Debacle of Gyaneshwari Express: who is guilty?

Today when I sat down to write this blog after listening the news that already 104 dead bodies had been discovered amongst the 137 victims in the train accident of 2102 UP Lokmanya Tilak Gyaneswari Super Deluxe Express bound to Kurla from Howrah, few questions jumbled into my mind that every time why some innocent people are being killed, who are these brutal Maoists, why political parties are so eager to take an advantage out of this accident, why every now and then Maoist attacks help one political party specifically, why these so-called Maoists has targeted Indian Railway etc.….Unfortunately, questions are more in my mind than answers. This recent catastrophe has made so many families ruined, so many mothers have lost their children, so many wives have lost their husbands, several children has lost their parents, number of priceless lives have come to an end. And in the midst of this crisis situation the main two political parties are trying their best to emulate each other to reach the people before the civic poll which is on 30th May. I do not know whether it is so-called Maoists or anybody behind this blatant attack to play with human lives, but it is a “politically motivated” preplanned full proof operation. If we peep into this matter deeply then we will find few interesting ‘coincidences’ (if at all we are ready to believe as coincidences!!) which will back my words-“politically motivated”. Firstly, I find how CPI(M) started to take full advantage of this accident immediately; secondly, state government of West Bengal asked CID to investigate in this matter by apprehending that opposition will blame them for this massacre (though generally Railway ministry is supposed to take step for any investigation for any accident in Rail); thirdly, as all political big honchos of oppositions are forced to be busy in development of the recovery of the accident just 72 hours before the civic polls; fourthly, how Railway Minister, Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo, Ms Mamata Banerjee rushed to the accident place at night and announced hefty compensation plans for all the victims and their families…these four reasons forced me to think it as “politically motivated”. Coincidentally (!!), every time Maoists do something it directly or indirectly helps CPI(M). Still I remember, before Parliament Election, Maoists announced to boycott casting vote in Junglemahal and that helped CPI(M) to win in that place though they were defeated by opposition in almost all the places, attacking rail by Maoists in near past has been raised as a sign of Maoists protests (coincidentally again the TMC supremo is the rail minister), and again this attack happened 72 hrs ahead of civic polls which take away the time from opposition from their last round of announcements in their favor before the public cast their valuable votes. What a coincident!!! That is why I wrote “politically motivated”, because coincident cannot happen so regularly. In Bengali there is an age old adage “Rajai rajai yuddha kore, oolookhagrai pran dei” which means battles between kings take lives of innocents. War between aberrant Maoists, TMC and CPI(M) has taken lots of innocents’ lives in recent past. Being a responsible common citizen of India nay Bengal, I have just few questions to Maoists, TMC and CPI(M) why the hell do you play politics with common persons’ lives? If you are eager to show your muscle power, why don’t you show your muscle power to each other? Why do you all keep common persons’ lives at stake for your culpable politics? Were you unaware of the fact that none of your so-called enemies would be in that train? You knew!! You enemies do not travel by some common trains; and your motive was to vent out your political frustration by killing innocent common people!! Because you know you can not do any harm to big honchos of your so-called enemies, and as they roam with their high profile security it is much more cumbersome than to take the lives of common people. Before and during the time of election all the politicians with their folded hands look like slaves or beggars and they are happy to pose in this manner but once the election gets over their folded hands open up and become their biggest power to do all kinds of nasty things possible and we, the voters, start to fold our hands like slaves in front of them with the quest of our security and justice. Utter shame!! With every such accident happens the ruling government blames opposition for the accidents to create adverse situation and opposition blames government for their inability; if one wants to assess both these parties then he will find only one commonality in thousands of un-commonalities between them that is “political motive”. All are busy to take the maximum advantage out of a heart breaking dire situation. My take in this point is neither ruling party can cajole nor opposition can blame. No one can refuse their duties and responsibilities. Mr. Chief Minister, do not you think that being the ruler of this state you have some responsibility beyond blaming opposition? You have responsibility to take care of the security of your state people, do not forget that these are those people who voted for you to rule this state for long 33 years, you just cannot try to take political advantage before the civic poll, you should take a strong step to stop this type of sabotage. Ms Rail Minister, you cannot ask public only to take care of their lives, its under your ministry you should investigate the reason and take care of the lives of the public who travel by your train from one corner to another corner of the country and these are those public who had voted you to sit in that chair in Delhi, these are those people whom you are asking to vote for you in civic polls so that you can become chief minister of this state in next year 2011 assembly election; you should take security measure to take care of thousands of lives otherwise hefty compensation packages or dry consolation will not work; do not think every time blaming CPI(M) will give oxygen to your existence. Being a citizen, it is my humble request to all you politicians please, do not play politics with innocent lives, you are supposed to take care of our lives, as we take care of your vote bank in the time of election, yes I know this is the world’s hypothesis “give and take” and you are no exception and we do not expect also. As we give our valuable votes to you with the hope of development and security, so you do your duties. If you do your own duties you will see vote bank will eventually swell up without even giving pose by folded hands. Keep your shameless politics aside, ignore your nasty blame game, plunge into the rescue operation and investigation to find out real convicts behind this tragedy and give a robust verdict to those convicts so that before committing such brutality they think twice, then you need not think about your vote banks, you will see those are already filled with blessings of people.

HI, CEOs!!!

Do you want to chat with your CEO? Do you want to share your business idea with your CEO? Do you want to talk with your CEO regarding the vision that he has for the future? Wanna be a part of strategic group of your company? Yes!!! Then log on to your CEO’s blog or your company forum. The day is not too far when your CEO will chat with you everyday and will communicate virtually and will share his visions and plans with the company for future steps!! Few examples are excerpted from The Economic Times:
Piramal Healthcare has started a daily employee newspaper where it shares latest company and industry developments. Forums on Twitter and blogs run by Chairman Ajay Piramal have met with some success.
ICICI Prudential has formed an internal CEO blog which has become an instant hit among employees.
Shoppers Stop has set up an IT platform Spandan, which allows employees to freely interact with the top management. Recently, its CEO Govind Shrikhande had to field a tough question on industry attrition, which helped employees to gain confidence.
Spencer’s Retail, Maruti Suzuki and JSW Steel have used employee feedback to save more. Spencer’s used suggestions to implement a near 30% cut in operating expenses. JSW Steel managed to save around Rs 100 crores.
But why these companies have started interacting with its internal stakeholders? Even few years back we used to think that the CEOs and Chairmen of companies are species of different planets. Then why this change has been initiated in today’s modern business world? The reason is very simple, companies are moving from Lawler’s Proposition of old logic to new logic, and companies are seriously pondering on the point of contribution of all the employees, they are no more dependent only on the top management and technical employees; everybody is encouraged to add value to organization. They do not believe that bureaucracy is the most effective source of control but they have started to believe involvement is the most effective source of control. Companies have realized that involvement of all the employees will define company’s prosperity and overall growth. Companies are using their employees as the sources of all the ideas, because there is a new concept of “Idea bank” that has been started to evolve in the modern business world, there are few companies already practicing that their employees have to give a new business ideas in a regular interval and upon successful implementation of those ideas will eventually benefit the idea generator both in monetary and non-monetary forms. One of them is Google, where every fortnight employees are asked to give new ideas and their ideas are stored in “idea bank” and upon requirement ideas are withdrawn and executed. Now, employees will be mesmerized when they will directly interact with the CEO or Chairman. When today businesses are trying to downsize their workforces and taking lots of measures for cost cutting after this awful recession that world had seen in last 2 years and companies are still crawling to get out of this trauma, it is a great opportunity for the employees to prove their worth in the company directly to the CEO or Chairman. In this way, employees can save their jobs and also help companies to grow with colors. It is a good sign for the business world to become transparent and leverage its resources in positive direction to prosper in this competitive market. The biggest reason of rejoice is that Indian companies are taking a positive stand towards globalization of dot com and becoming tech savvy to keep in touch with their employees. Cheers Indian CEOs!!!!

Match Fixing,IPL & Gentle men Game,Cricket

I still remember the day when players like Md. Azharuddin, Ajay Jadeja, Hansie Cronje, Harsel Gibbs were caught for match fixing and then they were exposed publicly by media, which once made these cricketers God by their exaggeration, and we, the aam janta of India became perplexed by the down fall of these media proclaimed God, it was in 1999. From then much water has flown by the Ganges, many has come in Indian cricket and many has gone too, but the trust, that used to have on the cricketers, got a massive hit. Now, whenever, we see anything eerie in any cricket match, we start to doubt on the integrity of the cricketers. And I can’t blame anybody for doing so, because the game of match fixing is still on and lots of money flowing in illegal way is taking place in the game of cricket. The new saga of IPL has made us one more time aware of this thing. It is no doubt bigger than 1999, because it is a total package of politics, bollywood, money, glamour, sex, night parties, cheerleaders and cricket, one can think of why have I put cricket at the last of this package, it is simply because I found cricket is a very meager part of this prolific package, something bigger than cricket is prevailing. The very first day when IPL was conceptualized by the ex-czar of IPL, the blue eyed guy, the innovative marketer of Indian Cricket, ex-commissioner of IPL Mr. Lalit Modi, it was evident that this show would be one of the biggest successes of this century; and Modi made it a grand success story. The very first day of IPL, the day of opening ceremony, it was clear that IPL is not just a mere cricket tournament, but a tournament of both sensual & sensational package where money flows like water. It is the tournament of cricket which will manage its place in page 3 rather in the sports page of newspapers. The gossips, masala news started to proliferate as the tournament grew bigger. The latest scandal of IPL-3, started with the stupid twitting of the then IPL commissioner Mr. Lalit Modi and spreaded with our ex-external affair minister Mr. Sashi Tharoor’s external affair with the Kashmiri beautician, 40 years old, widow, Ms. Sunanda Pushkar and her ‘sweat equity’ in the newly auctioned team of Kochi, owned by Rendezvous Sports, which eventually has become mammoth scandal with the lots of money laundering, benami transactions and many more. The scandal has become such goliath that Rs.18, 000 crores IPL is now David in front of it. As I started with the incident of 1999, so I will concentrate now on that incident, what happened after they were caught? Md. Azharuddin got a life ban from his international and national cricket career. Md. Azharuddin, who was already an irregular player of Indian national team that time and on the verge of finishing his career, was not much affected by the verdict of BCCI. Ajay Jadeja got five years exile from cricket, Hansie Cronje, who died in a plane crash after few months, was also banned by South African cricket board and Harsel Gibbs was suspended for few years, unfortunately none of them were treated with the law of the lands, because their offences are not considered as criminal offences, since no one can punish a batsman for getting out intentionally earlier in an innings, no fielder can be punished by the law for dropping a catch, no bowler can be barred for giving too much runs in an over. The players are well known of this fact and so they take match fixing as granted. The irony in India is the person who was banned in cricket for his dishonesty; he sits in the parliament as the elected Member of Parliament. But if we drill down more to that incident, we would find out that these players were only few sacrificial lambs in this catastrophe of cricket, there were bigger brains that are still behind the curtain and waiting to be exposed. These sacrificial lambs were no doubt convicts and got some verdicts but their god fathers are still walking with their erect spine shamelessly in front of our eyes. The IPL spat is any way bigger issue than that of 1999 and obviously the god fathers are much bigger than that of 1999, here sacrificial lambs are Mr. Lalit Modi & Mr. Sashi Tharoor, but here is not the end the tail of this scandal, this is much bigger and deeper than the Pacific ocean. But again like before we will wait for the day when the bigger faces will be exposed publicly, and eventually the day will never come as we have seen earlier. CBI officials and politicians will come and will give some consolidate cajolery that they will not spare anybody. Again one more time it will be an ardent example of centralization of power and money which can make media, law & order futile and impotent with their ecstatic audacity and will create new bubble of hope where bribe becomes the way and forgery becomes the means, discrepancy keeps people mum, guile with spectators becomes gospels, still we, the flabbergasted audiences, keep attach our sentiment with cricket, worship cricketers like God, cry with their sorrows and laugh with their successes, forget that the results of these matches are fixed in somewhere exotic locations abroad between few jokers of the game!!!Still we believe cricket is a gentle men game!!!Alas!!!

CKP,The Legend of Management passed away

CKP, Coimbatore Krishnarao Prahalad, the author of the “The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid”, the most influential Indian management guru, the luminous intellect, is no more to give his intellectual thought to the top of the corporate pyramid. The strategic guru passed away in California after battling with lung disease. His demise has created a huge vacuum in the world of management & business. His contribution towards business-strategic intent, bottom of the pyramid and core competence has become the Bible to any business executive. Being a management student it is a small tribute to this great management guru. The inventor of the word “core competence” changed the conventional strategic management by implementing his theory of the bottom of the pyramid to bring a paradigm shift in the field of marketing strategy; he showed business leaders high volume-low cost model of business. The first management guru from India who paved the way for other Indian management gurus to establish their theories in the ocean of management theory.CKP is one of the optimists who have speculated India to be the world leader by 2022. He has termed India as the “laboratory of innovation”. He was one of the doctors of management who have simple treatment for a chronic disease. We, in management, always listen about out-of-the-box thinking, but we do not understand what the out-of-the-box thinking is all about, we can see Mr. Prahalad who was the out-of-the-box thinker; his thinking was the out-of-the-box thinking. Mr. Prahlad had shown in his book “The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid” the weapon to fight poverty with profitability. Mr. Bill Gates said, “C. K. Prahalad argues that companies must revolutionize how they do business in developing countries if both sides of that economic equation are to prosper. Drawing on a wealth of case studies, his compelling new book offers an intriguing blueprint for how to fight poverty with profitability.”This shows how he had influenced the world’s top business leaders with his incredible uncommon management theories. His theories are very lucid but difficult to implement according to Mr. Ajay Piramal, Chairman, Piramal Health Care.

3 IDIOTS:REVOLUTIONARY HIT ON INDIAN EDUCATION SYSTEM

AS THE FAMOUS CRICKET JOURNALIST PETER ROBBACK SAID THAT SCOREBOARD IS A DONKEY,IT NEVER SHOWS THE POTENTIALITY OF A BATSMAN,SO THE MARKSCARD IS.MARKSCARD NEVER SHOWS ACTUAL STRENGTH OF ANY STUDENT AND IRONICALY IT IS SEEN IN MOST OF THE CASES THAT THE STUDENTS WHO ARE VERY GOOD IN MUGGING UP AND PUKING OUT THE EXACT WORDS FROM THE BOOKS GET GOOD MARKS AND CONSIDERED TO BE THE BLUE STUDENTS OF ANY SCHOOL OR COLLEGE OR UNIVERSITY.I TRULY BELIEVE THAT ONLY KNOWLEDGE IS NOT THE WEAPON BUT APPLICATION OF THE KNOWLEDGE IS THE BEST WEAPON TO FIGHT AND WITHSTAND IN THIS WORLD.THAT IS WHAT "3 IDIOTS" PROVES AND SHOWS,AND EVENTUALLY THIS IS THE BEST INDIAN MOVIE HAS EVER MADE ON INDIAN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM.WHATSOEVER OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM TRIES TO SHOW THAT "ALL IS WELL" BUT IT IS ACTUALLY NOT,THE EDUCATION SYSTEM SHOULD BE CHANGED TO PRODUCE COMPETENT "IDIOT" (I=INTELLIGENT,D=DYNAMIC,I=INSPIRING,O=OPTIMISTIC,
T=TALENTED) NOT A STUPID.THE TEACHERS ALSO APPRECIATE STUDENTS TO MUG UP THE THINGS WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING THE ACTUAL MEANING OF THE CONTENT,BECAUSE FROM OUR CHILDHOOD WE ARE ADVISED TO RUN A RAT RACE,WHERE EVERYBODY WANTS TO BE THE FIRST,THAT IS WHY WE CAN SEE A DOCTOR OR A PHARMACIST DOES NOT KNOW THE ACTUAL MEANING "PHARMACOLOGY",DOES NOT KNOW WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THE WORD "PHARMAKON",A DOCTOR OR A PHARMACIST KNOWS THE MEDICINE TO BE PRESCRIBED FOR A SPECIFIC DISEASE,BUT HOW DOES THE MEDICINE WORK,WHAT IS ITS BIOAVAILABILITY, UNFORTUNATELY, DOES NOT CARE!!!!THAT IS THE REASON WE SEE PATIENTS DYING FOR INAPPROPRIATE TREATMENTS.AN ENGINEER KNOWS ALL THE GIGANTIC EQUATIONS,BUT DOES NOT KNOW WHERE TO USE IT AND HOW TO USE IT!!!SO WE SEE BREAK DOWN OF BRIDGES,MULTISTORYED BUILDINGS!!!A CHARTER ACCOUNTANT KNOWS ALL THE LOGICS BEHIND PROFIT AND LOSS ACCOUNT,BALANCE SHEETS BUT DOES NOT UNDERSTAND THE LOGIC FROM HIS HEART SO WE OBSERVE FINANCIAL SCANDALS IN BALANCE SHEETS,P/L ACCOUNT!!AND SAGAS GO ON!!!!THERE ARE PLETHORA OF EXAMPLES WHERE WE CAN BLAIM OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM FOR NOT PRODUCING COMPETENT STUDENTS WHO CAN APPLY THE CLASS ROOM KNOWLEDGE IN REAL DAY TO DAY LIFE AND REVOLUTIONIZE THE WORLD.BUT WE ALL ARE RUNNING FOR A RAT RACE WHICH NEVER ENDS,WE ARE TRYING TO PULL OUR ALL FINGERS TO MAKE EQUAL THE SIZE OF OUR MID FINGER.ALAS!!!THANKS TO RAJ KUMAR HIRANI AND AAMIR KHAN FOR MAKING SUCH A NICE MOVIE ON OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM WHICH CLEARLY SLAPS THE EDUCATION SYSTEM OF INDIA.WHATEVER THE CONTROVERSIES BETWEEN CHETAN BHAGAT AND THE FILM MAKERS HAVE DO NOT MIND,THIS MOVIE BRINGS REVOLUTION IN INDIAN FILM HISTORY,IT IS ALREADY APPROACHING TO BREAK THE RECORD OF 35 YRS OLD MOVIE "SHOLAY"'S RECORD BY EARNING MORE THAN 200 CRORES RUPEES IN 2 WEEKS OF ITS RELEASE.

Bajaj Auto Ltd: Highest ever Q2 net profit

Thank God!!! Again economy is getting fresh oxygen and trying hard to get out of its comatose condition, recession is all set to be over and companies are taking breath of relax and Indian companies are also no longer exception in this list. But perhaps the biggest laugh has come on the face of Bajaj Auto Ltd, Pune based firm. Country’s second largest motorcycle makers has reported recently its highest ever net profit recorded in a quarter at Rs 402.83 crore. Total revenues grew 14.62%. Undoubtedly, the sales record is incredible success for the company. This auto behemoth has set a record of posting profit almost two fold compare to its last year sale at the same time. At the mayhem time of economy this type of balance sheet report will surely boost up company’s financial structure even though BAL is a cash rich firm. Many experts are proved to be wrong with this gargantuan profit figures. But what was the secret key to unlock the locker of Laxmi (the goddess of wealth)? Well, there was no such formula of Aladin. According to company’s spokesman this net profit was driven by good sales in the profitable bigger and sportier motorcycles category. The company's re-entry into the volume-driven 100cc segment with Discover DTS-Si has proved to be its one of the right strategy in this turmoil economic weather. It sold over one lakh units of the bike within the first 50 days of its launch. One has no scope to deny the fact that the entire range of Pulsar family has helped the company in pushing its sales in the high-end segment. New product launches, including upgrades of the Pulsar 150 and 180, along with Pulsar 220, helped the company sell over 56,000 units in September 2009. According to experts Bajaj Auto Ltd’s net profit more than doubled in the September quarter on the back of higher sales, helped by new launches, and lower raw material costs since the cost of raw material that went down from 77% last year to 69% this year. Domestic demand for Pulsar and Discover motorcycles and auto-rickshaws rose 7 per cent. Fortunately, this second quarter coincides with the monsoon season which caused the rise of demand from rural areas of the country and again this proves that India lives in village i.e. rural demand can always push any company’s balance sheet alike BAL, which makes lastly Mr. Rahul Bajaj to laugh the best.

Corporate Social Responsibility and Arcelor-Mittal company

Last three decades, we have seen an enormous change in the triangular relationship between corporate houses, society and the state; and we are observing now that companies are no longer an individual entity, they are now well encouraged by its stake holders; companies have started to realize the paramount importance of its stake holders and that is why they are now eagerly trying to make bridge between corporate , society and the state. Thus companies have started to develop Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) or it is also called as Corporate Citizenship.

First thing I would like to discuss what the Corporate Social Responsibilities is all about? Corporate Social Responsibilities can be defined as the concept whereby organizations consider the interests of society by taking responsibility for the impact of their activities on customers, suppliers, employees, shareholders, communities and other stakeholders, as well as the environment. This obligation is seen to extend beyond the statutory obligation to comply with legislation and sees organizations voluntarily taking further steps to improve the quality of life for employees and their families as well as for the local community and society at large. World Business Council for Sustainable Development defines CSR as “The continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large.” The European Commission advocates CSR as “Being socially responsible means not only fulfilling legal expectations, but also going beyond compliance and investing more into human capital, the environment and relations with stakeholders.” Thus CSR exhorts corporate to diverge from their sole aim of maximizing profits and to lay more importance on improving the economic and social standards of the community in their countries of operation. CSR can be thus be simply defined as the additional commitment by businesses to improve the social and economic status of various stakeholders involved while complying with all legal and economic requirements.
The three major elements of CSR are product use which focuses on contribution of industrial products which help in well being and quality of life of the society, business practice which focuses on good corporate governance and gives high impetus for the environmental well being and equity which tries for distribution of profits equitably across different societies especially the host community.
Therefore, we will look at Arcelor-Mittal how they are operating their CSR through out the world or its community. Lakshmi Niwas Mittal, one of the “100 Most Influential People” (Time Magazine, 2007) and the richest Indian in the world (Forbes, March, 2008), is known as the man behind Arcelor-Mittal for him good CSR is always strategic and he believes that a business has to create a win-win situation for all its stakeholders.
Arcelor-Mittal and CSR:
1. Arcelor-Mittal take a long view espouses in its brand promise of “Transforming Tomorrow”, a CSR mission in Brazil, of thinking not only of today but also the generations to come. Corporate Social Responsibility for Arcelor-Mittal, Brazil, means not only improving the qualifications of its own work force, but also investing in a junior company programme for high school students to better the quality of life for the people. Brazilian Quality of Life Association (ABQV) has given the award The Global Program Award in recognition of the “Pro-Quality of Life” program designed for improving the quality of life of employees and their dependents.

2. In Brazil itself more than $ 27 million invested over the year in community
social programs that reach more than two million people. Self-sufficient in the electricity used to produce flat steels with on-site thermoelectric generation of approximately 500 MW, and a world benchmark in recycling of waste and recirculation of fresh water are two most vital initiatives taken by Arcelor-Mittal in Brazil.

3. Arcelor-Mittal defines them as their commitment is reflected in their dedication to reduce carbon emissions (CO2) with the introduction of projects to support the United Nation's Clean Development Mechanism (MDL).

4.. Arcelor-Mittal have started the programme on ecoefficiency in all their units in order to make a pollution free world, because pollution is one of the threats for the world which results in Global Warming.

5. Their corporate governance policy is one of the most noticeable CSR activity in which they are offering independent directors the equal authority as that of the company’s executive directors, and also they are providing equal rights to its all shareholders, their improvement of transparency and dialogue with its shareholders is really appreciable.

6. They are assuring to provide the best health and safety measures to its employees and also good working environment commitment to its well worthy employees.

7. Arcelor-Mittal renewed the tramways, power plants, the hotels, the stadiums, and developed social activities such as children camps in Kazakhstan before it own and operate its steel plant there, thus they are able to positively impact the livelihood of the community more broadly while continuing to improve the plant’s efficiency.

8. Arcelor-Mittal is also now taking a initiative role in promoting games, Mr.Abhinav Bindra, India’s first ever individual gold medalist at the Beijing Olympics in 2008,was awarded a Rs.1.5 crore cheque from Mittal Champion Trust(MCT), Mr. Virdhawal Khade ,a swimmer, representing India in Olympic 2008,Beijing,was sponsored by MCT too.