King Khan at helm in Pakistan

"When small men attempt great enterprises, they always end by reducing them to the level of their mediocrity." - Napoleon Bonaparte

The quality of political leadership in a country has both long & short term influence on its economy politics and culture. You could conclude that the quality or the lack of it determines the very survival of a country. Therefore citizens in a democracy must vote very consciously on merit alone than any other consideration of religious beliefs, cultural identity without personal or social bias. The difference between developed and under developed countries could be attributed to many factors including the nature & quality of the local culture/s followed by the majority population. Social scientists and sociologist agree on the positive impact of great leadership on team performance.

A poor leader without verifiable competence and sans an inspiring track record may end up damaging the team prospects & its future productivity also. People tend to emulate the feat of their achievers who lead them to victory in sports, literature, economy or politics. Between India & Pakistan which country has better quality PM? Who among the two has better achievements in education, sports, career and life? Management or administration is a craft that requires leadership qualities which can't be imbibed through hard work and superior intellect. David Ogilvy warned his colleagues to differentiate between pygmies and giants and depend upon on giants alone for success. India clocked stellar economic performance under Dr Manmohan Singh who became PM after a great educational attainments and a scintillating career full of inspiring achievements. 

Can you point out what Narendra Modi achieved in education & professional front? Modi was not even a MLA before LK Advani appointed him CM of Gujarat. The RSS don't claim to be a university where its missionaries learn & teach the craft of designing excellence in any field. Numerous vociferous RSS guys are seen pontificating in mainstream media that they want to turn India into a Hindu Rashtar that lives only on ancient Hindu superstitions and rituals. Funny that 'Good Day' is a biscuit brand from Britannia India  not by Modi's favourite enlightened yoga exponent Ramdev. 

Despite his expensive publicity blitzkrieg Modi failed to strengthen the Brand India in global market. Has Narender succeeded in keeping the economy on track or failed to match the performance of his illustrious predecessor Dr Manmohan Singh? Nobel laureate Dr Amritya Sen has recently remarked that Narender pushed the Indian economy into wrong direction. If you wonder why current PM failed to perform then look at his educational and work record. Why Modi didn't achieve success in education, career and social life before he was made the CM of Gujarat by his political mentor? 

Unlike Dr Manmohan Singh the current PM was lucky to be born in independent India and that too in its richest & most successful state? On the other hand Dr Manmohan Singh excelled in education & career despite pains of the partition of India. Imran Khan too achieved world class success as a sportsman winning the cup for Pakistan. Successful people inspire billion others to work hard and achieve success in their chosen field. Only success offers assurance of survival and growth, failures only leave behind bitter lessons. 

The Hindus were always in majority in Indian subcontinent & have substantial achievements much before RSS came on the scene and took upon itself that task of saving Hinduism in India. Unfortunately Narender Modi wasted his youth in RSS camps whiling away precious time doing nothing. How can a man who failed to get a regular job in his youth understand the employment situation in India and provide jobs to fresh graduates? Didn’t Dr Manmohan Singh do first class jobs throughout contributing to economy of India? Dr Singh got the jobs of Finance Minister and the decade long stint as the PM purely on personal competence and merit? There are many CMs in various states of India who neither studied nor worked hard in their youth. Can such guys lead the society towards a better future? RSS Hindus can learn from Pakistan where no religious extremists have won in elections this time also. Why should Hindus elect those people who are accused of spreading Hindu extremism in India? Its disgusting to see that in the post industrial modernist world the Hindus of India continue to promote dubious characters by electing them into power.

Political leaders like Imran Khan have the potential to inspire a whole generation to emulate him and create excellence. Imran has earned a name for himself with his stellar contribution to cricket winning the world cup for Pakistan. He married a jew lady which confirms his secular credentials. Narendra Modi never worked on any job before becoming CM and has no record of achieving any success in any field whatsoever prior to getting the chair of Gujarat CM. Modi earned his Hindu Rashtar Hero image post 2002 Godhra riots which gets him Hindu votes since then. 

Victory of Imran Khan in 2018 Pakistan elections would certainly help the people of Pakistan aspire for a better life and greater future. A country can lose a lot and struggle to survive if the people at the helm have no winning track record. Pakistan is lucky to have Imran Khan in the driver’s seat to lead it to greener pastures.

Earn a Million Dollar from Blogging?

Strategy is the key to make a pile of money from blogging. But you can't earn a cent unless Google or Facebook makes many times more from your efforts. Those who started blogging in their youth expecting to net a catch someday could be found reading Moby Dick after a decade of rigorous work. well isn't it true that waiting for Godot was written almost a century ago? How could one forget the truth of the Happy Prince or the fiction of Atlas Shrugged? But then who could you blame, the writers of blog posts or the social media dictators who don't bother to promote anything except entertainment?

Reading writing is a serious business that fails to entertain the masses. In a world marked by the Trump-ting USA and Modified India its rare to find somber logical debates and discourses on life and living. Perhaps the masses have lost the faith in existence of God & the goodness. Perhaps the rapidly melting glaciers on the poles have led to an opposite effect on humans leading to freezing of human mind. How could iconic markedly successful people like Kate Spade & Anthony Bourdain refuse to travel the entire mile?

How could successful smart Kate & Tony shatter under the weight of living life every moment of it? Come on pump up some more entertainment that could dampen the glare of arc-lights so that humans could keep their eyes open without strain. Achievements make people stronger worthier but those can't be the only goals of life. Failures are sexy too, failing repeatedly may kill the most of us.People earn money through hard toil so that they could burn it on lazy pursuits. Well this sums up our life in the post truth world.

People are no longer entertained by the serious tales reflective of the realty of banal existence. The laborious reading-writing activity of humans have shrunk by the rise of mass media and instant pleasures of social media revolution. Human heart desires more entertainment to find meaning in the digital life. Anyone can live long if she doesn't differentiate between success & failures. No day can be boring monotonous or wasted if you know how to entertain yourself with words. Pictures can kill, embrace the words to wade through the oceans of life. 

You certainly can make your first million from blogging on the web if  the masters of the digital universe Facebook & Google permit. Mythologies are interesting but can't help in living a win-win life in the post truth world. The hoopla scores over the golden silences. Would you like to know how much money a blogger like me make after 10 years on the blogpost? Hold your breath, take a sip of cold water. I have yet to reach $10 in 10 years. Phew can someone teach me how to make a  million dollars from writing? 

Cambridge Analytica & Data driven political marketing

Just because Cambridge Analytica has been credited with influencing the American voters in favor of successful flashy business magnate Trump it would be wrong to extrapolate the effects to explain the rise of Hindu Hero Narendra Modi in India. First unlike Trump, Narender has been continuously winning elections post Godhra riots 2002 that earned him the title of a Hindu hero. Agreed that Narender had never won any election before 2002 Gujarat riots. Mysteriously people tend to forget that Narender's mentor his senior LK Advani lost elections to Dr Manmohan Singh in 2009. Second the American mind has no resemblance to that of the Indian mind because the USA is extolled as the land of free & undisputed Global leader since the WW2 unlike India which have been ruled by people from all over the world hence can be described as the plaything of any who would dare to challenge the natives. The culture of people in an area is most critical resource than any other resource like minerals & location. The success or failure of an economy is also predicated on the characteristics of the people living in an area.

No one is born strong, rich & successful one has to plan and work for fulfillment in life.

If you wonder why the Hindu media in so called secular India has been wasting so much primetime TV on boring puppet shows on topic of the impact of political marketing on voters then shut your eyes observe two minute silence mourning 39 hardworking young Indians in Syria driven to death by Hindutva forces led by RSS.

Think why Indians have to go abroad to provide for their families back in India? Ask why RSS forces Indians to chant Bharat Mata ki jai while doing nothing to create jobs in India. Ask yourself who is forcing Indians to risk lives for earning a livelihood in dangerous places outside Indian subcontinent? Who would respect Bharat mata if she fails to take care of its progeny? The hindutva propaganda is the single biggest distraction, obstruction, away from the development politics in India. How can India grow when RSS want Indians to bend to tantra mantra of Hindu way of life? China and the west have grown by embracing liberal values, scientific temper assuring universal equality and justice for all which are anathema to RSS Hindutva lifestyle. How can India grow if continue to slide into abyss of ancient morality of bygone utopias?

Neither Narendra led RSS or Rahul’s Congress can win an election or influence substantial enough Indian minds even if they have access to adhaar database which is way more destructive a weapon than any databases generated thru some app or Facebook. Wont majority of Indians willingly sell their personal data for a ration card or food for work program? Hunger is maddening and unemployment fatal. Don’t we know how booze, money and gifts can get votes during election in India? Data driven marketing is just another tool among the vast array to influence consumers or voters to have a positive opinion about an offer in the market. Narender Modi as Hindu Hero has been sold to almost one third of India and 70 percent of Hindus by the mainstream media not which is owned by RSS inclined Hindus. Digital media may had one tenth of impact as mainstream media in the 2014 win of modi. Did you ever come across any journo or channel critical of dangers of a Hindu Rashtar? 

Never. Some political science puritans and academics keep worrying about an ideal world where people could live freely but that’s nothing but an utopia. If Trump had engaged Cambridge Analytica to collect data and use it to market his campaign in an open manner then it was no crime. Similarly if Narender or Rahul use their app to collect info of Indians to send them their messages it’s a fair game. Facebook and Twitter are media firms and like their ilk the brick & mortar avatar they wouldn’t mind maximizing their profitability at any cost. To all those who balk at involvement of foreign hands in their national affairs I would ask think again and note how their lives in India are directly controlled by other govts. Indian subcontinent has never been really free like USA and you know how expensive freedom is. Let’s worry about how to take India towards freedom than worry about use of digital tools for effective political marketing.

Stockholm syndrome & Ramdev Patanjali Ayurveda marketing

Ramdev can’t hope to win in fmcg space dominated by women power. Yogis who consider women as bad influence thus refusing to respect them as wife or a life partner must not hope to have a bright future. I appeal Ramev to come clean on this and clarify why he refuses to love women as life partner. To those women who suffer from Stockholm syndrome my humble appeal would be to stand up and fight for equality. Don’t by products sold by celibate religious people of any religion because they stand for misogyny that makes life of women difficult on earth.

Agreed India remained under foreign rule for centuries. Accepted the Indians didn’t get independence as result of war against the occupying power, like USA or Vietnam get.  Despite 70 years of independence Indians fail to become globally competitive society as reflected in dismal performance in Olympics, FIFA world cup, Oscars or Nobel prize to name a few. Therefore many scholars tend to conclude that Indians in general are not ready to shoulder the leadership responsibility thus preferring the follower role.

Countries in Indian subcontinent, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh and India have already seen women head of states as PM & President, unlike the USA, despite the fact that women in the USA enjoy far better socio-religious freedom as compared to their pitiable plight in India. How could women rise to the top political jobs in countries that are notorious for subjugating women? It’s no brainer. All the women who occupied top political posts in Indian subcontinent came from political families who succeeded their male relations. Ms Mamta Bnnerjee, CM of west Bengal perhaps the only top political leader in Indian subcontinent who rose to top on her own merit sans any male patronage. Don’t you think Hillary Clinton would have won against Trump if she had not been seen as an ex-Presidents wife? All right thinking people must strive for an equal world, a culture where when women have same freedom to commit mistakes and still get accepted as equal as men have enjoyed for centuries. Women and men are made equal by Gods and no decent man can find an exception to the rule.

If you wonder how the above enumeration relates to rapid rise of a controversial uneducated religious bigot popular as Swamy Ramdev in the business world? Well Ramdev have entered low technology FMCG trade to sell commodities and packaged products which were already available in the market. Ramdev has used religious Hindu fundamental appeal to sell commodities and low technology semi processed items. His rise can be seen as ripple effect of rise of Hindu fundamentalism in all spheres of life in India from politics to education. Although rapid rise of Patanjali products of Ramdev looks logical in charged atmosphere of Hindutva fundamentalism in India but its future remains surrounded in mystery.

Will Ramdev be able to sustain his trade in the low tech and low margin trade of commodities with highly substitutable product categories sans differentiation if the wave of Hindu fundamentalism wanes in next 2-3 years? Serious business managers would seriously doubt the future prospects of Patanjali trade empire. Why would a customer buy Patanjali products sold by a religious Hindu fundamentalist Swamy when there are many normal Hindus are already marketing such products of equal quality? What will happen to Hindu fundamentalist appeal if India has to go to war against China or Pakistan? In my opinion a war with China is almost round the corner. Secondly I would like to draw attention to more fundamental and pervasive contraction threatening the future of Patanjali products.

Ramdev is riding a tiger in the low technology fmcg world. Ramdev a celibate won popularity as a religious man who didn’t marry because yogis consider women as distraction in achievement of higher goals of life. Unfortunately for all Hindu fundamentalist yogi and Swamys like Ramdev it’s the women who decide the fate of fmcg class of products. Will the women continue to buy products endorsed by a guy like Ramdev who considers women as distraction and refuses to give them equal status as life partner? In my opinion no self respecting educated women would by products from those who insult and disparage women. Ramdev can’t fool all the women for all the time. Let’s wait for the moment when women launch a campaign to boycott Patanjali products in their fight for dignity and equality in India. I am sure Ramdev has not hired a professional advertising agency or discussed the branding with an expert. No one can sell products/services to those who the seller don’t respects.

Two suggestions for 'Make' in India

You would agree that 5 year of working in a state govt industry & commerce department's single window cell are enough to understand its working to comment authoritatively on its efficiency & productivity. Well I have been there and done that. Therefore read the suggestions carefully.  India has long been relying on 5year plans to industrialse its mainly agriculture and services dominated economy. But the results offer no solace to any object analyst. All states in India have ‘single window clearance’ teams as part of industry and commerce department. 

Every ‘new’ Industrial promotion policy promises to end ‘inspector raaj’ and reduce harassment of entrepreneurs by providing all needed clearances in one place thus helping investor to navigate the paper maze in a profitable manner. But on the ground nothing seems to change since Dr Manmohan Singh liberalised the economy in early 1990s.  Present Hindu Nationalist govt in India made many promises before 2014 elections to remove the bottlenecks facing industry & commerce but their hammer & tongs approach to problem solving have further complicated the matters. Hence India is once again seemingly to fall back into hole of the Hindu rate of growth from which Dr Manmohan Singh rescued it. Question facing all industry commerce experts is how to find ways to jump start the new investments through large scale programme of industrialization.

It's not really very difficult to spawn a million MSMEs in India despite major socio-economic bottlenecks. Firstly the govt must those who are ready to set up a new business unit. Well yes its that simple. You wouldn't be surprised to know that many entrepreneurs visit govt single window services and district industry centers searching for solutions. And first question on mind of these greenhorns is ‘what are hot new profitable projects suggested by govt? ‘ it should be damn easy for industry facilitation officer of the govt to answer the question. Why it's not so is beyond logic, imagination. Govt can surely ask its officers or appoint a consulting service to draw detailed ready to use project reports for facilitating quicker decision making by the prospective investors. 

Agriculture officers of various govts work with farmers advising them on new crops and yield but such service in industry & commerce is missing. I recommend that the guys like Amitabh kant tasked with Make- in-India mission must wake up and provide tailored solutions for MSMEs through each state. Those visiting industry & commerce departments in any state must be followed up with and provided with several project feasibility Studies to spur industrialization mission. 

Secondly the central govt may engage one of India’s IT giant TCS preferably to create a competitor of Alibaba of China with thousands of downstream startups. These two are obvious suggestions besides many others could be researched and applied. Question is will the govt move beyond lofty speeches and window dressing to focus on the gargantuan challenge of creating new industries to provide jobs for huge unemployed Indians? Let's hope Indian politicians shift focus away from elections and get down to saving India.

GST roll out could not have been better

How could ‘56 inch chest’ scholars of Bharat Mata  forgive India’s Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanium for admitting, on NDTV in December 11, 2015 interview, that his team haven’t undertaken any research to study the impact of GST –VAT act implementation on India’s GDP? Well Arvind is widely accepted as genuine economist, like Manmohan Singh, who knows his subject better than most of Bharat Mata Sevaks and would not like a genuine scholar desist from speaking the truth. Chanting GST mantras is the new fad in the media and political circles rather than among business management circles and academia. The truth is that GST Bill may not add to the GDP growth rate in the short run at all and Modi Sarkar may not benefit from its roll out even in 2019 elections. 

Yes.Current GST bill hanging fire in the parliament is not something significantly new than the current VAT system of tax administration prevalent in India. It is merely an improvement on the present structure of tax administration in India that would be followed by several other reforms in future. The GST-VAT proposed Bill have some concrete proposals, like the Constitution of India which have been amended a hundred times already and still called a Great piece of original scholarship crafted by a team of highly revered scholars under the stewardship of Ambedkar, and many not so well defined proposals that would need to be resolved expediently to facilitate the ease of doing business in India for spurring the economic growth. Let’s examine few mythologies thrown up by political pundits extolling the virtues of the GST Bill.

First things first, there is no Ram-baan cure for India’s labyrinthine tax administration system and therefore the GST bill is no panacea. Stop and think a while you would notice that India already has VAT in place and it clocked rather mystifying GDP growth under the stewardship of a scholar PM Manmohan Singh.  Therefore India need to elect, & select, more leaders like Manmohan Singh, competent & skilled, rather than making new laws that get subverted by incompetent and corrupt Indians. Few Great leaders and entrepreneurs at the helm hold more promise of progress and fast economic growth as compared to new great laws and statues. Tighten your seat belts and wait to experience new unexpected shocks coming in the way of economic growth in India in the period post the promulgation of the GST bill. Ease of doing business in not solely predicated on the complexity of the tax administration regime.

(an old piece, left unposted)

Five Secrets of a Top Grade faculty

Higher education in India has experienced mushroom growth in past two decades. It has entered the consolidation phase already. Although most of the expansion has come from privately run institutes but considerable growth has taken place in public sector also. Few corporate have also entered education domain but largely for the CSR reasons than motivated by the mission to create a world class institutions. You could judge the priority & importance the governments in India lay on the education sector by the very fact that the MHRD don’t have put up 2017 data on its website as on May 24, 2017. The website mentions “As of 2014, there are 677 universities, 37,204 colleges and 11443 stand-alone institutions in India”.

It’s universally accepted that the quality of faculty is the most critical factor for imparting top grade education. Curriculum, Infrastructure, network and technology comes after the basic need good quality faculty. Those who have the opportunity to study from high quality faculty possess expert level skills to contribute to the profession they undertake. Anyone can be a great faculty if she/he could acquire the expertise in the following 5 factors and demonstrate it frequently.

Subject Grasp: Everyone thinks her/his grasp over the subject/s is absolutely fine till s/he put it to test. Therefore it’s recommended that the faculty must test own domain knowledge at least once every three years by solving the examination paper given to the students. The institute and the government could also make it mandatory for teachers to take a test periodically.

Domain Knowledge: Education is multidisciplinary and each subject shares concepts, tools and principles with wide variety of other subjects. Therefore it’s imperative that the faculty must be encouraged to develop expertise in a gamut of subjects required for effective teaching. Many subjects particularly from science and professional arena can’t be understood properly if a faculty lacks the field experience. A doctor without practice in a hospital would make a lousy faculty of medicine. Similarly engineering and management also put same demands on the faculty.

Communication skill: Most often it’s recommended that a faculty must have excellent communications skills. Well it’s desired that the faculty must be able to speak fluently the language understandable by the students but more critical communication skill for a faculty are reading and writing than the speech. World class faculty should be able to read and understand complex papers, journals and also write in concise clear manner.

Empathy: Good faculty must empathies with students and be able to behave like the students in the classroom.  Knowledge can be transferred easily if the learner trusts the teacher. Moreover a faculty good or bad leave an impression on the audience and also influence the personality of students. Faculty could strive to understand the psyche and group behavior of the class one intends to handle. The faculty needs to win confidence of students for positive learning outcomes.

Grasp of Edutech: No faculty can claim to plough the lone furrow in internet dominated world of education. Therefore a great teacher must work hard continuously to catch up with the technical expertise of the students. I would recommend that every faculty must be a step ahead of the students on handling edutech so as to inspire the students.