Undermine the Idea of India.

The talks between India and Pakistan has the same method in madness because Pakistan is not ready to listen to any single point made by India. Pakistan doesn’t accept the proofs given by India. It doesn’t even accept the mistakes and crime committed by its citizens and still our ministers in the central government will speak about solving the Indo-Pak issues through discussion. This is a madness, there is no doubt about it..

The Shah Rukh Khan episode also belongs to this madness, Till we find a news channel that highlight plight of the common man, We will suffer at the hands of the government. News channels that are there will run after celebrities, Will protect a Films and will do a non sense works to protects its masters and there friends.

The Dragon Spits Fire On The Tiger

2010-01-12T01:50:00.001-05:00

Every time there is an argument on India's tricky neighborhood. It is our more formidable neighbor. But somehow we are so pulled into our Pakistani obsession, that a quiet threat brewing on the Indian borders is always ignored. Or may be we are a bit shy, scared or relatively indifferent towards the dragon.

As we turns 60 as a Republic, China has instructed its media to be polite towards the Indian side. For our part, at least we can re-look the Chinese threat all over again.

After fighting a brief border war in 1962, the demarcation of the 3500km border between China and India remains unsolved. China came out in a better position after the confrontation, due in part to superior forces and supply lines. Of the 14 countries that China borders, it is only with India that the issue of territorial demarcation remains unresolved.

In particular, Arunachal Pradesh province in northeastern India has continued to be a bone of significant contention with increased rhetoric from both sides over the past year. Last January, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had a very successful three day visit to China. Yet, later that month, Singh went on a two day visit to Arunachal Pradesh and publicly stated that Arunachal Pradesh is part of India. This drew strong protests from Beijing, where the Chinese Foreign Ministry lodged an official complaint with the Indian Embassy.

The Chinese are gaining by inches, yards, and even kilometers every time. And we are on a backfoot. Already, over 36,000 square kms area in Aksai Chin has been conceded to Chinese side after the 1962 war. The war had then started when the Indian side discovered China's road in Aksai Chin. The dragon is making the same moves all over again and India should be prepared for any eventuality.

The Chinese have consistently egged the Indian side. First, they opposed Prime Minister's visit to Arunachal, then they fretted over Dalai Lama's visit. They have issued visas to Kashmir residents on separate piece of paper (in fact residents of Jammu were issued visa on their passports and from Kashmir, on a separate paper).

Bilateral trade between the two countries has shown dramatic growth over the past eight years. In 2000, China exported approximately $1.5 billion worth of goods to India; in 2008 that figure was $32 billion. India’s exports to China in 2000 totaled only $760 million, but by 2008, this figure had grown to over $20 billion. Both countries classify themselves as developing, and both will become more relevant in global affairs as their economies continue to grow.

Both the nations are growing fast and on a faster pace, fighting for the common resources. And if China feels, it can shove and shrug its way ahead, it could as well be right. And if India feels, that politely opening the doors for our neighbours' is the way ahead, it could be time for some serious rethink

A year gone and yet another comes...

2009-12-20T04:48:00.003-05:00

Time just flies. It is the end of the year before we could comprehend it. Moments that seemed like ages, moments that you wished never happened to you , moments that you thanked God for, moments you shared and that which you laughed and cried. A wholesome package with all good and bad in it. Each year is the same yet different. And 2009 is a year I would like to forget. A lost son and a traumatic household. So much time wasted in fighting and listening to people fight. A new start up that did not succeed as much as I thought. Not one holiday throughout the year. No celebrations at home either. A few happy moments. Keeping my fingers crossed that 2010 will be a better year and hoping that the path ahead will have fewer stones and hurdles.

A Radical Economic Restatement

2009-11-28T00:27:00.000-05:00

The title THE ORIGIN OF WEALTH sounds like a deliberate mix of the titles of two classical masterpieces: THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES (1859) by Charles Darwin and THE WEALTH OF NATIONS (1776) by Adam Smith. Before reading the book, I wondered if this might be just a cheap trick by author Eric Beinhocker to suggest that he has written a successor-masterpiece to these two famous groundbreaking books combining and integrating elements from both. After reading the book I say: no cheap trick.

In the business world, many people use biological and evolutionary metaphors. These clichés mean little; "the DNA of our business" has become another substitute for executive thinking.

Beinhocker’s book is different. There are no metaphors here, biological or otherwise. Instead he demonstrates that economics is fundamentally an evolutionary system. Businesses are not like species or like genes or like anything else biological. Rather, both biological evolution and economic evolution are special cases of a more general evolutionary algorithm

Wealth creation is central to any understanding of economics. What is it? How is it created? How is it increased? These questions are essential to most of us. They dominate our daily working lives. They dominate our political lives.

In "The Origin of Wealth" Eric D. Beinhocker argues wealth creation is the product of a "simple, but profoundly powerful" three step process:

Differentiate

Select

Amplify

The same process that drives the order and complexity of life, the author says, drives the order and complexity of the economy. Borrowing from Darwin's theory of natural selection - which incidentally was borrowed from the economist Richard Malthus - the senior advisor to McKinsey & Company argues the economy evolves. It’s a “design without designers.”

If the economy is a complex, adaptive system, the author argues, there are four implications:

Equilibrium, and with it much of economic thinking that has dominated the past century, is out.

A new tool set with its own techniques and theories are available to explain the economic phenomena.

Wealth is a product of evolutionary processes.

Changes in economic thought foreshadow tremors. Adam Smith begat free trade. Karl Marx begat revolutions and socialism. Neo-Classical economics begat the rise of global capitalism.

Whether you are an investor, business or political leader, this well-written, readable book offers a thought-provoking tour of the latest in economic thinking. If the author is right, we are standing on the threshold of an economic revolution. Eric D. Beinhocker's book provides insight into how this changing view of wealth creation will change business strategy, finance, politics and policy.

Beinhocker writes with passion about his subject, engaging the reader at all times as he surveys a field that is still growing and maturing. And there are plenty of references for the interested reader to follow up on.

Above all else, this is an important and fascinating subject and the book is a pleasure to read.

Happy Diwali

2009-10-18T02:42:00.000-04:00

Wishing you all a Happy Diwali and a Prosperous new year!!!!!!!!!!

A run of bad luck and a run of good luck

2009-09-18T08:36:00.003-04:00

Luck is an overused word. He got lucky, luck played a very important role and I was out of luck are all used everyday when luck is nothing but chance of an event happening. Luck is a word associated with positive feelings, fortune and success. I have had a series of bad happenings for the past three months and I would call it a run of bad luck. Once unlucky it is third time lucky. And I hope my unluckiness ends here. Positive thinking ensures positive energy which in turn generates positive outcome. And ranting your worries in the blog is the best way to free your mind. When you are surrounded by people with negative attitude how do you just come out of it? Makes me think that you just don't listen to these people.

Lateral Thinking -Part -2

2009-09-13T08:44:00.001-04:00

There is a story of a salesman in America who became a multi-millionaire selling life insurance. On being asked about the secret of his success, he answered that he told his clients he was there to buy life insurance for them rather than sell it. He did this to pre-empt the instinctual American skepticism and abhorrence of salesmen.

Examples of applications of lateral or nonlinear thinking abound in several fields. In cricket, Kerry Packer introduced day/night matches and colourful balls and clothing, a departure from tradition that became so successful, the whole world of cricket adopted it. English Cricket Board initiated and pioneered T-20 cricket, It has become a craze among the people all over the world, So much so it have even broken the monopoly of K-serials and Cinemas as the favourite pastime of Indian families.

Lateral thinking is a step-by-step method of creative thinking with prescribed techniques that can be used consciously. According to de Bono, intelligence is a potential and thinking is a skill to use that potential. He adds that thinking is no substitute for information but information may be a substitute for thinking. While information is swamping us, the need is for appropriate thinking techniques to avoid being weighed down by excessive information. Just as the skill of the driver determines how a car is used, thinking determines how intelligence is used. One may be a good thinker without being an intellectual and vice-versa.

There is a spiritual dimension to lateral thinking that has more to do with perception than logic. Good conduct that arises from right thoughts and perceptions is as important as Mediation and spiritual practices.

There is a misleading belief that creativity belongs to the world of art and is a matter of talent and chance and nothing can be consciously done about it. Lateral thinking is specifically concerned with changing preconceived notions to bring out new ideas and can be acquired and practiced as a skill.

DE BONO'S 6 THINKING HATS

The most popular technique presented by de Bono is the six thinking hats. Acting on the presumption that doing different things at the same time is difficult and confusing,

l) White Hat: facts & figures, (what information do we have and need to get?)

2) Red Hat: emotions, intuition, feelings (how do we feel about the situation?)

3) Black Hat: judgment (does this fit the facts?)

4) Yellow Hat: advantages, benefits (how is it a good thing to do?)

5) Green Hat: explorations, alternatives, etc. (are there different ways?)

6) Blue Hat: thinking about thinking (control of the thinking process

Lateral thinking can save your life, as illustrated in this story. Two men were on a jungle safari in Africa. Suddenly, they came across a tiger that started roaring. Both men were frightened and one of them started wearing his shoes. The other one said: "How is this going to help? We can't outrun the tiger." The first man replied: "I don't have to outrun the tiger; I only have to outrun you."

Lateral thinking is not a substitute for vertical thinking. Both are required. They are complementary. Lateral thinking is generative. Vertical thinking is selective.

Lateral Thinking

2009-08-23T07:42:00.002-04:00

Lateral thinking is a term coined by Edward de bono. Lateral thinking technique of problem solving by approaching problems indirectly at diverse angles instead of concentrating on one

Lateral thinking is a creative skill from which all managers can benefit enormously. The formal skills of lateral thinking have proved effective in increasing creativity within an organization. Lateral thinking is based on the logic of asymmetric systems.

A way of understanding lateral thinking is through its opposite, vertical thinking. A vertical thinker is analytical, careful and precise, taking the data around a problem and analyzing it with defined methodologies to find logical solutions. A lateral thinker understands vertical thinking, but chooses to deliberately outside of this bounded thought process.

Lateral thinking is quite distinct from vertical thinking which is the traditional type of thinking. In vertical thinking one moves forward by sequential steps each of which must be justified.

It is not easy to get outside a particular way of looking at things in order to find a new way. Very often all the basic ingredients of a new idea are already to hand and all that is required is a particular way of assembling them. The aim of the lateral thinker would be to try to find this right way of looking at the features of the problem. He would be made more aware of what was already implicit in what he knew. In this way the basic knowledge and expertise in a particular field could be fully utilized.

Perhaps the most fundamental creative act occurs when we combine two previously unrelated concepts. And such a combination can occur when we are thinking either laterally or logically Quite often we don’t know when that Ah-ha! Moment is going to occur. It just occurs when it occurs.

But a key aim of lateral thinking is to deliberately and systematically create those unrelated concepts and then force them together, to see where it takes us. However, when we are thinking logically, we tend to ignore concepts which are unrelated, simply because they appear irrelevant, bizarre or irrational. And the logical mind tends to reject such unrelated concepts.

Examples for Lateral Thinking

There are six eggs in the basket. Six people each take one of the eggs. How can it be that one egg is left in the basket?

Ans - The last person took the basket with the last egg still inside

Lateral thinking in particular is all about bringing together things that are seemingly unrelated. So start with a topic or problem, and then find random objects or words or concepts to relate to the topic. Or you can push the envelope of your thinking in other ways by making a list of things that are outlandish versions of the problem or issue - exaggerate it, make it bigger or smaller. If something is straightforward and objective, like making coffee, find moral and emotional issues related to it. Get ridiculous, get silly. The key here is, though, to get DIFFERENT

Lateral thinking is not a substitute for vertical thinking. Both are required. They are complementary. Lateral thinking is generative. Vertical thinking is selective.

The Media Circus

2009-08-01T11:27:00.000-04:00

The questioning the government is being termed politicizing by the Rouge Indian media. I was watching live streaming of two news channels and the debates in them. I found out that Indian News media thinks so highly of them.

Vinod Mehta sounded crazy. Pak has admitted that terrorists used it territory. So, what does that get for India? Hafeez is a free man, Dawood is free but we should be happy that Pak has admitted! Ok some progress was made...but is this enough for the PM to become so friendly with Pak again? What about the state actors? The BJP made mistakes..so is that the justification Vinod is giving for the PM to make the same mistakes?

And yes there is always this stupid question from viewers and anchors. Why is this being politicized? Arun Jaitley's reply was superb and Arnab should think before posing such a question again. Why do the viewers not come forward and question the PM, Sonia and the Congress? If they cannot do this they should let the opposition do its job, which it is doing well now.

You should Sagarika faze the nation - happily using all kinds of superlatives to describe the opposition. She actually used the word "sabre rattling" I wonder when her show will be regulated!

SG even manipulates the online Poll to suit the needs of the congress, and UPA, so much so her channel has become Congress News Network -Indira Bahu News.

Was Elections 2009 Rigged ???

2009-07-04T09:57:00.000-04:00

A Correspondent in New Delhi | July 04, 2009 | 10:35 IST

The Election Commission has now officially taken up the investigation of charges of rigging and fraud through the Electronic Voting Machines.

Chief Election Commissioner Navin Chawla is sitting over a major scandal of a possible massive rigging of elections by manipulation of software of the Electronic Voting Machines.

But for the charge levelled by a former Delhi chief secretary five years senior to him in the Indian Administrative Service cadre, Chawla would have rejected such claims of rigging.

Omesh Saigal, a 1964 batch IAS officer of the Union Territory, stunned him with a presentation to force him to order an inquiry into any possibility of such a rigging. Chawla is himself a Union Territory cadre IAS of 1969 batch.

Deputy Election Commissioner Balakrishnan has been asked to conduct the inquiry on the basis of a report handed over by Saigal to the CEC, with a software he got developed to show how the elections can be rigged.

Saigal, who is an Indian Institute of Technology alumni, has demanded an urgent check of the programme that runs the EVMs used in elections since 2004.

He demonstrated with his software that its manipulation ensured that one has to just key in a certain code number and that will ensure every fifth vote cast in a particular polling booth goes in favour of a certain candidate.

In his letter to the CEC, Saigal alleged that the software written onto the EVMs has never been checked by the Election Commission ever since these machines were manufactured than 6-7 years back.

His contention is that the EC merely relied on the certificates supplied by the manufacturers, the government-run BEL and ECIL. He alleged that these government firms had subcontracted private parties who actually provided these certificates.

"A public software audit of these machines from time to time, especially after and before an election, was a must to retain the credibility of the elections," Saigal affirmed, demanding that for the sake of transparency names and ownerships of these private companies must be disclosed, as also the details of the factories where they were actually manufactured.

The records retained in the factories must also be immediately taken over by the EC to prevent any tampering and to facilitate an audit, he said.

He also pointed out how, after nearly two years of deliberation, Germany's Supreme Court ruled last March that e-voting was unconstitutional because the average citizen could not be expected to understand the exact steps involved in the recording and tallying of votes. Earlier, Ireland had given up e-voting for similar reasons.

In the United States too, after considerable controversy the Federal Election Commission has come up in 2005 with detailed voting system guidelines which run into more than 400 pages.

Saigal said that it is noteworthy that not a single safeguard mentioned in these guidelines are in place in India.

Saigal said he had gone into all the safeguards built into the e-voting system in India with the help of former colleagues and IT experts and finds it both 'possible and plausible' to rig these machines and get a crooked result.

"If the credibility of the electoral process is to be ensured, pre- and post-election checks of the software now fused onto the chips of the EVMs is a must," Saigal said.

It is not that all the 10 lakh odd machines used in the poll need to be checked. If we take only those booths where one of the candidates has received 75 per cent of the votes and in constituencies where the

margin of the winner is less than 15,000, not more than 7,000-odd machines will need to be checked.

Saigal argued in his report that "if we cannot do this we must revert to the paper ballot."

"The need for a fair, free and transparent polling system transcends any reasons anyone may have to the contrary," he added.

Courtesy- Rediff News

Are Banks Really Safe??

2009-07-02T10:06:00.000-04:00

Banks had burnt their fingers when they unduly expanded in seventies and eighties during the course of implementation of Service Area Approach when the then government had put pressure on banks to ensure that there is at least one branch in the area of population 10000. Late banks found that most of the rural branches were not profitable and neither viable from any angle of consideration. They then stopped expansion and started merger of the branch. Some of the branches were made satellite branch of some big branch or merged with the bigger branch.

They are not again on expansion path without matching increase in manpower. One may very well imagine what will be the health of banking assets and banking man power. It is to stress here that there is no effective tool in the almirah of the bank to ensure recovery of money from wilful and recalcitrant defaulters.

Through this open letter I would like to submit following points before the responsible authorities so that real position of banks may precipitate and required regulatory measures may be taken to prevent further deterioration in situation in banks and preventive steps are immediately taken to safeguard the interest of depositors as also that of human resources victimized by greedy executives in banks and dishonest ministers in Government of India.

I would like to know the total amount of loan waiver and sacrifices made by public sector banks during last three financial years including that of agricultural debt relief allowed by central government.

I would like to know the total advance as on 31.03.2006 of total Public sector banks , credit made during last three years and NPA added during last three years , total NPA as on 31.03.2006 and that on 31.03.2009 and out of which NPA accounts pertaining to period before 31.03.2006. This enables us to know what percentage of advances outstanding as on 31.03.2006 is real NPA. Here it is assumed that there will be hardly any addition of Borrowers in the list of NPA who have been financed during last three years. Banks claim that their gross NPA is hardly 2% and hence borrowers are in general honest and to the point in respecting banking needs of repayment and turnover.

Based on real amount of NPA out of advances made by banks upto 31.03.2006 it will be possible for government of India to ascertain the real trend of NPA in Banks in India compared to that of foreign banks, especially USA banks where more that fifty top banks have gone bankrupt during last one year. It will be possible to know the truth only when government will take into account total amount of loan amount waived and compromised during last years .This will expose the real trend of waiver and recovery culture prevalent in banks as also reflect the ineffectiveness of government machinery to recover the dues from willful defaulters.

Can anyone give the certificate from RBI or Government of India that banks are honestly classifying bad assets as bad assets and making correct provision for the same? Or all regulators solely believe on Chartered Accountants and you wait till exposure of CA takes place as happened in the case of Satyam Computers.

Can anyone verify the genuineness of NPA figure of top five or six PSBs and that of SBI to ascertain the real story of banks so that Indian banks do not face erosion of capital as has happened in more than top fifty banks of USA, and many banks of other developed countries.

Is it not the bitter truth that top executives in banks are yes-men of Ministry and top politicians and they in turn have inculcated flattery culture in their respective banks?

Flattery gives rise to corrupt practices and window dressing of figures to please bosses and also empowers top bosses to discard honest and true officers. Banks bosses have enough power to post and promote officers as per their whims and fancies. they have tool in their hands to sideline those officers who tell the truth. Interview panel have the power to reject officers in promotion process specially those who not keep the executive happy. Officers who are not true flatterers are sidelined to rural areas in the name of policy of rural posting framed under directive of government of India. Is anyone sure that there is healthy practice in promotion and posting processes in banks as also in adherence in prudential norms of classification of assets and income recognition.

If most of the top executives in banks as also top officials in banking division of Ministry of Finance including Finance Minister are birds of the same feather, who will bell the cat is a million dollar question?

Do This BJP...

2009-06-14T08:10:00.004-04:00

There are many bloggers who write about constructive opposition. Do you think Indian media will not create controversies within BJP.Even if BJP do nothing , absolutely nothing , even then they will create controversy. How will you win this media ?

Do you have any solution ? I don't see any . I also don't see reason why you make Sushma Swaraj deputy leader of opposition. I don't think she has image of great leader. Ideally I want Narendra Modi to be next leader , he is very very good but Pro Congress media will be after him for Riots happened during his tenure. I am waiting for SC to clear him from all those false allegation and then he should take the position.

People are talking about many things like hate speech , modi PM and etc .. but its not the problem.. Clearly this is not the issue of loss. Varun Gandhi hate speech -- is it true or false ? I thought he was talking about terroists who are planning to attack India but our media showed it as being said against Indian muslims which is completely false .. Can in BJP why not clarified it ?

Please avoid controversies especially in this nonfriendly media . They need just gossip to create false propagation against you. They sold there souls for padmashri awards . Have anybody seen media analyzing opposition for there function instead of ruling party in elections ? Yes it happen only to India. UPA did all the wrong things in 5 years but our media did not touch even single topic during discussion . So clearly BJP number one enemy is proCongress media not the congress itself right now. Kulkarni sahab writing in a magazine which writes always against BJP. Hello sir ...You are digging your own grave !!! You increasing credibitly of that magazine by writing topics.. Where is common sense ?

Why BJP leaders so interested in going to news media rooms and discussion forums ? Avoid them .. Its not avoiding media ..its avoiding non friendly people whose very aim is to defame you and create controversy ., give bad name among people.. Did this help you ?? I don't so.. Avoid as much media as much as you can.. Don't be rigid on anything right from beginining. Take the case of women reservation bill, don't show rigidness like quota within quota..Just say we are still discussing within NDA and come with one voice in what you want instead of having different voices.which to people sitting outside sounds like some kind of confusion within party. If Vinay katiyar has issue with quota, open and discuss within party instead of going to media..avoid media if you want to success in future..Quietly tell everybody avoid media as much as you can . If appear on media , appear like moderate and not rigid in look wise . Probably hire PR professional to handle media and create a very good image of party.

Always have single voice for any issue within party and let it seems like a unit instead of confusion house which media will try to create. I am 100 % sure Varun Gandhi is not reason of your loss and neither Narendra Modi.

Also if you are not primary party within ruling coalition , please make sure you are known to people for good work. Look at Orissa and Bihar , people don't know BJP at all. Be friendly with coalition partner and at the same time be known to people about good work because you are always part of good work done . otherwise it will be like Orissa , all good work will be gone to BJD account and you are not known at all !!!

But if you remain like this , its hard time for you to win coming assembly elections. Your real test will be Uttrakhand and Haryana.If you don't focus now , you will lose elections easily. There are numerous local issues within haryana ..Can you start raising effectively .. Please organise BJP as strong unit who is seen as working for country built which is state built which is district built which is village built.

If BJP makes NDTV/CNN-IBN/Times Now and Star News lose their credibility in next 5 years, BJP would not have to work very hard to promote itself because like a movie people will be clear of what all BJP has done and what all it stands for.
What ever BJP has done and stands for has been discussed million times on TV although negatively. So if BJP makes Media unreliable then people will immediately pick up what BJP stands for.

BJP has to finish Media's credibility like Amar Singh does. So the target should be attack media and make it appear cheap and biased and sold its sould. Sad thing for a democracy but BJP ha sto do it for its survival.

At any cost avoid the Pro-congress media. Stop appearing in programs which are anchored by Barkha Dutt, Rajdeep Sardesai, Sagarika Ghose, Nidhi Razdan, Prannoy Roy, Vinod Dua, Arnab Goswami. Hit them where it hurts them.

Tamilnadu Results - Some shocking Revelations

2009-06-07T12:09:00.003-04:00

No. of Votes polled in TamilNadu is 30173305

790902 MADURAI
746045 TENKASI
656169 TUTUCORIN
774266 RAMANATHAPURAM
895858 SALEM
819880 DINDUGAL
709703 NILGIRIS
872461 CHIDAMBARAM
807786 THANJAVUR
749394 CUDDALORE
765663 KANYAKUMARI
701132 THIRUNELVELI
799586 MAYLADUTHURAI
741714 TIRUPUR
762988 NAGAPATINAM
726329 CHENNAI SOUTH
610352 CHENNAI CENTRAL
793597 SRIPERUMPUDUR
723529 VELLORE
853116 ARAKKONAM
659789 CHENNAI NORTH
840369 THIRUVANNAMALAI
751315 KRISHNAGIRI
849619 THIRUVALLUR
786910 KANCHIPURAM
778167 DHARMAPURI
771479 POLLACHI
822696 KARUR
775288 SIVAGANGA
845488 NAMAKKAL
800362 THENI
718207 TRICHY
832216 PERAMBALUR
767023 ERODE
823385 COIMBATORE
767653 VIRUDHUNAGAR
796414 VILLUPURAM
854955 KALLAKURICHI
841264 AARANI

30383069 TOTAL

30173305 The total no of voters polled as per the election commissions document

Do you know the difference, 30383069 - 30173305 = 209764 (two lacs nine thousand seven hundred and sixty four ) ! I dont think this is a small matter this is a matter to be throughly investigated.

And as per election commission document the no of people voted in pondicherry is 607641.But according to the paper after counting the no of votes was 608092. The difference is 451 votes.

Here comes the details
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_general_election,_2009 in this site they have given a lot of incomplete information but will be useful to certain extend.http://eci.nic.in/press/data_phaseV.pdfthis is the file released by election commission of the 5th phase of the polls as per the file

You cant just like that leave this problem, those people who have done this have cheated you and me, I am not asking BJP to take revenge because they lost to CONGs, other than this reason there are a numerous reasons, I agree.

But as an opposition I am asking BJP to fight for we people who are betrayed and cheated by a highly respected institution. why are you all not taking it serious, ask the strategests how they could use it as a stratagy to hit the oposition.

THIS IS NOT END OF THE WORLD !

2009-05-17T13:42:00.001-04:00

I am really depressed about the victory for adharmies and defeat for a good party with genuine nationalists. However its not the end of the world. Inspite of having best brain , honesty why we have lost ? There are several reasons according to me ,some of them are real obstacles and we need to tackle it.

1. Media: Whole of Indian media is against BJP and BJP party leaders.When these stupid anchors label BJP as communal , BJP spokepersons does not nullify with strong answers but just silent. Dont underestimate the power of media in India. There are so many educated and uneducated ignorent people in India. These media anchors can influence them. If Bollywood can influence the culture of India , why not these biased media.

Solution is BJP with some industrial tycoons or with the tips from Arun Shourie should start their own English and Hindi channels.It will definitely help to curb the media atorocities created by NDTV , CNNIBN,TIMESNOW,etc. against BJP.

2.Consolidation of BJP states: States like Gujarat , Karnataka , MP etc should try to consolidate their position starting from now. If development is the only criteria why Gujarat got only 15 seats out of 26. If you ask me ,atleast in these BJP administered states in the school text books chapters on cultural nationalism , Pandit Dindayal Upadhyay and Hedgewar must be included. If youngsters does not vote BJP dont you think that is because of dilution of nationalism or being misleaded by sickularism polotics of media and congress party.

3.There certain states like Tamilnadu , Kerala ,Andhra and West Bengal etc ,there is no presence of BJP. Party should start work now to galvanise masses to start doing well in these states.

4.Sangh Parivar although doing good job for Hindus , their contribution in reducing the caste gap among Hindus is nil. Otherwise low caste and Muslim vote will go to Non BJP parties. Why not start some schemes to reduce the gap among Hindus.

India gets the politicians it deserves!!!

2009-05-17T13:05:00.000-04:00

Another 5 years of corrupt governance.

Another 5 years of toothless foreign policy and neighbour relations

Another 5 years of vote-bank politics and minority appeasement, no matter how horrific the consequences are and the cost India will pay

Another 5 years of Islamic terrorists making hell in India at will and little action by the govt

Another 5 years of state-guest VIP treatment for Kasab and Afzal Guru

Another 5 years of sycophants parading in public with their loyalties to the mai-baap High Command

Another 5 years of getting chewed by our shameless English Media - as they wax eloquent on the Italian, the "secular" values of the Congress, the defeat of the "communal" forces

India gets the politicians it deserves!!!

Qualifications To Lead India

2009-04-27T10:24:00.001-04:00

Qualifications to lead India

Making your mark on the world is hard. If it were easy, everybody would do it. But it's not. It takes patience, it takes commitment, and it comes with plenty of failure along the way. The real test is not whether you avoid this failure, because you won't. It’s whether you let it harden or shame you into inaction, or whether you learn from it; whether you choose to persevere.

- Barack Obama

India today needs a Barack Obama in the sense, a person whom a whole nation can look up to and be satisfied that we and our country’s interests are in safe hands. There are more to his credentials than just hailing from a minority race as his qualification. The fact is that United States of America voted him not because of his minority status but because he came as a beacon of hope to them. People have belief in his leadership skills and feel that he will bring in the necessary change in governance and help people out of despair. Time will only judge if he has risen to the occasion and met people’s needs.

Nevertheless it is worth comparing his core competencies with a few of our leaders who are aiming to lead India after these elections. For want of a contemporary leader I have chosen him as an example and bench mark to grade our aspirants.

The following are a major set of core competencies needed to run a country. Lets us see in India who fits the bill. Looking at the qualities that one has to possess, I will just list them and it is the prerogative of people to judge the aspirants. [From LK Advani, Manmohan Singh, Sharad pawar, Mayawati, Rahul Gandhi or someone who has not yet surfaced on the horizon...]

Visionary

Good leaders create a vision, a picture of the future, of where they want to take their country.

Inspirational

Once a vision is established, they should be able to inspire people to believe in their vision and work towards it. Every word and action should demonstrate their passion for the vision.

Strategic

Strategic leaders are clear and directly face the strengths and weaknesses .

Tactical

Good leaders are bottom-line oriented and extraordinarily committed to results.

Focused

Once vision and mission are established, good leaders achieve what they set out to do before launching new initiatives.

Persuasive

Leaders can bring others to their point of view using logic, reason, emotion and the force of their personalities. They motivate by persuasion rather than intimidation. The key here is the leader speaking from his or her heart.

Likeable

Good leaders are people-centric. They recognize interpersonal skills are paramount. They display high degrees of emotional intelligence, and thrive on finesse and likeability.

Decisive

Sometimes shooting from the hip, good leaders can make decisions quickly -- often with incomplete data. As Theodore Roosevelt said, "In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing."

Ethical

Good leaders are direct and straightforward. They set clear performance expectations and hold people accountable. This requires being direct and truthful, which can be difficult but -- more often than not -- is natural for the principle-based leader. Good leaders know it's hard to beat the truth.

Open to feedback

Good leaders are open and dedicated to lifelong learning. They seek feedback about their performance through direct conversations and strive for continuous improvement.

So fill in the table and see for yourselves how they measure up.

Does anybody from the congress exhibit these charcaters???

Congress Deserves To Lose India's Election

2009-04-16T10:11:00.001-04:00

Indians will from Thursday begin heading to the polls in a month-long election for a new government. The Congress party is standing on the record of the government it has led since 2004. But polls are taking place when the Indian economy has taken a sharp turn for the worse, in a climate of global economic crisis. This exposes the do-nothing, zero-reform record of Manmohan Singh, prime minister, and his government. More generally, it lays bare India’s huge reform gaps and its brittle, decaying institutions. Finally, it deflates the “India hype” peddled by smooth-talking upper-caste politicians, ambassadors, businessmen, management consultants and some academics.

A word about India hype. It highlights high-end services, and now manufacturing sectors, with their globalising, world-beating companies. But it overlooks reform deficits in agriculture, services and manufacturing. It talks of “Chindia”, the notion that India plays in the same league as China as an emerging superpower – which is pure myth. Not least, it glosses over the record of the present Congress-led government.

There have been practically no market reforms since 2004, save for the opening of domestic civil aviation. Nothing has moved on privatisation, the reduction of government equity in banks and insurance companies, pensions, competition regulation or the administration of subsidies. Industrial tariffs have come down, but otherwise external protection has not been reduced. India remains the most protectionist large emerging market.

Worse, there has been reform backsliding and reversal. Fiscal restraint, written into law in 2003, has been thrown to the winds. Now, with an economic downturn, the consolidated governmentdeficit is projected to rise above 10 per cent of gross domestic product. Funding for much-needed infrastructure projects will suffer. Controlled pricing of petroleum products was reintroduced in 2008. Off-budget expenditure has increased significantly, especially through populist measures to support rural employment and the energy sector.

The government’s response to the present global economic crisis was to introduce further market-distorting restrictions, including higher tariffs, anti-dumping duties and assorted non-tariff import barriers.

Finally, the Congress party entered the general election campaign with pledges to expand its hugely wasteful rural employment guarantee programme and increase food subsidies.

The government has squandered the boom years, left the country more vulnerable to malign global economic conditions and compromised prospects for a healthy recovery. But Manmohan Singh and his “dream team” have been given an easy ride: they have escaped blame, especially outside India. The conventional excuse is that their hands are tied by Sonia Gandhi and her Congress coterie, and by coalition politics.

This explanation just does not wash. Mr Singh has impeccable academic credentials and is by all accounts incorruptible. He deserves credit for his performance as finance minister in the 1990s – although credit should also go to Narasimha Rao, then prime minister, who took the tough decisions.

But Mr Singh has proved a hopeless decision-maker as prime minister. Sadly, he proves the rule that academics should generally be “on tap” but not “on top”.

The whole reform programme relies on the prime minister himself. Mr Rao and A.B. Vajpayee proved their mettle, despite heavy political constraints. Mr Singh has failed; he should bear much of the blame. The Congress party does not deserve to be re-elected and the dream team does not deserve to continue in office. An alternative BJP-led government may do better if it has a decisive leader with a core of able reformers. It will not if its leader follows the dictates of short-term opportunism and messy coalition politics.

Nevertheless, the failures of the Congress-led government should be put into a larger institutional context. The Indian state, led by a venal political-bureaucratic elite, remains unreformed. State institutions – the political class, political parties, parliaments, the bureaucracy, the judiciary – have got worse at both national and state levels. Since the late 1980s, “stealth” reforms have taken place outside the state. But India cannot be expected to grow fast with such shaky foundations. The upshot is that much-needed market reforms cannot continue to skirt round the reform of the state itself. Politically, that is the hardest nut to crack.

Indians Are ’SLUMDOGS’ Are We??

2009-04-14T22:42:00.001-04:00

American talk show host Rush Limbaugh, who fashions himself as the new ‘face’ of the US Republican Party, has been accused of a lot of things: misogynist comments, prejudiced opinion on African Americans, insensitive remarks about the physically disabled and incendiary comments about homosexuals, to name a few.

Now, he’s insulting India.

On April 10, while discussing the outsourcing of jobs from America, Limbaugh viciously insulted India and her citizens, inanely referencing the Danny Boyle smash-hit film Slumdog Millionaire to make his point.

“There’s a reason [these jobs] aren’t coming back. They’re outsourced for a reason, an economic reason, and they’re not coming back,” Limbaugh said, while speaking to a caller named Terry from Ohio. “If you’re sitting out waiting for a job that’s now being done by a slumdog in India, and you’re waiting for that job to be cancelled, for the slumdog to be thrown out of work, and you to get the job, it ain’t going to happen. It’s not the way economics works.”

Apparently Rush missed India’s near double-digit annual growth over the last decade. Or that India is being mentioned as a potential viable member of the permanent UN Security Council. Or that India assumed a position of much importance at the recently concluded G20 Summit in London.

Just in case Limbaugh missed the memo: Globalisation is here to stay and India is a rapidly emerging economic s superpower. Slumdogs we are not. Deal with it.

But, actually, this rash, unprovoked insult should come as no surprise. The garrulous Limbaugh’s long career has been littered with sordid, controversial remarks. Yet, somehow, two decades have seen him develop from fringe shock jock to a mainstream political commentator, all without toning down his rhetoric or compromising on his extreme right-wing views.

Whereas he was once considered a jester in the Conservatives’ Court, today he wields tremendous influence inside the mainstream Republican Party. Even national politicians, such as Republican Party leader Michael Steele, have backed down from Rush Limbaugh, rather than face his wrath.

Finally, he’s been criticised in the past for his hyper-partisanship and blatant hypocrisy, ie, whatever Republicans do is right and whatever Democrats do is wrong, a critique which came to light again earlier this year. In January, as US President Barack Obama prepared to be sworn in to office, Limbaugh famously uttered, “I hope he fails,” setting off a firestorm of controversy. Many in the media pointed out that only two years ago, in 2006, Limbaugh was chastising ‘American liberals’ for rooting for the failure of George W Bush, calling them traitors.

We can see it already, the 2012 US Presidential Election: Sarah Palin for President and Rush Limbaugh as her running mate.

Oh, Republican Party, the party of Abraham Lincoln, what’s become of you?!?

Bane Of Being A Hindu

2009-04-12T07:27:00.000-04:00

The country’s politics has become minority centric. This facet comes into sharper focus at the time of election because that is the occasion to decide the destiny of the country. Varun Gandhi would have got away unnoticed had he said all that he had allegedly said to protect the Muslims or even a Kasab, Shahabuddin or Mohammad Afzal instead of the Hindus. The issue is not the use of religion in politics but the use of wrong religion on a right occasion.

If Sonia Gandhi goes to Tirupati, or Guruvayoor—these temples are not open to non-Hindus and after her visit the temple priests conduct elaborate purification rites—though she is a Catholic it is not for vote but a generous fashion parade of secularism. Look at the Congress manifesto. Or the Trinamool Congress manifesto. Both have chapter and verses of promises for specific religious groups(not Hindu) and by all interpretations the crux of their promise is a separate religious charter exclusively to woo minority vote bank. (This is a clear violation of the Constitution.) Not only that. They are highly patronising to terrorists. The Congress manifesto claims to have defanged the security forces fighting terror by repealing POTA. The Congress manifesto was released on the day twelve brave Indian soldiers lost their lives in Kashmir fighting the Lashkar infiltrators. The country has lost over 7000 innocent citizens in terror attacks in the last five years as part of the Jehadi design to inflict a thousand cuts to destroy India. But the Congress manifesto is silent on fighting terror. Rather it claims terrorists have no religion. Terror patrons in the country are honourable men. They are the torch-bearers of secularism.

The Congress is openly seeking the support of ulemas of Deoband, Jamaat-e-Islami and Maulavis of Bahralvi, Imam of Jama Masjid and Bangladeshi infiltrators on purely communal lines. But neither the Election Commission nor the media accuses it of communal politics. The media does not expose them either. In Mizoram, Nagaland and other North-eastern states, the Congress plays Christian card promising the land of the Bible, but it gets away in the name of secularism. Any number of Bishops have written to the Congress high command demanding tickets for their nominees and many of them were given ticket.

More blatant is the crass minorityism cynically being promoted by the CPI(M), Samajwadi Party, BSP and others. CPM’s closest ally in Kerala is Madani, a religious fanatic whose links with various terrorist incidents in the country is well-known. Another fanatic leader who wants to introduce shariat in the country, Kantapuram Musaliar is a bosom ally who is canvassing for the CPM. All these people are known for their communally charged vitriol.

A report from Uttar Pradesh said the Samajwadi Party and BSP together have fielded nearly fifty candidates with serious criminal record, mostly from the minority community and it is likely as many as two dozen of them would enter Lok Sabha. The Samajwadi Party which defended terrorists from Azamgarh who attacked Delhi and insulted the memory of the slain police officer MC Sharma by offering his widow a fake cheque has no qualms about its crass communal politics. All these go scot-free not only because the Constitutional authorities are biased, but also because the political milieu in the country is such that only the word “Hindu” is objectionable and communal.

For people holding Constitutional posts their religion comes first, if they are not Hindu. Vice President A R Ansari recently advocated separate budgetary provision for Muslims. Nobody objected. Perhaps he was not satisfied with Sachar Committee, separate ministry, quota and scholarship for Muslims. But even a “Hindu” tag is detrimental to a person’s political progress. We have seen it at the time of Presidential election when both Shivraj Patil and Dr. Karan Singh were rejected only because they happened to have a Hindu tag. If Varun Gandhi had spoken in the name of any particular caste, then also no charge-sheet would have been filed. After all caste politics also is passé.

Varun is the first Gandhi to declare that he is a proud Hindu. So he is in trouble. Tomorrow if he joins the SP, BSP or Congress he will immediately be paraded as a secular messiah. It would become natural, that the scion of the Nehru-Gandhis has returned to where he belonged, the pro-establishment media will take no time singing paeans for him. For instance, they have no quarrel with Narayan Rane, Chagan Bhujbal or even Raj Thackarey all former Shivsainiks who were riled by the media as long as they were in the Shiv Sena.

The point is that all the breast beating and moral indignation and trial by media are exclusively reserved for the BJP. It is because Varun is the BJP candidate. The model code of conduct has been specially sharpened and imposed retrospectively with the Election Commission working overtime. The alleged speech actually was made weeks before the code came into operation. The EC has always displayed a double standard in the case of the BJP and other parties. This we have seen during the Gujarat assembly election when it acted hastily in the complaint against Narendra Modi even as it let Sonia Gandhi off the hook with her mout ka saudagar innuendo. “We are testing the waters” a senior EC official reportedly said of EC’s advice to the BJP asking it to drop Varun as a candidate. It is a dangerous precedent it was trying to push. The EC cannot have been more careless with the choice of words. Did it intent to intimidate the party into following a particular line? The EC has not taken a view on complaints filed many days before the complaint against Varun was filed. It is similarly slow and silent—the media is equally co-operative by indifference—on all other instances of violations. But the EC was “seized” of the Varun case ever since it came to light. And when the Commission pronounced its order one channel claimed credit for the “impact” its expose had. Advising Varun on reading Bhagwat Gita Priyanka Vadra Gandhi was repeatedly shown as coming out of a Hanuman temple as if that was of essence. If a non-Hindu pretending to be a religious Hindu goes to temple on poll eve it is only to hoodwink the voter. Gita of course is not a treatise on pacifism for Priyanka to advise Varun to read it. It can only strengthen his conviction. It is more a doctrine of war against evil, to protect one’s dharma even if that brings death. Perhaps Ms Vadra might have thought the Gita read like the Bible.

It is time Sonia Gandhi and her family declared their faith. A Nehru-Gandhi in the eye of the dominant establishment in the country can be a Catholic, a Parsi, an atheist or a Muslim and they will automatically be declared “secular” by the servile, obnoxiously bootlicking media. But to be a Hindu is blasphemous. They bay for blood. They want the abrupt termination of a budding political career, they are so unforgiving, vindictive, vengeful and mercilessly cruel.

Varun's reported views can also be taken as a first mistake of an over-enthusiastic debutant politician. Should a promising young career be so cruelly nipped in the bud invoking even the name of his father who was tragically killed orphaning him when he was only two months? Our chattering class like the proverbial wolf wants to punish him for the alleged omissions and commissions of his father also. Like a lynch mob they create the macabre atmospheric for the partisan establishment to convict and crucify. So we stand by anybody and everybody who speak for the Hindu. Because we want to make Indian polity Hindu centric. "...

Minority Appeasement, Reservation & Polticis

2009-04-05T08:44:00.003-04:00

OLD VERSION

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant's a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter so he dies out in the cold.

MODERN VERSION

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant's a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away. Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.

NDTV, Times NOW, CNN-IBN show up to provide pictures of the Shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. The world is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be that this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?

Arundhati Roy stages a demonstration in front of the Ant's' house.

Medha Patkar goes on a fast along with other grasshoppers demanding that grasshoppers be relocated to warmer climates during winter.

Amnesty International and Ban-Ki-Moon criticize the Indian Government for not upholding the fundamental rights of the grasshopper. The Internet is flooded with online petitions seeking support to the grasshopper (many promising heaven and everlasting peace for prompt support as against the wrath of God for non-compliance).

Opposition MP's stage a walkout. Left parties call for "Bharat Bandh" in West Bengal and Kerala demanding a Judicial Enquiry. CPM in Kerala immediately passes a law preventing Ants from working hard in the heat so as to bring about equality of poverty among ants and grasshoppers.

Lalu Prasad allocates one free coach to Grasshoppers on all Indian Railway trains, aptly named as the 'Grasshopper Rath'.

Finally, the Judicial Committee drafts the Prevention Of Terrorism Against Grasshoppers Act [POTAGA]", with effect from the beginning of the winter.

Arjun Singh makes Special Reservation for Grasshoppers in educational institutions & in Govt Services.

The ant is fined for failing to comply with POTAGA and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the Government and handed over to the grasshopper in a ceremony covered by NDTV.

Arundhati Roy calls it "a triumph of justice". Lalu calls it 'Socialistic Justice'. CPM calls it the 'revolutionary resurgence of the Minorities'. Ban Ki Moon invites the grasshopper to address the UN General Assembly.

Many years later...the ant has since migrated to the US and set up a multi-billion dollar company in Silicon valley. Hundreds of grasshoppers still die of starvation despite reservation somewhere in India ...

As a result of losing a lot of hard working ants and feeding the grasshoppers India is still a developing Country.

Reservation should not be given on the basis of caste,religion and creed. Reservation should be need based and should be given to economically weaker section of society to uplift them.

Shame On You Congress

2009-03-30T09:39:00.003-04:00

Shame on you Congress

I was browsing though the website of news channel and I saw a advertisement that appeared in the website. The advertisement showed

“The Hand That Changed India”

It talked about Nuclear Energy
It talked about Voting Rights for youth

Both the above are accepted as it did something to above two causes.

It talked about Mission Chandrayaan, I really don’t understand why they are putting that as an achievement by the congress party. Has the congress party helped the Team Chandrayaan in its Research and Development.

How can they call that it is there achievement?

common some one tell them congress did nothing to the Chandrayaan Mission.

The congress conviently forgets about the

1) Price rise of essential comodities

2) It forgets about terrorism and internal security

3) It forgets to mention about the meltdown in financial markets

4) job loss in all sectors

5) Burst of the bubble in the stock market

6) Coruption at all levels

7) Cash for vote scam

8) Spectrum scam

How long will the congress fool the common man?

It is time to wake up and vote this government out.

Black Marketer Lalu Prasad Yadav

2009-03-27T10:45:00.003-04:00

If you go back in time, say about 12 years and recall:

1. A new movie releases and we go to the movie hall and find that all the tickets are sold out. But then you will listen to the thugs selling the tickets at 2-3 times their face value. You do not have any other option and so buy the ticket and go inside the movie hall and find several seats empty.

2. You want to go to your hometown and go to the railway station to book your ticket and find the train is full. Now you approach a travel agent and he promises to get you a ticket for a couple of hundred bucks extra and he does get you one, sometimes in your name and sometimes in someone else’s name. If it is in someone else’s name you are caught and you will pay the fine.

In both the case what was done was illegal and the person selling the tickets can be jailed.

Now consider the present scenario.

You want to go to your hometown during school holidays and advance reservation facility opens 90 days in advance. You connect your PC to the internet and start booking the ticket at 0800 hrs and by the time you complete the transaction you will be allotted a waitlist ticket. All the free tickets are gone. But is the train full? No still the tatkal tickets, EQ etc are still there. Your waitlist ticket will not be confirmed till the last minute and you will be waiting for the day you can buy the black ticket (euphemism for Tatkal ticket). Finally you will buy a black ticket from the black marketer (Indian Railways) and travel because you do not want any hardship. You get into the train and find that some berths are still empty.

Is there any difference between these two cases except that in the later case the government is the black marketer and they do this legally. Initially it was a single coach for tatkal and now it is 30% of all tickets and tatkal waitlist getting preference over normal waitlist. Yet the railway minister claims that he did not increase the fare by a single rupee! Is the commuter who reserved 90 days in advance getting the ticket at a concession? The railway is earning the interest on this money for 90 days. Who are the people who are buying these tatkal tickets? Are they not the common people? Rich will go by air and not buy a tatkal ticket. Whom are the railways burdening by selling the tickets in black? Whom are they inconveniencing by hoarding the tickets?

If the railways want to help the last minute travellers sell the ticket at the same cost as normal cost. Don't sell them at extra cost.

Global Economy

2009-03-25T12:40:00.002-04:00

9/11,the devastation of World Trade Centre and attack on Pentagon with the use of civilian aircraft as explosive was the first siren for American Imperialism and Financial melt down may be the last warning bell for Americans and their policy apparently in an Uni polar world. Shrewd maneuvers of Regan Administration help the end of former USSR with co-operation of innocent and benevolent Leader Mikhail Gorbachev, then General Secretary of Communist Party of USSR. European and American leaders led Mr. Gorbachove in the garden path by their initial support of his policy of Glasnost and Perestroika but pulled the trigger when Gorbochob required moral and material support from west to meet the challenges of transition. Regan Administration claimed strategic victory for fragmentation of USSR. President Regan developed an American ambition of Super Power Dom much like fascist, to Rule the world by force with concept like star war; arming of the skies. History is replete with examples of how ambition to enforce authority over the world has led to decimation of the very country and its leadership. Alexander and Adolph Hitler were classic example of such ambition leading to the termination of their empire.

Americans are credited with infamous first use of Atomic Bomb in this planet at the end of World War II, when it was least required strategically. The use of Atomic bomb by terrorist group is now hunting American State. America may be the next target of Atomic bomb by Islamic Terrorist group. 9/11 took ten years to plan and currently over 2 million Muslim Americans live in USA. If the current American policy against Muslim countries does not change; it may so happen, USA would invite wrath of atomic bomb from its own atomic arsenals by one of its very own Muslim American sympathizer of Jehadi element. This may appear fictional at the moment, but the determination of Muslim fundamentalist force and free access to state of the art technology and pool of highly competent human resources has unfortunate potential to be a very real threat to USA.Terrorism is a dangerous mindset created by deprivation, alienation and injustice meted to a section of society by indifference of State/Foreign power and its solution lie in the minds of affected people and not in use of disproportionately huge Fire Power. Americans must learn from the mistakes of former USSR and pursue a healthy strategy of Collaboration with Taliban Leadership who is ironically a byproduct of two decade old American policy to contain USSR with liberal support from the spoilt child of South East Asia, Pakistan. Interestingly Pakistan is bleeding from the wrath of same Islamic Fundamentalist forces, they help create to use against India with tacit support and encouragement from the then big Daddy, Americans.

The symptom of current American Financial meltdown, apparently, the result of over leveraging of debts and imaginative financial instruments to create artificial liquidity and windfall profit by a large spectrum of American Financial market. The deeper fundamental problems were; years of American allocation of resources to defense sector at the cost of needy social sector, short term profiting from Arms trade across the world orchestrated by famous American war machinery and of course due to austentious consumption and Greed & Life style in conflict with Nature. America has thus far survived because of unprecedented global faith in its currency-US Dollar. If America continues to pump money in offensive posturing, the whole financial system would collapse under the weight of eroding global trust on its currency and would loose considerable influence over affairs of the World.

Land slide verdict in favor of senator Barak Obama and his vision for change rekindles a new hope for a world free of war and violence substituted by peace and development. Mr. Obama, the President Elect after assuming office of the President of USA would need a robust Policy for a common World, One Religion of Humanity to create shared understanding among religions on the basis of their own teachings of universal brother hood, Shared Climate and Interdependent Global Economy to usher in Security, Peace and Prosperity across the World

Hidden Truth Of Taj Mahal...

2009-03-23T13:20:00.005-04:00

Aerial view of the Taj Mahal

The interior water well

Frontal view of the Taj Mahal and dome

Close up of the dome with pinnacle

Close up of the pinnacle

Inlaid pinnacle pattern in courtyard

Red lotus at apex of the entrance

Rear view of the Taj & 22 apartments

View of sealed doors & windows in back

Typical Vedic style corridors

The Music House--a contradiction

A locked room on upper floor

A marble apartment on ground floor

The OM in the flowers on the walls

Staircase that leads to the lower levels

300 foot long corridor inside apartments

One of the 22 rooms in the secret lower level

Interior of one of the 22 secret rooms

Interior of another of the locked rooms

Vedic design on ceiling of a locked room

Huge ventilator sealed shut with bricks

Secret walled door that leads to other rooms

Secret bricked door that hides more evidence

Palace in Barhanpur where Mumtaz died

Pavilion where Mumtaz is said to be buried

NOW READ THIS.......

No one has ever challenged it except Prof. P. N. Oak, who believes the
whole world has been duped. In his book Taj Mahal: The True Story, Oak says
the
Taj Mahal is not Queen Mumtaz's tomb but an ancient Hindu temple palace of
Lord Shiva (then known as Tejo Mahalaya ) . In the course of his research O
ak discovered that the Shiva temple palace was usurped by Shah Jahan from
then Maharaja of Jaipur, Jai Singh. In his own court chronicle,
Badshahnama,
Shah Jahan admits that an exceptionally beautiful grand mansion in Agra
was taken from Jai SIngh for Mumtaz's burial . The ex-Maharaja of Jaipur
still
retains in his secret collection two orders from Shah Jahan for
surrendering the Taj building. Using captured temples and mansions, as a
burial place for
dead courtiers and royalty was a common practice among Muslim rulers.

For example, Humayun,Akbar, Etmud-ud-Daula and Safdarjung are all buried
in such mansions. Oak's inquiries began with the name of Taj Mahal. He says

the term " Mahal " has never been used for a building in any Muslim countries
from Afghanisthan to Algeria. "The unusual explanation that the term Taj
Mahal derives from Mumtaz Mahal was illogical in atleast two respects.

Firstly, her name was never Mumtaz Mahal butMumtaz-ul-Zamani," he writes.
Secondly, one cannot omit the first three letters 'Mum' from a woman's
name to derive the remainder as the name for the building."Taj Mahal, he
claims, is a corrupt version of Tejo Mahalaya, or Lord Shiva's Palace . Oak
also says the love story of Mumtaz and Shah Jahan is a fairy tale created
by
court sycophants, blundering historians and sloppy archaeologists . Not a
single royal chronicle of Shah Jahan's time corroborates the love story.

Furthermore, Oak cites several documents suggesting the Taj Mahal predates
Shah Jahan's era, and was a temple dedicated to Shiva, worshipped by
Rajputs of Agra city. For example, Prof. Marvin Miller of New York took a
few
samples from the riverside doorway of the Taj. Carbon dating tests revealed
that the door was 300 years older than Shah Jahan. European traveler Johan
Albert Mandelslo,who visited Agra in 1638 (only seven years after Mumtaz's
death), describes the life of the cit y in his memoirs. But he makes no
reference to the Taj Mahal being built. The writings of Peter Mundy, an
English visitor to Agra within a year of Mumtaz's death, also suggest the
Taj was a noteworthy building well before Shah Jahan's time.

Prof. Oak points out a number of design and architectural inconsistencies
that support the belief of the Taj Mahal being a typical Hindu temple
rather
than a mausoleum. Many rooms in the Taj ! Mahal have remained sealed
since Shah Jahan's time and are still inaccessible to the public. Oak
asserts they contain a headless statue of Lord Shiva and other objects
commonly used for worship rituals in Hindu temples . Fearing political
backlash, Indira Gandhi's government tried to have Prof. Oak's book
withdrawn from the bookstores, and threatened the Indian publisher of the
first edition dire consequences . There is only one way to discredit or
validate Oak's research.

The current government should open the sealed rooms of the Taj Mahal under
U.N. supervision, and let international experts investigate.

Forward Of The Week....

2009-03-21T23:36:00.003-04:00

It was the first day of a school in USA and a new Indian student named Chandrasekhar Subramanian entered the fourth grade.

The teacher said,

"Let's begin by reviewing some American History. Who said 'Give me Liberty or give me Death'?"

She saw a sea of blank faces, except for Chandrasekhar, who had his hand up: 'Patrick Henry, 1775' he said.

'Very good!'

Who said 'Government of the People, by the People, for the People, shall not perish from the Earth?'

Again, no response except from Chandrasekhar. 'Abraham Lincoln, 1863' said Chandrasekhar.

The teacher snapped at the class, 'Class, you should be ashamed. Chandrasekhar, who is new to our country, knows more about its history than you do.'

She heard a loud whisper: 'Fuck the Indians,'

'Who said that?' she demanded. Chandrasekhar put his hand up. 'General Custer, 1862.'

At that point, a student in the back said, 'I'm gonna puke.'

The teacher glares around and asks 'All right! Now, who said that?'

Again, Chandrasekhar says, 'George Bush to the Japanese Prime Minister, 1991.'

Now furious, another student yells, 'Oh yeah? Suck this!' Chandrasekhar jumps out of his chair waving his hand

and shouts to the teacher , 'Bill Clinton, to Monica Lewinsky, 1997!'

Now with almost mob hysteria someone said 'You little shit. If you say anything else, I'll kill you.'

Chandrasekhar frantically yells at the top of his voice, Michael 'Jackson to the child witnesses testifying against him- 2004.'

The teacher fainted..

And as the class gathered around the teacher on the floor, someone said, 'Oh shit, we're screwed!'

And Chandrasekhar whispered quietly, "the Republicans, November 4th, 2008".

The Black Swan Theory

2009-03-16T13:20:00.002-04:00

The Black Swan theory (in Nassim Nicholas Taleb's version) refers to a large-impact, hard-to-predict, and rare event beyond the realm of normal expectations - Wikipedia

Did Anil Dhirubhai Ambani's Reliance Communications own Swan Telecom at the time Swan applied for a GSM mobile phone licence ? This question has assumed centrestage with some MPs writing to the Prime Minister who has, in turn, asked the telecom ministry to look into the matter.

If Reliance Communications or other Reliance ADA Group firms owned more than 10 per cent of Swan Telecom when the latter applied for a (GSM-based) mobile telephone licence in March 2007, this was against the law which said no shareholder can hold more than 10 per cent of the equity in two telecom firms in the same licence area - Reliance Communications already operates a CDMA-mobile phone service.

In which case, Swan's licence - Swan is one of the firms which got a licence at bargain-basement prices thanks to telecom minister A Raja - could well come under a cloud, as will the deal Swan entered into with Dubai-based Etisalat to sell part of its equity at a huge premium.

Also under the scanner is how the state-owned BSNL entered into a roaming agreement with Swan - BSNL does not have such an arrangement with any private telecom firm, so why did it sign up with a firm which doesn't even have one subscriber? Since this means Swan can offer mobile phone services across the country without having much of its own network, the deal is a winner for it; it offers little to BSNL since Swan's subscribers will be minuscule for a long time to come.

The Reliance Communications' story is an interesting one. And the company's explanation for the events is so beyond the realm of normal expectations, it can only be classified as a Black Swan event, to use Nassim Taleb's classification - an event so rare, it happens once in a millennium.

In March last year, when Swan applied for a GSM mobile licence, Reliance Telecom (a Reliance ADA subsidiary) owned 9.9 per cent of it - this was permissible within the law. The rest was owned by Tiger Traders.

The problem, however, was that Tiger's directors were Reliance ADA Group employees and their address was also that of a Reliance ADA Group firm. Also, Reliance Communications' annual report showed the firm had, in 2007, given Swan Rs 992 crore by way of 99.2 lakh 8 per cent redeemable preference shares with a coupon value of one rupee - that is, Reliance subscribed to these at a premium of Rs 999 each. In other words, everything about Swan smelt Reliance Communications at this point in time.

Reliance ADA, for the record, has a different explanation for things, an explanation that is also quite worrying. According to Reliance ADA, a very large group of builders (Dynamix Balwas own the Meridien Hotel in Mumbai and the Hyatt in Goa) approached it to say there was a possibility of getting a telecom licence; but since the builders had no telecom experience, it was decided Reliance ADA employees would be directors of Swan, the firm chosen to apply for the spectrum.

According to Reliance ADA, since it was in the telecom business and felt it could do business with Swan if it got a licence (Swan could, for instance, rent out its telecom towers), it didn't mind doing this.

Presumably, this is also why it put in Rs 992 crore (Rs 9.92 billion) with Swan. According to Reliance ADA, redeemable preference shares are not equity but are debt - so it never owned more than 9.9 per cent of Swan's share at any point in time. (In

India

, by the way, redeemable preference shares are considered as equity, though under the International Financial Reporting Standards they are considered as debt.)

Reliance ADA adds that its directors stepped down from Swan on October 10 - that is, long before Swan got its licence in January 2008 and a few days before Raja took his decision to award Reliance Communications' GSM spectrum under the dual-technology umbrella on October 18, 2007. Talk about timing! Swan also returned Reliance Communications' money before it got the licence.

This explanation of Reliance ADA's dealings, of course, is what the telecom ministry has to examine. It is, of course, curious that the ADA Group should be willing to put so much money into a firm that had little to offer by way of collateral.

And since the 8 per cent return Swan was offering by way of interest on the preference shares could only be on the Re 1 coupon value (Reliance Communications paid Rs 1,000 for each share), in effect, it virtually gave the money to Swan for free. And, when the Reliance ADA directors stepped down and Swan gave it its money back, Reliance Communications didn't get any premium either.

Whether the help Anil Ambani and A Raja extended to Swan was a black swan event or something else is what needs to be established.

Looking For The Real Nehru....

2009-03-05T08:47:00.003-05:00

It is hazardous to make sweeping generalisations of the national character. At the risk of being pilloried, let me reiterate the 11th century

Arab traveler Alberuni’s observation that Hindus (as Indians were then known) have no sense of history. Indeed, they can scarcely distinguish it from mythology. Whether it’s Akbar, Aurangzeb and Shivaji or Curzon, Gandhi and Nehru, history writing in India is aimed at upholding greatness or reinforcing villainy. Revisionism is invariably a law and order problem.

The 120th birth anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru, saw the re-publication of Nehru: A Contemporary’s Estimate by Walter Crocker,

Australia

’s high commissioner to india in the early 1960s. Written and first published in 1965, it is remarkable for two reasons. First, it is a candid and brutally subjective account of Nehru from a western, but not British or American, viewpoint. Crocker was a professional Nehru-watcher who admired his subject but didn’t go starry-eyed. Second, as a contemporary assessment, it hasn’t been distorted by the Indian penchant for posthumously adding a few inches each year to the height of venerated leaders.

The Nehru that Crocker wrote about doesn’t resemble the colossus painted by his inheritors and hagiographers. That he was a man of aesthetic refinement, good breeding and blessed with an innate sense of decency was never in doubt. Even his political detractors at the time conceded that there was something noble and Brahminical but at the same time austere and dandyish — he was

India

’s only prime minister to smoke in office — about him.

Yet, that doesn’t mean he liked children, as

India

has been taught to believe. Crocker comes perilously close to describing Nehru as just another clever politician: ‘‘Nehru certainly did some acting on public occasions and before TV cameras... The acting was never worse than the pose of Chacha Nehru with the children. This was at its worst on his birthday for a few years when sycophants organised groups of children, with flowers and copious photographing, to parade with him. It was out of character; his interest in children was slender.’’

That Nehru was intellectually superior and didn’t tolerate fools easily are attributes that have been diligently recorded. Less publicised was the strong impression that his enlightenment was often offset by blind hates. Among Nehru’s ‘prejudices’ Crocker records were ‘‘maharajas,Portugal, moneylenders, certain American ways, Hinduism, the whites in Africa...’’ The list explains why Nehru was so offensive at the opening of the Ramakrishna Mission Institute in Calcutta, 1961.

There he spoke of ‘‘bogus spirituality’’, the absurdity of ‘‘running away from the daily problems of life in the spirituality’’ — the profundities of undergrad radicalism — and then stalked off. Had a prime minister conducted himself so disagreeably today, he would either have had to grovel or face a riot. Nehru was fortunate his haughtiness could ride piggyback on the goodwill of the Congress and the national movement.

Nehru, it was said, ‘‘could be emphatic on a basis of insufficient knowledge’’. He may have begun with a caricatured hatred of moneylenders but it soon extended into distaste for the entire private sector. Like the fellow travellers of Stalin, he juxtaposed science with what he considered religious mumbo-jumbo and came to view everything Hindu with utmost wariness.

Like Crocker, he probably believed that the

India

of ‘‘cow worshippers and devotees of ayurvedic medicine and astrology’’ should be banished from public life. And like his upper-class English friends, he found self-made Americans, particularly John Foster Dulles, crass and tiresome. Predictably, he liked the Kennedys; they were different.

From such parodies were the three pillars of the Nehruvian order, secularism, non-alignment and socialism, crafted.

For a man who left the country ‘‘not better fed, clothed or housed, ...more corruptly governed...with higher taxes, ever-rising prices, ever-acute foreign exchange difficulties, and more unemployment’’ than when he took charge, India has been too kind to Nehru. It’s time we took the mythology out of history.

We Need Change.. ASAP

2009-03-01T04:33:00.001-05:00

Changes are needed and it is only a matter of time when our leaders will have courage to put change in action courageously like Obama who do no take care of opposition parties and do not bother what other nations think for him. At this critical time it is necessary to restore the confidence of investors as also industrialists, consumers as also producers, borrowers as well as lenders to bring the sinking engine of economic growth back on the track and keep it working with full capacity.

"Buy America" slogan given by Obama and his government while passing 789 billion dollar stimulus package for sinking industries in US is not only indicative of patriotism but it also reaffirms and strengthens the policy of Swadeshi Movement started by Gandhi in India.

This initiative and instruction of Obama to stimulus –aided companies to prefer Americans in job and American goods in industries, will not only disturb the trade balance of many countries like India and China but also force all other nations whose business largely depended on export to US, to think over the pros and cons of policy economic liberalization, privatization and globalization. India and other developing countries will also be constrained to review and give new direction to policy of globalization to suit present global crisis.

All nations have different set of individuals, with different traditions and different set of priorities and hence the policy of globalization is set to have bad effects of the economy of each nation and collectively the global economy. And the most significant point is that in a country like India where more than 90% of population has got no access and no capacity to test the fruit of globalization, government is constrained to ponder over the utility and effectiveness of the policy of globalization and economic liberalization particularly when global slowdown has weakened the economy of most of the nations in the world. Social inclusion for so called fruits of globalization may only help the policy to become long lasting or else it has to face strong protest from general mass.

Indian Government has already seen the crisis in case of Satyam, Maytas, Global Trust Bank, stock market and will soon face bankruptcy of many big companies and downfall of several companies even like Reliance. Many more episodes like Satyam will soon hit the market brutally. Companies indulged in window dressing in their balance sheet will be left with no alternatives but to declare bankruptcy and leave behind many youths loosing their employment.

The policy of privatization have already adversely affected the future of industries in aviation, banking and other prominent sectors where private sector have burnt their fingers and now almost turned their deaf ear to instructions and advices given by the government to cut prices and bring down interest rates. India has already been suffering from cancer of acute unemployment and now retrenchment of employees from various companies has been adding fuel to fire.

I hope government will now put more emphasis on generation of employment, spending for productive uses, protect companies by special funding to safeguard future of employed youths, reduce retiring age from 60 to 50 to give opportunity of employment to new generation boys and girls, avoid unproductive subsidies (and spending which helps rich to a larger extent. Willingly or unwillingly, our government is duty bound to protect our industries and poor general mass, even if some other countries express their anguish for our protectionist attitude.

And the last but not the least, the spending on social welfare schemes has to be made effective on the ground level by stopping completely pilferage of such fund by brokers, middlemen and government officials.

Problems of Indians will be reduced by 80% if political leaders or big bosses in any company stop making rallies, making false promises, projecting ornamental images, fabricated balance sheets, without matching the same with ground realities.

What You Should Do In 2009?

2009-02-22T00:03:00.003-05:00

Our happiness is diluted and our peace is threatened by the financial illness that has infected our families, organizations and nations. Everyone is desperate to find a remedy that will cure their financial illness and help them recover their financial health. They expect the financial experts to provide them with remedies, forgetting the fact that it is these experts who created this financial mess.

I adopt a couple of old maxims as my beacons to guide my future. This self-prescribed therapy has ensured that with each passing year, I grow wiser and not older. This year, I invite you to tap into the financial wisdom of our elders along with me, and become financially wiser.

Hard work: All hard work bring a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty.
Laziness: A sleeping lobster is carried away by the water current.
Earnings: Never depend on a single source of income.. [At least make your Investments get you second earning]
Spending: If you buy things you don't need, you'll soon sell things you need.
Savings: Don't save what is left after spending; Spend what is left after saving.
Borrowings: The borrower becomes the lender's slave..
Accounting: It's no use carrying an umbrella, if your shoes are leaking.
Auditing: Beware of little expenses; A small leak can sink a large ship.
Risk-taking: Never test the depth of the river with both feet. [Have an alternate plan ready]
Investment: Don't put all your eggs in one basket.

I'm certain that those who have already been practicing these principles remain financially healthy. I'm equally confident that those who resolve to start practicing these principles will quickly regain their financial health.

The World Economy: The Return Of Economic Nationalism

2009-02-16T21:00:00.005-05:00

The people of India are going to elect the 15th Lok Sabha at a time when there are formidable challenges at home, in the region and in the world at large. There were challenges last year, too, but they were masked by the rather frothy exuberance in a small section of the economy. In January 2008, the BSE sensex had crossed the all-time peak of 21,000. And some speculators were predicting that the sensex would rise to 27,000 in the first half of 2008. It has now fallen to below 10,000. This represents erosion in the market value of listed Indian companies to the tune of forty lakh crore rupees.

Some people might say that this is notional loss because it is in the very nature of the market index to rise and fall. If this is notional loss, then it stands to reason that the prosperity that we saw in the past few years based on shifting market parameters was also notional prosperity. In recent years, many greed-driven financial instruments came into vogue. Such undependable devices of the free market economy cannot be the basis for building a truly prosperous nation. They have caused meltdown of the financial system in America and other western economies. They do not guarantee the steady, sustainable and healthy growth of even the corporate sector, even though the corporate sector constitutes only one of the several important sectors of the Indian economy.

The past decade has demonstrated that the growth that unfettered capitalism produces usually culminates in a bubble. However, when the bubble bursts, the pain and havoc it causes has uneven impact on different sections of society. Therefore, I am less worried by the fact that the phenomenal family wealth of some of the richest Indians has shrunk by several thousand crores. What worries me more is that India’s real economy is shrinking, labour-intensive employment down and with it the modest incomes of millions upon millions of poor and middle-class Indians is shrinking.

What India needs is a robust, self-confident Swadeshi (nationally-oriented) model of development, which is rooted in the ideals of democracy, equality, justice and integral human progress.

Swadeshi means that national priorities must override policies that have benefited only a minority and largely excluded the majority in the nation’s progress. In other words, just as the centre of gravity of the world economy is shifted from the West to Asia, the centre of gravity of our national economy must shift from “India” to “Bharat” ― to agriculture, revitalization of our villages, small and medium enterprises, and unorganized and informal sector of the economy. Bharat includes not only the rural population but also the urban poor and middle-classes. Swadeshi does not believe in an antagonistic relationship between “India” and “Bharat”. The two are interdependent and integral parts of our nation.

Today the entire world is groping for answers to the multi-dimensional crises facing humanity. The world rejected communism emphatically. Now the ravages of unbridled capitalism have come to the fore, forcing even America and other western countries to rethink their development philosophies. The cover feature in the latest issue of The Economist magazine is on the theme: ‘The world economy: The return of economic nationalism’. In a way, the rest of the world is also turning ‘Swadeshi’. Clearly, there is an urgent need in India to do course-correction.

Secularist Hypocrisy....

2009-02-14T01:37:00.001-05:00

Sikhs getting slaughtered in thousands = A MISTAKE.
Hindus getting tortured and killed in Kashmir = Political problem.

Muslims & Hindu getting killed in Post Godhra riots = Communal Anti- Muslim riots.
Poor protestors getting shot in leftist-ruled WB = Misunderstanding.

Banning Parzania in Gujarat = Communal.
Banning Da Vinci Code, Rushdie’s book, and Jo Bole So Nihaal = Secular.

Kargil Attack = Government failure.
Chinese invasion in 1962 = Unfortunate betrayal.

Fake encounters in Gujarat [Sohrabuddin] = BJP Communalism.
Fake encounters under Cong-NCP in Maharashtra [Khwaja Younus] = Oh, that’s just police atrocity.

Talking about Hindu interest = Communal.
Talking about Vaticanization = Secular.

BJP freeing 3 terrorists to save 200 Indian hostages = Shameful.
Congress freeing 4 terrorists to save just 1 life of Mufti Mohd Saeed’s daughter in Kashmir [Rubiya Sayed] = Natural Political dilemma.

Attack on Parliament = BJP ineptitude.
Not hanging Afzal Guru despite Supreme Court orders = Humanity and Political dilemma.

BJP worshipping Ram = Communal.
Congress questioning Lord Ram's existence = Secular.

Is there any end to secularists' hypocrisy?

Time To Hail The King Of Tennis

2009-02-02T05:34:00.000-05:00

Rafael Nadal captured the Australian Open title with an enthralling 7-5 3-6 7-6 3-6 6-2 win over Roger Federer.

In victory Nadal denied the Swiss a chance to win a record-equaling 14th grand slam title.

The world number one became the first Spaniard to win the Open and chalked up his fifth straight win over Federer, including last year's French Open and Wimbledon finals.

The victory took his grand slam tally to six and left him needing only to win the US Open to complete the full slam.

This final at Melbourne Park lived up to all expectations as the two best players of their generation slugged it out for almost 4-1/2 hours in a classic match packed with magical shot-making and intense drama.

The momentum swung back and forth throughout before Nadal struck the killer blow when he broke in the fourth game of the deciding set as Federer slapped a backhand into the net then again in the eighth game to seal a famous victory.

The two were meeting for the first time since last year's epic Wimbledon final, when Nadal ended Federer's five-year hold on the trophy before deposing him as world number one.

They have now contested seven Grand Slam finals with Nadal holding a 5-2 edge in the meetings and 13-6 overall. But he had his last hard-court win over Federer in 2006 and had never reached a Grand Slam final on the surface.

I would have loved to see a Nadal Vs Murray or Nadal Vs Djokovic Final in Melbourne park but Murray lost out to Verdasco , Djokovic has to quit the game mid way against the American Roddick . Nadal is well on his way to complete a career slam well before roger federer could complete a career slam.

Rafael Nadal shows the way forward for Tennis. He has got a Olympic gold, a Davis cup win. Will Federer be able to win a Olympic individual gold or a Davis Cup triumph. It remains to be seen.

Right now Nadal seems to be a much better player than Federer. Nadal is right now a living legend,

Time to hail the King Of Tennis…..

ONE PARAGRAPH THAT EXPLAINS LIFE!!!!!

2009-01-25T05:25:00.000-05:00

Arthur Ashe, the legendary Tennis player was dying of AIDS which he got due to infected blood he received during a heart surgery in 1983.

From the world over, he received letters from his fans, one of which conveyed: "Why does GOD have to select you for such a bad disease"?

To this Arthur Ashe replied:

"The world over -- 50 million children start playing tennis, 5 million learn to play tennis,
500,000 learn professional tennis, 50,000 come to the circuit, 5000 reach the grand slam,
50 reach Wimbledon, 4 to the semi final, 2 to the finals,
when I was holding the cup I never asked GOD 'Why me?'.

And today in pain I should not be asking GOD 'Why me?'

We count our pains, but not our blessings.

"Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others."

Satyam, SoftWare,...Financial Mess

2009-01-15T08:42:00.000-05:00

Investigators probing the financial manipulation in Satyam Computer suggest promoter Ramalinga Raju's accounting skills seem to be too good to crack. vestigating agencies have called for the services of forensic accounting experts from KPMG to crack the scam. Investigators fear Raju may have changed the accounting format.

1. Satyam will launch Satyam-PWC Centre of Creative Accounting & Management (SCAM)

This Centre will be headed by Srinivas Vadlamani. Satyam Associates can enrol in this SCAM and develop their creative accounting skills. SCAM will impart best practises by benchmarking with other world class firms like Enron and Worldcom. People who know US-GAAP and other accounting standards need not apply as you are over qualified. Your skills will be put to full use during quarter close and year-end. Placement is assured in one of the Satyam group companies like Maytas, Samtay, Tamasy, Tasmay etc.

2. Satyam-ISB Centre for Corporate Misgovernance (SICC)

Under the stewardship of M Rammohan Rao, Satyam will establish this centre to groom the next generation of Directors who can fill the Board positions in Satyam group and also aspire for similar position in many other tainted companies in India. We will also teach you how to draft your own resignation letter before resigning from the board.

The CFO's creativity has been put to test here. The answering tone from the last paragraph proves that Srinivas Vadlamani made up the reply. I have managed to pick up the transcript from another site.

My Worst nightmare came true last week, that software companies have over sated their profits and understated their less loss in there balance sheet. The software companies always come to campus interview and take people by telling them there salaries will be 2.8 lacs per annum so and so forth. I really don’t know whether they give this much as there salaries.

I have got so many friends who work in software industry in India and as well as abroad. I have heard so many stories such as that I am not getting the salary properly, its not in time, it is less that what they have said, Lay-offs, Bench and so many stories of no hike in salary, too much of work and so and so forth. I really don’t know why these software companies are recruiting so many people when so many of them have no work to do in these companies.

I took a flight from Chennai to Delhi some six months back and I bumped into a senior VP of a top software company. I had a chat with him about the job market, how the software companies are handling the economic crisis, strengthening of the rupee, hedging and how it is affecting the company in general. Some time later I asked why the software companies recruit so many people even in this economic downturn, he replied that we need strength and numbers to get a project. He added that they should tell the clients that 5000 odd people will be working in this project. We have got 500 H1B Visas to get a project, and then only people will be giving the project to the company. This prompted me to ask then how many would be really working in the company full time or how many of the will be in the bench for that he replied 35000 -40000 will be working and others will be in bench. I could not believe that so many guys will be simply sitting and getting there salary. I asked what will be your margin and what is cost to maintain these 10,000 odd guys and girls and he replied that margins will be 70 odd % and CTC for these guys will be minimal. I spilled many beans and stories of which will come in the latter posts.

Although corporate frauds and accounting irregularities have come to light in the west (Enron), this is one of the biggest of its kind in India. If a company of the scale and repute like Satyam indulges in such activities, there may be numerous other smaller frauds happening in the small and medium sized listed companies which may never be unearthed.

Happy New Year Folks......

2009-01-02T23:36:00.000-05:00

Here's to the year

that's almost past its expiration date—2008.

We all had some surprises, didn't we?

Some good, some distressing.

Let's use everything we got from our experiences,

everything we learned,

to enrich the new year.

Here's to the new year, 2009,

a gift we haven't opened yet.

May its bright, shiny package

contain even more than we hope for.

And even while we're delighting in new treasures,

let's appreciate fully what we already have—

the blessings we take for granted.

Make a list, and check it twice.

And here's to all you wonderful people

(wave glass around to encompass the whole group)

who are putting up with my toast;

I hope in the new year

you see yourselves the way I see you:

intelligent, interesting, and likable.

(Raise glass) To 2009:

May it give a whole new meaning

to the phrase, "the good life."

Happy New Year folks;

Have a great year ahead of you

Have fun, Stay Safe.

Random Thought About Economic Crisis

2008-12-18T09:14:00.000-05:00

I just noticed that the three browsers that I use all have two-word names, and the words are of equal length.

Google Chrome (both words are 6 letters long)
Mozilla Firefox (7)
Internet Explorer (8)

Bailout To Automakers.

I've been intimately following the bailout negotiations for the automakers in the USA. Washington in my judgment will pass it but with a lot of strings attached. I feel that 'Strings' are absolutely needed for the arrogant automakers.

Why do I call them arrogant? Should actually call them foolish and arrogant?? They were foolish to sleep when the whole world was talking about fuel economy and saving money, not to forget GLOBAL WARMING. Japanese were smart. They took the lead and crushed the US Automakers to dust via their Hybrid cars.

Flying In A Private Jet To Beg For Money

The US automobile industry is facing its biggest crisis ever and the head honchos of the Big 3 Auto makers (GM, Ford and Chrysler) are lobbying hard for a government bailout. The CEOs of these companies were in Washington DC recently to meet up with the government authorities. The 3 CEOs flew to Washington DC in their own private jets and this has attracted widespread criticism at a time when their companies are in dire need of cash. Critics say that the CEOs should have gone for commercial airlines or jet-pooling instead of flying in 3 different private jets from Detroit to Washington D

Enthiran changes hands as credit crunch bites hard

Big production houses have been putting pressure on directors and actors to cut costs and this has created ripples in Kollywood. The latest news is that Rajini's Enthiran will now be produced by Sun Pictures instead of Ayngaran and Eros.

4 Reasons Why You Should Buy While FIIs Sell

2008-11-20T09:46:00.000-05:00

LET’S assume that you have invested in both, the US and the Indian stock markets. Now, it turns out, while your Indian investments are doing exceedingly well, the US portfolio suffers acute losses.

What is the most obvious thing you would do?

You would book profits in India, in order to make up for the US loss. Right?

This, in a nutshell, is the current scene today. The only difference is that the investors are foreign institutional investors (FIIs). These are institutions that operate mutual funds, hedge fund and portfolio management services abroad and invest the fund money in other countries. FIIs by definition, have world wide investments. So, not only India but other Asian markets are also facing a sell off.

What happens when FIIs sell?
FIIs have a huge exposure to the Indian market. Due to this, their buy and sell actions have a considerable impact on the market.

Recently, FIIs have been on a selling spree. This is one of the reasons for the markets to register steep falls.
If FIIs are selling, should you buy?

The US is in turmoil but there is nothing wrong with us. The following factors just reaffirm this:

1. Toxic securities (such as MBS and CDOs) are conspicuously absent in our market, thereby preventing us from catching the infection.

2. As far as domestic operations of banks are concerned, RBI has been extremely strict by continually increasing the risk weights to real estate and housing loans, thereby discouraging banks to get ahead of themselves, in a bid to increase business.

3. Unlike the West which has a negative savings rate, our domestic savings rate is more than 35 per cent, that means, on an average, Indians save 35 per cent of their income. So, even if there is a protracted slowdown, we would still have considerable demand for products and services, which in turn will help the economy to achieve good growth.

4. Amongst all emerging economies, our export to GDP ratio is the lowest. This means that even if our exports went down, our growth won't be significantly impacted. Therefore, even a full blown US recession will shave only around 40 to 60 basis points off our GDP growth rate. So, we will still have the capacity to chug along at an 8 per cent plus rate.

India - a safe haven

The fundamentals of our economy make our market nothing short of a safe haven during such turmoil. So, I don’t care if the market falls to 7,000 or even lower. Once this storm blows over, things will be back to normal.

In the meanwhile, your fortune as an investor would depend on how you react or, rather, don’t react to the situation.

The great fall of the market isn’t going to suddenly reverse the quality of the companies listed. If anything, I am looking forward to picking up some cheap but quality stuff.

Clock-- National Debt Clock...

2008-10-13T04:57:00.000-04:00

A watched clock never moves — unless it's the National Debt Clock.

In fact, the digital counter has been moving so much that it recently ran out of digits to display the ballooning figure: $10,150,603,734,720, or roughly $10.2 trillion, as of Saturday afternoon.

The clock was put up by the late real estate mogul Seymour Durst in 1989 when the U.S. government's debt was a mere $2.7 trillion, and was even turned off during the 1990s when the debt decreased.

It will be replaced in 2009, The new clock will be able to track debt up to a quadrillion dollars, which is a '1' followed by 15 zeros.

The current clock had enough digits to measure the amount of money owed by the U.S. government until debt recently hit $10 trillion. Since then, more eyes have been on the fixture near touristy Times Square.

"It's an absolute outrage. It may be the end of the United States as we know it today. We haven't seen the worst of it. Everybody should stop and look at this clock. It affects all of us. I'm worried."

That afternoon, others glanced at the clock, some of their faces wrinkling with confusion. But most pedestrians seemed not to even notice the clock, which is tucked several stories high on the side of a brick parking garage-office building. The counter, on West 44th Street near Sixth Avenue, is more visible to those walking west; for those walking east, the sign is already behind them once they walk by the building.

I guess we can also have this kind of clock for our debt and corruption. It would be great if people would look up to this clock and say WE Should feel ashamed for this.

I Believe things will change for the better in days and years to come.. Lets Hope For The Best

It's The Economy Stupid. This Farce Called Decoupling

2008-09-13T12:43:00.000-04:00

In the past few months, there have been several theories floating to justify why the Indian stock markets were defying gravity. Among them was a popular notion called 'decoupling'. Armchair analysts and self annointed experts spewed wisdom to say there is decoupling at work. Don't you worry if the Dow or the Nasdaq were crashing, look at the sensex that's where the real story is, they said. If you bought that theory, you'd believe you are living in paradise, where the economy is unstoppable and sensex could continue defy gravity and we'll are all bound to be billionaires. Nothing wrong with this optimism, it is only the dubious basis of the theory that they were peddling that I had a problem with.

For starts, decoupling assumed that the Indian markets were insulated from the mood swings of the US Markets. They argued that Indian markets had matured enough to chart a course of its own. Some sectors, they said, like IT would be affected in the near term, but the broader markets were high and rocking. And then, they threw the cliche, the India growth story is intact, the Indian economic fundamentals are sound and this was stretched to prove that even if the world's largest economy slowed down, it would have negligible impact on India - its economy and its markets. To add credence to this theory, the markets skyrocketed early this year although the US markets made no headway since Jan 1.

And then came Terrible Tuesday!

This theory fell flat on its face on Terrible Tuesday Jan 22,2008. Global markets crashed hand in hand with the US and the facts were there for everyone to see. The moral of the story was the world has started accepting the reality of a US economic slowdown. The Fed chief testified to the Congress that the economy is slowing but he does not see a recession. That was pure semantics. Few days later, President Bush announced a fiscal revival package and Ben followed that up with an unprecendented emergency rate cut, to stem the slide more so in falling sentiment that in stocks. Now, if global markets were reacting, they were not decoupled were they? If the Indian markets tanked 2000 points, it was very much coupled...wasn't it? I am not trying prove a coupling theory which is equally facile.
Now, let's assume the sensex chooses to flirt with higher levels for a week or so when the US markets is tanking. Does that meaning the "coupling" theory is wrong? The point is this day to day corelation does not work and is not a reliable theory to base one's forecast on.

It's the economy stupid

Macroeconomy 101 and Manmohan Singh post-91 have made us understand how interlinked the Indian economy has become. The retail sales figures of Walmart is causing ripples in Tirupur. Poltical instabilty in Mexico is making Mittal postpones his greenfield investment in India. These are hard facts and this is how economies work. Because economies are run by people, who are, even in their dogged pursuits of profits, are swayed by emotion which define their judgements. To believe that economies are impervious to each other, most of all to the biggest, is being naive. To propound it, is foolhardy.

Doctors By Fame and Power Not By Research--Dr Univ

2008-09-11T22:05:00.000-04:00

Almost a year ago I wrote a blog post Does She Deserve it when Leeds Metropolitan University conferred a doctorate on Shilpa Shetty, Link for that does is here

Congress chief Sonia Gandhi has become Dr Sonia Gandhi and has joined the politicians' honorary doctorate bandwagon. Former Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa, like her mentor, MGR, also has the magic letters. In fact, both Jayalalithaa and the present Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, have at least a couple of doctorate degrees, awarded for their achievements in public life.

It is almost politically correct for Universities in Tamil Nadu, like the 150-year-old Madras University, to confer honorary doctorates on not just political leaders, but also leading Film Stars. KamalHaasan and Vijay and Director Shankar also have the honorary prefix before their names.

Since its inception, the Madras University, for instance, has given more than 400 honorary doctorates to various personalities starting from S RadhaKrishnan Jawaharlal Nehru and R Venkatraman to Abdul Kalam.

It does not matter how much the recipients have actually studied. Or, how many honorary doctorates they already have!

The University tends to honour leaders on occasions like our Golden Jubilee, Centenary etc. even if they have doctorates already. Some have even 40 doctorates. The University also says “Also education has no co-relation to intelligence. Many leaders may not have had much formal education, but they have achieved a lot for society," I really don’t understand what they have done to the society, The politicians and film stars are busy in buying more land, expanding there base, making money out all the issues, Spending big on their birthdays, I cannot understand why south India is so obsessed with its film stars and with its politicians.

People who become the top honchos of the educational institution say a dean, principal, Vice- Chancellor, Director and Provost comes to these post with help of these politicians and by giving money to them, Till they finish there term they will be at the mercy of these gentlemen. Convocation comes around every year and the honchos of education think its time to pay back and they pay back by giving Honorary Doctorates. So we cannot expect quality in our education system, in our political class and in our film class.

"Just because they are politicians and film stars, they get doctorates. They don`t know the value of it. People slog out minimum for about five years to earn their doctorates but these VVIPs get it just like that.

The Worst Part is they use the Prefix Dr in the Public functions and there followers use Dr in welcome posters they put up in the cities to welcome them. I dream of doing a Doctorate in economics in days to come; I really don’t want to share Dr Prefix with people who got that because they are politicians and film actors. I’ am mulling whether Dr (PHd) is worth doing.

Ratan Tata the chairman of the Tata Group, has got a lot of honorary doctorates but he has not used to Prefixed Dr to his name. I salute that gentleman for doing this.

It is high time that these politicians and Film stars learn from him and remove the Prefixed Dr From there name and advice there followers and fans to not to Prefic Dr to their name.

With optimism we can look forward that university will not give PHD to everyone who walks in the university road.

Few years down the line i would like to make a film called Dr Univ, That Shows how politicians and film stars get PHD. I would like that film to be a full length comedy film.If someone wants to join the team can join me and help me out in this venture.

Olympics- Beijing 2008

2008-08-21T08:12:00.000-04:00

This Olympics is probably the best Olympics for India and for the games itself. I could see the athlete going all out to break the world record. Beijing 2008 is one of the finely organized sporting spectacles in the world.

Star of the Olympics or should I say stars of the Olympics are undoubtedly Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps.

Best Win in the tournament is Rafael Nadal Winning the Gold in the Tennis Event.

Best thing that has happened in this Olympics would be Roger Federer losing the Singles match to James Blake and too hyped Tyson Gay crashing out of the 100meters.

Worst Moment for me is to see Paes and Bhupathi losing to Federer and Wawrinka .

Best Minute was Abhinav Bindra hitting the Bull’s eye in final round of 10 meter pistol event to win the Gold for the country.

Surprise package of the Olympics was Sushil Kumar winning the bronze medal in wrestling 66 Kgs Freestyle event and a Afghanistan athlete winning the bronze for his country in fencing.

Vijender Kumar is assured of a medal. It could be a gold or silver or bronze. India will come back from the Olympics with the highest haul from the event. All in all is a good show by the Indians and the Chinese. Indian Tiger or the Elephant has a long way to go to catch the Chinese Dragon or the Panda.