In one of recent trips to Patna last month, I saw hoardings of numerous IIT-JEE coaching camps. Nothing unique about it, considering that more than 70% of the senior secondary students appear for the coveted JEEs every year. Understandably, hordes of students cramming through the coaching classes. Some of them appearing even more than twice!
Bihar & UP have both produced highest number of successful candidates to the IAS lobby, but little do people know that Bihar has been sending one of the highest proportions of successful candidates to the IITs over the last several decades. (Facts gleaned from one of the reputed IIT coaching institutions based in NCR)
So what is the big deal about Bihar's "Super 30" - a very naive question asked by my sister. Why am I speaking about Super 30 today?
Abhay Kumar Singh shot into prominence with his cracker book way back in 1997- "Guide to Irodov problems". Irodov's problems in physics was a book that was warranted to be mastered before appearing for the JEE. Singh's book was manna from the heavens for hapless students attempting to go beyond problem # 5 in Irodov's book! Today,"Abhay Kumar Singh" - is a powerful brand worth crores today in Bihar.
But he has dared something to do what even the best of ivy league coaching institutes haven't been able to! "Social inclusion" of the poorest of the poor students from Bihar. "Super 30" is the exclusive cabal of students who are selected from a pool of 15000 students. The eligibility criteria is simple: You gotta belong to a very poor family, bright enough to get past the Super 30 entrance, but most importantly evolve as slog-horse: almost 18 hours a day for 365 days before the JEE exams beckon!
Abhay Kumar Singh and Anand Kumar jointly take classes for these selected students, ably supported by their mother who cooks for the entire class. Its a residential program fully funded by the duo, includes the travel costs of the students from their home towns! So how is all of this connected with Social Inclusion?
With a 100 % success rate, the 30 students graduating each year from the IITs would be earning a minimum of 4 lacs per annum, 40 times that of their family's earnings in a span of four years. Majority of this community plough back their earnings to improve the livelihood of their parents toiling hard in the farmlands of Bihar. Few who manage to go abroad for research in the US universities remit monies creating an indelible impact on the local economy and social infrastructure.
At one end of the spectrum when we have the Kalmadi's and Raja's of the world swindling billions of dollars of tax-payer's income, its a bright spot to witness this silent social revolution gaining momentum from one of the pristine and intellectual part of India - Bihar!
Truly inspiring... take a bow to Abhay Kumar Singh and class of "Super 30"
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Monday, November 29, 2010
An ode to my favourite film-maker - Satyajit Ray
"Satyajit Ray- A retrospective" - October 1st through 24th was the exclusive film festival hosted by the National Museum of Singapore.
Although as a Probashi bangalee (Brought up outside West Bengal), I had little opportunity to view Ray's films during my childhood years, I was always intrigued by the fact that his movies attracted audience cutting across all ages and nationalities. So what was so special about his films, I wondered!
India in Ray's vision
One can identify three major compositional periods in Ray's life.
The first period (1955-1964) was remarkable for its robust optimism. celebration of the human spirit and creative satisfaction. Ray was not only directing and scripting, but also scoring the music and taking charge of the cinematography. This period coincided with India's early days of independence and Nehru's flirtations with concepts revolving around the state.
The second period (1965-1977) saw India come under a dark spell. The war with China (1962) during Nehru's last years, Pakistan (1965), the growing unemployment coupled with the agrarian crises - all of this componded with the command-center of the Sanjay Gandhi era manifested well in Ray's films. Calcutta and most of West Bengal was gripped tightly under the leash of Naxalism. My father, who had graduated honors in Chemical engineering from Jadavpur University (one of the best colleges of India) struggled to get a job! Some of his batchmates prudently took the step overseas, but a majority of them resigned to the chaos presiding over. This was the time when Ray clearly projected a troubled vision for India. The Calcutta trilogy: Pratidwandi (The Adversary), Seemabaddha (Company Ltd) and Jana Aranya (The Middle man) were scripted and directed during this period.
The final period of Ray's fims (1977-1992) was arguably the hard-hitting ones. The theme was that of isolation, didactic and frank. Ghare Baire (Home and the World), based on a Tagore's novel is a diatribe against nationalism, the mix of religion and politics,political opportunism and dishonesty. Ganashatru (Enemy of the people), was an adaptation of Ibsen's play to bengali, addressed questions of capitalist corruption and manipulation of relegion, people, politics and environment. Through this movie, Ray the protagonist articulates well to mention that all narrowness is in the human mind. In the movie, Ray through his protagonist communicates to his grandchild - "Don't be a frog in the well". Rise against boundaries of caste, religion and hatred.
Ray was the product of the Anglo-Bengali encounter of the nineteenth century. His cultural, intellectual and ideological roots can be traced to what is known as the "Bengali Renaissance". When an interviewer called Akira Kurosawa "the master", he responded by saying "Not me, Ray is the master. Not to have seen his films is like living on earth and not seeing the Sun and the Moon"
Bow down in adulation and respect to this great film-maker.
Although as a Probashi bangalee (Brought up outside West Bengal), I had little opportunity to view Ray's films during my childhood years, I was always intrigued by the fact that his movies attracted audience cutting across all ages and nationalities. So what was so special about his films, I wondered!
India in Ray's vision
One can identify three major compositional periods in Ray's life.
The first period (1955-1964) was remarkable for its robust optimism. celebration of the human spirit and creative satisfaction. Ray was not only directing and scripting, but also scoring the music and taking charge of the cinematography. This period coincided with India's early days of independence and Nehru's flirtations with concepts revolving around the state.
The second period (1965-1977) saw India come under a dark spell. The war with China (1962) during Nehru's last years, Pakistan (1965), the growing unemployment coupled with the agrarian crises - all of this componded with the command-center of the Sanjay Gandhi era manifested well in Ray's films. Calcutta and most of West Bengal was gripped tightly under the leash of Naxalism. My father, who had graduated honors in Chemical engineering from Jadavpur University (one of the best colleges of India) struggled to get a job! Some of his batchmates prudently took the step overseas, but a majority of them resigned to the chaos presiding over. This was the time when Ray clearly projected a troubled vision for India. The Calcutta trilogy: Pratidwandi (The Adversary), Seemabaddha (Company Ltd) and Jana Aranya (The Middle man) were scripted and directed during this period.
The final period of Ray's fims (1977-1992) was arguably the hard-hitting ones. The theme was that of isolation, didactic and frank. Ghare Baire (Home and the World), based on a Tagore's novel is a diatribe against nationalism, the mix of religion and politics,political opportunism and dishonesty. Ganashatru (Enemy of the people), was an adaptation of Ibsen's play to bengali, addressed questions of capitalist corruption and manipulation of relegion, people, politics and environment. Through this movie, Ray the protagonist articulates well to mention that all narrowness is in the human mind. In the movie, Ray through his protagonist communicates to his grandchild - "Don't be a frog in the well". Rise against boundaries of caste, religion and hatred.
Ray was the product of the Anglo-Bengali encounter of the nineteenth century. His cultural, intellectual and ideological roots can be traced to what is known as the "Bengali Renaissance". When an interviewer called Akira Kurosawa "the master", he responded by saying "Not me, Ray is the master. Not to have seen his films is like living on earth and not seeing the Sun and the Moon"
Bow down in adulation and respect to this great film-maker.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Unholy Nexus - when and where will this stop!
Am back after a two month hiatus! It feels great to begin writing yet again, this time with vengeance. Kalmadi is absconding, last heard he was chilling his heels in "Monaco". Raja "the pawn" is out of media witchhunt and is cooling of in chennai. And now the latest to hit the circuit... "Nira Radia scandalgate - get the BIG guys with her damn it!"
The gala expose of the Nira Radia papers have shockingly got the esteemed house of the TATA's into the muck. And what a revelation. If you follow the "Girish Nikam" website http://indiasreport.com/magazine/data/the-radia-papers-raja-tata-ambani-connection/ - you will get a chance to witness the exciting trailer - one that has in lead roles: CBI and Income Tax officials, ED and the media lobby all engrossed in the deal making industry. Mercilessly playing around with zillions of the hardworking, sincere middle class tax-payers.
When and where will all this stop? Or will this ever stop? I don't think so! We've got immuned, in fact de-sensitized to the scale and scope of corruption. It's now in our blood. We passively shuffle news channels, which incessantly broadcast and repeat the scandalgate news, we make passing comments, joke about all this and get back to the rigmarole of our lives. Honestly, there is little that we can do.. The lobby up there is just too powerful.
The irony is that the power bestowed upon them is by none other than "Us"!
The gala expose of the Nira Radia papers have shockingly got the esteemed house of the TATA's into the muck. And what a revelation. If you follow the "Girish Nikam" website http://indiasreport.com/magazine/data/the-radia-papers-raja-tata-ambani-connection/ - you will get a chance to witness the exciting trailer - one that has in lead roles: CBI and Income Tax officials, ED and the media lobby all engrossed in the deal making industry. Mercilessly playing around with zillions of the hardworking, sincere middle class tax-payers.
When and where will all this stop? Or will this ever stop? I don't think so! We've got immuned, in fact de-sensitized to the scale and scope of corruption. It's now in our blood. We passively shuffle news channels, which incessantly broadcast and repeat the scandalgate news, we make passing comments, joke about all this and get back to the rigmarole of our lives. Honestly, there is little that we can do.. The lobby up there is just too powerful.
The irony is that the power bestowed upon them is by none other than "Us"!
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Enter the Dragon!
"Buffet visits mainland china" - The headline didn't matter as much as it should have. Buffett has been gung-ho on this part of the world for sometime. It's universal truth.. So what's the big deal?
"Buffett and his army marches ahead", was a better match in another edition. Now that's what caught my attention. As I scrolled down the colom, I figured that the name of the company in which Warren Buffett was evincing "more than life" interest was BYD.
BYD Auto better known as "Bǐyàdí Gǔfēn Yǒuxiàn Gōngsī" in cantonese is a clean energy (read battery operated) car that has got a fair share of attention from Uncle Sam now. US is struggling to understand the reasons for their failure to innovate as rapidly as this young company has in the past decade or so..
I was able to link this entire article with a discussion I had with a client, while working as a Financial advisor in Bangalore. My former client, a long-term Buffett style investor, someone who has substantial stake in eminent mid-cap companies in Bombay Stock Exchange and related to one of the top Indian stock brokers had spoken to me on this little-known company BYD Auto about a year back! He had wanted to invest about a million USD in this stock, which then was non-descript to me.
Today, I was amazed to note that this company had got massive support from the Chinese government that was showcasing this success story to the Westerners. Through this company, China had surely flexed its muscle big time proving yet again - what it takes to achieve scale. So cars manufactured by BYD Auto will get approximately 70000 Yuan rebate in five of the top chinese cities! Not just that, people who drive these cars will get addtional tax benefits from the government.
Thus, Warren Buffett had come down to China to meet the chinese authorities and whisper sweet nothings to them. Why not? Stock price of Mid-American holdings (Holding company of Berkshire Hathway) has more than 14% stake in BYD Auto. The stock price of Mid-American holdings has rallied by more than 23% in the last five months. This is not just a speculation game. if all goes well, this company will expand into the US and European markets and guzzle the market share of the Toyotas, GMs and Honda.
China is talking of 4 million cars that will go on road by the end of next year in these five cities. We have an Indian version of the same story. "Reva" now bought by M&M (Mahindra) needs to crack the global market in the clean energy space.
Till then the dragon will roar! And roar loud..
"Buffett and his army marches ahead", was a better match in another edition. Now that's what caught my attention. As I scrolled down the colom, I figured that the name of the company in which Warren Buffett was evincing "more than life" interest was BYD.
BYD Auto better known as "Bǐyàdí Gǔfēn Yǒuxiàn Gōngsī" in cantonese is a clean energy (read battery operated) car that has got a fair share of attention from Uncle Sam now. US is struggling to understand the reasons for their failure to innovate as rapidly as this young company has in the past decade or so..
I was able to link this entire article with a discussion I had with a client, while working as a Financial advisor in Bangalore. My former client, a long-term Buffett style investor, someone who has substantial stake in eminent mid-cap companies in Bombay Stock Exchange and related to one of the top Indian stock brokers had spoken to me on this little-known company BYD Auto about a year back! He had wanted to invest about a million USD in this stock, which then was non-descript to me.
Today, I was amazed to note that this company had got massive support from the Chinese government that was showcasing this success story to the Westerners. Through this company, China had surely flexed its muscle big time proving yet again - what it takes to achieve scale. So cars manufactured by BYD Auto will get approximately 70000 Yuan rebate in five of the top chinese cities! Not just that, people who drive these cars will get addtional tax benefits from the government.
Thus, Warren Buffett had come down to China to meet the chinese authorities and whisper sweet nothings to them. Why not? Stock price of Mid-American holdings (Holding company of Berkshire Hathway) has more than 14% stake in BYD Auto. The stock price of Mid-American holdings has rallied by more than 23% in the last five months. This is not just a speculation game. if all goes well, this company will expand into the US and European markets and guzzle the market share of the Toyotas, GMs and Honda.
China is talking of 4 million cars that will go on road by the end of next year in these five cities. We have an Indian version of the same story. "Reva" now bought by M&M (Mahindra) needs to crack the global market in the clean energy space.
Till then the dragon will roar! And roar loud..
Friday, September 24, 2010
The CWG Mess : Indelible impact
A nation of 1+ billion minds, highly respected in today's transnational rankings measuring cerebral intellect, entrepreneurship talent and established leadership - that is "Emerging and new India" to the rest of the world. And yet this emerging India continues to impress or shall I say confuse the world with its display of the CWG (Commonwealth Games) mess!
I was having lunch with my colleagues in a small restaurant in Amoy street, Singapore. My colleagues are native germans and have been travelling extensively across Asia in recent times. Needless to say, they have been following India's growth story for some time now. On our table, the local edition of "Business Times" carried a small article on the CWG! I was hoping that the topic wouldn't be raised. But eventually it did.. A very naive question followed.. " India is a rising power man, what happened? "
While I tried giving a diplomatic revert, for one moment I shuddered at the thought of the hauntings that will follow once the games are over! The whole world has watched, read and studied this fiasco, as it has unravelled through the speeches of many senior government officials across Australia, United Kingdom, Canada and Newzealand.
There are no easy answers to this. 7 years back we got the mandate. 7 years is a long time to get basic infrastructure in place. Eminent parliamentarian and ex- IAS officer Mr. Mani Shankar Iyer went on record lambasting Mike Fennell yesterday. What was Mr.Iyer doing during his stint as sports minister! He hadn't even initiated the process of constructing the venues. In fact, he went on record mentioning that the monies for CWG need to be channelized for capability building of our sportsmen. Yah sure, please go ahead and do that. Just ask the foreign players who will be our guests to run and swim in stadiums, roofs of which may collapse anytime during their activity!
Then we have the comic display of Mr. Kalmadi and his group of croonies who have the collective audacity to say" Well, or venues are hygenic. It's just that westeners have different hygiene standards!" I mean, give us a break you jerks! Have you totally lost it? This generation of work-force which is pread globally and is working for international clients will need to go to their offices and be made a laughing stock...
The Indian tax-payer, including the bourgeois who has plodded hard and has paid his taxes on time. The Indian government and the organizing committee have taken him for a good ride!! We call them free-riders in campus jargon. The CM, PM and the entire top brass was sleeping over the last 7 years! The media which has suddenly woken up - I want to ask IBN and NDTVs of the world, "Where was your STING operation strategy?" I mean, they just woke up 3 months back??
Right now, am just so pissed. Especially when I thought I would have a good Friday lunch, stumped by the naive question posted by my friend. I kept thinking.. I really had lot of respect in the leadership of Manmohan Singh. Somewhere down the line it's got impacted..
I was having lunch with my colleagues in a small restaurant in Amoy street, Singapore. My colleagues are native germans and have been travelling extensively across Asia in recent times. Needless to say, they have been following India's growth story for some time now. On our table, the local edition of "Business Times" carried a small article on the CWG! I was hoping that the topic wouldn't be raised. But eventually it did.. A very naive question followed.. " India is a rising power man, what happened? "
While I tried giving a diplomatic revert, for one moment I shuddered at the thought of the hauntings that will follow once the games are over! The whole world has watched, read and studied this fiasco, as it has unravelled through the speeches of many senior government officials across Australia, United Kingdom, Canada and Newzealand.
There are no easy answers to this. 7 years back we got the mandate. 7 years is a long time to get basic infrastructure in place. Eminent parliamentarian and ex- IAS officer Mr. Mani Shankar Iyer went on record lambasting Mike Fennell yesterday. What was Mr.Iyer doing during his stint as sports minister! He hadn't even initiated the process of constructing the venues. In fact, he went on record mentioning that the monies for CWG need to be channelized for capability building of our sportsmen. Yah sure, please go ahead and do that. Just ask the foreign players who will be our guests to run and swim in stadiums, roofs of which may collapse anytime during their activity!
Then we have the comic display of Mr. Kalmadi and his group of croonies who have the collective audacity to say" Well, or venues are hygenic. It's just that westeners have different hygiene standards!" I mean, give us a break you jerks! Have you totally lost it? This generation of work-force which is pread globally and is working for international clients will need to go to their offices and be made a laughing stock...
The Indian tax-payer, including the bourgeois who has plodded hard and has paid his taxes on time. The Indian government and the organizing committee have taken him for a good ride!! We call them free-riders in campus jargon. The CM, PM and the entire top brass was sleeping over the last 7 years! The media which has suddenly woken up - I want to ask IBN and NDTVs of the world, "Where was your STING operation strategy?" I mean, they just woke up 3 months back??
Right now, am just so pissed. Especially when I thought I would have a good Friday lunch, stumped by the naive question posted by my friend. I kept thinking.. I really had lot of respect in the leadership of Manmohan Singh. Somewhere down the line it's got impacted..
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
USD 25 Trillion opportunity! I’m not joking
This was a meeting I would cherish for years to come! We all know about meetings.. most of them are drab, boring, same powerpoint enabled monologues.. But this was different..
I met this gentleman from Vietnam – a small time agriculture trader, a 2nd generation businessman. One wouldn’t give him a second glance if he were to pass by you. To give him good company, I kept speaking about India, Indian economy blah blah.. and he gave muted response to my exihilarated responses. But through his muted conversations he taught me how important it is to dream big! And dream really BIG!!
A small time agri-trader looking at raising capital from alternate investment markets (AIM) to the tune of 1.5 billion USD. For what damn it? I mean you suddenly get up one fine morning and want to invest more than a billion! Guess this man wasn’t that insane. So he actually sketched out the farm->to-> fork model by which he would integrate all disparate links in the food supply chain. All of this in Vietnam and in some parts of Indonesia.
An alternate market, an alternate stock exchange was in some way empowering the smaller constituents of the trading community to chart a quantum leap from their norms. Just think about it. We have about a 250 million farmers (approximate headcount) in India. Assume that the top 25 % are the richest lot who have access to capital and resources. To them alternate market is not priority.
But just segment the next 30-40 % of the middle class farmer segment. We are talking of a market size of 90 million farmers who find it exteremely difficult to access capital and thereby languish in the regime of poor infrastructure and low productivity. A dead, vicious cycle. I am assuming just 5 % of this segment falls in the “DREAM BIG” category. So that is about 5 million farmers who are the enterprising lot. Now assume each of them is dreaming to raise just 5 million USD (not much.. just about 25 crores). So tapping the alternate / impact investment exchange a total capital of 25 trillion USD. That’s more than twice the GDP of United States of America… You get what Iam driving home??
USD 25 trillion is 20 times India’s GDP. We should be proud of the fact that we are agri-heavy country and thanks to the hard work of our farmer community we have progressed thus far. It’s just that the government has remained oblivious to the needs of the farmer. He doesnt have access to state-of-art infrastructure nor capital to reach the size of my client from Vietnam.
Is anyone listening?
I met this gentleman from Vietnam – a small time agriculture trader, a 2nd generation businessman. One wouldn’t give him a second glance if he were to pass by you. To give him good company, I kept speaking about India, Indian economy blah blah.. and he gave muted response to my exihilarated responses. But through his muted conversations he taught me how important it is to dream big! And dream really BIG!!
A small time agri-trader looking at raising capital from alternate investment markets (AIM) to the tune of 1.5 billion USD. For what damn it? I mean you suddenly get up one fine morning and want to invest more than a billion! Guess this man wasn’t that insane. So he actually sketched out the farm->to-> fork model by which he would integrate all disparate links in the food supply chain. All of this in Vietnam and in some parts of Indonesia.
An alternate market, an alternate stock exchange was in some way empowering the smaller constituents of the trading community to chart a quantum leap from their norms. Just think about it. We have about a 250 million farmers (approximate headcount) in India. Assume that the top 25 % are the richest lot who have access to capital and resources. To them alternate market is not priority.
But just segment the next 30-40 % of the middle class farmer segment. We are talking of a market size of 90 million farmers who find it exteremely difficult to access capital and thereby languish in the regime of poor infrastructure and low productivity. A dead, vicious cycle. I am assuming just 5 % of this segment falls in the “DREAM BIG” category. So that is about 5 million farmers who are the enterprising lot. Now assume each of them is dreaming to raise just 5 million USD (not much.. just about 25 crores). So tapping the alternate / impact investment exchange a total capital of 25 trillion USD. That’s more than twice the GDP of United States of America… You get what Iam driving home??
USD 25 trillion is 20 times India’s GDP. We should be proud of the fact that we are agri-heavy country and thanks to the hard work of our farmer community we have progressed thus far. It’s just that the government has remained oblivious to the needs of the farmer. He doesnt have access to state-of-art infrastructure nor capital to reach the size of my client from Vietnam.
Is anyone listening?
Omahe Speak: Impact investing exchange!
Omahe Speak: Impact investing exchange!: "Impact investing! The concept blew me off the first time, I was briefed by a friend. And a seperate stock exchange that would list shares - ..."
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