Passionate About India: The American Dream: Rajat Gupta symbolises this mo...

Passionate About India: The American Dream: Rajat Gupta symbolises this mo...:


 Rajat Gupta has hogged headlines over the past twenty odd years – he has championed that art. While his educational background without doubt has been exemplary, his consulting advisory was not necessarily so. McKinsey & Co.’s way of focus on core competency – and divesting from diversification strategies – necessarily has been one of the most debatable strategies that he represented during his tenure at the firm. Actually, it is one of those strategies that have given consultants the reputation of being people who take your watch and tell you the time; there is no strategy in this strategy. McKinsey’s consultants, of course, have championed such strategies and theories which are arguably of no great significance or research. I’m reminded of the book In Search of Excellence by Tom Peters and Robert Waterman – two McKinsey consultants – written on the basis of research that Tom Peters himself later admitted was concocted. Rajat’s stint post McKinsey has been clearly far more controversial due to the more obvious frauds.

Read more:    http://arindamchaudhuri.blogspot.in/2012/06/american-dream-rajat-gupta-symbolises.html

Typos: WILL YOU DANCE WITH ME ON THE CRYSTAL BALL?

Typos: WILL YOU DANCE WITH ME ON THE CRYSTAL BALL?:


 Every few years in our lives, we come across these windows that shape us. For some of us, or some times, these windows open up every five years or so, for others in a decade and for some, it might take even longer. These phases are defining moments in our lives, like for me it would be the time I fell in love, knew what love is, at least for me, and realised how it was different from the other times I had thought I was in love. It would also be the week after I was first taken to a police station (long valiant story… saving it for another day). And it would also be the years I started playing competitive cricket, teaching and writing for a living. Each of these times, the people who were with me or had inspired these paradigm shift s left a bit of them in me.

Read more:   http://prashantobanerji.blogspot.in/2012/06/will-you-dance-with-me-on-crystal-ball.html

COMMON SENSE SIMPLIFIED: WATER WOES

COMMON SENSE SIMPLIFIED: WATER WOES:


 Mumbai is probably the worst hit with water mafias' fortune rising as they are compelling the consumers to shell out Rs.2,500 to Rs.3,000 per tanker in South Mumbai, Rs.1,600 to Rs.1,800 in Central Mumbai and Rs.1,300 to Rs.1,500 in the suburbs. The excess of it all is spreading its wings to villages and small towns like Satara, Sangli and Solapur and other parts of Maharashtra as well. Pune is the next victim. The potable water is selling there at the rate of Rs.1,500 for 10,000 litres and non-potable water at Rs.800. This is going on in spite of the fact that Pune Municipal Corporation has fixed the rate at Rs.600 for 10,000 litres, Rs.700 for 10,000 – 15,000 litres and Rs.800 above 15,000 litres.

Read more:   http://prasoonsmajumdar.blogspot.in/2012/06/water-woes.html

Business is Marketing: IT’S ALL ABOUT CREATING THE RIGHT IMAGE

Business is Marketing: IT’S ALL ABOUT CREATING THE RIGHT IMAGE:


 She is a heroine of a different generation and yet this month, so many celebrated her birthday as if she were still with us. She may have gone long ago; yet, she lives on, for her images just don’t seem to fade. In fact, every time an  unseen or unpublished image of hers is discovered, it makes it to the front page of almost all newspapers. The lady is Marilyn Monroe. Images are very powerful, they just live on and some even become iconic. The face of the Cuban revolutionary, Che Guevera, also being one such image. It’s not just a face. It symbolizes rebellion and freedom,  feelings that the youth just love. Put this face on any merchandise and it becomes a bestseller. The number of T-shirts  emblazoned with Che’s face that have been sold is incredible. It’s ironic that a revolutionary, who rebelled against the  capitalists, has today become the biggest bestseller of the capitalist world.   


Read more:  http://rajitachaudhuri.blogspot.in/2012/06/its-all-about-creating-right-image.html

All About Business Strategy... Well, Almost...: A CULT ENTREPRENEUR SOLVING A SOCIAL DILEMMA

All About Business Strategy... Well, Almost...: A CULT ENTREPRENEUR SOLVING A SOCIAL DILEMMA:


 Clearly, one can argue that advertising on the website would increase the revenue base phenomenally and expand the possibilities for the site, especially ramping up an in-house team to counter- balance the thousands of volunteer editors across the world, whose credentials are quite hard to ascertain. Definitely, credibility of data and bias remain an issue even without following an online advertising-based model – issues which Wikipedia itself accepts officially – and the freedom provided to these contributors has to be consistently guarded against misuse.

Read more:   http://a--sandeep.blogspot.in/2012/06/cult-entrepreneur-solving-social.html

Passionate About India: After giving the killer blow to CPM, is Mamata goi...

Passionate About India: After giving the killer blow to CPM, is Mamata goi...:


 mamata banerhjeeThe communists desperately needed to sit in the opposition to realize that good ideals simply on pen and paper are not good enough. Power corrupted their ideals beyond recognition and they had become a party of goons, riggers and fascists. And if removing them was not good enough, doing it without any bloodshed is Mamata’s biggest achievement. But it doesn’t end there. She has also done what Nitish in Bihar and Raman Singh in Chattisgarh have failed to do. She is the first and only leader in the country to have tamed the menace of the Maoists in the Junglemahal area of Bengal by genuinely giving access to food to the poor there. And she could do it all due to one reason – her determined will to do good for the poor in the Junglemahal area. And finally, she tamed the Gorkha problem in the hills of Bengal immediately after taking power. None of these two issues could be resolved by the CPM in their years of power. And these three things are landmark and historical. While the mainstream media focussed only on the CPM issue, that too without really highlighting the immense value of it, it completely has ignored her other two very, very crucial achievements.

Read more:   http://arindamchaudhuri.blogspot.in/2012/06/after-giving-killer-blow-to-cpm-is.html

Typos: HOW GREEN IS MY VALLEY STILL?

Typos: HOW GREEN IS MY VALLEY STILL?:

 Last evening, I had taken photographs of a lone boatman silhouetted against the pink and gold sky. Then as night pulled an inky blue curtain over the sky, I began dismantling the lens while that boatman paddled up to me. “Good morning sir!” chirped the voice and I looked up at a cherubic little face and a beatific smile. The boatman was a tiny little kid in his little blue and battered boat. Even though it was clearly way past ‘good evening’, I replied with an equally cheerful “good morning”. The boy’s smile grew wider as he proceeded to show me his wares. My shikara-wallah, Yusef, told me that Zahid, for that was the boy’s name, sold little trinkets to tourists after school to help his father, a fellow shikara-wallah, keep the fire burning in what was by necessity, a very large kitchen. Twelve year old Zahid and I had a little chat after he’d fleeced me off a pair of 500s. I knew he loved going to school so I asked him why he didn’t look like he was going to school this morning, he said “chhutti hai!”

Read more:   http://prashantobanerji.blogspot.in/2012/06/how-green-is-my-valley-still.html

COMMON SENSE SIMPLIFIED: THE LOTTERY OF BPL CARDS

COMMON SENSE SIMPLIFIED: THE LOTTERY OF BPL CARDS:


The issue of access to food supplies at subsidised prices for people below the poverty line is being addressed by India’s federal government through their much touted Below Poverty Line (BPL) cards. In the same light, Food Minister KV Thomas attempted a turnaround last year by introducing a key National Food Security Bill to be enshrined as law. Apart from food grains, BPL cards promise to provide subsidised kerosene through 500,000 fair prices or ration shops across the country. The food subsidies have carved a massive 10 per cent of total government expenditure (Union Budget 2011-12) – a gigantic increase from 2 per cent in 1990s, which is linked with BPL cards.

Read more:     http://prasoonsmajumdar.blogspot.in/2012/06/lottery-of-bpl-cards.html

Passionate About India: Run!!! The merchants of death are angry!

Passionate About India: Run!!! The merchants of death are angry!:

 Doctors are angry! Why? Aamir Khan has targeted them in two of his first four shows! And why not? After all, the show is called Satyamev Jayate! And the first and most important responsibility of a civilized society towards its citizens is that of giving them a good healthcare system (followed by education, employment and judiciary, in order to make a good democracy), that too in a country like India where an estimated 17% of the population die before the age of 40. The reality however is shockingly quite worse. The reality is that in this country, medicines for treatment of cancer patients – in one of the cases, 550,000 Morphine and 5,200,000 Morcontin tablets sent by the World Health Organization – that were supposed to be distributed free at all the hospitals in India, were dumped in the stores of hospitals beyond their expiry dates. These were costly medicines and Morphine is typically meant to relieve patients from intensive pain. It basically meant that in this particular case, patients who could not afford to buy such costly medicines from the market must have suffered immense pain with some of them dying too without proper treatment. WHO, of course, demanded an explanation. But what is more important for the masses is that the medical mafia keeps doing such acts to enhance the profits of pharmaceutical establishments.

Read more:   http://arindamchaudhuri.blogspot.in/2012/06/run-merchants-of-death-are-angry.html

Typos: FRIENDS?!

Typos: FRIENDS?!:

 Take for instance this ‘scientific’ assertion that says that when you feel like you are ‘crazy’ about someone because you’re in love, it’s because the brain is juggling the hormones in your head and stirring up a chemical concoction that mimics the pattern of an OCD. And why does the brain play such tricks? Because it tries to trick us into forming a pair bond so that a slow growing human infant gets a good start in life... ! And in about a couple of years since you first ‘fell in love’, this cocktail in your head starts evaporating.. And omigosh, by extension, so does love...

Read more:   http://prashantobanerji.blogspot.in/2012/06/friends.html

COMMON SENSE SIMPLIFIED: TUNING THE TUTOR

COMMON SENSE SIMPLIFIED: TUNING THE TUTOR:


 Formal schooling and coaching centres (a.k.a tuition centres) have become synonymous to each other. Today, schooling is deemed to be incomplete without those extra hours in tuition centres. Be it at secondary education level or be it for any competitive entrance examination, securing high marks and grades today is ought to be virtually impossible without attending a couple of tuition classes. I rarely come across students who bag success without the baggage of extra coaching. Recently, what caught my fancy was a news that was published in one of the leading dailies, about how a group of students from Ahmedabad cleared not only school examination but also state’s board examination, with decent grades, without attending any extra tuition classes.

Read more:   http://prasoonsmajumdar.blogspot.in/2012/06/tuning-tutor.html

Sutanu Guru: EIGHT YEARS OF UPA AND EIGHT & A HALF LESSONS

Sutanu Guru: EIGHT YEARS OF UPA AND EIGHT & A HALF LESSONS:

 Lesson number six is inextricably linked to the previous one – there really is no such thing called a free lunch. Someone, at some time or the other – often sooner rather than later – has to pay for it. Thanks to the initiatives of the jholawala NAC members and also thanks to vested interests, India is awash with subsidies of all kinds. We have LPG subsidies in excess of Rs.20,000 crores enjoyed mostly by middle class India. We have fertilizer subsidies in excess of Rs.80,000 crores enjoyed mostly by rich farmers and fertilizer companies. Welfare schemes have been launched by the UPA as if it is a medieval monarchy that is pleased to share a bit of the royal treasury with its restless subjects. No amount of common sense argument has convinced the jholawalas that virtually all this money is lining up the pockets of corrupt middlemen, bureaucrats and politicians. They want even more money to be thrown at the subjects. And why would vested interests voluntarily surrender subsidies? Something has to give. And it has started giving. Deficit levels in the economy are reaching alarming proportions. Perversely, this will result in even more inflation and even more misery for the poor in whose name the UPA claims to rule.

Read more:   http://sutanu-guru.blogspot.in/2012/06/eight-years-of-upa-and-eight-half.html