Wit Wisdom and Whoop

It was about 2 years ago that a small frail old man Anna Hazare shook the nation with his decision to oppose the rampant corruption in India. His wagging finger galvanised an entire country especially the young who rose as one to support him. That this same  finger shook the establishment is also fact. Anna Hazare to be honest was an unknown entity except to those of us who have had a long relationship with Indian politics and history. But yet the youngsters many of them teenagers saw in him a messiah and a Gandhi reborn.  His propulsion to the national stage and capturing of the young crowd would not have been possible but for the herculean efforts of the India Against Corruption movement which leveraged the internet, social media, mobile communication to telling effect. This movement was supported and nurtured by many but 3 names stood out like the Ashoka pillar. Arvind Kejriwal, Kiran Bedi and Prashant Bhushan. The reputation and capability of these 3 very worthies was hig...

A alumni group raised a question on the subject that has been attracting much attention in India and USA - namely the maid and diplomat imbroglio. Rather than respond in detail on the group post I chose to pen down my thoughts here. Firstly we have this tendency to confuse issues which is convenient for each of us to muddy the waters. Lets look at the various issues involved. The officer is alleged to have done certain wrongs that would attract attention from American law. How serious and enormous the crime is, is debatable and there are no right answers.  OK lets say a crime in American law and from USA social attitudes has been done but there is a procedure to be followed since the person involved was a diplomat. Global conventions regarding handling diplomats is clear on this. The crime however serious was not something that could not have been handled quietly and with no smoke. Would USA have reacted similarly to other Westerns or Chinese or Russian diplomats simila...

When you work in a number of sectors ranging from Dairy to Defence over a 28 year career divided between European and American companies in India I think one does learn enough to be able to help guide global  companies to navigate the Indian market successfully. So my attempt is to give the reader a birds eye view since just as a lifetime isn’t sufficient to understand India, a blog isn’t going to  give you ready to implement solutions. Preamble : The first thing anybody attempting to enter India or for that matter any new market must get a flavour of its history & culture to better understand  its  people who would be your customers. India has been conquered and  ruled for prolonged periods in its history by Europeans, Mughals & finally the British.  India is thus a melting pot where the diversity is stark and widespread that language, food, lifestyles differ considerably but yet is like a closely interwoven  colourful fabric.  So...

I had in my previous post spoken about some problems that were easily correctable but not done. Expanding upon the repeated crisis faced in the last few years I share further evidence of how we have self inflicted most problems. As I mentioned in my previous post, a problem is not a problem unless it is in your control to resolve. If there are heavy rains, you can do nothing to stop it, so it’s not a problem. But if you have flooding in your road every monsoon, it’s a problem since it is in your control to solve it. That there were issues pertaining to corruption was well known. That there were repeated statements that corruption was unacceptable is also well known. Now one aspect is how sincere is the govt about  fighting corruption and the other how demonstrative are they in showing that opinion.  It is eminently possible for a govt to continue to be corrupt but ensure that they are shown as fighting corruption and ensuring that corruption is better managed. This gov...

The Economic Times on 28th August 2013 ran a editorial where it asked a question on why we are where we are. This is my response to that editorial as invited by  ET. Part 2 is my further thoughts on the issue and will follow. Mistakes occur either due to insufficient information,  risk taking,  bad judgement or  due to extraneous reasons beyond our control. Except in the last case every government has the option of making midcourse corrections.  This is exactly where this government has failed miserably  due to arrogance and blind ego apart from lacking in statesmanship. Let us list some correctable goof ups. UPA was a coalition govt and it was crucial to have a single driver lead it no matter who the driver reported  to. Instead by having a dual power centre between Sonia and Manmohan disaster was guaranteed from day 1. Manmohan was a brilliant economist & bureaucrat but a cipher as a politician. A lamb living amidst lions for decades ...

I share below a note that a friend of mine forwarded to me. I can claim no information on who the author is nor on the veracity of the contents. My limited response is as follows. I have since sometime strongly believed that India is on the cusp of a repeat of the 1991 financial crisis but one that could be worse in magnitude due to a domino effect than on its own. I have on my TL predicted that this crisis can hit India over the next 3 to 7 years depending upon how our own economic policies, political changes, global economics play out. But given current state of affairs I would be surprised if we did not face such a crisis given the profligacy of our economics, paralysis of our administration, obstinacy of our politics and the inward looking attitudes emerging in western economies. Whatever the veracity of these claims in terms of numbers popular perception is that many of the percentages  and issues are infact correct. Remember perception is NOT fact but often does mirror fa...

Reading some news items and the reactions on social media especially by the Congress netas, their followers and  especially the tweeple I felt compelled to share these thoughts from a strategic perspective. If I were a  Congress  leader  what is my objective ? To win enough votes and get voted  back to power again. Like all political parties in India I do not have any conscience and will divide, kill,  blackmail, stoke hatred, announce freebies,  do development work, show progress, sell family silver, buy media, advertise etc  and do whatever it takes to win. After all in elections in India as they say everything is fair in love and war and elections are war. In my younger days 2 political teams campaigning when they met on the road clashed and fought  but have now  moved to TV stations and Social Media. There are already a set of supporters and die hard fans of Congress so I would be wasting my time appealing to them. That’s...