The role of business in nation-building!!

The following article appeared in economic times authored by Mr Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman and Managing director of Bharti Airtel The role of business in nation-building

I see three distinct pillars sustaining any nation-building process. One, government, which also could be categorised as political leadership, two, civil society, and three, business. The three work together to drive the process forward. The debate whether business has a role to play in nation-building is by and large settled today. It is acknowledged as a critical contributor to the process. However, it was not so for better part of our history. Through the 1960s, 1970s and even the 1980s, the general impression was that nations could only be built through government intervention. The words of our first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru said it all when he portrayed the public sector units as the ‘leading lights’ of the economy. But to be fair to him, he was actually being in tune with the times, given the small size of private business in India and the sheer scale of the task of building critical infrastructure in a large country like ours. Let’s come back to the present and look at the critical block of infrastructure. The government today aims to build 20 km of highways a day, 7,000-8,000 km a year. The same is the case with energy, where we need rapid generation-capacity additions to overcome the power shortage that we have to live with today. To give a fillip to our international trade, we have undertaken several initiatives to build new ports or modernising existing ports. For such hard infrastructure, we are looking at a total investment of $1.5 trillion of investment within a span of 10 years. India is going to be one big construction site during this period. China has already gone through this, India needs to catch up fast. So, who is going to do this? Obviously, the government alone cannot accomplish this on its own. Had it been capable, it would already have done it. The answer is pretty clear: public-private is going to make this happen for us. Of the 20-km-a-day highway construction plan, half is going to be built by the private sector. In the case of energy, more than half of our new generation capacity is going to be in the private sector. We already have several new airports in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Hyderabad under the public-private mode. More are in the pipeline. Let me now briefly touch upon my own sector: telecom. Till about 20 years ago, a telephone connection was a scarce commodity doled out by the government in a controlled fashion. Ten years ago, it was considered a luxury. Five years ago, it was still seen as a middle-class tool. Today, not everyone might own a phone, but almost everyone has access to one as more than 95% of our population is under mobile coverage. Billions of dollars have been invested in the sector to make this possible. Telecom is going to constitute a critical building block of the country’s infrastructure. Though many users in India today may never have ventured beyond voice and SMS on their mobile phones, the possibilities are enormous. Broadband wireless is going to be the order of the day and mobile money transfer and mobile commerce are going to open up endless possibilities. Let me take you through a simple example of the migrant workers from states such as Bihar and Orissa who move to Punjab and Haryana during the harvest season for employment. With no access to formal banking channels, they use runners to send money to their relatives back home, who carry envelopes carrying cash to their native places. This can change soon thanks to the application of mobile money transfer. People can transfer small amounts, from Rs 50 to Rs 5,000, safely and securely over the mobile networks on real time both within India and abroad at fraction of a cost of a banking transaction. The potential impact will be huge given the fact that of the 500 million mobile customers in the country today, more than 200 million do not have bank accounts. This can have path-breaking implications for financial inclusion, a critical element in nation-building. Today, the industry is waiting for the RBI’s clearance to launch this service. Let’s now switch to agriculture. Almost 35 million tonnes of the country’s fresh produce gets wasted every year. For a nation where 25-30% of the population still struggles below the poverty line, this is a colossal wastage. Now the question is, can the government stop this wastage on its own? The simple answer is no. We need large-scale investment in cold chain and supply chain management to do this, which can only come from the private sector. We also need large-scale investments post-harvest handling and food processing as well. The government needs to play the facilitator in this space, streamlining the difficult regulatory provisions restricting the corporates from playing an elaborate role. Opening the retail sector to foreign direct investment could also prove to be a great enabler, given the fact that investment in supply chain has a direct correlation with the growth of organised retailing. The role of corporates well and truly goes beyond their performance in the arena of business, which is exclusively oriented towards generation of profit for the shareholders. Before I dwell upon the concept of corporate philanthropy, let me refer to a concept called ‘social business’ propounded by the Nobel laureate from Bangladesh, Mohammed Yunus, during his recent address to the joint session of Indian Parliament. The concept refers to self-sustaining businesses without seeking to make profit for their shareholders. Shareholders of such businesses are going to be driven primarily by an intent to do good to the society. He rightly says, a rupee invested in philanthropy has one life, but rupee in social business has endless life. Let’s now turn to corporate social responsibility (CSR), which has become the norm for any big corporate today. It has several dimensions. Doing your business which is not only consistent with the environment but also helps sustain the same in the long run. Sustaining the confidence of the investors or civil society through adherence to corporate governance norms is another critical aspect of CSR. Philanthropy is another arena for corporate engagement in nation-building. Corporate houses have gone through distinct phases of engagement with philanthropy in India. In the early days, corporate houses — the Tatas, the Birlas, the Dalmias — were known for making major contributions towards setting up schools, colleges and hospitals. Widespread poverty around them was clearly a big motivator for them to contribute. Later, during the 1960s, 1970s and even 1980s, businesses were struggling with high taxes and multiple regulations. Running businesses was a cumbersome job, leave alone making contributions to the social cause. Things have changed since then, thanks to liberalisation. Corporates are more confident today both about the present and the future and have once again started contributing. Education is quite rightly a key focus area for many of the corporate philanthropic initiatives. We, at Bharti Foundation, are running 236 primary schools catering to over 30,000 students. Many corporates are supporting skill development initiatives too. I personally believe this is going to be a critical area of nation-building in the days to come. Today, 320 million of our population belongs to the 6-16 age group. Ten years down the line, this large section of the population is going to join the workforce. Our failure to engage this population productively could be disastrous. We already have seen signs of disturbance in the shape of the Maoist trouble. The question now is: are the corporates doing enough? The answer could, at best, be mixed. There are two reasons behind this. One, there is a serious cultural barrier for Indians to donate personal wealth. Because of the strong family bond, Indian parents, in contrast to their western counterparts, prefer to transfer their personal wealth to their offspring. Western parents, in contrast, use their personal wealth to promote social causes they subscribe to. We already have seen great examples in corporate philanthropy in the shape of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Warren Buffet, who have created endowments worth billions of dollars. Cultures take a long time to change. So, it will be quite a while before we see substantial change in this aspect of the Indian reality. But as far as Indian corporates are concerned, we are currently being driven by a strong sense of giving. I expect a rapid scale-up in their activities in the days to come. For me, words of the Father of the Nation remain the most inspiring piece of self-realisation on this. “I shall pass through this world but once. Any good, therefore, that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.”

I shall pass through this world but once. Any good, therefore, that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now..Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again....

Few things are impossible to diligence and skill.

Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance

Telecom Tariff War: What it means for brands!

Much has been written about and is still being written about the tariff wars in Telecom industry in recent weeks. Importantly often the discussion starts to engage the notion of brands. At its simplest Brand is a promise to the customer of a quality of service with meaningful differentiated dimensions ahead of a generic or commodity version of the same. Brands will have a place as long as that differential exists and commands a premium.

While engaging on a discussion connecting pricing and brand stature one must also consider the industry. In some industries the price comes down over time as an inherent feature.

Take consumer electronics for instance. The price of say a computer with certain specifications or a TV with certain specifications comes down over time. It does not mean that this industry is losing its halo or its brands are.

In the telecom industry, prices have been coming down since the industry’s inception. Various factors have played a role – rapid growth of scale, emergence of innovative business models, and more recently hyper competition. If you were to accept the reduction of price table as a barometer of brand halo or stature then you would reach the conclusion that brand halos have been eroding in this industry for a decade. But one look at amount of media coverage not just for the companies and the industry, but the ranking of brands themselves in various lists across publications will tell you this is not the case.

And finally let’s not forget what the consumers at large are paying for. The collective revenue share of top 3 brands is higher than it was a year ago. To me the halo or Brand Stature as I prefer to call it is very much intact. Of course one cannot take it for granted and must continue to nurture it.

Living in You!!

Some things in life never change,
Sometimes in life you don't find reasons,
Some moments in life aren't forgotten,
Sometimes you loose hope...
When time rolls by you to forget
What holds you on...

Some people in life are a part of you,
And when you let them go,
You never lose them.
Because... you find them living in you

India's Next Celebrities!!

Never mind the recession. In India, entrepreneurial energy has continued to grow. It still exists only in small pockets. And the sophistication of the entrepreneurial ecosystem has a long way to go before it can resemble anything like Silicon Valley--or even Israel. In this evolution, the Indian media has an important role to play.

I have been interacting closely with Indian entrepreneurs for the last five years and have watched a clear movement forward. The greatest momentum is in the under-30 population. This generation has little to lose, unlike its established counterparts who have cushy jobs and big salaries at large multinationals. The former is high on risk-taking, low on experience, while for the latter, the opportunity cost of foregoing a big salary is a monumental barrier.

The under-30 group looks incredibly promising. They are drumming up entrepreneurship journals in colleges and dreaming up companies in their dorm rooms. This population needs help on several accounts, especially with education and role models. Here is where the media can help.

The first great opportunity for the Indian media is to document and highlight this entrepreneurial culture. India celebrates two kinds of heroes: Bollywood and cricket. To this should be added the entrepreneur. Here, let me distinguish between the old-line Tatas and the Ambanis versus the entrepreneur who creates something out of nothing. The heirs of Reliance, Tata or Essar are simply not the kind of role models that inspire anybody. To be sure, Dhirubhai Ambani (founder of conglomerate Reliance Industries) and Jamsetji Tata (founder of conglomerate Tata Group) are role models, but they are somewhat dated. Narayana Murthy, cofounder and former CEO of Infosys Technologies, served as a great role model for two decades to entrepreneurs who leaped into the outsourcing bonanza. But Murthy, too, is somewhat dated, since outsourcing is not necessarily what will build India's future.

So who are the right role models for Indian youth today?

The Indian media should focus on entrepreneurs who are building $5 million, $10 million, $50 million and $100 million companies from scratch.

A story that has profoundly inspired me is that of Sridhar Vembu, CEO of Zoho, who has built an insanely profitable, rapidly growing $60 million company with zero outside financing. He is taking on giants like Google, Microsoft and Salesforce.com. Vembu has eight people in Silicon Valley and over a thousand in Chennai. Other than a small “storefront” in Silicon Valley, his is an Indian company. Vembu can become the archetype on which young Indian entrepreneurs can model themselves. We need many more like him.

The media needs to tell these entrepreneurs' stories--the human stories of their triumphs and heartbreaks--and make them into household names, in the same way they delivered cricket stars Sachin Tendulkar and Saurav Ganguly and actor Hrithik Roshan into the depths of Indian homes.

In Silicon Valley, Steve Jobs is one such household name. If he sneezes, the media reports on it. As a result, hundreds, possibly thousands, of entrepreneurs have looked up to him and found inspiration.

Many other entrepreneur heroes have emerged in Silicon Valley and across America, and their stories have traveled far and wide. The media has celebrated them, and to a very large extent, all these stories--not only billionaires like Jobs, Bill Gates, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Tom Siebel or Larry Ellison, but also numerous smaller successes--have helped create the culture that we enjoy here. This culture forgives failure, focusing not on the defeat, but celebrating the attempt.

Through its storytelling, the Indian media should simulate this culture of risk-taking. It will need to teach the Indian population to celebrate those among its youth who will swing for the fences, recognizing that some will fail. Many will fail, but that's okay. As a culture, India will need to learn to forgive failure and give people a second, third, fourth chance.

The Indian media will also need to highlight stories of the sacrifices, struggles and triumphs of the men and women who stand by their entrepreneurs--the parents, the wives, the husbands. Fathers who refuse to marry their daughters to entrepreneurs deserve ridicule in these stories, since young men with entrepreneurial dreams often face similar ridicule. Do they deserve it? No!

But the Indian media should avoid a mistake made here. In America, the media has fed a frenzy around venture capital. Who raises how much money from VCs is a benchmark of success. This is a false metric.

Why? Which entrepreneur makes more money? A 90% owner of a $5 million company sold for $25 million? Or a 5% owner of $25 million company sold for $100 million? The former, most likely, has bootstrapped his business. The latter, for sure, has raised tons of venture money. Yet entrepreneurs, unfortunately, keep chasing venture capital and treat funding as a measure of success.

Venture capital is a tool of entrepreneurship but just one of many tools. It is neither sexy nor smart to focus all your energy on raising capital. That energy should be focused instead on building a business, selling your products.

Friends and colleagues in the Indian media, you are in a position to make a tremendous impact on the country's development. The entrepreneurial energy that we will unlock today will build, perhaps, another ecosystem like Silicon Valley--one that innovates, builds and creates time and again.

And perhaps, this force that you unleash will not only impact the country but will impact the world for, God knows, today's world economy is in equally dire need of entrepreneurship.

Source: Forbes

Can Apple take Microsoft's perch atop tech pile?

Apple's phoenix-like rise from the ashes has propelled its market value to $180 billion, raising the possibility that it could challenge Microsoft for the technology crown. Microsoft is now the world's most valuable tech company with a commanding market capitalization of $250 billion. Its Windows software is in nine out of 10 personal computers. It would take impressive execution for any company to unseat Microsoft at the top of the technology heap. But Apple, flush with cash and fat margins, has catalysts in the iPhone, the Mac PC and a highly anticipated but unconfirmed tablet device expected to launch next year.

Microsoft's naming math: Vista plus 1 is 7

Microsoft's new operating system launches Thursday, and you may be asking: How did we get to Windows 7? Did I miss 5 and 6?

No, you didn't. But Microsoft Corp.'s names for the successive versions of Windows have been more than a little confusing. It's easy to get the impression that with every new version of Windows, Microsoft wants us to forget that there was a previous one.

Long ago, we had Windows 1, 2 and 3. So far, so good. Then Microsoft started naming its consumer software after the year of release, like a car, and we got Windows 95. That was followed by 98, while professional users got 4.0. But Windows 2000 wasn't for consumers at all -- the professional version was now named for its vintage as well.

The new millennium raised an obstacle to the year-numbering scheme. Microsoft balked at naming its new system "01." Naming it "2001" wouldn't have worked either: imagine all the jokes about the homicidal computer in the movie "2001: A Space Odyssey." So the new Windows became "XP," a not entirely self-evident contraction of "experience."

There didn't seem to be any other two-letter combination handy to capture Microsoft's goals for the next Windows, so it became "Vista." A vista is what you might see out of a window, so that makes sense, right? Someone thought so.

Vista bombed, prompting Microsoft to make another clean break -- the third one -- and give us Windows 7.

Microsoft's official rationale is that "7" is the seventh version of Windows. It gets there by counting up from Windows NT 4.0, skipping Windows 98 and counting both XP and 2000 as No. 5. Vista was No. 6.

Adding to the confusion, Steven Sinofsky, Microsoft's president of Windows, has a variant explanation, saying that Windows 95 was the fourth version of Windows. But Windows 7 is descended from NT 4.0, not Windows 95.

And to further complicate matters, Windows 7 is really Windows 6.1. That's what the operating system will tell software applications that are trying to check which version of Windows they are running on. Windows 7 will say it's 6.1 because it's really a small upgrade from Vista, and programs designed to run on Vista should run with no problems on 7.

"The decision to use the name Windows 7 is about simplicity," according to Mike Nash at the official Windows blog. He then lays it out in terms as clear as the vista from a newly polished window.

Coming up with a new "aspirational name" like XP or Vista, he writes, would "not do justice to what we are trying to achieve, which is to stay firmly rooted in our aspirations for Windows Vista, while evolving and refining the substantial investments in platform technology in Windows Vista into the next generation of Windows."

John Long, a retail strategist at consulting firm Kurt Salmon Associates, points out that it's difficult to come up with words like "Vista" that work well in all languages -- an important consideration for a world-spanning product like Windows.

"Going back to numbers is logical," Long said. He also pointed out that even if Microsoft has been indecisive about what to stick after the "Windows," it has at least been faithful to the "Windows" brand.

If you're going to jump on the number train, seven is a good place to do it. The number has mostly positive connotations, if you exclude the "Seven Deadly Sins," Long said. In Japan in particular, seven is an auspicious number. Images and statues of the seven gods of happiness and luck are commonplace.

Going with numbers also sets Microsoft up to call the next version Windows 8, which could be a hit in Asia. Chinese culture is somewhat preoccupied with numbers, and eight is the luckiest of them all. That notion sent a crush of Chinese couples to get married on Aug. 8, 2008. Whether having a lucky number in the operating system would get Chinese consumers to buy software rather than pirate it is another matter.

So Microsoft may be on to a naming scheme it can stick with for the long term. But it's taken a long time to get there.

Contrast that with Apple Inc.'s approach. It used a consistent numbering scheme for versions 1 through 9 of its operating system. When it got to 10, the current version, it started adding the names of big cats to the sub-releases: Cheetah, Puma, Jaguar, Panther, Tiger, Leopard and Snow Leopard. Each one tells you there's a purring beast inside, ready to tear into your tasks, and each one sounds consistent with the last.

"I think Apple to some degree likes to play the underdog and likes to imbue their products with a lot more personality," Long said. "Animals do that quite effectively."

The Windows franchise faces a lot of challenges -- among them, Internet search leader Google Inc.'s plans for its own operating system. So Windows may find itself the underdog one day.

By then, Apple will have already had a lock on cats, but Microsoft could turn to dogs: Windows Greyhound (it's fast), Windows Dachshund (it's compact, good for small computers) or Windows Cocker Spaniel (pretty interface).

What Recession?? We are rising...!!!

The wreckage of the financial crisis is producing many warnings that globalization is dead, as trade and investment slow. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, global companies have rarely been in a stronger position, and if you want to get a sense of where such businesses are heading, look no further than IBM.

The company was a titan of American industry in the 20th century, an innovator in computer technology, and an icon of efficient sales. Today, it is radically different. No longer primarily a hardware maker, the company, still officially known as International Business Machines, ought to be renamed IBS—International Business Services. Over the past decade, and in the past two years in particular, IBM has become a global services company that helps multinational businesses to focus more on international markets and to depend less on any one country, including the United States.

Those changes began out of necessity in the 1990s as IBM lagged behind New Economy tech upstarts. But only in the past few years, under the leadership of CEO Samuel Palmisano, has that transformation really taken hold. He has articulated a vision of a world that is becoming more connected and smarter. The role of IBM is to be a "globally integrated enterprise" that, in turn, helps other companies become smarter and better able to seize opportunities. What that means is that IBM no longer conceives of companies as a series of units defined by their geography but as a series of units defined by their purpose (sales, research and development, production) and located anywhere on the planet where those tasks can be done most efficiently.

IBM's world view has meant that hardware is an increasingly small portion of its revenue. It no longer makes personal computers, having sold its ThinkPad division to China's Lenovo; higher-end servers now constitute only a quarter of its business. The rest is in software and consulting, which are increasingly based outside the U.S., making IBM less sensitive to the U.S. economy even as it remains—technically—an American company. IBM remains highly profitable. In the first six months of 2009, it earned nearly $6 billion in profits, even as the U.S. economy contracted sharply. This past quarter, about two thirds of its revenue came from outside the U.S., and that percentage is growing.

Some of the effects are undoubtedly negative for the U.S. Thousands of IBM employees have recently been offered a choice between losing their jobs in America or moving abroad to stay employed. Companies that once were icons of American power—like IBM and General Motors—will thrive only if they become more wedded to the world and less to the U.S. GM itself is a perfect example of what works and what doesn't, with a U.S. division that failed and a Chinese division that is wildly successful. A world with more strong foreign markets means less money spent on labor and operations in the U.S., and more spent elsewhere. Companies like Intel and Microsoft are investing billions in R&D facilities in China because they believe that is where their future is.

But some consequences are more positive. For instance, IBM has been a leader in green business practices for the simple reason that if you're a global business dealing with a labyrinth of different environmental regulations, it pays to harmonize your supply chain to take those different regimes into account. And to the extent that a corporation domiciled in the United States profits because of global business, some of that will bolster the domestic American economy. The fact that IBM is headquartered in Armonk, New York, matters much less than it did, but it still contributes. The company employs more than 100,000 people in America, close to 30 percent of its workforce, though that is down from 35 percent two years ago.

IBM is hardly the only example of global business detaching from the U.S. Other technology and consulting companies such as HP and Accenture are charting similar paths. Firms in other industries have moved away from the U.S. altogether, most notably oil-services company Halliburton. Having been reviled in the U.S. for allegedly overcharging the U.S. military in Iraq, it decamped to Dubai, where no one cares. In fact, there is hardly an industry other than utilities that is not seeing its most significant growth outside the U.S. That was true before the crisis, but it is even more clear in financial results this year. In 2006 about 43 percent of the profits of the S&P 500 came from outside the U.S. In 2009 that percentage is poised to surpass 50 percent.

This is the new world of global business, one in which the U.S. becomes simply a market among markets, and not even the most interesting one. IBM is one of the multinationals that propelled America to the apex of its power, and it is now emblematic of the process of creative destruction pushing America to a new, less dominant, and less comfortable position.

Source:Newsweek

Cisco: Experimenting with Management!

Cisco Systems has overhauled its management structure in order to support 26 new businesses that the company says could soon reach $1 billion each and account for more than 25% of Cisco’s revenue. Now executives work on committees—dubbed councils and boards in Cisco-ese—and the company makes 70% of its decisions collaboratively, up from 10% just two years ago. CEO John Chambers, a veteran of Wang Laboratories, the computer company that famously went bankrupt after it failed to adapt to the rise of the PC, spoke of the dangers of “incremental change” repeatedly during a recent interview. He says large companies begin to slowdown “because they didn’t move out of their primary markets” fast enough.

Source:Wall Street Journal.

Just came across a interesting n senti thought....The saddest thing in the world, is loving someone who used to love you..!!

Ferrari's F1 Team has fired its entire pit crew!!!

Ferrari's F1 Team has fired its entire pit crew. The announcement is
as follows:


Ferrari has decided to take advantage of India’s high unemployment
rate, and hire unemployed Indian youth from the Dharavi slums in
Mumbai.

The decision to hire them was brought on by a recent documentary on
how they were able to remove a set of wheels from a car parked in the
street in less than 6 seconds without proper equipment. (Ferrari's
erstwhile crew took more than 8 seconds with the right equipment.)



This was thought to be an excellent yet bold move by the Ferrari
management, and, as most races are won & lost in the pits, Ferrari
would have an advantage over every other team.



However, Ferrari's expectations were exceeded, as during the crew's
first practice session; not only were 'da boyz' from Mumbai able to
change the tires in under 6 seconds, but within 12 seconds had re
-sprayed the car, filed off the chassis number and sold the vehicle
over to the McLaren Team!

Nandan Nilekani in his new avatar as a Cabinet Minister!!

Nandan Nilekani in his new avatar as a Cabinet Minister, here is what he had penned after his first day in the Parliament.

The last entry stopped when the House was just about to begin. Let's see what happened thereafter...

The House was in pin drop silence as the Speaker to her Chair. I was brimming with anticipation and excitement!!!! Manmohan had informed me
that my introduction was one of the important points of the agenda. I hoped that I will be able to make my speech properly. After so many
interviews and conferences, I was nervous today!!!!

After the Speaker indicated that the proceedings of the House could begin, Manmohan formally introduced me to the entire House. He mentioned
that as the head of the Unique Identification Authority of India, I was responsible to ensure that each and every Indian had a digital smart
card as a proof of his existence. Manmohan spoke about why I was selected and also some references to the various projects executed by me
in Infosys were mentioned. The House listened with rapt attention. I was asked to say a few words and I did exactly the same!!! I thanked the
Government of India for having given me this opportunity and I assured the House that I would strive to successfully deliver this project. The
Speaker then formally inducted me into the House and before the proceedings could move any forward, there was a small commotion on the
other side of the hall. 

It was Minister of Textiles who had a comment to make before the next point on the agenda. He made a request that I
should be attired in a more austere way instead of a flashy suit. It did not go well with the image of a minister who should live to serve the
common man and should be less ostentatious in his habits. I stood up to reply. I offered my apologies to the Honourable Minister and assured
that I shall be in a more acceptable dress next time. I felt that he was right. We also used to have corporate dress code in Infosys. So it s
here as well!!!!

I sat down and felt somebody nudging me. I turned around and to my surprise; it was the former Indian skipper and one of my favourite
batsman Mohd. Azharuddin. I remembered that he had recently won the elections. I smiled at him and mentioned to him that I used to like his
game very much, shaking his hand. No Rolex, I noticed.

Azhar told me that he would "fix" me an appointment with an Italian designer who had designed his dapper Kurta suit. An Italian designer in
Milan doing Kurtas!?!?!?!

I made a note of this and reminded myself to give this example to Friedman for his next book," The World Markets are
Flattened. Since there was no doubt about the "Fixational" capacities of Azhar, I told him to give me the details and I would consider.
The proceedings of the House went on with numerous bills being debated and passed as I sat as a passive audience waiting for my project's turn
to come up. After the lunch break, it was the moment for me!!!! 

MY PROJECT"S FIRST REVIEW CAME UP FOR PRESENTATION. I was at sea. My laptop did not have any reserve power. I went to Manmohan and apprised him of
the situation. I was sweating. He calmly replied that this would not be a cause of concern. I was flummoxed!!!!

The Speaker asked me to explain to the House on what were my plans for the Unique Identity Project. I replied that I have a plan prepared for
30-60-90-120 days' milestones and I have presentation to make for which I need a power socket, a projector and a screen. I had no idea what was
going to happen after this. The next couple of minutes were a complete jolt for me. I was completely in a tizzy. Let me just summarize what happened.
A Joint Cabinet Secretary Committee was set up to judge the feasibility of my request. The Under Secretaries for the Ministries of Power, IT and
Broadcasting will prepare a Viability Report after scrutinizing National Security threats to my request. This was because the power socket comes
under Power, laptop comes under IT and projector comes under Broadcasting.

I have also been told to reconsider my timelines of 30-60-90 days and start thinking in terms of years. Probably, they are right. I did not
have the foresight in this matter. The summary of the issue is that I need to come up with a more inclusive, democratic, comprehensive long term plan for this project to
be executed over the next five years. I have also been given a presentation slot 3 months from now (by which the issues related to the power cord etc will also be resolved).

I am filled with mixed reactions. I was planning for a quick resolution; the management wants a strategic solution. 

I come out of the House and text Murthy,
"You won't believe it but these guys work just like us.  I am on a NATIONAL BENCH for the next three  months!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

More Powerful Than Facebook Or Twitter

Every political eruption around the world--the Iranian elections; this week's riots in the Chinese city of Urumqi--quickly produces news stories about how Internet sites like Facebook and Twitter have become engines of social change. But a technology that is much less glamorous and vastly more ubiquitous deserves the real star billing.
CMOS sensors ("complementary metal oxide semiconductor") are the cameras-on-a-chip that have become so cheap that they can now be put even in low-end cellphones. Just about everyone in the world by now has a mobile phone, and each one of them has become a witness to history. It's hard to smuggle around a movie camera, especially when tanks are rolling in. A cellphone, though, slips in a pocket, but its images can beam around the world in minutes. That makes every person on the street a documentary filmmaker.
A CMOS sensor is, in effect, a garden variety silicon computer chip, like a memory chip or a microprocessor, but which can convert photons of light into the electrical ones or zeroes of computer-speak. While digital cameras have been around for decades, until recently they required a complex part known as a charged couple device (CCD) in order to work.
During the 1990s, scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and elsewhere got the idea of trying to use generic computer chip technology, known as CMOS, to handle pictures. At first, CMOS-based cameras had extremely low picture quality; they were electrically "noisy," as engineers say.
But since so many engineers were familiar with CMOS and since basic CMOS manufacturing technology was used in so many places all over the world, a huge R&D infrastructure was in place to quickly make improvements to the devices. Around 2000, they became good enough to start showing up in digital cameras in place of CCDs. By now, CMOS sensors are good enough that they can out-perform CCDs for all but very high-end photography applications, usually for a tiny fraction of the price. (A CMOS sensor in a low-end cellphone costs less than a dollar.)
The story is another victory for Moore's Law, in which electronics double in capacity every year or so. In five years, says Ken Salsman, director of new technology for Aptima, a CMOS sensor maker in Silicon Valley, the area on a chip required to store a pixel of information has shrunk 10-fold, to a wee 1.5 microns. With advances in manufacturing, more pixels can be stored on the same fingernail-sized sliver of silicon chip. Which is why cameras now start at 8 megapixels, an unimaginable amount just a few years ago but enough to produce high-def video in even low-cost cameras. Some high-end cameras now have 25 megapixels.
Because CMOS sensors are so cheap, they are being designed into everything, the way flashing LED displays were in the '90s. Laptop covers, for one, and the rear doors of station wagons, giving drivers of some new models a view of what they are reversing into.
Even pills. One of the new fields in radiology is CMOS sensor-enabled capsules that can be swallowed. These capsules can take hundreds or even thousands of pictures as they move through the digestive system. They are then retrieved, and the photos off-loaded for a doctor's evaluation.
As Salsman says, "There is nothing that isn't being photographed these days." Dictators beware
Source: Forbes

IBM taking Oracle database share

IBM software breaking away in UNIX database growth

 

Article summary

Oracle's best clients feel its pain, and now provide strong IBM DB2, Informix and Power System opportunities.

Why did Oracle buy Sun Microsystems? Perhaps to stem the steady flow of database customers using UNIX to IBM DB2 and Informix software.

Maybe bundling its database with Sun's Solaris operating system and hardware might retard IBM DB2 software and Power System growth.

While both Oracle and IBM have claimed to be taking database share from one another on recent earnings calls, the two top industry studies of 2008 market results agree IBM has the momentum.

This is not a fluke, but the result of a solid client-centric information agenda contrasting sharply to Oracle's customer gouging with high maintenance fees.

 Reality check

The truth is, it's not a huge landslide of customers going IBM's way, but a significant demographic trend. Oracle still holds nearly half the total Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) market to IBM's 22 percent, according to Gartner

But  Oracle client defections are real and measurable. Gartner places IBM RDBMS growth at 12.5 percent overall for 2008, while IDC pegs it nearby at 12.0.

Gartner says IBM took .1 percent from Oracle's total RDBMS share, while IDC says we took three times that amount. Either way, the tide is in our direction.

UNIX matters

Numbers are much more dramatic within the Windows, Linux and Unix environment. While Gartner reports that IBM finally pulled even with Oracle in Linux revenue growth percentage, IBM clearly outsold Oracle with 18.2 percent revenue growth in the UNIX space, compared to Oracle's 2.2 percent loss of share.

This gives IBM a relative growth of 20.4 percent over Oracle in this segment, and some real velocity.

What's happening in a challenging economy to fuel such a differentiation? First of all, IBM is winning in head-to-head competition. There are many examples (see sidebar for one recent example).

Why? Our Information Agenda provides a solid roadmap while Oracle is two years late with it's Fusion middleware solution to integrate disparate application data repositories. DB2's handling of "pureXML" provides great flexibility while its data compression provides a real cost savings in the short term. Informix's speed is also a key differentiator.

Compounding the trend

Oracle is seeing a decrease in database revenue while IBM DB2, for example, has been growing in double digits for the last few years. Oracle management needs to make up for this loss to shareholders.

From where is this revenue coming? From its clients base! Not only did Oracle greatly increase its license fees one year ago in June, but the company has been jacking-up the maintenance on its acquired offerings to match ts already-high Oracle software maintenance fees, 22 percent of its license fees.

When a client buys DB2 or Informix, IBM provides the routine software fixes and security patches for free to all licensees, even if the customer hasn't signed an ongoing support agreement.

Oracle customers don't get this support without payment of its steep maintenance fees, and adding maintenance after the fact has proven more expensive than buying them up front. According to IBM business analysts, clients who challenged these high fees ended up paying more than they would have had they not complained.

IBM is working to make companies smarter, but Oracle customers are already wise enough to question high maintenance fees. In the mean time, Oracle appears to be making its staff dumber.

Brain drain

Oracle gets high marks from industry analysts and stock analysts alike for running companies it acquired at high profitablity. Oracle ran its business at a 51 percent operating margin in its most recent 4Q09 quarter, and that's even higher than Microsoft.

But from where do these Oracle savings come? It appears that many savings may come from reducing headcount at the software companies Oracle continually acquires. Reviewing Oracle staffing on a case-by-case basis, IBM analysts see Oracle letting go of as many as 60 percent of the employees of the companies it acquires.

Layoffs provide Oracle shareholders with great value, but what does it do for Oracle clients who are paying a huge premium for support when the company gets rid of huge chunks of its expertise? Even Sybase took some share from Oracle last quarter in the UNIX space. Oracle customers are angry.

In the few hours since this story was originally posted, LSI, a leading provider of innovative technologies, has agreed to replace Oracle's database with DB2 not only for SAP, but 40 different custom applications over the next nine months. The deal includes software, IBM Power Systems hardware and IBM Migration Services to replace LSI's HP and Oracle environment.

Lessons from Windows?

Interestingly, in the Windows market, both Oracle and IBM outperformed Microsoft SQL Server. So much for having an advantage by marrying the operating system and database sales. But, in this case operating system issues might be more of a liability than an asset.

Economic Crisis: Is there a catch?

It is August. In a small town on the South coast of France, holiday season is in full swing.  But it is raining so there isn’t too much business happening. 
 
Everyone is heavily in debt. 
  
Luckily, a rich Russian tourist arrives in the foyer of the small local hotel. He asks to see a room and puts a Euro100 note on the reception counter, takes a key and goes to inspect the room located up the stairs on the second floor. 
The hotel owner takes the note in hurry and rushes to his meat supplier to whom he owes E100. 
The butcher takes the money and races to his wholesaler to pay his debt. 
 
The wholesaler rushes to the farmer to pay E100 for goats he purchased some time ago. 
 
The farmer triumphantly gives the E100 note to a local prostitute who gavehim her services on credit. 
 
The prostitute goes quickly to the hotel, as she owes the hotel for her room use to entertain clients..  She pays the hotel owner. 
 
At that moment, the rich Russian comes down to the reception and informs the hotel owner that the proposed room is unsatisfactory and takes his E100 back and departs. 
  
There was no profit or income. But everyone no longer has any debt and the
small town people look optimistically towards their future. 
  
COULD THIS BE THE SOLUTION TO THE Global Financial Crisis? Or, is there a catch here?

Here i am sitting in my office @ night…

Here i am sitting in my office @ night…
Thinking hard about life
How it changed from a maverick collage life to strict professional life…..

How tiny pocket money changed to huge monthly paychecks
but then why it gives lesss happiness….
How a few local denim jeans changed to new branded wardrobe
but then why there are less people to use them

How a single plate of samosa changed to a full Pizza or burger
But then why there is less hunger…..

Here i am sitting in my office @ night…
Thinking hard about life
How it changed…..

How a bike always in reserve changed to bike always on
but then why there are less places to go on……

How a small coffee shop changed to cafe coffee day
but then why its feels like shop is far away…..

How a limited prepaid card changed to postpaid package
but then why there are less calls & more message……

Here i am sitting in my office @ night…
Thinking hard about life
How it changed…..

How a general class journey changed to Flight journey
But then why there are less vacations for enjoyment….

How a old assembled desktop changed to new branded laptop
but then why there is less time to put it on……….

How a small bunch of friends changed to office mate
but then why after 8'o Clock it always feel like getting late….
Here i am sitting in my office @ night…
Thinking hard about life !!!