Naveen Garg's Blog

Dilemma v/s Decision

2011-07-27T23:44:00.003+05:30

Today the whole day was full of dilemma about one critical thing. The more I thought about possibilities, options, workarounds and consequences more confused I found myself. Then finally I approached the matter in a methodical way and was able to reach to a conclusion. Though this discussion sounds very trivial, the effect of this dilemma was non-trivial with so many positive and negative thoughts stirring my mind all through the day.

After this experience I had a few words with myself and realized how important it is to be decisive rather than being in dilemma and keep on thinking about something again and again. Being in decisive state feels a lot better. One important point to remember about being decisive is that you always make the best choice. Later on it may or may not turn out to be the right choice.

Another aspect of decision that I understand is the importance of keeping options and possibilities open for the future. This is about not being too adamant on your decision once it is made. Ego is something which has to be kept out of the decision making process as this helps in avoiding fatal mistakes. When things have to be let go.. let them go and when you have to take back your decision ..don't hesitate.

Goalpost

2011-07-26T17:53:00.000+05:30

Though the word 'Goalpost' resembles the career of most of us who are in the pursuit of something big; however, over the years I have realized that this is nothing but something imaginary as there isn’t a particular goalpost for anybody. It is something which keeps on moving with every success and failure.

In case of failure some people just take it as their destiny and move on with the next best option and some people just give up thinking that they were on the wrong path or that may be it was a dead-end at the right path. In this case I would say that these people in fact never had any goal or they termed something as their goal which didn't even qualify for it.

In the other case the situation is a little complex and takes the mind on a ride of roller coaster thought process very often. We decide something and work hard to get it but by the time we achieve it we realize that there is a lot more to be achieved and we again feel running behind in the race and a new race starts for a new goal. In other words we just keep moving our goalpost. In one sense this is interesting as this makes us try for something bigger and helps us in getting the bigger picture. To some people this eventually becomes the reason for frustration as they always see someone more accomplished or better positioned. The choice is ours and how we take it completely depends on us.

My personal experience tells me that a good option could be the middle path. While aiming for something bigger will be the driving force, enjoying the achievements on the way is also important. It helps in feeling so much efforts put in competing and achieving worthwhile. The idea is not being overwhelmed by race and competition but to enjoy the journey of achievements.

The Miscellaneous

2011-07-23T15:47:00.003+05:30

This blog is the collection of my findings of miscellaneous expenses that many students ignore in the beginning while planning the finances for their MBA abroad. Due to these factors the total actual cost of my MBA has gone up significantly than what I had budgeted for initially. So it will help others to keep an eye on these points.

Currency fluctuations
When I applied for MBA in Canada in Oct 2010 the currency rate showed on the websites was close to 42 INR/CAD. Since then it has gone up significantly and these days it is touching 47 INR/ CAD. Though no one can predict the currency movements with surety but having this factor in mind and adding some buffer for this will surely help in better planning. There are some websites which provide forecasts for currency rates. One such site is www.forecasts.org

Actual Rate of currency for buying and transferring money
The rate of currency that you see on websites is significantly lower that the actual rate that you have to pay while buying or transferring money to some international account. This includes mark up by financial institutions, commissions and services tax etc. So for example if you see 46 INR/CAD on website what you actually might end up paying could be 47.2 INR/CAD. So please plan your finances carefully while estimating in foreign currency. Also different institutions charge significantly different rates. My observation is that banks charge more than what other like UAE Exchange or Cox and Kings charge.

Networking cost
The living cost given by colleges in their MBA brochure are generally on the higher side. Actual monthly living cost can be found out by contacting some seniors from the same college or from the same city. However this cost will generally include only the regular living expenses for rent, food, phone, Internet, utilities and transportation. At least in case of MBA, networking is very important and there is a price tag associated with it. My friends have suggested me to budget for 2000-4000 dollars just for the networking parties and hang outs which is not an insignificant amount. So please keep this item also in your mind.

Books
While planing for my finances I kind of overlooked the expenses for books which is actually the reflection of what we see in India. Here books are not that expensive even if we plan to buy them original and new; however, this is not the case abroad. What I have understood is that books there are very expensive if you want to buy original and new. There are some ways out such as borrowing or buying from seniors, taking books on rent or in some cases buying from India. However it will be wise not to ignore expenses for books altogether.

Wardrobe
If you are not so fashion conscious person like me then getting prepared for MBA will be a surprise for you. You will have to buy so many things from suits to formal wear, from new shoes to so many other things. But the bottom line is.. all this is important. So budget a good amount for changing your wardrobe.

Travel Cost
We all know that international travel is expensive hence has to be budgeted specifically. If you are going for a two year program that plan for at least 2-3 trips based on how frequently you want to visit your home.

Interest expenses
This one was the biggest unsettling parameter in my case. If you are taking a significant loan to fund your loan then please be informed that you 'might' have to pay the interest amount along with your studies. If this is the case, there will be a significant additional cash outflow while you are still in the college. If you get a loan for which interest has to be paid only after completion of studies then this is not a point for you to worry about.

Student Exchange Program
If your college provides student exchange opportunities and you wish to opt for it then it will be wise to add some extra cost as appropriate.

Other shopping expenses
Apart from new clothing there will be 10s of other things that you will have to buy before you land abroad and if you want to avoid spending in dollars for every small thing. This will also not be insignificant amount so budget some money for this as well. Example in this category could be luggage, utensils, some gadgets and accessories.

Misc
Even after considering all the above mentioned items there will be many things for which you should plan a buffer amount. I would term this item as 'Misc' and it could be anything such as a bicycle to commute, medical expenses, some kind of permit fees or anything else. It is highly advised to budget some amount for unforeseen items.

Disclaimer: Through this blog I don't intend to scare you about expenses associated with abroad studies but to help you plan better for it! I hope this will help at least to some people.

Book Review: Don't Sweat the small stuff at the work

2011-07-23T12:46:00.001+05:30

My latest reading is a book titled "Don't Sweat the small stuff at the work". I had this book for almost three years but buried under a heap of papers and I never bothered to figure out what it was about. Finally I started reading it and interestingly it turned out to be the most useful and practical book I have ever read.

In this book the author Richard Carlson has given very simple and obvious tips to reduce stress in life and be more productive and effective. Most of the tips are work related as the title suggests. The book is comprised of small 2-3 pages 100 chapters, each discussing about a simple tip to reduce stress and improve efficiency. As I read the book, I could relate my own professional life with most of the points raised in the book. I could flash back and find out similar situations in my professional and personal life as mentioned in the examples given in the book. With the examples and their solutions written in the book, I always thought how differently could I behave in my own similar situations and almost in every case I was able to find the answer.

Also this reading was very opportune considering a big shift in my life. This along with numerous discussions I had with my friends and my own thought process has resulted in significant enlightenment as I would put it. I would highly recommend this book to everyone who wants that it would be better if things were different in his or her professional life.

Inflection Point

2011-07-12T03:54:00.004+05:30

I am wondering why am I sleepless at this hour. So many thoughts from past and for future are running through my mind. Flashbacks from school and college days, glimpses from personal and family life, adventures from professional life.. all are making their appearances. All this with Rahat Fateh Ali Khan music and a lovely weather is creating an aura for some deep thinking!

At this juncture in my life and career when I am making a huge transition, the perfect term that I can think of is 'Inflection Point' meaning significant change. Life is changing and is changing dramatically. The culture I will be a part of, the climate I will live in, the people I will be surrounded with and the topics I will be talking about. All this is good change and is for better.

Having seen the toughest time of my life and having surpassed the biggest apprehension of pursuing a costly abroad MBA, I see a significant change in myself. Things look much simpler to handle (at least for the time being). No challenge looks too big now. The entire pursuit so far has brought significant changes in the way I approach different type of situations. This has been an immense learning.

Coming out of comfort zone is no small thing. In past four years since I started my career I have become used to of my account getting replenished at the end of every month. Money is taken for granted and all the facilities were taken care off by the employer. I am excited to see so many challenges in the near future.. I hope I will sail through!

At peace with chaos

2011-07-08T23:10:00.003+05:30

We all wish that things in our personal and professional life should or must be the way we want them to be but this is far from reality. Every now and then chaos surround us and drive us crazy. The negative effects of this are multifold and affect almost everything in our life.

With plethora of activities going on parallel in professional and personal life, preparation for MBA and departing friends, things were seeming to be going out of control. Then I thought there will be much more chaos going further so is there any way I can handle this better? During a discussion with a friend of mine over a cup of Cafe Mocha at Barista the words of wisdom were uttered.. first be at peace with chaos..embrace it.. and she will love you back!

Lately I have been trying to be at peace with chaos (though along with efforts to reduce it!). A small but simple technique to reduce the chaos or letting it get me is to use sticky notes on my computer regularly. Sounds very trivial but this has helped me reducing a lot of tension of remembering so many pending tasks. I also make a separate high priority list as well. Every day target a few of these high priority tasks and rub them off. Another good way to reduce chaos is avoiding half-completed tasks. I believe half-completed task consumes the same amount of memory in our brain as a completely pending one.. or may be more with some worries as add-ins!

To me, being at peace with chaos means not taking everything too seriously and expecting life as it comes. We have no crystal ball nor are we astrologers, everything comes as it is supposed to. Do your best and let other things wait!.. or in other words..'Chill Maaro' or in Kannadiga.. 'Chill Maadi'

Are there some distant worries? Let their turn come!

Things also go right.... Mostly

2011-07-08T00:54:00.003+05:30

Do you remember yourself discussing with your friends or family that your day was wonderful and you completed 10 things that you planned and it feels really nice when things go right? Well, I believe there are not so many people like this and to a large extent I am also not.

Now switch the context and think about how many times at the end of day you discussed that you did not like the lunch in the cafeteria or traffic was horrible and that you were pissed off due to that? You are not alone..join the majority! What happened to all the other good things happened during the day or the things which went absolutely fine?

It is our general tendency that we almost completely take all the good things in life for granted and behave in a manner such that only the things which went wrong were only the most important things. A little bit of thought to this point can do wonders in our lives. Just accept the fact that life is not perfect for anybody in this world. The richest man or the most powerful person also faces a couple of things going unexpected.. Big Deal... there are so many other things which went well. Also most of the times we don't have any control over the things which are not as we want them to be.

I believe small imperfections in our lives make it interesting. This morning I was going to Airport to see off a friend of mine and another friend was driving the car on the Express Highway to the airport at the speed of 120 KMPH! Many people long for this kind of high speed drive but after a while my friend got bored as there were no hassles, not much traffic and no need to change gears! So in other words, these small imperfections make us to change gears in our lives, apply our mind, handle bad situations and learn from mistakes.

So next time when we discuss about something which went wrong, it would be a nice idea to think about 10 other things which went right!

Being human!

2011-07-06T03:06:00.007+05:30

'Being Human' generally ignites some thoughts about our responsibility towards human rights, nature, society and under privileged, I agree with all this in its entirety. In India these days 'Being Human' also symbolizes actor Salman Khan's organization for social cause. However, while reading Richard Carlson's book 'Dont't Sweat Small Stuff at Work' I got a new perspective of this term. It's about letting yourself being a human.

In the race of life most of us have left the life behind. We are running for that extra comfort, a little bit of more money and that one more achievement in career. I am also not spared of this! In a way I don't see anything wrong in this philosophy as such, as at least to me this has some element of making your life useful. However, the author of the book has presented a really interesting point in one of the chapters (No.81, page 227). The point is simple and already known - 'To err is human, to forgive is divine' but in a slightly different way 'To err is human, to forgive yourself is divine'. If it is getting complicated, the idea is that being humans we all make mistakes and we should learn to forgive ourselves just like we are taught to forgive others.

Author says that the life is a 'Work in Progress' and I totally agree with this thought. We build our life one experience at a time and learn from our mistakes. If we don't learn to forgive ourselves we will just end up living a resentful life as the life passes by. This idea is somewhat on the similar lines of my own quote which I like very much - 'There are no good or bad decisions, there are only best decisions that we take in given circumstances'. So idea is that, if before taking any decision we know that it is not the right decision, we would not take it. It's not actually a mistake but the best decision at that point in time. But later, if our decision does not turn out to be right it becomes a mistake.

The best way to deal with this situation can be one of the following two at the high level; either you just forget it and move on considering that mistakes are just a part of life or you can analyze the causes and do better next time in a similar situation. I believe either way is fine and is a personal choice but the important thing is that you should be able to forgive yourself because 'To Err is Human'!

With this, I forgive myself for making the biggest mistake of my life so far!

The student loan story

2011-07-05T03:53:00.004+05:30

In the entire process of starting my MBA, the most painful part was getting Education Loan from India and this exposed me to some complex and some unprofessional side of the loan process. I wish to share my experience on some key points in this post so that others going on this path can avoid some of the trouble.

Start the process as early as possible
All the MBA aspirants apply to multiple colleges and some people get multiple admits as well. However due to various reasons such as multiple rounds of applications, wait list or others the admits come at different times from different institutes. So as soon as you get the first admit and you are sure that you will join the program if you don't get any other, apply for the loan but first check with you respective bank if you can later get it converted for some other program at no or very little extra cost. This will save you a great deal of time.

Prefer Public sector banks 'as far as possible'
I had a very very bitter experience with a major private sector bank even when they have a dedicated education loan arm. I had to apply to the public sector bank after waiting for one month. In a nut shell I found the public sector bank much more professional and organized. They processed my loan in five working days. So avoid private bank as much as possible.

Margin Calculation
I was totally bowled over on this point. On bank's website you will see margin written as 15%-20% but that does not tell the complete story. That is the minimum margin that you will have to put in but there is no limit for the maximum. What does this mean? Let us see some examples (I am assuming public sector bank):

Example 1: You are going for Indian education. In this case maximum loan limit will be 7.5 lakh. So if margin is written as 15% on the website it will be 15% till the total fees is 7.5/0.85 = 8.8 lakh.

As the fees goes up, 7.5 lakh remains 7.5 lakh but your margin goes up. So if the total fees is 15 lakh. Your margin will be 50%. So you have to give 7.5 lakh to the bank and they put their 7.5 lakh and give 15 lakh to the college.

And if your fees is 6 lakh, you will get loan for just 6*0.85= 5.1 lakh

In case of Indian education this margin thing does not make much difference as such unless your total fees is less than 7.5 lakh and you want loan to fund it.

Example 2:
A. You want to go abroad and total fees is 50 lakh.
B. Maximum loan available for foreign education is 20 lakh (with collateral and cosigner).
C. Margin on website is 15%
D. You are arranging 'some' funds from abroad may be a collateral and cosigner free loan from a foreign bank. Let us assume 20 lakh. So you need 30 lakh from Indian bank but max available is 20 lakh

Now here the problem is that even when you are not using same collateral for the foreign loan and also the cosigner is exclusive to the Indian loan, the bank will tell you an unwritten policy that you cannot take the other loan for the same program. But you want to take it as the interest rates are very low in developed countries.

If you don't show that loan here is the calculation:

Total Fees: 50 lakh
Loan by Indian bank: 20 lakh
Your funds: 30 lakh (at least that's what you tell the bank as you don't want to bring other loan in picture. And also don't forget that you will need your funds for living and other expenses)

You can at least convince them that you have some relative in that city who will take care of you living so you need loan just for tuition. This will help in margin calculation.

So here is the calculation:
Bank assumes that you want tuition fees loan for 20/50 = 40% amount and 60% you will pay. So your contribution margin becomes 60% (not 15% as written on the website). Meaning every time you want to make a payment to the college you need to deposit 60% amount with the bank and they will add 40% and then will transfer 100% to the college. And this transaction has to happen through them only. So how do you use foreign loan? Well you can't and second you don't have 30 lakh (generally!) as you will need your funds for living expenses.

So be careful before paying any money to the bank for loan processing. Get these things clarified. Thankfully the above mentioned private bank was not bothered about the foreign loan.

Women Power!
I came to know that public sector banks have policy to give 1% discount in interest rate to female students. Although no use to me but may be to you if you are a girl!

Mode of interest payment
If you pay interest along with your education you get 1% discount in interest rate in public sector bank. Unfortunately the private bank did not give me the option to pay it later. But this condition varies depending upon program's reputation and might be negotiable in some cases with private banks. So check for that.

Interest Rate comparison
Try to arrange as much funds from the foreign country as interest rates are very low in most of the countries which are possible MBA destinations. In India private bank will offer a little less rate.

The shocker!
A friend of mine got the loan from the same private bank for the same amount without any cosigner and collateral! I had to handle the 6 weeks' craziness for the same loan even when I was providing collateral of more than double value, a cosigner, an additional cosigner and one guarantor! So I believe things are pretty random!

{added later..}
Early loan payment policy
This is also one crucial point to consider. As the interest rate of Indian loan will be high, you would like to payback it as early as possible. However sometimes banks charge fine for this early payment of loan. Based on my experience I found that public sector banks don't have such rule but private ones do.

{added later..}
Processing charges
The public sector bank which which I dealt had a policy under which they would charge 1% of the total amount as processing charges. However if you actually use that loan they would adjust that amount. While the private bank will charge straight 1% and no adjustment later. So if your loan amount is 20 lakh, you will pay additional 20k to the private bank.

Final words of wisdom.. it helps (A Lot) to have some networking with the bank manager where you are applying for loan!

First lesson in management: Save time on web

2011-07-01T01:25:00.006+05:30

We all have 24 hours in a day and we always had. However over the years I have found myself busier than ever before. I have so many things to catch up and my sticky notes are full of pending tasks. I am with my computer almost 15 hours a day and stay connected to all my real and virtual friends but I am busier than ever before.

As I am getting prepared for MBA, one advice that I am getting repetitively from seniors and others is to manage time properly and make best use of it as there will be so much to do at B-school: Lectures, Assignments, Club Activities, Networking, Exploring opportunities and last not the least cooking!

So I considered the activity which takes most of my time to gain some of my time back and the activity is 'Staying Connected'. With all its benefits, social networking is taking a serious toll on my time and most of it is actually not required. Here is the list of things that I tried to reduce some of the nuisance caused due to social networking without compromising any of its benefits:

1. Go invisible on Chat or Messengers.
There are at least two or three messengers installed on a typical computer these days and tens or some times hundreds of friends sitting in different time zones are online. So somebody is always online. Even if I don't ping most of them I feel tempted to see who is online and are there any interesting status messages. So I found it useful to uninstall useless messengers and login in Invisible mode on messenger.

2. Report spam or unsubscribe as many useless mailers as you can.
While surfing or performing actually useful tasks we tend to register our mail ID on many websites and then start receiving mailers, promotional offers etc from them. This not only increases the junk in our mail box and we actually end up wasting time reading some of the useless mails. Also sometimes useful mails remain buried under this junk. It will be a good idea to unsubscribe as many useless mailer as possible or report spam wherever applicable.

3. Disable unnecessary notifications from Facebook
You can love it, you can hate it but you cannot Ignore it.. that's Facebook. Now that it is impossible to not use Facebook we can still try to reduce the time we spend on it and still stay in touch with our friends.

The first way is to change the e-mail notification settings. Keep only those setting which are really important. We anyways see notifications when we go to Facebook. Getting e-mails for everything on Facebook creates nuisance and wastes a lot of time.

Second thing that you can try is to not use 'Keep me signed in' functionality. Using this functionality it becomes very easy to login to Facebook just by accessing the URL without typing Username and Password.

Next is to Unlike all the unnecessary pages that we don't want to follow any more.

4. Avoid keep checking mails all the time
I am in the habit of keeping on tab opened for my Gmail all the time and I am sure many of do the same. Even when I don't get useful mail very frequently and waste a lot of my time. Plus most of us have smart phones these days. So it is a useful idea to fix some time during the day when you will check your personal mails.

These are just some of the things that I have tried and I see that I have a lot of more time to perform my other important tasks. Based on individual habits there can be many other such ways to save time.

Hyderabadi nostalgia!

2011-06-30T02:43:00.005+05:30

Clock is ticking and I am counting my final days in Hyderabad. Sitting idle in the office makes the time even more challenging. In the huge amount of free time these days my mind goes back to past three years in Hyderabad (Hyd) and all the good and bad experiences I had here. Hyderabadi Nostalgia.. that's what I would term it!

For various reasons this place will have a significance in my life at least for a long time to come. I have spent almost all of my meaningful career till now in Hyd. The pride of working for Microsoft and all the associated benefits are deeply associated with this place.

It was Hyd where I made some really nice friends and they were practically my life support system in many respects. I owe a lot to my these friends. Thanks for being with me in my good and bad times, and also to keep me motivated to pursue my dream.

Mostly I have seen the newer part of the city with big buildings of IT companies, newly built nice apartments, wide open roads and place to hang out with friends. overall the impression is good and I had fun here over the past three years. The fast bike rides on Airport Expressway, early morning visits to Osman Sagar Lake, Discs, Pubs, Movies and countless restaurants will be part of my memories.

Like every good thing come to an end (sometimes for better!), the time has come for me to move on as well. But I am super excited that at least for next two years I will stay in a wonderful city of Toronto to pursue my MBA. I have already seen a large part of the city on Google Street and have heard a lot of good things about the city from so many people.

So moving on with great memories of Hyderabad...

So a new journey begins...

2011-06-20T01:58:00.005+05:30

In my previous posts I have written about my pursuit of MBA many times and most of the times it was about one more try, one more failure and one more try again! So now it's time to put a full stop to all that as I am about to embark on a new journey by pursuing my MBA. Yes, I have finally been able to crack it and joining Rotman School of Management, Univ of Toronto, Canada for my MBA starting this Fall!

When I look back it all seems to be an amazing journey. There was a time around three years back when I was very much puzzled and wanted to do just anything. Thought of GRE, prepared for CAT and feared of GMAT and international MBA due to associated cost. Over the period of past three years I have taken multiple daring decisions and failed in some of them but fought back again every time. All this is really special to me.

First milestone was the decision to go after international MBA. I decided to go for it and not think about distant factors mainly the cost until I have an actual admit in my hand. GMAT, which initially looked very trivial kind of exam, made me understand the concept of 'Marginal Utility' in depth. It look a lot of efforts to improve just a little bit and finally a decent and competitive score to start applying.

Second significant step was choosing the programs I wanted to apply to. There were numerous parameters to think about. GMAT Scores, Location, Cost, Probability of getting admission, Recognition in Finance industry, language, placements, deadlines and many others. Those who have seen the spreadsheet that I prepared while researching on the MBA programs would agree with that. There were more than thirty parameters I captured for the tens of MBA programs across the world. Significant research efforts over so many sleepless nights! I am glad some of my friends also have been benefited due to this. Finally I zoomed in on six-seven colleges to try my luck. One year of complete failure apart from an interview call from IESE, which I could not convert (luckily, in retrospection!).

Year two, I gave a little boost to my profile by clearing CFA Level 1 (in Second attempt!) gained one more year of experience, did a couple of more things to improve my profile and fought back with vengeance. Seven applications, four interviews and one convert! So finally I have MBA admit in hand and that too from a college which is known for Finance in the world.

The whole process of MBA applications has been very rewarding so far. Firstly, it has proven my fighting spirit! During this process while answering the essay questions I did a lot of introspection about my skills, achievements, weaknesses, strengths etc. In the end, I think I know myself better. Application process certainly improved my writing skills as well.

One important thing is that in this entire process my family and many of friends have provided immense support in various forms. At times I felt tired and wanted to quit but they motivated me by encouraging me to try once more and run the last lap. Thanks to so many friends who commented on my essays and helped me improve. Many friends connected me to people across the world to get some useful information about MBA programs, economy in some particular country or so much of other useful stuff. Thank you all! In the end thanks to all the friends who helped me in arranging finances to pursue my MBA! I will be indebted for all this support guyz! It has made me more humble. Last but not least, thanks to my managers at Microsoft who found my aspirations exciting and provided their full support.

So one journey ends and a new journey begins!

Canadian Economy

2011-06-12T14:53:00.003+05:30

In last some days I did good amount of reading about Canadian economy on Wikipedia. Through this reading I came to know a great deal about Canadian economy, what are it's main influencing factors, main industries and how it shaped in its current form in past couple of centuries.

The beginning of Canadian economy was dominated with Fur trade. Fur, which was a luxury item in Europe and mainly in Britain, was sold in exchange of other useful items. Later, when forests in Britain were depleted, focused shifted to lumber trade. Large forests in Canadian river valleys and basins were cut to support this trade. This trade required a large number of workers which resulted in large scale immigration to Atlantic regions of Canada.

Gradually some form of governments started taking shapes in various parts of Canada and tried to reduce dependence on Britain but later they realized that due to their shallow market they might end up becoming a satellite market of USA hence they again focused on the ties with Britain and other parts of Europe.

Due to the vastness of its territory the Canadian state wanted to build a strong railroad network to leverage hinterlands and wealth available there. This left most of the state governments bankrupt which became the main reason for all these governments to come together to form a dominion state.

Later agriculture started taking shape mainly in central Canada and large quantity of food grain exports started. Later oil and other minerals were discovered in various parts of Canada and the economy started booming. Along with increasing prosperity the banking industry also took shape and today it is considered as one of the most reliable banking systems in the world.

Canada being a relatively low cost destination in the neighborhood of USA, many US companies started manufacturing facilities in Canada especially in the central part. Like any other developed nation, Canadian economy has also seen a shift towards the services industry and today 3 quarters of the workforce are employed in the services industry.

Though the Canadian economy closely follows the US economy, still it has maintained some unique features especially in banking, subsidy, public welfare and foreign policy.

I want to.... Version 1

2011-06-12T02:16:00.002+05:30

1. Complete my MBA with major in Finance and perform well in that.
2. Make a successful career in Investment field.
3. Write a book someday which would be recognized by the targeted audience.
4. Publish at least one good paper.
5. Learn how to swim.
6. Complete CFA.
7. Start at least one venture of my own.
8. Take out at least one family out of poverty by enabling it's kids to get good education.

Canada's Top companies: An Observation

2011-06-07T20:04:00.003+05:30

Out of curiosity or in the attempt to improve my knowledge of Canadian market/economy, i found the list of companies which create the benchmark of Toronto Stock Exchange http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif(TSE/TSX). Here

I then went to Google Finance and searched for each of these companies to get the very basic info about these companies. Though nothing like a great discovery I observed some patterns which I want to document here.

1. The list comprises of a lot of natural resources companies (as expected) and out these companies most of them are in Energy and Gold. Considering that Canada is a minerals oriented economy, I was expecting a much diversified proposition.

2. Canadian businesses are very much integrated with the US (again as expected) and also many of these have operations in South America. To my surprise only few of these companies have operations in Asia and Europe.

3. Though I saw many companies producing/transporting crude oil and gas, I didn't see much about refining.

4. There were a few Telecom companies in the list but there was not a single Software company.

5. Unexpectedly power utility companies did not figure in the list.

These comments are nowhere related to research but are pure observation and also reflects a bit of my Indian context. Just a part of exploration.

Who moved my cheese?.... Yawn!

2011-05-28T00:31:00.000+05:30

As I am getting prepared for my MBA I thought of getting into MBA mode by starting reading some of the books suggested by college Profs. One popular name I saw on the list was 'Who moved my cheese?' I have seen this tiny book on almost every book stall over the years so thought of starting with it.

The way book started looked some interesting expecting that there will be some interesting reverse analogies between the behavior of mice and humans. Some insightful statements like any other self-help books and may be some other interesting stuff..

I have completed 20 pages out of 32 pages and there is nothing happening apart from the character Haw going back and forth in the maze and thinking the same thing again and again just in different words...

YAAWWWWN!!!

I got so bored in this tiny book that I could not stop myself from expressing my boredom on my blog. This is the crappiest book have ever read!

Behavioral Finance: Something new to explore!

2010-10-15T23:00:00.006+05:30

Some days back I stumbled upon a term 'Behavioral Finance' and followed by this site. I found this term very interesting and started to explore more about this. I came to know that this is a very fertile research area for Finance, Economics and Psychology. Following my curiosity, I am digging more deep into this, however till now only thing that I could get hold of is that there are so many terms/sub-categories in this field. Any permutation or combination of the terms in Economics, Finance and Psychology will make a new term in Behavioral Finance!

Most of the material that I have referred till now is research oriented and becomes too technical(Boring) for a objective person like me. Seems this will prove to be something interesting to chase at least for some time! Trying to find some interesting and simple reading in this field.

A farmer who can make stock experts look down

2010-10-15T20:45:00.006+05:30

Today was a holiday and interestingly market was open.. wooha! What could be better than this. So most of my day was occupied watching NDTV Profit and CNBC. Both of the channels show programs in which investors from across the country dial-in ask stock specific queries. In one such program today a farmer from somewhere in Andhra Pradesh called and asked an 'expert' opinion:

Farmer: "I got some shares of Infosys in its IPO and I am still holding it. Shall I continue to do so?"
Host: (Thinking) - WTF!.. "How many shares sir?"
Farmer: {---}
Host: rate?
Farmer: 160 (if I am not wrong)

Both the hosts look at each other and the experts on the show also look uncomfortable!

First Host: Sir, I am up for adoption!
Second Host: Why not me!

They do some calculation and the number comes out to be 1.09 Crores! One of the experts (Fundamental analyst) excepts the brilliance or patience whatever you may want to term it and keeps quiet!

The technical analyst, even though not willing to comment, says something and suggests some support level or barriers and smiles!

Template Screwed up

2010-09-21T03:49:00.001+05:30

I was trying to change the look and feel of the blog after keeping the same theme for more than two years and in the process screwed it badly. Need to spend some time to fix this over next some days :(

Recession is for Individuals not for big corporates

2010-09-21T01:38:00.002+05:30

Just saw a talk by Russel Napier, Strategist - CLSA on CNBC, given to an audience of Indian Association of Investment Professionals (IAIP). In the talk his main point was that American equities are available at good valuation and people should buy it. To substantiate his argument he presented a lot of data of US stock markets captured in past 140 years. He also highlighted a couple of very interesting points which to some extent are applicable to other markets as well.

First point that he mentioned was that valuing equities based on dividend yield does not hold good anymore. The reasoning is that in the recent past a lot of large corporations have returned money to shareholders not just in the form of dividends but also in the form of share buybacks. Hence this also has to be accounted while doing the calculations.

He said that being the symbol of capitalism, the US economy has seen almost everything that can be expected from a free economy. It has seen high growth periods, recessions, political turmoil, a lot of innovation among other things. His point was that even being such a great economy, the US markets also could not sustain P/E more than 20 for long in the history and every time came down to more sustainable levels. So according to me the take away from this point is that even though Indian economy might be like an Oasis in the midst of financial uncertainty, there is every good or bad reason that the markets will come to their logical levels after seeing such a dramatic rise in past some weeks.

One other very important and catchy point that he mentioned is that the recession is for individuals not for big corporates. It is individuals who lost the jobs, who defaulted on their loans, who saw pay cuts and live fearing due to uncertainty. For big corporates, he mentioned that the recession was short lived and got over long back. Markets value has increased significantly since the bottom of market, bankruptcies were bailed out, earnings are almost back on track, there are more than $400 billion lying in cash with the corporates and many such data points. So in the end it is the individual who is affected because there is 10% unemployment in the US or may be because lesser people are doing more work.

He argued that the model of the society is not sustainable in which individuals are scarified to save the corporates or in which the corporates dictate the policy.

9/11 v/s Lehman Brothers

2010-09-20T01:05:00.004+05:30

While reading the novel 'After the darkness' I just thought that there so many similarities between the two most influential events of the past decade: 9/11 and the collapse of Lehman Brothers. When I thought more about this,I found even more similarities in terms of the political and media treatment of these two events.

The magnitude of both the events was enough to send shock waves across the world and was not centered only in the USA. After 9/11, the US came cracking down on many countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran. The world order in the international politics also took so many turns. This kept the uncertainty lingering for many years and after effects are still very much there. Similarly, two years back the collapse of Lehman Brothers rocked the entire world. In the true sense, the effect of this event was much bigger than the 9/11 as every single country and and a large chunk of the world population felt the impact of it in one way or the another.

After 9/11, we saw the US taking many steps for the homeland security and also made its international security policy much more cautious. The visa laws changed, business ties with other countries were altered and a lot of negative sentiment prevailed for the foreigners. Similar things are happening in the US again but in the different context. This time it's for job security and security of American financial supremacy. Many laws and regulations have been passed to stop international professionals entering into the US job market. The USA, which is supposed to be the mecca of the capitalism and free economy, is taking many efforts to give advantage to its own companies and work force. Though, politically nothing is wrong in this, however this shows some similarity with the actions taken post 9/11.

When it comes to media, the two events got equally high visibility. Earlier TV channels kept showing pictures of tumbling twin towers for months and years, and now in the past couple of years, the story of Lehman collapse has been discussed every day, at least on the business channels. There were movies made and novels written on 9/11 and similarly there are many books already on stands taking some inspiration from Lehman saga, be it fiction or some other form of writing. I am sure some big shots in Hollywood must be charting out their own plans.

Network Investing

2010-09-18T01:56:00.003+05:30

We all know the term 'Social Networking'. In its current form Social Networking means different things to different people. It is generally facebooking, orkuting or some other form where people keep track of friends and family. They share experiences, photos, videos and comments. The power of this can be imagined with the fact that Facebook surpassed Google as the most hit site in the world.

To me, with all other conventional uses of Social Networking, one other aspect is very important which is exchanging of stock tips and ideas with the people who are on the same track. Any news of interest is just spread among the group members rapidly and many a times it has benefited us.

We have formed a very interesting group with a common interest but different outlook and approaches. We have a person who is full time technical trader, a newbie iBanker, a Chartered Accountant, a strategic financial consultant in an MNC bank, a black hole of latest news and myself. So the idea behind this is that a new idea is thrown in the middle and everybody jumps on it, giving a different perspective. This collective thinking process is complimenting each other's skills and resulting in improved multi-dimensional thinking of the markets. This is fun!

Investing in What do I need

2010-09-15T23:15:00.006+05:30

As my investment activities have gained momentum in the past few months, I am trying to find out new avenues to apply my brain and skills. In the quest of some non-conventional approach (at least I think so!) I zeroed in on a theme which I would like to term weirdly as 'What do I need' theme.

As I represent the young India on which the whole world is putting its bet, I have started to think in terms of my own needs or people around me. What these people will need in next 5-10 years. There are many good aspects of this thinking based investment approach and I am already reaping some benefits out of it. Though the conventional wisdom of Fundamental Analysis is still my base approach, I have given that approach a mighty and aggressive color using my new theme.

So on what will I and my family will spend in the next few years? Going by just simple observations I noticed that people like me will not mind spending a few thousand rupees per year on fitness. Increasing health consciousness and corporate offers by various companies to their employees have given a great impetus to the organized Fitness Care business. So when Talwalkar's came with the IPO, I was sure to apply for it and it is giving me more than 90% as of now. I am still holding my position.

Increasing awareness towards various types of Insurance products is a good opportunity for the Insurance companies. Over the past one decade private players have also established themselves as mature players in the market, which was almost entirely covered by the Govt sector companies earlier. Now with the cut-off date of Stock market listing for the insurance companies approaching near, I believe corporates who have established Insurance business can create significant value for the investors. Govt sector insurance giants are highly unlikely to get listed anyways. So there are couple of significant private players in this domain such as Reliance, Birla and Bajaj. I have put my bet on Reliance.

The last important example that I would like to give is the organized fast food business. It is no secret that fast food chains are integral part of today's youth culture and this is only going to increase in the future. So when India franchise of Dominos came to the market with IPO, I put my bet on it as well. Though I jumped the boat with only 30% gains on the listing day, the stock has tripled since then.

Similarly there are other key areas which I am keenly interested in from the value creation perspective. I am waiting for some serious education loan provider to come to the market, I have placed my bet on a Casino company, an education provider, a stock brokerage company among others.

This new approach is not substituting the conventional one and I am still very much invested in the sectors like infrastructure, banking and other stocks picked based on the approach mentioned in the previous post.

Happy Investing!

The 20-30% runway!

2010-09-12T11:33:00.006+05:30

It has been many years since I started taking interest in stock market. During most of this time I mainly concentrated on high quality A category stocks or say Nifty and Sensex stocks. However, over the past few months I felt some craving to try something new, so I started penny stocks, Z category stocks and stocks which are not market darling and trading near their 52 week lows when the market is at 30 months high. May be this is the effect of coming across the term 'Contra Approach to the markets' which I learned while studying for CFA Level 1.

The approach says, 'Do not follow the herd'. Meaning, when the whole market is bullish it's time to be bearish and vice versa. There are many indicators for the practitioner of this approach which I am not going to discuss here. So I started with devising my own approach with a contra view and interestingly many of the picks based on this approach have given 20-40% returns in just a couple of weeks or months.

One thing that I have observed while following this approach is that earlier my portfolio used to look very neat and tidy but now it looks a complete mess, at least prima facie. Many, not so known, stocks are there in my portfolio and most of the times the total return figure is in red for most of them but the trick is that every other day a couple of them hit circuit and I keep booking regular profits.

As I have just started dabbling with this approach I am still trying to fine tune it. The first thing that I am trying to do is the reduced scatterings of the portfolio. As the time passes I am hopeful this will mature and will continue to give good returns.

ISB: Banking and Capital markets conclave

2010-09-11T22:36:00.005+05:30

Today I attended ISB's 5th annual Capital Markets Conclave, which for the first time incorporated banking and became 'Banking and Capital Markets Conclave'. It was a full day event with a key note speech and a panel discussion on each of Banking and Capital Markets tracks. It was a nice experience to listen to some of the big people in the banking and capital markets in India.

The key note speech on Banking was given by Mrs. Vedika Bhandarkar, the Managing Director and Vice Chairman, Credit Suisse,India. She carries more than 20 years of experience in the banking industry. She talked about banking as global phenomenon in pre and post financial crisis world. She highlighted that the banks of the emerging world have become bigger than they were before the crisis and that the case is opposite in the developed world. She also mentioned four main focus and opportunity areas for Indian banking industry: Rural sector, Tapping good talent, Infrastructure and Technology adoption. One other thing that she highlighted is that as Indian corporates are going global, they would expect the Indian banks to support them in the foreign territory and that this is a huge opportunity for the Indian banking industry.

The keynote was followed by a panel discussion on Indian banking industry, reforms, challenges and opportunity. The panelists were from the institutions such as Kotak Bank, SocGen, Muthoot Finance, HDFC Bank etc. They discussed about RBI policy and its effectiveness, the global crisis was termed as North Atlantic crisis!, Indian banks going global, Micro-finance, Infrastructure and need for corporate bond market.

--Delicious Lunch--

Following the lunch it was time for Capital Markets. The keynote was given by Mr. Sanjay Nayyar, the India CEO of KKR. He talked about how Indian markets have emerged over the past two decades and where are they heading to. He also talked about what are the high level challenges in Indian Private equity markets and what we, as a country, need to do to see a better future of the markets.

The keynote was followed by another panel discussion on Capital Markets. Among the panelists there was a popular name Mr. Ramesh Damani. Others were people from Morgan Stanley, a corporate law firm, an M&A expert, a bond market expert, the chairman of MCX-SX etc. I liked the opening remarks of each of the panelists as they talked very authoritatively about their own domain and expertise. Some of the remarks were really informative. However, the one thing that I did not like about this panel is that, in the open discussion everyone was talking about only one thing: Corporate bond markets are not developed in India. Though I agree with the concern but what about the one which does exist: The Equity capital market and we all know about it to a large extent. Apart from this last piece, I liked the conclave very much.

Looking forward to the ISB's 'Services in Emerging Markets' Conference on 23rd and 24th of this month.

Discovering and Reigniting

2010-09-05T14:43:00.005+05:30

Well.. this is enough of exams for now.. after all my Certifications, GMAT, CAT, CFA, BULATS, NCFM and blah blah. I think this is time that I start looking something else as well. So when I looked around, I saw that I could start with two types of things: 1-Things which I used to like and enjoy such as Reading non-fiction books and stock analysis+Trading, 2-Things, I might like or things, I think, I don't have much time for such as reading fiction, learning new things like using chopsticks! or may be some musical instrument or listening to some new type of music.. trying to figure out what OST means!

So in the first category I started with a book titled as 'Stay Hungry, Stay foolish' by Rashmi Bansal. I bought this book at the airport, on the way to Seattle, as my in-flight reading. This book has some 25 odd real life entrepreneurship short stories of IIM-A alumni. So far I have read a couple of those and found it very interesting as these short stories bring flavor of multiple industries in a short span of time.

In the second category, I am trying a couple of things. First, a book titled 'After the darkness' by Tilly Bagshawe. This is a story which Sidney Sheldon developed and is compeleted and published by the author. The plot is based on the crash of the Wall Street and a lot of masala (politics, sex, suspense) added to it. The other ting that I tried to learn is using chopsticks! I saw some videos on YouTube and now waiting for my next visit to some Chinese restaurant to try this newly acquired skill! As mentioned in a post earlier, I have started trying photography as well and posted some pics from the first hands on experiment.

Hope to see some more new stuff coming in!

MBA Season.. Once Again!

2010-08-29T00:52:00.002+05:30

It's like an annual event now! As soon as the monsoon starts saying goodbye, MBA season comes knocking. Every year there is a new flavor, new expectations, a new strategy, new stuff in the profile and a new quality bar. In one of my previous posts I have written that the last MBA Season was very different as it had an international flavor. I applied to colleges in UK, Spain, HK, Singapore and India. Got an interview call as well from IESE Spain but thankfully could not convert it (in retrospection!).

As the new season has already started, I am also gearing up for it. First step is, I am taking GMAT again next month with the hope to improve my existing score. I believe that with many enhancements in my profile this year, a better score can definitely improve my chances. As the first international MBA season was a learning, this year I have decided not to apply to non-English speaking countries in EU. I got feedback from many of my friends that getting a job there is very difficult if you don't know the local language, Asian options like HK and Singapore, I am taking as exceptions because of their relatively lower cost. So mainly I am targeting Canada and UK outside Asia.

Next 3-4 months are really crucial for me and I hope to keep the momentum going. Also, I am banking heavily on the learning from the last year's applications.

End of procrastination

2010-08-21T11:02:00.002+05:30

I have been interested in Photography for years but just remained interested. Thought of buying a camera many times but kept on procrastinating it. Every time the excuse was something new: no money, busy, Am i really interested? etc. Finally it was scenic beauty of Mt Rainier in Seattle, that I made final mind to buy a new camera and settled for Canon SX 20. Being a little technically challenged person, I did not go much into the technical details and relied on recommendation of friends. However, the features that I got are still too many for to digest. So now with camera in my hand, I am figuring out how to start. The first thing that I can see is to take some photography lessons for dummies. As I start this new hobby and learning, I am planning to post my pictures for feedback from my friends.

Seattle

2010-08-09T11:50:00.005+05:30

So I am back from Seattle and the trip was simply awesome! Everything about it. The stay in a nice European style hotel..hours of walk in the beautiful downtown of Seattle..visit to the Microsoft Redmond campus...Mt Rainier trip and most importantly the gala party!

Though I was jet lagged terribly after 40 hour flight, I could not resist getting up early morning on the first day and roamed in the downtown for two hours following a map given by the hotel bell boy... it's a different thing that I understood the directions wrongly and went into the opposite direction! On a Saturday morning, the downtown looked like a ghost town.. seems nobody stays there! In the day I roamed again for 4 hours with friends.. went to the Market Place.. it was beautiful... flowers along the roadside..and shops of fruits and vegetables were very colorful. Musicians, playing guitar, saxophone and piano, made the atmosphere vibrant.

I came to know that in Seattle it generally rains for about 8 months in a year and we were lucky to visit during this time, when there was a bright sun in the sky. The whole city was celebrating the freedom, with families and couples roaming on the waterfront on a sunny Saturday afternoon. People were jogging in the afternoon. There were many ornate and funky tour buses, taking tourists all around the city and making a lot of noise at the main spots in the city. That was something worth watching.

I visited Microsoft's Redmond campus as well and it was really a nice and beautiful place. Redmond as a whole is a quiet and beautiful place with so many tall trees all around. I also visited Kirkland which is near to Redmond and it was again equally or more beautiful. We had coffee on the bank of Lake Washington and it was an awesome view there with families boating and fishing together. My friend told me that there are many millionaire houses along the shore of the Lake.

One day, after attending sessions we went to Lake Union which is not very far from Seattle downtown. It was a beautiful place to be. People were enjoying all sorts of water sports as well the other sports: Boating, fishing, kayaking, paragliding, water skiing and others. I was awesome to see families hanging out on a week day as well!

On the second last day we went to Mount Rainier and by far it was the best part of the trip. The long drive on the highway, the country side drive on the approach road to the mountain and drive on the serpentine roads in the national park was a memorable experience. Passing by many waterfalls, lakes and river finally we reached the base station at Mt Rainier. After that followed a 2-3 miles of walk on a steep and rocky path. But it was all worth when we actually reached Mt. Rainier. It was standing tall, remarkably bigger than any other mountain nearby. This particular mountain can be seen from hundreds of miles and is like a symbol of Seattle. We enjoyed fresh water from a stream and played in the snow. There, I decided that finally it’s time that I buy a good camera and ordered it as soon as I came back!

Last day was a pleasant surprise. When I got up in the morning, I got to know that it was the day of Seafair Torchlight Parade. My hotel had arranged an exclusive stand for the guests to watch the parade, so I got a front row seat! It was a very beautiful parade showcasing the life and culture of Seattle. Many high rank government officials and public service departments were also part of the parade. So the trip concluded with a colorful experience.

Bag packed and back!

To Seattle

2010-07-22T13:51:00.005+05:30

After a shocker last month in the form of my cancelled trip to London in the eleventh hours, finally got an opportunity to visit Seattle (WA, USA). I will be attending a week long seminar called Tech Ready, organized for Microsoft Services. The best part obviously is not the seminar but the visit to Microsoft's Redmond campus. This is where many great product were conceived and biggest software company became the biggest.

Interestingly, I have whole bunch of friends travelling with me for the event. Hopefully this will be a fun filled trip. Just a bit annoyed seeing a 40 hours long 3 hop flight in front of me.

Being a Consultant

2010-06-23T18:13:00.007+05:30

Today, I completed my two years as a Consultant and this has been interesting journey so far. The learning has been immense and more than that the discovery or development or pretention of certain skills has been the most interesting part.

With whatever I have observed till now, irrespective of the role, industry or domain, if you are a consultant then one word which must be synonymous to your life or soul is ‘Billing’. You can live without food or any other basic utility but not ‘Billing'.

After billing, comes Networking. Consulting is all about mobilizing you contacts and pulling some strings when in need. You never know when things can turn gloomy. In that situation, may be consultant is the first thing that would come under the sword, may be the most unproductive part of the whole corporate machinery!

The most useful skill that a consultant should have is to show that he knows something that the other party does not, because that's why you are paid. However jokes apart, one good thing that I have learned is that even if you don't know something just don't say No, buy some time and then later claim that how you analyzed the whole thing and used your experience and skills to come up with the solution!

And then there is a defined set of vocabulary that one has to know which primarily consist of the words like Risk, Foresee, Value addition, follow up, get back to you, Customer Satisfaction, Extra mile, feedback, ownership, Review and so on. If you know this much of English then at least you are as good as any other consultant. Depending upon the audience you can use one or more of these ammunition e.g. In front of a client the most shining words could be 'Value addition'.

Perhaps the most rewarding part of being a consultant is that you actually develop many skills, mostly 'soft', in yourself or try/pretend to have those. First thing that is expected from you is to be able to 'Gel' with the peer group. If you can gel in a better way you are not arrogant and a good consultant material. Other things include showing that you have multiple skills, you are community contributor, an innovator or an out of the box thinker. The more number of adjectives you can claim, the more are the chances of your success. In the end one skill that comes handy every single day is ‘The art of e-Mail writing’. If you can write ‘good’ mails then believe me, you will have very less chances of being blamed for any failure and can even claim somebody else’s success.

The learning is so much that it can’t be contained in just one post and the journey of developing ‘soft skills’ continues…

...Edited on a friend's suggestion!

Back to life, markets and more

2010-06-19T23:07:00.004+05:30

More than three months have passed since the last post and again there are many new developments in the life. Particularly this time, I have tangible things to write about in the post. After the MBA season ended fruitlessly (thankfully, may be!), it was again one more attempt at CFA Level 1 which kept me occupied in most of my spare time and also had to travel to Bangalore for an assignment.

The Bangalore experience was awesome with comfy stay in a nice hotel and other facilities with less or no work! I got the opportunity to meet many old friends after 2-3 years. I found many of my friends in a different state of mind in terms of career and life as a whole. Getting to know about all those new thoughts and developments is something worth remembering. Also, I met some old 'special' friend and had a memorable dinner at the Leela Palace.

After the Bangalore trip, I took two week's preparation leave for the CFA exam and this time, I have some hope to clear unlike the last time when I could not even complete the course. Meantime, one interesting development is international assignment which I have got in London, starting next month. I will be in London for next five months. This is particularly very exciting as I always wanted to visit London, kind of my dream city. The vacation also followed with a big surprise in the form of a prestigious award in worldwide Microsoft for my extra ordinary contribution! This was totally unexpected and special.

The only passion in my life is Stock markets and I have kind of ignored it for a long time. However, in past some weeks, I reignited my passion for the markets with more aggressive trading and analysis. The result was very smart gains in past six weeks. One new thing worth mentioning in this regard is that I have started trying my skills in Futures trading as well and till now results are very encouraging. Interestingly, while searching for some time pass in my office library, I stumbled upon a book titled 'Traders Guns & Money' which seems to be a right time pass at the right time. The book is authored by Satyajit Das who is well known in the world of derivatives. I am looking forward to gain some good insight in the derivatives world, which is mostly an unknown territory to me.

Hope hai ki marti nahi!

2010-03-03T00:29:00.003+05:30

Yesterday one more MBA season came to an end for me with CAT publishing results and I have stopped counting! Interestingly, without any success till now even after investing so much of money, time and efforts, I seem to be very upbeat with new ideas coming to my mind! With every passing year, I achieve something that pushes my expectation even higher and makes my pursuit for MBA even more challenging.

All said and done, I would like to acknowledge that this particular MBA season was very special for me. Due the very nature of application process of international MBA programs, I did a lot of introspection over past six months. I discovered many qualities, skills and weaknesses in me which I was not aware of earlier. Say it compromise or whatever but I have discovered that there are other aspects of MBA apart from Finance in which I might be interested, such as business management and strategy consulting. This particular revelation came while preparing for my IESE interview. I solved couple of case studies given on the websites of some of the dream companies in the consulting world and found that I did impressively well!

It may sound strange but to a large extent I have wasted big Microsoft opportunity till now and finally I have realized this. Now as I change my game plan (once again!), I have decided to derive maximum benefit out of this system and doing pretty OK lately. I have started grabbing the opportunities around me and move on.

Useful spreadsheet formulas

2010-02-19T20:16:00.003+05:30

I have always struggled with applying formulas in spreadsheets. finally I consolidated all the formulas that I consider useful at one place for reference. I hope this can be useful to others as well.

AND - Logical AND Operator
AVERAGE - Averages the number in a range
AVERAGEIF - Average based on some condition
AVERAGEIFS - Average based on multiple conditions
CONCATENATE - Joins strings
COUNTA - Count number of cells that are not empty
COUNTBLANK - Count blank cells
COUNT - Counts the number of cells that contain numbers
COUNTIF - Count based on a certain condition
COUNTIFS - Count based on multiple conditions
DATE - Returns date
DELTA - To check if the two values are equal
EXACT - To check if two strings are equal
FALSE - Returns logical value 'False'
HYPERLINK - Creates a link
IF - Checks a condition
IFERROR - Returns a particular values if there is some error
INT - Rounds a number to the nearest integer
ISBLANK - Checks if the reference is blank
LARGE - Returns the K-th largest value
MAX - Returns the largest number from a Range
MIN - Returns the minimum value from a range
MONTH - Returns the month
N - Converts a non-number value to number
NOT - Logical NOT
NOW - Returns the current date and time
OR - Logical OR
PERCENTILE - Returns K-th percentile
PERMUT - Returns the number of permutation
POWER - Returns the value of a number raised to a power
PRODUCT - Multiplies numbers
QUOTIENT - Returns the integer portion of a division
RAND - Returns a random number
RANK - Returns rank of a number in a range
REPLACE - Replaces a part of string
ROUND - Rounds a number to a given number of digits
ROW - Returns the row number of a reference
ROWS - Returns the number of rows of an array reference
SIGN - Returns the sign of a number
SMALL - Returns k-th small value of a range
SQRT - Returns the square root
SUM - Adds numbers
SUM - Conditional sum
SUMIFS - Sum based on multiple conditions
TEXT - Converts a value to text
TIME - Returns time for the given values
TODAY - Returns current date
TRIM - Removes spaces from start and back of a string
TRUE - Returns logical true
TRUNC - Removes decimal points from a number
TYPE - Returns the type of a value
UPPER - Converts a string to upper case
VALUE - Converts a text string that represents a number to number
VLOOKUP - Looks for a value in the left most column and then returns
corresponding value from other column
WEEKDAY - Returns weekday

now, Discover you strengths

2010-01-24T01:30:00.003+05:30

Lately I have been so tied up in the regular job stuff, MBA applications and CFA exam that I was hardly doing anything else. Finally, this month I got some time and decided to catch up with my old hobbies like reading, stock trading and blogging. Fortunately, I happened to pick a book which I consider the most enlightening reading so far that I have practically done nothing in past few days but reading the book. The book is 'now, Discover your strengths'.

This book presents an interesting point of view for self-development and people management. The main emphasis of the book is that why is that every time when we talk about personal development or developing skills of employees in an organization, we look only upon the weaknesses and 'skill gaps', but not on the strengths that a person already has. The book is mainly written in the support of a tool named Strengths Finder which is used across the world to find out major strengths/talent themes of individuals by asking them many questions and then analyzing the answers to come up with the main strengths of the person.

The book has described in detail that there are 34 main strengths that an individual can have. An individual can have any combination of these not necessarily all of them and also with varied intensity. According to the author even a slight change in the combination in these talents can alter the behavior and characteristics of the person very significantly and there are many examples given to prove this. The main idea presented in the book is that instead of putting so much of efforts to fill the gaps in the skills and then getting sub-optimal results we should focus on our strengths and use them to get the best results. It is not necessary that everyone should be able to everything hence we should understand what we are good at and what is our natural talent. By just managing our weaknesses and utilizing our key strengths we can achieve higher level of success, is the idea presented in the book.

Others benefit aside, this book at least helped me to identify my key talent themes, which now I am trying to analyze more deeply. I rated all of those 34 talents on a scale of 0 to 3 and then created a matrix. Talents on which I scored 0 or 1 represent that those skills do not come naturally to me. It does not mean that I do not have those skills at all but that the intensity is very low or I have to put conscious efforts to bring those skills in action. Other half of the grid represents the skills which come naturally to me and are my actual strengths. Now the idea is to analyze this second part of the grid and derive some action items to utilize these skills as my strengths and get the best possible results in my professional and personal life. I would strongly recommend that everyone who wants to optimize his/her efforts of personal development should read this book.

What is happening!!

2009-12-25T16:11:00.003+05:30

I don't want to watch any news channel and don't want to read any news paper, why? Because there is hardly anything positive and inspiring being told. So much of negative energy around. Just after a day when a former DGP is convicted of molesting a 14 year old girl now the current 85 years old Governor of AP is being shown in bed with three young women. What is happening in this country?

Police and Politicians who are already famous for corruption are now exploring a new frontier. This is utterly shameful and demotivating for me a citizen of this country. The other even disheartening side of this story is that these people just get away after many many years of trail. Where is the justice?

LBS Done - What a relief !!

2009-10-06T02:51:00.004+05:30

This has been a marathon task to apply for LBS MBA for me. Since the day application was opened, I have been working on it almost every day and it has been almost a month now. However, finally it's almost done today. The only thing that is remaining is recommendation which will b e done next couple for days. The experience has many interesting things about it.

First, I got to know a lot of details about LBS and found myself really excited about LBS MBA. For now this is my only dream to get the admit call from LBS! Second and probably the most interesting part is the Essays and many other tiny questions asked in the application form. These questions made me do the real thinking about myself, my career, my aspirations, my resources and many more things over and over again. During the process, I recalled so many things from my past which were lying here and there, somewhere in my memories.

Last but not the least my friends! I have been torturing them for past many weeks by discussing about LBS and the application every time I meet or call them. I thank them for all the pain they suffered because of my excitement! During multiple discussions with them I got numerous ideas and comments which helped to improve my application. I am thankful to them irrespective of the result of the application. Special thanks to Bhaskar and Nimesh for reviewing the application word by word and providing critical comments!

Running Windows 7 !!

2009-09-11T20:23:00.003+05:30

Being a lazy tech savvy person I had been contemplating the option of migrating to Windows 7 for past few weeks. Many of my colleagues have already started using it and have been giving rave reviews about the new OS by Microsoft. The installation was just a few click away for me but was just postponing it out of no reason. So finally when my Vista got broke down yesterday I decided to migrate to Win 7. I am delighted to see the performance of Win 7. It's really fast and the new UI is also attractive and user friendly. As I am not a typical geek who will go on telling about core technical features such as memory management etc etc but in a nutshell it is a really nice experience to use Win 7.

In the line are Office 14, VSTT 10 and other products!

Long, Lazy and sad weekend

2009-09-07T00:40:00.008+05:30

Finally it's over. For past four days I am having a weekend and now I am really bored of it. Because of the unfortunate demise of Andhra Pradesh CM Late YSR, two days off was called on Thursday and the whole city came to a standstill. All the markets and offices were closed down immediately and most of the people preferred to stay in their homes. The environment was really gloomy with lots of processions by the people after hearing the tragic death of the leader. People had to struggle a little bit for necessities such as food, milk and transport. The two days off followed by the regular weekend and rains continuously accompanied the boredom and gloom.

Over this long weekend I tried so many things to keep myself occupied. Did a lot of CFA study, which helped me to cover a good chunk of the course. My friends dabbled with cooking multiple times and I also pitched in doing this and that side stuff! As usual my lovely balcony proved to be a good support for me, where I spent a lot of time doing bird watching!, enjoying rains and having long discussion sessions with my relatively new flatmate Bhaskar on various topics from life to career, from girls to childhood etc etc. I started a new book titled 'A Better India, A Better World' authored by Iconic Business figure Mr. N R Narayana Murthy(without finishing the previous one, You Are Here which is a masala material). Did a lot of social networking on Orkut, LinkedIn, Facebook etc etc. Though I am not much into movies and all but this weekend watched three movies including 'Aage se Right' and the entire blame for this movie goes to Uma. Now that the weekend is over I am happy that the life will be back on track from tomorrow and interestingly I have decided to hit the gym(once again!).

US MBA is out so the tension is!

2009-08-29T14:51:00.003+05:30

Since the beginning I was sure that I wont be applying to US MBA programs at least not now. So I explored all the other possible regions barring Australia. In most of the regions outside US there are limited number of good B-Schools, so the selection is not very tough. Based on priorities and constraints one can easily distinguish among the MBA programs. For instance IMD requires very high ex and engineers are not much preferred there. Canada does not provides co-signer free loans, same with France. In Europe, most of the programs are of one year and require high work ex, which is not suitable for me. So in this manner, I managed to shortlist some colleges from Europe and Asia. However, as most of these applications are not yet open and as some of my friends urged me not to ignore US completely and apply to at least a couple of colleges there, I spent three whole nights researching about the US MBA programs.

As expected the researching US MBA programs proved to be very tiresome, confusing and frustrating. There are so many colleges and most of them are good! Interestingly irrespective of the ranking of the programs they have almost similar entry criteria/ class profile: 22 Months program, 150K USD total expense, 5 years of average work experience, average CGPA 3.4-3.6. After so much of study, analysis and discussions, finally I have decided not to apply to the US Programs at least not this year.

One really good aspect of application process is that it is improving my general knowledge enormously! I read about Spain, Hong Kong, Singapore, Canada, Australia, Europe and US. Got to know about history of many major educational institutions in the world. Studied economies of various countries. I also got an idea about cultural and political aspects of some regions. While researching about post MBA career opportunities, I came to know so many facts about large companies and there operations in different countries. I have reached out to my seniors, friends and friends of friends across the world to get the first hand information about different regions and colleges. The whole process have been a great introspection journey so far and an awesome learning experience.

Life never had been so busy and interesting

2009-08-16T13:47:00.006+05:30

Every minute of the life seems to be calculated and booked now. There are so many things in which I am involved these days that I just cant keep track of everything and in a way I am enjoying it. Interestingly the timing is so perfect that in the past one year, since I joined Microsoft, these days I am having the most demanding project. The deadline is nearing and there is lot of sh*t to clear. Then this apping season is driving me nuts and I am still not able to finalize my non-Asian apps. On top of it, I am aspiring for CFA Level 1 and will be appearing for the exam in the coming December. The preparation is already on and going well also. I hope I will clear this comfortably. Further, recently I gave couple of NCFM exams as well which also required some amount of study. In my previous posts I wrote about AWF and On-line Volunteering but unfortunately could not find time for that. To add to this I am suffering from the regular seasonal flu for past one week which also wasted some of my time. On the personal front I have an awesome bunch of friends out here in Hyderabad and now one-by-one they are settling down so lots of parties & discussions are going on for that also. Plan A and Plan B, I have to keep balance between both of them, walking on a fine line. In the middle of all this I am thankful to the God(if there is any!) that I have a really nice manager who listens, understands and cooperates. Interstingly he is also very exited in my career plans!! Thats really really awesome!!

Apping : The Dilemma Continues...

2009-08-15T15:10:00.005+05:30

Now I am really in the middle of of this. The apps are here once more and sleepless nights have started making their appearances once more. Though this time the flavor is different as I am applying to the schools out side India, till last year it was IIMs, IIFT etc etc. I never expected the amount of brain storming that goes behind applying for MBA abroad. There are 10s of parameters to consider for each of the colleges. In the spreadsheet, which I am maintaining, I have listed 40 odd parameters for each of the possible options and the more I research the more complex it looks.

Earlier I had peace of mind when I was planning to apply to only Asian schools but then I started considering European ones then Canadian and now lately Americans as well. Decision for Asian schools is straight forward. There aren't many schools with international repute so you can straight away consider the top ones: NUS, NTU, HKU, HKUST and ISB. CEIBS is out of question because of the Chinese factor. In EU I am planning to go for IESE and may be LBS. Others such as HEC, IE, INSEAD and IMD have some drawbacks such as one year programs, unavailability of loans, very high entry criteria etc. Canadian ones now look out of the scope as loans are not available easily and also because I don't find Canadian economy much interesting or diverse. America is like a bee-hive for me. I was always scared of considering America because of multiple reasons such as tough entry criteria, high investment, TOEFL requirements and because I prefer Europe to America as my destination. However after my friends repetitively urged me not to ignore America completely I have finally started considering it and it claimed first sleepless night today on the Independence Day.

Web-Marketing for Arab West Foundation

2009-06-28T16:07:00.002+05:30

In my previous post I wrote about Online Volunteering. I approached couple of organizations and offered to volunteer. I got an immediate response from Arab West Foundation(AWF). AWF is a not-for-profit organisation (and registered in the Netherlands as Stitching Arab West Understanding). Its purpose is to encourage and promote tolerance, understanding and dialogue between Muslims and non-Muslims and Arab and Western communities, societies and countries.

The organization is involved in various activities such assisting students and interns who want to study about Islamic Culture, Establishing dialogue between the Muslim world and west at various forums but the most important activity they are involved in is translation of various Arab Media news items and reports into English and providing access to these archives to western universities and libraries. Through this AWF wants to enhance the understanding of Muslim World among the western countries.

So the job which is offered to me is web marketing of Arab West Report, which is the main product of AWF. As part of the job I have to contact various libraries and have them subscribe the publication of the report. I will also be contacting resellers who buy such content in bulk and then sell this to the real buyers. One other interesting work will be to popularize AWF through Internet and establishing links with other related organization. I am working directly with the CEO of the AWF, Dr. Kees Hulsman

Though there is no religious or political motivation of doing this however I am really excited to see how things turn out as I believe there will be a lot of learning and exposure.

Online volunteering

2009-06-27T05:10:00.002+05:30

Over the past few days I am having some free time and even after investing large part of it in zzzzing I found that I still have some more. By nature I am a person who wants to be busy with something or the other and can’t take movies and videos too much. So I was searching ( Binging and Googling!) about various NGOs/volunteer programs/biking clubs/trekking clubs/reading clubs/weekend routes around Hyderabad. In this process I happened to stumble upon something called Online Volunteering. I did more research on the topic and found that how ignorant am I!!. Spending almost my entire time with the computer that too with broadband connectivity, how little I am aware about the world. I found that Online volunteering is a well established movement across the world and people from every corner of the world and from every walk of the life are taking part in this.

There are various forums which are facilitating this activity however I would like to highlight one particular forum which is called UN Volunteers. This is an United Nations’ initiative where NGOs from across the world post volunteering opportunities to leverage time and skills of people who are interested in social cause. The participants are registered and based on their interest and skills they are assigned tasks. People can search and apply for activity of their interest. These tasks can vary from few weeks to on-going assignments. Generally small assignments include writing proposals for grants, designing website etc while the long term assignments include translation of books, editing and proof reading etc. As I am also new to this concept, I don’t have much details to share but I have already applied for a couple of assignments.

Boom @ 140 Kmph

2009-06-21T18:47:00.004+05:30

Weather is just awesome these days and the only thing that I want to do all the time is to roam around and explore new places in Hyderabad and around. Yesterday it was no different. After the hot and humid day the weather was again soothing in the evening. I was invited a for a Pav Bhaji dinner @ Shruti/Megha/Uma's place however the credit goes to Baamboo aka Nikhil. Dude gets 9/10 for the efforts(1 in the hope of improvement!). As usual coffee outing followed the dinner and the junkies were on the wheels. Yesterday the venue was Coffee n Cream at Shangrila Plaza in Jubilee Hills. The more important thing is that the same building houses Club 360 (Previously Poison), which is one of the finest discs in Hyderabad and even better thing is that it was Saturday night. So as we all were sitting in the lobby, chatting and waiting for the drinks to be served, dudes and 'some' damsels as well could not resist checking out the 'crowd'. The 'Buy 2 Get 2' lot was the main attraction.

As we were having fun, suddenly the city was blessed with a thunder storm which lasted quite a while. The roads were all of a sudden turned into streams. As we stepped out to enjoy the weather, we were entertained by the drag racers on the road. They were brave enough to try those stunts on that wet and slippery road!! So I reach home as usual in the odd hours and could not resist sitting in the balcony. The continuous lightening left me spell bound. My heart and mind were blank and the eyes were amazed. I sat there for next 2 hours, preparing for some certification in parallel. Even later in the night around 3 comes the Gang No. 2 aka Sid/TJ/Himanshu and THE DUDE(Paruthi). The tipsy Aura that they were carrying with them added flavor to the setting!! Then starts a session of snacks, juice and early morning TeaCumCoffee prepared by TJ under my supervision!!. The bakar session lasted the entire night as we all some how managed to find place in my awesommmme balcony. The chill in the air was unmatchable and the senseless discussions were just the perfect content. Early in the morning I got to know that the DUDE had to catch a flight at 6:40 from Shamshabad Airport, so we hit the road with the fuel meter in deep red!! Interestingly the lonely stretch of 35 Km express way does not have any working filling station! so we consolidated various options and decided to take the chance.

The dim early morning light when lit the rocky mountains and the distant horizon, the scene was just so nice. The confusing diversions, red fuel meter, almost drizzling weather was an experience. Finally after dropping Paruthi at the airport we managed to find a filling station and started back. Here comes the real thrill! Himanshu the Great driving @ 140 KMPH could not judge a diversion and at the last moment he had to apply the breaks and the car skid and bumped into a barrier. Thank God I was wearing the seat belt and nothing happened to anybody except some scratches to the car. Everyone took deep breath and were back on the road at normal speed now. This time Himanshu, Sid an TJ tried sitting in the window of the car and enjoyed the fast cool breeze. As the car was running on the country roads the villagers were amazed or surprised looking at those daring acts and then Sid shouted 'OOOsmaaan Saaagar'. It is a nice and big lake which was on the way. So we turned towards that on a bumpy and muddy road!

Though the lake is very near to our place, hardly 10 Km, I never happened to visit it before. The scene of the lake was moving. Early morning cool breeze, splashing water waves, rocks in the middle of the water and many birds conducting morning Scrum meeting on them with green back ground was a must watch scene!! We enjoyed the nature and spent some time there, took some pics, sips of the Elixir of Life prepared last night accompanied. On the way back we explored some more country roads after having an aweesssomme break fast at Vasantha Vally returned back!!

All in all a happening and adventurous night! Will remember for long a long time!

Visit to Odyssey

2009-06-07T17:03:00.003+05:30

Now that I am free from my full time job(read preparing for MBA entrance) I am finding enormous free time which I want to invest somewhere. With no or very little work in the office the intensity of the situation becomes even more critical. To increase the access to various possible options for spending time, recently I bought a bike and believe me life has become relatively very easy after that. No dependency and total freedom. So while wondering about the possible options I kind of rekindled my old love for reading. There is a nice store named Odyssey in Jubilee Hills but never happened to visit it during past one year. So I decided to visit the store yesterday and it was a very good experience and very strange as well.

Enjoying the lovely weather I drove my bike slowly in the cool breeze and reached the store in evening. The store was pretty impressive covering four large floors. First, I passed my time on the ground floor pretending that I wanted to buy some gift for a friend of mine. Several attendants came forward to help me but I managed to escape from them saying I am not finding the thing I want or blah blah!! Anyways my main attraction was at the first floor, the books section. The entire floor was dedicated for the books and there was an open Cafe Coffee Day where pretentiously sophisticated people were sipping their drinks and were discussing intellectual topics such as politics, culture and society etc. I started wandering on the floor checking books on various topics. I had nothing particular in my mind except that I might buy 'the new book' by N Narayanmurthy. I didn't even know the name of the book. I went to all the sections one by one showing keen interest in many books especially the books in the business management, self improvement, politics and biographies sections. I could see many people from my office there and happened to run into some of them and had to say "oh hellooo! how are you!!" with a large smile spanning across my face even though I had no previous interaction with those people in the office.

Finally one attendant came to me and said "Sir! how may I help you? you seem to be searching for something." surprised I said "well!! ummm!! ya, I was searching for the book written by N Narayanmurthy which was published sometime back". He said "ohh! we are extremely sorry sir we are not keeping it as of now but it will be available by next week". I was praising myself for hitting it right, then he shot at me again "We will be happy to contact you when we have it; could you please give me your number?" I had to escape I said "Well!! thanks but I am planning to complete it in next few days.. thanks anyways!" and then.. at right that moment my mobile rang.. and guess what!!.. it was a junkie from my gang on the call and party time again...!!

Getting prepared for round two

2009-06-04T01:00:00.002+05:30

I shamefully admit the fact that my blogging spirit has not been keeping pace at all. Believe me, with job life becomes really pathetic especially when you are involved in so many other activities. As I was preparing for GMAT, last three months just passed by. Now with moderate types score in my hand I am getting ready for round two of the international MBA season aka Apps. I got the glimpse of it in the past one week as I was preparing to apply to a scholarship program. Writing 250 words on 'how do you aspire to change india's future' took numerous iterations and inputs from many friends. Creating one page CV was a mamath task as every word had to be there for a purpose. I sincerely thank all those who helped and assume that they will do so at the time of real apps as well.

The world around me changing rapidly. The gloom which was all pervasive 5-6 months back seems to be easing out and things are getting a little better. I don't know if it is the impact of bail out packages or something else but things are surely getting better. All I know is that my classmates who went for higher education are somehow finding jobs and many others who lost jobs are getting jobs again. Back in India, I closely saw what the lay offs mean and how much scare does it create. Now with lay offs done for the time being things are getting normal and also because of some traction in the market people are again back to work.

The one thing which I would definitely like to mention is that now I have got an awesomely happening group here with me. The group is very creative, very adjusting and very diverse as well. These days we are taking break after a long running chain of parties, outing and other such crazy stuff. The tracker which has been created to check all the pubs and discs in Hyderabad still shows less than 25% coverage. The bottomline is that before I get on to a 3-4 month long marathon of MBA apps, I am kind of chilling. Meanwhile I am planning to take couple of NCFM certifications and thinking of joining CAT test series in parallel. Things around me have made me so desperate that I can't take chances this time and believe me can't think of what will happen if don't crack this time.

Internet Explorer 8

2009-03-09T02:12:00.005+05:30

Being a Microsoft employee it is a little weired that I tried IE 8 so late, however when I have tried it, I would like to highlight some of the new and cool features that I have come across. There are many more things, in which I would not be interested much but depends on personal choice and need, so here are some of those:

InPrivate Browsing: CTRL+SHIFT+P
This is a feature which will be helpful to avoid IE keeping track of your browsing. A new IE Window will be opened in private mode and when you close this after your work, the main or original instance would not have any clue about this private one.

Read Mail:
There is a small button next to the printer icon. When you click this icon your outlook will be opened and you can see you mails.

Compatibility View:
Next to the address bar you can see a new button. When this button is clicked, the current site will be shown in compatibility mode, in sync with the previous version of IE for which it was designed.

Favorites Bar:
Just below the address bar, we have favorites bar where we can add links of our favorite sites(Just like FireFox!!). However, to maintain some novelty, we have a button for this purpose not the drag & drop.

Safety:
Next to Page drop down we can see Safety, which has various options related to safety and privacy.

Developer Tools: F12
A tool using which we can do deep digging of the website code.

Reopen Closed Tabs:
When a new tab is opened, we have list of all the tabs which were closed since we opened this instance of the browser.

Web Slices:
e.g. go to www.timesofindia.com
In place of the usual RSS feed button next to the Home button, you will see a green colored button. You can add various web slices of the web site in the favorites bar depending upon your interest.

Caret Browsing:
Go to Page and turn on this feature. When you go to some website having Web Slices such as TOI, you will see these slices being highlighted on mouse hover.

Live:
Apart from these features, I observed that Windows Live is now closely integrated with IE. We have options such as 'Blog with Windows Live', 'E-Mail with Windows Live' and 'Translate with Live Search'

Suggested Sites:
This feature, when turned on, will show some suggestions for browsing, based on our browsing history. Go to tools to find this.

Long time

2009-03-08T22:34:00.005+05:30

It has been a really long time, almost three months, since I wrote my last post and things have moved really really fast during this time period. During this period I was a part of two projects and from tomorrow onwards going to start working on a new one. This time has shown me what does it really mean to be in a professional life, before that it was mainly training and learning.

The things, as we all know, are getting worse and day by day panic is becoming even deeper. During this time we have seen two really shocking events in the IT industry till now. 1. Satyam collapsed under the weight of a huge scam creating panic waves all across the country and claiming thousands of victims. 2. Microsoft's decision to lay off thousands of employees across the world. When a company, synonymous to the technology, does this, it's indeed a serious thing. So the things are never before and they wont be the same again.

Amidst of all this mayhem I was trying to draw some positives and in a way I was able to find some. This situation has pushed the companies to think about the wasteful use of money and resources and operational strategy has been redefined. Plans and dreams of the organizations and the people have become realistic. the temperature of the economy has to normal or may be to sub-normal level for the time being. I myself was able to renegotiate my house rent!!

On people front I have seen that people are now more willing to work, to innovate and to participate. Stability in life is more(Because of low attrition rate!!). I myself have done a lot of retrospection/introspection and have defined, derived and decided a few things. New paths are being carved out by many people. As inorganic growth opportunities are very few, people are focusing on genuine organic growth through learning and hard work. As time is not permitting, I would like to conclude saying that every dark cloud has silver lining if we wish to see.

ISB Leadership Summit

2008-12-07T22:16:00.002+05:30

It was quite a hectic month for me full of trainings and by this time I have done one more certification(Certified Software Test Manager, CSTM). I was also baptised as a consultant by Microsoft Services University(MSSU) after two weeks long training which was supposed to happen in Redmond, Washington earlier. Though it was good yet we missed the opportunity of visiting Microsoft Headquarters, the Mecca of 'The Brighter side of Technology' as we call it in Microsoft.

Yesterday when I was wondering what to do with my weekend, I got a call from one of my friends and she told me that there was a conference going on in Indian School of Business(ISB), our neighbor next door. I registered in a hurry and after having lunch rushed to ISB. I got disappointed when I was told that my name was not there in the registered candidates' list but thankfully I managed to get the entry. As I was approaching the main building of ISB through lush green pathway, I was feeling a sensation, after all it's one of the top 20 B-Schools in the world now. I see panoramic view of ISB daily from my office window and it looks very unwelcoming to me because of its design however when I entered the building my perception changed all of a sudden.

It is no less than any star hotel and the architecture is just awesome. As soon as I entered the central hall I was awestruck by the grandness of the building. A lot of people were enjoying a wonderful lunch there. I started cursing myself as I was already stuffed. Anyways, I started roaming around waiting for my friends to come and I could see many familiar faces from my company. I was feeling a little under dressed as most of the people were in suits and were looking very tidy. Thank god I changed my plan of going in wrinkled jeans and T-shirt without shaving.

Later I came to know that a senior manager from my company was one of the keynote speakers in the session which I was going to attend. God saved me!. So we entered in the Lecture Theater and it was already full but I managed to find a place to stand. Among the panelists there was a Vice President from Genpact( the largest BPO company in India), Global Delivery Head from Microsoft, a senior manager from CapGemini and one more gentleman. The topic was 'Think Small' i.e. to think of the people towards the bottom of the pyramid as Prof. C.K. Prahalad puts this. All the panelists took turns and explained what their companies were doing in this area and shared their perspective of collective technological growth especially in the context of developing economies. They threw some light on how the scenario is going to change in the near future to cater the specific requirements of these markets in terms of offerings, accessibility and pricing of technology.

After the completion of the session we had a tour of the campus and admired the beauty of the architecture. The best part was the library which is the central location of the entire establishment. It is a circular structure having a large collection of business literature. Beautiful paintings were adoring the walls. All in all the experience was good and we had an inside look of one of my possible future destinations!

Media: The most powerful tool for and against Raj Thackeray

2008-10-22T19:36:00.004+05:30

India, as we all know is full of worthless politicians. In the past also we have seen many such people taking control and becoming public leaders. All sections of society having dark shades have representation in the politics or we can say that they run politics in India to a large extant. India, unfortunately, has become used to of such incidents.

The present outcry, that is the product of Raj Thackeray's civil terrorism, also falls on the same lines. The stupid and worthless politician, who could not gather any public base on genuine issues, is generating issues which are disastrous for any democracy. His gang of Gundas which is called MNS is challenging the peaceful public life in many cities in India. The politician, who was thrown out by his uncle from the Dynastic Political party called Shiv Sena, is trying to get publicity through such gruesome attempts.

In his endeavor to rise up the political ladder, he has chosen Media as his weapon and so far has been able to use it conveniently. In this era of 10s of 24 Hours news channels, he gets full media coverage for each and every publicity stunt. The media coverage is a testimony of his success. We all know that the Non-Marathi issue which he is propelling has no future and similarly he also must be knowing this truth. With media coverage he has become a politician of national stature who can generate shock waves across the states. At this time I would suggest that the media should act in the nation's favor and total ban should be implemented on Raj Thackeray. This will not only take away the purpose of his politics but also stop the spreading hatred in the nation.

A Momentous Day!

2008-10-18T12:43:00.003+05:30

Today is a momentous day in my life! After getting shattered by continuous three CAT waves I have decided to go the GMAT way. So today I started preparing for it and found hell lot of advice on the net. There are success stories which tell you what to do and what not to. Though I cannot read them all but yes, some of them are indeed helpful and many readers flock on these sites/blogs/forums for some Gyan.

One interesting thing that I came across is that many people have recorded their GMAT preparation journey in the form of blog posts. If someone becomes successful these blogs become Gyan source for others like me. So I also thought of trying this thing and created a new blog GmatGyan. Though as of now I don't claim that whatever is posted on it is Gyan but I wish someday it will prove to be so!

So if anyone of you is also preparing for GMAT or plan to do so please visit my new blog. I would be happy to have your thoughts and views converging with mine.

Welcome to GmatGyan!

TempoStand: Pushing the Tempo!

2008-10-11T17:16:00.005+05:30

I should have written this a long time back. It's about TempoStand , an entrepreneurial venture by some of my classmates from engineering college. They started this venture in the final year of the program. The idea of TempoStand first popped up when some of my classmates participated in a Business Plan competition organized by IIT Mumbai. They won the first prize and then started mulling the feasibility of implementing the idea.

The idea has taken shape since then and TempoStand is there for past more than one and half years now. This web based venture is very unique business idea at least in the Indian context, providing a platform to the young and aspiring musicians to showcase their creations and to reach out to the world. The website has numerous musicians registered with it and launches their compositions very regularly. Apart from the songs from these aspiring artists, the website covers music concerts organized in various institutes such as IITs, IIMs and others. Regular competitions are organized which get huge support from the budding musicians.

They have formed tie-ups with various FM Channels which showcase their music. Celebrity interviews and participations is an added feature. The website sells CDs of the music released by it on the revenue sharing basis with the artists and is also involved in Merchandise selling, generating a decent flow of income. The advertising revenue is going up day by day and the new formed tie-ups are bringing additional money.

The idea has already gathered a lot of interest in entrepreneurial and VC sector with many players interested in the idea. With a committed and hardworking team as its founders, who have left their jobs in some of the largest organizations in the country, I believe this idea will succeed in the long run as well.

TempoStand : www.tempostand.com

Bharti Airtel: My Bet!

2008-10-11T16:17:00.004+05:30

In this season of carnage in the stock markets all over the world, giving stock advice is perhaps the most useless job. No matter what, stocks are tumbling day after day. People are loosing money and economic scenario is going south. Though I don't give any stock tips and don't have any qualification either, I would like to share that I am betting on Bharti Airtel. The stock is at almost 60% price of its peak and is hammered along with the broader market.

The parameters which I have taken into consideration are very straight forward and visible. Firstly in spite of all the talk of slow down, the company is doing good month after month and added record number of users in last month breaking its own record. While many industries depend directly upon the world economic scenario in terms of demand and supply, there are very few such concerns for wireless sector, as demand is mainly domestic.

With P/E at 19 at the price of Rs.690 it looks very attractive to me and with this quarter's PAT pegged at Rs.2100 Crs, which is 33% higher than the last year's, this P/E will come down further. After the results, stock will be cheaper than it is at this moment(In terms of perception), creating a demand.

Looking at the broader scenario in the long run also, this looks interesting. India's demographic advantage adding more and more people in the working and earning group as the time passes by, creating more demand for Mobile communication. Company has plans charted out for many businesses such as insurance, financial services, agriculture, entertainment and retailing. Though some of these plans may get hurt in the near term but looking at the muscle it has, this risk, I suppose is worth taking.

Fingers Crossed X !

Networking is being Preached

2008-10-11T15:17:00.003+05:30

One of the most visible differences that I see between my previous organization MindTree and present one Microsoft is the buzz that surrounds Networking. From top to bottom every person in the organization is a preacher of networking. Here I am talking about business and personal networking not networking technology!

I always appreciated the importance of networking but the way I look at it now is entirely different. The formal approach is given to this concept here in Microsoft and your future path in the organization depends upon it to a large extant. Everyone seems to be doing 'Networking' deliberately and so do I. This deliberate networking has many positives to teach and some negatives as well.

On the positive side it urges you to enhance your communication skills, propels you to be more communicative, teaches you to make strategy and work on it. All this surely adds to one's personality and is beneficial in the long run. Especially if we are talking about global organizations and global business scenario with clients coming from across the world. But on the flip side there are some things which really make me to think.

This whole race to build network always creates an environment of urgency. Many people take Networking in the wrong sense and this turn out to be politics and lobbying. On the personal side it might hurt one's personality in the sense that sometimes it expects from an individual to be the one who he/she is not and don't want to be.

This whole dilemma looks very interesting to me and teaching me a lot of things everyday. So for the time being I am trying to go with the flow and putting efforts to walk on a fine line.

Reading Change!

2008-10-09T19:55:00.004+05:30

As I started reading this book titled as 'Leading Change' by John P. Kotter, the very first chapter was more like a revelation to me. The book talks about the efforts to bring change in the business environment of commercial organizations, driving forces, obstacles and the approaches required to achieve the desired target. Reading so far, that talks about misconceptions and errors that make Change Process futile, looks so relevant to me as I have seen my present and the previous organizations undergoing huge structural and functional changes. Most of the points made, such as lack of interest by the senior leadership, show stoppers, party poppers, undefined goals and vision are quite visible.

As I go page by page, obvious things comes in front of me and I appreciate the thoughts. I hope this book will provide good understanding of Change and Change Management in the business environment and will prove to be a good reading.

For the time being Reading Change for Leading Change!

What Gujarat has that others don't?

2008-10-07T21:23:00.005+05:30

Ultimately the drama that surrounded one the most talked about things, the cheapest car Nano has come to an end. Tata has driven Nano into Modiland(Gujarat). This move adds one more feather in Modi's cap. Over the past many months we have seen a heated debate on this project and violent protests as well. Finally leaving behind the bitter experience Mr. Ratan Tata wants to move ahead.

Gujarat which has always been considered as business centric has proven that it has everything that takes to create healthy business environment. All natural privileges that it enjoys are well known such as huge coast line, large scale ports(Mundra, Kandla, Hazira and Pipav), Good amount of water, Proximity to Mumbai etc. Apart from this there this Human Factor which is also equally important.

Gujarat has always produced big shot businesses like Tatas, Ambanis, many Patels, Mehtas and Shahs. In general public also there is this gut-feel for business. In my four years' stay in Gujarat while doing my Engineering, I sensed this thing very closely. You can see people operating numerous types of businesses out of Auto-Rickshaws, Moderately educated small town people making big in the businesses, many women running businesses which are not very common in other parts of the country. These are some of the examples of this mindset.

I have been to some of the remotest areas in Gujarat which are tribal populated with very low level of education and unwelcoming terrain. In those areas also we can see small factories dotted across the country side. You take any road going out of Ahmedabad and rest assured that after every few minutes you will see one big plant. Roads to the remotest places are good, power supply is there and political environment is calm.

In the recent past, with Narendra Modi at helm, we have seen Gujarat achieving new heights in business. When the leadership is determined to get things done, the whole system follows. It's not that Gujarat is the perfect place, but when we compare it with the other parts of the country it looks much better. Today we see some or the another conflict in many parts of the country but Gujarat is calm and marching ahead.

This state is one of the most unfortunate states when it comes to natural disasters. In last ten years or so it has seen devastating earth quakes, cyclones and floods. Besides this, some man made disasters such as riots and recent bomb blasts are also pose threats. Each time Gujarat comes back on the track in no time.

I believe Gujarat is an example that most of the other states in India should follow. Though not each one of them can replicate the story but surely can customize it based upon local resources and opportunities.

Are you really insured?

2008-10-06T16:40:00.005+05:30

When global financial markets are already divasted by strong credit waves, it now time to guard our home. Indian banks are already feeling the heat with industry slowdown. Many corporates have put a pause on their big growth plans hence reducing credit demand. Economic slowdown is hitting other loan segments as well such as personal, home loan and vehicle loan. Stock markets are already at almost at the 50% level of their peak in the beginning of this year. Many investors have burnt their fingers in this market meltdown but now there is need to look beyond the obvious.

In India, insurance companies are some of the biggest investors in the stock markets, LIC being the largest one. It has huge exposure in many listed companies. So it's very evident that with this market crash LIC has already lost thousands of crores. So are we ready for LIC's failure if that in the off wing some time soon? Is government planning something to prevent LIC becoming AIG? There is a question that will LIC be able to maintain its liquidity in the coming future? If not then is India ready for failure of LIC?

I believe that in country like India, which is not as rich as the many of the western countries and where people from every strata of society put faith in LIC, government should make it 200% sure that this institution will be sail through the crisis no matter what.

India's Global Bank

2008-09-27T21:43:00.002+05:30

When we compare India's size in terms of economy, which was near about one trillion dollars last year, it stands nowhere in front of the US, Japan or China. In terms of the size of companies in the key sectors such as oil, mining, shipping and many others also, India still is very far behind. But when we talk about the Banking and Finance sector, this gap becomes huge. There is hardly any institution in India which can make itself visible in this industry on the world stage. Be it any form of banking and finance business such as retail, corporate, investment, insurance or loans we cannot think of any player with ‘Made in India’ tag in the world market.

Historically private players were suppressed by the government in this field with a lot of regulations and they could not expand themselves much. Public sectors banks which used to enjoy government's supremacy were inefficient in working and there was hardly any vision in terms of business growth. This resulted in low penetration of banking services in the rural India and hence low level of awareness among the people. People in remote areas still depend on private money lenders to a large extant. Services such as insurance are in even worse situation.

In terms of corporate banking also there is nothing much to boast about. Though there are public and private financial institutions which provide funds to the corporate houses for their needs but when it comes to big ticket buyouts or global M&A, Indian firms always have to look at global players for help. Not just meeting the requirement of funds but also for consulting, advice and arbitration also these global players comes into the picture always. As we have seen the appetite of Indian companies rising for global M&A, India is losing millions and millions of dollars in consulting fees only.

Because of the lack of scale, Indian financial companies are unable to take advantage of sudden opportunities that come into the markets from time to time, latest US financial crisis being one of the examples, where many global brands are up for sale at rock bottom prices. Many European, Chinese and Japanese institutions are in the fray to buy American companies but India is nowhere in the picture. I believe it is very necessary to create global scale financial super power houses based out of India if we dream to become developed nation and play a much more significant role on the world stage.

US-Pak conflict: A Threat to South Asian political stability

2008-09-24T21:06:00.003+05:30

Amidst of all this turmoil in the industry and terror attacks in various cities of India, there are very few who even noticed or discussed what's happening between the US and its so called ally in the war against terrorism. The recent developments are both interesting and challenging for the world peace.

Around seven years back after 9/11 the US embarked on a journey full of violence, attacks, blood and war to wipe out Islamic terrorism. Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran almost escaped and now Pakistan faces the ire of American supremacy. Pakistan till now was main ally of the US in this battle. What is the inference and consequences of this development?

The situation is pretty complex and hinged on a delicate balance. Al-Quaida and Taliban are believed to have taken refuge in the provinces of western Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan and are operating from there. After taking control in Afghanistan and chasing the militants for such a long time, the US is now in a hurry to close the chapter because of rising pressure back home and because of the coming presidential elections. Consequently US forces are stepping up their operations and have made couple of cross border attack in the Pak territory. The Pak forces have retaliated these actions by opening fire at the US forces. So going forward we can see situation becoming worse and the US forces intensifying their actions.

Pakistan now being not of too much of use for USA in this battle and being a safe harbor for militants, is being looked at as next target of US. According to me this development is both positive and negative from Indian perspective. On one hand it will show the real face of Pakistan wide and open but on the other hand it will make India’s neighborhood more unstable. Pakistan’s political structure which is already in a bad shape, will be destroyed completely if US take a hard stand and uses full blown power against Pakistan. In that situation terrorist outfits, which are already very powerful in Pakistan, will become autonomous. Without any political pressure they will only ramp up their operations and will increase instability and violence not only in India but also in Pakistan. So it is in the best interest of the South Asian politics that conflict between Pak and US should be solved in a diplomatic manner by using financial weapons.

i-Banking: A concept victimized by implementation

2008-09-22T21:04:00.007+05:30

So finally the news is out. The last two standing pillars of the US i-Banking world are also down now. Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs have decided to become regular bank holding companies instead of i-Banking firms. Though the move is sad for people like me who are big fans of i-Banking as a concept, but I believe for the time being whatever is in the general interest should be done. This news ends the suspense which was there on the Wall Street regarding the fate of these last two banks and now finance world can think of starting a new journey gathering whatever is left, if no more bloodshed is to be witnessed.

I personally like the concept of i-Banking and always appreciated the impact it had on the finance sector around the world. It not only created lot many valuable companies but also helped many others to flourish rapidly. So what's wrong and who is the culprit? According to me i-Banking as a concept was very innovative and powerful but the way it was implemented and run in the recent past brought it into a bad weather. The greed to catch the deals and to stay ahead of the competition prompted them to venture into more and more risky businesses, ballooning their exposure to high risk advances and funds.

One more thing that I would like to mention in this context is Euphoria that was created around this industry. Like any other industry which went south in the past, this sector was almost worshiped just before its collapse. IT industry's crash is a perfect example of this. So yesterday it was IT, today it is i-Banking and tomorrow it can be any other industry. The prequels and sequels will always be there but now the lesson that we can learn is that high expectations from something is not bad but these expectation should be rational.

A book named "Irrational Exuberance" by Robert J. Shiller will be handy in this regard.

Socialist USA : A futile debate

2008-09-21T22:58:00.003+05:30

In this carnage season in the US economy we have seen many of the big shots in the finance world going nose dive. The federal government had to come for the rescue of some of the banks and institutions which it considered utmost important to prevent the US from going into 30s kind of recession again. Freddy & Fenny being the world's largest mortgage house with trillions of dollars worth advances was too much impossible case to go bankrupt, same with Bears Sterns and AIG.

These moves of the US government, which are being considered as leftist in nature, are being questioned and debated heavily in the economics world, with many experts claiming that the US is now taking socialist approach, which is not a good sign and goes against its image as the capital of capitalism. According to me such claims and this debate is futile and is there just for the sake of having a debate.

The prime objective of any state is to protect its public from any danger be it financial, political or natural. In the present scenario we have financial danger in front of us and the government should do every possible thing to avoid it. These acts of the government are in stark contrast to the socialism, where governments take control of institutions and run them to increase its power and drive the economy to achieve a socialist goal. Generally these efforts are well organized and for the long terms, but in the present case the US government was compelled to take these steps to protect the public. It should be quite apparent to all that once the scene will be better these institutions will come in the private domain again and on the usual track of capitalism.

A sensible thought will reveal that had the US government not taken such steps, we would see some more big shots on the ground. Imagine the confidence level of the industry and public in that situation and what would happen to the world economy then, which is already struggling. Besides all this, not just the US government but most of the governments from the developed world are joining hands to pump in funds to rescue the world economy.

My point is that in this testing time, people who are called think tank or experts, should refrain from spreading more panic and should make comments only after thinking rationally.

Youth Economy

2008-09-19T18:59:00.005+05:30

We all know that India boast of being one of the youngest nations in the world with 600 Million people below the age of 25 and many more millions joining the group in the coming years. This demographic development is in contrast to many other big and developed economies. In Russia population is shrinking and due to this migration laws are being made easy so that skilled people can enter the economy mainly targeting Indian talent pool. Japan’s aging and shrinking population is now an old news. China also fears the same because of its one child policy. In the western world also because of high life expectancy and other social changes demographic changes are hurting the economy.

India in this sense is positioned at a very opportune position. Not only there is an ample supply of skilled work force but also because there are no significant commitments youth can take risk and can try entrepreneurship. We can see changes happening already. In professional life people are experimenting with nonconventional professions like health trainer, hair stylist, flouriest, mass communication and media generating diversity and a lot of new possibilities.

Apart from this, new life style and mindset generate a lot of business opportunities. We can see many industries thriving entirely on the young generation. International youth centric apparel brands are hitting Indian shores very frequently, Fast-food business is experimenting with new formats and is coming up with innovative ideas, entertainment industry is customizing itself as per the need of young people, we have seen many youth centric movies taking big shots on the box office. Even in the field of arts there are so many young people. In the recent past non-cricket sports have seen significant progress and now we have many sports-stars who are surprisingly not cricketers, giving push to the sports industry.

Amidst of all this euphoria there is one danger that has to be addressed with utmost sincerity. Though we have so many institutions churning out thousands of students every year, the quality of education that is being provided in most of these institutions does not make the student very competitive. This will create the problem of high skilled unemployment in the country which is already visible in IT industry and Management education.

When we see people talking about India’s potential and the role it is going to play on the world stage in the coming years we should not doubt them instead we should think how we can take this opportunity and fulfill our dream of becoming a world power.

Office Investors!

2008-09-19T13:37:00.008+05:30

"I know a person who says IT is going to jump!"

"Arey yaar, I am telling you these iBanks are crappy, they just fool you."

"Yesterday I bought shares of company X and believe me it's going to give 30% returns in an year."

"Oh my God! stock market is crashing!...... I told you, see."

These are not my words, this is the general talk in the offices these days. Bull run in the Indian stock market has made every person in the country an investment banker. Though there is a little bit of ease for past few months, thanks to the market crash since early this year. Last year people in the offices used to talk only about IPOs, Price band, IPO Subscription, listing date, Market Increase , Market decrease and in the free time work! That was indeed an environment full of excitement.

But the present crisis has one good thing to talk about. It is helping the people to broaden their perspective. People are now discussing not only about stocks but also gold, oil, insurance and land!! The chats are as usual but the sad part is that we can see gloomy mood. People are sad because fun is gone, because many of them have incurred substantial losses. For some money is stuck which they want to use for some other purpose. Many people who have just started making money in the job want to enter the market but the market mood is not good.

People are curing greed, they are blaming flaws in the system and they are also curing market gurus for misguiding people(the same misguidance used to be the tip of the day some months back!).

As I am reading articles on many financial websites praising Warren Buffet's age old simple and conservative investment policy, I wish people will be able to take few lessons from it, including me also.

Book Review: Go Kiss The World

2008-09-18T11:18:00.003+05:30

It was a long gap and now I am happy that I am back on track with my reading habit. The book which I recently completed is an Autobiography by Subroto Bagchi, one of the most popular faces in the Indian IT Industry. The book is 'Go Kiss the World'.

Last month this book was gifted to the entire department in our annual company meeting and one of the speakers was Mr Bagchi himself. He talked about industry, professionalism, psychology and many more things. The crowd was enchanted as usual. I had privilege to listen to him a couple of time earlier also as I worked in MindTree which he founded nine years back.

In his first book he talked about mainly the process and thinking that underwent while creating MindTree, it was not his autobiography. In 'Go kiss the world' he takes the reader to the journey which tells about his life. From very humble beginning to the success, he discusses each and every thing very honestly. He tells us about the smart moves he made and also candidly admits the mistakes. The book is very inspiring in the sense that it urges the reader to think big but think practically.

From this book one ages old saying becomes confirm yet again that there is no short cut to success. He did very insignificant job of a clerk to start his career, faced office politics, dabbled with entrepreneurship early in his career, changed roles and learned new things to survive. The role he played in Wipro tells about his leadership and determination which surely was institutional behind the force that created MindTree. He talks about values through out the book which I have seen in practice during my tenure at MindTree. He has deep respect for his colleagues and this is a thing to learn for everybody.

The book is written in a very simplistic manner and will surely incite interest in readers who like to read about successful people.

Intolerant India

2008-09-16T15:20:00.009+05:30

Do you like Raj Thackery's statements, Do you like churches being set on fire by Bajrang Dal, Do you like bomb blasts through out the country like fire crackers, Do you like clashes in J&K, Nandigram, Singur, Rajasthan and many other parts of the country? In most of the cases the answer I expect is a big NO. Then why are we witnessing all this?

These days no news paper or news channel will be there without reporting such events. The image that all this portray is very gruesome. It's no longer Hindu-Muslim conflict in India now. The problem has become multi-faceted and multi dimensional and rooting in almost every part of the country. The problem is Intolerance: for religion, for politics, for language, for prosperity and many more.

The consequences of this intolerance is not just direct such as bloodshed, loss of daily business or violence; rather the whole system is being questioned now. India including its Metro cities has become a place where any international companies will think twice before starting operations or continuing already existing ones. With other economies such as Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Latin America and east European countries catching up very fast and cost rising in India, these global companies have more than enough reasons to look for other options.

This is quite ironical that as India's literacy rate rising, per capita incoming rising, new opportunities are being created, economy is growing at a high rate, these kind of scenes have become regular now. More importantly politicians who have the prime responsibility to tackle such problems are the ones who are fuelling these problems in the first place be it BJP, Congress,VHP or for that matter any political party. The difference is that depending upon their reach and resources, they have selected their domains where they can create nuisance.

Financial Crisis: Should I apologize for my previous post?

2008-09-16T00:41:00.007+05:30

Just within days or you may say hours after publishing my previous post, if I see Lehman Brothers filing for bankruptcy and Merill selling itself to BofA, I feel a little ashamed of talking about the value in the financial services business. Blood bath, Mayhem, Carnage all these words are insufficient for what is happening on the W-Street. Thousands of Job losses, Billions of Dollars worth write offs, blame game and spreading effect like forest fire to other Trans-Atlantic or Trans-Pacific economies, show only gloom everywhere.

The euphoria which lasted longer than what is should have been, spilling blood on everyone now. Federal Govt tried a lot but now seems helpless in front of this avalanche. Which way this blood trail going to go is not sure but for sure it has created and destroyed opportunities in other economies.

On one hand there will be thousands and thousands of job losses in the countries outside the US where these big shots operate, there will be roll-back of off shore centers from India and assignments to other IT/ITES companies. Some of these companies having high exposure to Financial Services clients may see closure altogether or heavy job losses.

On the other hand there are many people, essentially not inside the US, who are sensing opportunity out of all this. Primarily these are European big shots in the Finance sector. They are not that much affected till now and with almost all the main competitors from the US in struggling condition they stand a chance to take advantage. These institutions are now looking towards east to offer their services in countries like India and China. Letting the American companies to lick their own wounds these European companies can put their plans in place and can execute them at a much lesser cost now.

With the US kind of Financial Market almost in Infancy state in India, we can hope that we won’t face first degree consequences but surely ripples will come to Indian shores too. The business will suffer, valuations will fall, growth plans will be rolled back, temperature of the economy will go south but certainly it won’t be as bad as we have seen in the American economy. Indian financial companies too can think of playing the same game domestically which European companies are thinking to play globally. With valuation at the bottom level we can see consolidation in the industry where smaller and relatively porous players may give way to the Big Brothers like ICICI, Reliance and SBI.

As I wrote in my previous post; the mood is gloomy, valuations are low, concerns are everywhere; still we can sense an opportunity and by betting on Big Boys of Indian Financial services after due diligence we can see something good happening.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/26718956

India's financial services reforms: An Opportunity in the market

2008-09-11T12:01:00.004+05:30

It has been almost two decades since we saw mass scale reforms in the Indian economy. The effect of that one initiative is in front of all of us. Many new industries have flourished such as IT, Financial Services and Telecom, making thousands of people millionaires. Even after that, we have seen reforms in small installments every now and then, but the pace has not been what it could be or rather should be. Especially Indian system has kept conservative approach in the case of banking and financial services sector, keeping competitive and advanced players from across the world at the bay. Now with the team of two super talented persons(PM Dr. Manmohan Singh and FM P Chidambaram) in the office and on the edge of completing their term in the office we are hopeful to get implemented the much awaited financial sector reforms.

At this particular juncture when the stock market is hovering at lower levels and the financial sector in the western world is witnessing one of its worst crisis ever, rippling shock waves in the emerging markets as well, we can sense an opportunity. The valuation of Indian financial services companies, which were astronomical just a few months back, are in a shattered condition. The companies are streamlining and consolidating their offerings and expenses to face the challenges put forward by the rising interest rates and inflation. Financial sector reforms are due in 2009 and now with general elections just around the corner, the Government would like to speed up the process, facilitating vast scale opportunities created in this industry.

The high profile committee, created under the guidance of Persy Mistry, presented a report to make Mumbai an International Financial Center, few years back. Though the report is gathering dust due to political power play, we can expect some if not all the recommendations implemented in some or the other form. After showing mettle in the IT/ITES it is expected that India can repeat the success story in the Financial Services business as well. One advantage in this case is that this expected growth in financial services will not be entirely export dependent. With high demand from Indian corporate and retail sector, this industry can bank on the domestic demand in a big way.

These reforms are expected to bring in a lot of technical and functional expertise from the world leaders and these leaders will by default depend upon Indian players, generating a lot of cross border partnerships. So, by doing a little bit of research we can identify some of the market players in the sector which will be the obvious choice of these international players and can put our bet on them keeping the long term perspective in mind and if the scrips are available at sensible price levels.

Bill Gates' last day in the office: Bbye Bill G

2008-06-28T09:43:00.005+05:30

This is my first post on this blog in past one month and the life has changed dramatically in this one month. However I am not going to talk about my new job in this post. What I am going to discuss about is yesterday, a special day in the history of the world.

Yesterday it was Bill Gates' last day in Microsoft, working full time. There was an exclusive live webcast arranged for all the Microsoft employees all over the world. I felt fortunate that I was there to witness that and more importantly I just made it. I joined only five days back.

Even after 12 hrs' long site seeing day, all around Hyderabad, we decided to watch this webcast, so we took our places in one of the MPRs and there were many others already. The webcast started with video that was made a few months back showing how Bill's last would be and he approaching many celebrities for a job. It was really funny.

After this video Steve Ballmer comes on the stage and welcomes all the Microsoft guyz from all over the world to be a part of a historic moment and then invites Bill. So here comes Bill or Bill G as he is called by Microsoft guys. We gave him standing ovation and clapping was not stopping. More than anyone else Steve himself was clapping insanely and prompted the crowd to keep doing so and shouted "Guyz this is Bill's last day in the office, this is his day!!" and we joined him!

So Bill G takes the stage and after thanking the audience, started commemorating a journey spanning over more than 35 years, the journey that changed the world, the journey that made him the richest man in the world at a very young age, the journey that was envisioned when it was considered as insanity. He mentioned so many things that helped in shaping the great organization called MICROSOFT and also many mistakes and threats that came on the way. He portrayed a picture of future of Microsoft and opportunities that it has going into the future. He expressed his firm belief that the organization is going to play even better and major role in the technology business. He expressed his belief in the future management of the organization. Then he discussed about his future role as philanthropist in Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Followed by this Bill and Steve took questions from many Microsoft employees from across the world covering the start of Microsoft to the future of the organization and everything in between. After this Steve again takes the stage for the concluding and final note. The excitement in his words could be felt even from the distance of thousands of miles, he was shouting and almost jumping and finally he could not stop himself from dropping two drops of joy and excitement and Bill joined him and probably many others also.

I really felt privileged of being a part of it. I wish Bill G a great second inning, which is there for an even better cause.

All the best Bill!

Micro Finance: A fledgling hope

2008-05-27T13:36:00.002+05:30

I have heard since my childhood that India is a country of poor people and probably my parents might also had heard the same in their childhood some 3-4 decades back. It is more than six decades since we got our independence and at that time the country was visibly in a tattered state. In these decades we have seen many floods, cyclones and droughts along with green revolution, white revolution and IT revolution. We have seen population going from 24 to 110 crores. We have seen industries growing and now we have four business tycoons in the global top 10 rich list, still there are millions in the country who are considered as below poverty line even as per the developing world's standards with less than $1 per day income. This is quite ironical.

There are numerous reasons of this persisting problem which include India’s bloody history, foreign rule for centuries, cultural traits, illiteracy and corruption. Though the governments after governments have launched hundreds of schemes to alleviate poverty, still, the poor do not have water to irrigate their fields, money to send their children to school and for health and sanitation. Government machinery has almost completely failed to deliver. Traditional banking system has refrained itself from this segment to provide any financial support, throwing them into the whirlpool of high interest rate debts but in the recent years they have found a new hope in Micro Finance.

My last week’s visit to Ujjivan, one of the India’s fastest growing Micro Finance companies for urban poor, was as eye opener for me as it was enlightening. I saw people from very promising backgrounds working there in that non flashy and modest environment. Even some foreigners were there. Mr. Samit Ghosh, the founder of Ujjivan took us down his memory lane and explained what made him think of micro finance and the modal that they have selected. Ujjivan gives loans to urban poor women in groups and these loans are mainly for the purposes such as to repay old loans which were taken on a very high rate, for business purposes, education, marriages etc.

As per the data presented to us and as per many other studies also, there are some 100 million people in India who can get benefited from such services. This segment of society is underserved because of inherent risk involved in terms of bad debts and frauds. These micro finance institutions have brought a new hope for the poor in the country. We can see a whole new breed of micro entrepreneurs because of this.

Even after such huge appeal, micro finance has to reach to its full potential. There are many challenges in the path. These challenges are on various fronts. The first thing is that traditionally this activity was undertaken by NGOs in the non-profit form. The drawback of this format was that it was not scalable enough due to the lack of capital. Then some daring entrepreneurs like Samit Ghosh and Vikram Akula of SKS Microfinance started profit oriented institutions. With this profit making approach they have been able to attract capital investments from investors but there is a long way to go.

The second main problem is cost effectiveness. Micro finance operations are field operations and data collection is manual. This data has to be processed in the back office and has to be fed in the database. This process not only requires efforts in terms of time but also cost a significant amount to these companies. With increasing competition this problem has become even more severe. To address this problem many institutions have turned towards technology. Many pilots are being done to automate the process but a significant impact is yet to be seen. There are many reasons behind the limited success of such projects. The cost of such equipments, lack of know-how among the field staff who are supposed to use these equipments, continuing support by the technology providers and frauds are some of the main reasons.

It is my belief that there are a lot of things that can be done to solve the second problem in terms of technology. Less fancy and cheaper equipments can be made which will run software built on open source base, providing features like thumb recognition, face recognition and data entry in electronic form. This data then can be transferred over the telecom network or internet to the central location. Once we have the data in electronic form it can be processed in any way we want at a much faster pace, reducing the time and cost of operations. However, building these equipments is not the complete solution till the people who are supposed to use these are not able to do so. For that the training will have to be provided. It has been told to us that this is very tedious job looking at the capabilities of field staff but somewhere we will have to start.

Apart from these problems they face some of the logistic problems such as lack of proper or foolproof process. Most of these institutions being new in the game do not have know how of key important things like financial modeling, risk analysis, cash flow management, and right model to bank on but with experience they are overcoming these problems gradually. The one thing that has to be taken care of immediately is the talent crunch in the sector. This sector does not provide cushy and flashy jobs like other main stream banks and because of that not many talented people are wiling to work there. Though I have seen some people full of passion and from a very strong background putting their efforts but the things have to be speed up.

One thing that I am hopeful about is once a couple of cycles will get over of these micro loans to the poor people, in the future cycles they will deploy these loans to much productive purposes like financing their small business ventures. We will see the real impact of this concept only when it will start empowering the poor masses at a very large scale. In the parts of the country where this concept has gained the ground, we can already see changes. I am sure looking at these examples other parts of the country will also follow, though in pockets. Concluding this writing, I would like to say that Micro-Finance has a lot of potential to achieve a greater good for the poor masses, it is a fledgling hope which has to be nursed carefully.

Reliance Communications buys Vanco: A strategic fit

2008-05-27T10:58:00.002+05:30

“Karlo duniya mutthi me”

This was the slogan of Reliance communications (erstwhile Reliance Infocomm) for its first ever ad campaign some 5-6 years back. This slogan was in line with the great visionary and founder of Reliance group Late Dhirubhai Ambani’s dream of making mobile communication cheaper than a post card for Indians. The war which Reliance Infocomm started has resulted in the lowest tariffs in the world for Indian mobile phone users. Reliance Communications now an arm of ADAG, which is controlled by the younger Ambani, is the second largest mobile phone operator in the country. In spite of some initial setbacks it has established itself strongly in the market.

The saga of mobile phone business is apparent to us and everyone knows about it but the strategy on which the company is working is very interesting to look at. Now Reliance communications is not just a mobile phone service provider, it is a lot more. With a slew of acquisitions over the past 4-5 years it has developed a business proposition which makes it as not only the provider to normal users but one of the major players in the enterprise level communication services.

On the onset it created nationwide optical fiber network of 10s of thousand kilometers to carry its data at high rate at a lesser cost. This network was built keeping in mind the future data requirement of the country as at that time internet penetration was very minimal. This has proved very effective to Reliance. Apart from using this network for its own purpose the additional bandwidth is leased out to the other parties. This high bandwidth network allows Reliance to venture into much more value added and content rich services like internet TV with a promising quality of service.

To take this OFC network global, Reliance acquired a French company Flag Telecom some four years back. Flag telecom was one of the largest OFC network operators in the world at that time with its cables connecting all the continents and all the main countries in the world. It allowed Reliance to enjoy least possible cost for its data traffic of international calls and internet. Several other international companies take bandwidth on lease from Flag Telecom. With its financial muscle Reliance revived the sick company and its network has increased significantly since then.

Last year it acquired Yipes in the US which operates in Ethernet management and application delivery business. Riding on Flag’s global network Yipes services are being deployed globally. Yipes, which had some 2000 enterprise level clients at that time, helped Reliance to move up the value chain and closer to its enterprise level customers. This strengthened Reliance’s presence in the data communication business with a futuristic view.

Now yesterday Reliance Communications has acquired UK based Vanco, a MVNO provider who operates on the global scale. MVNO(Mobile virtual network operator) is a virtual network operator who does not have its own physical network infrastructure. It buys bulk network usage from the existing providers and then sells it to the enterprise level clients who want to deploy their services over the mobile phone networks. These enterprise customers can be anyone ranging from banks to airlines to retail chains. Vanco, which is a financially troubled company has operations in 200 countries and offers some 800 products to its customers. It has contracted revenues of more than $650 for next 3-5 years. Now with Reliance communications in the picture with its international OFC network, Vanco can route its traffic through this network rather than relying on other networks and paying a large portion of its revenues to the network bandwidth providers. On one hand this will reduce the operating cost of Vanco significantly and on the other hand unutilized bandwidth of Flag will generate extra revenue. This will bring several new customers to Reliance’s kitty which will help it to consolidate its position in the market. This is a win-win deal for all the parties.

The model which has been developed for Reliance Communications operations reminds us the model Reliance developed for its petroleum business and the same model is being used in other key businesses of Reliance. They want to do everything own their own. They cover the entire value chain squeezing even the last possible penny. Reliance Communications these back to back strategically fit acquisitions really makes it a formidable player in the communication industry with a wide spectrum of services.

Mobile Banking: It's not a buzz

2008-05-15T14:20:00.003+05:30

Everyone knows about the growth rate of wireless communication especially in countries like India and China. Millions and Millions of users are being added each month. All the businesses around mobile telephony are witnessing high growth rate be it mobile phone manufacturers, operators, vendors or be it network infrastructure providers. This business has generated multi-billion dollar organizations with multi-billion dollar owners.

Amidst of all this buzz mobile companies around the world are getting more and more worried of stagnation in growth rate in developed nations with many countries are already approaching towards 100% mobile penetration. There are hardly any differentiators available to these companies in terms of products, services and pricing. Though they are banking on high growth rates in emerging markets and third world economies, still, the present scenario is pushing them to innovate something that can take them to the next growth trajectory.

One concept that is gaining ground for past few years is Mobile Banking. Though at the time of telecom boom in 90's, it was predicted that Mobile banking would be the next killer thing in technology world and would take the by surprise, it didn't happen that way. Even though mobile telephony has seen high growth rate, mobile banking has remain in its infancy till date or there are very few example where it has gained the significant ground. Does this show that Mobile banking or m-banking as many call it, will remain a distant dream or will not be a killer thing? According to me the answer is YES and NO.

First let us look at more important one, 'NO'. All around the world we have many practical examples of m-Banking services going live, though in pockets. In numerous studies and surveys by some of the world largest market and technology research organizations it is predicted that a major chunk of the mobile phone users is ready to start using these services, provided meaningful or high value services are provided by the operators. Further, even larger chunk would like to explore the possibility but is apprehensive because of inherent security and privacy issues. Many people are even not aware that such services are available or possible on mobile phones. This is lack of marketing and publicity, which can be handled. So if the users are open to explore the possibility, then what is the hindrance?

According to me the problems are both technological and non-technological. Both of these categories require different approach to be solved and in fact great deal of efforts are going to resolve them at various levels. The first and foremost problem is security and is the main reason of apprehension by the users and the banks who are still uncertain to some extant whether to launch these services or not. Security related issues are already addressed by most of the technology providers of such services and with the help of encryption it is already being considered as equivalent to the internet banking, so the need is to educate the stakeholders.

Second most important issue is continuously evolving technology and lack of standards. Mobile banking technology is still evolving and various players are banking on different technologies through small scale projects. Due to this uncertainty many banks and institutions are still unsure, to which technology they should bank on. But this situation is expected to get better keeping in mind that some technologies have already started gaining upper hand over the others.

Next is enabling environment, this can consist of various factors and can help in development and large scale acceptance of such services. One of the main points in this area is government norms and specifications by various other regulatory bodies. Most of the countries don’t have any norms in place to control banking through mobile phones which in real sense is not supposed to involve banks. Sensing the need of such norms, central banks across the world are engaged in brain storming and some of them have already come up with initial set of guidelines. Central bank of Philippines has become a case study for such efforts. Reserve Bank of India is also scheduled to release such guidelines in a month’s time. This clearly shows that though the progress in this has been slow but the things are catching up now.

The last point that I would like to give emphasis on is infrastructure. The prime requirements for the success of mobile banking in terms of infrastructure is high level of mobile penetration, relatively high end handsets, well established banking system and wide network coverage. I believe any of these parameters is not a concern in the developed world and in developing world also things have improved at a frantic pace in past few years. This provides to the interested companies, economy of scale and ensures that their services will be cost effective. Even in underdeveloped countries such as African countries, wireless services are catching up at a fast pace.

When all the things are moving in the right direction, may be at a relatively slower pace, the need of time is to develop sustainable business model around such services. Looking at the varied level of economic development and market requirements, it is quite apparent that there is no one-shot solution for this. Service providers will have to study the markets individually and depending upon the local requirements they will have to innovate their services.

Now comes ‘YES’. Though most of the players in banking and financial industry along with the players in telecom industry feel that, to reach out to the masses and provide Anytime Anywhere banking, they will have to go for mobile banking, still their level of investment is at very minimal level. Only a fraction of subscriber base is inclined towards such services due to the reason cited above. In various parts of the world companies have tried multiple models, but the success of any particular model have been very limited. One other key issue that is being raised is seamlessness. Once the user opts for a particular service she should not be bounded to stick to that. Though some efforts have already started to address this issue by bringing multiple accounts in the same card, still there is a long way to go.

So looking at all these aspects I believe that though the Mobile Banking is on the threshold to take a big leap, still many stakeholders will have to work in sync to make it work. This will not only be helpful for the large companies who are striving for growth but also to the people who are striving to get the access to the banking services and are located at the remote locations.

Reliance's BIG Entertainment: Why Reliance is so reliable?

2008-05-12T13:37:00.007+05:30

Another BIG news from the Reliance stable, this time from Anil Ambani camp. Group's entertainment arm is going to announce big ticket projects and contracts at Cannes, next week. These announcements which are expected to run into several hundred million dollars involving bigwigs like Will Smith, Tom Cruise and Anglina Jolie will bring the company on the center stage of international entertainment world. Reliance Big Entertainment as it is named, having George Soros as its one of the main investors is looking at another 10% stake dilution to big names like KKR and Carl Icahn.

Though such big announcements from Reliance do not astonish the business world anymore as everyone has become used to of it yet in this case the glamour associated with the matter in hand and a whole new line of business in case of Reliance is generating a lot of interest. Reliance's move in this territory, full of unpredictability and big bets is going to be a next thing to watch. Earlier also, ADAG acquired some 200 screens in 28 cities in North America targeting mainly the audience from Asian countries, but this move will bring them in the main stream Hollywood. Back home in India also, Big Entertainment is already creating ripples in the industry. With Adlabs, it is already one of the major players in the multiplex and post production business and is charting out big plans in other segments in the entertainment world. It has signed various contracts with major directors, actors and studios for movie production in various languages and investing in areas such as animation and gaming. After acquiring stake in Nitin Desai Studio it is aiming to make it one of the biggest studios in the world, on the lines of Universal and others.

After so much of skepticism and criticism ADAG's plans seem to be taking shape now. George Soros who acquired 3% stake in the Big Entertainment for $100m valued it at $3b and now the company is eying at the valuation of $5b.

With most of its plans still in the pipeline what is the thing that is making the company already a BIG hit? This is surely the legacy of Reliance group as a whole for designing new games or changing the rules of the game altogether. We have giants like Warner Brothers, 21st Century, Sony Pictures and many others in the world of entertainment who are established for decades and know the game better than anybody else in the world. Still, when Anil Ambani dreams of becoming the No.1 in the entertainment, everyone claps to support him. With the muscle power and the power to influence it has, it looks very realistic that Reliance will make it through this time too.

Be it Patalganga Plant, Jamnagar Refinery, Textile, Reliance Communications, Reliance Retail, Infrastructure, Power, Real Estate and many other businesses, the group has proven its mettle in every field. With many other business such as shipping, mining, oil exploration, fertilizer, cement, consumer items in pipeline and that too on national and international scale in each of the cases, there is no doubt that this BIG entertainment will also take off and will open yet another frontier of India's mounting might in the international corporate world.

IPL Cheerleaders: What is this Hungama?

2008-04-29T10:24:00.002+05:30

Everything seems to be going in favor of BCCI and Sharad Pawar. After the shameful defeat in ICC Cricket World Cup last year, Indian Cricket is witnessing its Golden Era. Money is pouring in from all the directions and the Cricket fever is at its peak.

After fighting a bitter battle with Zee and thwarting Subhash Chandra's plans to become another Carry Packer, BCCI seems in a good shape. T20 world cup victory, young team, iconic captain, cricketers having affairs with Bollywood actress, Bhajji-Symonds & Sree-Symonds controversies, high profile participation in IPL by personalities from glamour and business world, scantily dressed cheerleaders and now Bhajji-Sree drama, Everything is fueling BCCI's Cricket Engine.

Most of these issues seem trivial or not so exotic as compared to the most talked about topic of the present time in Indian media, scantily dressed Cheerleaders, who are imported by various team owners in IPL to cheer their respective teams. The country seems to be divided in two equal halves on this issue. From Neta to Abhineta, from businessman to family man, from media to thinkers all are discussing this topic on various forums, be it TV, Newspaper, blogs or a simple chit-chat over a coffee.

Is this topic so controversial that everyone has to support or oppose? Or everyone just wants a peace of pie enriched with glamour, money and media attention. What is so unique or interesting in this topic? Whatever might be the reason, no doubt that this issue is being given an undue hype. This is not the only media or public performance where such questions can be raised.

Many many movies in India now proudly showcase girls in bare minimum cloths and these are telecasted in each and every home in the country on innumerous channels. Nobody talks about it or at least to this extent. India's most popular news paper publishes vulgar pictures on the daily basis having one photograph on the sports page compulsorily, as if wives and girlfriends of footballers never ever wear full cloths. Nobody raises an eyebrow on that?

Some people talk about the impact of these performances on the children but they don’t talk about the news which tell about sex fantasies of Hollywood stars and their extramarital affairs on the daily basis, porn CDs are being sold at every corner of the city. So is this biased scale of vulgarity is justified?

Political parties are demanding ban on these performances in some parts of the country citing damage that it causes to the culture but don’t we have equally respectable and deep rooted culture all over the country with all the diversity. So is this cry for culture not politically motivated. In Maharashtra Raj Thackrey’s party is demanding ban but NCP is not opening its mouth as its supremo is heading all this cricket stuff.

In my opinion this has nothing to do with culture, morality or social health; this is just business. BCCI is doing its business by organizing IPL, players are doing theirs by playing. Team Owners have invested 10s of million dollars so they are obviously in the business. They are just to promote their venture with no serious violation. News papers are getting some masala and some interesting pics and politicians just don’t want to miss the show. Those poor fellows are just trying to grab a few headlines. So lets just sit back and enjoy it and don’t get bogged down on details.

Google's Android: The Next Big Thing?

2008-04-25T09:35:00.005+05:30

It's not a breaking news; Google is launching its mobile platform later this year and thanks to its brand, money and technology muscle, Android has got much hype already. Nerds all over the world are going crazy about it and they have reasons to do so.

What is Android? Is it GPhone or is it an OS for mobile or is it a set of APIs? There is a little bit of confusion in the market but according to me and many others as well, it is all of them in one package. Google has developed a layered structure for mobile platform and the functions of each of the layers are well thought and earmarked. Anyone can focus on a particular layer depending upon her interest. To give you and idea in brief, it has four layers (bottom to top):

Layer 1: This is a Linux kernel, modified for a mobile platform considering various constraints such as memory, battery power, processing power and connectivity. Drivers are customized.

Layer 2: Various libraries developed in C/C++, which provide the interface for upper layer to communicate with the lower levels.

Layer 3: A Java API. I must say this layer is the real Android. This layer make use of various third party APIs and many original APIs as well, to provide the application developers a rich set of functionalities with the help of which, she can develop really cool apps.

Layer 4: Android Apps. This is what developed by developers across the world using the API. These can be simple apps like calculator or very complex apps such as some map related application or something based on SAP. The best thing is all these apps have similar privileges.

So what is so special about it? Don't other platforms provide APIs with the help of which you can develop the applications? I must say they do provide and it’s not the difference that is special about Android. According to me the best thing about Android is that it is from Google. Google, who is the king of internet and practically owns it. Google's ability to provide content and to promote its mobile computing platform is the thing that makes Android so special. Think about Gmail, GMaps, Adsense, Google Docs and many other cool things from Orkut to Blogger, from Picasa to Google Apps and may be in the future Skype. If all these are provided on your mobile in a customized form, how cool will it be! and the coolest thing is not just the access to these things on your mobile but the ability to use dedicated APIs to create your own innovative apps around these services.

Because of all these reasons most of the big players in the mobile industry have joined the bandwagon and have created Open Handset Alliance(OHA) consisting of more than 30 industry leaders from LG to HTC, from TI to NVidia, from Hutch to Bell. Nobody is sure of the success but everyone is excited and hopeful and they don’t want to miss the bus just in case it becomes the next big thing. A recent contest by Google to develop android based apps has attracted more than 1700 entries from across the world fighting for prize money of more than $10 million. Thousands of developers are discussing Android on hundreds of forums and the support provided by Google is playing a key role.

Realizing the potential opportunity that can be generated by Android based mobile phones, various technology firms have started investing in and exploring Android. Though there are many business issues such as which protocol to support, which chip is to be used and what are the features that will go into it, still things are moving very fast and in the right direction. Google, who applied for GSM license in the US and was denied, is now targeting internet telephony company Skype. This shows their determination to make it a success and create ripples in the mobile and telecom world.

The real picture will be clear in a few months’ time still things are looking exciting and the world is waiting for a possible Next Big Thing!!

Book Review: The City of Joy

2008-04-23T11:28:00.006+05:30

It was a marathon reading. The book was 'The City of Joy' by Dominique Lapierre. For almost two moths I was reading this book, which was one of the bulkiest books that I have ever read, but let me tell you I finished three more books during this time period.

The book is very sentimental and the language requires a little more command on English and will certainly help you to improve your vocabulary. The book is written in a unique way in which two stories run in parallel and merge only towards the end of the book.

Story 1: This is a story of a poor Bengali peasant Hasari Pal who struck by misfortune and curse of nature was compelled to leave his village and comes to the great city of Calcutta with his family. The city which has many colors but most of them are red with the blood of poor people like Hasari and gloomy because of the pain caused to them. He fights a lot to find the work, to find the shelter, he fights for security, he sells his blood and he fights for respect which he was never able to get. He becomes a rickshaw puller and burns his blood running on hot asphalt roads from morning till evening like a horse. Fulfilling all his responsibilities he starts decaying and ultimately decides to sell his bones so that his daughter can get a good husband.

Story 2: This is a story of a white priest Stephen Kovalski, who comes to India to be with people in extreme suffering so that he can be with the God in true sense. He settles in a slum called Anand Nagar: The City of Joy and starts making bonds with the people. Touched by his love, service and care the people of Anand Nagar name him as the Big Brother. He suffers, he loses hope, he loses health, he cries, he fights with system still he remains persistent and rediscovers himself again and again. He brings hope to thousands of the inhabitants of the slum. Another white man Max Loeb, who is a young doctor from America comes to do internship and ends up giving his soul to the poor and their grievances

Hasari Pal who seems like the hero of the story, actually represents thousands or millions of such people not only in Calcutta but from every corner of India. His grievances and sufferings are echoed in every part of the country in some or the other form. Finally Hasari Pal comes to live in the locality of the priest and they become good friends. Priest looks at the sufferings of Hasari closely and becomes the witness of his death. After his death doms take away his bones, which he had already sold, so that those can be exported.

From the beginning till the end the story tells the ground realities of Indian poor class and how the system is oblivious to this. The exploitation of poor by politicians, mafia, businessman and police is all pervasive still these torch bearers of hope continue to celebrate each and everything in their life. People of various religions live in close vicinity and with all their differences they feel happy and cry for each other.

India Shining! India Rising! India Starving!

2008-04-21T10:28:00.001+05:30

From India Shining! & India Rising! to India Starving! in just 4-5 years; seems a miracle to me. Indian economy has changed its colors so fast that hardly any country, comparable to India, can challenge the dominance. Is this the end of euphoria?

It's not that things are getting lesser rosy for India only. Most of the developing nations are on the same track, with many developed nations already on the verge of a slowdown. The frantic growth rate of most of the developing nations has started easing out. Inflation numbers are out of control, oil prices are rising with other key commodity prices. The US is posing the biggest challenge in front of the world with its ballooning financial crisis and unstable economy. Every other country is trying to tackle the situation in some or the other way and so is India. But things are just not monetary this time. The problem is deep rooted and holistic, which can not be solved just by changing interest rates or changing some duties here and there.

This time problem is echoing in every nook and corner of the country, especially in the rural India, which is most of the times, is at the mercy of the God. At least till IPL gets over we can not think other than this with Honorable Agriculture Minister busy with selling cricket. Recently in the first IPL match he was seen triumphantly watching his biggest ever project to go live with a banner above his head which read: “Draught beer is served here!!”, obviously in this show of money, power and glamour who cares about water. It is also heard that he is running his ministry part-time from Cricket Club in Mumbai.

Chain of problems such as irregular monsoon, floods, draughts and poor farm output has left Indian food storages looking like abysmal pits. Farmers are hopeless and are increasingly looking at other professions. They are selling farms to Real Estate Developers and moving to urban areas where they are hoping to get some work may be in hell-like conditions. Many farmers are looking at commercial crops rather than food crops. All this is fueling a sharp rise in commodity prices and the inflation is already at three year's peak.

Actual condition is even worse and 7% does not depict it in true sense. Calculation of inflation is infamous for irrational and disproportionate weight to various parameters, but when we are concerned with food prices, which are applicable to everyone in the country, the situation is far more challenging. The opinion that inflation should be calculated differently for different segments of society, is increasingly gaining support. For poor people proportion of food will be far more than that for higher class who can afford to buy electronic gadgets. These gadgets have no place in a poor’s life.

As election year has arrived, various governments are doling out freebies to every segment of the society be it farmers, government employees or backward classes. But the question that has to be asked is how many of these efforts are going to pay off in the long run? Are these steps capable to fill the empty food storages? It is not that the government has done nothing, but the sincerity of efforts is required and a long term approach. It has tried to tackle this problem through increased imports of food commodities but the poor port infrastructure in the country is not capable to handle that much load and increased imports are not long term solution.

The need of the time is to use resources thoughtfully and not giving them freely to get some more votes. These freebies are not going to help any of the parties in the long run and the real victim will be Republic of India.

WKL: World Kabaddi League

2008-04-11T09:48:00.004+05:30

I am not finding appropriate words to write about this topic as I am really excited about the idea. The idea is WKL: World Kabaddi League. Akalis in Punjab have come up with this idea on the same lines as IPL, ICL, EPL or for that matter any xxL. It is really good to see money flowing to other sports not just Cricket.

The developments so far are very satisfactory and are moving forward in a professional way. Many of the international clubs are being roped in to make it an international level event. Besides this, the talks are on to bring in corporates just like BCCI has done for IPL. Punjab which is a fort of Indian kabaddi is really upbeat about it and because of huge rich NRI base they are expecting good financial support also.

So what will be the impact of this move in the long run? My opinion is that it will have a long lasting and far-fetching impact. This will popularize traditional sports in the country and will motivate the masses for the sports. For the people who don't have access to facilities like world class coaches and stadium or trainers it will be a morale booster. Also because of its short time duration it can be an idea will fit for broadcasting in prime time slot. This power packed game which has its roots deep down the Indian Sub-Continent surely has the potential to become a next big thing in Indian sports industry though may not be as big as IPL, but will certainly generate an appeal.

Looking forward to it's success...

Book Review: The High Performance Entrepreneur

2008-04-02T16:04:00.007+05:30

It was one of the few occasions that I finished a book in a such a short duration. As I went on reading it, the book seemed more and more interesting to me. This time the book was 'The High Performance Entrepreneur' by Subroto Bagchi our(MindTree's) outgoing COO and now the first Gardner.

Looking at the title one might be tempted to assume that the book is all about 'How to become an entrepreneur', but many such people will be disappointed to find out that it is not. The book can help a person who has decided to go to the entrepreneurship way or planning to go to. The book guides and gives some pointers that have to be taken care of while planning for or working in start-up. This is equally useful for the entrepreneurs and the persons who want to join some start-up as well.

In a step by step fashion the book neatly discusses what must be followed by the other, from idea to implementation, then success, then IPO(if required at all). Citing various examples he has told where one is expected make mistakes and how one can avoid them. It is a Gita for the entrepreneurs that preaches Karma, Karma with purity.

Being in MindTree now I can appreciate various things which looked so insignificant to me that I hardly noticed them earlier. I can now co-relate many things with the mission, vision and DNA of MindTree and can see how those small things are important for the sound health of the organization and how these tings have contributed to make MindTree one of the best employers year after year. For such a young organization considering these many parameters is not a small task.

Finally, not just entrepreneurs or the people who work in start-ups, this book can be useful to anybody working in any industry to appreciate the spirit of the organization and can incite her to work towards achieving a common goal. I believe everyone should get benefited with this work filled with immense amount of real time experience in the field of Entrepreneurship.

It's Final Now: Rover-Jaguar to TATA

2008-03-26T09:12:00.003+05:30

This will be the writing of one more chapter in the book of Indian Inc's expedition on the international front, written in Golden Letters. Mr. Ratan Tata does it again. After months of speculations and parlance between the two sides, TATAs have clinched the deal keeping all the stakeholders happy. This deal is not just another M&A deal though its size is much less than that of Corus or Novelis deal. These two brands are cult brands in the western world and command a great respect all over the world. Recently TATA group came on the center state of the automotive world with its Nano, the cheapest car in the world. Now this deal has made them one of the top players in the industry, covering almost the entire chain. TATA group now makes trucks, buses, passenger cars, SUVs and luxury cars too. Besides this it has tie-ups with various other big names in the industry such as Fiat, Hitachi etc for performing some other critical functions such as distribution and assembling. In the begining many of the western world pundits raised the concerns that TATA does not fit with the might and height of these brands, TATAs have done it again. He has assured all the parties involved of his continuing support to them as he did in the case of Corus.

I heartily congratulate Mr. Tata for doing all these magical stuff and bringing pride to the Indians. Hats Off to Mr. Ratan Tata.

Science of Blogging

2008-03-13T18:37:00.002+05:30

Around three years ago I didn't even know the term 'blog'. When I saw some of my friends working on a project on mobile blogging, I was amazed by their idea but even then also I did not even bother to check out what a blog was. I was in this same state of trance for the next two more years, then one day something happened to me. I wanted to be a 'blogger'. All of a sudden it started looking so cool to me. It was more than an year ago. So, I created my blog, wrote some geeky crap and I didn't dare to ask someone to read it. I thought that it was my first and last post. Thanks to bench that I was forced to do something just for the sake of doing something . I rediscovered blogging 5-6 moths back, but it again started dying after a few blogs. Till that time also I was a blogger on a lonely island.

It was only some days back that I got the enlightenment. I started reading about the 'Science of Blogging' and believe me, I have come to know a lot of new things like, why do people blog? Some blog for fun, some for money, some to release their frustration(I started with this!), some for networking and some for intellectual reasons. The styles of blogging are also very different(I am not talking about writing style); some people write original stuff, straight from their mind and heart, some just write overviews(movie, book, cricket), there are many who just rephrase the articles of others(a distorted form of plagiarism!), some are consistent on a particular theme or topic while their are many who burp anything or everything they eat ranging from Cinema to Sports, Politics to business, Travel to Fiction. Anything under the Sun.

After reading experts' opinion I have come to know that every style of blogging has it's own pros and cons. For the bloggers who like to write on any topic, getting new topics is not that difficult and this also provides variety to readers. The argument against this approach is that, generally these blogs attract non-serious kind of audience and does not help a blogger who wishes to gain expertise in some particular domain(Sports, Business, Politics etc). According to many experts branding of such blogs is difficult and if somebody is serious about revenue generation out of his/her blog, domain specific approach is better, as it can fetch you better and relevant advertisements.

Blogging has come a very log way from being just another hobby(mainly for techies) to a different kind of media altogether. The power of blogging is now well recognized all over by Corporate, Market Research agencies, government and media. New rules of blogging business/game are written each and everyday. Big corporate giants are looking at Corporate Blogs as an effective medium to connect to their customers and other stake holders to get feedback and discuss various issues. NGOs are using it as a tool to raise their voice for their cause and shaping public opinion, general public is using it as a tool to give their opinion, free lancers are using it to connect to their clients and promote their ideas, blogs are also being used as alumni networking widely. Besides this fun and humor is always their. Sensing the potential of blogging business many bloggers have become full-time bloggers. They are taking blogging from (some_blogger).(some_blog).com to (some_blogger).com and many of them are very successful in their efforts. Numerous seminars are being organized to discuss the technical, social and business aspects of blogging.

It is quite apparent that blogging is now not just any other hobby or some new creative business idea, it is has become quite mature now and world is paying serious attention to it. The day is not very far when universities will couple courses on blogging with other fine arts courses!

Confluence – An initiative for learning and growth

2008-03-12T15:54:00.002+05:30

After joining MindTree in July campus batch we underwent two months long rigorous training. No doubt the training provided immense learning opportunities both in technical and non-technical field, various other activities that are being held in the organization time to time also provide us opportunities to learn and also have fun. Many MindTree minds are contributing in some or the other organizational activities, be it Osmosis, some charity work, mini marathon, blood donation camp or something else.

I also grabbed one such opportunity to contribute my part when there was a call to volunteer for the newly created Campus Council, which is now given the name as Confluence, meaning flowing together. This is an initiative to enhance the partnership with various institutes where MindTree goes for the campus placements. From each institute some volunteers are selected to represent it into the council and they will be called as Campus Ambassadors and two senior MindTree minds are designated as Campus Sponsors for each of the institutes. The idea is to visit these campuses at least once every quarter and conduct some sessions and workshops which will be beneficial to the students. Besides this, a lot of emphasis is being put on the long term relationship building with the institutes by involving faculty and management who are continuing force for such initiatives. Campus teams have come up with their plans and have already started visiting the campuses and the response has been very positive so far. Some of the interesting ideas are:

Panel discussion on IT’s social impact with panel including a Judge, an Editor, A Human Rights Activist.

Discussion on ‘Power of Vision’ using one inspiring video clip.

Importance of process in every aspect of life.

Professional growth and personal growth.

and many more such great ideas with Subroto’s interactive session with students being the highlight event in one of the institutes.

Apart from being an organizational activity this initiative is a great learning opportunity for all the participants. On one hand it is providing a great opportunity for the volunteers to meet and discuss with many senior minds, while on the other hand it is a platform where senior minds are can understand and appreciate the needs, concerns and thinking of the college students and Campus Minds. Besides this, I believe that this activity will help to add to the confidence and soft skills of the volunteers as they are bridging different entities situated at distant locations and having different expectations and notions. This requires a lot of skills and efforts.

Overall I believe that this is a great initiative and will help in making MindTree’s brand in various institutes which is very much essential for the future growth. This also signifies the increasing maturing level of the organization and a process driven environment with a lot of learning opportunities for all the parties involved. I wish luck to Kalyan and team!!

Ailing Aviation Industry

2008-03-12T11:28:00.003+05:30

Once again Indian aviation is on standstill. Due to the tussle between the employees of the Airport Authority of India and the Civil Aviation Ministry, the Airport Union has called for a strike. Many of the airports are badly affected by this move leaving passengers in total confusion. As a precautionary measure Air Force has been put on high alert.

This is not the first time that Airport union is going on strike. Earlier also they have expressed their discontent on the issues like merger of Air India and Indian Airlines, Privatization of Air Ports etc. This is one more blow for already in trouble Aviation Industry in India. Rising fuel prices, increasing operating costs, scarcity of good workforce, cut throat competition and low margins are troubling the industry for past some time. These periodic agitation not only create problems for the passengers but also put burden on the margins of the airlines as they have to anyhow pay the fixed charges. For loss making industry it is one more nail in the coffin.

When we are talking about Globalization, dreaming to make Mumbai an IFC etc such kind of incidents cast shadow of doubt over our sincerity and determination. A world class Aviation Infrastructure with good quality of service is imperative to flourish industries like Financial and Information services. Besides this such incidents push the foreign investors to think of alternative sites for their future projects. The need of the time is re jig the entire air traffic control structure in the country to bring in the efficiency and credibility. Modernization of Delhi and Mumbai can be one step towards achieving this goal yet there a lot of things to be done to free aviation from politics and red tape.

Mother of all realty deals in India

2008-03-12T11:00:00.000+05:30

A never heard of Delhi-based company BPTP has bagged a land deal in Noida for Rs. 5006 Cr. In bidding process BPTP has defeated all the big boys of Indian real estate industry such as DLF, Omaxe and Ansal. For a 95 acre plot they have offered Rs 1,30,207 per sq meter. This deal is certainly the single largest deal of Indian real estate industry.

With this deal the company has come onto the center stage of the real estate industry which is facing a lot of concerns for past few months. This deal can again start the mad rush in which the most of real estate companies were involved but started consolidating for past few months because of many reasons like decreasing real estate prises, US Subprime crises, falling stock markets, inching up inflation numbers etc.

BPTP is not so old company and was established in 2003. So far the company's focus area has been the NCR region with interests in Integrated Township, Residential, IT/ITES, IT-SEZ, Retail, Hospitality. Not so long ago BPTP sold 5% stake to Citi Group and has a tie-up with Merril Lynch to establish a state of the art IT park in Gurgaon. Source

Hooked on Blogging

2008-03-11T16:26:00.000+05:30

Though I first created my blog more than an year ago, it was only when I found myself on bench(waiting for the project) after training at MindTree that I discovered that I can also write or at least can try to write. As there was nothing to do or to think, the name which spontaneously came to my mind for the blog was KhaliDimaag(Empty Mind). I continued with that name and liked it a lot as it was catchy and went fine with a few earlier blogs having a little humourous touch. Later I started writing on more serious issues mainly business and economics related stuff because of my natural interest in such topics, then I was given the feedback that though the content is not that bad, the name of the blog is not serious enough. I was suggested to look for some sensible name and be consistent with the theme. One of my good friends Priyanka suggested to try some cool stuff available to put on the blogs. In past on week I have experimented a lot with my blog as you can see on KhaliDimaag!! and believe me some of them are really cool. Though there are uncountable number of widgets and pulg-ins available, yet the sensible use is suggested. Still I have to try a lot of stuff. It certainly enhanced my knowledge and interest in blogging. Using some of these add-ons we can definitely get some more readers on our blog.

Finally here I am, with this new blog and will try to do justice with the objective of creation of this blog. I plan to write mainly on the business related topics or the topics which have business implications/dimensions. It can be sports(IPL, ICL, Force India) or it can be cinema(Red Chile Entertainment or Aamir Khan Productions ) or Commercialization of Education. I plan to put more creative stuff on KhaliDimaag!! same as before.

I will be obliged if I can get comments and feedbacks on my posts.

2008-03-11T09:16:00.000+05:30

Following are the links of my posts on KhaliDimaag!! which are relevant to the content of this blog. For the sake of completeness I am including these links.

Is Corporate Farming an evil?

Design: A soul Matter

BSNL: Loosing Towering Value

Markets at the Middle of the Pyramid

OSO: Bak se Bakwas

Cricket Bonanza

Getting Started....

2008-03-10T17:31:00.000+05:30

I have created this new blog as my friends told me that my other blog's name is not serious enough. What is your opinion about KhaliDimaag!!.

Well!! i have decided that all the serious stuff will be on this blog and other 'Creative' stuff will go on that blog.