Julian Assange and his website; WikiLeaks had done it again. To expose the big brother countries, who tells one thing and does the opposite. Once upon a time, all these dichotomist big brothers thought they were the invincible ones. All that is gone! First, young terrorists indoctrinated by religious extremists exposed their vulnerabilities. And later now, their diplomatic wires are hacked and tapped for information on what they did, against what they said.
It has been major embarrassment for USA, UK and many big nations. For whatever they had said and done (or not done), the leaders of these nations have lots of explanations and clean up to do, lot of angry faces to face and plenty of regrets to send.
Through Wikileaks, we have learnt the diplomatic wire confirmation that there is rampant corruption in Afghanistan; that the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is a characterless character; that majority of Islamic nations of the world that follow the Sunni tradition is more scared of their Muslim Shia brother Iran than Israel because of Iran’s nuclear capabilities; that contrary to the assurances made to the world, Syria's government had maintained very close ties with Hezbollah group and many more similar information.
These leaks could weaken up the Pakistani leadership; it could slow down the anti-terrorism efforts of Yemen. Many nations and its leadership will not want to communicate with the Americans and most of the Europeans. Countries may think twice before handing over secrets to the big brother nations. From now on, information would be difficult to come by. It could create anti leadership feelings within the public of many nations. Thanks to WikiLeaks, many leaders could lose their next election.
So what do the big brother nations do? They are trying to silence the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange through cheap charges such as rape, coercion etc. What a pity?
By the way, who is this person Assange? This Australian is reputed to be an excellent computer network hacker. He is also a journalist, a writer, a self-styled Internet’s freedom fighter, a self-taught scientific genius, a friend of open and free software and so many things rolled into one. More than anything else, he considers himself as the founder and spokesperson of a web based organization that exposes the wrongs of the power that be. He fights for the suppressed and has adopted novel methods to bring to open, the super powers and their deeds, something that the powers that be never thought possible. Assange is also against the giant corporations that act as virtual nation states without accountability.
"The more secretive or unjust an organization is, the more leaks induce fear and paranoia in its leadership and planning coterie," Assange wrote. "Since unjust systems, by their nature, induce opponents, and in many places barely have the upper hand, mass leaking leaves them exquisitely vulnerable to those who seek to replace them with more open forms of governance." This is his philosophy too.
Has he done the world a favour or by the leaks, made the world affairs much more complicated? Who knows, but one thing is clear to me, if whatever he exposed is the truth, he has my vote.
That takes us to the local affair, La Radia tapes.
One has heard of penetrating all powering lobbyism employed by people and organizations in countries such as USA, UK, France, Japan etc. One had always seen it at a distance. Now that one sees the monstrous face of it at the closest quarters, one shudders to think and face the consequences of its activities.
What is therefore Nira Radia? She runs a most powerful PR company in the country. She interfaces with the press, media, politician and government and among others, works on behalf of two most powerful industry houses of India. She lobbies to make ministers and break ministers, who directs the so called stalwarts of the press and leaders of chambers on what to write, what to do, what to speak, whom to recommend and the like. The arm of her company reaches out to the rulers and the opposition alike, to the bureaucrats and NGOs. She is capable of white washing some people and companies and darkening out opponent and their organizations. She was getting to be the most powerful, by attaining Godly powers to create and annihilate. Who is she, Radia the Devta, Radia the Durga or Radia the Kali? All said and done, she uses money to speak, bend and obey.
Thanks to the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence having taped lots of her conversations with the powers that be, and all the more thanks to the leakages of the same through news media and websites, the common man today is preview to what is happening in the corridors of power. Now he knows that his beloved country is not moving in the right path and when he gets the stink of the corruption employed by these people, he knows that many people are bending the rules and making money without lifting a finger. He realises that hard work, efforts, truth and ethics have no value and the power brokers get away with murder in which ever form.
This is something that I dreaded. Lots of my post in the past had been on this subject.
Is it possible for man to live a decent life in this country, following its laws, rules and regulations? Can every Indian be trated the same in the eyes of law? Or do we need a supreme court every time to correct and direct the erring minsters, government and bureaucrats? How long and how far will the country go in the present manner? Where will it all end?
There can be no answers, I know. The only way is to keep praying and keep hoping for the best.
Mera Bharat Mahan………………………
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Thursday, December 2, 2010
AND THE TRUTH SHALL SET YOU FREE
The subject of my post is “THE TRUTH SHALL SET YOU FREE”. A little unusual subject, this is. Once you read me full, I strongly feel that you will find it relevant.
You will see the line, THE TRUTH SHALL SET YOU FREE, in Bible in the New Testament under John, Chapter 8 Verse 32. Upon the question of his identity, to the Jews, Jesus uttered these words. The full sentence was; “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free”. It was his reassurance to an audience who doubted him.
In ancient India too, there was a very strong allegiance to truth. In BC 250, in Saranath, King Ashoka engraved these words on the Lion statue that he had erected. It said, SATYMEVA JAYATE, which meant ‘Truth alone Triumphs’. Today, for us Indians, it is our national motto.
All of us have heard of Mahatma Gandhi and his pursuit of truth. His autobiography is titled, MY EXPERIMENTS WITH TRUTH. For the father of the nation, only truth was the ultimate. He lived the life of truth and he gave us a strong value system, something very eternal, very sublime and very everlasting.
I am a Rotarian for the last 14 years. My association with the Rotary movement began just along with the beginning of my entrepreneurial days. What attracted me the best in Rotary was the 4 way test. And it said that in whatever things we think, say or do, please ask:
Is it the truth?
Is it fair to all concerned?
Will it build goodwill and better friendship?
Will it be beneficial to all concerned?
What noble thought s indeed! I had never seen such a practical wisdom anywhere. But how many Rotarians had internalized these words and follow it in their thoughts, words or deeds?
Incidentally, it was Rotarian Herbert J. Taylor, Rotary International President in 1954-55, who coined the 4 way test. During a business crisis in 1932, he wrote the Four Way Test as described above. It was adopted as part of Rotary International in January of 1943.Actually he wrote these tenets when he was undergoing a crisis? He used the 4 way test to overcome his crisis.
Today whenever crisis comes to us, we set aside the truth and the ethics!
We now see lots of untruths around us. We see people, societies, companies, and groups indulging in acts and deeds that are far from the truth. Our aspirations, our ego and our greed are pushing us away from the truth. Many a time, we are forced to think, is there truth at all? We, therefore, feel that things have come to pass and truth is unnecessary.
But whenever things have come to pass, truth had prevailed and truth had triumphed. You have seen companies such as Enron, WorldCom, Satyam, Baring Bank, Lehman Brothers etc. withering away when there was no truth in their existence. We have seen many greedy organizations and individuals going down when they deserted the truth. Progress without truth is a mirage. Whatever you see in a mirage is unreal, it doesn’t exist and therefore, it is untruth.
Then, what is truth? Many of us tend to believe that whatever we perceive is truth. Is perception the truth? One’s perception is whatever one believes. This need not necessarily be what others see. You know the story of the definition of an elephant by a group of blind persons. One said elephant is a trunk, the other said it is a stump and the third said it is a tusk and so on. Perception is what you see and what you feel. Many times, perception is far from the truth. A rose flower to some would be the smell that it delivers; it would be the beauty of its color to someone. To a cat, it could be the thrones and for the bees, the rose flower may be the nectar it gives. So, the rose flower is many things to many beings. Each one’s perception of rose flower is different. So, what is the truth of a rose flower?
Great Western thinker Immanuel Kant said truth is whatever that is felt by a being about itself. So truth of a rose is what the rose feels about it. Simply said, truth is the DNA of the things. It is the core of whatever. It really needs some good understanding to understand the truth.
It is important for us to have a value system. It shows our character. Values lead us in our life. In addition to truth; ethics, morale, and other value systems such as love, compassion, charity, harmony, dharma, peace, happiness etc .give a purpose to life. People who lived their life with these value systems are everlastingly remembered. There are so many examples to show. Socrates, Lincoln, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, many wonderful, truthful leaders!
Let us come to leadership. Leadership has many attributes combined. Leadership can be defined by the excellence in you, it can also be the quality that you show and it is about the progress that you are capable of making. It is the mentoring, fostering and coaching that you are capable of. There are so many attributes to leadership. But more than any of the attributes mentioned above, Leadership depends largely on the attribute of principles. And it is the principles that make a true leader. Principles in you ensure that your name stays much beyond you going away from the face of earth. As in the case of Gandhi, Lincoln, Socrates and many like them.
That brings me to Mahabharata. At the end of the war the five brothers along with Draupadi decide to leave the mother earth. They take their walk towards eternity. They are followed by a dog. Yudhishtir saw one by one behind him falling. It was Draupadi first and then Sahadev, Nakul, Arjun then Bheem. Only he and the dog were left, and they reach a plane that was waiting to take them to heaven. When the dog was not allowed to emplane, Yudhishtir refuses to board the plane and soon the dog take the shape of Yama, the king of life. He asks Yudhistir three questions before he is allowed to board the plane. One question was, “what accompanies death”? And Yudhishtir replied,” it is the fame”.
Yes, it is the fame that accompanies a person’s death. Now it is up to us to find what fame we want to leave behind. Fame is called Prassidhi in Sanskrit. It is up to you to have Suprassidhi (Positive fame) or Kuprassidhi (Bad, negative fame).
The famous psychologist, Abraham Maslow, through his theory of the Hierarchy of Needs, gives us an excellent growth profile of every man. In the beginning, the man is only worried about subsistence and once that is taken care of, it is the security of life that he is bothered about. Once that is taken care of, it is his need of being part of a society and thereafter, he looks for recognitions and finally, every one of us comes to the need of self actualization. Self-actualization or atmasashatkaram, allows you to do what you always wanted to do. And enjoying whatever you do. It could be anything. It could be social service, it could be mentoring youngsters. It could be spirituality; it could be travelling…… whatever it is. It is what you enjoy. By doing so, you derive your bliss and e by virtue of it, your moksha.
And when we attain our moksha and leave the face of the earth, it is all about the fame that we leave behind. When others speak about it, even when we are not around, we would want them to speak good about us. And if that has to happen, we need to ensure that we lived a principle centered life in the earth, thru which we had added value to society, and left behind the fame.
Among all the qualities, the only quality that can give us the highest fame is TRUTH. And the truth allows us to attain our moksha that is all about setting us free.
And here is wishing you all that bliss, that moksha, thru the Truth.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
A CRY FOR THEE, MY MOTHERLAND..........
I had posted earlier on how businessmen make direct connect with politicians and government by becoming Member of Parliament (MP) through the Rajya Sabha route. By doing so, they cut down the middlemen who used to operate in the scene earlier. After becoming the MP and after getting directly connected to the powers that be, how grossly they misuse their position as the Member of Parliament, to take care of their selfishness and greed. The 2G Spectrum scam is a great example, for you all to know.
A Raja, the minister of telecommunication, totally submitted himself to these men of greed and flouted all rules of the country and evaded the best advice, even coming from his Prime Minister, to blatantly accommodate these businessmen.
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) had now spilled the beans to show us the citizens, the extent of loss to the country’s exchequer. It could be anywhere between INR 60,000 Crores and 1,77,000 Crores, whopping figures indeed! The opposition touts this as the largest bribery scam of independent India.
The CAG cites that the biggest beneficiary of the scam is Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG), headed by Anil Ambani, the second son of Dhirubhai Ambani, who himself had been a master manipulator of the government and its machinery, in his times. Like father, like son. Anil Bhai has to prove his lineage. So he found routes that are direct. He manipulated politicians to get himself nominated to the Rajyasabha so that he could be the closest to the power centres directly, so that he is preview to the country’s planning process at the drawing board level, to identify projects and schemes that are related to the industry that he is part of, well in advance. Dhirubhai must be smiling in his grave as his son outdid him. What more reason is needed for a dad to be proud of his children?
Most of the leading players in Telecom sector benefited with the help of minister Raja, the crook of a number one order. The majority of the bidders whose applications had been passed, did not have any experience or qualification to bid. Most of them were real estate companies. The story of Swan telecom using which ADAG manipulated the spectrum allocation in its favour and the way in which it got licence for combined dual technology (CDMA & GSM) operation well before government policy on it was framed, puts India to shame. Such was the blatant disregard this minister had shown to the rules and regulations of the country. Most of the bidders got the sanction at throwaway prices. Later, they all sold off this license to international companies at huge margins. There has been a flurry of collaborations, tie-ups and M&As in the Telecom Sector, post the allocation. This allowed Telenor, Etisalat, MTN etc. come to India. While the competitive scenario hotted up, the Country became pauper by lakhs of crores of Rupees!
One group that really lost out on the deal was the TATAs. Any company doing business by adhering to ethics and value system at this point in time is only expected to lose out and that is what happened to the TATAs. It is another matter that the group would make it out over a period of time. But on comparative note, it is indeed sad to see the leading business group of the country that had played immense role in the development of independent India , getting completely sidelined.
As a citizen of India, I feel distressed at the way in which things are happening in our country. Everyday we wake up to hear one scam or the other. The country is rocked by the CWG scam, the Adarsh Housing scam, The DoT scam, the Yediyurappa land gab scam and the like.
What is the point in saying that we have a clean Prime Minister? Right under his nose, look at the level of indulgences that are happening on a day to day scale! He is not able to take action on any of the perpetrators. They resign from the post for the time being only to surface again later. No one gets prosecuted for the heinous crime that they do against the nation.
All these talks of inclusivity will come into effect only when India becomes a clean nation. Looking at the way by which things are going on, I have my doubt that inclusivity is not going to be anywhere near.
However, let us keep hoping.
A Raja, the minister of telecommunication, totally submitted himself to these men of greed and flouted all rules of the country and evaded the best advice, even coming from his Prime Minister, to blatantly accommodate these businessmen.
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) had now spilled the beans to show us the citizens, the extent of loss to the country’s exchequer. It could be anywhere between INR 60,000 Crores and 1,77,000 Crores, whopping figures indeed! The opposition touts this as the largest bribery scam of independent India.
The CAG cites that the biggest beneficiary of the scam is Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG), headed by Anil Ambani, the second son of Dhirubhai Ambani, who himself had been a master manipulator of the government and its machinery, in his times. Like father, like son. Anil Bhai has to prove his lineage. So he found routes that are direct. He manipulated politicians to get himself nominated to the Rajyasabha so that he could be the closest to the power centres directly, so that he is preview to the country’s planning process at the drawing board level, to identify projects and schemes that are related to the industry that he is part of, well in advance. Dhirubhai must be smiling in his grave as his son outdid him. What more reason is needed for a dad to be proud of his children?
Most of the leading players in Telecom sector benefited with the help of minister Raja, the crook of a number one order. The majority of the bidders whose applications had been passed, did not have any experience or qualification to bid. Most of them were real estate companies. The story of Swan telecom using which ADAG manipulated the spectrum allocation in its favour and the way in which it got licence for combined dual technology (CDMA & GSM) operation well before government policy on it was framed, puts India to shame. Such was the blatant disregard this minister had shown to the rules and regulations of the country. Most of the bidders got the sanction at throwaway prices. Later, they all sold off this license to international companies at huge margins. There has been a flurry of collaborations, tie-ups and M&As in the Telecom Sector, post the allocation. This allowed Telenor, Etisalat, MTN etc. come to India. While the competitive scenario hotted up, the Country became pauper by lakhs of crores of Rupees!
One group that really lost out on the deal was the TATAs. Any company doing business by adhering to ethics and value system at this point in time is only expected to lose out and that is what happened to the TATAs. It is another matter that the group would make it out over a period of time. But on comparative note, it is indeed sad to see the leading business group of the country that had played immense role in the development of independent India , getting completely sidelined.
As a citizen of India, I feel distressed at the way in which things are happening in our country. Everyday we wake up to hear one scam or the other. The country is rocked by the CWG scam, the Adarsh Housing scam, The DoT scam, the Yediyurappa land gab scam and the like.
What is the point in saying that we have a clean Prime Minister? Right under his nose, look at the level of indulgences that are happening on a day to day scale! He is not able to take action on any of the perpetrators. They resign from the post for the time being only to surface again later. No one gets prosecuted for the heinous crime that they do against the nation.
All these talks of inclusivity will come into effect only when India becomes a clean nation. Looking at the way by which things are going on, I have my doubt that inclusivity is not going to be anywhere near.
However, let us keep hoping.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
MUMBAI,MUMBAI.......
Nearly two years back, I posted a blog about Mumbai after having taken my family there to experience one of the largest Metropolises of the world. The action city of Mumbai has always been very fascinating, for the right and for the wrong reasons.
What comes to my mind whenever I hear of Mumbai is the title song in the old Akbar Khan movie (Hadsa), which goes something like this:
Eh Mumbai shahar, ek sundar Shahar hai
Yaham roz roz kahi mod mod par
Hota hai koi na koi
Hadsa, hadsa………
Translating the same in English, it reads:
This Mumbai city is a beautiful city
Here everyday, at some places
Something continues to occur
A new incident or a mishap…
One couldn’t agree more!
Mumbai is again in the news. President Barrack Obama had landed there yesterday. He, of course did all the right things to appease the Mumbai crowd. Visited the Taj Hotel where the 26/11 carnage took place, went to Mani Bhavan, the museum on Mahatma Gandhi, met with the industrialists to sign billion dollar deals for the business houses of his country whose chieftains had travelled with him to India, so on and so forth.
Day before yesterday, Mumbai Stock exchange celebrated the bullish high of crossing the Sensex mark of 20000 during the famed ’Diwali Trade’. Mumbai, the financial capital of India, would not have a better reason to rejoice.
A week back, the Adarsh Housing society scam exploded in the news in Mumbai shaking up the political bosses, not to mention the Military brasses. As a result, the Chief Minister is counting his days in the office and the Army Chief is sulking after returning the ownership documents of the flat to the Housing Society. Two or three former chiefs of Army and Navy have come into the news for ‘unnecessary’ reasons, as they say. The funny party is that the plundering and loot of government land and the defying of all building laws of the country, was to bring up private housing society named as ‘ADARH’ meaning IDEALS, the highest virtue that man can have!
As is said, Mumbai is a happening city. It is also a city very famous for crime. Most of the Indian mafias have its head quarters in Mumbai. Many of the Bollywood flicks had eulogised crime and made those villainish heroes the sweet darlings of the masses, worthy to be emulated. The city which is the engine of growth of the country, because of its loose social controls and due to the indifference and anonymity of its denizens, spew out many criminals. So congested is the place that lack of social and recreational support systems give births to many gangs of the underworld.
I had always seen Mumbai as a city of slums. And the shanties are only growing rapidly, to the extent, the Mumbai statistics shows that sixty percent of the population of Mumbai city live in slums and chawls! What a quality life that is……
Many historians and sociologists had termed India as a land of contrasts. Mumbai manifests this thought at the highest level. A city, where unequitable growth in wealth continues to flourish with the rich and the famous, the chasm between the rich and the poor is widening every day. Inclusivity is the last thing that can happen in Mumbai.
However, with all its contrasts and vagaries, the city continues to be a bewitching urban sprawl. To experience it, one has to be in Mumbai, to live it out. With all its ugliness, no mumbaikar would ever want to trade place with any other city of the country or the world.
And that is the charm of amchi Mumbai!
What comes to my mind whenever I hear of Mumbai is the title song in the old Akbar Khan movie (Hadsa), which goes something like this:
Eh Mumbai shahar, ek sundar Shahar hai
Yaham roz roz kahi mod mod par
Hota hai koi na koi
Hadsa, hadsa………
Translating the same in English, it reads:
This Mumbai city is a beautiful city
Here everyday, at some places
Something continues to occur
A new incident or a mishap…
One couldn’t agree more!
Mumbai is again in the news. President Barrack Obama had landed there yesterday. He, of course did all the right things to appease the Mumbai crowd. Visited the Taj Hotel where the 26/11 carnage took place, went to Mani Bhavan, the museum on Mahatma Gandhi, met with the industrialists to sign billion dollar deals for the business houses of his country whose chieftains had travelled with him to India, so on and so forth.
Day before yesterday, Mumbai Stock exchange celebrated the bullish high of crossing the Sensex mark of 20000 during the famed ’Diwali Trade’. Mumbai, the financial capital of India, would not have a better reason to rejoice.
A week back, the Adarsh Housing society scam exploded in the news in Mumbai shaking up the political bosses, not to mention the Military brasses. As a result, the Chief Minister is counting his days in the office and the Army Chief is sulking after returning the ownership documents of the flat to the Housing Society. Two or three former chiefs of Army and Navy have come into the news for ‘unnecessary’ reasons, as they say. The funny party is that the plundering and loot of government land and the defying of all building laws of the country, was to bring up private housing society named as ‘ADARH’ meaning IDEALS, the highest virtue that man can have!
As is said, Mumbai is a happening city. It is also a city very famous for crime. Most of the Indian mafias have its head quarters in Mumbai. Many of the Bollywood flicks had eulogised crime and made those villainish heroes the sweet darlings of the masses, worthy to be emulated. The city which is the engine of growth of the country, because of its loose social controls and due to the indifference and anonymity of its denizens, spew out many criminals. So congested is the place that lack of social and recreational support systems give births to many gangs of the underworld.
I had always seen Mumbai as a city of slums. And the shanties are only growing rapidly, to the extent, the Mumbai statistics shows that sixty percent of the population of Mumbai city live in slums and chawls! What a quality life that is……
Many historians and sociologists had termed India as a land of contrasts. Mumbai manifests this thought at the highest level. A city, where unequitable growth in wealth continues to flourish with the rich and the famous, the chasm between the rich and the poor is widening every day. Inclusivity is the last thing that can happen in Mumbai.
However, with all its contrasts and vagaries, the city continues to be a bewitching urban sprawl. To experience it, one has to be in Mumbai, to live it out. With all its ugliness, no mumbaikar would ever want to trade place with any other city of the country or the world.
And that is the charm of amchi Mumbai!
Saturday, October 23, 2010
INDIA - THE DYNASTIC DEMOCRACY
Recently, I had an opportunity to be with the former Chairman & Managing Director of FACT Ltd, one of the largest fertilizer manufacturing companies of the country, located at Cochin. We were together at the office of the Head of BPCL - Cochin Refineries, related to a function being organized by the Cochin Chapter of Indian Society of Training & development which I am chairing this year. At the reception of the corporate office of the Refineries, we saw a photograph of Mrs. Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India, inaugurating the company. Seeing this, the former FACT CMD said that at his corporate office, there is an unique photograph of four Indian PMs in one snap, taken during the inauguration of FACT Ltd. Upon my checking up, he said it was Pandit Nehru, the first PM of India who inaugurated the Factory and on that occasion, he was accompanied by his daughter Indira Gandhi and grand son Rajiv Gandhi (both of whom became Indian Prime Minister later). Of course, the fourth person on the photograph was Lal Bahadur Shastry, who became PM after the demise of Nehru. Shastry was the Agricultural Minister then under whose purview came the fertilizer manufacturing.
This sets me thinking. We have had a father, daughter and grandson as our Prime Minster. And of course the fourth generation (Rahul Gandhi, son of Rajiv & Sonia Gandhi) is soon to take over. He is already being projected within and outside the Congress Party as the heir apparent. In fact, if he wanted, he could have become the Country’s PM during the beginning of this Lok Sabha in 2009, but he chose against it.
Though we have had other Prime Minsters (Except for A B Vajpai, other Such as VP Singh, Chandra Shekhar, Narsingh Rao, Deva Gouda, Inder Gujral etc had very brief stints), Nehru & Indira Gandhi ruled India for the longest duration. Rajiv Gandhi was PM for only one term. He could have continued for more but the LTTE decided otherwise by assassinating him.
India is a country touted as the largest democracy in the world. But in this democracy, we have no problems in appointing father, daughter, grandson and great grand son as its Prime Ministers. Do we know of any other democracy which had done this in the world? For a country which holds one sixth of the population of the world, do we have dearth of personalities and leaders who could head our democratic system? Are there not better, credible leaders within Congress party and outside who could be groomed to take over? Why is it that we are so happy to have the same family rule the roost? How could India, a country which had hundreds of local kingdoms before the British took over, which had plethora of languages, varied geographical culture, with so many indigenous and outside caste and creed inside, still accept one family to control its democracy? So many questions pound my mind……..
One reason is the subservience mentality that the Indians display. He is happy to have a God father controlling him, be it the King, Queen, the head of the family or the Mafia Dada. Though so many monarchies had given way to democracy in the world, and with so many of the democracies display matured norms in its election process, Indians are yet to mature to start doing a kind of ‘stand alone’ independent thinking. It could also be that many Indians are yet to understand democracy and are still on the State/Raja/King as the ultimate accepted choice to rule over him. The ‘Raj’ mentality is yet to go away from our mind and thoughts, that is.
Secondly, with so many sects and sub sects of religion, caste, sub caste and their hierarchies strongly existing continuously, our political system does not want to upset the apple cart by having new upstarts to take over the polity. Though there are so many such upstarts coming up now as regional political parties based on the caste/geography/language hierarchical system, they are yet to get the country’s mandate. By retaining the same family to head our country, the Indians are trying to keep the status quo which they feel will not splinter the country. Good thought, I must accept.
Above all, our attitude is that of ‘chalta hai’. The average Indian is not unduly bothered if the family rules or regional parties rule. He has so many things to bother about, including his own very existence. He doesn’t have any time for indulging to think of maturing the democratic norm of the country. He has no interest to control things. He is happy to be what he is. For him, ‘sab chalta hai’.
On this thought, I rest the case!
This sets me thinking. We have had a father, daughter and grandson as our Prime Minster. And of course the fourth generation (Rahul Gandhi, son of Rajiv & Sonia Gandhi) is soon to take over. He is already being projected within and outside the Congress Party as the heir apparent. In fact, if he wanted, he could have become the Country’s PM during the beginning of this Lok Sabha in 2009, but he chose against it.
Though we have had other Prime Minsters (Except for A B Vajpai, other Such as VP Singh, Chandra Shekhar, Narsingh Rao, Deva Gouda, Inder Gujral etc had very brief stints), Nehru & Indira Gandhi ruled India for the longest duration. Rajiv Gandhi was PM for only one term. He could have continued for more but the LTTE decided otherwise by assassinating him.
India is a country touted as the largest democracy in the world. But in this democracy, we have no problems in appointing father, daughter, grandson and great grand son as its Prime Ministers. Do we know of any other democracy which had done this in the world? For a country which holds one sixth of the population of the world, do we have dearth of personalities and leaders who could head our democratic system? Are there not better, credible leaders within Congress party and outside who could be groomed to take over? Why is it that we are so happy to have the same family rule the roost? How could India, a country which had hundreds of local kingdoms before the British took over, which had plethora of languages, varied geographical culture, with so many indigenous and outside caste and creed inside, still accept one family to control its democracy? So many questions pound my mind……..
One reason is the subservience mentality that the Indians display. He is happy to have a God father controlling him, be it the King, Queen, the head of the family or the Mafia Dada. Though so many monarchies had given way to democracy in the world, and with so many of the democracies display matured norms in its election process, Indians are yet to mature to start doing a kind of ‘stand alone’ independent thinking. It could also be that many Indians are yet to understand democracy and are still on the State/Raja/King as the ultimate accepted choice to rule over him. The ‘Raj’ mentality is yet to go away from our mind and thoughts, that is.
Secondly, with so many sects and sub sects of religion, caste, sub caste and their hierarchies strongly existing continuously, our political system does not want to upset the apple cart by having new upstarts to take over the polity. Though there are so many such upstarts coming up now as regional political parties based on the caste/geography/language hierarchical system, they are yet to get the country’s mandate. By retaining the same family to head our country, the Indians are trying to keep the status quo which they feel will not splinter the country. Good thought, I must accept.
Above all, our attitude is that of ‘chalta hai’. The average Indian is not unduly bothered if the family rules or regional parties rule. He has so many things to bother about, including his own very existence. He doesn’t have any time for indulging to think of maturing the democratic norm of the country. He has no interest to control things. He is happy to be what he is. For him, ‘sab chalta hai’.
On this thought, I rest the case!
Thursday, October 7, 2010
COMMONWEALTH GAMES (CWG) NEW DELHI 2010
And finally the CWG is on! It got inaugurated on the third of October jointly by The Prince of Wales, Charles (representing his mother, The Queen of England) and The President of India, Madam Pratibha Patil. My family and I sat through to watch the full inauguration on the TV. The organizers had worked hard to make the inaugural function colorful. To a large extend, they had succeeded in it.
CWG New Delhi 2010 has been the major news item for the last few months for all its negative (majority) and positive (Minimum) news. Probably, the good show at the inauguration will rub off some of the negatives. The smooth conduct of the games during the next fortnight would probably take away all the bad publicity that the organizers had been receiving from all quarters. Finally, everybody had been forced to involve in the project, the PM, the Council of Ministers, the Bureaucrats and the Army; in addition to the sports administrators who were originally handling the affairs.
As an Indian, I am happy that Indian could hold the Commonwealth games. It is after 28 years that an international sports extravaganza of complex nature is coming to the country. The only nation outside England, Canada, Australia and New Zealand who hosted CWG had been Malaysia. Slowly, Indian aspirations are coming to the fore. With this, maybe now India could aspire to hold the Olympics in the near future!
One of the Special Director Generals of the CWG, while presenting the games to an invited audience in Cochin months ago, had said about the opening ceremony of the games that the ceremony itself would be a INR 200 Crore function. Since then on, as a citizen of India, I had been feeling guilty of the lavish ceremonies being planned in the name of the prestige of the nation. Two hundred crore Rupees is too much of money. Spending the same on a single function is quite ostentatious, I felt. In a country where a substantial percentage of people are living below poverty line, with so many Indians going hungry every day, I felt it as criminal to throw away such huge amount of money. No doubt, CWG is a prestigious thing but does it call for spending this huge a sum for the inauguration? The function was akin to our rich politicians or corporate leaders spending lavish amount of black money for the marriage of their children.
There is also another side to the story. And that is about the rampant corruption that the organizers had been indulging during the makeup of CWG 2010. If the media reports were to be believed, more than fifty percent of the allocated amount had gone into the pockets of the organizers, middlemen and their cronies. Does that include the Chairman of the organizing Committee? Who knows?
With such rampant corruption and ostentatious spending, the question to ask is whether India really deserves to hold the CWG 2010. If we reduced the splendor of opening ceremony by half, would we have received flaks? Can you belive, it costs INR 40 crores to fill Helium in that floating platform!
It is not that growing India should not take up such projects. We must and we should show the world our capabilities. The only thought is whether we could get the projects done without cost overlay and without corruption and of course, by applying experience, wisdom and with cost optimization in mind. Many often, these things are camouflaged to amass wealth by the concerned. Only recently have we been reading about one Lait Modi and his rag to riches story through the IPL league. As India progresses, one is saddened to see the color and quantity of corruption also going up.
There must be accountability. Today, that is the last thing to come by in India. And so long as accountability takes the back seat, whatever we saw and heard about CWG, IPL etc would continue to happen.
And that indeed is very shameful for growing India!
CWG New Delhi 2010 has been the major news item for the last few months for all its negative (majority) and positive (Minimum) news. Probably, the good show at the inauguration will rub off some of the negatives. The smooth conduct of the games during the next fortnight would probably take away all the bad publicity that the organizers had been receiving from all quarters. Finally, everybody had been forced to involve in the project, the PM, the Council of Ministers, the Bureaucrats and the Army; in addition to the sports administrators who were originally handling the affairs.
As an Indian, I am happy that Indian could hold the Commonwealth games. It is after 28 years that an international sports extravaganza of complex nature is coming to the country. The only nation outside England, Canada, Australia and New Zealand who hosted CWG had been Malaysia. Slowly, Indian aspirations are coming to the fore. With this, maybe now India could aspire to hold the Olympics in the near future!
One of the Special Director Generals of the CWG, while presenting the games to an invited audience in Cochin months ago, had said about the opening ceremony of the games that the ceremony itself would be a INR 200 Crore function. Since then on, as a citizen of India, I had been feeling guilty of the lavish ceremonies being planned in the name of the prestige of the nation. Two hundred crore Rupees is too much of money. Spending the same on a single function is quite ostentatious, I felt. In a country where a substantial percentage of people are living below poverty line, with so many Indians going hungry every day, I felt it as criminal to throw away such huge amount of money. No doubt, CWG is a prestigious thing but does it call for spending this huge a sum for the inauguration? The function was akin to our rich politicians or corporate leaders spending lavish amount of black money for the marriage of their children.
There is also another side to the story. And that is about the rampant corruption that the organizers had been indulging during the makeup of CWG 2010. If the media reports were to be believed, more than fifty percent of the allocated amount had gone into the pockets of the organizers, middlemen and their cronies. Does that include the Chairman of the organizing Committee? Who knows?
With such rampant corruption and ostentatious spending, the question to ask is whether India really deserves to hold the CWG 2010. If we reduced the splendor of opening ceremony by half, would we have received flaks? Can you belive, it costs INR 40 crores to fill Helium in that floating platform!
It is not that growing India should not take up such projects. We must and we should show the world our capabilities. The only thought is whether we could get the projects done without cost overlay and without corruption and of course, by applying experience, wisdom and with cost optimization in mind. Many often, these things are camouflaged to amass wealth by the concerned. Only recently have we been reading about one Lait Modi and his rag to riches story through the IPL league. As India progresses, one is saddened to see the color and quantity of corruption also going up.
There must be accountability. Today, that is the last thing to come by in India. And so long as accountability takes the back seat, whatever we saw and heard about CWG, IPL etc would continue to happen.
And that indeed is very shameful for growing India!
Thursday, September 30, 2010
THE ANATOMY OF AN ENTREPRENEUR
While getting connected to an old business associate of mine who is an entrepreneur in US now, I happened to read his blog wherein he had recommended for reading a report of the Kauffman Foundation on entrepreneurship, Kansas city, Missouri, USA. Titled, The Anatomy of an Entrepreneur, it centers on the entrepreneur’s family background and motivations. Researched and prepared by Vivek Wadhwa, Associate Director, Center for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialization at Duke University and Senior Research Associate, Harvard Law School, Raj Aggarwal, Dean and Sullivan Professor, College of Business Administration, The University of Akron, Krisztina “Z” Holly, Executive Director, USC Stevens Institute for Innovation, University of Southern California and Alex Salkever, visiting Researcher, Masters of Engineering Management Program, Pratt School of Engineering, Duke University, the report through structured data, had given deep insights into entrepreneurs and their family back ground. I reproduce below the conclusions from the last page of the report:
“The core findings of this research are straightforward and contradict some prevailing stereotypes. In the industries we researched, entrepreneurs are more likely to come from a middle-class or upper lower- class background, and very few come from backgrounds of extreme wealth or extreme poverty. These entrepreneurs are usually well educated, with only 5 percent reporting having less than a bachelor’s degree. They also are likely to be better educated than their parents were, with half their fathers and a third of their mothers having at least bachelors’ degrees. They performed well in high school and in college, with the vast majority ranking average or above in their respective institutions. Entrepreneurs don't always come from families of entrepreneurs; slightly more than half of the samples were the first in their families to launch businesses. On average, entrepreneurs tend to be the middle child in a three-child household. They are significantly more likely to be married and have children when they launch their first businesses. Entrepreneurs are far more likely to have worked for an employer for more than six years than to have quickly launched their own businesses. Their primary motivations for launching a business are to build wealth, to own their own company, and to capitalize on a business idea they had. The findings perhaps provide some clues about what conditions might be helpful in supporting entrepreneurs and helping them become successful. Entrepreneurs typically are well-educated and experienced. In other words, they largely come from the existing workforce and not from college. They have ideas they want to commercialize, are motivated to build wealth, and like the idea of being their own bosses in a startup. These observations are based on initial analysis of the data. But these observations could perhaps be useful guideposts for the next round of inquiry that attempts to understand not only the background and broad motivations of entrepreneurs but also the deeper formative factors that influence this select and incredibly important class of individuals.”
A full report of the same can been viewed at http://www.kauffman.org/uploadedFiles/ResearchAndPolicy/TheStudyOfEntrepreneurship/Anatomy%20of%20Entre%20071309_FINAL.pdf
What I immediately did was a comparison of their findings with that of mine and almost 95% of my entrepreneurial odyssey matches with their findings. I felt it necessary to do this post with the executive summary of the Kauffman report so that it can motivate and guide young budding entrepreneurs. They could find the critical success factors from this report and plan their entrepreneurial journey accordingly.
Happy reading and all the very best?
“The core findings of this research are straightforward and contradict some prevailing stereotypes. In the industries we researched, entrepreneurs are more likely to come from a middle-class or upper lower- class background, and very few come from backgrounds of extreme wealth or extreme poverty. These entrepreneurs are usually well educated, with only 5 percent reporting having less than a bachelor’s degree. They also are likely to be better educated than their parents were, with half their fathers and a third of their mothers having at least bachelors’ degrees. They performed well in high school and in college, with the vast majority ranking average or above in their respective institutions. Entrepreneurs don't always come from families of entrepreneurs; slightly more than half of the samples were the first in their families to launch businesses. On average, entrepreneurs tend to be the middle child in a three-child household. They are significantly more likely to be married and have children when they launch their first businesses. Entrepreneurs are far more likely to have worked for an employer for more than six years than to have quickly launched their own businesses. Their primary motivations for launching a business are to build wealth, to own their own company, and to capitalize on a business idea they had. The findings perhaps provide some clues about what conditions might be helpful in supporting entrepreneurs and helping them become successful. Entrepreneurs typically are well-educated and experienced. In other words, they largely come from the existing workforce and not from college. They have ideas they want to commercialize, are motivated to build wealth, and like the idea of being their own bosses in a startup. These observations are based on initial analysis of the data. But these observations could perhaps be useful guideposts for the next round of inquiry that attempts to understand not only the background and broad motivations of entrepreneurs but also the deeper formative factors that influence this select and incredibly important class of individuals.”
A full report of the same can been viewed at http://www.kauffman.org/uploadedFiles/ResearchAndPolicy/TheStudyOfEntrepreneurship/Anatomy%20of%20Entre%20071309_FINAL.pdf
What I immediately did was a comparison of their findings with that of mine and almost 95% of my entrepreneurial odyssey matches with their findings. I felt it necessary to do this post with the executive summary of the Kauffman report so that it can motivate and guide young budding entrepreneurs. They could find the critical success factors from this report and plan their entrepreneurial journey accordingly.
Happy reading and all the very best?
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