Sparsh

Life begins at the end of our comfort zone. Enjoy 2013. I will say goodbye to 2012 with an appeal of common honesty and decency. " Don't just read the easy stuff. You may be entertained by it, but you will never grow from it. " Jim Rohn had captured essence of reading long ago with this lucid statement. We choose for ourselves the sort of literature we want. Yet, this year was spent in going through easy books. Absence of books related to concept of business strategy and marketing may be counter of prevailing norms of reading list of an MBA student. I still want to read the forgotten matters of culture and society. Reading Economic Times has already made my vision one dimensional in nature. The reading list is getting skewed in favor of English language is not an healthy sign. Is the gradual exit of mother tongue from our reading materials a rational choice? It will be immense loss of mine command over both languages and misunderstood social acceptance that discourages...

To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries. ~Aldous Huxley. The reality of India depends on where you stand, what you seek and how you choose to live. I went to Kolkata for two days with Gaurish in Durga Puja festival. This travel tour was a way forward to learn about diverse cultures as I know very little about my own country. And, yes this was welcome break from avalanche of bullshit mountain of patriotism on the virtual word of facebook. This travel tour was a chance to enjoy a festive season with Bengali people. With arrival in Kolkata, I was caught in the race of hundred of people looking for exit at railway station. Watching the city for the first time was like reading through the pages of history with one's own eyes. The city was dipped in colors of Puja festival and I was trying to figure out the spirit of the Kolkata as few call this as city of joy. And yes, everything was either appearing either holy or historical. While traveling around ...

1)Watch the changes in the list of top billionaires, learn how they made their billions, and note how many billions they made. This information provides a quick bellwether for balance of growth, across income class and industries. A country that produces too many billionaires, relative to its size, is in all likelihood off-balance. 2) Strong companies and stock markets should - but should not necessarily - make for strong economies, so don't confuse the two. The clearest examples are countries dominated by oligopolies, like Mexico, SA and to some extent Philippines. 3) Watch for steady momentum behind economic and political reform, particularly in good times. Nations typically implement reforms when their backs are against the wall. 4) Check the size and growth of the second city, compared to the first city. In any big country the second largest city usually has a population that is to 1/3rd to 1/2 of the biggest city. 5) Watch the locals , they are always first to know; ...

All Thanks to Ruchir Sharma for his splendid book : Breakout Nations. 1) The old rule of forecasting was to make as many forecasts as possible and publicize the ones you got right. The new rule is to forecast so far into the future that no one will know that you got it wrong. 2) Goodhart's Law (Coined by former Bank of England, adviser Charles Goodhart) : Once an economic indicator get too popular, it loses its predictive value. 3) It is said that it takes money to make money, but for nations to grow rapidly it is much easier to be poor - the poorer, the better. 4) Typically it is difficult for any nation to expand the manufacturing share of its labor force much beyond 20 % , and China is already at around 23%. 5) "Low context", in contrast describes societies like United States and Germany in which people are individual oriented, care about privacy and more likely to stick to timelines and their word. Both India and Brazil are "high-context" societie...

An IRMA Prof. Arunathan always ask a very profound question on poor and rural managers : “Why we are here and why they are there? ” There must a greater emphasis on individuality and questioning the status quo in very academic program. Continuing from the 3rd part of the Development series in RM , I will move towards the 4th part of the learning in the field of Rural Management. Here in 10 points what I learnt in last 3 months: 1 - RM student could barely handle the stress when the pile of assignments came to them. They devolve from sensible students to the frenzy morons looking for their grades. 2 - The exposure to the American just do-it culture can produce entrepreneurs rather than a MBA degree. MBA is only as mandatory prestige tag for sure success in industry. 3 - Everything that we do, revolves around the singular concept of landing up with a great job. And the fact is no matter what we do, we will end up with a decent enough job in a corporate environment. 4 - Marketing is...

When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty. - Thomas Jefferson Continuing from the series of Poetry of Protest Part 1 and Part 2 , we are looking more in the power of protest. Protest is a sign of repression to overlook voice of love, reason and critical criticism. Looking for the identity, dignity, autonomy and culture in current scenario across globe, the inertia of the tradition can only be resisted by individuals of great integrity and confidence. Out of disobedience one starts being an individual. We live in a arbit society where pregnancies, marriages and divorces of D-type celebrities became the national news but there comes a threshold where the public's right to be informed on the matters like naxalism and corruption takes back seats.With the loss of confidence, the capacity of outrage goes. We are living in the ages where even speaking against Sachin Tandulkar, Shivaji Maharaja and Dr. Ambedkar is considered sin leave aside deemed demigods. The one sided mov...

Attention span refers to the amount of time we can focus on a task before we start to "zone out". Due to boom of the social media, the average attention span has dropped from 12 minutes to a staggeringly short 5 minutes. People’s attention spans are much shorter now as their interests have moved on to sports, technology and fashion. The attitude of our younger generation has changed so rapidly with the introduction of Twitter and Facebook. Even then social media can't be blamed entirely as knowledge accumulates to people who read Wikipedia on screen that to those who mush their brains with Twilight on paper. “According to UNESCO, the biggest single indicator of whether a child is going to thrive at school and in work is whether or not they read for pleasure.” Growing numbers of children are being turned off books by the end of primary school because of the influence of the internet and lack of reading in the home, according to research. I don't vouch for the Americ...

1- Smokers’ Corner: Real revolutions by Nadeem F. Paracha. 2- The Night Shastri Died And Other Stories by Kuldip Nayar. 3- Why Elites Fail by Christopher Hayes. 4- The real wealth of nations - The Economist 5- Children of the Taliban - PBS Frontline 6- The wedges between productivity and median compensation growth By Lawrence Mishel 7- 'A Perfect and Beautiful Machine': What Darwin's Theory of Evolution Reveals About Artificial Intelligence by Daniel C. Dennett. 8- Why so many communist philosophers? by Santiago Zabala 9- Destroying the commons by Noam Chomsky. 10 - Theories of Oppression and Another Dialogue of Cultures by Ashis Nandy Perspectives Jonathan Haidt: The moral roots of liberals and conservatives Psychologist Jonathan Haidt studies the five moral values that form the basis of our political choices, whether we're left, right or center. In this eye-opening talk, he pinpoints the moral values that liberals and conservatives tend...

I love world cinema. I have habit of checking IMDB votes of good films. I am a person who love movies, conversations about films, and people who love films. That's who I am, A cinephile. Part I Cinema provides us a cosmetic version of nationhood. We, Indians can great affinity to our cinema. We pay homage to movies through the use of dialogues, style, body language and even songs in daily life. So much of their impact on us that we can either hate or love our films but definitely can't ignore them. Ramadhir Singh is more subtle and strategic way in Gangs Of Wasseypur : "Every fucker's got his own movie playing inside his head. Every fucker is trying to become the hero of his imaginary film. As long as there are fucking movies in this country people will continue to be fooled." There is always so many feel-good and masala potboiler films in our mainstream Hindi cinema. They serve a very important function of delivering entertainment in our society. But on...

मधुर मनोहर अतीव सुन्दर, यह सर्वविद्या की राजधानी । यह तीन लोकों से न्यारी काशी । सुज्ञान धर्म और सत्यराशी ।। बसी है गंगा के रम्य तट पर, यह सर्वविद्या की राजधानी । मधुर मनोहर अतीव सुन्दर, यह सर्वविद्या की राजधानी ।। नये नहीं हैं यह ईंट पत्थर । है विश्वकर्मा का कार्य सुन्दर ।। रचे हैं विद्या के भव्य मन्दिर, यह सर्वस्रष्टि की राजधानी । मधुर मनोहर अतीव सुन्दर, यह सर्वविद्या की राजधानी ।। यहाँ की है यह पवित्र शिक्षा । कि सत्य पहले फिर आत्मरक्षा ।। बिके हरिश्चन्द्र थे यहीं पर, यह सत्यशिक्षा की राजधानी । मधुर मनोहर अतीव सुन्दर, यह सर्वविद्या की राजधानी ।। यह वेद ईश्वर की सत्यवानी । बने जिन्हें पढ के ब्रह्यज्ञानी ।। थे व्यास जी ने रचे यहीं पर, यह ब्रह्यविद्या की राजधानी । मधुर मनोहर अतीव सुन्दर, यह सर्वविद्या की राजधानी ।। यह मुक्तिपद को दिलाने वाले । सुधर्म पथ पर चलाने वाले ।। यहीं फले फूले बुद्ध शंकर, यह राजॠषियों की राजधानी । मधुर मनोहर अतीव सुन्दर, यह सर्वविद्या की राजधानी ।। सुरम्य धारायें वरुणा अस्सी । नहायें जिनमें कबीर तुलसी ।। भला हो कविता का क्यों न आकर, यह वाक...

What is unofficial tagline of Brand Rural Management Programme at XIMB : “We Try Harder” A simple question is asked by an aspirant, “Why does anybody ever want XIMB-RM as first choice in admission ?” Yes, we all know that “XIMB-RM is only No. 2.” Yet the reply is simple: “ We try harder in nurturing our budding rural manager because we have to make a point. It's always the second ranker who works harder and learns a lot more in the process.” The origination of the answer is not to create a cute, gimmick, but instead it was – and is -- a business philosophy that every XIMB-RM students holds true. Each and every student of rural management knows that he must work harder and learn extensively than their counterparts. XIMB - RM focus on frank and truthful statements about our ranks and education philosophy. This institution is a Sangam (confluence) where we seek to find balance between mainstream business and development of people on margins. As I write this, I'm enj...

1- Adam Savage: How simple ideas lead to scientific discoveries. 2- Larry Smith: Why you will fail to have a great career 3- Brené Brown: The power of vulnerability 4- Brené Brown: Listening to shame 5- Hans Rosling: Religions and babies 6- William Noel: Revealing the lost codex of Archimedes 7- Clay Shirky: Why SOPA is a bad idea 8- Bryan Stevenson: We need to talk about an injustice 9- Tony Robbins: Why we do what we do, and how we can do it better 10- Daniel Pink on the surprising science of motivation Quote of the Day : “As a teacher and a writer, I'm not interested in just producing books, and I'm not interested in just reproducing class after class of people who will get out, become successful, and take their obedient places in slots that society has prepared for them. What most of us must be involved in—whether we teach or write, make films, play music, act, whatever we do—has to not only make people feel good and inspired and at...

Vide Notification no. F.No.8-5/2008-TS.I (Vol.-IV) from Ministry of Human Resource Development, Govt. of India, the Institutes of Technology (Amendment) Act, 2012 (No.34 of 2012) has come into force on 29th day of June 2012 and consequently, the erstwhile Institute of Technology, BHU has become Indian Institute of Technology (Banaras Hindu University), Varanasi w.e.f. June 29, 2012. IT-BHU has always had the trait of becoming independent and autonomous. Now, that goal has been achieved. Speech given by Jawaharlal Nehru on 15th August 1947: ' Tryst with Destiny ' is coming back to my mind. In 2009, IT-BHU was slated for conversion into an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) by amending the Institutes of Technology Act 1961 through The Institutes of Technology (Amendment) Act, 2011, which was passed by the Lok Sabha on 24 March 2011 and by the Rajya Sabha on April 30, 2012. The institute is now officially known as IIT-BHU. To once visit Varanasi is a very desirable fate, and o...

1- Retuning Alha Udal : The lustrous versatility of film music, and change wrought by time. Gulzar knows our culture more than anybody in music industry. 2- Evaluating responses to India's macroeconomic crisis by Shubho Roy and Ajay Shah. 3- Not an April Fool : We are encouraged to over-share, for commercial reasons (just as we are encouraged to over-consume, but that's an issue for another time). 4- वक्‍त की छलनी में चेहरे गुम हो जाते हैं, गीत अमर रहता है ♦ जावेद अख्‍तर - पिछले दिनों जावेद अख्‍तर को राष्‍ट्रपति ने राज्‍यसभा की सदस्‍यता दी। 17 मई 2012 को जावेद साहब ने संसद में अपना पहला भाषण दिया। 5- Sheryl Sandberg’s Inspiring Speech At Harvard Business School . Sandberg urged the new graduates to think of their careers as a “jungle gym,” jumping around instead of following a preordained progression. She urged her listeners to take similar leaps, perhaps accepting a job that’s a step down from what one is currently doing if it offers the chance to learn something ...

1- Banning middlemen from oil trade could drive down price of crude by 40% : These middlemen add little value and lots of cost as they bid up the price of oil in pursuit of financial gain. They are "pure" speculators - investors who buy and sell oil futures but never take physical possession of actual barrels of oil. 2- Daron Acemoglu on Inequality - The US, the UK and many other countries have become far less equal over the past 30 years. The MIT economics professor says it's important we understand how and why this happened, and what it means for our societies. He also review Five Books. 3- The Emperor Uncrowned - A complete reportage on the rise of Narendra Modi. 4- The new think tank by Niranjan Rajadhyaksha:- Dry intellectual pursuits such as neuroscience and auction theory are solving problems on the ground. We met four people whose models prove how. 5- December 1984 By Sathyu Sarangi : Many of the battles begun 25 years ago, in the aftermath of catast...

‘Time, like a fistful of sand, slips through our fingers while we stand and wonder what to do with it.’ A habit is must for proper utilization of the time during our growing years. I had a nice habit of book and comics reading from the childhood days. I have already written a brief about reading history in a previous post ( Personal Reading History -1 ). In retrospection, it feels great that I have read so many books, comics, stories and poems. I want to read with the growing age the best of all world literature. It varies with the short stories of Anton Chekhov, Guy De Maupassant, Somerset Maugham, Tolstoy, Oscar Wilde and O Henry. UP, CBSE and ICSE board short stories and in English and Hindi from class 5th to 12th were fondly read by me. Smriti by Sriram Sharma , Gift of the Magi by O Henry, The Model Millionaire by Oscar Wilde, Idgaah by Premchand and A Letter to God by Gregorio Lopez y Fuentes (Translated by Donald A. Yates ) are still mine favorite stories. Books Read at ...

Continuing from the 2nd part of the Development series in RM , I will move towards the 3rd part of the learning in the field of Rural Management.  Here in 6 points what I learnt in last 3 months: 1- Integrity and Humility are more necessary to success than the knowledge. Only creating assets and giving knowledge is not enough but the spirit of service is far more essential for a rural manager. 2- For-profit firms, they argue, often face pressure to abandon social goals in favour of increasing profits. Non-profit firms and charities are needlessly restricted in their ability to raise capital when they need to grow. There should be a third way of developing the objectives of both firms. 3- There is a misplaced tendency to look at "progress" through the eyes of people in power or in powerful economic institutions. There lies a great assumption that if they do well, wealth/prosperity will trickle down into the lives of ordinary people. This approach is one of the many ...

1- Barefoot - The other side of life Harsh Mander -: Can anyone really live on Rs. 26 a day, the income of the officially poor in rural India? Two youngsters try it out. 2- Powerhouse on your plate! - Easily accessible and affordable, millets are making a comeback to Indian kitchens, says Shonali Muthalaly. 3- The everyday embrace of inequality :The institution of paid domestic labour produces cleanliness, meals and childcare, but it also produces and reproduces an unequal home and society. 4- Salman Rushdie & India's new theocracy :-India's secular state is in a state of slow-motion collapse. The contours of a new theocratic dystopia are already evident. 5- BCCI: Billionaires Control Cricket in India by P. SAINATH 6- 42 per cent of Indian children are underweight - Hunger and Malnutrition (HUNGaMA) report by the Naandi Foundation – were described by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as a “national shame” at a release function here on Tuesday. 7- The complex co...

1- Accessing Institutional Finance: A Demand Side Story for Rural India Under the Reserve Bank of India’s “financial inclusion” campaign, the provision of institutional finance has been progressing at differential rates across the country. However, when we pair administrative banking data on availability of bank branches in a state with the All India Debt and Investment Survey (2002-03) capturing both institutional and non-institutional borrowing by households, we find that states with the most access to institutional finance, or supply, are not necessarily the ones with the most demand for finance. Looking at household level data within each state we identify determinants of institutional borrowing, and some of the strongest predictors for accessing institutional finance. A number of empirical regularities emerge in terms of the importance of having assets like land for borrowing, which undermines the basic philosophy of financial inclusion. 2- Crop Insurance in India : Scope...

Later Addition (Jan 2020): Diary of Rural Manager !  on the jobs, career prospects, and life of a rural management graduate. I was an aspirant for the rural management program last year. I applied for both XIMB and IRMA. I tried to write down a possible list of the question that may be asked by the interview panelists. Please customize the questions as per your needs. 01- Describe yourself in 3 words? 02- Tell us about yourself and your family background. 03- What is success according to you? 04- What is an Urban area? 05- Why do you think you are suited for RM? 06- Why you pursued Engineering at graduation? 07- Why do you switch to the IT industry after a degree in mechanical engineering? 08- What is Development? What is development according to you? 09- Why IRMA/XIMB/TISS? 10- Would you like to ask any questions from us? Would you like to ask any questions from us? 11- Why Rural and What is Rural? Why did you think about rural? 12- Why prepare for rural managemen...