http://drishtikona.com My online journal with thoughts, opinions, comments and more.. Thu, 09 Feb 2012 14:04:17 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.1.2 http://drishtikona.com/images/favicon.gif http://drishtikona.com en http://drishtikona.com/archives/manufacturing/003029.php http://drishtikona.com/archives/manufacturing/003029.php#comments Sun, 29 Jan 2012 05:38:25 +0000 Indra http://drishtikona.com/archives/manufacturing/003029.php Images). Overnight Ratan Tata became an iconic figure of auto industry. India got a unique global recognition of an industrial nation with capability of breakthrough innovation. The world recognized India’s mastery of frugal engineering, frugal manufacturing, and frugal management. However, a number of hurdles and management’s perception about the marketing made Nano’s sales trail far behind the early expectations when it went into regular production at Sanand. Recently Ratan Tata agreed about Nano’s failure to get fast enough volume sales: “I don’t think we were adequately ready with an advertising campaign, a dealer network. The Nano is not a flop. Tata Motors failed to capitalize on the early excitement surrounding the launch of the world’s cheapest car.” Nano didn’t flood the car market as expected. May be that Indian consumers are not willing to buy the cheapest because of a status hurdle. Another product (Image) is facing similar fate. Few months ago, Sibal launched a very ambitious project of $35 tablet- Aakash with a lot of fanfare. It was meant to leapfrog the application of technology in education to assist the millions of school children. Datawind was the manufacturer of the tablet. IIT, Rajasthan was providing technical support and deciding on specification. However, that project is also facing an unimaginable delay or may be premature demise. Many like me are shocked and shore about these halfhearted endeavours. Sometimes I feel like believing that while Aakash was the cheapest solution just for handling the content required for school going children. However with the acquaintance of the top end tablets such as Apple’s iPad available in the market, the users took Aakash as a toy tablet of not much use to them. However, the deficiencies pointed about was its slow speed, heating up quite quickly, poor battery life, the resistive touch-screen, and it supported only Wi-Fi access to the Internet. Interestingly, Aakash has generated huge excitement among gadget geeks and internationally renowned columnists alike. When Datawind offered Aakash’s slightly more expensive cousin, the UbiSlate7+ online on December 14 2011, the company in less than a week got orders for 60,000 tablets. Initially it appeared that the manufacturer was having production constraints, but now as it appears the Aakash will require major up gradation and may not reach the market pretty soon. I wish all IITs and its scientists and engineers would have helped Aakash to succeed once announced and launched by India’s HRD Minister so proudly for the sake of the poor students who can’t afford the i-Pads or similar tablets. As such a right tablet for the school children at even $50 is still not ready though many dreamt of having one many years ago. If Datawind is not a right vendor or the services of some other reputed manufacturers must be sought to get over the drawbacks of the Aakash and make it really useful to the student community. The burden on their back must get reduced. The learning must get interesting and wide. The Aakash project should not end up with adding one more in the list of failed tablets. One must remember the history of Popularly known, OLPC (One Laptop Per Child), that was MIT’s Negroponte's initiative aimed at deploying millions of rugged, ultra low-cost, individually connected laptops to children between six to 12 years of age of developing nations that lack access to such devices. Aakash must serve the same purpose for Indian schools. I wonder if all the children in rural schools are ready to use a gadget like Aakash to bring equity in education. However, the financial result of Apple announced last week tells the huge requirement of a gadget such as i-Pads. And I could get the insight of its manufacturing in China. I wish those interested must read the stories of the wonder called i-Pads and its manufacturing, though as usual some disturbing news came about the hardships in the Chinese manufacturing companies that has become a good masala for some media men. Indian manufacturers, be it Godrej Chhotukool or Amul Auto's tractors, and Indian thinkers such as Vijay Govindarajan, professor at Dartmouth College's Tuck School of Business, have been the pioneer in frugal engineering. India must go for a real big push to manufacturing electronics and Kapil Sibal must prove himself at least in one project. ---------- PS: Google has 88,100,000 entries for Nano car (Images) and that for Aakash tablet (Images) 3,820,000 as on January, 2012 ar 4 PM in India. ]]> Images). Overnight Ratan Tata became an iconic figure of auto industry. India got a unique global recognition of an industrial nation with capability of breakthrough innovation. The world recognized India’s mastery of frugal engineering, frugal manufacturing, and frugal management. However, a number of hurdles and management’s perception about the marketing made Nano’s sales trail far behind the early expectations when it went into regular production at Sanand. Recently Ratan Tata agreed about Nano’s failure to get fast enough volume sales: “I don’t think we were adequately ready with an advertising campaign, a dealer network. The Nano is not a flop. Tata Motors failed to capitalize on the early excitement surrounding the launch of the world’s cheapest car.” Nano didn’t flood the car market as expected. May be that Indian consumers are not willing to buy the cheapest because of a status hurdle. Another product (Image) is facing similar fate. Few months ago, Sibal launched a very ambitious project of $35 tablet- Aakash with a lot of fanfare. It was meant to leapfrog the application of technology in education to assist the millions of school children. Datawind was the manufacturer of the tablet. IIT, Rajasthan was providing technical support and deciding on specification. However, that project is also facing an unimaginable delay or may be premature demise. Many like me are shocked and shore about these halfhearted endeavours. Sometimes I feel like believing that while Aakash was the cheapest solution just for handling the content required for school going children. However with the acquaintance of the top end tablets such as Apple’s iPad available in the market, the users took Aakash as a toy tablet of not much use to them. However, the deficiencies pointed about was its slow speed, heating up quite quickly, poor battery life, the resistive touch-screen, and it supported only Wi-Fi access to the Internet. Interestingly, Aakash has generated huge excitement among gadget geeks and internationally renowned columnists alike. When Datawind offered Aakash’s slightly more expensive cousin, the UbiSlate7+ online on December 14 2011, the company in less than a week got orders for 60,000 tablets. Initially it appeared that the manufacturer was having production constraints, but now as it appears the Aakash will require major up gradation and may not reach the market pretty soon. I wish all IITs and its scientists and engineers would have helped Aakash to succeed once announced and launched by India’s HRD Minister so proudly for the sake of the poor students who can’t afford the i-Pads or similar tablets. As such a right tablet for the school children at even $50 is still not ready though many dreamt of having one many years ago. If Datawind is not a right vendor or the services of some other reputed manufacturers must be sought to get over the drawbacks of the Aakash and make it really useful to the student community. The burden on their back must get reduced. The learning must get interesting and wide. The Aakash project should not end up with adding one more in the list of failed tablets. One must remember the history of Popularly known, OLPC (One Laptop Per Child), that was MIT’s Negroponte's initiative aimed at deploying millions of rugged, ultra low-cost, individually connected laptops to children between six to 12 years of age of developing nations that lack access to such devices. Aakash must serve the same purpose for Indian schools. I wonder if all the children in rural schools are ready to use a gadget like Aakash to bring equity in education. However, the financial result of Apple announced last week tells the huge requirement of a gadget such as i-Pads. And I could get the insight of its manufacturing in China. I wish those interested must read the stories of the wonder called i-Pads and its manufacturing, though as usual some disturbing news came about the hardships in the Chinese manufacturing companies that has become a good masala for some media men. Indian manufacturers, be it Godrej Chhotukool or Amul Auto's tractors, and Indian thinkers such as Vijay Govindarajan, professor at Dartmouth College's Tuck School of Business, have been the pioneer in frugal engineering. India must go for a real big push to manufacturing electronics and Kapil Sibal must prove himself at least in one project. ---------- PS: Google has 88,100,000 entries for Nano car (Images) and that for Aakash tablet (Images) 3,820,000 as on January, 2012 ar 4 PM in India. ]]> http://drishtikona.com/archives/manufacturing/003029.php/feed/ http://drishtikona.com/archives/industrymanagement/003025.php http://drishtikona.com/archives/industrymanagement/003025.php#comments Thu, 19 Jan 2012 08:35:57 +0000 Indra http://drishtikona.com/archives/industrymanagement/003025.php MGK Menon revealed the scenario very rightly when he said, “Most people are searching for money. So those who do science and are very good at it, want to do IIT entrance. Then they go for these tuition and so on. And by the time they finish with all those examination efforts and the tuition, they are completely drained. There's nothing much left in them. And then they get into an IIT, and then what is their aim in getting into an IIT? Not to do engineering, per se, but to then get out and do an MBA. And from an MBA, they want to go into areas like finance, and so on. And very large number want to essentially enter the IT sector, which is the money-making sector.” Thus the left outs for teaching and R&D functions are certainly not the best, though only the best would have been desirable. Let us look at few recent media reports in support of what I have tried to state: “A student of the coveted institute, Siddharth Shah, was the first student from his batch to be picked up by a leading global investment bank during the summer internship. The company paid him Rs 2.5 lakh per month during the internship. With such credentials, Shah would be among the highest paid students of the institute in the campus placement.” Why should not this become the dream of all who can do that? “Six undergraduate students at Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC), University of Delhi, have walked away with offers from Deutsche Bank with a salary package of Rs 16.5 lakh per annum.” “95% of students graduating this year from IIM-B are from a technical background (93% from engineering and 2% from science, commerce students make up 3% of the student body while other fields account for a mere 2%.It’s not much different at IIMA, where engineers constitute 91% of the student body.” “In sharp contrast, Harvard Business School (HBS) has the following division of its class of 2012 based on undergraduate majors: humanities and social sciences (43%); engineering/natural science/technology (33%); business administration (21%). Or look at Wharton: humanities and social sciences (43%), business (29%), engineering/math/science (25%); and others (3%).” Does it not require a serious overview to stop the loss of the best engineers by the policy makers who must consult and collaborate to find the solution desirable for the industry as well as for the candidates? "Should not tech pros get an MBA?" The lure of the initial package in million offered by the private enterprises, particularly the financial institutions, from all over the world in the mind of the student community and parent fraternity is creating havoc for learning oriented education and the result of this aggressive but unscrupulous invasion on the knowledge society will be horrendous. India will hardly get the first class brain for the really skill requiring professions such as those of doctors, engineers and scientists. And this chaos is coming from the business model innovators of US. I hardly know what can be done about it. Further, with globalization and scarcity of talent and trained persons, the best of India’s brains still prefer to go to foreign soils for studies or jobs. The next best try to get into the MNCs that have established its shop in India. For the analytical jobs, many financial giants such as HSBC are hiring chartered accountants, MBAs and graduates in engineering, mathematics and statistics. Our education system as such is hardly encouraging the students to appreciate and get interested in knowing any subject to its ultimate depth. It’s just a chance that some rare species for reasons unknown go for teaching and R&D. India’s disadvantage is also due to the wide spread deprivation and the lack of education of the parents in the majority of the population. They just can’t give up an opportunity to get to the top ranking jobs. Under this scenario, how can one think of getting in competition with the country where the education at early stage itself as well as the society, make a student interested in pursuing a subject of interest rather than a subject that pays the most as initial package? ]]> MGK Menon revealed the scenario very rightly when he said, “Most people are searching for money. So those who do science and are very good at it, want to do IIT entrance. Then they go for these tuition and so on. And by the time they finish with all those examination efforts and the tuition, they are completely drained. There's nothing much left in them. And then they get into an IIT, and then what is their aim in getting into an IIT? Not to do engineering, per se, but to then get out and do an MBA. And from an MBA, they want to go into areas like finance, and so on. And very large number want to essentially enter the IT sector, which is the money-making sector.” Thus the left outs for teaching and R&D functions are certainly not the best, though only the best would have been desirable. Let us look at few recent media reports in support of what I have tried to state: “A student of the coveted institute, Siddharth Shah, was the first student from his batch to be picked up by a leading global investment bank during the summer internship. The company paid him Rs 2.5 lakh per month during the internship. With such credentials, Shah would be among the highest paid students of the institute in the campus placement.” Why should not this become the dream of all who can do that? “Six undergraduate students at Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC), University of Delhi, have walked away with offers from Deutsche Bank with a salary package of Rs 16.5 lakh per annum.” “95% of students graduating this year from IIM-B are from a technical background (93% from engineering and 2% from science, commerce students make up 3% of the student body while other fields account for a mere 2%.It’s not much different at IIMA, where engineers constitute 91% of the student body.” “In sharp contrast, Harvard Business School (HBS) has the following division of its class of 2012 based on undergraduate majors: humanities and social sciences (43%); engineering/natural science/technology (33%); business administration (21%). Or look at Wharton: humanities and social sciences (43%), business (29%), engineering/math/science (25%); and others (3%).” Does it not require a serious overview to stop the loss of the best engineers by the policy makers who must consult and collaborate to find the solution desirable for the industry as well as for the candidates? "Should not tech pros get an MBA?" The lure of the initial package in million offered by the private enterprises, particularly the financial institutions, from all over the world in the mind of the student community and parent fraternity is creating havoc for learning oriented education and the result of this aggressive but unscrupulous invasion on the knowledge society will be horrendous. India will hardly get the first class brain for the really skill requiring professions such as those of doctors, engineers and scientists. And this chaos is coming from the business model innovators of US. I hardly know what can be done about it. Further, with globalization and scarcity of talent and trained persons, the best of India’s brains still prefer to go to foreign soils for studies or jobs. The next best try to get into the MNCs that have established its shop in India. For the analytical jobs, many financial giants such as HSBC are hiring chartered accountants, MBAs and graduates in engineering, mathematics and statistics. Our education system as such is hardly encouraging the students to appreciate and get interested in knowing any subject to its ultimate depth. It’s just a chance that some rare species for reasons unknown go for teaching and R&D. India’s disadvantage is also due to the wide spread deprivation and the lack of education of the parents in the majority of the population. They just can’t give up an opportunity to get to the top ranking jobs. Under this scenario, how can one think of getting in competition with the country where the education at early stage itself as well as the society, make a student interested in pursuing a subject of interest rather than a subject that pays the most as initial package? ]]> http://drishtikona.com/archives/industrymanagement/003025.php/feed/ http://drishtikona.com/archives/indian_politics/003019.php http://drishtikona.com/archives/indian_politics/003019.php#comments Mon, 02 Jan 2012 11:26:42 +0000 Indra http://drishtikona.com/archives/indian_politics/003019.php a chief minister sacked so many ministers as in UP. Far in South, a chief minister got detained for land scam because Lok Ayukta wanted that. Should 2011 be not a year of pride that a simple man such as Anna Hazare made millions to come on streets to fight corruption? After many years India saw the rejuvenation of younger India participating against a serious national malady such as corruption. Was it not something to pride that the parliament that hardly work, sat for passing one Bill demanded by the people and witnessed some of the best debates? August 27 and the debate producing the sense of the house was the pinnacle of the parliamentary democracy and the midnight shaming chaos and fiasco on the floor of Rajya Sabha on December 29 was the worst of the caricatures of the parliamentary democracy. A corruption-tainted UPA government hibernated suffering policy paralysis and one could see a great finance minister of 1991 really at loss and almost helpless as prime minister of the country. And the people of the country found themselves almost leaderless. Economy slowed, Sensex bottomed. Inflation appeared unmanageable and rupee lost its value the most. Both the economist prime minister and finance minister kept themselves in blaming the external factors as reasons without taking even any significant step of their own. But more shaming they did never try to consult the opposition to take them on the same side to face the trouble with some bold steps. However, some news reports kept the hope alive, The young students got Aakash for them in 2011. Indians bought almost 3 lakh of branded tablets in 2011.Indian schools, teachers and educationists are conscious of the shortcomings of its education sector and trying to work on ways out through technology. Tablets are getting popular. Some are trying to reach rural India too. India is far behind in agriculture productivity. Yield is poor. But that is the potential too. A young farmer in Nalanda, Sumant, set a new world record in paddy production. Sumant managed to grow 224 quintals of paddy per hectare beating the world record held by Chinese farm scientist Yuan Longping. Even the 2011 World Bank report ranked India 132 among nations for the ease of doing business. And the government fails to take a note of it. However, the zeal of Indian entrepreneurship of the young Indians is moving ahead providing pride and making even the advanced countries to envy it. Flipkart and Educom are the examples from the many doing wonderfully well commercially. Even the Dalit entrepreneurs are contributing significantly. And it is happening in spite of the poor governance. India story is moving ahead to get noticed. At least 11 achievers of Indian origin were among the 360 people featured on the list ‘30 Under 30’ list compiled by the American business magazine Forbes—of people that it says will “reinvent the world”—would only reinforce that notion. I am sure the government and the politicians are conscious about the aspirations of the millions of the young Indians. And they will take notice of it and change themselves. 2012 will make up the wrongs happened in 2011 and every Indian will do something significant and innovative that will add to the strength of the nation to make it reach to the top. ]]> a chief minister sacked so many ministers as in UP. Far in South, a chief minister got detained for land scam because Lok Ayukta wanted that. Should 2011 be not a year of pride that a simple man such as Anna Hazare made millions to come on streets to fight corruption? After many years India saw the rejuvenation of younger India participating against a serious national malady such as corruption. Was it not something to pride that the parliament that hardly work, sat for passing one Bill demanded by the people and witnessed some of the best debates? August 27 and the debate producing the sense of the house was the pinnacle of the parliamentary democracy and the midnight shaming chaos and fiasco on the floor of Rajya Sabha on December 29 was the worst of the caricatures of the parliamentary democracy. A corruption-tainted UPA government hibernated suffering policy paralysis and one could see a great finance minister of 1991 really at loss and almost helpless as prime minister of the country. And the people of the country found themselves almost leaderless. Economy slowed, Sensex bottomed. Inflation appeared unmanageable and rupee lost its value the most. Both the economist prime minister and finance minister kept themselves in blaming the external factors as reasons without taking even any significant step of their own. But more shaming they did never try to consult the opposition to take them on the same side to face the trouble with some bold steps. However, some news reports kept the hope alive, The young students got Aakash for them in 2011. Indians bought almost 3 lakh of branded tablets in 2011.Indian schools, teachers and educationists are conscious of the shortcomings of its education sector and trying to work on ways out through technology. Tablets are getting popular. Some are trying to reach rural India too. India is far behind in agriculture productivity. Yield is poor. But that is the potential too. A young farmer in Nalanda, Sumant, set a new world record in paddy production. Sumant managed to grow 224 quintals of paddy per hectare beating the world record held by Chinese farm scientist Yuan Longping. Even the 2011 World Bank report ranked India 132 among nations for the ease of doing business. And the government fails to take a note of it. However, the zeal of Indian entrepreneurship of the young Indians is moving ahead providing pride and making even the advanced countries to envy it. Flipkart and Educom are the examples from the many doing wonderfully well commercially. Even the Dalit entrepreneurs are contributing significantly. And it is happening in spite of the poor governance. India story is moving ahead to get noticed. At least 11 achievers of Indian origin were among the 360 people featured on the list ‘30 Under 30’ list compiled by the American business magazine Forbes—of people that it says will “reinvent the world”—would only reinforce that notion. I am sure the government and the politicians are conscious about the aspirations of the millions of the young Indians. And they will take notice of it and change themselves. 2012 will make up the wrongs happened in 2011 and every Indian will do something significant and innovative that will add to the strength of the nation to make it reach to the top. ]]> http://drishtikona.com/archives/indian_politics/003019.php/feed/ http://drishtikona.com/archives/industrymanagement/003010.php http://drishtikona.com/archives/industrymanagement/003010.php#comments Wed, 07 Dec 2011 06:59:15 +0000 Indra http://drishtikona.com/archives/industrymanagement/003010.php iPad 2 or Samsung Galaxy Tab in order to a tech savvy ambience in parliament and make them go paper free. I and perhaps many like me really must be envying these MPs. As I understand, each one of them must already be having a PC pr laptop provided by the tax payers’ money along with an employed assistant to operate them for their boss. I don’t know how much of that are used and for what purpose. What will be the use of this technically advanced but costly gadget for most of the MPs? Unfortunately the parliament secretariat would have studied the status of the parliamentarians so far the use of computer is concerned. However, some may just download Bhawarin Devi’s CD or their son’s marriage video on it. Alternatively, some younger ones in the loving family of the MPs may grab it. However, some will use it for using it for the massive amount of documentation an MP must deal with - files, reports, debates, question lists. It can also help them in researching on the various subjects that come up for discussions and debates in the parliament. I do also wish that some of the parliamentarians innovate some applications that could be used in the parliaments of even the other countries and prove their knowledge and intelligence. But I have one more question. Why couldn’t the parliamentarians start with Aakash, India’s own innovated world’s most affordable tablet PC? Why didn’t Kapil Sibal sell this austerity measure to the MPs? MPs would have been trained in using Aakash with help of students and teachers of IIT, Rajasthan who participated in its innovation. And the gadget could have done all that an MP would have been required. It would have been at least somewhat India manufactured gadget and cost wise good enough even if MPs would have been able to use them. Kapil has showcased Aakash to the world leaders at UNESCO and World Bank, and expressed his desire to make all central ministries use Aakash for their e-governance projects. Why has the government agreed to reimburse the expenditure up to 50,000 to each MP? Why didn’t it appoint a tech company or Nandan Nilekani group to procure the gadgets to the right specification for the use of Indian MPs? If we go by the reviews of Aakash in domestic as well as in the media of advanced nations after Kapil Sibal launched it for the student community of India, it has a lot of potentials for various applications. Its manufacturer is an inspired person though certainly not a Steve Job or has a team such one Steve had in Apple. Will the techies of IITs help the entrepreneur of Aaakash to make it world class and compete with others in market? Except for a brand value it can be a sought after gadgets for all the poorer countries and billions of its users. As on today, when I searched for ‘Aakash Tablet’ on Google, I instantly get 27,400,000 entries in less than a second. Should the countrymen smell the possibility of some scam even in this project? Will the MPs just present a fake bill and get the payment against this head of their perks? I still appeal to the authority deciding this perk for MPs to go for Aakash at lease certainly for those who are nit computer savvy already. I am waiting eagerly to lay hand on one Aakash. Can someone arrange one for me? I dodn’t want it free and shall pay for it immediately. ]]> iPad 2 or Samsung Galaxy Tab in order to a tech savvy ambience in parliament and make them go paper free. I and perhaps many like me really must be envying these MPs. As I understand, each one of them must already be having a PC pr laptop provided by the tax payers’ money along with an employed assistant to operate them for their boss. I don’t know how much of that are used and for what purpose. What will be the use of this technically advanced but costly gadget for most of the MPs? Unfortunately the parliament secretariat would have studied the status of the parliamentarians so far the use of computer is concerned. However, some may just download Bhawarin Devi’s CD or their son’s marriage video on it. Alternatively, some younger ones in the loving family of the MPs may grab it. However, some will use it for using it for the massive amount of documentation an MP must deal with - files, reports, debates, question lists. It can also help them in researching on the various subjects that come up for discussions and debates in the parliament. I do also wish that some of the parliamentarians innovate some applications that could be used in the parliaments of even the other countries and prove their knowledge and intelligence. But I have one more question. Why couldn’t the parliamentarians start with Aakash, India’s own innovated world’s most affordable tablet PC? Why didn’t Kapil Sibal sell this austerity measure to the MPs? MPs would have been trained in using Aakash with help of students and teachers of IIT, Rajasthan who participated in its innovation. And the gadget could have done all that an MP would have been required. It would have been at least somewhat India manufactured gadget and cost wise good enough even if MPs would have been able to use them. Kapil has showcased Aakash to the world leaders at UNESCO and World Bank, and expressed his desire to make all central ministries use Aakash for their e-governance projects. Why has the government agreed to reimburse the expenditure up to 50,000 to each MP? Why didn’t it appoint a tech company or Nandan Nilekani group to procure the gadgets to the right specification for the use of Indian MPs? If we go by the reviews of Aakash in domestic as well as in the media of advanced nations after Kapil Sibal launched it for the student community of India, it has a lot of potentials for various applications. Its manufacturer is an inspired person though certainly not a Steve Job or has a team such one Steve had in Apple. Will the techies of IITs help the entrepreneur of Aaakash to make it world class and compete with others in market? Except for a brand value it can be a sought after gadgets for all the poorer countries and billions of its users. As on today, when I searched for ‘Aakash Tablet’ on Google, I instantly get 27,400,000 entries in less than a second. Should the countrymen smell the possibility of some scam even in this project? Will the MPs just present a fake bill and get the payment against this head of their perks? I still appeal to the authority deciding this perk for MPs to go for Aakash at lease certainly for those who are nit computer savvy already. I am waiting eagerly to lay hand on one Aakash. Can someone arrange one for me? I dodn’t want it free and shall pay for it immediately. ]]> http://drishtikona.com/archives/industrymanagement/003010.php/feed/ http://drishtikona.com/archives/industrymanagement/003008.php http://drishtikona.com/archives/industrymanagement/003008.php#comments Thu, 01 Dec 2011 14:38:11 +0000 Indra http://drishtikona.com/archives/industrymanagement/003008.php says, ““I sell my litchi to the first middleman at Rs 21 per kg. Passing through different layers of middle-level retailers and transporters, the commodity is sold at the rate of about Rs 200 per kg in south Indian markets and at Rs 400 and even more in London and Dubai markets. In the process, the producers and the consumers are the biggest losers.” I am from Bihar and love the fruit, but I can hardly buy it at that exorbitant price in Noida. Many must be having the similar experience. Can you or for that matter any government ensure that the due share of the exorbitant price the traders make the customers pay through various tricks of trade such as creating scarcity and illegal hoarding to the farmers? If you can arrange that for the farmers, I shall agree to your opposition against FDI. Before opposing FDI, you are to do some real research and decide wisely if it will really affect the small trader and the farmer in reality. However, the government must help the small farmers and manufacturers in negotiating the price of their produce with the big retailers, be the domestic or foreigners, if there are complaints. Normally the organized OEMs always make the small vendors the minimum through rigorous negotiation. Please don’t oppose FDI for political reasons. It’s a big reform, please allow it to come. After all we expect a rational decision from a technocrat. ]]> says, ““I sell my litchi to the first middleman at Rs 21 per kg. Passing through different layers of middle-level retailers and transporters, the commodity is sold at the rate of about Rs 200 per kg in south Indian markets and at Rs 400 and even more in London and Dubai markets. In the process, the producers and the consumers are the biggest losers.” I am from Bihar and love the fruit, but I can hardly buy it at that exorbitant price in Noida. Many must be having the similar experience. Can you or for that matter any government ensure that the due share of the exorbitant price the traders make the customers pay through various tricks of trade such as creating scarcity and illegal hoarding to the farmers? If you can arrange that for the farmers, I shall agree to your opposition against FDI. Before opposing FDI, you are to do some real research and decide wisely if it will really affect the small trader and the farmer in reality. However, the government must help the small farmers and manufacturers in negotiating the price of their produce with the big retailers, be the domestic or foreigners, if there are complaints. Normally the organized OEMs always make the small vendors the minimum through rigorous negotiation. Please don’t oppose FDI for political reasons. It’s a big reform, please allow it to come. After all we expect a rational decision from a technocrat. ]]> http://drishtikona.com/archives/industrymanagement/003008.php/feed/ http://drishtikona.com/archives/indian_politics/003006.php http://drishtikona.com/archives/indian_politics/003006.php#comments Fri, 25 Nov 2011 13:49:08 +0000 Indra http://drishtikona.com/archives/indian_politics/003006.php Tahrir Squares and Wall Sreets. Are the parliamentarians of the world hearing? Can the democracy accommodate such rebellions or protests? India has witnessed its manifestation in slaps and people’s protests. Some recent news reports in India are really worrying and would have been taken up seriously by the politicians and parliamentarians. It deserved some serious discussions. I would have loved if they could do that in close door. Protest against nuclear power plants, particularly the organized against the one at the near-complete Kudankulam is worrying. The prime minister himself has done all to take the help of the former President Abdul Kalam, the local religious leaders, and the atomic scientists of the country to explain to the protesters but has failed. The hold-up continues.Can a campaign leader SP Udayakumar be considered more pro-people that all the scientists and the former president? How can a nation afford such protests against the important projects of the country? The people of the country will have to depend on the prudence of its mature knowledgeable technical experts. The rightists and politicians must not interfere, as it is being observed throughout the country. But more worrying is the news report that some foreign fund is in use to fan such unrest. The recent labour strikes at Manesar plant of Maruti Suzuki and then it solution must be a cause of serious worries of the nation and its policy makers. As a new trend in aggressive unionism the workers refused to strike by remaining outside the plant. They remained in the plant premises and refused to leave unless the court ordered. And how surprising ununion-like was the solution that came out with the union leaders getting paid Rs 40 lakh each only for a few years of services with the company! The use of thousands of school going kids made to sleep on the hot sand in the protest against Posco plant is something that the leaders of the country must think seriously. Finally, how can the country find a solution to its image of the country as ‘the dirtiest and filthiest’ that Jairam Ramesh stated? Jairam must come out with some concrete plan to get over the image at least in next hundred years if not twenty. The policy makers and the administrators of the country must think over the proactive actions to see that happen. If you go on allowing breach of the law and order norms, for example land encroachment all over the country, one fine morning even if you work for twenty four hours, you can’t solve the problem. The country must work steadily to improve the situation. Unfortunately, the parliamentarians are neither working not behaving the way they should. The administration is on mute and freezed mode. ]]> Tahrir Squares and Wall Sreets. Are the parliamentarians of the world hearing? Can the democracy accommodate such rebellions or protests? India has witnessed its manifestation in slaps and people’s protests. Some recent news reports in India are really worrying and would have been taken up seriously by the politicians and parliamentarians. It deserved some serious discussions. I would have loved if they could do that in close door. Protest against nuclear power plants, particularly the organized against the one at the near-complete Kudankulam is worrying. The prime minister himself has done all to take the help of the former President Abdul Kalam, the local religious leaders, and the atomic scientists of the country to explain to the protesters but has failed. The hold-up continues.Can a campaign leader SP Udayakumar be considered more pro-people that all the scientists and the former president? How can a nation afford such protests against the important projects of the country? The people of the country will have to depend on the prudence of its mature knowledgeable technical experts. The rightists and politicians must not interfere, as it is being observed throughout the country. But more worrying is the news report that some foreign fund is in use to fan such unrest. The recent labour strikes at Manesar plant of Maruti Suzuki and then it solution must be a cause of serious worries of the nation and its policy makers. As a new trend in aggressive unionism the workers refused to strike by remaining outside the plant. They remained in the plant premises and refused to leave unless the court ordered. And how surprising ununion-like was the solution that came out with the union leaders getting paid Rs 40 lakh each only for a few years of services with the company! The use of thousands of school going kids made to sleep on the hot sand in the protest against Posco plant is something that the leaders of the country must think seriously. Finally, how can the country find a solution to its image of the country as ‘the dirtiest and filthiest’ that Jairam Ramesh stated? Jairam must come out with some concrete plan to get over the image at least in next hundred years if not twenty. The policy makers and the administrators of the country must think over the proactive actions to see that happen. If you go on allowing breach of the law and order norms, for example land encroachment all over the country, one fine morning even if you work for twenty four hours, you can’t solve the problem. The country must work steadily to improve the situation. Unfortunately, the parliamentarians are neither working not behaving the way they should. The administration is on mute and freezed mode. ]]> http://drishtikona.com/archives/indian_politics/003006.php/feed/ http://drishtikona.com/archives/industrymanagement/002992.php http://drishtikona.com/archives/industrymanagement/002992.php#comments Thu, 20 Oct 2011 00:38:44 +0000 Indra http://drishtikona.com/archives/industrymanagement/002992.php news report, about 15% of the transport fleet in the country with strength of 8, 00,000 is inoperative, because of shortage of drivers. Every truck requires at least two drivers or perhaps three. A driver is needed also for three-wheelers as well as for a large number of cars too. Can’t the country even train drivers who don’t necessarily require being very much educated? As reported, India is the largest manufacturer of three-wheelers (444,000 in 2009-10) and the eighth largest commercial vehicle (0.53 m in 2009-10). India, the largest tractor manufacturing country (around 1/3 of global output) added around 370,000 units in 2009-10. All these vehicles require drivers. The owners of the luxury cars certainly employ drivers. As estimated, even one third of the car owners need drivers. Thus India may be requiring more than a million trained drivers every year. And all these may get a remuneration of much more than the BPL limit. Where are the trained drivers to fill up the vacancies getting created every day? Who trains them? Why don’t Mayawati or Nitish Kumar ask the unemployed youth in their states to get themselves trained as drivers and get employed instead of seeking a job of orderly or bearer in the government offices? I do doubt if the Corporate India is taking any initiative to provide this service for its customers by training sufficient number of drivers as well as the people who are to maintain it. I am sure they could have done that easily. Think of the total number of dealers of auto manufacturers in the country and many other independent maintenance shops. The manufacturers can easily use their services to train drivers and maintenance men for repairing the vehicles. And the service providers could have added the facilities for training without much investment and increased their earning by charging the required fee. Similar steps by the manufacturers of other products of mass use can train many more unemployed young men of the country. Infrastructure and construction companies can certainly get together for this cause to train the young men required for the sector. It surprises me to know that in a nation with population of more than 1 billion we do not have sufficient plumbers, masons, carpenters or electricians. With a lot of thrust on infrastructure such as road, power, construction, the requirements are bound to keep on increasing. I wish the CII, Assocham and other small entrepreneurs take initiative on large scale. Adding skill will never go waste. One day, pretty soon, every Indian must need to know driving, if India keeps its thrust on GDP growth. Will government find some logic behind the issue raised here and do something to solve the acute shortage of the skilled manpower? ]]> news report, about 15% of the transport fleet in the country with strength of 8, 00,000 is inoperative, because of shortage of drivers. Every truck requires at least two drivers or perhaps three. A driver is needed also for three-wheelers as well as for a large number of cars too. Can’t the country even train drivers who don’t necessarily require being very much educated? As reported, India is the largest manufacturer of three-wheelers (444,000 in 2009-10) and the eighth largest commercial vehicle (0.53 m in 2009-10). India, the largest tractor manufacturing country (around 1/3 of global output) added around 370,000 units in 2009-10. All these vehicles require drivers. The owners of the luxury cars certainly employ drivers. As estimated, even one third of the car owners need drivers. Thus India may be requiring more than a million trained drivers every year. And all these may get a remuneration of much more than the BPL limit. Where are the trained drivers to fill up the vacancies getting created every day? Who trains them? Why don’t Mayawati or Nitish Kumar ask the unemployed youth in their states to get themselves trained as drivers and get employed instead of seeking a job of orderly or bearer in the government offices? I do doubt if the Corporate India is taking any initiative to provide this service for its customers by training sufficient number of drivers as well as the people who are to maintain it. I am sure they could have done that easily. Think of the total number of dealers of auto manufacturers in the country and many other independent maintenance shops. The manufacturers can easily use their services to train drivers and maintenance men for repairing the vehicles. And the service providers could have added the facilities for training without much investment and increased their earning by charging the required fee. Similar steps by the manufacturers of other products of mass use can train many more unemployed young men of the country. Infrastructure and construction companies can certainly get together for this cause to train the young men required for the sector. It surprises me to know that in a nation with population of more than 1 billion we do not have sufficient plumbers, masons, carpenters or electricians. With a lot of thrust on infrastructure such as road, power, construction, the requirements are bound to keep on increasing. I wish the CII, Assocham and other small entrepreneurs take initiative on large scale. Adding skill will never go waste. One day, pretty soon, every Indian must need to know driving, if India keeps its thrust on GDP growth. Will government find some logic behind the issue raised here and do something to solve the acute shortage of the skilled manpower? ]]> http://drishtikona.com/archives/industrymanagement/002992.php/feed/