PM's warped priorities

The country is in the grip of a severe inflation. The Consumer Price Index based inflation is 14%, food prices are growing at 18%, common man is hard hit and crying for leadership and policy guidelines from the Super Economist Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The Economist is scarecely to be seen or heard since the fiasco that was the Indo-US nuclear deal (We signed the nuclear deal when MMS put his prestige and job online like a petulant child and have hardly got any benefit out of it till now). His ministers scarecely listen to him and have their own agenda - be it Sharad Pawar (who is only interested in allowing sugar prices to rise so that Maharashtrian sugar barons are benefitted), Raja ( who treats telecom ministry as a money making business ), Shashi Twitter Tharoor, Jairam Ramesh and many others. MMS is also quiet on Indians being attacked in Australia. We have not seen him give an interview on his vision for India and how his road map for the economy.

Just when we thought he was hiding behind the scenes, he had to make an ass of himself by,

"Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is believed to be extremely upset -- some say even livid -- over the manner in which Indian Premier League boss Lalit Modi has ensured that of the latest edition of the Twenty20 extravaganza. Sources said he is credited with the view that an "emerging window of opportunity" has been closed and Home Minister P Chidambaram's statement denouncing the decision to exclude Pakistani players from the tournament was made at the behest of the Prime Minister. It is also learnt that Dr Singh wants Board of Control for Cricket in India chief Sharad Pawar to find ways by which they can act against Modi, who is being viewed in government circles as running a BJP agenda to embarrass the government, having suffered at the hands of the Rajasthan Congress leadership -- first Ashok Gehlot who took him on, and then C P Joshi, who defeated him in the Rajasthan Cricket Board elections.Keeping in mind the behind-the-scenes moves and Track II diplomacy to somehow bring a note of rationality and sanity between the two countries in the wake of the Mumbai terror attacks the Prime Minister is of the view that at this sensitive juncture in Pakistan's history, when the country is itself about to topple over the edge, the IPL has inflicted the single biggest blow to India-Pakistan relations."

Just look at the priorities of our esteemed PM. He is more concerned about a couple of Pakistani players making money in IPL than crores of Indians who are fighting for one decent meal.

Lowering the prestige of the Supreme Court and the Indian Army

Two of the highest functionaries of the Country who were entrusted with guarding the law, order, security and honour of our Country has been found wanting. And this is a reflection of the deteriorating values in our society. It also reveals a brazenness that is beyong belief.

First involves the Chief Justice of India, Justice Balakrishnan. As a person who occupies the highest judicial chair in the country, he was expected to maintain high ethical and moral standards. But unfortunately, he has demeaned the post that has seen some eminent jurists sit in the past. Initially, he stonewalled the Judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts declaring their assets, which should have been done without demurring. It was only when a couple of HC judges declared their assets voluntarily, that he grudgingly posted the assets of the SC judges in the SC website. Then he did everything he could to prevent the SC judges from the Right to Information act. The case took a bizarre turn when the Delhi HC gave a judgement that the SC judgements should come under RTI. The case is now in SC, who is a party in the case. It is laughable. Finally, the conduct of Chief Justice Balakrishnan in defending the tainted Karnataka HC Chief Justice Dinakaran is highly condemnable. Dinakaran was included in the panel of judges to be elevated to SC, when some public spirited lawyers raked up the issue of his disproportionate asset in TN as also various questionable judgements given by him. Prima facie, there is a strong case against him. Again CJ Balakrishnan stonewalled and refused to drop him from the panel, and tried to pass the buck to the law ministry, who promptly tossed the ball back in his court. Only, when he was cornered did he reluctantly drop Dinakaran from the list, but has not asked Dinakaran, against whom an impeachment motion is moved in the Parliament, to step down till the inquiry is over. In fact, Balakrishnan has publicaly supported Dinakaran and has gone out of the way to include two pro Dinakaran judges in the inquiry commission. The apex court has never been demeaned as it has been now.

The Second issue involves the land scam involving the Army. Army Chief General Deepak Kapoor's aide, Lt. General Prakash was accused of impropriety and wrong doing. One needs to understand that Army has been one institution that still has the confidence of the common man. The whole nation was looking at what the Army chief will do. He recommended only an Administrative action against his aide rather than the court martial, Lt.Gen Prakash deserved. The staff down the line was aghast. Fortunately, the Defence Minister A K Antony stepped in, showed his displeasure, read the riot act to the Army Chief and asked him to go for the Court Martial. But the damage done to the image of the Army cannot be repaired. And General Deepak Kapoor has let the country down by not setting a sterling example

For want of a mentor...................

Mentoring had a great role in the development of a person in olden days. With relationships breaking down, people always in a hurry, even potential mentors becoming self centred and having no time for others, this particular aspect of personality development is being pushed to the background.

The finest mentor one has seen is perhaps Lord Krishna. And his ward Arjuna. The two had a very special relationship.

Arjuna was a very fine warrior. But he was also mentally fragile. He was vain and was extremely sensitive. This is where he differs from Sri Rama, who as strong mentally. Arjuna needed someone to guide him and baby sit him. There was a gap in his life and this was filled beautifully by Krishna, who was friend, philosopher, guide and companion for Arjuna.

There was a distinct method to Krishna's mentoring. He was never shy of telling the world that Arjuna was his friend, disciple and everything. This went a long way in instilling confiurdence in Arjuna. Arjuna, in turn, reciprocated the sentiments (This is important. I have, in my life, had students who were close to me and whom I had tried to mentor. But somehow, most of these students, made it a point to hide from their classmates that they were close to me). Krishna and Arjuna spent too much quality time together, which is an essential element of mentoring.

Though Arjuna would do anything Krishna, the latter ensured that he allowed his ward Arjuna to lead his own life. He never interefered in Arjuna's personal life and gave him the space to grow as a person. He never controlled Arjuna by taking his decisions for him, but limited to offering advice, and that too at a philosophical level. In short, Krishna never micro managed Arjuna.

Krishna stepped in firmly when Arjuna was in a state of confusion. Remember Arjuna putting down his bow and refusing to fight his relatives in the Kurukshetra. Krishna stepped in and told him what his duty as a Kshatriya is. Even before that Krishna had happily chosen the role of a charioter so that he can be with Arjuna at all times, allowing him to fight his war but stepping in when required. Krishna's advice during critical periods in war was instrumental in Arjunas victory, be it asking to fight with Shikhandi in the Chariot against Bheeshma, taunting Karna and reminding Arjuna how Karna along with others trapped Abhimanyu when Arjuna had a moment of doubt as to whether he can kill Karna when his chariots wheels were sunk in mud, blocking the sun with his disc to bring out Jayadradhan, thus helping Arjuna to fulfil his vow.............. the list is endless.

Finally, Krishna allowed Arjuna to have his way even though he did not agree with him always and whole heartedly supported him, even at the risk of Arjuna failing. This is an important part of mentoring. The ward has to learn the hard lessons on his own.

Slowly, but slowly the mentors are being phased out, whether at educational institutions or at work place or in the family. People are left to fend for themselves, which need not happen.

For want of a mentor.......................................................... !!!

A case of waste

Most of the organizations in the world has an element of waste. In normal organizations, this waste is almost 40-45% of the total cost. This includes overstaffing, under utilization of staff, wasteful expenditure, unused machinery, inefficient process, duplication of work, buying unwanted stuff, excess inventory, splurging on marketing etc etc. Even our own household is no exemption.

Excellent organizations know this and makes a conscious effort to cut WASTE and not cut Cost. These organizations have a waste of around 20-25%. Imagine an organization with a total annual cost of KD 100,000. The profit is KD 10,000. The waste is KD 40,000. Even if the waste is reduced from 40% to 30%, the additional profit is KD 10,000 which is a 100% increase on the bottom line.

Government of India has 80 ministers, comprising of Cabinet Ministers & Ministers of State. These Ministers of State (those without independant charge) number around 30. They are supposed to be allocated specific work that will reduce the burden of the Cabinet ministers apart from giving them experience to step on to the shoes of the cabinet ministers at a later stage on getting sufficient experience.

A few days ago these 30 ministers met the Prime Minister. The reason?? They dont have any work. This means they are wasting their time at considerable expense to the tax payers. Their grouse is that the Senior Ministers are not allocating any work and all these bright young lads have is a Ministerial office, bungalow, big staff, a car with beacon and no work. This is a criminal waste.

A country like India do not need 80 ministers. Each minister costs the tax payer crores and crores of rupees directly. Then there is the indirect cost of these guys indulging in massive corruption. We need at best 25 ministers totally. Many ministries can be clubbed together and should be. It is time PM had a look at cutting this waste.

Once he has done it, then he should turn to the IAS cadre, and other Government sector and see how much waste is there in the system. The Government service have a waste of nearly 85% in India.

Let this be our Republic Day resolution. And we can start cutting waste from there itself. Scrap RD parade. It is the biggest waste!!

Back tomorrow

Health on and off. Am taking it a bit easy. Be back here tomorrow with a nice post

IPL snub

We have seen Pakistan directly or indirectly trying to destablize India through terror attacks. Every time it happens, we have voices in India from the Politicians to journalists to intellectuals to TV show experts calling for ' more people to people relationship' with Pakistanis and taking the absurd stand that it is the rogue elements in ISI that is responsible while the Pakistani people are innocent.

The Indian Premier League franchisees collectively decided a day back not to pick any Pakistani player for IPL 3. And now we have Pakistani MP's cancelling their visit to India to protest against this. Mind you, no one has died. Only 3-4 super rich cricket brats have lost a chance to make a quick million. And the whole country has whipped up an anti India frenzy.

I personally approve the snub given to Pakistan by IPL. I have always taken the stand that we should hit Pakistan where it hurts most. See how a collective action by a small group of people have hurt Pakistan. We should do this more. Give them pinpricks and snubs at every turn.

Ban bollywood films from being released in Pakistan, where people love watching them. Stop Pakistani artists from performing in India and making some quick money. Use aggressive diplomacy in words and deeds ( Have you noticed how efficient Pak Foreign Office Public Relations is? Every single time they score over India. Our people mouth platitudes and are not allowed to say what they actually want to say ). Stop bilateral trade totally. Indian economy can withstand loss of trade with Pakistan but Pakistan economy will be in ruins. And finally, have a powerful foreign minister (like P Chidambaram) who will arm twist them. Hurt them at every single opportunity and tell their backers like US to choose either Pakistan or India. With our economic clout, I am sure whom they will choose.

The IPL snub is a small step, but a substantial one at that

Doomed Universities

During the first term of the UPA government headed by Manmohan Singh, in which Arjun Singh was the HRD Minister, many colleges were given Deemed University status recklesslessly. Obviously corruption was involved and this could not have happened without the knowledge of the Minister and the UGC officials. Blatant misuse of authority and corruption by UGC officials were cited by many then.

A Public Interest Litigation was filed asking whether the Government had any policy in allocating Deemed University Status. Government was eloquently silent for 3 years and finally has bitten the bullet,

The Centre purportedly reviewed 126 deemed universities across the country. While 38 deemed universities were found to be doing a good job, 44 others have been given three years to improve. The remaining 44 were found completely unfit. The list of unfit deemed universities include the Devraj Urs University in Karnataka, DY Patil University in Maharashtra, the Manav Rachna Institute in Gurgaon and the Savita Institute and Vinayaka Mission in Tamil Nadu.

The Government has finally decided to de-recognize these 44 Universities. This action affects nearly 2 lakhs students, though the Government has assured that all the students shall get the degree from the University to which these colleges will now be accredited. That is no solace. These students have paid huge capitation fee to get admission, and the stigma of having studied in such a rogue institution will adversely affect their career.

The saddest part is that no one involved is being punished. All the guilty, including the Minister, UGC officials, the Deemed University owners have gone scot free. Everyone has made money, the poor Government University is now footing the bills of this misadventure (that means the tax payers) and no one is wiser.

Till such time our justice system improves and guilty are punished, these kinds of scams will multiply

Are villagers second class citizens?

To combat acute shortage of doctors in rural areas, the government has come up with a unique three-and-a-half-year bachelor course in medicine and surgery (MBBS) for students from villages. The catch is these doctors will not be allowed practise in urban or semi-urban areas

This is ridiculous. Does this mean that villagers are second class citizens who should not get the best medical facilities?

There is a simple way to solve lack of doctors in the rural areas. Institute a Licensing system for all Medical Practitioners whereby the licence is renewed every 5 years. This should include both the public and private doctors. One of the conditions for renewing the license should be that they have spent 6 months in the rural clinics and hospitals. There should not be any problem for the Government doctors to do a rural stint. The Private doctors can be compensated for the loss of income by paying them the standard salary for the 6 months.

Back

Thank you for bearing with me this one week. Due to strict personal reasons, I have been unable to blog. The blogging is expected to be regular from now on.

Some random thoughts:

Congress party is setting a bad example by makeing Shivraj Patil the Governor of Punjab. Here is a guy who was extremely incompetent in whatever he did - his last misadventure being the Home Minister of India where he was to put it mildly a bungling idiot - and that is being charitable.His inaction led to the Mumbai Carnage. And it was the public outcry that finally saw this poodle of Gandhi family packed off. All you have to do is to benchmark him with P Chidambaram, who replaced him in the Home Ministry. PC has done a great job this last one year in making the country somewhat safe. Congress, typical of itself, allowed a year to go by and has resurrected this idiot Shivraj Patil to the important post of Governor in a very important and sensitive state. It is time we dispensed away with this Governor posts.

sporadic blogging

Sorry for the patchy blogging. A lingering flu, cold and cough makes me difficult to sit in front of the laptop as the vision is a little askew.

Blogging will be sporadic

And we call ourselves a 'Developing Country'

In an instance of shocking apathy, a sub-inspector of Tamil Nadu police, brutally attacked by a gang in Tirunelveli district, bled to death, as his cry for help went in vain, even after two ministers with their convoy stopped by and saw his plight.

44-year old Vetrivel, who was a member of the Special Task Force that gunned down forest brigand Veerappan in 2004, lay in a pool of blood with his leg severed, and begged for help after the attack by the gang at Alwarkuruchi, shortly before the ministerial convoy was to pass by last evening, eyewitnesses said.

Health minister MRK Panneerselvam and youth and sports development minister Mohideen Khan, along with officials, including the district collector, halted their convoy on seeing the profusely bleeding police official battling for life on the road. Eyewitnesses said Vetrivel was screaming for help, but did not get assistance in time from the ministers and accompanying officials. Though later taken to a hospital, Vetrivel, who got a double promotion for being part of STF that gunned down forest brigand Veerappan, succumbed to injuries.

It is bad enough that a honoured SI should be hacked to death by goonda gangs. But, for the ministers to be apathetic and not take control of the situation is straight out of a horror story. Personally, I would like to stone the two ministers to death. How about you?

And we call ourselves a 'developing country'!!! What a shame.

Things that changed the way we live -1

Let us reflect back and look at some of the things that dramatically changed our life/lifestyle during the past decade.

The first has to be Internet. Though internet came into prominance in mid 90's, it really took off in the first decade of this century. With increase bandwidth, wireless technology and more applications, Internet is here to say. E-mails and messengers have revolutionised the way we communicate. It has changed the business environment. It transformed a seller dominant market to a buyer dominant market, with the information asymmetry shifting from the seller to the buyer. Today customers are more knowledgeable than the sellers, who cant keep track of their competing products. Decision making has become quicker in both personal life and in organizations. E mails also ensured the death of the snail mail system. E-Governance is the norm rather than the exception, and in the years to come every decision making/data will be more transparent and accessible to the public. Blogs enabled people to convey their thoughts and it provided a medium for the dormant literacy skills to come out into the open. Internet also made a vast difference to people who love social networking and removed the sexual taboos quite a bit. In short, it hastened the transformation to a knowledge society- to be continued

Non Minister for Overseas Indians

Nearly 100 cases of attacks on Indians, mostly racial, were reported in Australia in 2009 as against 17 incidents of assaults in 2008.

But, now we have a death. 21 year old Nitin Garg, who was the first Indian to be attacked in 2010, succumbed to assault injuries.

Our Government has slept through the whole of 2009, like an Ostrich putting his head in the sand dune assuming things will righten by itself.

Will this death at least wake up our nincompoop ministers? We have a minister for overseas indians!! Why do we need him if he cant mount a campaign against Australian Government? We have enough economic leverage with Australians to make them crawl? When will we, as a nation, value the life of our citizens? Where is the national honour?

Our government has turned a nelson's eye to the maltreatment meted out to poor indian overseas workers in Gulf. Even Philippines have promulgated and implemented strict immigration laws and are insisting on minimum wages and an increase in wages every two years. And they have got away with it. But, India?

Cleaning the Aegean Stables ourself

The just gone decade did not see any major concept in management coming up, which in itself is a great achievement. One is tired of many fads including Knowledge Management, Change Management, Balance Score Card, TQM etc.

The decade also saw the systemic failure of the Management theory that is practised today with the events that led to the Global Financial Crisis, and the subsequent recession/depression.

Though many attribute this to the greed of the top management in the Financial sector, or more specifically their remuneration that rewarded high risk investments producing near term returns, at the expense of long term institution building, I beg to differ. This was not the sole reason. Nor was the reason the failure of the regulators. For far too long our Financial Sector companies have got away with murder with fancy accounting and window dressing. Using the 'unrealized profit' method to boost the profit figures year after year is an old trick. This shall continue to happen till such time the 'independent' auditors continue to earn from the company itself. We have not learned our lessons from Enron and Arthur Anderson or Satyam Computers and PWC. Every company should be made to pay a % of its revenue to a common pool that shall be used to pay the fees of the Auditors, with the choice of the auditor being left to the regulator in charge of the pool. And we need a wider set of Audit firms. Now the business is cartelized by the Big 4- PWC, E&Y, Deloitte and KPMG. Steps should be taken to encourage the growth of tier 2 audit firms so that there is more competition. Also, the Audit firms should be asked to remain doing auditing and not venture out to other Financial Services activities like valuation, feasibility studies etc. There is a clear conflict of interest here which clouds the objectivity of the audit firms. Caesers wife should be above suspicion.

We need to take a serious look at how the Balance Sheet and Financial Reports are prepared in our Companies. The exisiting balance sheet is a relic of the industrial era, where the capital employed went directly to finance acquisition of assets, to fund expenses or to pay the wages. The tangibles could then be shown in the balance sheet. 70% of the capital deployed could be backed by assets in the Balance Sheet with wages constituting only 16%.

This has to change in the services sector dominant modern world. Bulk of the capital deployed goes towards recruting, training and maintaining high profile, high skilled employees. The asset creation is more intangible in nature, as intellectual assets. Today, following the traditional method of valuing the company, most of the services sector companies wont have any assets to back their investments. We need to have a provision for ascertaining the value of intellectual capital in the company which should APPRECIATE every year as agains the depreciation of the assets in a conventional company.

It is high time we, professional managers, cleaned the Aegean Stables ourself !

P.S: The above are some of the random thoughts based on the learnings from the past decade. Your thoughts are welcome.

Shathamanam........................

"SHATHAMANAM BHAVATHU SHATHAYA PURUSHA SHATENDRIA

AYUSHYEVENDRIYE PRATHIDISHTATHI"





"DHANYAM DHANAM PASHU PUTRA LABHAM

SHATASAMVATSARAM DHEERGHAMAYUHU"

Namaste - 2010!!!!

Yaa Kundendu tushaara haaradhavalaa, Yaa shubhravastraavritha

Yaa veenavara dandamanditakara, Yaa shwetha padmaasana

Yaa brahmaachyutha shankara prabhritibhir Devaisadaa Vanditha

Saa Maam Paatu Saraswatee Bhagavatee Nihshesha jaadyaapahaa