From the desk of a KamalHassan Fan: The anxiety of watching the most hyped and most expected movie of the year “Endhiran- The Robot” the next day made that night sleepless. After watching the movie I was speechless. Each and every frame of this movie has been carefully crafted and with a whopping budget of 150 crores this movie has all ingredients to keep the cash registers ringing. Im not going to write a review but here is my ‘TAKE’ on this movie:
I never imagined a Rajni movie without punch dialogues & ‘Kuthu’ Pattu. This movie does not have single scene on the superstar’s mass image & star value. The superstar deserves a standing ovation for accepting a run of the mill character without giving a damn thought to his image. There is no introduction song & even the intro scene is straight forward!
This movie has raised the bar & sets new benchmarks. The younger heroes like Vijay, Ajith who are into image trap & fight for the superstar status by giving filthy ‘masala’ movies one after the other should take cue before they are thrashed down by the audience.
The theme is global. The director has purposefully avoided regional specific scenes. Prima facie, good commercial strategy! The location includes Marine drive, Bandra-worli sea link to give pan India feel.
The second half of the movie has too many animations & the CG on the climax goes little overboard. A little pruning would have done wonders.
The audiences were either engrossed in the movie or not in the position to take sides (Good Vs bad Rajni). Surprisingly they remained a silent spectator and within 5 minutes the whistle sounds subsided.
Rajni has performed some fabulous fights & the chitti dance song in which he dances like MJ are definitely a treat to eyes.
My friend told me that this movie is loosely based on ‘En Iniya Iyandira’ a famous fiction written by Sujata. But for the writer’s help Robert would have been a machine without battery. AR Rahman’s music won’t stand the test of time.
I spent 100 bucks for the 3 hour movie. Definitely price worthy. I will give thumps up with my punch ‘REPEATU’
Dot!
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Go for IT or ‘GO’ for IT?
When I told that my neighbour was an IT commissioner, my friend was quick to ask, 'Wasn’t that a strange designation? I know Program manager, Team manager but how is this designation ‘commissioner’ going well with the customer?’ I clarified to him that ‘IT’ can also mean ‘Income tax’ and not just ‘Information technology’. Such is the power of IT (Henceforth mean only ‘Information Technology’) that every young Indian identifies the word with software companies.
I met my friend after a long time. The person who was once roaming around the ‘agraharams’ of Mylapore with a six yard dhoti was seen wearing a ‘Tommy Hilfiger’ T-shirt & a low waist jean. The boot actually weight lifted him by 3 inches with the Woodlands logo clearly visible. With the sign of prosperity - the tummy and a French beard he addressed me ‘Dude’. His transformation has been phenomenal & no wonder why every graduate wants to join an IT company, whatsoever his/her specialization is.
When Texas Instruments started in late 80s, no one would have guessed that the IT offshore market would cross $50Bn someday. Currently, 4% of our GDP & one fifth of our total exports are contributed by IT industry. Close to 2.5M Indians are employed in these companies, which translate to 1.25 crores direct dependency. (assumed for 1 earning member, there are 4 dependents). Over $12Bn of the total offshore revenue comes from BPO & going by the logic of $24K average realization per employee, the total dependent population of BPO comes to 26 lacs. When one talks about India’s growth story, the reference to IT/ITES is inevitable. The boom here propelled real estate, retail, tourism, automobile, travel/transportation, financial sectors thereby creating a multiplier effect.
This industry is growing but will India continue the momentum & retain its pie?
The US government has increased the Visa fee. Mr. Obama has started threatening the companies which are outsourcing jobs about the withdrawal of tax benefits. The Ohio government recently banned outsourcing. Though this may not have a significant financial impact in the short or medium term, one cannot rule out the psychological effect of these protectionist trends since US geography contributes more than 60% of Indian IT company’s revenues.
Only few years back the word ‘Bangalored’ meant job outsourced to India. That’s coz India remained the top outsourcing destination for the world. Today we have several countries like Brazil, Philippines, Mexico, and Vietnam which are giving stiff competition to India. Take for instance, China! The Communist government declared 20 destinations as outsourcing hubs & declared IT as their priority sector. Considering the aggressiveness the Chinese shows, we cannot really rest on the advantages which we naturally inherited like language, work culture etc. In a recent analysis, Gartner has mentioned that India’s share in outsourcing may reduce to 60% from the current 80 – 90%. Indian IT Company’s buzz word today is ‘Near shoring’. All major Indian IT biggies such as TCS, Infosys, Wipro, HCL already has near shore facilities in places like Atlanta, Romania, Polland where they are planning to recruit significant number of natives.
Leave alone the external factors, there are internal hiccups too;
(a) The cost of doing business in India is increasing!! The projected salary increase in India this year, as per Hewitt’s report, is 11.6%. Assuming, India continues the growth momentum for the next 15 years and assuming the salary increases around 10% YoY, in 12 years time we will not have any wage arbitrage between India & USA (On an assumption that US salary will increase by ~3% YoY during this period). In 3 years time, Philippines will become the preferred outsourcing destination than India. Though some may cry foul that the working population in India is much higher, the prospective or ready talent availability remains a challenge; thanks to our poor primary, secondary education & poorly implemented reservation policies. This again increases the hiring and training costs for the companies.
(b) The government is piggy backing on the removal of SEZ benefits citing irregularities (as though none of the other government schemes has).
(c) It is estimated that the total population in Indian cities by 2030 will be twice the size of USA. But still we do not know what ‘infrastructure’ means.
(d) We also have naxalism, terrorism, red tapism in abundance. Corporate scandals like the one happened in Satyam create a negative impression on our moral or ethical practices & integrity.
Are we approaching the dark or is it just a temporary cloud that’s …. Only time will tell what it holds for this sunrise sector. …..
Ever hoping,
Hari
I met my friend after a long time. The person who was once roaming around the ‘agraharams’ of Mylapore with a six yard dhoti was seen wearing a ‘Tommy Hilfiger’ T-shirt & a low waist jean. The boot actually weight lifted him by 3 inches with the Woodlands logo clearly visible. With the sign of prosperity - the tummy and a French beard he addressed me ‘Dude’. His transformation has been phenomenal & no wonder why every graduate wants to join an IT company, whatsoever his/her specialization is.
When Texas Instruments started in late 80s, no one would have guessed that the IT offshore market would cross $50Bn someday. Currently, 4% of our GDP & one fifth of our total exports are contributed by IT industry. Close to 2.5M Indians are employed in these companies, which translate to 1.25 crores direct dependency. (assumed for 1 earning member, there are 4 dependents). Over $12Bn of the total offshore revenue comes from BPO & going by the logic of $24K average realization per employee, the total dependent population of BPO comes to 26 lacs. When one talks about India’s growth story, the reference to IT/ITES is inevitable. The boom here propelled real estate, retail, tourism, automobile, travel/transportation, financial sectors thereby creating a multiplier effect.
This industry is growing but will India continue the momentum & retain its pie?
The US government has increased the Visa fee. Mr. Obama has started threatening the companies which are outsourcing jobs about the withdrawal of tax benefits. The Ohio government recently banned outsourcing. Though this may not have a significant financial impact in the short or medium term, one cannot rule out the psychological effect of these protectionist trends since US geography contributes more than 60% of Indian IT company’s revenues.
Only few years back the word ‘Bangalored’ meant job outsourced to India. That’s coz India remained the top outsourcing destination for the world. Today we have several countries like Brazil, Philippines, Mexico, and Vietnam which are giving stiff competition to India. Take for instance, China! The Communist government declared 20 destinations as outsourcing hubs & declared IT as their priority sector. Considering the aggressiveness the Chinese shows, we cannot really rest on the advantages which we naturally inherited like language, work culture etc. In a recent analysis, Gartner has mentioned that India’s share in outsourcing may reduce to 60% from the current 80 – 90%. Indian IT Company’s buzz word today is ‘Near shoring’. All major Indian IT biggies such as TCS, Infosys, Wipro, HCL already has near shore facilities in places like Atlanta, Romania, Polland where they are planning to recruit significant number of natives.
Leave alone the external factors, there are internal hiccups too;
(a) The cost of doing business in India is increasing!! The projected salary increase in India this year, as per Hewitt’s report, is 11.6%. Assuming, India continues the growth momentum for the next 15 years and assuming the salary increases around 10% YoY, in 12 years time we will not have any wage arbitrage between India & USA (On an assumption that US salary will increase by ~3% YoY during this period). In 3 years time, Philippines will become the preferred outsourcing destination than India. Though some may cry foul that the working population in India is much higher, the prospective or ready talent availability remains a challenge; thanks to our poor primary, secondary education & poorly implemented reservation policies. This again increases the hiring and training costs for the companies.
(b) The government is piggy backing on the removal of SEZ benefits citing irregularities (as though none of the other government schemes has).
(c) It is estimated that the total population in Indian cities by 2030 will be twice the size of USA. But still we do not know what ‘infrastructure’ means.
(d) We also have naxalism, terrorism, red tapism in abundance. Corporate scandals like the one happened in Satyam create a negative impression on our moral or ethical practices & integrity.
Are we approaching the dark or is it just a temporary cloud that’s …. Only time will tell what it holds for this sunrise sector. …..
Ever hoping,
Hari
Monday, August 16, 2010
Hop ON & Hop OFF in Chennai MTC
It was a usual day, usual office but unusually I decided to use the public transportation. It was not a bad idea, but due to the fact that I was forced to use it since my ‘high command’ took the car, I was rather infuriated. I was in office formals with a backpack. The images of jam packed chennai MTC buses, ‘open to sky’ bus stops, rusted seats traumatized me. The ‘Baby Nagar’ bus stop was just 10 mts walk from my apartment and the bus stop was, in reel sense, an excellent handwork of the state ‘Public works department’.
The MTC has introduced several AC VOLVO buses in major routes and I’m habituated to count the passengers inside these buses whenever I happen to see them. I saw a Volvo bus (Route 570 towards CMBT) approaching and I thanked my stars for saving me from an otherwise horrifying experience.
I got into the bus and to my surprise it was full, barely a seat or two left unoccupied. All the passengers had a quick look at me, not sure whether they do this profile screening on all boarding the bus. The conductor came to my seat (In Chennai, these people stick to their designated work place, usually near the exit gate & the passengers have the responsibility to collect the tickets) & addressed me ‘Sir’. Awe struck by his politeness, I physically controlled myself from falling off the seat. The window pane was huge and chennai looked really sexy through the lens of these Volvos. They played some nice melodies, sans those honking noise the journey was pleasant and refreshing!
Most of the Volvo patrons are youngsters who either lost themselves in ‘Iphone/Ipod ‘ or seen baffled with their gal friends. MTC should have done aggressive marketing of their AC services as an alternative for personal vehicles. They should fully utilize their ‘Global positioning system’ by providing the timetable through SMS or internet. Making them as Gen Y’s style symbol would have made these services a huge hit. The profits earned from these services can then be used to subsidize the ‘white board’ (normal) services.
I had to get down near ‘Race course’ junction since the bus took a detour from the ‘five furlong road’. The reality struck me immediately and I was completely drenched in sweat within minutes, thanks to the hot & humid climate. I trekked on the pavements. The air was filled with odor from the overflowing sewage, people were seen jumping, rowing on the stagnated pool. The ‘Kai Endhi Bavans’ (Road side food shops) were busy selling their ‘mid day Thali’ in the same vicinity. An auto driver was seen negotiating the rates from his prospective customer in his own style. One drunken man was crossing the road, swinging, cuddling his co-drunker. A group of middle aged people were coming out of ‘Guindy railway station’ most likely returning home after their shift.
This is India and this is Chennai. Behind the huge shopping malls and commercial skyscrapers there lies my society. This bus ride helped me to reconnect with my society. I travelled by foot thinking about what did I ever give back to my society. The reduction of carbon footprint on that day was the smallest contribution though!
Yours,
Hari
The MTC has introduced several AC VOLVO buses in major routes and I’m habituated to count the passengers inside these buses whenever I happen to see them. I saw a Volvo bus (Route 570 towards CMBT) approaching and I thanked my stars for saving me from an otherwise horrifying experience.
I got into the bus and to my surprise it was full, barely a seat or two left unoccupied. All the passengers had a quick look at me, not sure whether they do this profile screening on all boarding the bus. The conductor came to my seat (In Chennai, these people stick to their designated work place, usually near the exit gate & the passengers have the responsibility to collect the tickets) & addressed me ‘Sir’. Awe struck by his politeness, I physically controlled myself from falling off the seat. The window pane was huge and chennai looked really sexy through the lens of these Volvos. They played some nice melodies, sans those honking noise the journey was pleasant and refreshing!
Most of the Volvo patrons are youngsters who either lost themselves in ‘Iphone/Ipod ‘ or seen baffled with their gal friends. MTC should have done aggressive marketing of their AC services as an alternative for personal vehicles. They should fully utilize their ‘Global positioning system’ by providing the timetable through SMS or internet. Making them as Gen Y’s style symbol would have made these services a huge hit. The profits earned from these services can then be used to subsidize the ‘white board’ (normal) services.
I had to get down near ‘Race course’ junction since the bus took a detour from the ‘five furlong road’. The reality struck me immediately and I was completely drenched in sweat within minutes, thanks to the hot & humid climate. I trekked on the pavements. The air was filled with odor from the overflowing sewage, people were seen jumping, rowing on the stagnated pool. The ‘Kai Endhi Bavans’ (Road side food shops) were busy selling their ‘mid day Thali’ in the same vicinity. An auto driver was seen negotiating the rates from his prospective customer in his own style. One drunken man was crossing the road, swinging, cuddling his co-drunker. A group of middle aged people were coming out of ‘Guindy railway station’ most likely returning home after their shift.
This is India and this is Chennai. Behind the huge shopping malls and commercial skyscrapers there lies my society. This bus ride helped me to reconnect with my society. I travelled by foot thinking about what did I ever give back to my society. The reduction of carbon footprint on that day was the smallest contribution though!
Yours,
Hari
Monday, August 2, 2010
Ten Teething reasons why I should quit?
On a serious note, this has to be read with a ligheter vein
Interviews have become difficult to crack, I mean exit interviews. Thanks to acute talent crunch and ever increasing hiring and attrition costs, Indian companies are coming with divine ways to control attrition. Some of them give hefty salaries & provide stereotype targets with psychopath bosses. Some give moderate salary and provide the luxury of sitting on bench. (Few may not allow this option to perish) Some make a balance between Salary and work.
I decided to quit my company which falls under the last category. I decided not to face any humiliation from my boss, super boss and HR manager. Hence, I listed down issues which I believe none of the HR manager can retaliate. Some of them are given below:
1. My office websense (firewall) blocks Facebook and Naukri site thereby depriving my fundamental right.
2. My mobile phone with 10MP camera & 4GB memory is not allowed inside the ODC (Overseas development centre) due to security reasons. I was dismayed to note the double standard policy of my company which allowed the security team to install the CCTV!
3. There is no gender diversity in my process which has only male employees. I was embarrassed to face questions on 'oomph quotient' from my clients.
4. My office laptop does not recognize Blue ray/movie DVDs. The system even crashed once when I tried to copy Rajnikanth’s Sivaji from my pen drive.
5. My office bulletin board has no information on new releases.
6. My office has a 1000 seater cafeteria which does not serve liquors/cocktails. There are training halls but there are no party halls. The party animal within me has already gone on a “LTA”.
7. My office is just 5 km away from airport but 50 km away from the city. I need to commute in a non air-conditioned taxi daily. Since our nativity to the place where the office is located is questionable why don’t they provide the guesthouse accommodation within the same campus?
8. I could not doze off properly even during a good 'full meals day'. My office system has an admin controlled screen saver which says 'Work, Don’t stare' if my mouse is untouched for a minute. Worse, the screen saver scrolls in bold yellow 'DO NOT DISTURB. PRINCE HARI IS SLEEPING' if the mouse is untouched for 2 minutes.
9. My company follows US timing, US holiday, bill the customer in Dollors but pay us in Indian Rupees. Damn!
10. My office is situated in a Tropical place (Chennai). But the dress code is so strict that the tropical wear is not allowed inside the premises.
Im sure the reasons mentioned above can be appreciated by every Independent young Indian of the New India. The president of United states, Mr. Obama once spoke of shipment of jobs from Bangalore to Buffalo. Mr. President, ask the Indian IT companies when will they start treating their employees like holy cows !!!
Hilariously yours,
Hari
Friday, July 2, 2010
Tamil Culture & women- Are we talking about Male Chauvinism here?
- Hari
My office colleges were unusually giggling that Friday. It stimulated my curiosity but I hibernated it till lunch break. On the lunch table, I began the conversation and it soon killed my curiosity.
Ms. Sanghamitra who works in our bay has come in western attire was the news.
'What’s so special in that?' I asked my colleagues; After all she is wearing a shirt & trouser.
'We all thought Sanny (That’s how the client address her) is a perfect disciplined Tamil women. Am heartbroken since I always dreamt of a well cultured Tamil girl as my gal friend’
‘Who said that wearing a shirt & trouser is against Tamil culture & what’s wrong in that?’ I asked
‘Hari, come on. Gals during Tholkappium times were not wearing Kurtis & shirt. Don’t tell me. These people spoil our culture’- said Krishen.
Krishen alias Venkatakrishnan’s statement shocked me. Krishen is a Brahmin Iyengar who does Santhiyavandhanam three times a day despite his UK work timings. I was under the impression that the travel he undertook to UK for the transition work would have transitioned his ideologies since his thirunamam was missing from his forehead ever since he returned.
‘As per Hindu religion you should not travel abroad since travel across sea is forbidden. Why did you take that’, I was quick to ask this.
‘Are you seeing Sanny, coz this question is of least relevance here’ he smiled at his own joke.
‘It is. If you are not following your religion, you can’t expect them from others’.
‘Off course I follow. I perform Santhiyavandanam thrice a day & the transition travel was simply unavoidable. Anyways, religion & culture are both different. Im talking about her culture not about her religion’- Krishen looked serious.
I was in no mood to preach anyone but my mind was comparing religion & culture and the reason we guys, are concerned about culture especially when it concerns the opposite sex.
In IT industry parlance, Culture is nothing but the SOP (‘standard operating procedures’) for human life. It defines, what to do and what not to do. In a way, it is a subset to religion since religion too talks about individual discipline.
The culture has evolved over the years depending upon the civilization of the mankind and it should keep evolving as change is inevitable. So what holds good in a particular period may not hold good forever. In India, Khadi is (was!) a traditional wear which are handspun/hand-woven clothes suited for this climatic condition. Ever since we had an overdose of westernization we even started wearing blazers which are killer clothes for Indian climate. We (Men) had the exposure to westernization first. We also felt driving a two wheeler, travelling in a crowded bus is easier with trousers than with a ‘dhoti’ or ‘lungi’. Trousers soon replaced our traditional wear. After breaking the religious and cultural barriers we are seeing the present day women challenging us in every sphere of life. Some are bold and confident to shift to western attrire & some are reluctant to the change, may be on the fear of losing their cultural virginity and societal blackmails.
A 60 year grandpa wearing short & T-shirt jogs in a park and no one complains. His wife who usually jogs with a sari & canvas (!), attracted more eyeballs when she came in a ‘chudidhar’ on that blue moon day.
I browsed a Tamil daily which showed a group of gals wearing Jeans, shorts & trousers hoping near a shopping mall. The male journalist who must be a custodian of Tamil culture was bashing at these gals for spoiling the ‘Tamil’ culture. Few pages later, I saw photos of few actresses in a compromising posture. The daily carried the title 'மனம் திறக்கும் நடிகை XYZ'
In our office, as part of anniversary celebration, the employees were asked to come in traditional wear (I dunno who invented this weird idea!) They also gave list of wears which were allowed. We had a choice of Pyjama Kurtha and sharwani! It’s obvious, women were left with no other choice except Sari. The next day we had a haughty laugh at those gals struggling with their Sari.
I hate being called as MCP but is there a gender bias here? Are we using the culture as an excuse? We have grown seeing our mom & sister as ideal women. Our present day super women who love economic independence & socio-economic status have given the moms of housewife era a decent & silent burial. They are matured to choose their life, job, Partner. Do we need to preach them how to dress & about the 2000 years old cultural values? Let us give them a break!
My office colleges were unusually giggling that Friday. It stimulated my curiosity but I hibernated it till lunch break. On the lunch table, I began the conversation and it soon killed my curiosity.
Ms. Sanghamitra who works in our bay has come in western attire was the news.
'What’s so special in that?' I asked my colleagues; After all she is wearing a shirt & trouser.
'We all thought Sanny (That’s how the client address her) is a perfect disciplined Tamil women. Am heartbroken since I always dreamt of a well cultured Tamil girl as my gal friend’
‘Who said that wearing a shirt & trouser is against Tamil culture & what’s wrong in that?’ I asked
‘Hari, come on. Gals during Tholkappium times were not wearing Kurtis & shirt. Don’t tell me. These people spoil our culture’- said Krishen.
Krishen alias Venkatakrishnan’s statement shocked me. Krishen is a Brahmin Iyengar who does Santhiyavandhanam three times a day despite his UK work timings. I was under the impression that the travel he undertook to UK for the transition work would have transitioned his ideologies since his thirunamam was missing from his forehead ever since he returned.
‘As per Hindu religion you should not travel abroad since travel across sea is forbidden. Why did you take that’, I was quick to ask this.
‘Are you seeing Sanny, coz this question is of least relevance here’ he smiled at his own joke.
‘It is. If you are not following your religion, you can’t expect them from others’.
‘Off course I follow. I perform Santhiyavandanam thrice a day & the transition travel was simply unavoidable. Anyways, religion & culture are both different. Im talking about her culture not about her religion’- Krishen looked serious.
I was in no mood to preach anyone but my mind was comparing religion & culture and the reason we guys, are concerned about culture especially when it concerns the opposite sex.
In IT industry parlance, Culture is nothing but the SOP (‘standard operating procedures’) for human life. It defines, what to do and what not to do. In a way, it is a subset to religion since religion too talks about individual discipline.
The culture has evolved over the years depending upon the civilization of the mankind and it should keep evolving as change is inevitable. So what holds good in a particular period may not hold good forever. In India, Khadi is (was!) a traditional wear which are handspun/hand-woven clothes suited for this climatic condition. Ever since we had an overdose of westernization we even started wearing blazers which are killer clothes for Indian climate. We (Men) had the exposure to westernization first. We also felt driving a two wheeler, travelling in a crowded bus is easier with trousers than with a ‘dhoti’ or ‘lungi’. Trousers soon replaced our traditional wear. After breaking the religious and cultural barriers we are seeing the present day women challenging us in every sphere of life. Some are bold and confident to shift to western attrire & some are reluctant to the change, may be on the fear of losing their cultural virginity and societal blackmails.
A 60 year grandpa wearing short & T-shirt jogs in a park and no one complains. His wife who usually jogs with a sari & canvas (!), attracted more eyeballs when she came in a ‘chudidhar’ on that blue moon day.
I browsed a Tamil daily which showed a group of gals wearing Jeans, shorts & trousers hoping near a shopping mall. The male journalist who must be a custodian of Tamil culture was bashing at these gals for spoiling the ‘Tamil’ culture. Few pages later, I saw photos of few actresses in a compromising posture. The daily carried the title 'மனம் திறக்கும் நடிகை XYZ'
In our office, as part of anniversary celebration, the employees were asked to come in traditional wear (I dunno who invented this weird idea!) They also gave list of wears which were allowed. We had a choice of Pyjama Kurtha and sharwani! It’s obvious, women were left with no other choice except Sari. The next day we had a haughty laugh at those gals struggling with their Sari.
I hate being called as MCP but is there a gender bias here? Are we using the culture as an excuse? We have grown seeing our mom & sister as ideal women. Our present day super women who love economic independence & socio-economic status have given the moms of housewife era a decent & silent burial. They are matured to choose their life, job, Partner. Do we need to preach them how to dress & about the 2000 years old cultural values? Let us give them a break!
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Indian demo’CRAZY’
- Hari
August fifteen: The very mention of this date immediately brings the joy of (a) Public holiday (b) Television special programs (c) Discounts on our favorite outlets. Give us 2 more minutes, and we will realize that its Independence day within the stipulated time. We celebrate this day because our country became democratic after centuries of colonial rule. More than six decades since independence, I use to think, whether we are enjoying the fruits of democracy in the right way?
India became the largest democratic country, as the definition goes the government of the people, for the people and BY the people. Nehru travelled across country educating people that they had to choose their own leader. Dr Ambedkar drafted the constitution, which best suited the country at that time. The constitution allowed even the illiterates to contest elections since the majority of the country's population was uneducated. This yielded the desired result since most of our current politicians/leaders are uneducated while the majority of the country's population is educated, atleast in terms of average literacy level.
Our leaders post independence had a vision on how to make the country progressive when the majority of the population was clueless. Today, the reverse has happened.
Democracy allowed every citizen the right to follow his own religion, faith, language. Today we have innumerable religions, caste, sub-caste thus requiring the need for caste based census after six decades of independence (!). The growth of number of castes, linguistic politics might have surpassed the growth of the GDP of this country itself.
Dr Ambedkar spent several thousand hours in drafting the constitution of this country. Today, we have several laws, which if indexed can run more than the constitution of this country. Yet none of the law is implementable in its true spirit since abiding a law defeats the very purpose of democracy.
Six decades of self ruling, we still have problems of illiteracy, social inequality, poverty, unemployment. Though the change is happening, this transition process is very slow.
Some of the reasons that are plaguing India which I could think of:
Politicians & political system:
Indian politicians are known for corruption and unethical practices. Politicians shift parties, loot public money, encourages short sighted policies, woo voters with freebies and most importantly fool the people. Our politicians are always in corruption spree & famous in spreading corruption in all the fields without any discrimination. Some of the famous scams are Coffin box scam, cattle feed scam, Bofors Scam, Spectrum scam & the list goes on.
The political system does not allow the common man to take public cause easily. One has to join a public party & by the time one gets elevated as minister or nominated for ministership, he/she gets soaked in the old age surpassing the retirement age. Running the political party is as costly as running the country itself & naturally the first job is to reap returns from the investments already made. The complete lack of accountability from the politicians is something which irks the fellow citizens more than the corruption. Nobody takes responsibility for any manmade disasters like terrorism.
There is company law which regulate companies, there is SEBI which regulates the market. Why don't we have an independent governing body to regulate the political system & politicians?
We should lay down professional ethics to be followed by the politicians while in power. In this way, those who throw mikes can be thrown out of power for the indiscipline act. There should be a training academy which trains & certifies the aspiring politicians. A person can contest election only after being certified in this academy. Minimum education qualification like arts or science degree should be stipulated. One should possess adequate knowledge for planning & to convert plan to action.
Babus:
The Hindi speaking clerk who has little knowledge in english is known as Babus. In Indian context, we refer Government employees as Babus. When British was ruling India, the creamy layer of the population who were given education in English medium was offered Government jobs, which ensured high pay package (comparatively)! The British framed several rules which were bureaucratic and used it to suppress Indians. The same bureaucratic rules are even now used by our Babus & they continue to suppress our fellow people. Many countries in the world has reformed the way government works but India sadly remain in the stone-age era. Several foreign investors have been highlighting the 'Red Tapism' issue but any attempt of reformation leads to flash strike in the name of democracy jeopardizing the entire government.
A visit to any government office & one can see half or full bald clerk, sitting on a teakwood table, with loads & loads of file completely engulfed in the dust coming out from those decade old files. Their punctuality & productivity were duly rewarded by promotions, which are based on seniority. The periodic Dearness allowances is given for their 'Dearless' behavior.
There are several people friendly policies which has gone haywire, credits to our babus. The present government's flagship program 'National rural employment Guarantee' (NREG) scheme was declared success since the wastage in this scheme was only between 20 to 40% (On the estimated $8b spending on rural schemes, 20% would mean Rs. 7200 crores. Wow!) The total wastage in PDS scheme (Public distribution scheme) was astounding 73%, which must be an unofficial Guiness book of world records.
It's tempting to write so many ideas, well, nothing is going to happen in our democratic country.
Judicial system:
Over 3 million cases are pending in India's 21 high courts, and an astounding 26.3 million cases are pending in subordinate courts across the country. At the same time, there are almost a 250,000 under-trials languishing in jails across the country. Of these, some 2,069 have been in jail for more than five years, even as their guilt or innocence is yet to be ascertained. This has been revealed by home ministry's department of justice, under a Right to Information Act. While this is the scenario, our Lords and My Lords goes for a summer vacation. (Wow!) These cases were pending not because of shortage of lawyers. More the duration of cases, the more the money they make.
Justice delayed is Justice denied. The judgment for the Bhopal Gas disaster which killed around 25000 people was delivered in June 2010, nearly 25 years after the tragedy at the ratio of 3 deaths per day. By delivering judgment imprisoning the culprits for 2 years, the court has done the unjust.
Why don't the governments insist deadlines for closure of cases & give ceiling on number of adjournments? The judgments can be fed into the computer and most of the regular cases can be disposed by using artificial intelligence. Why not e-judgment?
India has strong moral values and was once considered as the land of 'dharma'. The justice is not a synonym of dharma since the justice is based on a particular law. In most of the cases, the justice is a mere pronouncement of the underlying law & if the law itself is unjustifiable, the judgment does not deliver the 'dharma'. Most of our laws are obsolete and needs to be rewritten based on changing times. Recently, the criminal law on 'Rape' was suitably amended in order to remove the gender bias. But this has to be done more proactively.
People:
All the politicians, Babus, are not made. They are from the people. Our tolerance & carelessness is also responsible for their actions. Evading tax, Vote for Money, offering bribe are some of the serious blunders while disposing the garbage on the streets/roads, disseminating religious information in public places, causing pollution, driving recklessly or drunken driving, damaging public properties, encouraging child labor in domestic help etc are some of the common mistake which we never realize as mistakes.
Democracy is the government by the people. It is THE PEOPLE who is responsible for the success of democracy. It should not go the saying in Tamil 'Kurangu Kayil Poo Malai' If we act as a responsible citizen considering the national interest it WILL make the difference. Won't they?
- Hariraam
August fifteen: The very mention of this date immediately brings the joy of (a) Public holiday (b) Television special programs (c) Discounts on our favorite outlets. Give us 2 more minutes, and we will realize that its Independence day within the stipulated time. We celebrate this day because our country became democratic after centuries of colonial rule. More than six decades since independence, I use to think, whether we are enjoying the fruits of democracy in the right way?
India became the largest democratic country, as the definition goes the government of the people, for the people and BY the people. Nehru travelled across country educating people that they had to choose their own leader. Dr Ambedkar drafted the constitution, which best suited the country at that time. The constitution allowed even the illiterates to contest elections since the majority of the country's population was uneducated. This yielded the desired result since most of our current politicians/leaders are uneducated while the majority of the country's population is educated, atleast in terms of average literacy level.
Our leaders post independence had a vision on how to make the country progressive when the majority of the population was clueless. Today, the reverse has happened.
Democracy allowed every citizen the right to follow his own religion, faith, language. Today we have innumerable religions, caste, sub-caste thus requiring the need for caste based census after six decades of independence (!). The growth of number of castes, linguistic politics might have surpassed the growth of the GDP of this country itself.
Dr Ambedkar spent several thousand hours in drafting the constitution of this country. Today, we have several laws, which if indexed can run more than the constitution of this country. Yet none of the law is implementable in its true spirit since abiding a law defeats the very purpose of democracy.
Six decades of self ruling, we still have problems of illiteracy, social inequality, poverty, unemployment. Though the change is happening, this transition process is very slow.
Some of the reasons that are plaguing India which I could think of:
Politicians & political system:
Indian politicians are known for corruption and unethical practices. Politicians shift parties, loot public money, encourages short sighted policies, woo voters with freebies and most importantly fool the people. Our politicians are always in corruption spree & famous in spreading corruption in all the fields without any discrimination. Some of the famous scams are Coffin box scam, cattle feed scam, Bofors Scam, Spectrum scam & the list goes on.
The political system does not allow the common man to take public cause easily. One has to join a public party & by the time one gets elevated as minister or nominated for ministership, he/she gets soaked in the old age surpassing the retirement age. Running the political party is as costly as running the country itself & naturally the first job is to reap returns from the investments already made. The complete lack of accountability from the politicians is something which irks the fellow citizens more than the corruption. Nobody takes responsibility for any manmade disasters like terrorism.
There is company law which regulate companies, there is SEBI which regulates the market. Why don't we have an independent governing body to regulate the political system & politicians?
We should lay down professional ethics to be followed by the politicians while in power. In this way, those who throw mikes can be thrown out of power for the indiscipline act. There should be a training academy which trains & certifies the aspiring politicians. A person can contest election only after being certified in this academy. Minimum education qualification like arts or science degree should be stipulated. One should possess adequate knowledge for planning & to convert plan to action.
Babus:
The Hindi speaking clerk who has little knowledge in english is known as Babus. In Indian context, we refer Government employees as Babus. When British was ruling India, the creamy layer of the population who were given education in English medium was offered Government jobs, which ensured high pay package (comparatively)! The British framed several rules which were bureaucratic and used it to suppress Indians. The same bureaucratic rules are even now used by our Babus & they continue to suppress our fellow people. Many countries in the world has reformed the way government works but India sadly remain in the stone-age era. Several foreign investors have been highlighting the 'Red Tapism' issue but any attempt of reformation leads to flash strike in the name of democracy jeopardizing the entire government.
A visit to any government office & one can see half or full bald clerk, sitting on a teakwood table, with loads & loads of file completely engulfed in the dust coming out from those decade old files. Their punctuality & productivity were duly rewarded by promotions, which are based on seniority. The periodic Dearness allowances is given for their 'Dearless' behavior.
There are several people friendly policies which has gone haywire, credits to our babus. The present government's flagship program 'National rural employment Guarantee' (NREG) scheme was declared success since the wastage in this scheme was only between 20 to 40% (On the estimated $8b spending on rural schemes, 20% would mean Rs. 7200 crores. Wow!) The total wastage in PDS scheme (Public distribution scheme) was astounding 73%, which must be an unofficial Guiness book of world records.
It's tempting to write so many ideas, well, nothing is going to happen in our democratic country.
Judicial system:
Over 3 million cases are pending in India's 21 high courts, and an astounding 26.3 million cases are pending in subordinate courts across the country. At the same time, there are almost a 250,000 under-trials languishing in jails across the country. Of these, some 2,069 have been in jail for more than five years, even as their guilt or innocence is yet to be ascertained. This has been revealed by home ministry's department of justice, under a Right to Information Act. While this is the scenario, our Lords and My Lords goes for a summer vacation. (Wow!) These cases were pending not because of shortage of lawyers. More the duration of cases, the more the money they make.
Justice delayed is Justice denied. The judgment for the Bhopal Gas disaster which killed around 25000 people was delivered in June 2010, nearly 25 years after the tragedy at the ratio of 3 deaths per day. By delivering judgment imprisoning the culprits for 2 years, the court has done the unjust.
Why don't the governments insist deadlines for closure of cases & give ceiling on number of adjournments? The judgments can be fed into the computer and most of the regular cases can be disposed by using artificial intelligence. Why not e-judgment?
India has strong moral values and was once considered as the land of 'dharma'. The justice is not a synonym of dharma since the justice is based on a particular law. In most of the cases, the justice is a mere pronouncement of the underlying law & if the law itself is unjustifiable, the judgment does not deliver the 'dharma'. Most of our laws are obsolete and needs to be rewritten based on changing times. Recently, the criminal law on 'Rape' was suitably amended in order to remove the gender bias. But this has to be done more proactively.
People:
All the politicians, Babus, are not made. They are from the people. Our tolerance & carelessness is also responsible for their actions. Evading tax, Vote for Money, offering bribe are some of the serious blunders while disposing the garbage on the streets/roads, disseminating religious information in public places, causing pollution, driving recklessly or drunken driving, damaging public properties, encouraging child labor in domestic help etc are some of the common mistake which we never realize as mistakes.
Democracy is the government by the people. It is THE PEOPLE who is responsible for the success of democracy. It should not go the saying in Tamil 'Kurangu Kayil Poo Malai' If we act as a responsible citizen considering the national interest it WILL make the difference. Won't they?
- Hariraam
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
The Road ‘NOT’ to be taken
- Hari
In the hustle & bustle of urban Indian life, one has to always negotiate with narrow lanes, haphazard parking, over speeding vehicles & the worst traffic sense of our nuisance, sorry, citizens. If this has to be done during peak hours, where the offices are located elsewhere in the planet, it cost us dearly in terms of health bills. It happened during such peak time when I was returning from my parent’s house located near Choolaimedu (Chennai) driving straight to office. The lane heading to the main road was just 15 feet wide with pedestrians, two/four wheelers, heavy commercial vehicles, cyclist all sharing the same road space, was in a complete mess.
I accelerated at every possible moment, almost hitting the pedestrian who suddenly poked from a corner so mercilessly. An auto was heading straight towards me, took a sudden turn which if not done in a ‘nano second’ would have hit my bonnet. A middle aged, bald headed helmet less gentleman, was turning his head some 30 to 45 degrees signaling a right turn. I think he always forget to use his indicators. But having spent more than ‘one third’ of my estimated lifetime in India, i'm somehow used to all these forms of driving.
I noticed a two wheeler rider thro my car’s ‘rear view mirror’, a near replica of Chris Pfizer, driving fast so dangerously. The Indian ego of not letting the fellow Indians to overtake you hit my senses and I speeded up my car. In the first 2 sharp blind curves, I succeeded. Then I encountered a huge speed breaker where I had to reduce the speed. This guy came near me & was about to begin the conversation. I did not want to let him speak out & wanted to yell at him first, as he was over-speeding. (Without realizing that I was equally bad) His body language was calm, subtle & he politely told me to close my car door properly! I realized I was driving the car without locking the door & who knows, I would have been thrown out of the vehicle on the previous sharp curves!
I felt ashamed at my own act. Why did I drive so recklessly? What makes me so impatient & why such a preconceived notion on that biker? We talk about business etiquette, why don’t we have the road etiquette? We don’t follow road rules & if someone does, we laugh at it. We honk without realizing it as a ‘indiscipline’ act. Everybody has some urgency & in the mad rush to come first, we have completely lost our tolerance. Unfortunately we are ruled by short sighted, corrupt politicians. Unfortunately, all our laws are never implemented in true spirits. After all, our responsible act makes a difference! Don’t they?
- Hariraam
In the hustle & bustle of urban Indian life, one has to always negotiate with narrow lanes, haphazard parking, over speeding vehicles & the worst traffic sense of our nuisance, sorry, citizens. If this has to be done during peak hours, where the offices are located elsewhere in the planet, it cost us dearly in terms of health bills. It happened during such peak time when I was returning from my parent’s house located near Choolaimedu (Chennai) driving straight to office. The lane heading to the main road was just 15 feet wide with pedestrians, two/four wheelers, heavy commercial vehicles, cyclist all sharing the same road space, was in a complete mess.
I accelerated at every possible moment, almost hitting the pedestrian who suddenly poked from a corner so mercilessly. An auto was heading straight towards me, took a sudden turn which if not done in a ‘nano second’ would have hit my bonnet. A middle aged, bald headed helmet less gentleman, was turning his head some 30 to 45 degrees signaling a right turn. I think he always forget to use his indicators. But having spent more than ‘one third’ of my estimated lifetime in India, i'm somehow used to all these forms of driving.
I noticed a two wheeler rider thro my car’s ‘rear view mirror’, a near replica of Chris Pfizer, driving fast so dangerously. The Indian ego of not letting the fellow Indians to overtake you hit my senses and I speeded up my car. In the first 2 sharp blind curves, I succeeded. Then I encountered a huge speed breaker where I had to reduce the speed. This guy came near me & was about to begin the conversation. I did not want to let him speak out & wanted to yell at him first, as he was over-speeding. (Without realizing that I was equally bad) His body language was calm, subtle & he politely told me to close my car door properly! I realized I was driving the car without locking the door & who knows, I would have been thrown out of the vehicle on the previous sharp curves!
I felt ashamed at my own act. Why did I drive so recklessly? What makes me so impatient & why such a preconceived notion on that biker? We talk about business etiquette, why don’t we have the road etiquette? We don’t follow road rules & if someone does, we laugh at it. We honk without realizing it as a ‘indiscipline’ act. Everybody has some urgency & in the mad rush to come first, we have completely lost our tolerance. Unfortunately we are ruled by short sighted, corrupt politicians. Unfortunately, all our laws are never implemented in true spirits. After all, our responsible act makes a difference! Don’t they?
- Hariraam
Monday, May 10, 2010
The MUSA story
- Hari
It was in February 2006, when self, Vinaya and Deepa travelled to Goa for an audit assignment. We met a foreigner (Think a Russian) in the general compartment. He was fair complexioned, pale and was looking very funny with his short kurta & trousers. Infact his saffron colored kurta had some Sanskrit words & it was giving him a complete ‘third world’ look.
The audit assignment was planned for a month and we were so thrilled about the fact that the entire stay had been arranged in the Taj Exotica hotel, one of the finest luxury hotels in Asia. We kept chatting about our previous audit assignments but this man was so bored that he kept looking at us. At times, when our eyes met he smiled. In India, we are very hesitant to communicate with the strangers and when the other person does we become suspicious.
We were very hungry & waited for Arakkonam junction the first stop after Chennai central. As soon as the train stopped I rushed to a nearby shop and got 2 flavors of Lays chips. Vinaya was too good to offer her portion to this guy, but he refused. I tried convincing this guy to take some piece explaining that it was a product of Pepsi co and India has these so called hi-fi processed foods.
In a couple of minutes, we finished our portions. Deepa gestured she was still hungry. Noting this, he took his trolley bag and to our surprise he was keeping loads & loads of bananas. I made a quick count and it was more than 2 dozens. This time it is his turn to convince us to take some bananas! The funny thing was, we had to hear about goodness of bananas from a Russian national. He infact advised us to avoid these packed foods which has processed fat that increases blood cholesterol.
The next day, we reached our hotel. We were completely exhausted and thought of ordering thro room service. The waiter on the line gave some options on the milkshakes. Vinaya ordered three banana milkshakes and smiled at me!
- Hariraam
It was in February 2006, when self, Vinaya and Deepa travelled to Goa for an audit assignment. We met a foreigner (Think a Russian) in the general compartment. He was fair complexioned, pale and was looking very funny with his short kurta & trousers. Infact his saffron colored kurta had some Sanskrit words & it was giving him a complete ‘third world’ look.
The audit assignment was planned for a month and we were so thrilled about the fact that the entire stay had been arranged in the Taj Exotica hotel, one of the finest luxury hotels in Asia. We kept chatting about our previous audit assignments but this man was so bored that he kept looking at us. At times, when our eyes met he smiled. In India, we are very hesitant to communicate with the strangers and when the other person does we become suspicious.
We were very hungry & waited for Arakkonam junction the first stop after Chennai central. As soon as the train stopped I rushed to a nearby shop and got 2 flavors of Lays chips. Vinaya was too good to offer her portion to this guy, but he refused. I tried convincing this guy to take some piece explaining that it was a product of Pepsi co and India has these so called hi-fi processed foods.
In a couple of minutes, we finished our portions. Deepa gestured she was still hungry. Noting this, he took his trolley bag and to our surprise he was keeping loads & loads of bananas. I made a quick count and it was more than 2 dozens. This time it is his turn to convince us to take some bananas! The funny thing was, we had to hear about goodness of bananas from a Russian national. He infact advised us to avoid these packed foods which has processed fat that increases blood cholesterol.
The next day, we reached our hotel. We were completely exhausted and thought of ordering thro room service. The waiter on the line gave some options on the milkshakes. Vinaya ordered three banana milkshakes and smiled at me!
- Hariraam
Monday, March 29, 2010
Industrialization in Tamilnadu & emphasis on value creation
- Hari
The past several years has been good for Chennai & Tamilnadu, thanks to the efforts taken by the state government in attracting major automobile MNC and several IT/ITES companies. Its gives immense pride for a true chennaite like me on the very thought that my city is second only to Bangalore in IT/ITES space and one of the major automobile cluster of India.
But what I feel that the government has failed rather should have done is ‘branding the city’. The city scores high with a ‘low cost destination’ tag & when it comes to perception, Chennai looses to Delhi/Gurgaon, Bangalore & even Hyderabad. The reason is, we are NOT moving up the value chain.
In rupee terms, we have attracted more than 20000 crores of investment in the last 4 years alone. But on a close look, these investments have been spent on the ‘machines’ and other intangible things such as ‘land’ & not on the main factor of production ‘labour’. These MNC come here for the cost advantage & in any manufacturing companies the main factor of production is ‘Materials’ and ‘Machines’& perhaps the last emphasis is the ‘Men/Labour’ as most of the production is automated. In a way, the government is providing the employment opportunities but not really moving them in the value chain. Our employees still work under poor work condition, get the minimum wages or little more than what they could have got in the tier 2 or tier 3 towns. This is also evident in the frequently increasing labour unrest & formation of several labour unions. The management layer of these MNC are occupied by the expats (foreign nationals) and hence the profit from running these operations are either galloped by them or repatriated to foreign countries.
The sudden increase in industrialization has lead to migration of youth from smaller towns & smaller cities to Chennai. Those who are not willing to settle down for these low paying jobs end up in migrating to near-by cities like Bangalore or Mumbai or to gulf countries.
While it is good to have manufacturing industries since it helps in equivalent growth across the section of society (from helper to floor supervisor to production manager) the government should have given much more focus to service industries. For instance, in an IT company, more than 50% of the cost is spent on direct salaries & investment for any service company is nothing but their people alone. From recruiting employees, paying for their retention, staff welfare the cost of most of the service companies such as Banking, IT/ITES goes to employees. It’s just not service industries any labour oriented activites such as Consulting, R&D emphasis higher investments on labour. The service industries also create indirect employment like cabs & transportation, real estate, tourism & entertainment etc. We may be second in IT exports but again the product offerings are nothing but BPO/KPO, testing & maintenance activities which requires miniscule talent & thus they are low paying jobs.
Companies like Hyndai, Motorola, Nokia, Dell have their production facility in Chennai whereas their R&D centres or corporate office is either located in Bangalore or Hyderabad.
What we can do:
A state like Maharashtra has several global cities like Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur and government is keen on developing new world class Greenfield cities with all modern amenities. Gujarat does not have one metropolis but still is a leader in industrialization & several new cities are coming up on the Delhi- Mumbai industrial corridor. We should focus on developing multiple manufacturing clusters in Tamilnad & all manufacturing industries, IT/ITES which involve BPO, testing, maintenance activities can be shifted to those tier-2 cities. Those involve design, R&D, consulting, Application development should be located in big cities like Chennai or Coimbatore.
Tamilnadu still depends on the local talent. Though we have 250+ engineering colleges and several arts colleges, we do not have the quality of resources locally to attract industries across all sectors & all activities. The long term solution is to create a strong fundamentals like good primary & secondary education. But the short tem solution is to attract the talent across the country to Tamilnadu. Setting up world class technical institutions, business schools, foreign institutions (like the Virginia university near Puducherry) will allow influx of several students from different part of the country who can turn as potential workforce.
The state & Chennai in particular should turn to be ‘youngster friendly’ city allowing cross sectional society, multi cultered people.
A city like chennai if it has to be truly global city, should have more ‘knowledge parks’. These knowledge parks will have Finance, IT & R&D SEZ. More emphasis should be given to have their corporate office in these knowledge parks that’s where the creamy layer of the company will be situated. These knowledge parks should not be coming in the already congested city but on a new Greenfield city outside Chennai (Similar to Noida & greater Noida)
A higher emphasis should be given in creating a truly world class infrastructure. Instead of proposing elevated or BRTS corridor inside the city leading to land acquisition hassles & there by multiple court cases, we can instead have a new city with all these modern infrastructure, designated commercial & residential areas, place for the international school/college campuses, outside the city limits.
Chennai should host several high end business & investor summit, international sports event. The government should encourage more industries to have their product launch from here. For instance, the automobile show, auto racing shows, can be hosted in Chennai instead of Delhi since the city has the highest automobile production capacity. More fashion shows since Tamilnadu has a biggest textile cluster too (Tirupur & Coimbatore) Activities like this & much more will put Chennai on global map and helps in creating the brand for Tamilnadu. In a long run there is going to be a perception change.
More public- private participation should be encouraged. The government can have a ‘real estate’ specific policy so that more & more real estate players will come forward for infrastructure creation. Creation of private cities like ‘Lavasa’ near Pune, requires more private public participation. The promotion of these projects by these real estate player will automatically create the much needed publicity.
- Hariraam
The past several years has been good for Chennai & Tamilnadu, thanks to the efforts taken by the state government in attracting major automobile MNC and several IT/ITES companies. Its gives immense pride for a true chennaite like me on the very thought that my city is second only to Bangalore in IT/ITES space and one of the major automobile cluster of India.
But what I feel that the government has failed rather should have done is ‘branding the city’. The city scores high with a ‘low cost destination’ tag & when it comes to perception, Chennai looses to Delhi/Gurgaon, Bangalore & even Hyderabad. The reason is, we are NOT moving up the value chain.
In rupee terms, we have attracted more than 20000 crores of investment in the last 4 years alone. But on a close look, these investments have been spent on the ‘machines’ and other intangible things such as ‘land’ & not on the main factor of production ‘labour’. These MNC come here for the cost advantage & in any manufacturing companies the main factor of production is ‘Materials’ and ‘Machines’& perhaps the last emphasis is the ‘Men/Labour’ as most of the production is automated. In a way, the government is providing the employment opportunities but not really moving them in the value chain. Our employees still work under poor work condition, get the minimum wages or little more than what they could have got in the tier 2 or tier 3 towns. This is also evident in the frequently increasing labour unrest & formation of several labour unions. The management layer of these MNC are occupied by the expats (foreign nationals) and hence the profit from running these operations are either galloped by them or repatriated to foreign countries.
The sudden increase in industrialization has lead to migration of youth from smaller towns & smaller cities to Chennai. Those who are not willing to settle down for these low paying jobs end up in migrating to near-by cities like Bangalore or Mumbai or to gulf countries.
While it is good to have manufacturing industries since it helps in equivalent growth across the section of society (from helper to floor supervisor to production manager) the government should have given much more focus to service industries. For instance, in an IT company, more than 50% of the cost is spent on direct salaries & investment for any service company is nothing but their people alone. From recruiting employees, paying for their retention, staff welfare the cost of most of the service companies such as Banking, IT/ITES goes to employees. It’s just not service industries any labour oriented activites such as Consulting, R&D emphasis higher investments on labour. The service industries also create indirect employment like cabs & transportation, real estate, tourism & entertainment etc. We may be second in IT exports but again the product offerings are nothing but BPO/KPO, testing & maintenance activities which requires miniscule talent & thus they are low paying jobs.
Companies like Hyndai, Motorola, Nokia, Dell have their production facility in Chennai whereas their R&D centres or corporate office is either located in Bangalore or Hyderabad.
What we can do:
A state like Maharashtra has several global cities like Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur and government is keen on developing new world class Greenfield cities with all modern amenities. Gujarat does not have one metropolis but still is a leader in industrialization & several new cities are coming up on the Delhi- Mumbai industrial corridor. We should focus on developing multiple manufacturing clusters in Tamilnad & all manufacturing industries, IT/ITES which involve BPO, testing, maintenance activities can be shifted to those tier-2 cities. Those involve design, R&D, consulting, Application development should be located in big cities like Chennai or Coimbatore.
Tamilnadu still depends on the local talent. Though we have 250+ engineering colleges and several arts colleges, we do not have the quality of resources locally to attract industries across all sectors & all activities. The long term solution is to create a strong fundamentals like good primary & secondary education. But the short tem solution is to attract the talent across the country to Tamilnadu. Setting up world class technical institutions, business schools, foreign institutions (like the Virginia university near Puducherry) will allow influx of several students from different part of the country who can turn as potential workforce.
The state & Chennai in particular should turn to be ‘youngster friendly’ city allowing cross sectional society, multi cultered people.
A city like chennai if it has to be truly global city, should have more ‘knowledge parks’. These knowledge parks will have Finance, IT & R&D SEZ. More emphasis should be given to have their corporate office in these knowledge parks that’s where the creamy layer of the company will be situated. These knowledge parks should not be coming in the already congested city but on a new Greenfield city outside Chennai (Similar to Noida & greater Noida)
A higher emphasis should be given in creating a truly world class infrastructure. Instead of proposing elevated or BRTS corridor inside the city leading to land acquisition hassles & there by multiple court cases, we can instead have a new city with all these modern infrastructure, designated commercial & residential areas, place for the international school/college campuses, outside the city limits.
Chennai should host several high end business & investor summit, international sports event. The government should encourage more industries to have their product launch from here. For instance, the automobile show, auto racing shows, can be hosted in Chennai instead of Delhi since the city has the highest automobile production capacity. More fashion shows since Tamilnadu has a biggest textile cluster too (Tirupur & Coimbatore) Activities like this & much more will put Chennai on global map and helps in creating the brand for Tamilnadu. In a long run there is going to be a perception change.
More public- private participation should be encouraged. The government can have a ‘real estate’ specific policy so that more & more real estate players will come forward for infrastructure creation. Creation of private cities like ‘Lavasa’ near Pune, requires more private public participation. The promotion of these projects by these real estate player will automatically create the much needed publicity.
- Hariraam
Chennai & Me
- Hari
It’s my home town and no wonders why this place is close to my heart. For that reason, everyone is attached emotionally to their home town. In those days, I remember Madras only for the beaches and VGP amusement park which we use to visit during our summer holidays. In early 2000, when I had to settle here for my higher education and for a person who was brought up in a small hamlet from interior Tamilnad, Chennai suddenly became an alienated world. I was perplexed why I was here and bit nervous. She was getting fast for me and those days are indeed ‘ever green’ as she took me over this transition process smoothly. Our country is known for the diversity and each city is different in its own way. The language, the culture, the people and the society are different and it is ‘equally easy’ to get adopted once you start loving them and start associating with it. Thanks Chennai for teaching this to me.
Above Vindhyas, people use the term ‘Madrasi’ to refer Chennai. Some of my ‘North Indian’ friends (I hate this differentiation, yet using it for easier understanding) even laugh at her for being very different from the rest of the country.
Some of the most noticeable ‘Madrasi’ culture:
1. Tamil, Tamil and only Tamil. It’s Tamil everywhere!
2. Same as point 1. ‘Naan Hindi nahi malum’ sirji type people.
3. HOT weather
4. Idly, vada, Dosa, Pongal serving hotels
5. Yellow Auto rickshaws and ‘Tanglish’ speaking auto drivers.
6. Green Tappa MTC ‘PUSH BACK’ buses
7. Salty water
8. ‘Party na enna nu kekara Makkal’
9. Tamil movies, Rajnikanth, Kamal Hassan.
Each place has similar uniqueness and identity and it should not be changed. As I mentioned earlier, we are attached to our language, religion, culture and place emotionally that we think all others are inferior. Infact on a positive note there is more to the Madras culture than just Auto rickshaws and Tamil movies.
Ø Chennai has designated places for non tamil speaking people such as ‘Sowcarpet’ or ‘Kilpauk’ for Marathis & Gujarathis/Rajasthanis. There is a street off greams road near to Apollo hospital for Bengalis. Chennai has a larger number of Telegu speaking population & a recent survey pegged the non tamil population in chennai as 20%.
Ø Chennai is second only to Bangalore in IT exports. It provides direct employment close 3 lacs youngsters in IT/ITES space. ‘Tata consultant services’ the largest IT company & Cognisant technology solutions have their biggest development centres in Chennai.
Ø Chennai is also known as ‘Detroit of South India’ with a total installed automobile production contributing to 32% of India’s total production & she is establishing her leadership in electronic manufacturing as well. Chennai is home to companies like Hyndai, Ford, Nissan, Renault, Mitsubishi, Daimler, BMW, Nokia, Dell, Samsung, Flextronics, Motorola, Foxconn, Caparo, Caterpillar, Komatsu, Apollo tyres, JK tyres, Michelin, Infosys, Wipro, IBM, Accenture, HCL, Amazon, Shell and also to homegrown companies like Ashok Leyland, Mahindra & Mahindra, TVS, L&T etc
Ø Chennai was ranked 29 in early 1990’s in the world’s top 30 cities. In 2003, it was ranked as ‘second’ best city to live in India by outlook. In 2009 E&Y survey, Chennai ranked 3rd best city in India surpassing Bangalore, Calcutta, Pune and Hyderabad.
Ø Chennai was the first city to introduce the ‘mall culture’ in India. The spencers mall in Mount Road was the first organized retail space in the country.
Ø The famous domestic brand MRF tyres which has been endorsed by most celebs including Sachin is known as ‘Madras Rubber Factory’.
Ø Chennai is the one of the top Asian cities to attract major chunk of FDI (Foreign direct investments). Most of the investments are in the Chennai- Sriperumbudur, Chennai – oragadam corridor making it the biggest industrial corridor of south India.
Ø Chennai airport is the busiest airport in South India & the 3rd busiest airport in India after Mumbai and Delhi. (Both domestic & international traffic put together). Chennai is called ‘gateway of south India’
Ø Chennai is the least polluted city among the metro despite having more than 25 lakh vehicles on the roads and on an average 800 new vehicles getting added on every single day.
Ø Chennai is the leader in ‘medical tourism’ with people coming from countries like Pakistan, Srilanka, Myanmar, Israel to Chennai for advanced medical treatments. Chennai offers access to high end medical treatments with lower cost. The leader in healthcare sector in Chennai are Apollo hospitals, Ramachandra, Miot, Bilroth & Fortis. Ø Chennai’s Marina beach is the second longest beach in Asia.
Ø The chennai Mofussil Bus stand in Koyambedu (CMBT) is Asia’s biggest with capacity to handle more than 1000 buses.
Ø Chennai took her name from the king ‘Chennappa Nayakar’ who donated this piece of land to British’s East India company to set up their trading company here. She was formally known as ‘Madras’
Ø Chennai is the safest metro in India, having the lowest crime rates when compared to cities like Mumbai & Delhi. The city never came in the terror rador, thanks to the political setup which gives equal rights to all section of society. There has been no or less communal tension in this part of the country.
Ø India’s biggest salt water lake (Pulicat) is situated near Chennai. The Vandalur Zoo situated in Chennai is the oldest zoo in India. It was located initially near the ‘Central railway station’ before shifted to Vandalur due to space constraint.
Ø Next to Mumbai, Chennai is the only city to have the best metro connectivity. The EMU services running in Chennai- Kolkatta sector, Chennai- Arakanom sector and in Chennai beach- Chengalpet sector connects chennai with 6 satellite towns such as Arakonam, Tiruvallur, Tirutheni, Kanchipuram, Chengalpet & Gummidipoondi thereby facilitating mass transportation of work force.
Ø Hundred years ago, Chennai had several lakes near & within her vicinity. The present upmarket area of Nungambakkam, Mahalingapuram, commercial heaven like North Usman road, poor man’s land like Choolaimedu, Aminjikarai was then covered by ‘Long lake’. There is a place still in Nungambakkam known as ‘Lake area’. A road near Nungambakkam known as ‘Village road’ establishes the fact that these areas including Chetpet was used for cultivation. Aminjikarai derives its name from ‘Amainda Karai’ due to its proximity to ‘Long lake’ and ‘Cooum river’. The present day ‘Pallavaram’ is known as ‘Pallava puram’ which was under the jurisdiction of Pallava kingdom.
Ø The british used the St Thomas as ‘residential area’ and the present day ‘George town’ as ‘Commercial area’. A well laid road was created to connect the George town & St thomas mount which is now called as ‘Mount road’ (Or Anna salai)Ø Chennai metropolitan area (1130 sq kms) has a population of over 7 million. Of this, 43.5M lives in 179 sq km making Chennai the most congested metropolis. Successive government’s failure to emphasis planned development lead to this chaos.
Ø The City boast some of the finest pubs, bars & also have places such as Mylapore/Triplicane which boasts several cultural shows still retaining its old charm. Chennai is a perfect blend of this tradition and modern. Whether it is party in ‘Dublin’ or Kutchery in ‘Music Academy’, whether it is ‘Evam’ English play or ‘Terukoothu’ in Royapuram.
Ø Chennai is never really hot compared to hinterland & plateau regions of India. The cool breeze from the sea reduces the temperature & increases humidity. But the high humidity increases ‘sultriness’
Ø The current Buckingham canal was used by British to transport rice & wheat from Andhra.
Ø Chennai & Tamilnadu produces largest number of engineering graduates next to Andhra Pradesh. The Anna University (College of Engineering, Guindy) is one of the oldest & best in class engineering institution.
Ø During the regime of Dr MGR (as Chief minister) the city faced acute water shortage which forced the government to consider ‘Trichy’ as Capital of Tamilnadu. This proposal was later shelved due to stiff opposition across various quarters. Chennai’s underground water considerably improved between 2001 & 2006 as the government insisted compulsory ‘rain water harvesting’. The city is the first to get the ‘Desalination plants’.
Ø Chennai’s MRTS (Mass Rapid transit system) is the first of its kind in India to run on the elevated tracks. (Kolkatta metro was underground)
Ø AR Rahman is known as ‘Mozart of Madras’ since he hails from this city. Chennai is also proud to have personalities like Kamal Hassan, Mani Ratnam, Viswanatha Anand, Narain Karthikeyan who put this country in global map. The tennis star ‘Laendar Paes’ was trained in the Tennis Academy setup by NRI ‘Amirtharaj’. Chennai also hosts ‘Chennai open’ the only ATC tennis tournament in India. Chennai has a world class ‘racing track’ in Irungattukottai.
Ø The Mahindra world city near Chennai spreading across 1500 acres is India’s first private SEZ in its size.
Ø When the present congress government allowed foreign universities to setup their campuses in India, Chennai is the first city to get one. The Virginia university one of the oldest in US is setting up its first campus in India near chennai.
Chennai is known as ‘conservative’ city and there is absolutely no merit in it. To me, a city can be called as conservative not on the basis of ‘spending power’ of the people but on the basis of thoughts & her adoptability. It’s sad that cities like Mumbai where the north Indians are brutally beaten up & city like Hyderabad which is demanding separate statehood are considered as ‘cosmopolitan’ and city like chennai which has absolute tolerance & respect for other culture/language is given the ‘conservative’ tag. I hope the things will change & chennai gets her lost glory soon.
Attaching one of the oldest map of chennai
My first blog
- Hari
She kept telling me to start blogging. For a person, who does nt even maintain his personal diary, it’s a Himalayan task of publishing the private webpage and worse to update it constantly. Finally today, I decided to give it a ‘try’.
Well, if you don’t have passion to write but still want to blog, these are the steps:
First, create your own webpage. Google comes handy to help you create your own webpage.
Second, get inspired. Survey and see how many of your friends/relatives, loved ones blog on a regular basis; The moment you realize that it is more of fancy and essential pre-requisite to ‘show off’ you will be inspired to write a blog.
Third, get motivated; persuade your friends & relatives to read and post their comments. If you are not Rajinikanth or Kamal Hassan or Khans of the world, then the possibility of outsiders reading your blog is bare minimal. Try writing reviews of the latest bollywood releases or sensitive topics which are normally googled by ‘Net Enthusiasts’. You will have responses and thus motivated.
Most importantly, do not use your original name in the blog, so that it does nt affect you personally!
She kept telling me to start blogging. For a person, who does nt even maintain his personal diary, it’s a Himalayan task of publishing the private webpage and worse to update it constantly. Finally today, I decided to give it a ‘try’.
Well, if you don’t have passion to write but still want to blog, these are the steps:
First, create your own webpage. Google comes handy to help you create your own webpage.
Second, get inspired. Survey and see how many of your friends/relatives, loved ones blog on a regular basis; The moment you realize that it is more of fancy and essential pre-requisite to ‘show off’ you will be inspired to write a blog.
Third, get motivated; persuade your friends & relatives to read and post their comments. If you are not Rajinikanth or Kamal Hassan or Khans of the world, then the possibility of outsiders reading your blog is bare minimal. Try writing reviews of the latest bollywood releases or sensitive topics which are normally googled by ‘Net Enthusiasts’. You will have responses and thus motivated.
Most importantly, do not use your original name in the blog, so that it does nt affect you personally!
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