Indian News

T.V news Channels in India have reached the lowest depth in following the code of conduct in telecasting News. Their main objective is just to increase their TRP. They are not concerned with viewers interest. One such channel is just spreading rumours 24x7 and creating fears in the minds of viewers. This is most irresponsible behaviour towards the society. The authenticity of news has become a big question mark. Most of the News are centred around Cricket, Bollywood, Murder, Rape, Scandal, Fashion shows etc. Fortune tellers have mushroomed all over. They can be seen in almost all channels during morning time telling what is in store for us. This type of program encourages superstition among people. Our print media is no better than electronic media. Take out any newspaper. There is hardly any good news. It looks like nothing good is happening in this country. As regards foreign news, it is centred around US and Pakistan only. There is hardly any coverage. At times, I have to switch over to BBC, CNN to know what is happening around the world. The quality of our news has degenerated to such an extent that it is not worth watching news channels or reading newspaper anymore. Early morning at 7.00am, whenever I see the headline on the front page of Times of India, it invariably carries a bad news. By the time I finish reading paper, my mind is filled with all sorts of negativity. A new trend is emerging now a days. Most of news channels have started giving comedy shows in between news which I find highly offensive,filthy,derogatory. Is this the price we Indians have to pay for giving freedom to press and electronic media. Is there anything called self censorship.

Economic Slowdown

We are passing through one of the worst economic downturn of this century. The recession started in U.S about a year back and is slowly engulfing all other countries of the world including India. Probably, 2009 will witness the maximum impact of this slowdown in our life. It is a passing phase and one has to keep cool to withstand the hardships and difficulties that will come in our way. Thousands of employees are likely to lose jobs in this year. Those employess who have taken housing loans, car loans etc will be worst hit. What is most important is that in adverse circumstances like this, one should not lose hope and faith. There are instances of people committing suicides out of frustration and dispair. I have read in newspaper today that somebody in Los Angeles,US killed himself and his whole family including wife, 5 kids just because he lost his job. This is a very disturbing trend . Firstly, let me tell you that committing suicide is as heinous a crime as murdering somebody else. We have no right to take our own life leave aside the lives of others. Committing suicide is an act of cowardice and must be condemned. One should have the courage and conviction to be able to face the worst crisis and come out winners. I had once thought of committing suicide when I was 21 years old. When I look back, I think of myself as a stupid guy to have even thought of this for whatever reasons. Everything is not lost when there is a major setback in life.There is still hope. The reason we take extreme step is that we lose faith in our own ability, we lose faith in God. My own experience is that whenever I have been in vulnerable position, I prayed to Him with all my heart and soul and I have seen miracles happening. My advice to you is, have patience and don't lose hope come what may.

Branding

In today’s highly competitive market, a good Brand is what differentiates a product from others in the eyes of customers. Customer has more confidence in the quality of a Branded item than an unbranded one. For instance, most customers will look for Colgate brand of toothpaste when they go to shopping mall. It does not mean that Colgate is the best quality of toothpaste available in the market. There are other brands which are as good as Colgate but customers do not perceive the value in other Brands. Brand is created through marketing campaign, packaging, advertisements etc. Branding is done in job market also. A potential candidate from a good Business School carries a Brand just like a commodity. He is not necessarily a better candidate than a candidate from other institutions but companies in India perceive him to be better suited than others. They don’t mind giving him a fat salary and perks. These companies compete with each other in giving highest salary ever and even take pride in publicizing it in newapapers and electronic media. The suitability of the candidate is not looked at at all. This is a classic case of Branding. My experience is that most of MBA’s from premier B-Schools like IIMs are arrogant, highly ambitious, Self centered, Egoistic. They don’t stick to the company for more than 6 months with the result they hardly contribute anything to the growth of the company . They are only interested in more and more salary and position and keep on hopping from one company to another carrying the tag of MBA from IIM. They are a pampered lot. They may have high level of IQ but they fail miserably in other areas. Bill Gate of Microsoft is a school dropout but he is heading the most prestigious organization in the world. You don’t need to be an MBA to be a visionary and leader. There are several live examples that can be given to corroborate this statement. If you study the salary structure of corporate companies, you will find that 20% employees get 80% of total salary disbursed in the company. This is highly biased and skewed in favour of employees at middle level and top level management who are invariably MBAs.The difference in fixed salary between an ordinary employee and the CEO is more than 100 times which is unrealistic . Weightage should be given to the contribution of the employee towards the long term and short term objective of the company rather than the qualification. If the KRA of each employee is defined in such a way that it is aligned with corporate goals, it will be possible to measure the contribution of each employee towards the corporate objective. Total package given to employees should include fixed salary and performance based incentive in the ratio of 30:70. I am happy to note that infosys is following this practice wherein everybody from juniormost employee to CEO are getting same fixed salary as has been disclosed by Narayan Murthy in one of the T.V. interviews. Every employee of Infosys is given ESOPs which creates the sense of ownership among employees and increases loyalty towards the company. We should emulate the Japanese companies wherein all Japanese with MBAs from Harward university are made to slog for 2 years under the juniormost employee of the company so that they become down to earth and understand the ground reality of Local Japanese condition rather than copying blindly Western concepts and Theories.

Satyam Scandal

Ever since Ramalinga Raju disclosed irregularities in financial statements of Satyam Computers, the share price of I.T. giant has plummeted to lowest ever Rs 26 in BSE. Raju has been arrested on charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery and criminal Breach of Trust and is now remanded to Judicial Custody till January 23. Investigating agencies have reported that Raju has siphoned off thousands of crores of rupees from Satyam’s Accounts to two of his own companies Maytas Infrastructure and Maytas Properties both founded and Promoted by Raju Family. It seems Raju is not alone in this fraud. All those including Satyam’s Board of Directors, Auditors, Chartered Accountants, Bankers,Ministers who are beneficiary in the fraud of this magnitude are likely to be involved. What is most worrying is that Satyam’s profit has been inflated consistently since last couple of years and it has not been detected by Auditing firm PWC. Raju and his family and all others who are involved in this crime are more deadly than hard core terrorists. Terrorists can kill few people but people like Raju destroy lives of several thousand employees and shareholders who die a slow painful death. Both India and Pakistan are epicenter of terrorism. While Pakistan is harbouring terrorists who kill people with guns, India is harbouring terrorists who kill people with economic offence. An independent, impartial enquiry should be conducted in Satyam's case and those found guilty should be given most severe punishment which will act as deterrent to those who are going to commit economic offence in future. Satyam's is not an isolated case but a tip of the iceberg. Many more scandals are waiting to erupt from underneath the vibrant and growing Indian economy. Just watch out.

Slumdog Millionaire

Amitabh Bachhan wrote in his Blog that Films like "Slumdog Millionaire" is bagging awards in western world because this film is depicting poverty in India. He did not spare even Satyajit Ray who was the master film maker of realistic meaningful cinema saying that Ray's popularity was on account of the fact that he showed India's poverty and hunger in his films. I don't agree with his view point. These types of allegations are often made by those who are somehow connected to commercial Hindi cinemas. I have seen most of films made by Mr Ray. His films like Charulata, Jalsaghar, Aranyer Din Ratri,Pratidwandi, Kapurush Mahapurush etc have different storylines and yet masterpieces. Former French President came to India personally and handed over the Prize to Ray for his film "Jalsaghar" which was adjudged as the best foreign Film in cannes film festival in France. Mind you, Ray used to make films with shoe string budget yet he produced classics. Ray has been given lifetime achievement oscar award for his contribution towards Indian Cinema. According to me only good films get accolades and awards at international level. Bollywood should improve standards of it's films rather than blaming western world for not appreciating films made by it. In terms of producing maximum number of films, Bollywood is rated as number one in the world but in terms of quality cinema, it lags far behind others. Bollywood films have improved technically over the last couple of years, but technical excellence is not enough to make a film outstanding, other departments of film making like script writing, Dialogues, Background Music, storyline, Screenplay,editing,Photography,Acting etc need to be synchronised and interwoven through good direction . My assessment of Bollywood films is only one out of 100 films released can be rated as really good. Neither Commercial success of the film at the box office nor any of the Filmfare awards in our country can qualify a film to be a good film. Taare Jamin Par of Aamir Khan was not even considered for nominations of oscar Awards leave aside winning it, although this film is far far superior to average Hindi films. Hindi filmgoers should see quality cinema to be able to differentiate between outstanding films and average and below average Hindi films churned out by Bollywood.

Is it really worth

In this journey of life, death is the ultimate destination. The moment we are born, we start dying. There is no escape route. Death is certain. But we are scared of death. We don’t want to talk about it. We think we will continue to live for ever. We are busy throughout our life in accumulating wealth. More wealth we acquire, more we are concerned of losing it. A beggar is not scared of death, because he has nothing to lose but a wealthy person is scared of death, because he is scared of losing his possessions. It is a myth that wealth gives security. On the contrary, wealth gives anxiety, insecurity and fear. A rich person’s life is in danger. He is exposed to getting threatening calls from underworld dons for extortion of money. His son or daughter may be kidnapped for a ransom. If he has earned money through tax evasion or other unfair means, he is all the time scared of I.T. raids and prosecution leading to Jail. In trying to acquire wealth, a person does not take adequate care of his health with the result he may develop several diseases. His relationship with his spouse, children may suffer on account of lack of time given. During his last days, when Dhirubhai Ambani, who amassed wealth to the tune of thousands of crores of rupees was asked if he has any regrets in life, he replied, “Yes I regret I could not give enough time to my wife”. Incidently, he died at a very young age. He was suffering from high Blood pressure and coronary heart disease. One has to pay the price for accumulating wealth. Is it really worth ?. Money is important to the extent that it helps us lead a comfortable life beyond which it can only be used to satisfy our ego. We should not get trapped into this rat race. We should lead a balanced life. We have certain responsibility towards wife, children apart from duties in workplace. We have some responsibility towards the society also. We have to keep aside sometime for regular exercise and other physical activities so as to keep ourselves fit and healthy.

My dear daughter

This one is for you, my dear child. Yesterday, while I was chatting with you, you expressed your desire that I write something about you, my expectations from you as a father and whether you have been able to live up to my expectations. It is a very touchy subject for me but let me try.

I still recollect very clearly, as a child, you were very lively, full of energy. You must be around 10 years of age or so when you participated in a solo dance competition organised by our housing society in Krishna apartment and you won first prize in the competition. I was amazed to see the enthusiasm and excitement with which you performed on stage. Everybody in the building who saw your dance performance appreciated it very much. It was a big surprise for me as I never knew you had so much hidden talent. I wished I could nurture this talent in you further. There is no doubt that you are a good leader. This has been amply demonstrated by you in your childhood. I have keenly observed that you preferred to play with boys instead of girls and you invariably controlled all of them giving instructions on how to play. I find you very transparent and straightforward . If you are sad, you will tell us why you are sad, what is it that is bothering you. If you are happy, you will express your happiness openly. I consider you a very creative person although you were an average student in school. Human brain is composed of two parts. The left hemisphere which gives intelligence related to creativity and right hemisphere which gives intelligence related to logic, analytical skill etc. Your left hemisphere seems to be very strong. You can be a good Artist, Painter, writer, Leader etc. Your greatest quality is that you have great self confidence and determination. When you are determined to do something, you do it no matter what happens. You are very positive and do you know that when you are positive, you think positive, you talk positive and you get positive results.

When you are hurt, you cry. When you get angry, you exhibit your anger and cool down the next moment.. This is a very good quality since by doing so, you release negative thoughts from your body. If you nurture negative thoughts inside of you, you will become sick,depressed.

On the minus side, I think you lack concentration and focus. I hope you will improve on these areas.

As a father, I have always wanted you to be a good human being which I think you are. My second wish was to give you the best of education. How much I have succeeded in this so far is something which you can only tell me. I have no regrets in life. As my daughter, you have far exceeded my expectations. I thank God for blessing me with a lovely wife and two beautiful daughters.

Right to live with Dignity

Average lifespan of a person is 70-75 years. There are people who stay alive till the age of 90 or more. The fact is that we cannot arrest the natural process of ageing . With the advancement of age, body’s limbs start weakening slowly. Bones and muscles become weak. Hairline recedes. Wrinkles appear on face, Reflex action slows down . We cannot resist this change.. Some people refuse to accept that they are getting old. They try to look young desperately. They will dye their hair regularly, undergo cosmetic surgery at frequent intervals to remove wrinkles from face. No matter, how hard they try to hide their age, the fact remains that they cannot remain young foreever. It is better to accept the transition from youth to old age gracefully. Nobody is immuned from this natural ageing process. More than the physical appearance, old age brings about transformation in lifestyle of a person. He no longer enjoys the same status and power that he used to while he was young and at the peak of his career. While young, he is too busy with his business or his job to spare any time for his children, when he retires, he has all the time in the world but his children are grown up by then and they are busy in their profession with the result they don’t have the time to spare with him. He becomes lonely in his own house. If he does not have enough of savings, he will become financially dependent upon his children. With the advancement of age, he can also be afflicted with health related issues which will increase his medical expenses manifold. Unfortunately, unlike countries such as US,UK etc wherein state undertakes responsibility to provide financial assistance to elderly people, Indian government does not provide any social security to old and helpless people. Under the circumstances, they become extremely vulnerable to exploitation by the society. It has been estimated that 10% of Indian population fall in the age bracket of 61 years and above. That means, assuming current population of the country as 10 billion, there are 1 billion people who are estimated to be old. With globalization, the urban Indian population is fast embracing western culture and values with the result, joint family system has disappeared and is replaced by nuclear family resulting in separation of families and weakening of family ties. The influence of western culture has also eroded traditional Indian values and culture with the result old people no longer enjoy the same respect and care in the society as before. They have become strangers in their own homes. It is futile to expect Indian government to do anything worthwhile for them considering the type of politicians and beaurocrats who are ruling Indian states. Non Government organizations (NGO) working for the cause of elders are working in isolation and therefore not very effective. They should work together with other organizations or groups like Mohalla committee , sensitize the society and community about the issues of elders like loneliness, security and medical care. All NGOs should come forward and develop suitable strategy jointly to address larger issues of old people in our country. Government officials should also be made to participate in this project. First and foremost, state level survey should be undertaken to estimate the population of old people, and to understand their day to day problems so as to know what kind of rehabilitation work can be planned. It may vary from state to state, district to district. The survey will give an estimate of funding required for rehabilitation work such as separate colony for old people at subsidized rates with appropriate security arrangements,medical facilities including hospitalization and regular medical checkups, canteen facilities, domestic help for groceries etc. A trust should be formed to manage the affairs of such colonies. Corporate companies should be approached for funding of such projects. Deduction on income tax should be allowed to corporates on such donations to encourage participation.

A separate tribunal should be formed to look into complaints of neglect, physical injury,mental cruelty or other matters requiring redressal without delay for faster decisions and actions. Suitable amendments should be made in the legislation to protect the rights of old people. For example, if a senior citizen wishes to transfer the property in the name of his son or daughter by way of gift, he can do so provided the transferee gives to the transferor an undertaking that the transferee will provide basic amenities and maintenance on a monthly basis and if the transferee fails to do so, then the transfer of property will be deemed to be made by fraud, coercion or under undue influence and will be declared void at the option of transferor.

Medical expenses which is very high in India take a heavy toll on savings in old age. Most of insurance companies in India do not want to give health insurance to people over 60 years and in some cases where the scheme is available, the insurance premium is very high. Most of retired people do not have any source of income and they cannot afford to pay such high premium. The health insurance scheme is highly biased in favour of insurance companies. Govt of India has recently announced a tax saving scheme wherein an individual is liable to get Tax deduction under section ...on the premium amount paid on health insurance scheme taken by him for his aged parents. This is a good scheme and govt deserves to get congratulations for this scheme.

In view of the complete absence of social security system in our country, young generation must understand that a day will come when they will step into shoes of their parents and they will also have to face the same difficulties as their parents are facing today. If they don't show any love and respect towards their parents, their children will also not pay any respects to them when they grow old. They must show compassion, respect and love towards their parents. They should start financial planning right at the start of their career so that by the time they retire, they have enough of savings so as to lead comfortable life for the rest of their life.