Sparsh

In periods of revolutionary upheaval, Islamist hardliners often begin by cooperating with moderate or libertarian-leaning groups. Once stability weakens and institutions erode, these alliances are systematically abandoned, allowing hardliners to consolidate power for themselves. Chaos provides the opening; moral certainty provides the weapon. After orthodox and power-driven actors seize control of a movement, many moderate Muslims - often personally tolerant and uneasy with extremist actions - find themselves unable to resist. Their attachment to faith, combined with intense social pressure, discourages open opposition. Those who do resist face physical assault, exile, imprisonment, or social boycott, frequently justified through accusations of blasphemy or apostasy. As a result, individual tolerance within society does little to prevent the emergence of totalitarian control by hardliners. A key ideological assumption underlying such movements is the belief that moral behavior can be l...

I planned to Tawang for my dreams to see Buddhist monasteries . The three musketeers (Gautam, Mriganka & Himanshu) were the travelers. We had finalized our tour itinerary for Arunachal after reading all tour reports on travel sites. We started from Bhubaneswar and reached Guwahati via Kolkata. Route to Tezpur from Guwahati was unexpectedly a plain grassland and took nearly 5 hours with state bus service. We got our permits done at Tezpur office only just before closing of the office. It seems sad to take Inner Line Permit to visit in our own country. But when we have draconian acts like AFSPA in Northeastern India, this seems to be less of our all worries. This part of India is seeing a grave human rights violation and things will go messy in future due to our state actions today. We took a 6 days tour package from Tezpur ASTC agent Miraz. The route from Tezpur to Tawang have patches of really bad road. Bhalukpong was the start of Arunachal Pradesh. There is a proposal of train l...

"Products are made in the factory, but brands are created in the mind." - Walter Landor The most critical issue in B schools today is that of quality. It is because of aspirations for “quality” education variously perceived by different social classes where MBA degree is often equated with “good education” by most parents as a social status symbol. The exponential growth of b-schools happened during 1995-2011 and resulted in the increased supply of MBAs or PGDMs, far in excess of actual industry demand. As a MBA student, you end up learning several theoretical concepts through case studies, projects and field assignments. Beyond this grades will be left behind and work experience starts to matter more and more. Vijay Govindrajan, professor at Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, says even in the US a majority of CEOs have MBA degrees. "There are three main rationales for getting an MBA: intellectual capital (knowledge), social capital (network), and legitimacy (bra...

Never forget where you came from that is what I learn all these years. It may not define you but gives a reference point to start. All of us must take an emotional journey to discover the roots, the cultural identity and constantly looking our own future course of action. I try much to write frankly, clearly and not with bitter heart. I am rooted in my local culture but I am not closed. I am aiming to be liberal while trying not be indifferent and disrespectful of the conservative surroundings. I'm not exactly as I appear as a stereotype. There is a warm loveable person inside. Beneath my cold exterior, once you break the ice, you can find a warm heart waiting for the embracement for new ideas. Cultural entities and characteristics do require microfoundations. My grandfather was most liberal and chilled out person in my whole family. I learnt love of Nature, Urdu Couplets and Hindi Literature from my father. The zeal to read newspaper, fiction and nonfiction literature is a trai...

I live, I go daily through tides of emotions, I express, I learn, I figure out where I went wrong. That's what living is for me. A realm of emotional stampede to the moments of peaceful bliss. The world swings between two extreme so is the personal life of the author. Life was scarred by emotional volatility. I am at the moment, is living in the zone. I need to earn respect and freedom more than money. Respect can't be bought, it has to be earned. So, what the heck that means ? Sometimes people deserve their work rewarded through likability not monetary compensation. Going through the season of emotional stampedes has always revealed a trait inside me something dark. I don't know what is in the air of college and office that I slowly starts to enjoy proximity to the power. I had unknowingly regraded to become more diplomatic rather than being candid and blunt.Lightning doesn't strike at same place twice but bad habits can make you repay again and again. Still, I ha...

"To everything there is a season... A time to be born, and a time to die." - Ecclesiastes "A slave begins by demanding justice and ends by wanting to wear a crown." - Albert Camus "The Biggest changes in a woman's nature are brought by love; in man, by ambition." ― Rabindranath Tagore "Bitterly disappointed teachers can either be very effective or very dangerous." - Sean Connery in Finding Forrester "Creativity is a space for solitary longing, the desire to be elsewhere in space and time, to be in a new ideal world where life is as it should be." - Chenjerai Hove "The Fundamental Principle that governs - or ought to govern -human affairs if we wish to avoid misunderstandings, conflicts, or pointless utopias, is negotiation." - Umberto Eco "The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos."...

1- Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Social CRM and the Social Enterprise - The reality of Social CRM is that many enterprises aren’t finding what they need with existing vendors. So they are quietly building their own CRM systems. It’s all about using technology to support and streamline relationships not control them. 2- Prof. Cornel West on the moral obligations of living in a democratic society . 3- Information Bureau For Microfinance by C.P.Mohan and Simanchal Sahu 4- Is Micro Finance leading to a Macro Mess - The AP Ordinance by Aloysius P. Fernandez 5- Rockstar of Financial Inclusion: Business Correspondent Model of India . 6- Death by Indifference : AIDS and Heroin Addiction in Russia 7- What Social Sector Needs to Learn from the Private Sector 8- Vakrangee Finserve becomes Common Banking Correspondent for Gujarat - The bid is the outcome of a "suggestion" from the Department of Financial Services which basically told public sector banks to divide I...

1- In economics, the Dutch disease is a concept that explains the apparent relationship between the increase in exploitation of natural resources and a decline in the manufacturing sector. There is an over-dependence on exports of primary products pushes up the value of its currency, leading to a downward spiral in its manufacturing productivity and competitiveness. Same analogy in reverse notion can be put in the case of placement of rural managers. Unless the economy is worse, most of the rural managers are placed in either Banks or Sales job. With the expansion of the batch size and recession in Indian economy forced them to diversify their target organizations. Thus it has resulted in the placement of rural managers in diversified sector. 2- There is no placement week but a placement season. 3- Attendance falls drastically in this trimester. There are just different reasons before and after getting placed. 4- As per Prof Banikant : Ans. Nowadays the students are brighter but th...

1- Why we need better economics. 2- A risky strategy, born of panic : Building ‘capitalism with Indian characteristics’ means decisions cannot ignore concerns of voters and communities. 3- Fear of a Black President :As a candidate, Barack Obama said we needed to reckon with race and with America’s original sin, slavery. But as our first black president, he has avoided mention of race almost entirely. In having to be “twice as good” and “half as black,” Obama reveals the false promise and double standard of integration. 4- Psychology of Social Networking 5- Peace, Progress, Human Rights - Nobel Lecture, December 11, 1975 by Andrei Sakharov. 6- Democracies in the World 7- Behind Robert Vadra’s fortune, a maze of questions - Property empire was built on soft loans handed out in unusual circumstances, documents show. 8- ' India Is Racist, And Happy About It ': A Black American's first-hand experience of footpath India: no one even wants to change. 9- The po...

I didn't come down to XIMB to oversleep. I've worked below what I am capable of. Here in 5 points what I learnt in last 3 months: 1- Generally, the clashes within lobbies of students are less real than the ones between the outsiders and system who find themselves in places where they are not a good fit. There are few people in our batch whose distinct and peculiar view make them to stand out from the rural manager's community. 2- College should be able to assist a student because they had structures in place for people seeking entrepreneurship. We lack an ecosystem to discuss social barriers for an entrepreneurial activity. Climbing corporate ladder is respectable but exploring new venture seemed as "worst fears" come true where person is tagged as "confused". 3- In life, as one achieves success, the ability to take risks falls in almost the same proportion. Hence, it is better to throw away some securities in the search of unknown territories. I am ...