Sparsh

The term Marketing Myopia was coined by Theodore Levitt in his seminal 1960 Harvard Business Review article. It refers to the short-sightedness and inward-looking approach of companies focusing on their products rather than the needs and wants of their  customers. The case of American railroads is a classic example of marketing myopia, where companies focus narrowly on their products rather than the broader needs they serve. Railroads saw themselves in the railroad business instead of the transportation business, ignoring the rise of cars, trucks, and airplanes that better met customer needs for convenience and flexibility. As a result, they failed to adapt and lost market share.  This same short-sightedness affected Kodak, which clung to film even as digital photography emerged, and Blockbuster, which stuck to physical rentals while streaming services like Netflix redefined home entertainment. These examples highlight how companies that define themselves by their product rat...

I am turning 40 in the next few months. So much has been lost in the debris of time, and yet inscribed in the memories.  It is a travesty that we remember milestones yet forget the simpler times of childhood. I am suddenly experiencing a mixture of melancholy and nostalgia for the old DD serials, movies, and cartoons.  R ooted in memory, these shows have evoked in me the warmth of simpler times. I have renewed appreciation for the value of what was once overlooked or forgotten. For adults who fondly remember the golden age of Doordarshan (DD) in the 1990s, the program lineup was a delightful mix of intellect, comedy, and adventure.   I was  seeing the world through the eyes of a child alive to its sensations, yet protected from reality. I will mention a few DD programs forgotten or less remembered among people nowadays.    One such gem was Gucchhe , which, contrary to popular belief, wasn't an original Indian drama but rather the Hindi-dubbed vers...

India’s cricketing contrasts are stark: a powerhouse at home yet vulnerable in challenging conditions. The recent losses are a reminder that success requires not just talent but humility, preparation, and adaptability. India’s recent cricketing struggles have spotlighted long-standing issues, ranging from batting inconsistencies to questionable strategies. While the Indian cricket juggernaut has often been celebrated for its dominance, particularly on home soil, recent results have raised serious concerns about the team’s direction. 1-3 outcome in Australia is far from surprising; any astute cricket lover who closely followed the New Zealand series could have seen this coming. Tactical Failures Pat Cummins and the Australian team have been successful against India's lineup, it's a testament to their strategic planning and effective execution. One of the most debated aspects of India’s performance was their team selection. The Indian think tank's decision to field 5-6 bowle...

Fantastic performance of the series by the Black Caps. Abysmal India has hit rock bottom as attitudes and defensive techniques stand badly exposed. The recent series against New Zealand culminated in a dominant display by the Black Caps and raised genuine fears of a possible 5-0 whitewash in the upcoming tour of Australia.  The Indian management must make tough, possibly transformative decisions if the team is to regain consistency and success on the international stage.   The Indian cricket think tank appears to have adopted a narrow focus, concentrating heavily on the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) while overlooking the importance of the New Zealand tour.  Senior players like Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Ravichandran Ashwin, and Jasprit Bumrah chose not to participate in the Duleep Trophy, and Ravindra Jadeja opted out due to niggle. Even the pitches in the Duleep Trophy were customized for seam rather than spin, leaving Indian Test batters underprepared. Despite India...

This blog doesn't often dabble in technical cricket analysis, because my credentials in the field of technical cricket analysis are somewhat lacking. And I am writing this blog post in a series of posts 7 years after the  New face of Indian Cricket - 4 . The Indian cricket team is on the verge of playing the ODI World Cup, the Test series with England, and then the T20 World Cup, What lies ahead for India as their Test /ODI/T20 side enters a transitional phase? Indian team under Rohit and Dravid has been into a spiral loop of learning in every series and every game. Winning is a habit, as England discovered on their march to the summit, and confidence begets confidence along the way. Losing for the sake of learning, on the other hand, tends to become known simply as losing as the team gets too used to the feeling. Test Team: Retirement is a natural conclusion to a sportsman’s career, even if occasionally the inevitable is delayed.  Rohit, Virat, Che Pujara, and Ajinkya ...

Now is a good time to re-read Tim Snyder's observations and advice in On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century . Here are observations from On Tyranny that seem especially pertinent. 1. Do not obey in advance. Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then offer themselves without being asked. A citizen who adapts in this way is teaching power what it can do. 2. Defend institutions. It is institutions that help us to preserve decency. They need our help as well. Do not speak of “our institutions” unless you make them yours by acting on their behalf. Institutions do not protect themselves. They fall one after the other unless each is defended from the beginning. So choose an institution you care about—a court, a newspaper, a law, a labor union—and take its side. 3. Beware the one-party state. The parties that remade states and suppressed rivals were not omnip...

What is an Idea of India? Ask a liberal, this will be a democratic republic where secularism trumps, multiple cultures, and identities coexist in harmony and dignity and embodied in the Constitution. Ask a conservative Hindu, this will be the victory of Sanatan Dharma  and Akhanda Bharat . Indian State was founded on values of equality, redistribution, fairness, and social welfare in 1947. India inherited a liberal Constitution structured over the colonial institutional and legal structures that weren’t exactly suited for liberal democracy. Also, the constitution was imposed upon a society that was feudal in the customs and entrenched prejudices relating to caste, religion, and social hierarchies. The irreducible character of violence in Indian society is best depicted in the idea of the caste system and religious purity. The spiritual legitimization of something as discriminatory as caste is at the very heart of the structural violence that ails us as a society. There were legacie...

Every beautiful poem is an act of resistance. —Mahmoud Darwish Literature is about recording what is forgotten, but also about living and recreating the life that surrounds us. Continuing from the series of the Poetry of Protest - 1 , Poetry of Protest - 2 , and Poetry of Protest - 3 , we will read a compilation of the resistance poems. Why? We are living in a consumerism and post-truth era without a memory, which accepts, without much resistance, ideological interpretations of the history, as dictated by the regime and enforced by its media. The solidarity of the protest can only be built by a form of literature that is emotionally compelling, contributes to the combating of loneliness, and makes the reader less terrified of themselves and the political powers which surround them.  Here is the curated list of poems with spirit of the protest: First they came ..--- Martin Niemöller   Unadikum ( I Call on You )   --- Tawfiq Zayyad The Will of Life   ---   Ab...

I have been working as a social impact consultant from last 8 years and before that was a student of rural management. This parallel journey kept me occupied and took negative toll on 'Sparsh' blog. Due to nature of the work, I started reading blogs related to development studies, social sciences, economics, agriculture, public policy, rural management, and related field. Yet, I found lot of factual blog but very few personal blogs on topics above. So, I created a blog: Diary of Rural Manager!  where I have a space to write exclusively on social impact sector, sustainability and rural management. Maybe it was time to admit that I was the writer I was waiting for. It was cathartic to speak to the community and to feel that I was standing in dialogue with them fully as myself. In the process my ideas started to develop. I could finally articulate what I had only felt vaguely all along the journey. I had even written on the idea behind  incubation of Diary of Rural Journey i...

In the name of "They got what they deserve", a great deal of injustice gets explained away and perpetuated in each society! We self-deceive to make us feel better about ourselves and naturally think in ways that come to conclusions that favor us. Strength of the country is not just in its GDP but in the confidence of its citizens on the fairness and equality of justice there. I was guided by several articles on issues of Justice, Liberalism, Secular State, Decent Work and Economic Growth, Reduced Inequalities, Need of strong Institutions. I was inspired by persons like Christopher Hitchens, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Nadeem Parcha, Pratap Bhanu Mehta etc. Also, I interacted with a progressive, and liberal individual whose essays have impacted me in a positive manner. The person is Mr. Namit Arora whose blog was a insight into heart of a humanist. It was his great gesture to share a copy of The Lottery of Birth: On Inherited Social Inequalities with a young reader for a social net...