Death of a Dictator- Victory for Libyans/ Victory of West

Today, Libyans are freed from a four long decade of dictatorship of Muammar al -Gaddafi. Year long battle between Gaddafi supporters and rioters along with help of NATO forces (mostly from powerful Western World) came to an end today.

Are Libyans really frustrated by Gaddafi rule, partially may be correct, or it is just another Iraq war fought to have control on Libya oil reserve, which is some what 42 billion barrels, the 9 th largest oil reserve in the world, and the largest reserve in African region.

Libyan people did suffer from atrocities suffered from Gaddafi and his supporter hands, so the death of Gaddafi might brought some reliefs to Libyan people, but will death bring stability in the region and economic prowess to libyans or the natural resources are exploited by west.

The only difference between Libya unrest and Iraq war is , that one is fought by internals with support from outsiders, and other was fought under the banner of War on Terrorism, but both war may have a single motive, getting hold of oil reserves.

Lets wait and see, who will benefit with the Death of Dictator.. Mr Muammar al -Gaddafi

thanks&regards,

Mohit

Greed is Good!!!

Just watch a movie, Wall Street 2, in the movie the protagonist, Gordon Gekko, played by Michael Douglas. In the movie, to promote his book, Greed is Good, Mr. Gekko mentioned why Greed is good and invincible now.

He said, with each passing day, we are getting greedy and greedy.Now, people want more, which means more money, more car, second house, better education for the children and may be in some case more children also :-).

His point of view is totally correct, just to understand it better and also in the context of emerging markets, esp. India. Today, India is 5th largest economic house in the world, if we go my economist predictions, if it follow annual growth patterns of 10-11% p.a., in 20 years, India will be 3rd largest economy in the world.

But with the great growth patterns, one thing which will be certainly haunting people, esp. poor people(one third of India population live below poverty line) is the high level of inflation. Currently, India's food inflation is hovering around 18%. In a recent cabinet meeting to curb price rice, conducted by India's honorable prime minister, Mr. Manmohan singh, during that meeting one thing came out , the change of eating patterns of Indians. But its not only about the eating patterns, its the whole pattern, they are buying high luxury cars, they are buying houses, I mean multiple houses, and off course bringing up more children. This is where the greed comes and with every changing patterns is getting invincible. These greed may be good for some people, but if you consider lives of other people or environment, its getting worse day by day.
So, lets see how can we make this invincible.

The 'A' mericanization Effect !!

Last week, I was just taking a stroll at Bahnofstrasse,Zurich. I was literally shocked at looking sooo many people at the street, literally all shops were jam packed by customers, and I can bet that those were real customers and not the window shopping customer like me.

But for some time, I was just thinking why there were so many people, it not sale season and even the Christmas is couple of months, so why people are so crazy in doing shopping.
After scratching my head for couple of minutes, I saw couple of people dressed like ghosts and vampires, and I got my answer, it was a Halloween weekend.

The Halloween is certainly not the European culture and I am 100% sure its certainly not the Swiss culture, so certainly its The 'A'mericanization effect. Every store were with American products, from electronic, fragrances and forgot to mention the Halloween products.

Swiss is known for their secrecy , not Banking in general, but by nature they are quite reserve. But somehow the 'A'mericanization effect invade their secrecy and overcome their reserve nature. But the 'A'meticanization effect is every where, every where people just want to stuck the ipod's in their ear and just want to indulge into the 'A' effect without giving a thought.

I know some of the products or services offered by American businesses are world class, but that effect should be reserve till market place and between trade links. People should not blindly start following the customs and traditions which are not their own, and which only have a economic sense rather than some socio or religious sense.

Lets see how far this 'A'mericanization effect will last.

Thanks & Regards,
Mohit

Is Business Ethics really important for Organization ?

World Class management schools often have Business Ethics subjects in their curriculum. They often ask their students, the probable future Business leaders, to focus on more on Business relations and ethics.

In short Business Ethics, is as Be true to your clients, maintain their privacy at any cost.
But does companies really follow these basic rules when they really do business with their clients ? From real end scenario, companies often look at their balance sheets profitability rather than business ethics.

Business leaders often give false statements to clients to make them happy, they often make their employees to do task for which they are not entitled for. Often clients information is shared with ad agency and online web agency like in case of Open graph initiative by facebook, a well known Social networking site. They are building their group like anything, but due to monetization their are keeping their business ethics at bay and sharing client information with other members of the online web. Though, in short FB may able to raise its profit books , but in the long run it may lose some edge with its customers.

Ideally, Companies should focus their business on Business Ethics, because that can only help them to sustain in the long run in the business.

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Thanks & Regards,
Mohit

Reliance BIG

BIG Cinema, is one of the flagship company of ADAG, group run my none other than Anil Dhirubhai Ambani. After, the split or Reliance empire, Anil Ambani took over the charge of Reliance Telecommunications. After the charge, Anil Ambani envisioned entertainment as one of the big fortune runner for the group. In order to make his vision real, in 2006, it took a 66% stake in Adlabs films, not only that, to just like his father, he visioned big, he tied with big wigs of Hollywood and Bollywood.

From my opinion, he really tried to own the world's entertainment system, and later on, will try to integrate his telecom business with his entertainment business. Because, certainly in future, it will not the voice which will rule telecom, but the the value added services like entertainment etc. will rule it. Certainly, Reliance BIG cinema, in coming years will really be very BIG.

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Thanks & Regards,
Mohit

Greece Meltdown

Greece,famous for its ancient and rich historical events, is a country in the southeastern Europe.
In recent time, the rise in Greece budget deficit, has raised the doubts among the mind of European Union policymakers, and made the very existence of Euro, a common currency, used by 16 countries of European Union.

Greece national debt is around 300 billion euros, which is much bigger the country's economy. In order, to help Greece and to revive its economy, the EU bigwigs along with International Monetary Fund(IMF), agreed to bailout Greece from this financial and economic crisis. But before providing the helping hand to Greece, they want Greece to reduce its budget deficit to 3 percent of its GDP, which is one of the perquisite to become a member of EU.

Inspite, of facing stiff agitation from its inhabitants, Greece has already tried to bring in some measures to curb its budget deficit. Cut in public employees salaries, raise the taxes on cigarettes and fuel are some of the measures which Greek government is placing into to reduce its budget deficit.

Instead, of just taking measures which are somewhat against the public, Greek government should also try to find out ways about how and where it can generate enough revenue for its people. Tourism is one of the main industry of Greece, but unfortunately, its not the one place which come into tourists mind, Greece, should try to evolve this industry, and try to make make it a front runner, if its come to revenue from tourism. I know, its not that easy to compete against some of the best known nations, but the time of being remain average is over, Greece certainly has to take some drastic measures, in order to cut its budget deficit.

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Thanks & Regards,
Mohit

Is IPL Only Cricket ?

Indian Premier League, famously known as IPL, is now ever days a BIG DADDY of International Cricket Sports Arena. IPL, just into its 3 year of existence it's a billion dollar sports event.
Developed on the lines of Europe Football league, this subcontinent sports extravaganza has taken everybody by surprise, major investors across the globe are vying their hands to get the grip of IPL.

But where such a money is involved, it controversy cannot be left apart. After, two successful year, the third year of IPL was much more bigger. More money, more team incumbent and more important lines of controversies.

The third IPL year displayed the dark section of the sports league, it showed its not only about sports , players, cheerleaders, or simply entertainment, as marketed by IPL bigwigs BCCI and its Commissioner, Lalit Modi., but its only about money, BIG MONEY. Games are manipulated, TV rights are sold at premium rates, Bookies are involved. The third year took one politician down, multiple tax raids, considering axing IPL commissioner. So, certainly this is not an ordinary Cricket tournament,meant for entertainment, but its a big nexus between, politicians, businessmen, and somewhere underworld also.

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Thanks & Regards,
Mohit

Eco Friendly Cars rules 80th International Auto Show at Geneva

Today, I went to Geneva to see 80th International Auto Show. As expected, the whole auditorium was fully packed. Car lovers of all ages visited the Auto Show, from abled to disabled from old people to new born babies. From mid end brands to high brands covered the Auto Auditorium, from Hyundai, Fiat, Aston Martin, Bentley, you name the brand and the brand is there in the 80th International Auto Show in Geneva, Switzerland.

Eco friendly and hybrid cars rules the Auto Show in Geneva, every other brand in the show come up with the Eco friendly and hybrid car in their kitty. More and more car companies are investing in making their cars eco-friendly, even its appear in their marketing style also. Most of the car manufacturers now even specify the carbon content emitted from their cars. Because this time they knew that, now their customers are getting more environment consciousness, and they will never want to compromise lifestyle with environment degradation. Let's hope that in the next Auto show, they will come up with some additional sales figures of their eco friendly and hybrid cars.

Thanks&Regards,

Mohit

How important is CSR ?

Corporate Social Responsibility, commonly abbreviated as CSR, is one of the common act which is quite common across Corporate social circle across the globe. More of less every corporate house are involved in every another act of social responsibility. Some are working for poverty alleviation, Forest conservation, wildlife and endangered species protection. The biggest CSR initiative is that of Melinda-Gates foundation, who are working on bringing innovations to health and learning of global community. So, how important is CSR activity for a corporate. I think some time, it can be a marketing stint of some corporate house, in order to build a brand image among the common shareholders, in order to increase their share prices at the bourses. But most of the time, the work done by these corporates are genuine.

Any government around the globe, cannot look into each and every matter which exist in the society, it need volunteers, people, groups who can support them. Corporates are nothing but those volunteers and groups who are providing those helping hand to the government. Corporate consumes resources, so its also their responsibility to give back to the same society what they have consumed. It can be in any form, be it educating less worthy people, or working on save tiger project.

Though with such kind of activity for some time, they might shift from their main line of business, but this is necessary for the proper uplift of the society as a whole.

Thanks&Regards,

Mohit

Another Buzz in the Market

Amazed by the growing popularity of Facebook and Twitter, Google felt somewhat left out in the race of social networking. In order to compensate the gap and provide a competition to Facebook and Twitter, on tuesday, Google launches one more innovative product call Buzz. Buzz is fully integrated into Gmail, the mail portal of Google. Through, Buzz user can instantly post message their friends, share pics and perform n-number of social networking task. But, though they already have a well known social networking site Orkut, then its very difficult to understand, why they come with an other platform. The reason may be that, instead of offering a separate platform for performing social activities, they wanted to provide an integrated solution, which can easily be merged with their Gmail portal, which is used by 150 million odd customers. But I will say, its an nother Buzz in the Social Networking market, and Google has to be really be innovative, in order to create a massive Buzz, with this Buzz.

Thanks&Regards,

Mohit

2010 : year of financial revival or financial mess

First of all, I wish everybody a very Happy and Prosperous New Year. 2010, said bye to the first decade of the 21st Century, a decade which was filled with lot of financial downturns and revivals.The decade started itself with Y2K knocking at the doors, everybody in the industry thought that every system which are connected will be doomed, but Y2K surpassed, without creating much waves. But people failed to realize what coming after that, the tech bubble. The 2001-2002 tech bubble took everybody by standstill, and most of the internet startup, even some established brands, were out in the open, filling for bankruptcy.So, start of the decade, itself seen one of the biggest financial debacle.

But as the time moves on, financial stability also props into financial and banking system, but what analyst did not forecast was much bigger bubble. The bubble which did not only tore apart financial and banking stability of one country, but literally affected every country in the globe, in financial community call it as Sub prime Crisis. During these crisis, some of the world's top notch banks went bankrupt within days, which led the whole world economy into doldrums. This financial debacle raised fingers on the financial regulators and their working.

Though, by later half of 2009 things have improved quite a bit, but still its a big question, whether 2010, will be a year of financial revival or will it be again a year of financial mess. Though, people are saying, they have already see a light at the end of the tunnel, so lets wait and watch, how their prediction end.

Thanks&Regards,

Mohit Kumar

Apple Carbon Footprint

Apple is always known for his environment friendly products, even in one of the Greenpeace forum, apple was praised for its environment friendly products, and how Apple is managing its Carbon footprint.

But from my opinion, this is partially correct. In order to support my argument, just check the Apple Store at Bahnofstrasse, Zurich on Sunday evening. You will be amazed to know that, every electronic and electrical equipment in the store is working 24 hrs. Such kind of electric usage on a sunday, is certainly not an environmental friendly step by Apple Inc.

So, from my opinion Apple should again re-look at its environment friendly strategies, so that it can try to reduce its Carbon footprint, and just like its admired for its innovative products, it should also be admired for its environment friendly strategies.

Thanks&Regards,

Mohit

Business lessons from Lagaan

Lagaan, an Aamir khan production, was one of the most successful Bollywood movies of the start of the century. Apart from winning numerous accolades, and being India's official Oscar entry, it also teaches some important business lessons.

Lesson1 : Don't be afraid of challenges. Take the challenges in the full spirit, it will certainly give results which are way above expectations.

Lesson2 : In a group of people, one has to step forward to take up the leadership people, and should have the capability to convince people to take up the challenges.

Lesson3 : Never underestimate a people capability, even sometimes weakest of person, is capable of turning the table.

Lesson4 : Believe in your team, because success is not one man show, its due to contribution of each and every member of the team.

Lesson5 : Never under estimate your opponents.

Lesson6 : Keep a close vigil on the team activities, because sometimes, a small distract can ruin the success.

Lesson7 : Keep ample space to your team mates, so that they can come up with their best.

Lesson8 : Never lose hope, because this is the last thing which will certainly bring success.

Lesson9: Sometimes, Miracle do happen.ja

Lesson10 : Celebrate success with your team, as it will motivate the entire team, and help them to set future goals.

Thanks&Regards,

Mohit

Microsoft gears up with Yahoo, against Google

Microsoft never felt that a 10 year old company will pose a threat to their very existence, and will make them to run for their money. But California based, Search Engine company, Google made them to that, and really posing a big threat to Microsoft monoply.

Since, last year, Microsoft is vying their eye on Yahoo, to combat Google, but somehow the previous valuation did not end as expected. But last month Microsoft announced its partnership with Yahoo, under this partnership, Yahoo and Microsoft search engine, Bing will make their own branding, but Yahoo will use Bing as its internal platform to give search results to consumers. At the same time, Microsoft will pay Yahoo 88% of the revenue it gains from the Yahoo sites.

Though, to some analyst it seems to be very bold move, both from the Microsoft and Yahoo, to take over Search giant, but certainly it will be very difficult to compete with Google in this space, as it already enjoy 67% of all kind of internet search. To move Google from its Search king position will certainly be difficult for the new partners.

Lets wait to see, how this partnership work and how this competition will bring benefit to consumers.

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Thanks&Regards,
Mohit

National Health Service (NHS), Obama dream project

When Barack Obama, took over as the 44th President of United States of America, apart from reviving the Global economy of one of the deep recession they have seen in decades, he also had a dream project, National Health Service(or NHS) which enables free health insurance to everybody in America.

In recent times, Obama is greatly criticized by the opposition which came strongly against this free insurance service to all Americans. They complained that this socialistic behavior will do bad, and not good to already reeling American economy and will certainly hurt the tax payers, as the tax burden will certainly rise on the Tax payers.

I totally agree with the opposition party comments, as there is really no need to provide a free health insurance, they should try to make their economy so strong that every citizen can take care of their health insurance, rather than offering them in free. As its oftenly said, that in life nothing is a free cake. Mr. Obama, should consider this saying, and make every one earn for his/her living.

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Thanks&Regards,
Mohit

62nd India's Independence, Challenges ahead.

India's has travelled a lot ahead, when it gained independence in 1947, from Bristish rule, today India celeberate its 62nd India Independence. From being called as Third world country, or country of Slumdog country, it has made a transformational change and now its among the league of top 20 nations in the World, and possible superpower and fifth largest economy by next decade.
But this figures will certainly be an uphill task for any nation, and in order to achieve these goal its has to change.

Changes which is expected to make India a great nation :
1. Education : Even after 62 years, 40% of India's population is uneducated, this population size is equivalent to population of whole of europe.So, in order to achieve a superpower status, India has to work on its Education programmes.

2. Internal Peace : Before pointing fingures on the troubled neighbour first, India has to maintain first Internal peace, try to resolve issues of North-eastern states, and remove anti-regional activists who are divinding India.

3. Entreprenurship : India should encourage entreprenurship, which certainly helps to people to think out of boxn and enable them to take risk. This also enables them to create employment also.

4. Good ties with Neighbours : India and its neighbours spend a huge amount of money in building weapons, they should sit together and discuss about how to maintain peace in the region. An EU kind of model if implemented in the Asia region, will certainly benefit everybody in the region.

5. Population Control : Though most of the analyst nowever days are saying that India's youth population is really beneficial for the world growth, yeah that is true, but certainly one thing is also true that this population also consume a considerable amount of resources. India really have to put a curb on its population.

I hope this changes will certainly enable India to achieve a great success in the years ahead, and achieve the vision as state by India's ex president Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam.

"A developed India by 2020, or even earlier, is not a dream. It need not be a mere vision in the minds of many Indians. It is a mission we can all take up - and succeed." - A P J Abdul Kalam.

Thanks&Regards,
Mohit

H1NI grips India

H1N1, popularly known as "Swine flu", grips its eye now on India, especially in Pune. In recent days, 1000 of Swine flu cases are registered in Maharashtra, and arounf 17 odd deaths in few days, with most of them reporting from Pune itself.

The impact of Swine flu with certainly have a negative affect on the Indian economy, which in itself is dealing with number of problems, both natural(drought) and man made(Terrorism). But certainly swine flu will have worse affect on Indian economy.

The sectors which will be affected by Swine flu are :
1. Tourism sector.
2. IT sector.
3. Hospitality sector.
4. Import and Export.
5. Airline.
6. Entertainment.

Though govt. is taking appropriate steps to control spreading the epidemic, or a pandemic as stated by WHO, but still the effort is not enough, the govt. should spread as much awareness as possible to citizens, so that things can be averted before its spread through out the country.

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Thanks &Regards,
Mohit

India UUID program

Last month, Govt. of India roped in Infosys co-chairman Nandan Nilekani to head one of the most prestigious e-gov iniatives Unique Identification program. Under this program the unique id will be provided to every citizen of India.So, in order to run this program in a professional way, India's priminster request Mr. Nilekani to head this prestigious project. Mr. Nilekani without any doubt accepted the offer and step down as the co-chairman of Infosys.

But though India's prime minster Dr Manmohan Singh tried to make this program bureaucratic free, by giving Mr. Nilekani a rank of a Cabinet minister. But this project in itself comes with lot of chalenges. The chalenges which I can identify are :

1. Data collection : India has a population of more than 1 Billion people, spread in rural and urban areas of India, though demographic data is maintained but its never consistent.

2. Data maintenance : Nilekani team has to think how data consistency can be maintained. What will happen when a person is born, when he/she is dead, when somebody submit his/her citizenship, when somebody takes a new Indian Citizenship, what happen in case of dual citizenship? Though there are some dept. who still handle this data, but there are no dept. for other stuff.

3. Forgery : If you have "Juggad", then any thing can be possible in India, from passport, driving license, fake documents anything, so this is the top most uphill task which Nilekani and his team has to take in and how this Jugaad technology can be avoided in this national level presitgious project.

4. Secuirty : Once the data is ready, then this data will be shared to different govt. dept.,but how the govt. can ensure the data security.

Though there are many other challenges which certainly will be coming in the way of Mr. Nilekani when he finally come out with his draft version for this project.

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Thanks&Regards,
Mohit

Indian rail budget is out.

UPA government after winning the General elections with full majority, presented the first railways budget by the current Indian railway minister Mamta Banerjee. According, to Mamta ji, its a budget for the aam aadmi.

The major action items of this budget are :

1. Launch of "ijjat card" at the cost of Rs 25, so that poor people can travel upto 100 km without any hassels.

2. Launch of special double decker AC trains to meet the YUVA generation requirements .

3. Proposal to set up 50 World Class railway stations, which are fully equipped shopping malls, high level of cleanliness and security.

4. Making Tatkal service cheaper and less time consuming.

5. No, change in the passenger and freight charges.

But I think and other people like me certainly think that, how these plans will be implemented. And will Railways ministry provide the same level of revenue margins as during the reign of Mr. Lalu Yadav. How railways ministry can ensure passenger safety and provide sanitation facilities to its passengers.

Thanks&Regards,
Mohit

Air India debacle

Air India, India's official airline carrier is certainly in a doom state. Last month, it stopped salry of its employees. But the real question is why Air India is a state of debacle, while other Airlinw players in Indian airspace, though not making that much profit, but still performing far better ter than the Indian national carrier.

The reason for a debacle can be :

1. Air India system is surrounded by n numbers of bureaucrat, which are running this organization as a social enterprise rather than a capitalist enterprise.

2. Even in its dismissal economic position, Air India top management still enjoy the free passes not for them but for their entire family. Thus making this institution a debt ridden instituion.

3. Air India, still don't follow any strategic tie ups with other International airlines, thus making them aloof in their business. Look at the other national carrier like Luftansa and Emirates, bith both the carriers are making fablous business.

4. Air India employ more no. of employee per aircraft then any of the airline carrier in the country, which in turn sucking its profits.

I think Air India should bring in top professional to its board, who can try to revive this failing organization.

Thanks&Regards,
Mohit Kumar