Assembly election results will set the course

With final phase of polling to end with Delhi tonight, now the focus shifts to election results that will be out on 8th December. Assembly elections very close of general elections do give some indication on which party will have edge but more or less the bearing is governed by local issues, incumbency factor or how regional parties are performing. But this election is special. It has been 3 months NaMo was declared prime Ministerial candidate by BJP. In doing so, it has to loose support of its long term ally Janata Dal (U) and many other political supporters. It was a well calculated risk taken by a party that has been affected by its internal problems more than what is happening outside.

Since he took over the charge, Modi has been rallying all over the country and commanding an unprecedented crowd that has been the envy of Rahul Gandhi in whose rally pleas are being made to people to stay. NaMo has got support coming all over from Singapore to United States with even Goldman Sachs bringing report in his favor and Times magazine nominating him for 'Person of the Year' award. With such support, everyone expects him to make huge impact on these state elections. You read social media and you would tend to believe that solution to all of our country's problem is NaMo.

So what can go wrong? If BJP does not win the assembly elections is it because people do not believe in development agenda of NaMo or is it the anti-incumbency wave in MP and Chattisgarh or will it be because of presence of AAP in Delhi elections? You would not mind forgiving Modi if that happens as these elections are being fought on local agenda and issues and NaMo is certainly not expected to make a difference. After all, he has just arrived on national scene and his litmus test will be Lok Sabha elections and not this one.

So why is everyone following these elections? I strongly believe that this election will actually set the stage that whether people have started believing in BJP or whether this one person can bring the change or not? The BJP win despite all the odds mentioned above will indicate whether we have the possibility of decisive government at the centre after the elections or is it going to be politics of opportunistic people standing on a slippery surface. A clear decisive victory will give the companies this hope and they can actually start investing in future plans rather than waiting for general election results in early 2013. Otherwise, it will only delay the process which will slow down the progress.

On a side note, I also believe that we are going to see some impact on our campus recruitment process as it is in someway related with the expansion plans of corporates. We have to wait till 8th Dec to see if there is some positive for us in the results or not!!!

Why I think WINTEL is under pressure

For last many years, Microsoft and Intel have sort of monopoly in the PC (laptop and desktop) despite markets being allowed freely competitive. This kind of monopoly in a consumer industry is rarely seen. Few years back, Unix was gaining popularity, Java-based applications were on a roll and it seemed that Microsoft is under attack. Hard-core developers are still fans of Unix OS. But over last couple of years, I have experienced that Microsoft has come up with large integrated suite of applications with tons of features that makes it easier to work with its operating system. I am not considering iOS as it caters to niche segment and has its own share of limited supporters. In micro-processor space, Intel hardly faced any challenge from any chip manufacturer. In terms of performance, AMD is way behind Intel. Market leadership and monopoly of these two leading companies is popularly known as WINTEL.

So what can go wrong? There is no indication of any competition surfacing even in distant future for these two companies. So why I feel that they would soon be under threat or they would be under fire soon? In my view, they are under pressure from a category which was not perceived as a threat initially and that can change the complexion of the game. Tablet and Smartphones are getting popular day-by-day. The sales are increasing exponentially for these products while for PCs (laptop and desktop), it has been negative in 2013. It is expected that in 2014, the sales for smartphones and tablets will be more than PCs. According to a research report by IDC, by 2017 87% of the connected devices will be smartphones and tablets with only 13% accounted by PCs.

The latest report by Cisco mentioned that there will be more than 3.6 billion internet users by 2017. A couple of years back, most of this traffic was expected to be routed through PCs. In addition, most of this growth was expected to be in emerging markets like India, China. So why PC manufacturers under pressure? Probably the experience or expectation that emerging economies will follow developed world. When smartphones were launched in Europe or US, the PC market was more or less matured and most of the users brought these as add-on devices. Even then users were still comfortable with PCs and there were limitations with iPhone or Blackberry. But things changed drastically with launch of iPad in early 2010. It brought in portability that was not experienced earlier. With launch of Nexus series using Android OS in 2010 and then series of launches by different manufacturers using Android OS, devices became affordable too. Cloud computing has also taken care of the big limitation of storage capacity on smartphones and tablets.

What this all mean that now you do not need a $1000 instrument to just stay connected with your friends or to store your data like music or pictures. Though PC sales are heavily impacted in developed world, it is going to hit PC manufacturers more in emerging countries as it is considered big market. The 'junta' is more than happy with the connectivity provided by 2G and 3G data connection. A single sub-Rs 15000 or $300 price tag for a device that does most of the functions you need. Besides the flexibility of carrying it in your pocket and you do not need to run around searching for internet connection wherever you go. For those who need slightly bigger screens, Phablets do the trick. And in this space, we have large number of OS and chip manufacturers and WINTEL has not even started to capture the ground. Even the Ultrabooks are not catching fascination as was expected.

So where does this leave WINTEL? The sales of PC will still continue in corporate world. I will still need MS office to do my work faster and better on a laptop. But instead of buying a personal laptop outside the one which office will give, I would probably buy a Phablet. There have been launch of OS for mobile by Microsoft but it is to create a space for itself and to garner some market share from iOS and Android. Similarly Intel has started focusing on mobile microprocessor but Qualcomm or ARM has already occupied the market share. Both have missed the bus, especially Microsoft and I believe that the days of WINTEL supremacy are numbered. I do not see any trick up their sleeve, and many laptop manufacturers have already started selling smartphones (like Lenovo, Dell etc). I think it is going to meet fate like Blackberry. Just as smartphones killed camera, it is also going to deliver similar blows to PCs. Till then, Wintel can just hope to make as much money as they can.

 

Fed Tapering - Good or Bad for India?

Stock markets goes into a swing as and when there is a news on 'tapering' by US. If there is a news on push back, the markets react positively but the moment there is an news on 'tapering' being implemented, the market goes onto a tailspin. Lets first understand what actually is 'tapering' that is generating so much instability in markets world over. 

We know that short-term interest rates are reduced whenever a need is there to stimulate growth. But in the process, Fed reduced the rate effectively to zero which means that there was no scope further to stimulate growth. US Fed used Quantitative Easing to fuel growth that meant it started buying long term financial assets or bonds from commercial banks and private institutions that was aimed at reducing the yield on bonds that would have led to lowering of borrowing costs ultimately fueling growth. There has been so far three round of QEs popularly known as QE1, QE2 and QE3 through 2008 to 2013. Recently there was a news that the US would gradually reduce funding to this bond purchase program that is commonly known as 'tapering'.


From 2008 to 2010, Fed pumped in more than $2 trillions in the financial markets and kept in pumping more money as we can see. However, it did not translated into growth in US markets as was expected. The growth normally is realized if the money available with banks through this program is lend to local borrowers. Then where did this money go? On one hand, when the growth was stagnated in US and European markets, Asian economies like China, Singapore, India were not effected by this global downturn. Even though business were experiencing slow growth, property market and stock market was booming. To think of it, ideally 'tapering' should not have any effect on global market as Fed stimulus was aimed at reviving US economy and as it seems reviving, Fed is withdrawing the stimulus. It should be a local phenomenon .

So it can be safely assumed that Fed stimulus has actually made way to these emerging economies. Financial and private Institutions of US have been investing the Asian countries particularly India  and China. Between 2009-2012, property prices in India have more than doubled, inflation has assumed alarming proportions with no sight of it slowing down, and most of the stocks returning more than 20% despite no growth signs. Though exchange rate fell from over 50 in 2009 to 45 in 2010, it was almost stagnant at 45 rupees a dollar till mid 2012. My guess is that to keep the exchange rate competitive, Central Bank pumped more rupees into the Indian economy. Ideally this should have translated into investments for future growth of the economy, but that was not the case.


Is QE responsible for this?

So where did all this extra money go? Most of the money made its way into the property market. That probably was reason for such high appreciation in property markets.  I know many a friends of mine who have shifted their focus from their industries to real estate. Also as more and more money was available into the hands of public, this was also one reason for high inflation during this period. In last five years, average inflation rate was also high at around 9% over last 5 years, and  unfortunately for us, it did not translated into growth of Indian economy.

 

With tapering, financial institutions in US would need the money for paying for bonds on maturity and they would be taking back the money pumped into emerging economies like India. With no buyers and large number of sellers, this could actually led to collapse of stock markets and property bubble burst in India (and other economies). Though Us government has been giving mixed signals on tapering, there is a huge risk of this happening. RBI governor is aware of this and probably the reason for tightening of monetary policy since he took charge. But the risk still looms and we all should be prepared for this plunge.

But I also have a view is that though tapering is going to impact us in short term, it will be beneficial in long term as the recent inflation was not growth-led. This might actually turn out to be blessing in disguise and may led to revival of Indian economy. It might also bring back local investors to stock market who have been shying away because of prevailing uncertainty. Property market might bring in actual buyers rather that speculative investors. It is a hope for now that can turn into an opportunity by effective fiscal and monetary policy and efforts from the government. Hoping for it to happen!

Prayaas Day - We tried and made the Difference



Jaipur Foot Camp at Work

Nine-year old girl Ayesha has come from Bijapur with her parents to this camp. As she was walking back after getting the calipers, she was literally running. I saw glitter in her eye and her happiness was there to see. Alternatively, take the case of 30-year-old Rajanna from Tumkur who went with a belief that now he can go back and support his family again. At the eye camp on other corner, many patients would get treatment for cataract soon and would be able to work. These are some of the moments that made us believe that we did our bit and made the difference.



Lets do our bit

 

EPGP students at IIMB started Prayaas initiative 4–years ago and its activities are synonymous with its tagline, let’s do our bit. As part of its annual event, Prayaas Day, it organized two medical camps in the institute on 27^th Oct 2013. One camp was to provide artificial limb or the famed Jaipur Foot for amputees and callipers for Polio ridden patients or those with weak limbs. The other was to diagnose and treat eye related ailments ranging from simple vision defects such as refractive problems to cataract and optical nerve damages. The camp was a major success and attracted participants from people as far as Bellary. Fifty patients will get benefit from Jaipur Foot Camp of which 41 were beneficiary on the spot. The daylong eye camp benefited 130 patients of which 26 patients will be treated for cataract and 31 will be provided glasses. The complete cost for camp and treatment will be borne by Prayaas (T) that runs mainly with contributions from EPGP students.



Camp Inauguration

Our Director and Dean (Academic) Professor Devanath Tirupati inaugurated the event

in atraditional way by lighting the lamp and handing over the first Jaipur Foot, calipers and crutches. He congratulated the EPGP students for continuing with the tradition and finding ways to expand the volume and scope of its activities in providing ground level help to the needy.  

T S Guruprasad visited the camp from Bellary; he had lost his limb in an accident 2 years back and he had come to the camp back for a limb replacement. Story of his will power and the transformation in life brought by prosthetic limb was a source of inspiration to the students as well as other patients.


Lending a helping hand





Complete IIMB community supported the camp with volunteers from every program of the Institute. Everyone including Professors, students of EPGP, PGP, FPM, PGPPM, exchange-program, spouses of students, EPGP office and staff, contributed towards making this camp hugely successful. Kajal, wife of an EPGP student and a physiotherapist, helped lot of people with medical advice.

 

PGP students said that it is a small industry that has been set-up in campus for this camp and was a good learning experience too. For Valentin, Alice and Johanna, who are here from universities in Europe on exchange-program, this was a unique experience. Alice, student from Italy, was amazed with scale of camp and said, “It’s good to see people walking on new leg and the way you are putting effort to provide this for free to them”. In my words, “The joy and satisfaction you get when you bring smile to someone cannot be expressed through words. You have to feel it when people who came to camp on wheelchair, walk back on their own”.

Truly, sometimes the little tears of joy make a difference.  



Eye Camp

Singapore Diary - Part V (and last)

Merlion Statue

Day 11 at NUS revolved around Real estate market and Prof Lum Sau Kim from NUS gave insights to the real estate is market growth in APAC which is expected to be twice the size of Europe market by 2031. Singapore government is a major player in providing housing to most of the population. Most of the people just buy property here and keep it as safe investment rather than putting it out on rent. On a side note, the estate brokers or developers make the money the same way as they do in India (by offering attractive interest rate at appreciated property price).

Next session was on Integrated Media Communications by Prof May Lwin, NUS. I was always amused how a child identifies chocolates so quickly and here I learnt that children have 200% more identification and sensory powers than normal adults which explains the behavior.

The last session of day was quite interesting where Mr. David Shaw talked about the challenges in marketing communications, how things can go wrong and how simple mistakes can lead to major implications. He revealed interesting marketing campaigns which went wrong and what should be done to prevent it. For example, an advertisement on Van for 'STARBUCKS' is displayed as 'SUCKS' when the van door is open :) or a Turkish Airlines advertisement on escalator looked like a plane falling down or how taking the customer for granted lead to loss of millions of dollars when that customer released a music album highlighting the incident on YOUTUBE.

Day 12 began with talk by My Anshuman Gupta, CEO, Strontium who talked about his journey, the challenges he faced in setting up a company, and how he created a space for himself in a market dominated by big players. He talked about some innovative marketing like putting logo instead of brand name, packaging in yellow color, targeting products for cars etc. Lesson for any start-up is to find fortune at bottom of pyramid. Next we had interaction with Prof Nitin Pangarkar who talked about strategies of Asian companies. How Kodak failed to capitalize on its competency with the introduction of digital cameras or how FAVNE has captured more than 60% of market in Robotics. In the evening we had meeting with Prof Sekhar for delivery of Smart City Project and he was very impressed with the work done by us. He also put forward the opportunity to continue working on this project after the immersion program and we gladly accepted the proposal.

Day 13


EPGP V Cohort

All Smiles

Last day of our exciting international immersion trip began with a photo shoot (required for brochure ;)) for the whole batch at NUS campus. Afterwards we had an interesting chat with Mr. Cecil Leong on challenges in business Environment and strategies which should be adopted to mitigate them. We also had pep talk by Mr. Ajay Jaiswal on wealth management and Christina Lim from Ocean Health on her journey to entrepreneurship. Our journey at NUS culminated with certificate presentations and a small gift by NUS. Afterwards, we went to Siemens building to see the advancement and research they have made in smart cities. We also had some fun with a working model towards building Smart sustainable city.


With this our journey to this interesting land of opportunities came to an end. It is really a wonderful country with so many opportunities and which has become a financial center without any natural resources or good weather. They do face challenges but those are anticipated and are dealt well. During the night went for shopping for some toys at Mustafa center, which is only place in Singapore which run 24*7. Its journey towards becoming shopping hub for locals is one of the many success stories hidden in streets of Singapore.

Some memories....



 

Ice Kachang - Expression says it all :)

Let the race begin

The tour ends

 

Singapore Diary - Part IV

Alum Meet

Our only weekend
IIMB Alumni meet has been organized over the weekend so as to explore the business environment and opportunities and learn from their experiences. The alums first mentioned important takeaways from their career journey and there was 45 minutes of Q&A session. An important part of this meet was that we were divided into groups of 4-5 to have informal chat for 1 hour. I was particularly impressed with the humility and frankness of alums.


In the evening, we went to marina bay Sands to try our luck at Casino and I was surprised to learn that locals actually have to pay fees of S$ 100 for getting entry, and entry was free for the tourists.
We have heard a lot about Sentosa Island and one of the must visit places in Singapore. It is an artificial man-made beach and fun park and is frequented by everyone who comes to Singapore. No wonder a small country like Singapore is having so many tourists. It has worked very well within the constraints it had and developed its economy.

Day 9



Smart Cities, Siemens perspective

For week 2, the primary focus was on the industry and to learn about new developments here. One of the interesting concepts we learnt on this trip is about Smart Cities. As part of our international project, we are working with Prof Sekhar Kondepudi on defining Smart Cities and the work done so far on this. Monday was an interesting day with senior people from Siemens, Cisco, IBM discussed in detail on Smart City work, progress being made, lessons learnt so far and the opportunities it presents in future. Prof Sekhar discussed about the need for Smart Cities. He revealed mind boggling numbers on the data lying around and how most of it is unstructured. The way we are using the natural resources, there will be need to work on concepts of smart sustainable cities. We also had a chat with Mr. Steffen Endler, Siemens on their view and research projects. They have developed an interesting model to rate and compare the current city health which gives good indicator on where a city should target and invest to improve the quality of life of its people.

Mr. Gordon from Cisco has worked on a live project on Masdar, a new smart city being developed in Abu Dhabi. He discussed his experiences, views and lessons learnt. Some of the questions raised were around the return on investment, green energy and funding for smart cities. Similarly we had a session by Dr. Chen-Ritzo Ching-hua where she explained the research being done by IBM on these projects. How IBM is making inroads on such projects and why it makes sense for them to explore this area.  We also had some insight into the way Sodexho is doing business. They have discovered a unique opportunity in providing quality of life services at remote sites for industrial projects. Later in the day, we had a panel discussion with these speakers where people clarified their queries. I was wondering that this concept actually presents new wave of business opportunity as it is an elite market and cities and countries are making huge investments in such projects.


Discussion with our mentor


In evening we had a meeting with our project mentor, Prof Sekhar to discuss on the progress of the project and how we should take it forward. We discussed on the content of report and what areas to be targeted in report.

Day 10
The day started with session by Jayson Goh on Media companies and what lies in future. There will not be any need for typing in future and the machines will understand what you speak. This can open up whole sea of opportunities ad one critical barrier in using technology will be made redundant. Afterwards, the sessions revolved around the waste and water management in Singapore. Environment business is one of the biggest industries (to the tune of $300 billion) in the world today as all the nations are fighting to manage it. Singapore has very limited source of natural water and is dependent on water pact they had signed with Malaysia years ago which is due to expire. Besides this source, it is very costly to process sea water. Within these constraints, they invested in technology to recycle water. The water recycling technology is so advanced that one can drink water from any tap in Singapore as it meets WHO standards.

We also had a visit planned in the evening to water processing unit and waste management plant. Almost all the waste in Singapore is incinerated and is used to produce energy. This helps in dealing with the waste produced. The ash from the plant is dumped at a remote site in ocean and there is a plan to use that site once it is completely filled.

Singapore Diary - Part III

 

Preparing for the Friday event

Since the time I have landed here, there has not been a single day when this small country has failed to amaze me. I mean even Delhi is more than twice the area of the size of this country. Here people pay almost ten times more than what I pay in India for owning a car. Imagine paying 50 lakhs for a Swift or 90 lakhs for Toyota Corolla!!! The weather is not at all pleasant, cost of living is high, single party system, caning is still prevalent as mode of punishment and what not, but still it is a favorite destination amongst businesses as well as tourists. Unfortunately, even though Indians contribute a lot to the Singaporean economy, corporates or policy makers are hardly betting on India which can be interpreted from the discussions we had or presentations that were shown.


Trying Chinese Lunch

 Just the other day, there was a discussion on Chinese culture and surprised to hear that it is not difficult to distinguish a Singaporean Chinese from China Chinese. It was an eye-opener to know that Indian and Chinese culture have similar elements. We had tryst with Chinese food and our effort to use chopsticks were marked with irony. I am not joking, and it is quite an effort to eat with chopsticks and it in a way proves that these folks are really hard working. It is another story that most of us went to food court to satiate their tummies. In the afternoon, we had quite a productive discussion at Research Management Institute at NUS where we got to learn about the mechanism being followed by different rating agencies around the world. The common aspect between rating agencies is that everyone uses around the same data source but come up with different rankings based on their evaluation mechanism.
 


Understanding Art and Culture

The sessions at NUS are slowly getting serious with talks by Industry experts, business houses and government agencies in Singapore. We got deep understanding on how Singapore is controlling its exchange rate against basket of currencies despite being a surplus economy. An industry talk session by CEO of CWT Limited was quite fruitful. We always thought that China is the place for cheap labor, but was quite interesting to note that Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia are much cheaper. Despite pay higher rise expected in these, they would still be cheaper than China. Also learnt about the efficient cargo clearing capability of Singapore where 80% of cargo is cleared in 8 minutes while 100% is done in 15 minutes!!!
 

Jurong port

The talk by Zafar Momin who is on board of MapleTree Trust was quite interactive with many counterviews with regard to strategy and implementation coming up. The discussion was mostly centered on real-life and he stressed on understanding rather than memorizing. He mentioned lot of interesting quotes one of which is, "If the going is too easy, may be you are scratching the surface". Explained in simple words that life is challenging and nothing comes easy. We also visited Jurong Port which is a privately managed port in Singapore primarily handling cement cargos. I was pretty excited for this as I have never been to any shipping facility before. We also had a visit to Ikea Factory and got insights into its marketing and sales strategy. The layout is designed in a very convenient way so as to make it easy for any customer and at the same time optimizes its operations cost. No wonder they sell the stuff cheap and most of us contributed to Ikea cash flow that day :).

Singapore Diary - Part II

Astonished

Our discussions next day were focused on the Singapore, how it progressed despite having minimal resources and its development as a major hub for transport. We were surprised with the story of turning itself into a major financial center since its Independence. Probably the single party system played a big role in this. There was a fascinating comparison between roving vs. stationary bandit wherein even if there is a bandit who does not change places, it will be to his benefit that locality grows as he will have more at his disposal for his adventures. Another interesting fact was that there is no multiplier effect in Singapore economy because if leakages in system - hard to believe this for this fast paced economy. One has to appreciate the development advancement and infrastructure in this small city of 710 sq. km where more than 20% land is reclaimed from sea. Not sure how much ecological impact will have on the environment and marine life. 
 
We had a small talk on the movement of global economy around China and it has taken a shift from the time when it was centered on Japan and US. One astonishing observation was the role China is playing in the development of East Asian countries and how it is benefitting from it. India it seems is being left out because of its foreign policy which is not focused on East Asia. For example, we are not utilizing our historical ties with Myanmar for increasing trade with mineral rich Myanmar while China is making significant inroads because of our lax policy.
 


Should we invest here?

Post lunch, we had a lecture on the Aviation industry by Prof Anthony Chin, Academic Director for EPGP immersion. He described how aviation industry is fueling economic growth and what are the new models developing. Like what has been implemented in Tiger Airlines where there are charges for every single feature which were earlier considered basics in airline industry. There was an interesting talk on the port development and it’s financing.
 
I think Singapore has done a commendable job in coming this far. In the words of first PM of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew, "there was no secret; we had no choice but to take a chance and sail into rough waters.” There are many lessons to be learnt from Singapore development by other countries like political stability, quality of governance, high salaries to ministers, openness, high cost of rebellion, single party system. We might not agree with all, but this model is effectively working for them.


Lets find some rodents

To surrender or not?

Of course we had our fun moments during the day. Some of us roamed around appreciating the beauty of campus while some were busy shooting rodents. So far, every day is bringing something new about this small country along with interesting cuisine. One thing I got to know is that this country is all about food and people love eating all the time. I have not find so many food joints and restaurants in every nook and corner even in India.

Singapore Diary - Part 1

Start of Journey

Waiting for boarding pass

As soon as we got breather from Term II exams on 16th August, the focus shifted to the 2 weeks international immersion program in Singapore, one of the top ten financial centers of the world. The enthusiasm of the batch was there to see and it reminded me of my school/college trips. Even though I have had numerous trips to Americas and Europe, a trip to East Asian was a first to me like to many of us and probably first trip outside the country for few of us. We boarded the 12:45 AM flight to Singapore to begin our 2 weeks journey at NUS. Once at the Singapore airport, most of us bought some stuff at duty free shops to take care of essentials for next 2 weeks.

 

Singapore, we are here

As we stepped out of airport, I was reminded of the sticky weather of Chennai or the hot summers of Delhi. It was totally different from the pleasant weather of Bangalore I have been enjoying for last 5 months. Once we were at our hotel, most of us dozed off to catch the lost sleep of previous night, while the higher mortals went to take a dip at the swimming pool. In the evening, it was time to browse the happenings all around. We went to Bugis mall which was quite close to our hotel. The first day itself, I realized that it is going to be challenging here to satisfy my vegetarian appetite, though my friends with taste of meat loved the variety of delicacies on offer.

 

 

First Day at NUS

 

Next morning, we started our first day at sprawling green and splendid NUS campus. It is lush beautiful and very well maintained. At the university, we were welcomed by Professor Tilak from Department of Economics, NUS. With that we kick started our journey to understand ASEAN economies. The first lecture by Professor Shandre provided invaluable insights to the ASEAN countries, their distribution and economic progress. We also learnt about how ASEAN countries have progressed from 2000 to 2011 after the Asian financial crisis of 1998 and also the impact of recent financial crisis of 2008 on the progress in these countries.

 

While in India, we keep on hearing about China and its fast paced growth, and it was no exception here. We also learnt that though China can play strong role in US, European economies etc. but they do have big challenge of managing social unrest. This blip aside, China is in fact a major player in ASEAN economy and the impact of growth in China is clearly visible here. An interesting aspect to know was that growth in Australia is directly influenced by growth in China as it exports most of the minerals to China. After that we had discussion on how India fits into the scheme of things at ASEAN and the trade pact, AIFTA, which India has with ASEAN. The drivers for growth in both regions were elaborated as India is a supply driven economy while ASEAN is demand driven economy. As mentioned by Prof Shandre, India has to improve on its policy making, Infrastructure and Innovation in its vision for 2020 and to have big impact on this region.

 

Later we had superb business insights by Mr. Sameer Arora, founder and Fund Manager, Helios Capital Fund. The discussion was very candid and he had a story for every situation. One interesting question was on the depreciation of rupee if exchange rate changes from 50 to 60 for a dollar. Most of us were caught at wrong foot as all along we have been calculating dollar appreciation and not rupee depreciation. Another takeaway was that there are cyclical changes in the equity markets and we should not be afraid of it. The best time to invest is when the market is slow as then you can get larger returns in long run.

 

Post Lunch we had meeting with Prof Sekhar for the project on Smart Cities. This is part of our international group project being driven by ITU for United Nations. We discussed the plan and deliverables for the project. With that we ended our first day at NUS.

Is Congress playing into the hands of NaMo?

While we all are busy washing dirty linen for last 2 days, my thoughts wandered towards the fancied ways NaMo is adopting to arrive at the big political scene and the flutter being generated by his 'puppy' comments. It was only few months back that BJP was struggling to find a leader who can spearhead their campaign for next General elections and bring them back to power. And then they have been taken over by this NaMo effect.

It is known to everyone including the Congress party that they have very difficult chance of coming back to power and BJP thought they had great chance to grab top post. But what they were missing was a charismatic leader - one who can keep the flock together and who can decrease the dissidence prevalent in the party. It is surprising to note that after initial cribbing, most of the voices within BJP against the elevation of NaMo has gone silent. The elevation has had an exponential effect on the morale of RSS cadres who does all the ground work. It seems that someone has infused fresh leash of life into them.

The point to ponder is whether Congress has enough ammunition to ward off this threat and gift 'yuvraj' coveted post in the country. Is it only a veil on secularism which will be sufficient and even if it makes a difference, is Congress overdoing it? The way comments are coming in from senior Congress leaders indicates that everyone who is a Hindu is communal and everyone else is secular. Within no time, BJP has been branded a communal party and a threat to country's secularism culture. In my opinion, the elevation of NaMo has come at an opportune time as this mud-slinging campaign against communism would live its life much before the elections.

I must appreciate the meticulous and articulate work his team is putting in to make this person larger than life and ensuring that NaMo has very high visibility in all sections of society. The recent 'puppy' remark has generated a lot of controversy. Was it a slip of tongue or deliberate act on his part? To brand himself as a 'Hindu' nationalist has been condemned by various other parties. Only a fool would believe that NaMo had accidentally generated such controversies. He plans his acts very carefully and never have seen him making any controversial statements. One thing is for sure that this guy is garnering huge chunk of publicity at Congress' expense and expanding his reach.

Many will agree that NaMo likes to focus his campaign on development agenda and probably he is just ensuring that Congress and all the 'secular' parties run out of any ammunition they have and then he can start propagating his agenda. Since he would have reach to larger parts of society thanks to Congress, people would actually like to evaluate him and I doubt he will then create any furore with any such controversial comments.

It looks quite obvious to me that controversies are being created with larger cause in mind. Instead of focusing on the remark, it will do political parties more good to look behind the scenes and probably unearth a bigger picture. The comments are not directed to any section of society but they are being made to appear like that.

Doing our bit for the community - the EPGP way

“Do you see those Twinkling eyes? PRAYAAS is all about keeping that hope alive & help build the future!!! A Small Nutrition related initiative by PRAYAAS in Magadi..."
 
Prayaas, as the name explains, is the small initiative by IIMB EPGP students to do their bit for the society and contribute towards making this world a little better. One of the key drives started in 2012 by Prayaas team was 'Project Nutrition' at Rajeev Gandhi Colony in Magadi in district Ramanagara. This project nutrition was started with the aim of creating a sustained activity and was very close to EPGP 2012. As part of this, children from the age group of 1-5 years are provided milk enriched with nutritional malt. This provides children with necessary supplements and aids in normal growth. 

Prayaas Team with NGO workers

Eleven of us (Chithra, Hari, Kiran, Partha, Krishna, Rahul, Nilesh, Vishal, Sampath, Ravi and myself) went to Magadi Village after our classes last Friday immediately after lunch. Enroute we saw the hills where blockbuster movie Sholay was shot. However, Chithra was not convinced despite sufficient evidence. We reached Magadi at 3:30 PM and were fortunate to reach at the same time when the nutritional milk was being served to the children. The children seemed to be quite happy with the enriched milk being provided to them. We met Saroja who is helping us in making this project successful and overseeing all the activities related with this. Saroja works with a Chiguru, a NGO, and is actively involved in the activities at Magadi. She mentioned that Rajeev Gandhi Colony is a designated slum and the inhabitants are the migrants from a small village in Tamil Nadu.
 
Government has done their part by opening a primary school and providing mid-day meals as part of Anganwadi project for children less than 5 years of age. During the talks it came out that parents of these kids are spending their earnings in alcohol and do not provide milk or any other additional nutritional food to their children. We felt that children are being deprived of necessary nutrients because of this ignorance by their parents. This was key reason for need of such a project and where we are making a difference. The malt is being prepared in house by NGO as it is very costly to purchase readymade nutritional supplements. The project runs throughout the year except for 15 days in June when the school is also closed and most of the families go to their native places.


Project Nutrition bringing smiles

 
We had some questions on how the success of the project is evaluated and the logistics involved. Normally statistics like weight and height are evaluated every couple of months which gives an indication of health of children. This project is helping in improving the health of around 50 children where 15 are in age group 1-3 and 35 are in age group 3-5. The total cost involved is ~Rs 10k to 12k pm including cost of milk, malt, the salary of person coordinating it. The total cost of project comes to ~Rs 1.3 lakh that is totally funded by Prayaas.
 
After going around the colony, we felt that there is still lot which can be done here. The Anganwadi teacher rightly pointed that lack of family planning is the basic reason behind most of the troubles. The parents do not give sufficient gap between births leading to malnutrition in these kids. We felt that these parents need to be educated probably taking the help of an NGO. It seems that they need easy access to medical facilities. Though there is a government hospital but the situation is not good. We are planning to collect toys and clothes which can be distributed to these kids and will help in bringing more smiles. We are also planning to organize some fund raising activities which will help in sustaining these activities and in doing more.
 
Every single smile brings more happiness in this world.


P.S. While returning back, we did made a stop to buy some vegetables to carry forward another legacy initiated by previous batch.

Much Needed Breather and Happy Time With Family

 

Finally the 1st term exams concluded and it was such a huge relief. It felt like we have been released from prison. I must admit that this was even tougher than mid-term as it required quite a bit of commitment and dedication to remain connected for 1 whole week at a stretch coping with vastly diverse subjects. The end term party came as a good breather. Kudos to all the organizers Dinkar, Hitesh, Puneet, Tamanna, Archi, Jaya, Sarita, Poornima etal for organizing such a wonderful event during a period when each one of us was struggling to find time for studies. The retro theme was synonymous with what we all have been experiencing so far at EPGP and reminiscent of earlier college life.

It was a double exciting moment for me to meet my family after 2 whole months. Anshu and Arnav landed in Bangalore at the same moment I came out of examination hall after last exam. There were few more whose family arrived around the same day and I must say that it has not been easy for our families to stay away. It is their support and wishes which is keeping us going and helping us to cope with this rigorous program. Such is the rigor of this program that exams finish on Saturday and new term starts from Monday. It was apt that my family was here for a week.

The workload was very light during the start of term and I was able to have some good time with Anshu and Arnav. The weather has become much more pleasant during this 1 week. Besides, I tried to have some time off from my impending project assignments. We made a trip to Bannerghatta National Park along with Kiran and his family. Had heard a lot about the safari and both the kids enjoyed a lot there. For Arnav, it was the first time he saw all those wild animals so closely and a memorable trip for him. Both Arnav and Loukya were very excited when we visited the zoo later. Alas while coming back it rained very heavily and it was good exercise for me and Kiran to run towards the parking area.

Anshu was particularly impressed by the weather here and she is now tempted to stay at Bangalore. I might be shooting in my foot but I might be inclined to start another innings in this lovely city. The last week has been quite satisfying for my potbelly too with likes of paranthas in breakfast and dal makhani or shahi paneer in lunch/dinner.  I have been telling my wife so much about the delicious Italian food at 'Little Italy', and she really wanted to have a go at it. I was fortunate that restaurant did not disappointed and it is still up to the mark. Needless to say, after all this full week of good dining, the paunch only made its way back :).

Overall, it had been a one week full of happy family time and even though I wished that they should have stayed more, flight for Delhi was waiting for them at the airport and my assignments and submissions were shouting at me for some attention.

Individualistic Behaviour During Term I Exams

With the status being 'back to college', how can examination be far behind. It is a demon which we all thought has been exorcised, but it is now part of life for next 1 year. It brings back some-fond-some-bitter memories. Some interesting experiences from term I exam season -


1. Suddenly, all the nerds with whom you never have gone beyond regular 'hi' become your close pals

2. The weather becomes all the more pleasant to tease you.

3. The atmosphere becomes all gloomy. Point 2 has a ripple effect.

4.  Having got used to QWERTY, its now back to basics. Pens, pencils, eraser, ruler etc are the tools being used to put our thoughts on sheets of papers. The only hope is that a chemist is helping the Prof to decipher.

5. Not matter how much you decide to not talk about exams,  its the same old story as soon as you are out of the hall. If there was ever a happy face, the reaction is 'oh sh*%' or 'f*^&'. A sadist delight indeed.

6. Open book exam has its own benefits. You learn lot more during the 3 hours in exam hall than what you prepared or what you learnt during whole term

7. You have a realization of the total course content just a day before the exam. It adds up to the point 3 above.

8. You take loads of print-outs but never understand what exactly it contains



9. What once used to be a party place turns into group study area, with scribblings all over the place.

10. Tastes and preferences change, a cup of tea is welcomed by even those who do not savor it

11. People keep on moving from one place to other in search of 'gyaan' or to find shortcuts

12. Last but not the least, you always make resolution to study from day 1 of next term. Amen!!!