Sangh Parivaar or Gandhi-Nehru Parivaar- India has a choice

India was given independence by the British much ahead of the scheduled date of 1948. Shocked? Why the British left India in hurry than enjoy the benefits of ruling such a vast country? Well the British ruled many parts of India for almost 300 years. But the Raj was not allowed to rule Punjab by the native Sikhs for a long time & the famed empire ruled Punjab for the least times as compared to India.  Dogs and ordinary native Indians were forbidden to venture into areas that the British kept for their exclusive use. Point is the British had a low opinion about intellect & lifestyle of the natives that find expression in many a statement of the Raj politicians who doubted the ability of Indians to rule such a vast land. The Indians too agreed with the British view on the low intellect & poor competence of the natives by accepting the partition of India.

Pakistan was carved out of India in 1947 as the Islamic republic and remaining parts of India under Gandhi-Nehru persuaded the locals to pursue a ‘secular’ dream. The Sikhs who ruled Punjab when the British ruled Delhi also decided to walk on the path of secularism, rightly so as the Sikh religion is based on the core principle of universal ‘Brotherhood’. Pakistan that relished the dream of a religion based state has since been divided, unlike India which has survived intact. The truncated India, also called Bharat to appease the Hindutva lobby of Sangh parivaar, went on to pursue a hallowed tough path of ‘Secularism’ and has survived till today. But can India avoid another 1947, or Pakistan 1971, in the wake of Hindutva goal to make it a Hindu state? Can the sangh-parivaar or the politics of Hindu appeasement keep India united, through persuasion or by force? Many scholars are afraid that the truncated India is facing another 1947 moment.

Will India complete a century of self rule and remain a republic in current form till 2047? Your guess is as good as mine.  It depends upon the competence & performance of the majority natives. India that sacrificed a major part of its territory to the pursuit of religion based state to Pakistan is gasping for breath & struggling to keep the monster of Hindu aspirations and keep walking on the path of secular modern state.  Since Hindus form an overwhelming majority so the Hindu vote bank is most sought after group for the political parties to appease in order to grab the power. When was the first time that the President of USA reminded India of its Article 25? Barack Obama was on his second visit to India and had so much confidence in the strength of secular India that he called PM of India Dr Manmohan Singh as his idol while was on a visit to the Germany after his first visit to India.  Does the Hindu Media in India shared with Indians why the POTUS had to change his mind so drastically about India?

The Hindu supremacist RSS also known as the Sangh- parivaar have penetrated deep into most institution of India including the press & judiciary. Therefore it’s not uncommon to see the respect and acceptability given to the Hindutva ideology of sangh parivaar in truncated India that had decided to be a secular country not very long ago. It’s not the Hindutva lobby alone that dream of a religion/culture based state, Punjab also experienced the horrors when a political movement for the genuine rights of Punjab was turned into a struggle for the Sikh state of Khalistan during 80s. Escapism won’t help the Hindus, they have to decide if they want Hindutva based Bharat or work for a secular India. Both are 180 degrees apart antithetical to each other.

How stupid, don't you know your great-grand-Dad?

North India is often riled for its penchant for flouting wealth and the family name to influence others while making a point about an individual's power & glory in the society. Don't you know who my father is? Well have you ever heard someone say,"I am not interested to know the name of your father, but do tell me who was your great-grand- father?"A two minute silence may follow.

How many people in the so called tradition bound 'Sanatan' society of India can tell the name of family beyond Dada Dadi & Nana Nani? Almost none may not be able to write a ten sentences long essay on their par-Dadda or par-Daddi ji. Do you think its inconsequential to know mambo jumbo about your family that has no bearing on the present? Come on, how can you swear to god about family values of India and still don't value the memory of your ancestors? Take a walk in any street in India to meet with many a Swamy roaming around to remind you about the Hindu DNA of your ancestors. Jokes apart, a society that forgets its past is condemned to repeat their blunders, So better be careful and take a peep into your past and carefully connect the dots backwards to know your future.

Lets get back to the present moment & dispel the disbelief about your grasp on it. How many can write the story of your parents, where were they born and how they lived before you arrived in their lives and the later period? Many can write an longer essay on cow, than her real mother. Same for the father. Therefore you need to seize the moment and sit down to write a long story of your family that you could leave behind for your great grand children. Facebook will not lead to redemption on this account. Like other SM sites, facebook has a limited life span. Therefore if you are interested to help your great grand kids to know you better then scribble all your memories on a piece of paper for the posterity.

Let me make few suggestion about how to go about this arduous task. To begin with ask your father mother to narrate their story to you, Record it. This may take more couple of sittings depending upon the journey s/he have been through. Once your have a draft story then make a plan to visit the locations associated with their past with the intent to take pics of school, university, house & jail where ever they have spent sometime. Try meet as many people as possible to dig out the other version of the incidents narrated by your parents. Such inquest may lead to better understanding of your loved ones. Finally, sit down wearing an editor's hat to create a collage that gives a near true picture of the life of your father or mother. Don't worry about the grammar so long as you paint the story in an interesting manner. 

Finally you could give no bigger gift to your parents than their own story, in form of a book, which they had forgotten in the struggle to make life better for you. Its good to know your great grand dad, and better to write the story of your mother father for the sake of their great grand kids. Some tradition excite all of us always. 

Make- in-India could well turn out to be Fake-in- India

The Bush-Singh Nuclear Deal between USA & India have several objectives, but chiefly it led to the end of moratorium on transfer of technology, imposed on India due to its nuclear program.  Technology is the critical economic resource in 21^st century, way more precious than the capital. The recent renewal of faith in the deal by President Obama & PM Modi is a welcome step in right direction.  Although the BJP had objected to the Bush-Singh Nuclear Deal but Modi who wish to make India a manufacturing hub, like China, has moved ahead signing the deal with USA. Modi has launches a program titled Make -in-India to provide fillip to industry in India.

Although Modi government has taken many steps to attract big ticket industry in India, there have been almost no movements on providing similar assistance and promotion to the micro & small scale enterprises in India. Most economists and politicians agree that India being a large diverse country needs millions of small scale projects capable of sustaining on their own and making India a developed country. Make in India targeted at large projects could divide the social fabric of India by making the rich more rich at the cost of average Indian citizens. Thomas Piketty has already warned the global community about need to correct the imbalance in incomes and India must take lesson.

In order to make India Inc happy, Modi government has moved with speed to persuade RBI to cut the interest rate-as the FM had viewed it as the major bottleneck- amended the land acquisition act to profit the industry and also relaxed the already unimplemented labour laws. But It has done nothing targeted at the MSME sector. The author would be delighted if any Modi men could challenge the ignorance on this issue. There is general agreement amongst economists than promotion of MSME sector could result in more job creation as against the large projects development.  Let’s enumerate the steps needed to promote MSMEs for the economic and social progress of India.

Amendments to land acquisition act help the large units alone but if the government creates SEZs particularly aimed at MSMEs it would help the sector enormously. As the capital is a major bottleneck for the MSME sector, not so for the large projects, it would be logical if land be leased to the entrepreneurs than sold. This would free the funds for working capital and marketing activities.

While working in, Udyog Sahayak, a single window industry facilitation cell of the department of industries Punjab Government at Chandigarh, I realized that though majority investors had finds but no clear idea about suitability of new project. Management consulting firms exist in India but are too expensive for the small investors. The government must advise the Industry and Commerce ministry to prepare brief project reports and make them available free of charge on the websites. These reports must be revised periodically depending upon the priority and market demand.

Though India as several schemes targeted at promotion of MSMEs, including free travel & participation in trade fairs abroad, cluster promotion and quality promotion administered through several export promotion infrastructure, but still India lacks a portal of the quality of alibaba dot com which could provide access to digital marketing to MSME sector.  If Modi government is serious about make-in-India and do not wish it to degenerate into a fake- in-India farce then it must focus on MSME sector to accord it the absolute priority, as the large projects have vast resources and skills to promote themselves. 

Education is a burden in India, travel light to enjoy the journey.

The Charlie hebdo tragedy once more brought onto centre-stage the ongoing struggle between the power of the ideas versus the might of the gun. Three french citizens from a minority community took to the gun to forcibly silence those who they think had hurt them with their views.  The war between ideas and sword have been continuing without abatement since the big bang and may never end till the eternity. Socrates had to die at the altar of the truth. Galileo was made to retract his opinion due to threat of violence. Sikh Gurus and millions of ordinary Sikhs had to endure torture and death just to propagate the philosophy of Universal  brotherhood which at variance with that of the ruling class in Mughal period in India.

But generally there is universal consensus on the power & impact of the ideas over the material word. Ideas are like tiny droplets of rain that emanate from nowhere drenching the earth caressing its ruffled surface softly most of the times. But some ideas leave their distinct mark on the world, just like the torrents of rainwater gushing from cloudbursts  eliminate significant chunks of the earth forever and simultaneously make new magnificent relief features for the future to admire. Pen is generally touted to be mightier than sword but wars are often won on the ground than the drawing board.

In the current post modern world marked by the information revolution, the education continue to be seen as critical tool of human development. Governments  are busy improving the quantity and quality of education so that people could lead a better life on earth. But can education actually change the life of an individual and make it better? Questions are many. How much education is necessary for a meaningful living? Is higher education a luxury or the pursuits of education is akin to that of money, more the merrier? Is thinking a critical skill which can be taught in classrooms? If the answer is in the affirmative, then what percent of people in a society need that skill? Manual skill is certainly core human skill without which a citizen is like a challenged person. A person who can not use limbs with dexterity won't be able to enjoy life to the fullest.

Is all education good, an elixir for human development and beneficial for a person to live a better life? I am not sure. Govt of India and most educationists don’t seem to think so. Despite three decades of privatization & expansion of education in India, its often said that human resources of India lack the critical skills needed to employ them gainfully. People are scoring higher marks in exams  each time but the chorus of lack of employability skills seems to be rising like a crescendo. Why?

Actually India has never given education a higher place over the pursuit of material wealth since the ancient period. Education, in Hindu society, had been made a preserve of the few brahmins ordained with the task of metaphysical pursuits.  The Hindu class groups, called castes, who were assigned the task of running the real world, like fighting wars, finding food and making products were not supposed to write books (vedas) to document knowledge for next generations. Therefore few books (Vedas) that are accused of containing details of making wondrous planes and solving pythagoras theorem are written by Brahmins involved in the task of making gods happy than serving the humanity.  Therefore the twenty-first century Hindus are pained to refer to ancient texts rather than later day literature in order to showcase glory or lack of credibility of their culture.

Education in present day India have become a burden as those with proper degree diplomas are accused of lacking skills & attitude needed for employment. Millions of youth with scintillating professional degrees obtained with enormous investments of money and precious time struggle to find a job under those who are often less educated than them. If the higher education can’t help a youth to get more benefits, than those who didn’t work as hard, why would s/he be motivated to pursue it? Why would anyone be motivated to pursue higher education in India if a genuine scholar like Dr Manmohan Singh is seen as less intelligent than Narendra Modi, who didn't study hard enough? 

The youth of India need to wake up and stop wasting time in expensive college campuses funded purely by tuition fees contributed by their parents if the higher education fail to ensure them some rewards and improve life. Why would someone study for years together only to take orders from those who have limited or no education? If you disagree, look around and you will find people who have/had ordinary education have more wealth and recognition than their genuinely educated peers. Majority of private universities are run by those who themselves failed to pass entrance tests for higher education. If a qualified engineer, doctor, manager have to run errands for partly educated guys why waste time in studies, go to work? Education is a burden in India, travel light to enjoy the journey. 

Ideal Sales Trainer for India Market

Recently the CEO of India IT major Infosys lamented that the Indian executives don't speak up and they chose to follow the instructions given by the superiors. Well an overwhelming majority of Vishal Sikka’s counterparts in India inc may differ with him profusely, not on the nature of Indian Managers, but about the undesirability of such an attitude among the executives. In traditional segmented society of India where India Inc is firmly in the stone carved hands of few families & castes since 1947 employees are treated like slaves and the business owners lord over their subjects just like the benevolent mai-baap would in the nineteenth century.

Millions of bright young women & men join India Inc every year upon graduation, subsequently failing to migrate abroad or ensconce themselves in the hallowed civil services,   just to be discovering that silence & compliance are the two major virtues over skills, attitude and hard work for a successful career.   Silently complying with orders from the top may not result in great productive work for progress of the company but it keeps the boss happy and the subordinate in the job. Therefore good executives prefer to follow instructions and off the nerve wrecking journey to find a new elusive job in India.

Dr Manmohan Singh in 90s brought in a welcome change to the moribund tradition bound Indian society and infused a new spirit of freedom in the economic activity. The liberalization of government controls on the commerce had its domino effect on how the India Inc behaved and operated till then since 1947.  MBA graduates were catapulted to numero uno position suddenly as most desired professionals for leading the India Inc to new heights.  Unfortunately India Inc since then has returned to pre 1990s behavior & approach to management. That’s why innovations, skills and creativity have evaporated from amongst the existing management pool in India which is the prime mover of economic growth.  Subservient & complaint managers can’t think out of the box.

India need to set up dedicated national institute for Sales Management which could provide training and orientation to Sales Managers. The USA has been built by the Travelling Salesmen, how India affords to ignore such a critical skill? An ideal sales trainer is a guy who keeps her/his feet firmly on the street and head in the boardrooms so as to bridge the chasm between the two ends of the commerce. Sales trainer can motivate the teams by working with them on the street as often as s/he would bring them into the classroom and listen to the feedback. Since India is large, disorganized, scattered & developing market it needs trainers who could help the executives focus on a particular segment while avoiding the curse of tunnel vision. 

Training is like a game, a demanding sport that requires regular preparation before every winning performance on the field. India Inc needs to allow more open environment from the street to the boardroom so that innovation could keep flowing in like a cool breeze for a healthy bottom-line. 

Print Media is run by duds !

Print media may be shrinking in developed countries but not in India. Actually print media in India is growing at a healthy double digit CAGR while shrinking worldwide especially in the developed world. If you wonder why India is an anachronism as compared to the rest of the world, well the answer lies in the character & attitude of the citizens of India who comprise the country inhabited by many separate nations based on cultural & religious identities.

For example telecom markets in all the major countries are made up of disproportionately large share of post paid subscribers whereas in India it is dominated by pre-paid customers. Moreover India is the only country that has been ruled by ‘foreigners‘for the longest period in human history. Indians are unique people with very interesting characteristics but that I would discuss some other time. Let’s have a look at what ails Indian print media industry.

Print & electronic media in general exploded & grew exponentially in early 90s and the advertising revenues kept showing a healthy trend till 2007 when the global meltdown happened that resulted in shrinking of advtg budgets like scales on the back of a porcupine. But the signs of stagnation of advertising revenues could be noticed in early towards the beginning of the twenty-first century as innovations in marketing of advertising space almost died completely.

Traditionally the advertising was marketed by newspapers mainly through the advertising agencies and some publishing majors looked down upon any effort at marketing the newspapers to advertisers owing to vain journalistic pride. Although most publishers & editors took sides of vested interest groups involved in politics & commerce but the journalist kept pretense that they are the fourth pillar of democracy in India which they agree is one of the most corrupt country on the face of the earth. Well while journalists sashayed up & down the political corridors singing ‘we are the savior of democracy’ pop song the media houses partook huge gifts of prime real estate & government advertising etc from the government.

When the economy opened up for the first time by India’s most honest and scholarly Finance Minster till date, Dr Manmohan Singh, the selling became a good word & print media recruited large in-house sales teams to market their products to trade buyers & end customers. This was the period when the management professionals begin to call the shots in running of the media firms which were dominated by journalists with ideas like a long editorial piece.

This explosive growth in media fuelled the growth in other sectors of economy as the new breed of trained Sales Management professionals from the field of media management were lapped up by other services firm particularly the telecom. In my opinion media can play a critical role in economic progress of a developing market but governments are oblivious to its potential. This growth phase was marked by numerous innovations to serve a variety of media buyers & advertisers.

Unfortunately once the media houses cornered the benefits of growth the publishers refused to acknowledge the stellar contributions made by some great media managers and ejected the professionals who made the media revolution possible. Every media analyst in India knows the couple of great media managers who led the growth of media in India. Point is, since the beginning of twenty-first century media lost its appetite for innovations. I would be surprised if any media house can claim to have infused culture of innovation in its teams so as to delight the customers with greater return on advertising spend every time. Print media has huge opportunities to grow and benefit from deluge of digital online space.  But to make that happen, media houses have to hire train & nurture marketing & sales leaders capable of producing innovation like the rabbits from magician’s hat. If you any have doubt that there is no scope for innovations in media marketing try sit with me with lots of black coffee, you would love to pick the tab.