Sunday, June 14, 2009
GETTING OVER THE PAST
Fasten your belt, buckle your shoes and get down to work over the task of geting over the past. We cannot get together. Instead of wasting precious time on the telephone everyday, immerse yourself in your work.
In Bollywood, everyones related!
In Bollywood, everyones related!
The Kapoors, Bachchans, Sippys and Desais are all family! And, no, this isnt a Bollywood blockbuster, says Anuradha Varma
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
IS Aishwarya Rai Bachchan related to Mithun Chakravorty Did you know Mithun shared a connection with the Kapoors through his wife Yogeeta Bali... as do the Bachchans Not to mention that Yogeetas ex-husband Kishore Kumars sister was Kajols grandmother! Connect the dots!
The Kapoors, of course, are related to directors Manmohan Desai and Ramesh Sippy. And, while Hrithik is related to his wifes brother Zayed Khan and first cousin Fardeen Khan, the links stretch to sweep Tabu into the family too.
While Sanjay Dutts sister Namrata is married to Kumar Gaurav, Rajendra Kumars son, he also shares a rumoured illegitimate connection with the first family of India, the Gandhis!
Kajol, besides being Nutans niece, also has 1950s actress Nalini Jaywant as an aunt, shares film historian Dinesh Raheja. He adds, As for Kareena Kapoor, her mother Babitas cousin was Sadhana the heartthrob of the 60s. It was Babitas father who introduced Sadhana to Bollywood.
Raheja reveals that director Kalpana Lajmis mother was Guru Dutts sister. Lajmi isnt sure of a family connection with Deepika Padukone, but suggests its possible , as Guru Dutts original surname was Padukone. The Padukones belong to a small community of Saraswat Brahmins forced to migrate from Kashmir, she says.
Welcome to Bollywood, where everyones related ! Author and critic Anupama Chopra says, Yes, its not even six degrees of separation. Did you know that Mahesh Bhatt is related to Dharmesh Darshan Bhatt confirms, Dharmesh is my sisters son. Emraan (Hashmi) and Mohit Suri are also my nephews.
Author Madhu Jain says, Tinnu Anand is also distantly related to Raj Kapoor, while Ramanand Sagar is related to Vidhu Vinod Chopra. Anupama Chopra, married to Vidhu Vinod affirms, Yes, they are half-brothers . Their father married Vinods mother after Ramanands mother expired.
Here are some more filmi connections!
HRITHIK , FARDEEN AND TABU TOO!
Hrithik is related to Fardeen and Zayed. But, did you know there is rather, was a family link to Tab u , whose sister Farah mar ried and later divorced D a ra Singhs son. The strongmans brother Randhawa is married to Mallika, sister of yesteryear actress Mumtaz, Fardeens m o t h e r- i n - l aw. Mallikas son Shaad made his debut in Woh Lamhe. Tabu is also famously Shabana Azmis niece. Azmi is married to Javed Akhtar, whose ex-wife is Honey Irani, choreographer Farah Khans aunt. Javed and Honeys children are directors Farhan and Zoya Akhtar.
AMRITA , SAIF , KAREENA AND DILIP KUMAR !
The legendary Begum Para was married to Dilip Kumars brother Nasir Khan. Their son Ayub Khan is an actor. Her niece Rukhsana Sultana was Amrita Singhs mother. Amritas also writer and columnist Khushwant Singhs niece.
Amrita Singhs exhusband Saif is actress Sharmila Tagores son. Incidentally , Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoors families were as close as brothers, according to Madhu Jains current reprint of The Kapoors, and came from the same side of town in Peshawar . In switching from Amrita to Kareena Kapoor, Saif has just gone from one side of the fence to the other!
Saira Bano, meanwhile, is the daughter of Naseem Banu and aunt to actress Shaheen, married to actor Sumeet Saigal .
MITHUN ,
YOGEETA , THE KAPOORS , MANMOHAN DESAI , THE BACHCHANS & RAMESH SIPPY !
Mithun Chakrabortys wife Yogeeta Balis aunt was Geeta Bali, actor Shammi Kapoors first wife. This means Gen Nows Mimoh (Mithuns son), Kareena and Ranbir Kapoor are family! Shammi Kapoors daughter is wedded to filmmaker Manmohan Desais son Ketan Desai. Shashi Kapoors son Kunal Kapoor married Ramesh Sippys daughter. His brother Raj Kapoors daughter Ritu Nandas son Nikhil Nanda is married to Amitabh and Jaya Bachchans daughter Shweta. Ramesh Sippy, incidentally , is also director Rohan Sippys father and the son of producer GP Sippy. Raj Kapoors wife Krishnas brothers were actors Premnath and Rajendranth. Manmohan Desai, when he passed away, was said to be engaged to yesteryear actress Nanda, the great-niece of filmmaker V Shantaram and daughter of actors Master Vinayak and Meenaxi. As for the other Kapoors... while Anil Kapoors father Surinder Kapoor was Geeta Balis secretary, the Kapoor families arent related. Were country cousins, says Aditya Raj Kapoor, Geeta Bali and Shammi Kapoors son.
SUNIL DUTT , NARGIS AND NEHRU
Motilal Nehru is rumoured to have been enamoured by Daleepabai , Allahabads famous courtesan. The outcome of their relationship was allegedly illegitimate daughter Jaddanbai, who gave birth to actress Nargis. Meghnad Desai , who researched for the stars biography with wife Kishwar, has been quoted as saying that Jaddanbai even tied a rakhi to Nehru. If this is true, then cut to this generation and Sanjay Dutt could be Rahul and Priyanka Gandhis uncle!
NASEERUDDIN , RATNA , PANKAJ KAPOOR & SHAHID !
Actor Naseeruddin Shah is married to actor Ratna Pathak. Her sister Supriya Pathak is married to fellow actor Pankaj Kapoor. Kapoors son from his first marriage to Neelima Azeem is actor Shahid Kapoor. Shahs son Imaad has also made his Bollywood debut .
KISHORE KUMAR , KAJOL , RANI : CHALTI KA NAAM FAMILY!
The youngest of the Ganguly brothers, Kishore Kumar was married thrice to Madhubala, Yogeeta Bali and Leena Chandavarkar. His son is singer Amit Kumar. His elder brother Ashoks daughter is actress Preeti Ganguly , comedian Deven Vermas wife. Ashoks grand-daughter is actress Anuradha Patel. His sister Sati married Sashadhar Mukherjee, and their son Shomu married Tanuja, actress Shobhna Samarths daughter and Nutans sister. While Kajol is Tanujas daughter , Nutans son is Mohnish Behl. Sati was also aunt-by-marriage to Ram Mukherjee, actress Rani Mukherjees father.
The Kapoors, Bachchans, Sippys and Desais are all family! And, no, this isnt a Bollywood blockbuster, says Anuradha Varma
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
IS Aishwarya Rai Bachchan related to Mithun Chakravorty Did you know Mithun shared a connection with the Kapoors through his wife Yogeeta Bali... as do the Bachchans Not to mention that Yogeetas ex-husband Kishore Kumars sister was Kajols grandmother! Connect the dots!
The Kapoors, of course, are related to directors Manmohan Desai and Ramesh Sippy. And, while Hrithik is related to his wifes brother Zayed Khan and first cousin Fardeen Khan, the links stretch to sweep Tabu into the family too.
While Sanjay Dutts sister Namrata is married to Kumar Gaurav, Rajendra Kumars son, he also shares a rumoured illegitimate connection with the first family of India, the Gandhis!
Kajol, besides being Nutans niece, also has 1950s actress Nalini Jaywant as an aunt, shares film historian Dinesh Raheja. He adds, As for Kareena Kapoor, her mother Babitas cousin was Sadhana the heartthrob of the 60s. It was Babitas father who introduced Sadhana to Bollywood.
Raheja reveals that director Kalpana Lajmis mother was Guru Dutts sister. Lajmi isnt sure of a family connection with Deepika Padukone, but suggests its possible , as Guru Dutts original surname was Padukone. The Padukones belong to a small community of Saraswat Brahmins forced to migrate from Kashmir, she says.
Welcome to Bollywood, where everyones related ! Author and critic Anupama Chopra says, Yes, its not even six degrees of separation. Did you know that Mahesh Bhatt is related to Dharmesh Darshan Bhatt confirms, Dharmesh is my sisters son. Emraan (Hashmi) and Mohit Suri are also my nephews.
Author Madhu Jain says, Tinnu Anand is also distantly related to Raj Kapoor, while Ramanand Sagar is related to Vidhu Vinod Chopra. Anupama Chopra, married to Vidhu Vinod affirms, Yes, they are half-brothers . Their father married Vinods mother after Ramanands mother expired.
Here are some more filmi connections!
HRITHIK , FARDEEN AND TABU TOO!
Hrithik is related to Fardeen and Zayed. But, did you know there is rather, was a family link to Tab u , whose sister Farah mar ried and later divorced D a ra Singhs son. The strongmans brother Randhawa is married to Mallika, sister of yesteryear actress Mumtaz, Fardeens m o t h e r- i n - l aw. Mallikas son Shaad made his debut in Woh Lamhe. Tabu is also famously Shabana Azmis niece. Azmi is married to Javed Akhtar, whose ex-wife is Honey Irani, choreographer Farah Khans aunt. Javed and Honeys children are directors Farhan and Zoya Akhtar.
AMRITA , SAIF , KAREENA AND DILIP KUMAR !
The legendary Begum Para was married to Dilip Kumars brother Nasir Khan. Their son Ayub Khan is an actor. Her niece Rukhsana Sultana was Amrita Singhs mother. Amritas also writer and columnist Khushwant Singhs niece.
Amrita Singhs exhusband Saif is actress Sharmila Tagores son. Incidentally , Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoors families were as close as brothers, according to Madhu Jains current reprint of The Kapoors, and came from the same side of town in Peshawar . In switching from Amrita to Kareena Kapoor, Saif has just gone from one side of the fence to the other!
Saira Bano, meanwhile, is the daughter of Naseem Banu and aunt to actress Shaheen, married to actor Sumeet Saigal .
MITHUN ,
YOGEETA , THE KAPOORS , MANMOHAN DESAI , THE BACHCHANS & RAMESH SIPPY !
Mithun Chakrabortys wife Yogeeta Balis aunt was Geeta Bali, actor Shammi Kapoors first wife. This means Gen Nows Mimoh (Mithuns son), Kareena and Ranbir Kapoor are family! Shammi Kapoors daughter is wedded to filmmaker Manmohan Desais son Ketan Desai. Shashi Kapoors son Kunal Kapoor married Ramesh Sippys daughter. His brother Raj Kapoors daughter Ritu Nandas son Nikhil Nanda is married to Amitabh and Jaya Bachchans daughter Shweta. Ramesh Sippy, incidentally , is also director Rohan Sippys father and the son of producer GP Sippy. Raj Kapoors wife Krishnas brothers were actors Premnath and Rajendranth. Manmohan Desai, when he passed away, was said to be engaged to yesteryear actress Nanda, the great-niece of filmmaker V Shantaram and daughter of actors Master Vinayak and Meenaxi. As for the other Kapoors... while Anil Kapoors father Surinder Kapoor was Geeta Balis secretary, the Kapoor families arent related. Were country cousins, says Aditya Raj Kapoor, Geeta Bali and Shammi Kapoors son.
SUNIL DUTT , NARGIS AND NEHRU
Motilal Nehru is rumoured to have been enamoured by Daleepabai , Allahabads famous courtesan. The outcome of their relationship was allegedly illegitimate daughter Jaddanbai, who gave birth to actress Nargis. Meghnad Desai , who researched for the stars biography with wife Kishwar, has been quoted as saying that Jaddanbai even tied a rakhi to Nehru. If this is true, then cut to this generation and Sanjay Dutt could be Rahul and Priyanka Gandhis uncle!
NASEERUDDIN , RATNA , PANKAJ KAPOOR & SHAHID !
Actor Naseeruddin Shah is married to actor Ratna Pathak. Her sister Supriya Pathak is married to fellow actor Pankaj Kapoor. Kapoors son from his first marriage to Neelima Azeem is actor Shahid Kapoor. Shahs son Imaad has also made his Bollywood debut .
KISHORE KUMAR , KAJOL , RANI : CHALTI KA NAAM FAMILY!
The youngest of the Ganguly brothers, Kishore Kumar was married thrice to Madhubala, Yogeeta Bali and Leena Chandavarkar. His son is singer Amit Kumar. His elder brother Ashoks daughter is actress Preeti Ganguly , comedian Deven Vermas wife. Ashoks grand-daughter is actress Anuradha Patel. His sister Sati married Sashadhar Mukherjee, and their son Shomu married Tanuja, actress Shobhna Samarths daughter and Nutans sister. While Kajol is Tanujas daughter , Nutans son is Mohnish Behl. Sati was also aunt-by-marriage to Ram Mukherjee, actress Rani Mukherjees father.
WHAT IS A PANDEMIC
pandemic, n
Meaning:
A pandemic is an epidemic of an infectious disease that spreads through populations across a large region, across a continent or the world
Etymology:
From Greek pan meaning all and demos meaning people
Origin:
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a pandemic can start when three conditions are met:
Emergence of a disease new to a population;
Agents infect humans, causing illness;
Agents spread easily and sustainably among humans A disease or condition is not a pandemic merely because it is widespread or kills many people; it must also be infectious. For instance, cancer is responsible for many deaths but is not considered a pandemic
Current Significance:
On Thursday, the WHO announced a swine flu pandemic. In the latter half of April, the WHO had raised its pandemic alert level for a new strain of Influenza A virus subtype H1N1 from three to five. But pandemic levels do not necessarily indicate the severity of a disease. The newly announced pandemic is the first on this level for 41 years. WHO director-general Dr Margaret Chan has confirmed that the H1N1 strain is a pandemic, with nearly 30,000 confirmed cases worldwide.
History:
A number of significant pandemics have been recorded. These include:
The Plague of Athens, 430 BC: A Typhoid, which killed a quarter of the Athenian troops and a quarter of the population over four years. It fatally weakened Athens dominance of the Hellenic world. The sheer virulence of the fever prevented its wider spread. It killed off its hosts faster than they could spread it
The Antonine Plague, 165180 BC: Possibly smallpox brought to the Italian peninsula by soldiers returning from the Near East. Killed a quarter of those infected and about five million people in all
The Plague of Justinian, 541-750 AD: The first recorded outbreak of the Bubonic Plague. It started in Egypt and reached Constantinople the following spring, killing 10,000 a day at its height
Meaning:
A pandemic is an epidemic of an infectious disease that spreads through populations across a large region, across a continent or the world
Etymology:
From Greek pan meaning all and demos meaning people
Origin:
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a pandemic can start when three conditions are met:
Emergence of a disease new to a population;
Agents infect humans, causing illness;
Agents spread easily and sustainably among humans A disease or condition is not a pandemic merely because it is widespread or kills many people; it must also be infectious. For instance, cancer is responsible for many deaths but is not considered a pandemic
Current Significance:
On Thursday, the WHO announced a swine flu pandemic. In the latter half of April, the WHO had raised its pandemic alert level for a new strain of Influenza A virus subtype H1N1 from three to five. But pandemic levels do not necessarily indicate the severity of a disease. The newly announced pandemic is the first on this level for 41 years. WHO director-general Dr Margaret Chan has confirmed that the H1N1 strain is a pandemic, with nearly 30,000 confirmed cases worldwide.
History:
A number of significant pandemics have been recorded. These include:
The Plague of Athens, 430 BC: A Typhoid, which killed a quarter of the Athenian troops and a quarter of the population over four years. It fatally weakened Athens dominance of the Hellenic world. The sheer virulence of the fever prevented its wider spread. It killed off its hosts faster than they could spread it
The Antonine Plague, 165180 BC: Possibly smallpox brought to the Italian peninsula by soldiers returning from the Near East. Killed a quarter of those infected and about five million people in all
The Plague of Justinian, 541-750 AD: The first recorded outbreak of the Bubonic Plague. It started in Egypt and reached Constantinople the following spring, killing 10,000 a day at its height
KASHMIR
KASHMIRTHE SIEGE WITHIN
The US advice on Kashmir is lunacy
M J AKBAR
If you want to sell arsenic , the kindest way to do so is to disguise it as medicine heavily coated with sugar. There is nothing particularly new about the proposal of an interim balm for the wounds of Kashmir, demilitarization on both sides of the Line of Control. What is novel is the heavy Washington endorsement of this Pakistan-promoted option.
This is not all. Unusually for a senior diplomat of a super power that affects neutrality, US under secretary of state for political affairs, William Burns, chose Delhi as the venue for a message designed to disturb the equanimity of his hosts, when he said, Any resolution of Kashmir has to take into account the wishes of the Kashmiri people . That must have been music to Islamabads ears.
Demilitarization sounds so sweetly reasonable, a definitive gesture of de-escalation . The Obama administration is delighted by the prospect of collateral benefit. This would release more Pak troops for the war against Taliban. Pakistan has shifted some brigades from the Indian border, but not from the Line of Control.
Self-interest may have blinded Washington to an obvious fallacy in this reasonable formulation. In all three major Kashmir conflicts 1947, 1965 and Kargil Pakistan has used a two-tier strategy. A surrogate force has served as a first line of offense . The Pakistani term for them has been consistent; they have come in the guise of freedom fighters . India called them raiders in 1947 and 1965, and defines them as terrorists now. This surrogate force has expanded its operations far beyond Kashmir, as the terrorist attacks on Mumbai confirmed.
DMZs (De-Militarized Zones) would guarantee the security of Pakistan and weaken Indias defences, since there is no suggestion that terrorist militias are going to be demilitarized . Should the Indian army leave the Kashmir valley to the mercy of well-organized , finely-trained , generously-financed indiscriminate organisations India has no corresponding surrogate force, because it is a status-quo power; it makes no claims on any neighbours territory.
If America wants a DMZ (De-Militarized Zone) in India they will first have to ensure a DTZ (De-Terrorised Zone) in Pakistan.
India and Pakistan may have a common problem in terrorism, but they do not have terrorists in common . Those who have inflicted havoc already in India, and those who intend to do so in future, are safe in their havens in Lahore and Multan and Karachi. Pakistans ambivalence on terrorism was exposed yet again by the release of Prof Hafeez Mohammad Sayeed, emir of Jamaat ud Dawa, from house arrest on June 6. It needed an official sanction by the UN Security Council to send him into soft detention. The governments duplicity was evident in the frailty of the case against him. The Lahore High Court, which ordered his release , discovered that Pakistan had not even placed al-Qaeda on its list of terrorist organizations.
Islamabad may have taken action against militants in the Frontier who pose a threat to Pakistan, but it continues to mollycoddle those who threaten India.
Islamabads leverage has risen in Obamas Washington for good reasons . America may have outsourced flat-world , high-tech jobs to soft-power India. But America has outsourced a full-scale Af-Pak war to Pakistan.
Rewards for India come in corporate balance sheets and middleclass jobs. Compensation for Pakistan comes in billions of dollars for the army (as much as $5 billion of which has been diverted, so far, to the purchase of conventional weapons meant primarily for use against India) and much more in aid and soft-loans . Pakistan believes that money is insufficient. It wants the bonus of political rewards. It expects a Pak-US nuclear pact, not because it is in need of fuel for peaceful or martial purposes, but in order to quasi-legitimize its status as a nuclear power. Islamabad also wants some settlement on Kashmir that it can sell to its people as a victory.
Former president Pervez Musharraf may be out of circulation but ideas that jumped out of his box a few years ago are back in play. He has just given an interview to Der Spiegel in which he suggests that India and Pakistan were close to an agreement over his proposals: demilitarization of the disputed area, self-governance and a mutual overwatch. Delhi insisted on the conversion of the Line of Control into a formal border, but the thought that the two countries came close has given Washington reason to believe that it can now pressurize Delhi to make some concession , perhaps by agreeing to make the Line of Control irrelevant by opening transit routes .
There is great danger in this soft border thesis. How can you have a soft border unless both sides recognize it as a border Moreover, what does the phrase mutual overwatch mean Both would dilute symbols of Indian sovereignty in Kashmir.
Musharraf, who sounds bored by his new routine of bridge with friends at his flat in London, says he is ready to broker a peace deal. The search for peace might prove to be tougher than starting a war in Kargil.
The US advice on Kashmir is lunacy
M J AKBAR
If you want to sell arsenic , the kindest way to do so is to disguise it as medicine heavily coated with sugar. There is nothing particularly new about the proposal of an interim balm for the wounds of Kashmir, demilitarization on both sides of the Line of Control. What is novel is the heavy Washington endorsement of this Pakistan-promoted option.
This is not all. Unusually for a senior diplomat of a super power that affects neutrality, US under secretary of state for political affairs, William Burns, chose Delhi as the venue for a message designed to disturb the equanimity of his hosts, when he said, Any resolution of Kashmir has to take into account the wishes of the Kashmiri people . That must have been music to Islamabads ears.
Demilitarization sounds so sweetly reasonable, a definitive gesture of de-escalation . The Obama administration is delighted by the prospect of collateral benefit. This would release more Pak troops for the war against Taliban. Pakistan has shifted some brigades from the Indian border, but not from the Line of Control.
Self-interest may have blinded Washington to an obvious fallacy in this reasonable formulation. In all three major Kashmir conflicts 1947, 1965 and Kargil Pakistan has used a two-tier strategy. A surrogate force has served as a first line of offense . The Pakistani term for them has been consistent; they have come in the guise of freedom fighters . India called them raiders in 1947 and 1965, and defines them as terrorists now. This surrogate force has expanded its operations far beyond Kashmir, as the terrorist attacks on Mumbai confirmed.
DMZs (De-Militarized Zones) would guarantee the security of Pakistan and weaken Indias defences, since there is no suggestion that terrorist militias are going to be demilitarized . Should the Indian army leave the Kashmir valley to the mercy of well-organized , finely-trained , generously-financed indiscriminate organisations India has no corresponding surrogate force, because it is a status-quo power; it makes no claims on any neighbours territory.
If America wants a DMZ (De-Militarized Zone) in India they will first have to ensure a DTZ (De-Terrorised Zone) in Pakistan.
India and Pakistan may have a common problem in terrorism, but they do not have terrorists in common . Those who have inflicted havoc already in India, and those who intend to do so in future, are safe in their havens in Lahore and Multan and Karachi. Pakistans ambivalence on terrorism was exposed yet again by the release of Prof Hafeez Mohammad Sayeed, emir of Jamaat ud Dawa, from house arrest on June 6. It needed an official sanction by the UN Security Council to send him into soft detention. The governments duplicity was evident in the frailty of the case against him. The Lahore High Court, which ordered his release , discovered that Pakistan had not even placed al-Qaeda on its list of terrorist organizations.
Islamabad may have taken action against militants in the Frontier who pose a threat to Pakistan, but it continues to mollycoddle those who threaten India.
Islamabads leverage has risen in Obamas Washington for good reasons . America may have outsourced flat-world , high-tech jobs to soft-power India. But America has outsourced a full-scale Af-Pak war to Pakistan.
Rewards for India come in corporate balance sheets and middleclass jobs. Compensation for Pakistan comes in billions of dollars for the army (as much as $5 billion of which has been diverted, so far, to the purchase of conventional weapons meant primarily for use against India) and much more in aid and soft-loans . Pakistan believes that money is insufficient. It wants the bonus of political rewards. It expects a Pak-US nuclear pact, not because it is in need of fuel for peaceful or martial purposes, but in order to quasi-legitimize its status as a nuclear power. Islamabad also wants some settlement on Kashmir that it can sell to its people as a victory.
Former president Pervez Musharraf may be out of circulation but ideas that jumped out of his box a few years ago are back in play. He has just given an interview to Der Spiegel in which he suggests that India and Pakistan were close to an agreement over his proposals: demilitarization of the disputed area, self-governance and a mutual overwatch. Delhi insisted on the conversion of the Line of Control into a formal border, but the thought that the two countries came close has given Washington reason to believe that it can now pressurize Delhi to make some concession , perhaps by agreeing to make the Line of Control irrelevant by opening transit routes .
There is great danger in this soft border thesis. How can you have a soft border unless both sides recognize it as a border Moreover, what does the phrase mutual overwatch mean Both would dilute symbols of Indian sovereignty in Kashmir.
Musharraf, who sounds bored by his new routine of bridge with friends at his flat in London, says he is ready to broker a peace deal. The search for peace might prove to be tougher than starting a war in Kargil.
DOES HINDI NEED WORD IMPORTS
DOES HINDI NEED WORD IMPORTS
Insiya Amir | TNN
English got its millionth word just days ago. But what of Hindi lagging far behind with just 1,20,000 words
Purists dismiss the millionth word Web 2.0 added to English as a publicity gimmick but it is undeniable the language has more words than any other. Considering the millionth English word might have been Hindi, Jai Ho , isnt it time we encouraged word imports the other way
Yes, says an emphatic Prasoon Joshi, the lyricist and advertising guru credited with bringing the cool quotient into Hindi with lines such as thanda matlab coco-cola and the youth anthem masti ki paathshaala .
Joshi says, Language is like an everflowing river and we cant stop it from flowing, otherwise it will get dirty.
He laments the way Hindi is currently rigidly controlled by self-appointed guardians. While the fear of losing the language is not baseless, it doesnt mean we hold on to it so tightly that it loses it sanctity, he says.
But Hindi is facing dual erosion, losing old words, even as it restricts word imports, leaving speakers with a small vocabulary. We have to encourage Hindi , good Hindi, in the media, be it Bollywood , advertisements or news television, says Joshi. I try to use archaic words, like resham, khurdura or even ratti. Only this way will people develop an interest and want to learn more. Right now, making mistakes while talking in Hindi is fashionable. This inverted snobbery has to end , he says.
Not everyone agrees that Hindi needs word imports. Language is an identity marker and there can be political overtones to word imports, says Professor GJV Prasad of JNUs linguistics department . How can we really know which word belongs to which language Thats an eternal debate, he asks. Also, does a thinner dictionary mean those who speak the language are lost for words
Insiya Amir | TNN
English got its millionth word just days ago. But what of Hindi lagging far behind with just 1,20,000 words
Purists dismiss the millionth word Web 2.0 added to English as a publicity gimmick but it is undeniable the language has more words than any other. Considering the millionth English word might have been Hindi, Jai Ho , isnt it time we encouraged word imports the other way
Yes, says an emphatic Prasoon Joshi, the lyricist and advertising guru credited with bringing the cool quotient into Hindi with lines such as thanda matlab coco-cola and the youth anthem masti ki paathshaala .
Joshi says, Language is like an everflowing river and we cant stop it from flowing, otherwise it will get dirty.
He laments the way Hindi is currently rigidly controlled by self-appointed guardians. While the fear of losing the language is not baseless, it doesnt mean we hold on to it so tightly that it loses it sanctity, he says.
But Hindi is facing dual erosion, losing old words, even as it restricts word imports, leaving speakers with a small vocabulary. We have to encourage Hindi , good Hindi, in the media, be it Bollywood , advertisements or news television, says Joshi. I try to use archaic words, like resham, khurdura or even ratti. Only this way will people develop an interest and want to learn more. Right now, making mistakes while talking in Hindi is fashionable. This inverted snobbery has to end , he says.
Not everyone agrees that Hindi needs word imports. Language is an identity marker and there can be political overtones to word imports, says Professor GJV Prasad of JNUs linguistics department . How can we really know which word belongs to which language Thats an eternal debate, he asks. Also, does a thinner dictionary mean those who speak the language are lost for words
Friday, June 12, 2009
Rural knowledge centres
Rural knowledge centres
How To Convert Villages Into BPO Hubs
INCLUSIVE IT development requires a business model linking rural skill development with commercial outsourcing . Business process outsourcing (BPO) has long been done by English-speaking youngsters out of major cities for global customers. But only a small fraction of Indians have the English and technical skills needed. Telecom and power are typically unreliable outside big cities. The Byraju Foundation started a rural BPO in Andhra Pradesh to meet Satyam Computers simplest needs, but such corporate spoon-feeding is not scalable. The good news is that commercially viable BPOs are coming up in small towns and big villages. This holds great promise provided corporates and state governments do their bit.
RuralShores, a small start up, operates a 160-people centre in a village three hours from Bangalore, and aims to expand this model to 500 village centres with 20-30 people each. Infosys is planning partnerships with similar rural outfits on a revenue-sharing basis. Wages in small towns are half that in metros. But if wages alone mattered BPOs would long have migrated to Nepal and Bangladesh. In fact skills, infrastructure and reliability are also needed. How can these be provided in rural areas One answer is improved telecom and broadband penetration, and better rural power. Global BPO requires English language skills, but Indian companies are now outsourcing domestic work, and need to do so in regional languages. A significant chunk of this work can be done in small towns and large villages. This approach can be scaled up in a big way by creating rural knowledge centres having good infrastructure and skill development. Corporates like Infosys and Genepact should work with state governments to identify and develop rural knowledge centres in areas with broadband. State governments should guarantee quality power, and implement egovernance programmes. Corporates should invest in training and maybe some private schools. A start can be made with a pilot project in six small towns/villages. By 2020, if one-tenth of domestic BPO is outsourced to villages , it will employ 800,000. More important, it will transform rural aspirations and mindsets. That is the way to go.
How To Convert Villages Into BPO Hubs
INCLUSIVE IT development requires a business model linking rural skill development with commercial outsourcing . Business process outsourcing (BPO) has long been done by English-speaking youngsters out of major cities for global customers. But only a small fraction of Indians have the English and technical skills needed. Telecom and power are typically unreliable outside big cities. The Byraju Foundation started a rural BPO in Andhra Pradesh to meet Satyam Computers simplest needs, but such corporate spoon-feeding is not scalable. The good news is that commercially viable BPOs are coming up in small towns and big villages. This holds great promise provided corporates and state governments do their bit.
RuralShores, a small start up, operates a 160-people centre in a village three hours from Bangalore, and aims to expand this model to 500 village centres with 20-30 people each. Infosys is planning partnerships with similar rural outfits on a revenue-sharing basis. Wages in small towns are half that in metros. But if wages alone mattered BPOs would long have migrated to Nepal and Bangladesh. In fact skills, infrastructure and reliability are also needed. How can these be provided in rural areas One answer is improved telecom and broadband penetration, and better rural power. Global BPO requires English language skills, but Indian companies are now outsourcing domestic work, and need to do so in regional languages. A significant chunk of this work can be done in small towns and large villages. This approach can be scaled up in a big way by creating rural knowledge centres having good infrastructure and skill development. Corporates like Infosys and Genepact should work with state governments to identify and develop rural knowledge centres in areas with broadband. State governments should guarantee quality power, and implement egovernance programmes. Corporates should invest in training and maybe some private schools. A start can be made with a pilot project in six small towns/villages. By 2020, if one-tenth of domestic BPO is outsourced to villages , it will employ 800,000. More important, it will transform rural aspirations and mindsets. That is the way to go.
Political reform is economic reform
Political reform is economic reform
THE MOST URGENTLY REQUIRED ECONOMIC REFORMS LIE IN THE POLITICAL SPHERE, SAYST K ARUN
VETERAN policymaker and chairman of the 13th Finance Commission Vijay Kelkar is fond of saying that India needs a reform stimulus than a fiscal stimulus. Fair enough, but what reforms Build physical infrastructure , invest in education and healthcare, say the majority of our CEOs. Implement the proposed Goods and Services Tax right, say some others. Financial sector reforms, according to yet others. All these are relevant, but the most pressing economic reforms are squarely in the realm of politics.
An easy example of political reform that will directly yield huge economic returns is appointing ministers for telecom and roads, whose prime focus is rolling out telecom services and getting roads built, rather than making money from these sectors.
A slightly more complex example of political reform leading to economic gains is ending patronage of power theft and power give-aways without compensating the utility from the governments budget. Nearly half the power generated in this country is not paid for.
Can the cement or steel sector survive if half its produce is not paid for Such financial unviability induced by base politics is the only real constraint on Indias power sector. If power theft is stamped out, as is happening in West Bengal and Gujarat, and if all governments pay their power utilities for the power they want given away free to farmers and all those entrepreneurs who can draw power from an unmetered farm connection (as the government of Tamil Nadu mostly does) power will become a commercially viable sector. People will invest in it, generate and sell the power demanded by consumers and make money, just as they do in any normal line of business. Stamping out power theft is essentially a question of political will.
An even more complex example is that of improving the overall governance of a state that underperforms vis--vis its potential. Take the case of Bihar. Bihar should ideally be the sugar capital of India , perhaps, of the world. Its agro-climatic features are ideal for sugarcane, which draws a lot of water from the ground and can survive the occasional flood and come out stronger. However, sugarcane is not a popular crop in Bihar because cane requires to be crushed soon after being harvested and for that you need sugar mills in the vicinity of the cane fields. But sugar mills cannot come up if those who run them are perpetual targets of protection racketeers, kidnappers and sundry criminals.
If Bihars law and order conditions were to credibly improve and stay stable at an acceptable level, the state would grow at least at the average rate of growth for all states and Indias GDP growth would go up by nearly two percentage points. Nitish Kumar is building on the empowerment of the oppressed kicked off by Lalu Yadav, and hopefully, things will continue to improve in Bihar.
Reconfiguring spending priorities to build rural infrastructure roads, irrigation canals, power and telecom lines, schools and healthcare facilities can pay huge political and economic dividends , as YSR Reddy has demonstrated in Andhra Pradesh. Rural incomes will go up, create a market for industrys produce and raise prosperity in the towns as well.
But the most complex and most urgently needed political reform is getting the administrative machinery to do the job for which it has been created. The Indian state is corrupt, predatory, dysfunctional and unaccountable. This kills enterprise , excoriates the most bleedingheart of welfare schemes, stunts the minds and bodies of Indias young in its ill-run schools and hospitals and undermines the future. But changing this cannot be done by any set of administrative reforms alone.
The challenge calls for two interlinked kinds of political tasks. One is mobilisation of the rural poor, in whose name most development expenditure takes place, to hold the bureaucracy accountable on a day-to-day basis. Use of the increasingly ubiquitous camera phones to record and verify the actual progress achieved in various development /welfare schemes is now possible. But this can be done only if the poor have the required agency, organisational strength and political support . In the implementation of the now-acclaimed rural employment guarantee scheme, only NGO activists have been beaten up and even killed. Where are the political workers, when it comes to implementing schemes like NREGA
The other key reform is how political parties finance themselves. Politics needs funds. Right now, this is mobilised by loot of the exchequer and extortion from the public, bending policy to suit financiers. This distorts policy, makes a joke of corporate governance (companies fund parties with resources taken off their books) corrupts the bureaucracy (the exchequer cannot be looted and policy bent, without suborning the bureaucracy), strips politicians of moral authority and cleaves the ties of interdependence that should bind political parties and the people whom they want to represent.
This last set of reforms has huge potential to boost investment and growth. The capital cost of not only public sector projects but also private sector projects will come down sharply, as also their time for execution, if money does not have to be diverted to propitiate politicians and civil servants.
These are not easy tasks. But no one said closing the gap between the Constitutions promise of a liberal democracy and the reality in India is babalogs play. But then, neither was winning Lok Sabha elections.
It will require a new breed of politician to take the lead to effect reform of this order. How new is our new leader
THE MOST URGENTLY REQUIRED ECONOMIC REFORMS LIE IN THE POLITICAL SPHERE, SAYST K ARUN
VETERAN policymaker and chairman of the 13th Finance Commission Vijay Kelkar is fond of saying that India needs a reform stimulus than a fiscal stimulus. Fair enough, but what reforms Build physical infrastructure , invest in education and healthcare, say the majority of our CEOs. Implement the proposed Goods and Services Tax right, say some others. Financial sector reforms, according to yet others. All these are relevant, but the most pressing economic reforms are squarely in the realm of politics.
An easy example of political reform that will directly yield huge economic returns is appointing ministers for telecom and roads, whose prime focus is rolling out telecom services and getting roads built, rather than making money from these sectors.
A slightly more complex example of political reform leading to economic gains is ending patronage of power theft and power give-aways without compensating the utility from the governments budget. Nearly half the power generated in this country is not paid for.
Can the cement or steel sector survive if half its produce is not paid for Such financial unviability induced by base politics is the only real constraint on Indias power sector. If power theft is stamped out, as is happening in West Bengal and Gujarat, and if all governments pay their power utilities for the power they want given away free to farmers and all those entrepreneurs who can draw power from an unmetered farm connection (as the government of Tamil Nadu mostly does) power will become a commercially viable sector. People will invest in it, generate and sell the power demanded by consumers and make money, just as they do in any normal line of business. Stamping out power theft is essentially a question of political will.
An even more complex example is that of improving the overall governance of a state that underperforms vis--vis its potential. Take the case of Bihar. Bihar should ideally be the sugar capital of India , perhaps, of the world. Its agro-climatic features are ideal for sugarcane, which draws a lot of water from the ground and can survive the occasional flood and come out stronger. However, sugarcane is not a popular crop in Bihar because cane requires to be crushed soon after being harvested and for that you need sugar mills in the vicinity of the cane fields. But sugar mills cannot come up if those who run them are perpetual targets of protection racketeers, kidnappers and sundry criminals.
If Bihars law and order conditions were to credibly improve and stay stable at an acceptable level, the state would grow at least at the average rate of growth for all states and Indias GDP growth would go up by nearly two percentage points. Nitish Kumar is building on the empowerment of the oppressed kicked off by Lalu Yadav, and hopefully, things will continue to improve in Bihar.
Reconfiguring spending priorities to build rural infrastructure roads, irrigation canals, power and telecom lines, schools and healthcare facilities can pay huge political and economic dividends , as YSR Reddy has demonstrated in Andhra Pradesh. Rural incomes will go up, create a market for industrys produce and raise prosperity in the towns as well.
But the most complex and most urgently needed political reform is getting the administrative machinery to do the job for which it has been created. The Indian state is corrupt, predatory, dysfunctional and unaccountable. This kills enterprise , excoriates the most bleedingheart of welfare schemes, stunts the minds and bodies of Indias young in its ill-run schools and hospitals and undermines the future. But changing this cannot be done by any set of administrative reforms alone.
The challenge calls for two interlinked kinds of political tasks. One is mobilisation of the rural poor, in whose name most development expenditure takes place, to hold the bureaucracy accountable on a day-to-day basis. Use of the increasingly ubiquitous camera phones to record and verify the actual progress achieved in various development /welfare schemes is now possible. But this can be done only if the poor have the required agency, organisational strength and political support . In the implementation of the now-acclaimed rural employment guarantee scheme, only NGO activists have been beaten up and even killed. Where are the political workers, when it comes to implementing schemes like NREGA
The other key reform is how political parties finance themselves. Politics needs funds. Right now, this is mobilised by loot of the exchequer and extortion from the public, bending policy to suit financiers. This distorts policy, makes a joke of corporate governance (companies fund parties with resources taken off their books) corrupts the bureaucracy (the exchequer cannot be looted and policy bent, without suborning the bureaucracy), strips politicians of moral authority and cleaves the ties of interdependence that should bind political parties and the people whom they want to represent.
This last set of reforms has huge potential to boost investment and growth. The capital cost of not only public sector projects but also private sector projects will come down sharply, as also their time for execution, if money does not have to be diverted to propitiate politicians and civil servants.
These are not easy tasks. But no one said closing the gap between the Constitutions promise of a liberal democracy and the reality in India is babalogs play. But then, neither was winning Lok Sabha elections.
It will require a new breed of politician to take the lead to effect reform of this order. How new is our new leader
Our security architecture needs fortification
Step Up To The Task
Our security architecture needs fortification
Prakash Singh
The presidents address to Parliament unveiled an ambitious agenda for reforms in which internal security has been given high priority, and rightly so. The country has been reassured that the government would follow a policy of zero tolerance towards terrorism and that stern measures would be taken to deal with insurgency and left-wing extremism.
Unfortunately, there is a sense of complacency that has set in here because there has been no major incident since 26/11. We must remember that the reason there has been no major terror strike since the Mumbai attacks has been more due to the international pressure on Pakistan and the action taken by that country against terrorists operating within its boundaries rather than any strengthening of the security apparatus by our government.
As soon as Pakistan is able to get the economic assistance it desperately needs, it would revert to its old game of sponsoring terrorism. The manner in which Hafiz Saeed, chief of the banned Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), and founder of the outlawed Lashkar-a-Taiba (LeT), has been let off the hook is evidence , if needed at all, of Pakistans ambivalence . It is absolutely essential, therefore, that the government improves our security architecture comprehensively. Else, all our efforts in other areas would come to a naught. Economic development can take place only in a secure environment.
It may be recalled that the Rand Corporation , a US think tank, had, in the aftermath of the 26/11 incidents in Mumbai, clearly warned that India will continue to face a serious jihadi terrorist threat from Pakistan-based terrorist groups for the foreseeable future . In fact, it even said the threat will continue to grow . Another US think tank, Stratfor, also said that in the context of jihadi insurgency along Indias western frontier and Pakistan seemingly losing control of its militant proxies, another major Islamist attack in India is inevitable .
Meanwhile, the US state department, while ranking India among the worlds most terrorism affected countries deplored that the Indian governments counterterrorism efforts remained hampered by its outdated and overburdened law enforcement and legal systems . Government no doubt took some positive measures in the wake of 26/11. However, our overall preparedness leaves much to be desired.
The police and intelligence organisations in the states continue to be in poor shape. The majority of states have been lackadaisical in implementing the Supreme Courts directions on police reforms. The Centre has been dragging its feet over introducing the Model Police Bill for Delhi and the Union territories. The police force is woefully short of manpower, apart from the fact that a sizeable chunk of the force is diverted to protect so-called VIPs. There is misplaced emphasis on open-ended expansion of the paramilitary forces. What we need to actually augment is the civil police force.
The thana does not inspire any confidence either by its appearance or by its resources and equipment. Beat constables, the crucial link in internal security, exist on paper alone. Modernisation of the police has been slow, as has been highlighted by the Comptroller and Auditor General. Recruitment procedures are tainted and training continues to be neglected. The executive has, in some states, devastated the chain of command with deleterious effects on discipline in the ranks. If the morale of the police is low today, its thanks to the politicians and the bureaucracy.
The Congress party, in its manifesto, recognised the imperative of police reforms . It stated, A clear distinction between the political executive and police administration will be made . The manifesto also assured that the police force will be better provisioned especially in the matter of housing and educational facilities . The president has also reiterated the governments commitment to police reforms. It is high time that these promises are acted upon.
At the national level, our anti-terror policy must be defined in explicit terms. The National Investigating Agency and the Central Bureau of Investigation need to be merged. Having two parallel central investigating agencies makes no sense. The performance of the Research & Analysis Wing remains a matter of concern. It must develop offensive capabilities. The Intelligence Bureau needs to be depoliticised. The National Security Council is almost dysfunctional and the National Security Advisory Board has become a parking spot for retired officers who are in the good books of the establishment.
The problem of Bangladeshi immigration was dusted under the carpet by all previous governments. That cannot continue. To start with, fencing our borders with Bangladesh should be completed expeditiously overruling all political objections at the local level. The scheme to give multi-purpose identity cards to all Indian citizens should be implemented post-haste . In due course, government must prevail upon Bangladesh to accept the fact of illegal immigration and take back at least some of its nationals on the basis of a mutually agreed cut-off date.
It was unfortunate that in the wake of 26/11, the government did not appoint a national commission to examine the lapses in security and suggest comprehensive measures to overhaul the security matrix. Perhaps those in power scuttled the proposal lest they were exposed and held accountable. Though belated, the new government may still consider appointing such a commission to investigate systemic failures and recommend appropriate remedial measures.
The writer is a former director-general , BSF.
Our security architecture needs fortification
Prakash Singh
The presidents address to Parliament unveiled an ambitious agenda for reforms in which internal security has been given high priority, and rightly so. The country has been reassured that the government would follow a policy of zero tolerance towards terrorism and that stern measures would be taken to deal with insurgency and left-wing extremism.
Unfortunately, there is a sense of complacency that has set in here because there has been no major incident since 26/11. We must remember that the reason there has been no major terror strike since the Mumbai attacks has been more due to the international pressure on Pakistan and the action taken by that country against terrorists operating within its boundaries rather than any strengthening of the security apparatus by our government.
As soon as Pakistan is able to get the economic assistance it desperately needs, it would revert to its old game of sponsoring terrorism. The manner in which Hafiz Saeed, chief of the banned Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), and founder of the outlawed Lashkar-a-Taiba (LeT), has been let off the hook is evidence , if needed at all, of Pakistans ambivalence . It is absolutely essential, therefore, that the government improves our security architecture comprehensively. Else, all our efforts in other areas would come to a naught. Economic development can take place only in a secure environment.
It may be recalled that the Rand Corporation , a US think tank, had, in the aftermath of the 26/11 incidents in Mumbai, clearly warned that India will continue to face a serious jihadi terrorist threat from Pakistan-based terrorist groups for the foreseeable future . In fact, it even said the threat will continue to grow . Another US think tank, Stratfor, also said that in the context of jihadi insurgency along Indias western frontier and Pakistan seemingly losing control of its militant proxies, another major Islamist attack in India is inevitable .
Meanwhile, the US state department, while ranking India among the worlds most terrorism affected countries deplored that the Indian governments counterterrorism efforts remained hampered by its outdated and overburdened law enforcement and legal systems . Government no doubt took some positive measures in the wake of 26/11. However, our overall preparedness leaves much to be desired.
The police and intelligence organisations in the states continue to be in poor shape. The majority of states have been lackadaisical in implementing the Supreme Courts directions on police reforms. The Centre has been dragging its feet over introducing the Model Police Bill for Delhi and the Union territories. The police force is woefully short of manpower, apart from the fact that a sizeable chunk of the force is diverted to protect so-called VIPs. There is misplaced emphasis on open-ended expansion of the paramilitary forces. What we need to actually augment is the civil police force.
The thana does not inspire any confidence either by its appearance or by its resources and equipment. Beat constables, the crucial link in internal security, exist on paper alone. Modernisation of the police has been slow, as has been highlighted by the Comptroller and Auditor General. Recruitment procedures are tainted and training continues to be neglected. The executive has, in some states, devastated the chain of command with deleterious effects on discipline in the ranks. If the morale of the police is low today, its thanks to the politicians and the bureaucracy.
The Congress party, in its manifesto, recognised the imperative of police reforms . It stated, A clear distinction between the political executive and police administration will be made . The manifesto also assured that the police force will be better provisioned especially in the matter of housing and educational facilities . The president has also reiterated the governments commitment to police reforms. It is high time that these promises are acted upon.
At the national level, our anti-terror policy must be defined in explicit terms. The National Investigating Agency and the Central Bureau of Investigation need to be merged. Having two parallel central investigating agencies makes no sense. The performance of the Research & Analysis Wing remains a matter of concern. It must develop offensive capabilities. The Intelligence Bureau needs to be depoliticised. The National Security Council is almost dysfunctional and the National Security Advisory Board has become a parking spot for retired officers who are in the good books of the establishment.
The problem of Bangladeshi immigration was dusted under the carpet by all previous governments. That cannot continue. To start with, fencing our borders with Bangladesh should be completed expeditiously overruling all political objections at the local level. The scheme to give multi-purpose identity cards to all Indian citizens should be implemented post-haste . In due course, government must prevail upon Bangladesh to accept the fact of illegal immigration and take back at least some of its nationals on the basis of a mutually agreed cut-off date.
It was unfortunate that in the wake of 26/11, the government did not appoint a national commission to examine the lapses in security and suggest comprehensive measures to overhaul the security matrix. Perhaps those in power scuttled the proposal lest they were exposed and held accountable. Though belated, the new government may still consider appointing such a commission to investigate systemic failures and recommend appropriate remedial measures.
The writer is a former director-general , BSF.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Crisis: Are B-schools to blame
Crisis: Are B-schools to blame
Both B-schools and society at large need to be modest about what B-schools can achieve. To expect B-schools to produce a wonderfully balanced, caring and socially responsible person is sheer delusion, says T T Ram Mohan.
MANAGERS are in the line of fire in the present crisis, especially managers in the financial sector. Economists might argue that the crisis was caused by deep-rooted factors such as global imbalances and flawed regulation but the man on the street is in no mood to listen. He thinks greedy, overpaid managers just went and blew it. From there, its just a short step to arguing that part of the blame must rest with the industry that produces managers in large numbers B-schools . Philip Delves Broughton is a journalist who went to study at Harvard Business School and wrote a lively book about his stay there. In an article in The Times of London (March 1), Broughton lashed out at his alma mater and at B-schools in general: Time after time, and scandal after scandal , it seems that a school that graduates just 900 students a year finds itself in the thick of it. Yet there is remarkably little contrition. .You can draw up a list of the greatest entrepreneurs of recent history, from Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google and Bill Gates of Microsoft, to Michael Dell, Richard Branson, Lakshmi Mittal and theres not an MBA between them. Yet the MBA industry continues to grow, and business schools provide vital income to academic institutions: 500,000 people around the world now graduate each year with an MBA, 150,000 of those in the United States, creating their own management class within global business. Given the present chaos, shouldnt we be asking if business education is not just a waste of time, but actually damaging to our economic health One can read two separate propositions into the above quote. The stronger one is that B-schools serve no particular purpose. The milder one is that B-school curricula are inadequate and in some ways responsible for much that is wrong today in the world of business. The first proposition is easily dealt with. Whether B-schools are useful is one of those debates that will never end like debates on death penalty, globalisation and fashion shows. Every one of these issues was hotly debated when I was in college . They continued to be the staple of college debates even today.
The test must be empirical. If B-schools are mushrooming and if the demand for their products keeps rising, its reasonable to infer that B-schools are serving some purpose . B-schools have been around for a hundred years now, so businesses have had enough time to find out if they add value.
Its the second proposition that is of greater interest. Is there something seriously wrong with B-school curricula and the attitudes that B-schools inculcate Broughton cites HBS case studies that failed to pick up signs of trouble: Enron and Royal Bank of Scotland. How come a school that purports to teach general management failed to see the gaping problems at these firms, Broughton asks.
In the same vein, you could ask why many economists failed to anticipate the present crisis. Case studies at B-schools are intended to focus on a corporate situation and stimulate discussion on various approaches to it. They are not meant to be judgements on a company. Nor do Bschool faculty profess to offer ideal solutions in class.
THE proposition that B-school curricula and attitudes need radical revamping has takers among academics. In an article in the Harvard Business Review (June, 2009), Joel Podolny, a former HBS professor and ex-dean of Yales School of Management, says he shares Broughtons anger at B-schools . Podolny highlights major lacunae in B-school teaching: Inattention to ethics and leadership A tendency to teach management in disciplinary silos instead of offering a holistic view A focus on theoretical models that do not clarify how organisations actually work An obsession with school rankings that, in turn, leads to a focus on jobs and salaries in place of the greater good of society.
Podolny is not being terribly original these points have been made before. Bschools do update curricula and attempt new ways of teaching all the time. No doubt, they need to keep trying. But there does seem to be a problem with expectations that people have of B-schools .
There is much talk lately about Bschools having abetted greed in the corporate world through their focus on shareholder value. There is also the suggestion that B-schools should inculcate a certain high-mindedness in their students.
Unethical behaviour, its worth reminding ourselves, is not the monopoly of B-school products nor is it confined to managers. Nevertheless, B-schools have thought it necessary to respond by introducing courses on ethics and new ones on leadership. Its , of course, great PR for Bschools to be able to say, We emphasise ethics in the very first semester of our programme . But much of the talk about Bschools creating ethical leaders can be dangerous nonsense.
First, there is nothing about the focus on shareholder value that implies that managers must disregard laws or even ethical considerations. Secondly, it is absurd to think that B-schools can take students in their mid-twenties or thirties and make better human beings out of them. As Peter Drucker pointed out long back, moral sense is formed fairly early in life and is the result of ones whole upbringing.
The exasperated layman may ask: if Bschools cant create better leaders or model organisations, what do they contribute Well, as somebody who went through an MBA program himself, let me attempt an answer. After graduating from an IIT, I had no clue as to what business is all about. The two years at an IIM gave me a broad understanding of different functional areas finance, marketing, operations and a grasp of strategy. These are things that people learn over several years in a business and a B-school helps abbreviate the learning period.
Thats about it. Both B-schools and society at large need to be modest about what B-schools can achieve. To expect Bschools to produce a wonderfully balanced , caring and socially responsible person is sheer delusion. You cant expect Bschools to succeed where Buddha, Jesus and Vivekananda failed.
Both B-schools and society at large need to be modest about what B-schools can achieve. To expect B-schools to produce a wonderfully balanced, caring and socially responsible person is sheer delusion, says T T Ram Mohan.
MANAGERS are in the line of fire in the present crisis, especially managers in the financial sector. Economists might argue that the crisis was caused by deep-rooted factors such as global imbalances and flawed regulation but the man on the street is in no mood to listen. He thinks greedy, overpaid managers just went and blew it. From there, its just a short step to arguing that part of the blame must rest with the industry that produces managers in large numbers B-schools . Philip Delves Broughton is a journalist who went to study at Harvard Business School and wrote a lively book about his stay there. In an article in The Times of London (March 1), Broughton lashed out at his alma mater and at B-schools in general: Time after time, and scandal after scandal , it seems that a school that graduates just 900 students a year finds itself in the thick of it. Yet there is remarkably little contrition. .You can draw up a list of the greatest entrepreneurs of recent history, from Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google and Bill Gates of Microsoft, to Michael Dell, Richard Branson, Lakshmi Mittal and theres not an MBA between them. Yet the MBA industry continues to grow, and business schools provide vital income to academic institutions: 500,000 people around the world now graduate each year with an MBA, 150,000 of those in the United States, creating their own management class within global business. Given the present chaos, shouldnt we be asking if business education is not just a waste of time, but actually damaging to our economic health One can read two separate propositions into the above quote. The stronger one is that B-schools serve no particular purpose. The milder one is that B-school curricula are inadequate and in some ways responsible for much that is wrong today in the world of business. The first proposition is easily dealt with. Whether B-schools are useful is one of those debates that will never end like debates on death penalty, globalisation and fashion shows. Every one of these issues was hotly debated when I was in college . They continued to be the staple of college debates even today.
The test must be empirical. If B-schools are mushrooming and if the demand for their products keeps rising, its reasonable to infer that B-schools are serving some purpose . B-schools have been around for a hundred years now, so businesses have had enough time to find out if they add value.
Its the second proposition that is of greater interest. Is there something seriously wrong with B-school curricula and the attitudes that B-schools inculcate Broughton cites HBS case studies that failed to pick up signs of trouble: Enron and Royal Bank of Scotland. How come a school that purports to teach general management failed to see the gaping problems at these firms, Broughton asks.
In the same vein, you could ask why many economists failed to anticipate the present crisis. Case studies at B-schools are intended to focus on a corporate situation and stimulate discussion on various approaches to it. They are not meant to be judgements on a company. Nor do Bschool faculty profess to offer ideal solutions in class.
THE proposition that B-school curricula and attitudes need radical revamping has takers among academics. In an article in the Harvard Business Review (June, 2009), Joel Podolny, a former HBS professor and ex-dean of Yales School of Management, says he shares Broughtons anger at B-schools . Podolny highlights major lacunae in B-school teaching: Inattention to ethics and leadership A tendency to teach management in disciplinary silos instead of offering a holistic view A focus on theoretical models that do not clarify how organisations actually work An obsession with school rankings that, in turn, leads to a focus on jobs and salaries in place of the greater good of society.
Podolny is not being terribly original these points have been made before. Bschools do update curricula and attempt new ways of teaching all the time. No doubt, they need to keep trying. But there does seem to be a problem with expectations that people have of B-schools .
There is much talk lately about Bschools having abetted greed in the corporate world through their focus on shareholder value. There is also the suggestion that B-schools should inculcate a certain high-mindedness in their students.
Unethical behaviour, its worth reminding ourselves, is not the monopoly of B-school products nor is it confined to managers. Nevertheless, B-schools have thought it necessary to respond by introducing courses on ethics and new ones on leadership. Its , of course, great PR for Bschools to be able to say, We emphasise ethics in the very first semester of our programme . But much of the talk about Bschools creating ethical leaders can be dangerous nonsense.
First, there is nothing about the focus on shareholder value that implies that managers must disregard laws or even ethical considerations. Secondly, it is absurd to think that B-schools can take students in their mid-twenties or thirties and make better human beings out of them. As Peter Drucker pointed out long back, moral sense is formed fairly early in life and is the result of ones whole upbringing.
The exasperated layman may ask: if Bschools cant create better leaders or model organisations, what do they contribute Well, as somebody who went through an MBA program himself, let me attempt an answer. After graduating from an IIT, I had no clue as to what business is all about. The two years at an IIM gave me a broad understanding of different functional areas finance, marketing, operations and a grasp of strategy. These are things that people learn over several years in a business and a B-school helps abbreviate the learning period.
Thats about it. Both B-schools and society at large need to be modest about what B-schools can achieve. To expect Bschools to produce a wonderfully balanced , caring and socially responsible person is sheer delusion. You cant expect Bschools to succeed where Buddha, Jesus and Vivekananda failed.
USA -CHINA NEXUS
Enter The Dragon
A resurgent China partnering the US will affect India
Jayadeva Ranade
Chinas chest-thumping at the widely publicised 60th anniversary celebrations of the Peoples Liberation Army Navy in April was carefully choreographed to demonstrate that it is ready to be acknowledged as a major global power. The confidence stems from the rapid advances in modernising the Chinese armed forces and, more important, the spotlight on Chinas economic strength at a time when major world powers are struggling with immense domestic economic problems and require Beijings assistance. Chinas leadership under Hu Jintao has jettisoned Deng Xiaopings advice to adhere to the policy of taoguang yanghui or lie low, conceal capabilities and bide time till China achieves its modernisation goals.
This confidence was reflected in the way China publicised the confrontations between its navy and US navy survey ships in recent months in the South China and Yellow Seas. These demonstrated the leaderships willingness to take a tough stand and the navys ability to confront the US navy. China also marked the anniversary of last years devastating earthquake in Sichuan with extensive media coverage of the sombre yet elaborate ceremonies held in cities in the country to honour the dead. Nor did Beijing adopt a defensive posture during the sensitive 50th anniversary of the Lhasa uprising. It has decided to display Chinas accomplishments, strength and international stature. Countries in the neighbourhood, especially those banking on US support, have grasped the significance.
China has for years aspired to be recognised as one of the worlds major powers. It recognises that the US will continue to be the dominant world power for the foreseeable future. Its ambition is to exercise what it perceives is its rightful role in international affairs and its perceived sphere of influence, namely the western half of the Pacific Ocean up to the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean. Recognising Beijings ambition , successive US administrations have for over three decades sought to manipulate this to their advantage.
The first occasion was in 1974 when then US secretary of state Henry Kissinger visited Beijing and met vice-premier Deng Xiaoping. He clarified that the purpose of the visit to India earlier was to counterbalance Soviet influence and do things in Pakistan without being accused of an anti-Indian motivation . Obliquely referring to clandestine Sino-Pakistani collusion , he added: One of my colleagues said he was not only in favour of giving arms to Pakistan , but arms and nuclear weapons to Pakistan and Bangladesh. It could not have been coincidence that the US did not protest when China, in 2005, signed a civil nuclear cooperation agreement with Bangladesh, which has abundant resources of natural gas.
The second instance was during Bill Clintons visit to China as US president in June 1998 when he referred to the possibility of the US and China sharing responsibility in areas of the Asia-Pacific to preserve world peace, including on nuclear non-proliferation . A US presidential statement on South Asia relating specifically to India and Pakistan was issued. It recognised that China would have a say in the final settlement of the Kashmir issue.
The latest instance was US Admiral Timothy Keatings disclosure during his recent visit to New Delhi. He quoted a senior Chinese navy officer as telling him, ostensibly half jocularly , that while developing their aircraft carriers , they could reach an agreement on the US navy taking Hawaii East and the Chinese taking Hawaii West and the Indian Ocean. They would share information and Chinas navy would save the US the trouble of developing its naval forces west of Hawaii! The proposal reflects long-held Chinese aspirations. While Beijing has denied it, Admiral Keating was surely not hallucinating when he publicised the proposal.
The timing of Admiral Keatings disclosure coincides with Beijings visibly tougher stance against India. It gives traction to US efforts to entice Saudi Arabia and China to shoulder increased responsibility in Afghanistan and Pakistan, which could include Kashmir. It would be premature to say that the US would allow China a dominant role in the region any time soon, but it is trying to manipulate Chinese aspirations. China has been awaiting such an opportunity as a big step towards achieving its global aspirations and establishing regional dominance.
The US will achieve short-term gains, but the move is fraught with risk for America and the West. It will be impossible to effectively limit Chinas activities. China will entrench itself in Pakistan, expand influence in Afghanistan and consolidate its position in Central Asia. This will not be in US or Russian interest. The China-led Shanghai Cooperation Organisation will acquire the potential to oppose the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation . Pressure on India to unilaterally yield concessions to Pakistan, especially on Kashmir, will be considerable.
Sino-British collusion in the UN to defer blacklisting of Jaish-e-Mohammad founder Masood Azhar and negligible US reaction to Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeeds release are worrying signals. The US is also contemplating offering Pakistan a nuclear deal similar to that with India. The consequences for India in the longer term, especially if China partners the US, would be very unwelcome. It would concurrently escalate concern across the region. India needs to formulate a new assertive foreign policy to avoid being marginalised in the region.
A resurgent China partnering the US will affect India
Jayadeva Ranade
Chinas chest-thumping at the widely publicised 60th anniversary celebrations of the Peoples Liberation Army Navy in April was carefully choreographed to demonstrate that it is ready to be acknowledged as a major global power. The confidence stems from the rapid advances in modernising the Chinese armed forces and, more important, the spotlight on Chinas economic strength at a time when major world powers are struggling with immense domestic economic problems and require Beijings assistance. Chinas leadership under Hu Jintao has jettisoned Deng Xiaopings advice to adhere to the policy of taoguang yanghui or lie low, conceal capabilities and bide time till China achieves its modernisation goals.
This confidence was reflected in the way China publicised the confrontations between its navy and US navy survey ships in recent months in the South China and Yellow Seas. These demonstrated the leaderships willingness to take a tough stand and the navys ability to confront the US navy. China also marked the anniversary of last years devastating earthquake in Sichuan with extensive media coverage of the sombre yet elaborate ceremonies held in cities in the country to honour the dead. Nor did Beijing adopt a defensive posture during the sensitive 50th anniversary of the Lhasa uprising. It has decided to display Chinas accomplishments, strength and international stature. Countries in the neighbourhood, especially those banking on US support, have grasped the significance.
China has for years aspired to be recognised as one of the worlds major powers. It recognises that the US will continue to be the dominant world power for the foreseeable future. Its ambition is to exercise what it perceives is its rightful role in international affairs and its perceived sphere of influence, namely the western half of the Pacific Ocean up to the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean. Recognising Beijings ambition , successive US administrations have for over three decades sought to manipulate this to their advantage.
The first occasion was in 1974 when then US secretary of state Henry Kissinger visited Beijing and met vice-premier Deng Xiaoping. He clarified that the purpose of the visit to India earlier was to counterbalance Soviet influence and do things in Pakistan without being accused of an anti-Indian motivation . Obliquely referring to clandestine Sino-Pakistani collusion , he added: One of my colleagues said he was not only in favour of giving arms to Pakistan , but arms and nuclear weapons to Pakistan and Bangladesh. It could not have been coincidence that the US did not protest when China, in 2005, signed a civil nuclear cooperation agreement with Bangladesh, which has abundant resources of natural gas.
The second instance was during Bill Clintons visit to China as US president in June 1998 when he referred to the possibility of the US and China sharing responsibility in areas of the Asia-Pacific to preserve world peace, including on nuclear non-proliferation . A US presidential statement on South Asia relating specifically to India and Pakistan was issued. It recognised that China would have a say in the final settlement of the Kashmir issue.
The latest instance was US Admiral Timothy Keatings disclosure during his recent visit to New Delhi. He quoted a senior Chinese navy officer as telling him, ostensibly half jocularly , that while developing their aircraft carriers , they could reach an agreement on the US navy taking Hawaii East and the Chinese taking Hawaii West and the Indian Ocean. They would share information and Chinas navy would save the US the trouble of developing its naval forces west of Hawaii! The proposal reflects long-held Chinese aspirations. While Beijing has denied it, Admiral Keating was surely not hallucinating when he publicised the proposal.
The timing of Admiral Keatings disclosure coincides with Beijings visibly tougher stance against India. It gives traction to US efforts to entice Saudi Arabia and China to shoulder increased responsibility in Afghanistan and Pakistan, which could include Kashmir. It would be premature to say that the US would allow China a dominant role in the region any time soon, but it is trying to manipulate Chinese aspirations. China has been awaiting such an opportunity as a big step towards achieving its global aspirations and establishing regional dominance.
The US will achieve short-term gains, but the move is fraught with risk for America and the West. It will be impossible to effectively limit Chinas activities. China will entrench itself in Pakistan, expand influence in Afghanistan and consolidate its position in Central Asia. This will not be in US or Russian interest. The China-led Shanghai Cooperation Organisation will acquire the potential to oppose the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation . Pressure on India to unilaterally yield concessions to Pakistan, especially on Kashmir, will be considerable.
Sino-British collusion in the UN to defer blacklisting of Jaish-e-Mohammad founder Masood Azhar and negligible US reaction to Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeeds release are worrying signals. The US is also contemplating offering Pakistan a nuclear deal similar to that with India. The consequences for India in the longer term, especially if China partners the US, would be very unwelcome. It would concurrently escalate concern across the region. India needs to formulate a new assertive foreign policy to avoid being marginalised in the region.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Subcontinent, Reunite
BREAK THE WALL
Subcontinent, Reunite
Tahir Mahmood
If forcibly divided East and West Germany can reunite, unnaturally partitioned South and North Yemen can become one nation again, why cant people of the subcontinent revert to the unity of pre-1947 days The partition of India as unwarranted as the divisions of Germany and Yemen was an unconscionable price we paid to throw off the colonial yoke. Undoing the blunder of history, people of those countries have managed a happy reunion. Can the people of the subcontinent which not too long ago was a single nation united by common bonds of history, geography, religion, language and culture not tread the same path of sanity The partition of India was unjustifiably demanded, and unreasonably conceded , in the name of religion. Rulers of the newly created Islamic Republic chose to sacrifice democracy and human rights on the altar of a misconceived mix of religion and politics . Soon, they paid a price in the form of another partition, showing that bonds of language were stronger than those of religious affinity.
Many in those countries now realise they had been fooled into believing that they would be happier under a theocratic rule. Look at this Urdu couplet of a Pakistani poet: Aa gaye sooe-haram waiz ke bahkaney sey ham/Warna razi ham sey butkhana tha butkhaney se ham (Misled by religious sermonisers in this mosque we did assemble/Otherwise the temple was happy with us and we with the temple). And see how an Indian Muslim poet feels: Na janoon mein yeh sab kya hai na Bangladesh na Pakistan/Mujhey chahiye apney bachpan ka poora poora Hindustan. (I dont know all this, no Bangladesh, no Pakistan /I want back my childhood days total Hindustan). Today, there is no peace anywhere in the subcontinent and the root of all this unrest lies in its artificial partition. We must bring back peace to our part of the human world and the road to this noble goal lies in a reunification. If the Berlin Wall could be demolished by the Germans, it cannot be beyond us, the citizens of the subcontinent, to undo the partition of our common motherland . We may not realise this dream in our lifetime, but let us sow the seed to be reaped by the next generation.
Subcontinent, Reunite
Tahir Mahmood
If forcibly divided East and West Germany can reunite, unnaturally partitioned South and North Yemen can become one nation again, why cant people of the subcontinent revert to the unity of pre-1947 days The partition of India as unwarranted as the divisions of Germany and Yemen was an unconscionable price we paid to throw off the colonial yoke. Undoing the blunder of history, people of those countries have managed a happy reunion. Can the people of the subcontinent which not too long ago was a single nation united by common bonds of history, geography, religion, language and culture not tread the same path of sanity The partition of India was unjustifiably demanded, and unreasonably conceded , in the name of religion. Rulers of the newly created Islamic Republic chose to sacrifice democracy and human rights on the altar of a misconceived mix of religion and politics . Soon, they paid a price in the form of another partition, showing that bonds of language were stronger than those of religious affinity.
Many in those countries now realise they had been fooled into believing that they would be happier under a theocratic rule. Look at this Urdu couplet of a Pakistani poet: Aa gaye sooe-haram waiz ke bahkaney sey ham/Warna razi ham sey butkhana tha butkhaney se ham (Misled by religious sermonisers in this mosque we did assemble/Otherwise the temple was happy with us and we with the temple). And see how an Indian Muslim poet feels: Na janoon mein yeh sab kya hai na Bangladesh na Pakistan/Mujhey chahiye apney bachpan ka poora poora Hindustan. (I dont know all this, no Bangladesh, no Pakistan /I want back my childhood days total Hindustan). Today, there is no peace anywhere in the subcontinent and the root of all this unrest lies in its artificial partition. We must bring back peace to our part of the human world and the road to this noble goal lies in a reunification. If the Berlin Wall could be demolished by the Germans, it cannot be beyond us, the citizens of the subcontinent, to undo the partition of our common motherland . We may not realise this dream in our lifetime, but let us sow the seed to be reaped by the next generation.
Make yourself stress proof
Make yourself stress proof
PARAMAHAMSA SRI NITHYANANDA
THE world is made up of two categories of people: those who are stressed and those who are not. Stressful people are those who desire to control life. They like to mould life in the way they wish it to be. They are focused only on themselves. Those who have no stress are those who accept what life offers them without complaints. Their focus is about what they can do for others.
We are merely a bio-machine as long as we believe we are mind and body. The purpose of human life is to transcend the mind and ascend to a higher state of consciousness . In that state we are truly in the divinity that we descended from. Until we reach that state of unity with what we truly are, we are in turmoil. Stress or tension can be identified as this turmoil , this confusion between our true nature and what we pretend, struggle and strive to become.
The reasons for stress in one person does not necessarily cause stress in another. Someone said that the reverse of stressed reads as desserts ! Nowadays, talking about stress and offering solutions that work temporarily at best is a huge business.
Rather than fixing what is wrong within, people try fighting or dissolving stress by manipulating the field of outside circumstances . How long can you run From what will you run away
Stress becomes an inevitable part of life because we feel it is connected to the fast world outside of us. We feel there can be no life without what we term stress . The truth is, stress is just our own mind-bodys response to what happens outside of us. It is not the disturbance outside that creates trouble, tension and stress. It is the disturbance inside that does it.
Stress can be avoided by changing yourself. You can make yourself stress-proof . This is very simple. Choose not to be affected by what happens outside you. This is not impractical. It is your conditioning that influences you to get affected by what happens to you through events that are beyond your control. Nothing is inherently good or bad except what we judge them to be.
Drop your judgement about yourself, about the people around you and about the situations. You will get freedom from stress. You experience stress when you flow against the current, not when you flow with it. You lose yourself when you flow with the current. It helps you reach the restful mind state from which you can witness events around you without being touched by them. You really have nothing to lose by trying, except your stress! Be Blissful!
PARAMAHAMSA SRI NITHYANANDA
THE world is made up of two categories of people: those who are stressed and those who are not. Stressful people are those who desire to control life. They like to mould life in the way they wish it to be. They are focused only on themselves. Those who have no stress are those who accept what life offers them without complaints. Their focus is about what they can do for others.
We are merely a bio-machine as long as we believe we are mind and body. The purpose of human life is to transcend the mind and ascend to a higher state of consciousness . In that state we are truly in the divinity that we descended from. Until we reach that state of unity with what we truly are, we are in turmoil. Stress or tension can be identified as this turmoil , this confusion between our true nature and what we pretend, struggle and strive to become.
The reasons for stress in one person does not necessarily cause stress in another. Someone said that the reverse of stressed reads as desserts ! Nowadays, talking about stress and offering solutions that work temporarily at best is a huge business.
Rather than fixing what is wrong within, people try fighting or dissolving stress by manipulating the field of outside circumstances . How long can you run From what will you run away
Stress becomes an inevitable part of life because we feel it is connected to the fast world outside of us. We feel there can be no life without what we term stress . The truth is, stress is just our own mind-bodys response to what happens outside of us. It is not the disturbance outside that creates trouble, tension and stress. It is the disturbance inside that does it.
Stress can be avoided by changing yourself. You can make yourself stress-proof . This is very simple. Choose not to be affected by what happens outside you. This is not impractical. It is your conditioning that influences you to get affected by what happens to you through events that are beyond your control. Nothing is inherently good or bad except what we judge them to be.
Drop your judgement about yourself, about the people around you and about the situations. You will get freedom from stress. You experience stress when you flow against the current, not when you flow with it. You lose yourself when you flow with the current. It helps you reach the restful mind state from which you can witness events around you without being touched by them. You really have nothing to lose by trying, except your stress! Be Blissful!
Tax reforms to sustain Indias growth
Tax reforms to sustain Indias growth
SRINIVASA RAO AUTHOR IS NATIONAL LEADER AND PARTNER, ERNST & YOUNG, INDIA
INDIA HAS SHOWN THAT IT CAN WITHSTAND the worst economic recession to have tested the world since the 1930s. However, the importance of adopting measures that will further strengthen the resilience of the Indian economy cannot be ignored. Corporate India expects the government to implement fiscal measures akin to those instituted by many other countries. Most of the stimulus measures are transitory in nature, but have a lasting impact in boosting overall demand and help restart credit flow to companies.
A recent OECD report found that tax measures represent 56% of the net effect of fiscal stimulus. In its recent study, Worldwide fiscal stimulus tax policy plays a major role, Ernst & Young examined taxrelated fiscal stimulus measures in 24 key jurisdictions, including India. The stimulus packages of various countries focused primarily on the following corporate tax measures reductions in corporate income tax rates; encouraging profit repatriation; and accelerated depreciation programmes and stimulus to R&D .
In the three stimulus packages announced starting December 2008, India concentrated on indirect tax cuts, increased government spending and some measure for accelerated depreciation allowance. Expectations are that the government would announce more such measures.
Reductions in corporate income tax rates: With corporate tax rate of 34% for companies with taxable income of more than Rs 1 crore, and other taxes such as dividend distribution tax (DDT) and fringe benefit tax (FBT), the effective tax rate for the industry is well over 40%. The zero tax companies have to pay minimum alternate tax (MAT) at 10% basic rate on adjusted book profits. Corporate India may be justified in its demand for a lower tax rate. Of the 24 countries covered by the study, nine including Canada, Italy, Japan and Russia reduced their tax rates. Reduced tax rates improve cash flows, stimulate demand and encourage investments, including foreign investments. Singapore reduced its tax rate to 17%, Chinas corporate tax rate of 25% stands reduced to 15% for high-end technology enterprises. Japan and Netherlands have tax rates of less than 25%. Globally, MAT is not a popular tax measure, it is an artificial tax on a company which has bona fide claimed the tax benefits. There is a need to abolish MAT, which has over the years led to protracted litigation and increased burden of tax collections.
Encouraging profit repatriation: Indian companies are expanding their operations worldwide, either through acquisitions or by setting-up new companies. Many Indian companies use their overseas subsidiaries to hold offshore investments, as repatriating funds to India is extremely tax inefficient foreign dividends are taxed at 34% in India, and credit for foreign taxes paid by the company paying the dividend is not allowed. Most jurisdictions worldwide avoid this issue by either providing credit for the underlying foreign taxes or by totally exempting the dividend from tax in the recipient jurisdiction. UK and Japan recently announced fiscal measures to exempt from domestic taxation the foreign sourced dividend income received by their domestic corporations. India could consider similar measures to encourage companies to repatriate their profits back home for productive re-investment .
An Indian company distributing dividends to its shareholders is subject to DDT of 17%, even though the dividend is exempt from tax in the hands of the shareholder. While an attempt was made to alleviate the cascading effect in the Finance Act, 2008 by providing for an offset of DDT paid by a lower-tier entity, the provisions are fairly restricted in their scope. For example , the benefit of set-off is available for distributions within a single-tier holding, the distribution between the companies should take place in the same fiscal year. As an immediate measure, the government could consider extending the relief mechanism for eliminating the cascading impact. This would enable effective circulation of cash within an Indian group.
Accelerated depreciation programmes: Such programmes help improve cash flow for businesses by allowing them to write-off the costs of investments more rapidly. Eleven of the 24 countries in our survey, including Singapore, Netherlands, the US and Germany, introduced accelerated depreciation provisions to typically cover assets created and placed into service through the end of 2009, although some countries have extended the eligible period through 2010 or even 2011. For instance, in UK, the first year capital allowance stands doubled to 40%. The current depreciation rate in India for plant and machinery is 15%. Reintroducing of investment allowance scheme, which permitted a deduction of up to 25% of the cost of the new asset with a corresponding transfer to a reserve account in the books of accounts, could be considered.
A Ficci study found that investment allowance in the period 1977-78 to 1989-90 boosted investments, gross domestic capital formation rose over six percentage points from 18.4% of the GDP at market prices in 1977-78 to 24.5% of the GDP at market prices in 1989-90 . During an economic slowdown, investment allowance could provide the much needed impetus to growth. In addition, providing a stimulus to R&D expenditure would help channelise investments.
As the government prepares a full-fledged budget, it could consider measures adopted in other countries and help corporate India succeed not only domestically but in its worldwide operations.
SRINIVASA RAO AUTHOR IS NATIONAL LEADER AND PARTNER, ERNST & YOUNG, INDIA
INDIA HAS SHOWN THAT IT CAN WITHSTAND the worst economic recession to have tested the world since the 1930s. However, the importance of adopting measures that will further strengthen the resilience of the Indian economy cannot be ignored. Corporate India expects the government to implement fiscal measures akin to those instituted by many other countries. Most of the stimulus measures are transitory in nature, but have a lasting impact in boosting overall demand and help restart credit flow to companies.
A recent OECD report found that tax measures represent 56% of the net effect of fiscal stimulus. In its recent study, Worldwide fiscal stimulus tax policy plays a major role, Ernst & Young examined taxrelated fiscal stimulus measures in 24 key jurisdictions, including India. The stimulus packages of various countries focused primarily on the following corporate tax measures reductions in corporate income tax rates; encouraging profit repatriation; and accelerated depreciation programmes and stimulus to R&D .
In the three stimulus packages announced starting December 2008, India concentrated on indirect tax cuts, increased government spending and some measure for accelerated depreciation allowance. Expectations are that the government would announce more such measures.
Reductions in corporate income tax rates: With corporate tax rate of 34% for companies with taxable income of more than Rs 1 crore, and other taxes such as dividend distribution tax (DDT) and fringe benefit tax (FBT), the effective tax rate for the industry is well over 40%. The zero tax companies have to pay minimum alternate tax (MAT) at 10% basic rate on adjusted book profits. Corporate India may be justified in its demand for a lower tax rate. Of the 24 countries covered by the study, nine including Canada, Italy, Japan and Russia reduced their tax rates. Reduced tax rates improve cash flows, stimulate demand and encourage investments, including foreign investments. Singapore reduced its tax rate to 17%, Chinas corporate tax rate of 25% stands reduced to 15% for high-end technology enterprises. Japan and Netherlands have tax rates of less than 25%. Globally, MAT is not a popular tax measure, it is an artificial tax on a company which has bona fide claimed the tax benefits. There is a need to abolish MAT, which has over the years led to protracted litigation and increased burden of tax collections.
Encouraging profit repatriation: Indian companies are expanding their operations worldwide, either through acquisitions or by setting-up new companies. Many Indian companies use their overseas subsidiaries to hold offshore investments, as repatriating funds to India is extremely tax inefficient foreign dividends are taxed at 34% in India, and credit for foreign taxes paid by the company paying the dividend is not allowed. Most jurisdictions worldwide avoid this issue by either providing credit for the underlying foreign taxes or by totally exempting the dividend from tax in the recipient jurisdiction. UK and Japan recently announced fiscal measures to exempt from domestic taxation the foreign sourced dividend income received by their domestic corporations. India could consider similar measures to encourage companies to repatriate their profits back home for productive re-investment .
An Indian company distributing dividends to its shareholders is subject to DDT of 17%, even though the dividend is exempt from tax in the hands of the shareholder. While an attempt was made to alleviate the cascading effect in the Finance Act, 2008 by providing for an offset of DDT paid by a lower-tier entity, the provisions are fairly restricted in their scope. For example , the benefit of set-off is available for distributions within a single-tier holding, the distribution between the companies should take place in the same fiscal year. As an immediate measure, the government could consider extending the relief mechanism for eliminating the cascading impact. This would enable effective circulation of cash within an Indian group.
Accelerated depreciation programmes: Such programmes help improve cash flow for businesses by allowing them to write-off the costs of investments more rapidly. Eleven of the 24 countries in our survey, including Singapore, Netherlands, the US and Germany, introduced accelerated depreciation provisions to typically cover assets created and placed into service through the end of 2009, although some countries have extended the eligible period through 2010 or even 2011. For instance, in UK, the first year capital allowance stands doubled to 40%. The current depreciation rate in India for plant and machinery is 15%. Reintroducing of investment allowance scheme, which permitted a deduction of up to 25% of the cost of the new asset with a corresponding transfer to a reserve account in the books of accounts, could be considered.
A Ficci study found that investment allowance in the period 1977-78 to 1989-90 boosted investments, gross domestic capital formation rose over six percentage points from 18.4% of the GDP at market prices in 1977-78 to 24.5% of the GDP at market prices in 1989-90 . During an economic slowdown, investment allowance could provide the much needed impetus to growth. In addition, providing a stimulus to R&D expenditure would help channelise investments.
As the government prepares a full-fledged budget, it could consider measures adopted in other countries and help corporate India succeed not only domestically but in its worldwide operations.
God belongs to the poor too
God belongs to the poor too
VITHAL C NADKARNI
AGROUPof urchins has cut down a 10-year-old neem tree projecting from the compound of a housing society that abuts the Old Agra Road. The slaughter is not as wanton as it first appears when our car whizzes past the group armed with hatchets. The kids are from the workers camps lining the highway. They have been sent out to forage for fuel while their parents are busy breaking their own backs for a pittance (compared to the owners of cars flashing past the shanties).
There will be chulhasin the rich homes as well. But they are unlikely to contribute as directly to the carbon footprint now threatening global climate. How does that help the workers They will be able to eat only if their chulhas are lit. Whose need is greater and how does one measure it objectively
At the next fuel stop, your columnist walks across to a mukatadam (road supervisor) and asks him about global warming and its link with open chulhas. Has he heard about it Yes, he nods waving a newspaper. But first stomach or food (aadhi potoba ), he replies patting his belly. Maag Vithoba; then worship (of Lord Vithal).
On an individual level and in the short term, the workers priorities putting off God before filling belly cannot be faulted. This is also reflected in the Hindi proverb: Jaan hai toh jahaan hai; only if one lives does the world live. However, humans can also behave in strange ways. While making a documentary on poverty in India, noted filmmaker Louis Malle found that the poor often prefer death to indignity . He met a drought-ruined farmer who, instead of selling his bullock, chose to spend his remaining money to buy a bunch of bananas and poison, to kill the animal and himself. Such was the farmers love for a dumb animal!
Such results also came from Nobel-Prize-winning research in behavioural economics. In the 1970s, psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky showed that people can behave unexpectedly when confronted with simple choices. Humans also have many in-built-biases were more averse to losses than we are interested in gains, for instance and we make repeated errors in judgement based on our tendency to use shorthand rules to solve problems.
We can also be extremely susceptible to how questions are posed. As the Bhagavatamserenely declares, even in the terrible Age of Kali, it would be wrong to equate poverty with lack of faith. God belongs to the poor too.
VITHAL C NADKARNI
AGROUPof urchins has cut down a 10-year-old neem tree projecting from the compound of a housing society that abuts the Old Agra Road. The slaughter is not as wanton as it first appears when our car whizzes past the group armed with hatchets. The kids are from the workers camps lining the highway. They have been sent out to forage for fuel while their parents are busy breaking their own backs for a pittance (compared to the owners of cars flashing past the shanties).
There will be chulhasin the rich homes as well. But they are unlikely to contribute as directly to the carbon footprint now threatening global climate. How does that help the workers They will be able to eat only if their chulhas are lit. Whose need is greater and how does one measure it objectively
At the next fuel stop, your columnist walks across to a mukatadam (road supervisor) and asks him about global warming and its link with open chulhas. Has he heard about it Yes, he nods waving a newspaper. But first stomach or food (aadhi potoba ), he replies patting his belly. Maag Vithoba; then worship (of Lord Vithal).
On an individual level and in the short term, the workers priorities putting off God before filling belly cannot be faulted. This is also reflected in the Hindi proverb: Jaan hai toh jahaan hai; only if one lives does the world live. However, humans can also behave in strange ways. While making a documentary on poverty in India, noted filmmaker Louis Malle found that the poor often prefer death to indignity . He met a drought-ruined farmer who, instead of selling his bullock, chose to spend his remaining money to buy a bunch of bananas and poison, to kill the animal and himself. Such was the farmers love for a dumb animal!
Such results also came from Nobel-Prize-winning research in behavioural economics. In the 1970s, psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky showed that people can behave unexpectedly when confronted with simple choices. Humans also have many in-built-biases were more averse to losses than we are interested in gains, for instance and we make repeated errors in judgement based on our tendency to use shorthand rules to solve problems.
We can also be extremely susceptible to how questions are posed. As the Bhagavatamserenely declares, even in the terrible Age of Kali, it would be wrong to equate poverty with lack of faith. God belongs to the poor too.
Indian Images
Indian Images
Archies visit to India shows the changing perception of Brand India
Vikram Doctor
ARCHIE Andrews is finally proposing . This news has so dominated coverage that another recent story has been overlooked. This is of admittedly less importance to the general Archie canon, but not to its many Indian readers. This story in Vol 183 has Archies gang coming to India courtesy their recently introduced Indian-American friend Raj.
Did this trip involve Archie going to an ashram Or celebrating the big Indian wedding of a cousin of Raj Jungle junkets might now seem pass , but perhaps he met slumkids in the urban jungle made famous by this years Oscar winner None of these clichs , but instead another: Archie and gang go to a videogame lab run by Rajs uncle. The lab has run out of ideas for games and the uncle hopes the Americans will provide inspiration. Instead Archies klutziness causes chaos, but it gives the Indian gamers their inspiration a video game based on his pratfalls.
Archie is a fairly minor part of American popular culture, but the story shows a trend in the perception of Indias image abroad. The image of Indians as knowledge workers has sunk deep, and while it might seem odd alongside the slumdog story, both views of India have long roots. In the long interaction of India and the West both views recur, in different avatars, but always saying more about the needs of those who deal with India, rather than something intrinsic to India itself. This does not mean that these perceptions are irrelevant to India. As branding experts have told us, India must brand itself for the new world economy, and such perceptions can be the building blocks of Brand India. To see where they start one has to go back to the 15th and 16th centuries, when India was known to the West but inaccessibly distant for most. Barring the rare individual traveller like Thomas Coryate, to reach India took resources, which required a return.
The resources were supplied by either commerce or the church, and the return required was in trade or souls. To raise the resources both the traders and missionaries created images of India to suit their purposes . For the traders this was where the Great Moghul sat on a jewel studded throne from where he doled out firmaans for trade. This image was useful both before the voyage, to raise capital, and after, to give their imports an exotic aura.
The missionaries aim was different, though no less self-serving . They traded on the horrors the heathen in India suffered , forced to suffer customs like sati and to pray to gods with multiple arms and animals heads. As Partha Mitter shows in his study Much Maligned Monsters.
From the 18th century, as the British in India moved from trade to rule, these aims were modified. A recent exhibition of prints from the Victoria & Albert Museum which toured India showed the difference there were still images of exotic luxury, but now the British were shown enjoying them. Scenes of the life of East India Company nabobs in Calcutta and Madras, replete with banquets and servants, were recruitment ads aimed at young British men from the less affluent middle-class , to come East.
Meanwhile the missionaries were muted ; neither the Company nor their allies in the Anglican Church liked evangelicals not least because of their awkward habit of demanding equal rights for converts (evangelicals were also deeply involved in the anti-slavery movement, which hardly endeared them to the Company). The tone shifted: Indians were no longer helpless wretches, but children who needed the firm controlling hand of British masters . The fact that the Indians the British interacted most often were their servants reinforced this; stories set in India always had much interaction with servants.
The Indian servant as a stereotype was helped by the fact that many of the first Indians to go West were servants. Higher class Indians had proscriptions against travel abroad, and while there was another Indian working class abroad in the lascars or Indian seamen (Sherlock Holmes meets a formidable one in The Man with the Twisted Lip ), they were confined to small areas in ports. British nabobs retiring home often took Indian servants along,. Since some of these servants would go on to work in the first Indian restaurants, its easy to see how an image of brown skinned servitude got formed. The 19th century wasnt just about exploitation. It was also a time of discovery of Indian religious and cultural traditions by Western scholars. Such knowledge didnt percolate too deep, perhaps by design. Still, an idea of Eastern wisdom did form, aided by charismatic expounders like Swami Vivekananda, and over the decades it would get renewed, by Gandhi in the 30s, by Nehru in the 50s, by a plethora of gurus from the 60s onwards and now by Deepak Chopra and
yoga practitioners.
These two Victorian ideas, of Indian
servitude and wisdom, were fused by
Rudyard Kipling, in the image of the
wise Indian servant. Partly this was based on his own attendants who gave him almost the only love he had a child . Kiplings best known servant is Gunga Din, the bhishti, in his poem, later made into a major Hollywood film. Gunga Din spends the film cringing before British soldiers, before dying heroically. Gunga Din has been invoked to criticise the Indian call centre industry. This isnt entirely fair his only skills were supplying water and loyalty, while call centre workers do much more. .
Whats also annoying is noting how the wise servant stereotype persists even when Indians abroad get exposure in popular culture. Indian wisdom gets acknowledged in the many Indian doctors, scientists and computer geeks that show up in films and TV shows, yet they never make it to hero status with the one glorious exception being Kumar in the two Harold and Kumar films. In this narrative Slumdog Millionaire can be seen as a reversion to the horrific India of the missionaries. This tradition periodically surfaced in accounts like Katherine Mayos Mother India, the cult of Mother Theresa, Paul Ehrlichs terrified vision in a Delhi taxi of a world dying from over population, Gunter Grass dystopian descriptions of Calcutta and Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom.
But Kevin D.Williamson, now deputy managing editor at the National Review, but who has worked as a journalist in India, argued in an article entitled Slumdog Americans , that the films reception in the US had more to it. Yes, there was voyeurism, but also recognition: Multiethnic, multilingual , marked both by fierce entrepreneurial energy and economic anxiety, with both gods and gangs competing for turf, India is a foreign nation thats not so foreign. Jamal in the film is a servant in a call centre, but transcends this to win. It would be ironic if a film with roots in Horrific India did more to change Indias image abroad, than the patronising stereotypes of Wise Indians
Archies visit to India shows the changing perception of Brand India
Vikram Doctor
ARCHIE Andrews is finally proposing . This news has so dominated coverage that another recent story has been overlooked. This is of admittedly less importance to the general Archie canon, but not to its many Indian readers. This story in Vol 183 has Archies gang coming to India courtesy their recently introduced Indian-American friend Raj.
Did this trip involve Archie going to an ashram Or celebrating the big Indian wedding of a cousin of Raj Jungle junkets might now seem pass , but perhaps he met slumkids in the urban jungle made famous by this years Oscar winner None of these clichs , but instead another: Archie and gang go to a videogame lab run by Rajs uncle. The lab has run out of ideas for games and the uncle hopes the Americans will provide inspiration. Instead Archies klutziness causes chaos, but it gives the Indian gamers their inspiration a video game based on his pratfalls.
Archie is a fairly minor part of American popular culture, but the story shows a trend in the perception of Indias image abroad. The image of Indians as knowledge workers has sunk deep, and while it might seem odd alongside the slumdog story, both views of India have long roots. In the long interaction of India and the West both views recur, in different avatars, but always saying more about the needs of those who deal with India, rather than something intrinsic to India itself. This does not mean that these perceptions are irrelevant to India. As branding experts have told us, India must brand itself for the new world economy, and such perceptions can be the building blocks of Brand India. To see where they start one has to go back to the 15th and 16th centuries, when India was known to the West but inaccessibly distant for most. Barring the rare individual traveller like Thomas Coryate, to reach India took resources, which required a return.
The resources were supplied by either commerce or the church, and the return required was in trade or souls. To raise the resources both the traders and missionaries created images of India to suit their purposes . For the traders this was where the Great Moghul sat on a jewel studded throne from where he doled out firmaans for trade. This image was useful both before the voyage, to raise capital, and after, to give their imports an exotic aura.
The missionaries aim was different, though no less self-serving . They traded on the horrors the heathen in India suffered , forced to suffer customs like sati and to pray to gods with multiple arms and animals heads. As Partha Mitter shows in his study Much Maligned Monsters.
From the 18th century, as the British in India moved from trade to rule, these aims were modified. A recent exhibition of prints from the Victoria & Albert Museum which toured India showed the difference there were still images of exotic luxury, but now the British were shown enjoying them. Scenes of the life of East India Company nabobs in Calcutta and Madras, replete with banquets and servants, were recruitment ads aimed at young British men from the less affluent middle-class , to come East.
Meanwhile the missionaries were muted ; neither the Company nor their allies in the Anglican Church liked evangelicals not least because of their awkward habit of demanding equal rights for converts (evangelicals were also deeply involved in the anti-slavery movement, which hardly endeared them to the Company). The tone shifted: Indians were no longer helpless wretches, but children who needed the firm controlling hand of British masters . The fact that the Indians the British interacted most often were their servants reinforced this; stories set in India always had much interaction with servants.
The Indian servant as a stereotype was helped by the fact that many of the first Indians to go West were servants. Higher class Indians had proscriptions against travel abroad, and while there was another Indian working class abroad in the lascars or Indian seamen (Sherlock Holmes meets a formidable one in The Man with the Twisted Lip ), they were confined to small areas in ports. British nabobs retiring home often took Indian servants along,. Since some of these servants would go on to work in the first Indian restaurants, its easy to see how an image of brown skinned servitude got formed. The 19th century wasnt just about exploitation. It was also a time of discovery of Indian religious and cultural traditions by Western scholars. Such knowledge didnt percolate too deep, perhaps by design. Still, an idea of Eastern wisdom did form, aided by charismatic expounders like Swami Vivekananda, and over the decades it would get renewed, by Gandhi in the 30s, by Nehru in the 50s, by a plethora of gurus from the 60s onwards and now by Deepak Chopra and
yoga practitioners.
These two Victorian ideas, of Indian
servitude and wisdom, were fused by
Rudyard Kipling, in the image of the
wise Indian servant. Partly this was based on his own attendants who gave him almost the only love he had a child . Kiplings best known servant is Gunga Din, the bhishti, in his poem, later made into a major Hollywood film. Gunga Din spends the film cringing before British soldiers, before dying heroically. Gunga Din has been invoked to criticise the Indian call centre industry. This isnt entirely fair his only skills were supplying water and loyalty, while call centre workers do much more. .
Whats also annoying is noting how the wise servant stereotype persists even when Indians abroad get exposure in popular culture. Indian wisdom gets acknowledged in the many Indian doctors, scientists and computer geeks that show up in films and TV shows, yet they never make it to hero status with the one glorious exception being Kumar in the two Harold and Kumar films. In this narrative Slumdog Millionaire can be seen as a reversion to the horrific India of the missionaries. This tradition periodically surfaced in accounts like Katherine Mayos Mother India, the cult of Mother Theresa, Paul Ehrlichs terrified vision in a Delhi taxi of a world dying from over population, Gunter Grass dystopian descriptions of Calcutta and Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom.
But Kevin D.Williamson, now deputy managing editor at the National Review, but who has worked as a journalist in India, argued in an article entitled Slumdog Americans , that the films reception in the US had more to it. Yes, there was voyeurism, but also recognition: Multiethnic, multilingual , marked both by fierce entrepreneurial energy and economic anxiety, with both gods and gangs competing for turf, India is a foreign nation thats not so foreign. Jamal in the film is a servant in a call centre, but transcends this to win. It would be ironic if a film with roots in Horrific India did more to change Indias image abroad, than the patronising stereotypes of Wise Indians
Transforming anger
Transforming anger
Suppressing or expressing different forms of anger that emerge in your consciousness create mental and physical pain to self. Transform it to create positive approach , says Brahma Kumaris
Do not suppress or express the different forms of anger that emerge in your consciousness. Transform them by practicing the inner techniques given below:
Irritation:
You create this when events dont happen fast enough.
Solution:
Practice patience and accept the fact that everything and everyone has their own rhythm and speed of living.
Frustration:
You create this when events dont occur as per your expectations. Solution: Welcome all situations that have occurred in your life. Always respond proactively in the present, not reactively against the past. Only then will you create the future you anticipate.
Grudge:
You create this against someone you perceive has wronged you in the past.
Solution:
By creating negative thoughts, you hurt yourself. Cultivate positive thinking.
Resentment:
You create this towards those you think have insulted you or when you are jealous of someone.
Solution:
Visualize the person insulting as enclosed in a glass jar. See his lips move, but do not hear their words. To overcome jealousy, stop comparing and aspiring to be like someone else.
Contempt:
A feeling of contempt arises after you deeply disapprove of anothers actions.
Solution:
Separate the person from the action and remember that their actions begin with their beliefs. Suspend your judgment. Become a spectator. Then choose the most proactive response and put it into action.
Hate:
You create this when you associate someone with evil or extreme nastiness.
Solution:
By doing this you get entangled in a web of unhappiness because you become an emotional slave to the object of your hate. Keep good wishes for all.
Rage:
You create this when there is a build up of anger in response to anothers actions which you consider as obstructive or invasive, e.g. road rage.
Solution:
Learn to meditate to control rage.
Suppressing or expressing different forms of anger that emerge in your consciousness create mental and physical pain to self. Transform it to create positive approach , says Brahma Kumaris
Do not suppress or express the different forms of anger that emerge in your consciousness. Transform them by practicing the inner techniques given below:
Irritation:
You create this when events dont happen fast enough.
Solution:
Practice patience and accept the fact that everything and everyone has their own rhythm and speed of living.
Frustration:
You create this when events dont occur as per your expectations. Solution: Welcome all situations that have occurred in your life. Always respond proactively in the present, not reactively against the past. Only then will you create the future you anticipate.
Grudge:
You create this against someone you perceive has wronged you in the past.
Solution:
By creating negative thoughts, you hurt yourself. Cultivate positive thinking.
Resentment:
You create this towards those you think have insulted you or when you are jealous of someone.
Solution:
Visualize the person insulting as enclosed in a glass jar. See his lips move, but do not hear their words. To overcome jealousy, stop comparing and aspiring to be like someone else.
Contempt:
A feeling of contempt arises after you deeply disapprove of anothers actions.
Solution:
Separate the person from the action and remember that their actions begin with their beliefs. Suspend your judgment. Become a spectator. Then choose the most proactive response and put it into action.
Hate:
You create this when you associate someone with evil or extreme nastiness.
Solution:
By doing this you get entangled in a web of unhappiness because you become an emotional slave to the object of your hate. Keep good wishes for all.
Rage:
You create this when there is a build up of anger in response to anothers actions which you consider as obstructive or invasive, e.g. road rage.
Solution:
Learn to meditate to control rage.
Of Misery & Nirvana
Of Misery & Nirvana
Narendra Nair
Passing through a less-frequented part of the city, we came across a road named Pote-dukhe Marg and it occasioned the teen striding alongside no little amusement. Literally translating pote-dukhe as someone with an abdominal pain, the kid took time off to squat on the pavement, doubled-up with uncontrollable mirth; it slayed him to think that someone would want a road named after a pain in the gut. He was a visiting American-born-desi nephew and he just could not get over the incident. American kids are the in-your-face kind who do not shy away from telling it like it is. Once home, he regaled his cousins and aunt with what he had seen and there were strained smiles on the faces of his hosts, because they knew that in our country, where names were of the most infinite variety and exotic flavour, such nomenclature was cause not for merriment but commemoration. But the boy was in the throes of what chat rooms call ROFL or rolling-on-the-floor-laughing and a distinct militant gleam came into the eyes of the cousins. They too had lived in the US and knew, like Robert De Niro in the 1993 movie This Boys Life , a thing or two about a thing or two concerning the USA.
The cousins thought he needed bringing down a peg or two. So they buried him under an avalanche of cockeyed names found on American streets, compared to which Pote-dukhe was brilliant . Starting with Skunks Misery Road in Oyster Bay, New York, they bombarded him with road names like Pickle Dog Lane in Deer Lodge, Montana, Jackass Hill road in Littleton, Colorado , and made him blush with Triple-X road in Choctaw, Oklahoma . The intersection of Clinton and Fidelity in Houston raised a guffaw all round and he squirmed when they brought up the towns of Zook in Kansas, Jackson Hole in Wyoming, Mud-Lick in Kentucky and French-Lick in Indiana. The cousins went on relentlessly, How about your own address, brother, how about that He confessed hoarsely that while earlier they had lived on Shades-Of-Death-Road in Warren County, New Jersey, they had recently moved to Constipation Ridge, Tennessee. We had to intervene to stop the torture. That night, the young man was heard telling his folks on the phone that he intended, as soon as he returned home, to move to Nirvana, Michigan.
Narendra Nair
Passing through a less-frequented part of the city, we came across a road named Pote-dukhe Marg and it occasioned the teen striding alongside no little amusement. Literally translating pote-dukhe as someone with an abdominal pain, the kid took time off to squat on the pavement, doubled-up with uncontrollable mirth; it slayed him to think that someone would want a road named after a pain in the gut. He was a visiting American-born-desi nephew and he just could not get over the incident. American kids are the in-your-face kind who do not shy away from telling it like it is. Once home, he regaled his cousins and aunt with what he had seen and there were strained smiles on the faces of his hosts, because they knew that in our country, where names were of the most infinite variety and exotic flavour, such nomenclature was cause not for merriment but commemoration. But the boy was in the throes of what chat rooms call ROFL or rolling-on-the-floor-laughing and a distinct militant gleam came into the eyes of the cousins. They too had lived in the US and knew, like Robert De Niro in the 1993 movie This Boys Life , a thing or two about a thing or two concerning the USA.
The cousins thought he needed bringing down a peg or two. So they buried him under an avalanche of cockeyed names found on American streets, compared to which Pote-dukhe was brilliant . Starting with Skunks Misery Road in Oyster Bay, New York, they bombarded him with road names like Pickle Dog Lane in Deer Lodge, Montana, Jackass Hill road in Littleton, Colorado , and made him blush with Triple-X road in Choctaw, Oklahoma . The intersection of Clinton and Fidelity in Houston raised a guffaw all round and he squirmed when they brought up the towns of Zook in Kansas, Jackson Hole in Wyoming, Mud-Lick in Kentucky and French-Lick in Indiana. The cousins went on relentlessly, How about your own address, brother, how about that He confessed hoarsely that while earlier they had lived on Shades-Of-Death-Road in Warren County, New Jersey, they had recently moved to Constipation Ridge, Tennessee. We had to intervene to stop the torture. That night, the young man was heard telling his folks on the phone that he intended, as soon as he returned home, to move to Nirvana, Michigan.
Transform The World, Start From Within
Transform The World, Start From Within
Discourse: Sadhguru
In every human being, there is an aspiration to become better, more loving and more concerned about one another and the planet. But people are trying to work towards it from the wrong end. People are trying to be loving, they are trying to be good. When you look at yourself , if you are happy and joyful, naturally you are a very loving, generous, wonderful human being . This is true for everybody. On the other hand, when you are in a state of unhappiness, frustration or any other sense of unpleasantness within yourself, you may be nasty. There is no point trying to be loving, trying to be pleasant to somebody else.
When you are feeling pleasant, you are naturally pleasant to everyone around you. The fundamental thing that human beings have to work towards is to make themselves truly joyful and blissful. Trying to produce good human beings has never really worked. When people are joyful, they are all wonderful human beings. Joy is the best insurance against all evil.
People will always find ways to subvert values, morality and ethics. But when you are very joyful, when you are very pleasant within yourself, you are naturally nice to everyone around you. So, my whole work is to make human beings truly blissful. Spirituality does not mean going away from life. Spirituality means becoming alive in the fullest possible way so you are not just alive on the surface, you are alive to the core. If you look at how full of life and joyful you were when you were five years of age and how alive and joyful you are today, has the level gone up or gone down
For most people, it has gone down. It need not be so. With age, physical agility may go down but the level of joy and sense of being alive need not go down. If your level of joy and aliveness is going down, it is as if you are committing suicide in instalments. This happens because you only focus on certain aspects of life, but without including every aspect, you cannot live a full life.
Unfortunately, most of the time, belief systems are passing off as spirituality. The moment you believe something, if you believe this is it , you are bringing a certain degree of rigidity into the very life process that you are. This is not spirituality.
The spiritual process is always a quest, a seeking; that is why when you say, Im on a spiritual path, you say Im a seeker. When you say Im religious , you say Im a believer. There is a significant difference, because believing means you have assumed something that you do not know; seeking means you have realised that you do not know, which brings an enormous amount of flexibility.
Whenever you say, I do not know something, you are flexible . Whenever you think, I know it, you become rigid. This rigidity is not just in attitude; it percolates into every aspect of your life. This rigidity is also the cause of an enormous amount of suffering in the world.
How human beings are, that is how the society will be. So, creating human beings who are flexible and willing to look at everything rather than being stuck in their ideas and opinions definitely makes for a different kind of society. And the very energy that such human beings carry will influence everything around them.
Discourse: Sadhguru
In every human being, there is an aspiration to become better, more loving and more concerned about one another and the planet. But people are trying to work towards it from the wrong end. People are trying to be loving, they are trying to be good. When you look at yourself , if you are happy and joyful, naturally you are a very loving, generous, wonderful human being . This is true for everybody. On the other hand, when you are in a state of unhappiness, frustration or any other sense of unpleasantness within yourself, you may be nasty. There is no point trying to be loving, trying to be pleasant to somebody else.
When you are feeling pleasant, you are naturally pleasant to everyone around you. The fundamental thing that human beings have to work towards is to make themselves truly joyful and blissful. Trying to produce good human beings has never really worked. When people are joyful, they are all wonderful human beings. Joy is the best insurance against all evil.
People will always find ways to subvert values, morality and ethics. But when you are very joyful, when you are very pleasant within yourself, you are naturally nice to everyone around you. So, my whole work is to make human beings truly blissful. Spirituality does not mean going away from life. Spirituality means becoming alive in the fullest possible way so you are not just alive on the surface, you are alive to the core. If you look at how full of life and joyful you were when you were five years of age and how alive and joyful you are today, has the level gone up or gone down
For most people, it has gone down. It need not be so. With age, physical agility may go down but the level of joy and sense of being alive need not go down. If your level of joy and aliveness is going down, it is as if you are committing suicide in instalments. This happens because you only focus on certain aspects of life, but without including every aspect, you cannot live a full life.
Unfortunately, most of the time, belief systems are passing off as spirituality. The moment you believe something, if you believe this is it , you are bringing a certain degree of rigidity into the very life process that you are. This is not spirituality.
The spiritual process is always a quest, a seeking; that is why when you say, Im on a spiritual path, you say Im a seeker. When you say Im religious , you say Im a believer. There is a significant difference, because believing means you have assumed something that you do not know; seeking means you have realised that you do not know, which brings an enormous amount of flexibility.
Whenever you say, I do not know something, you are flexible . Whenever you think, I know it, you become rigid. This rigidity is not just in attitude; it percolates into every aspect of your life. This rigidity is also the cause of an enormous amount of suffering in the world.
How human beings are, that is how the society will be. So, creating human beings who are flexible and willing to look at everything rather than being stuck in their ideas and opinions definitely makes for a different kind of society. And the very energy that such human beings carry will influence everything around them.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Twelve Principles of Living Systems
Here is a partial list of enduring understandings related to Living Systems:
Interdependence
A relationship in which each partner affects and often needs the other.
System Integrity
What a system has when all the parts and processes essential to its ability to function are present.
Biodiversity
The variety, complexity, and abundance of species that, if adequate, make ecosystems healthy and resilient.
Cooperation and Partnership
The continual process in which species exchange energy and resources.
Rightness of Size
The proportions of living systems–their bigness or smallness and their built-in limitations to growth–that influence a system’s stability and sustainability.
Living Cycles
A cycle is a circular process that repeats over and over, frequently returning to where it began. The water, lunar, sleep and other cycles sustain life, circulate resources, and provide opportunities for renewal.
Waste = Food
When waste from one system becomes food for another. All materials in nature are valuable, continuously circulating in closed loops of production, use, and recycling.
Feedback
Circular processes that create growth or decay by amplifying change (reinforcing feedback) or, foster stability by counteracting or lessening change (balancing feedback).
Nonlinearity
A type of behavior in which the effect is disproportionate from the cause.
Emergent Properties
Behavior that arises out of the interactions within a specific set of parts: the health of an ecosystem or a team’s performance, for example.
Flux
The continual movement of energy, matter and information that moves through living systems. Flux enables the living or “open” system to remain alive, flexible and ever-changing. The sun, for instance, provides a constant flux or flow of energy and resources that feeds all living organisms.
The Commons
Shared resources – such as air, water, land, highways, fisheries, energy, and minerals – on which we depend and for which we are all responsible.
Individual Action, Organizational Clout: An Interview with Peter Senge
With the publication of his latest book, The Necessary Revolution, Peter Senge and his coauthors have taken another step in galvanizing a movement of individuals who understand that their greatest leverage for transforming society lies through organizations. As many of us are already taking action in our personal lives to reduce waste through our consumer choices and new behaviors, it becomes increasingly apparent that it’s our organizations—particularly interconnected webs of organizations, business partnerships, supply chains, even whole industries—that have the greatest clout.
Senge believes that organizations represent a blind spot in the sustainability field, which has focused more on individual and government action, when neither has the broad-reaching influence that organizational action has. “For the most part,” he explains, “it isn’t government policy that’s destroying species, and certainly you or I couldn’t destroy a species if we tried. But we succeed in doing just that by the way our individual decisions are mediated through the webs of institutions that define the global economy.” The key, then, lies in transforming the Industrial Age economic system by adopting more sustainable ways of doing business, individually and collectively.
A daunting task, to be sure. But Peter is convinced that this shift is already starting to happen and that each of us has a role to play. He suggests that we start by asking, “What are some of the things my organization could be doing? What are ways in which I could become a more effective instigator and leader of these changes?” Peter points out that there is often an obvious business case to be made—particularly as energy costs rise—for redesigning a process or making an operational change that saves enough money to matter. It could be as mundane as installing light switches that automatically go off if nobody is in a room, or agreeing to adopt the practice of turning off the light in the bathroom when you leave it, or striving to move toward a “zero waste” office environment where everything is reused or recycled. A funny thing happens when you start talking with each other about making these kinds of simple changes in your workplace: You build a sense of shared vision.
Senge points out, “Building a shared vision in an organization is not about everybody saluting the wall where the vision statement is posted. It’s about people doing things together that they care about. It doesn’t matter if it’s mundane. All of a sudden you realize, ‘Hey, we’re doing this together.’” Beyond the economic benefits, these moves can become a source of fun and constitute one of the more effective ways to unite people around a common goal. He continues, “In many parts of Vermont, you pay to have your trash picked up, but recycling is free—think about what that does to get people working together to reduce waste.” These preliminary steps also start to build a common awareness for the major changes coming: new products, new processes, new business models, and wholly new networks of collaboration.
The Courage to Step Outside the Bubble
Senge believes that most of the industrialized world is living in a bubble of denial about the precariousness of our wasteful “take-make-waste” culture where rich countries increasingly impose the side effects of their lifestyles on poorer ones through global food, energy, and material goods systems. “For virtually all other species,” he says, “food is local, energy comes from the sun (in many forms), and ‘waste equals food;’ that is, by-products of one living system are nutrients for another.” The Industrial Age has fostered a kind of collective hypnosis that our food can be shipped thousands of miles, energy comes from digging up and burning former living systems, and waste is someone else’s problem. The stresses created by this way of living, manifesting in problems such as soaring gas prices, climate change, and social instability, are finally getting everyone’s attention. The question is whether we can move beyond just reacting to these crises to thinking and acting in ways that will create new systems that are regenerative rather than exploitative.
The problems with changing the status quo can seem so daunting that it is hard to see what anyone can do, yet The Necessary Revolution is full of stories of people whose passion and courage to pursue a more systemic perspective have enabled them to build networks and foster innovations that have snowballed. For example, ten years ago, Darcy Winslow headed a small advanced materials group at Nike that worked withCradle to Cradle authors Bill McDonough and Michael Braungart to do a toxicological study of Nike’s entire footwear line. The results were shocking; the company had no idea of the number of toxins in the shoes. Case in point: the “air” in the Nike Air shoe—a bestseller that was considered one of their biggest design successes—was a substance called SF6, which was a much longer-lived greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Likewise, glues and solvents used in the manufacturing process posed serious health problems for workers and potentially for communities when shoes were eventually discarded. The company, which prides itself on health and fitness, faced a huge predicament.
Darcy couldn’t solve the problem overnight, so she started talking to people. Having just read Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point, she figured if she could get 3 to 5 percent of Nike employees to align with her, something could really start to change. But when she calculated that, given the size of the company, she’d need to enlist something like 1,000 supporters, she had to admit that probably wasn’t going to happen.
Then she realized that she didn’t have to reach everyone. Instead, she concentrated on Nike’s few hundred lead designers, some of the most influential people shaping Nike’s products. Now, reaching 5 percent seemed a lot less daunting. Once she started knocking on doors, she found many who were interested in the problems but had been turned off by how the problems had been presented. Senge recounts, “Creative people don’t get excited by being told, ‘We’ve got to get all of this bad stuff out of our shoes.’ What excites them is the challenge, ‘What would it take to create a shoe with zero toxins?’” Nobody had ever done anything like that before. Gradually, Darcy succeeded in connecting to what the authors of the book call, “the generative DNA of a company,” and things started to change.
In the ensuing years, Nike introduced a whole line of organic cotton products (creating the Organic Cotton Exchange to bring more organic cotton to market worldwide), created the “Reuse-a-Shoe” program to recycle old sneakers into running tracks, and introduced many products with greatly reduced waste and toxicity. Today, they have a new system for rating all products on the basis of waste, toxicity, water, and energy used in their production. Not just shoes, but every product receives a sustainability rating: Gold Medal, Silver Medal, Bronze Medal, or no Medal. For example, Michael Jordan’s new Air Jordan shoe will be one of Nike’s first Gold Medal basketball shoes, with a woven upper that creates almost no waste in production and a sole that is stitched to avoid all glues and solvents. Plus, after many years of research to find polymers that could keep air from leaking out of the shoe, the “air” is now actual air and not SF6. The company is sufficiently convinced that these ideas will shape future markets that they are now striving to achieve zero waste and zero toxicity across their entire product line by 2020.
For Peter, the human side of the story is always the most memorable. “I was touched,” he says, “when, at the recent Sustainability Consortium meeting where we learned about the new product rating system, all of the presentations were done by the people whom Darcy and her long-time colleague Sarah Severn had mentored, a new generation of leaders—interestingly, mostly women—who are now leading what they call their ‘Considered’ projects. The label stems from the question each project is designed to answer: “Have you considered how much water, or waste, or energy is in this product?”The Natural Order of Things
In addition to personal courage, leaders of organizational change like Darcy Winslow need reliable models around which to build their vision of more sustainable practices. Fortunately, such models abound in the natural world, where sustainable design principles such as localness, diversity, and ‘waste equals food’ have been trial tested over the last billion years or so. We exhale carbon dioxide, so we’re surrounded by vegetation that eats up carbon dioxide. Everything in nature is continually co-evolving—which is exactly what will start to happen when we move beyond mere mechanical models for our organizations and societies. “Zero waste is a pretty challenging principle for organizations,” says Senge, “but, for innovators, it opens up a vast territory that you can start to explore one step at a time as you build up networks of collaborators.”
Peter shares the story of Per Carstedt, a Swedish entrepreneur who has led the so-called “bio-region movement” in northern Sweden, in which communities are working together to become the world’s first advanced industrial society with zero reliance on fossil fuels. Fifteen years ago, Carstedt and a few other people started introducing modified Ford Tauruses that could run on ethanol. Today, 25 percent of all vehicles sold in Sweden are capable of running completely on ethanol.
Along the way, Carstedt, himself a car dealer, began to focus beyond the transportation system—which produces only about 25 percent of greenhouse gases—to the built environment, where heating, air conditioning, and electrical equipment account for about 50 percent. Around 2001, he and colleagues created the “Green Zone”—a trio of interdependent businesses that includes a McDonalds, a service station, and a car dealership. The service station sells ethanol made from the waste oil in the McDonalds. The car dealership has no heating system of its own, but is heated by waste heat that comes from McDonalds. And, of course, the car dealership sells ethanol-fueled vehicles and promotes sustainable production of ethanol (the region is building state-of-the art facilities that convert forest waste products, not food crops, into abundant supply).
As Senge recounts, Carstedt is amazed by the attention the experiment has gotten. He had felt it was almost trivial, being on such a small scale. But by the time he conducted his 500th tour of the Green Zone, this time with a group from Japan that was filming it for a television show, he had come to realize the power in creating something tangible that everybody can relate to. Peter notes, “Everybody knows McDonalds, everybody knows a gas station, and everybody knows a car dealership. These were just regular people with regular small businesses—not IBM or Microsoft—just small businesspeople who said, ‘Hey, let’s find a way to dramatically reduce our total waste and switch to sustainable energy.’”
According to Senge, this combination of pragmatism, humility, and vision is key. Like the Industrial Revolution, the revolution needed today will not “come from any grand plan or government agency, because the issues are too deep and the changes too sweeping.” It will take all of us—business, education, civil society organizations, and government and public sector leadership—to tackle the immense challenges we face.
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