D-Company members for an year...friends-for-life

My PGPX syndicate group (Group D; alias D-Company) mates are much more than mere case-discussion-buddies. They are “family” here on campus and I am sure they will remain friends for life. We folks have been with each other through easy and tough times, both within and outside of the classroom! Here are my reflections on each one of the Group-D “magnificent seven” (actually six, cause I will leave myself out of this).

Arun the agony aunt: Have to start with him as he is the most responsible of the group members. He diligently remembers all the deadlines, and handles all the money dealings for the entire batch. An ex-entrepreneur and an experienced hand at stock-market investing, Arun can never be too far away from either money or “numbers” (in case discussions). He is almost the “agony-aunt” of the entire batch due to his easily approachable and dependable persona, and is certainly one of the most popular guys in PGPX-III. For Group-D, he is the one who always does course correction if the discussion is going astray during our endless syndicate room pre-class-prep sessions.

Harish the “sutradhar”: This cool dude from Seychelles is a true Gujrati (no offence meant) who can smell a business opportunity even in the most mundane activities. Sooner or later I am sure he will be a business tycoon. Apart from his commercial astuteness, Harish has a “cool” side to him; he is easily the most fun-loving person in the group. With his interests and amazing knowledge ranging from drinks to cigars to watches (and post PGPX to crazy topics such as retail, 3PL, supply chain :-() he takes a centre stage in most group parties. An amazing story teller, Harish is always looking for a fun (and often scandalous) story to tell; hence his sutradhar title.

Senthil the smooth-talker: Well when our Group D is least prepared for the case discussion or presentation all we need to do is to “put” Senthil is front of the class and his “performance” never lets us down. I sometimes feel his level of “performance” is inversely proportional to Group D’s level of preparation! He is the “calming factor” of the group -- ever so cool and unfazed by deadlines and deliverable schedules; his Australia connection clearly showing in his “chilled” attitude.

Bhaskar the wizard: Bhaskar can “conjure” a presentation deck in 30 seconds flat! So many times it has happened that while the group is discussing a case, Bhaskar’s magic fingers are at work creating the slide deck or the white-paper/report to be submitted; as the discussion ends, the Group has a deck already made! He is clearly the silent-wizard of Group D. While he does not believe in wasting his grey cells (and trust me he has the most in our Group) in mundane discussions; he is clearly the sharpest of the lot. His fun side, which is not apparent unless you know him really well, clearly shows in his hilarious one-liners.

Prateek the sharp-shooter: Behind this ex-army-man’s straight face and a half-mischievous smile, is a really great buddy always willing to step in for people in need of any kind of help. He gets a high in life cracking tough puzzle-type cases, driving long distances, attending/hosting small (restricted) parties, and doing anything adventurous (probably a hangover from his army days!).

Kamesh the Don: He is the “elected” leader of D Company due to his special ability in using ingenious ways (ranging from requesting to soft coercion to threats-to-life!) to get the group together for syndicate meetings. A fun-loving bloke with an infectious laughter, amazing level of enthusiasm, and a chill attitude towards life, Kamesh is most fun to be with during group parties, where he often ends up delivering some truly marvellous and inspiring speeches in high “spirits”!!

As I sit through day-one of term V of PGPX...

Well today (December 19) we start with term 5 (the last term) of our PGPX course. As I sit in the class today listening to some "crazy" (don't get me wrong here; I also mean smart....) work that my peers have done in the past 6 weeks as part of the international immersion program (equivalent of an international project), I am a bundle of several feelings...

- "Really Bored" listening to my peers' presentations about areas as diverse (read: crazy as) as making money out of banana waste to manufacturing semi-conductors to supply chain optimization to marketing margarine!!!

- "Amazed" at how some of my colleagues (especially some of my "Group D" folks) can be so attentive through this "information download" drill

- "Sad" (well sort of) cause the PGPX course ends in exactly 90 days (the course ends on March 19). Well during my life here I have met some really smart folks, interacted with some of the best faculty in the management world, thoroughly enjoyed a zillion hours of course work (well most courses!), and made some great friends (Group D especially -- Senthil, Arun, Bhaskar, Harish, Prateek, Kamesh)

- "Happy" cause the course will be over in 90 days! I am so ready to go back to a real job (and to a life where there is some cash inflow at the end of the month!). Am glad in someway that I opted for a one year program (at some point I was contemplating a PhD; that would surely have been a disaster); did not realize how difficult it would be to go back to school before I joined IIM-A

- "Confused" by all the "gyan" that I have sort of been sensitized to over the past several months. Am not too sure a lot of it can be applied to the corporate world, yet it is all good-to-know kind of information

- "Elated" and "really proud" as my son completes two months today!

And, now I am going back to making my ppt. deck for the presentation tomorrow...

I am a proud Dilliwala

I am no big fan of either the Congress party or Sheila Dixit, but I am glad the way Delhi Assembly elections have panned out. It makes me proud as a Dilliwala to say that the incumbent party victory in Delhi shows that Delhi-voter is a thinking-voter, not swayed by petty mud-slinging done by various parties to gain voter-brownie-points, and votes based on pure individual candidate merit. Folks who won elections in Delhi, despite a strong any-incumbency wave triggered by the unfortunate November 26 terrorist attack in Mumbai, won purely on the merit of their contributions during the past term in office.

As I said earlier I am not a fan of Sheila Dixit, and I believe she could have done much more for Delhi in the past decade that she spent in office, there are at least a few very basic notable changes she has made to Delhi. She at least tried to address some fundamental problems that Delhi has always faced – water, electricity, education, public transport, etc. As a commoner Dilliwala, here are a few positive changes I noticed in Delhi over the past decade.

- Infrastructure has developed enormously in the form of new roads, flyovers and the gleaming Metro, to keep pace with the city's choking traffic. Delhi also began to get new plush buses - benefiting millions who depend on public transport.

- Delhi's public transport has also gone green and polluting industries have been shifted out of residential areas. (Sheila Dixit earned credit for all these developments although some of these took place because of Supreme Court pressure.)

- Initiation of the “Bhagidari” (parternship) scheme, under which the Delhi administration funds Residents Welfare Associations to carry out local area development.

- Water and electricity shortages have also eased (only eased, by no means vanished) in Delhi. The government has also actively promoted water harvesting and encouraged solar power as a green alternative.

- More educational institutes and universities have developed. The government paid attention to the development of the Indraprastha University as well as technical institutes.

I sincerely hope this victory gives a “thumbs-up” to the ruling Congress party and that the chief minister is encouraged to take on more developmental projects in Delhi over her next term.

Management lessons from my six-week old son!!

We were recently blessed with a lovely and handsome boy with bright eyes and a smile to die for! Though we have had our share of sleepless nights and constant nervousness about the slightest indication of our baby’s discomfort, overall the parenting experience has been really great! Here are some lessons that my six week old has taught me; lessons that I can take back to my workplace. I secretly feel that the fact that he was born in IIM-A (close to the campus) makes him a “smart manager” right from his day-one!

Lessons 1: Change is good. Status-quo can make you “wet and soggy” and uncomfortable. And, whenever you aspire for change, shout out loud.

Lesson 2: When you want to say something, say it boldly. Otherwise people may not take you seriously. Have you ever heard a little baby whispering when he/she is hungry?

Lesson 3: Charm people around you to get things done. My six-week old exactly knows when and how much to smile and “coo” to make me and my wife go ga-ga.

Lesson 4: Time-bound and fixed schedule kills creativity and innovation. Throw the time piece and alarm clocks out of the window and live life on your own terms if you want to be creative and if you want to maximize learning.

Lesson 5: Delegate effectively and make people around you work efficiently. Ever seen a little baby make his own bed or dress himself up?

Lesson 6: Be patient, because that is the only way to endure tough times. This is something that parents learn through dealing with their little baby. When a baby cries, there is very little parents can do to cool him down other than being patient. No tactics, no smart-strategy, no amount of negotiation or temper will help at that point.

Lesson 7: Stay hungry, stay foolish. Staying hungry for knowledge and having no ego in being naïve about things can lead to rapid learning and professional progress.

These are some management “mantras” that my son has taught me in six weeks! Well, I will add on to this list as I get more “gyan” from my “smart manager.”

My IIM-A Innings Nearing “Tea Time”…

No. This is not a blog entry about tea time at IIM-A!! I am trying to compare my remaining tenure at IIM-A PGPX with a typical late afternoon (nearing tea time) on day five of a cricket match poised for a draw. There is stark similarity between the two situations.

As I enter my fifth and last term in December third week, I almost feel like a player getting ready for tea (on day five of test match) and then enduring the post tea session of cricket, which will likely be uneventful and cool, with very little pressure to perform as long as there is no loss of wicket! The idea is to get some practice for the next match before retiring to the dressing room.

The fifth term of PGPX at IIM-A will have all “gyan” type courses; thankfully we are done with all the “rocket-science” type quant-heavy courses. Term five is designed to be low pressure (only comparatively; IIM-A rigor is well known) to let students focus on job hunting (the next innings?) and get all set to go to the dressing room (wherever the job takes PGPXers). The only thing we as students need to deal with are “slow deliveries” from professors (those last few courses) without failing any course, while focussing on the post-exec MBA opportunities. While the pressure on the players (PGPXers) will be seemingly low, they will be toiling hard behind-the-scenes to find a suitable job.

Hopefully like most drawn cricket matches, our “post tea” session will have no surprises in the form of either crazy quiz-heavy courses with tough deliverable schedules, or less-than-expected job offers from “selectors” (read: companies coming to campus for recruiting).

What can India do to deal with terrorism?

I am no expert, but just wanted to put some thoughts that I have on how the country should deal with terrorism. This is in continuation to my last blog entry emphasizing that we as a country need to do something about terrorism. We have had enough. Note that these are only high-level thoughts (mainly common-sense):

MUST DOs:-
- De-politicize homeland security. Like the armed forces, internal security should be miles away from any political linkage. The institutional mechanism should be such that no political party can take any kind of mileage out of terrorism and related actions.
- Create a single central agency/organization to coordinate anti-terrorist operations. This agency should coordinate with various forces and should have the lever to call the shots at all levels during a counter-terrorist operation; maybe with direct reporting to the PMO.
- The intelligence bureau should be made fully accountable. The bureau’s responsibility should not end at just providing loose pieces of intelligence reports; it should be accountable to ensure that the central agency has acted upon its intelligence. The intelligence bureau chief should also have direct reporting to the PMO (if it is not already done).
- To deal with terrorist routes through the sea, there should be one agency comprising the police, the coast guard, and the navy to keep vigil in high seas. Right now there is a lot of confusion since all three agencies have their area of operation tightly defined with little coordination, which leads to confusion.
- The NSG kind of crack teams should be based in all states (which is what the PM has already proposed). These men should be taken off VIP security – the state police can do that very well (hopefully).
- Coordinate with FBI, the UK intelligence, the Israeli intelligence, etc. All-said-and-done, these countries are better at dealing with such situations. Putting all egos aside, our agencies should collaborate with them, and learn from them.
- Security should be increased manifold at all public places.

DONTs:-
We should however stay away from two specific knee-jerk reactions:
- This should not escalate to a war like situation at the border. The political/international pressure tactic route should work better in this regard.
- This should not lead to targeting of people with specific religious beliefs. There should be no religion-based profiling, etc.

Wake Up: This is the time to act; not sulk, sympathize, and feel sad…

"What have done to deserve this?" Earlier I asked this question each time a terrorist attack happened in our country. Not any more.

This “war-on-Mumbai” was different. Watching this horror drama unfold on the television made me realize that this is a reality we Indians have to live with. Now no political party, no security agency can help us, unless we as responsible citizens keep our eyes and ears open, take responsibility of our own and our neighbors’ safety, and create a noisy momentum to make the political parties unite to prepare India to tackle such strikes and take “stern” action against terrorists.

Here are a couple of reasons why I feel this attack was different:
- For the first time, the attack happened not on masses but on “real people” (don’t get me wrong here). This was not some blast on a railway station where the terrorist and the victims remained faceless. This time around we exactly knew who was attacking and who was being attacked.
- For the first time the nation saw in real-time the helplessness of authorities around the entire process. It took several battalions of NSG men, police, SRPF, marine commandos three days to salvage the situation.
- The attacks happened on Indian soil but were targeted towards citizens of multiple countries.
- No political party could get any political mileage (I am so glad!). In fact this was the time when Mr. Raj Thakare’s Nav-Nirman-Sena was required to “save Mumbai,” for Mr Advani to mobilize and pacify the masses, for Mrs. Gandhi to make some “constructive” appeals to the nation. I wonder where they were through all this!

Here are my reflections from this “mayhem:”
- Gone are the days of unrestricted freedom for all citizens to walk freely in public places. From now on, there will (and should) be metal detectors at most public places (hotels, monuments, cinema houses, restaurants, etc.). And, we as citizens should take these “little” inconveniences in our stride.
- Unless political parties take concrete steps to ensure such things do not happen in future through increased security, institution building, enabling foreign policy, etc., they can forget coming to power in any state.
- People have had enough of this, and are clamoring for change. And, this voice-of-the-people will only get louder in future.
- We have to live with the uncertainty; this sword of terror will dangle over our heads at all times.

Wake up politicians, we do not want to see you visiting the war zone, we do not want to see you at the hospitals visiting the injured, we do not want to see you holding protests and "bandhs," and we certainly do not want to see any political mileage or finger-pointing happening post this terror strike. It is we as a nation (irrespective of our political beliefs, religious following, casts, etc.) that was attacked, and it should be “one” nation that responds to the situation.

U.S. Gets a New President -- Clean Energy Has a New Hope!

The "most powerful" country in the world has a new president. And, this seems to be good news for clean energy lovers. Under President-elect Barack Obama, the fossil fuels industry may face "dark days ahead," while alternative energy sectors are likely to flourish.

Obama's lynchpin policy is a climate change bill that would cap emissions such as carbon dioxide and auction greenhouse gas credits to encourage a fundamental transition away from high emitting industries to low-carbon alternatives. As part of that policy shift, renewable energy, natural gas, plug-in hybrid vehicles, and advanced electricity transmission are forecast to receive a major boost. Senator Obama has proposed using $150 billion from the emissions auction to fund such low-carbon alternatives over the next decade.

Obama administration energy and environment policy marks a tectonic shift for the nation. He plans to move the U.S. away from petroleum as its primary energy source and towards renewable energy, advanced biofuels, efficiency and low greenhouse-gas-emitting technologies. And the effect is likely to “rub off” to the entire world.

From N-pariah to N-power…

Great news for the energy sector!

India finally has entered the “much coveted” nuclear club. Despite China’s efforts to scuttle the NSG clearance process, we pulled it through. Congratulations “Mr Singh and company!”

Being of the opinion that we need the nuclear deal to come through (hopefully the US Congress will oblige!) – not only for energy but also for international strategic geo-political reasons – I feel, at the very least, the development results in the following three fall outs:
- it allows the flow of nuclear fuel, helping the country's nuclear programme grow faster
- it will open up trade for global players to export reactors to India
- it will open up opportunities for export by Indian companies

Owing to India's nuclear isolation since 1998, capacity utilisation of approx. 4,000 MW power plants had come down from 90 per cent in 2001-02 to 54 per cent in 2007-08. The existing and new plants can now hopefully work at a load factor of up to 80 per cent given the assurance of fuel supplies.

With the market estimated at Rs 1,000 billion over the next two decades (Rs 60-80 million per MW x 16,000 MW estimated potential capacity) four of the world's biggest nuclear power station makers will be keen to supply reactors to India. These are France's Areva, US's General Electric, Toshiba's Westinghouse Electric and Russia's atomic energy agency Rosatom.

The development may also result in incremental business of some of the Indian companies that have already announced their intention to enter/expand in the nuclear technology arena. These include L&T, Reliance Power, state-owned NTPC, Jindal Power and the Tata Group.

My second innings at IIM-A starts tomorrow!

Two terms down, two more academic terms to go.

Am I tired? I do not know!

This seems like one long, yet interesting journey. Have found some great friends here at IIM-A, interacted with some very bright folks, learnt some management “gyan,” but above all have finally come to terms with what I want to do post this sabbatical. Past one week was great since I found some time to introspect and evaluate where I am and where I really want to go from here (well quite literally as well!).

I am looking forward to the next term starting tomorrow – not for any academic advancement, but for joy that the next two months may bring in my personal life.

For now, it is back to reading cases for tomorrow. Bring it on…..

It is raining……cases!

Monsoon is here.

Outside (our syndicate) it is raining water, and inside it is raining cases, assignments, and suggested readings! (f.y.i. syndicate is a study den allotted to each PGPX group; these essentially become PGPXers' "second home" as participants typically end up spending more than 8 hours in these study dens each day after classes preparing for next day’s lectures).

As Ahmedabad enjoys its first monsoon rain, our group is stuck with a retail case, an inventory management case, and a 20+ page corporate finance reading. In such “romantic” weather just outside the window, our D-Company (incidentally this is what we call our Group D) is discussing inventory strategy for part #4915082 in some nondescript trading house.

Who says life is fair?

The subsidy is blowing in the wind!

After witnessing the “almost magical” effect of generation-based subsidy in the solar energy sector, the ministry (MNRE) has announced a subsidy of 50 paise per unit on wind energy generation. Be it increasing crude prices or the drive to meet energy targets of the current 5-year plan period, the government has finally woken up to the fact that wind energy sector needs to be rescued from the pressure of increasing steel prices. Estimates suggest that per-MW cost of wind energy installation has climbed from Rs 450 million to Rs 650 million owing to spiralling steel prices.

The 10-year incentive, limited to grid-interactive systems with a minimum of 5MW installed capacity, will surely help independent power producers, especially companies with strong balance sheet (with no attraction to get into wind energy for 80% depreciation benefits) to jump into the wind energy game. Owing to this policy change, we may now see big names in wind energy.

Subsidy, though a “dirty” word in the current market-driven world, is welcome in the case of clean energy since it provides the much needed encouragement to the sector. Well I am not against the conventional energy systems, but haven’t we subsidized coal-based generation for decades? (through lower and controlled mining/transportation costs and sales price)

I am not sure if the government has “fallen in love” with clean energy over the past one year (first it was per-unit subsidy on solar generation, now it is subsidy on wind energy; and the biofuels policy is due over the next few weeks). I feel the government is just waking up to the changed energy scenario marked by increasing crude prices (and hence increasing oil subsidy), rising levels of pollution, climate change imperatives, and the general “cool” quotient attached with clean energy.

Nonetheless, the move is welcome. Let the subsidy blow in the wind!

Let us give Hybrid a real chance…

Wonderful news! Now (at least theoretically) we have an option to insulate ourselves from the ever-rising fuel prices. Honda has just launched its Civic Hybrid model, and Toyota is not too far behind (plans to launch its Prius model soon). Hybrid cars, which use both petrol engine and electric motor, are usually fuel efficient and have lower emission levels, making them environment-friendly.

These cars however may remain in the “showroom window” as the import duties on these imported kits is huge (114%), resulting in high on-the-road price. Honda Civic is pegged at Rs 2.15 million and Honda is likely to launch Prius at a similar price. It is in fact a chicken-and-egg story – the volumes will not be attractive enough till these manufacturers set up local plants, and the prices will not decrease till the volumes increase.

How can the government step-in and make this opportunity real?

In my view, reducing the customs duty on hybrid cars is an option, but the government is unlikely to oblige since it would like to keep large-engine cars as costly as possible. The government could however permit imports at a lower duty level to those companies that promise to manufacture such hybrid or fuel cell cars locally within a stipulated period of time.

Also, the government could explore imposing harder environmental norms for large-engine cars, thereby encouraging manufacturers to switch to cleaner fuels.

On a parallel note, the government should initiate discussions with local car manufacturers and urge them to start their own hybrid initiatives with a tight timeline. The government could also fund local R&D agencies to accelerate their initiatives in this area.

Whatever be the approach, the government cannot afford to remain a passive spectator on this issue.

The “Sardar” finally shows his grit!

The Sardar (don’t get me wrong; I mean the leader of the country) is on the right footing against the unreasonable Left. He has decided to show his grit, albeit at the end of the Congress term. As predicted by most political analyst, the Congress has decided to take on the Left this time around cause the stakes are not too high -- the elections are already due next year, and the worst that can happen is Nov-Dec polls.

I am glad PM Manmohan Singh is not bending backwards (like he did last year; see my earlier blog dated October 2007) despite fierce objections from the communists who prop up his government in the Parliament. It seems the PM wants to move forward on the deal before the G8 summit on July 7 when he meets President Bush.

I do not want to get into the technicalities of the deal. It has been done to death by the newspapers. This write-up is to celebrate the grit of our PM.

Can old rats learn new tricks?

Yes they can. I have personally witnessed 77 other rats figure the “how-to-survive-IIMA-PGPX-Term-I” trick out. Here is how IIM-A taught the trick:

- Locked rats in a cage (called PGPX) with trick contraptions (really complex; and “crazy-sounding” subjects)
- Showed them a really large chunk of cheese that they can have in the future (senior management jobs!)
- Rewarded them with little morsels of cheese each time they made a headway figuring out a trick (grades)
- Punished them with little dozes of electric current (quizzes)
- And did not let them rest till they figured the tricks out – threw cold water (cases) at them, kicked the cage (term exams), and threw more puzzles (incrementally harder) at them each time they figured a trick out.
And wow, there is a group of semi-trained rats (not necessarily smarter ones though!).

The first term of the course is finally over and we had exactly 4 hours of break before the group jumped into the bulky (what else do you call 25 kgs of books and case spirals) second term material.

Here are some statistics of what the group (of rats) went through in the last ten weeks: (compiled by a colleague rat who is great at figuring out really complex “mazes”)
- Worked on close to 75 cases
- Wrote 12 surprise quizzes/mid-term
- Wrote 9 full-length exams
- Attended 140 classes (each session – 75 minutes)
- Wrote/co-wrote/contributed to close to 50 reports/ submissions/PPTs

Don’t you think rats (real ones) are luckier?

Seventy-Eight Zombies Moving Around in Vastrapur!

“Zombie” is derived from the word "zonbi," who is a person believed to have died and been brought back to life without “speech” and “freewill.” (wikipedia).

And, the IIM Ahmedabad campus has just been invaded by 78 Zombies. What else can you call normal people (till they joined the PGPX-3 batch) who do not get to sleep day-in-and-day-out. Their freedom-of-speech is limited to cases and assignments, and they can express their free-will (read: do something other than coursework) only during lunch hours, when they get to talk about something other than academics, and while taking a shower (though the rumor is that zombies may soon give up this non-value adding activity to free up some time for handling assignments!)

These zombies usually hunt in groups of six or seven, live in their caves called “syndicates,” move around with spiral binders/books/laptops, and can be found sipping coffee at crazy hours.

Zombies are ruled by a species called “Profs.” A Prof is someone who through his years of practice (of possibly sorcery and voodoo) has mastered the art of using “dangerous” weapons such as “assignments,” “cases,” “prep reading” and “quizzes” (the last weapon belongs to the “mass-destruction” category). They can use these weapons to make zombies behave in a “controlled fashion” for one year to ensure that most become zombies for life.

Zombies comply with Profs’ demands (not that they have a choice), because they hope that if they can behave in a “controlled fashion" till February 09 and learn some tricks-of-the-trade from Profs, they will be adopted by another species which will help them achieve “nirvana.”

Breakfast in Ajmer, Lunch in Udaipur, Dinner in Ahmedabad...

This is what my Thursday looked like! Drove 960 km drive from Gurgaon to IIM Ahmedabad campus. The road is beautiful for most part and we averaged about 75 kmph, which I guess is very neat in India. The route we took was – Gurgaon-Jaipur-Ajmer-Chittorgarh-Udaipur-Himmatnagar-Ahmedabad (entire NH-8 stretch). The only pain point was stopping at 15 toll stations. I would recommend this drive to every "auto enthusiast."

New Energy India Community Grows...

The New Energy India community is growing by the day.

Last month the Web site had 22,000+ hits and more than 100 members registered in the community. The dialogue among members has started on various renewable energy areas. I am happy the initiative is shaping up well. It takes me just an inch forward on my dream of building a self-sustaining clean energy community in India.

Check the site out: NewEnergyIndia.Org.

And, if you are a clean energy enthusiast, feel free to register as a member.

Hectic Last few Weeks, Happy School Website, Move to Ahmedabad, etc.…

I am looking forward to my one year at the IIM Ahmedabad starting next week being a part of the PGPX-III batch. Spent the last few days winding up a project for The Happy school (read below), switching cellphone plans, getting bank drafts made for the institute, paying up pending credit card bills and insurance checks, doing some last minute shopping, reading prep material, getting my guitar repaired, and a zillion other things.

Though I got goodbyes from all friends and family, the sweetest were those from The Happy School kids. This is a school in Gurgaon run for underprivileged kids. My wife and I have been teaching music to the kids on Saturdays for the past two-and-a-half years. Though the kids were genuinely “sad” to know that there will be no music classes for the next one year, they gave me a really warm (and loud; imagine 300+ kids shouting “bye sir”) goodbye. My parting gift to the Happy School was the Web site that I put together for the school in the last few days. Check it out (especially the faculty page…): The Happy School



Tomorrow I start the 14 hour road drive to Ahmedabad. Though I am looking forward to spending one year at the Mecca of management education, new experiences, and meeting new people, am a bit nervous too - I have been away from academics for a decade now.

I am hoping I will have enough time to write this blog as I get sucked into the IIM Ahmedabad rigor (have read some horror stories on blogs of some outgoing students) starting next Sunday. Yes Sunday! I am sure that is a message load and clear of what we can expect for the next one year.

Anyways, here I come Ahmedabad!!

One "long" weekend this will be....

This weekend is different. There will be no end to it.

After always wishing (during my 12 years of work life) that Saturday nights never end, my wish seems to have almost come true!!

Yesterday was my last day at work before I head off (later this month) for a one year sabbatical. Well quite unlike what I always imagined, it was a fairly uneventful day. I spent the morning clearing my desk, my e-mail inbox, my laptop, and writing those last few e-mails. My boss took me out for lunch to a local Chinese restaurant. Afternoon was spent mainly with the Accounts department, ensuring that I am all set to receive my salary check and bonus at the end of the month (well, that is important, considering that it will be my last salary check for a long time!). And then, some customary good-byes later, I headed home. The day just flew by.

I think I will miss going to office every morning. But for now, I enjoy my one “long” weekend….

Are Dhoni's Boys Shaping the Next-Generation Indian Persona!

Good show India! Beating Australia in Australia is no mean task and Dhoni and his boys have done that in style. One aspect that jumps out of the India-Australia series is the aggression that the team has displayed on the field (and off it through press statements). The Indian team has matched Australian team’s aggression in every game, every press statement, and during each phase of the series. If Ponting’s men have been aggressive in the field (which is what the Australian team is good at – building mental pressure), Dhoni and his boys have given it back to the hosts (and even more in some cases courtesy Bhajji, Shrishanth, Yuvraj, and the gang). The Indian team’s behavior is in stark contrast to Rahul Dravid’s typical “gentlemen” eleven. Is it good or bad, I don’t want to hazard an opinion! But it is getting us victories.

In fact “controlled aggression” has been India’s flavor for the past one year or so. Indian companies such as the Tatas, Mittal Steel, Infosys, Wipro, are coming into their own to acquire foreign firms and showing the kind of aggression in doing so that Indian firms have traditionally shied away from in the past. In the technology terrain Indian firms are now defining the “eureka moments.” Indian professionals are asking for “a seat at the table” (Nooyi, Sareen to name a few) in various large traditionally “foreign” MNCs.

Are Indian “boys” like Dhoni and Ratan Tata defining the next generation Indian persona?

FM Delivers an Agrarian Budget... or Is It?

Keeping everybody happy is a tough ask. And if you are a Finance Minister presenting his last budget of the term in a run up to the elections, the ask is much tougher! But our Finance Minister has been able to please the masses. Increase in income tax slab limits for the middle class, write-off of loans to small farmers, more allocation to education sector, and much more… Good show Mr Finance Minister!

One thing that bothers me in this “rosy” scenario is the decision to write-off Rs 600 billion worth of loans to farmers. I am as concerned about the appalling agrarian situation as anybody else in the country, and fully realize that India’s all-inclusive growth cannot afford to bypass agrarian reforms, but based on my limited knowledge of economics, loan waivers are never a great idea for the following reasons:

- This does not create any discipline or financial prudence in the farmer community. I sympathize with farmers who are going through this hellish cycle of bad crops-more loans-loan servicing-requirement of loans-etc., but this move will just clean up the farmers’ balance sheets and encourage them to go to the banks for more loans with as much uncertainty around possibly another bad season (cause we have not addressed the root cause), and possibly another waiver!
- Waivers dis-incentivize farmers who have serviced their loans. What can the government expect the next time around farmers avail loans from banks? There will be more defaulters in anticipation of another such waiver!
- Banks cannot be made vehicles for social dole-outs. Though this waiver will allow banks to clean-up their balance sheets, it is generally a bad idea to treat business establishments as means of social reforms.
- This does not address a bigger problem of private unorganized money lending at much higher rates. This does not provide relief to a zillion other farmers who are in the private (unorganized) lending net.

Though it is much easier to sit on the sidelines and criticize (and that is precisely what I am doing) and provide unsolicited “arm-chair” consulting, and social reforms have much wider implications and several constraints than my “naïve” (I don’t claim to understand the nuances of economics!) mind can appreciate and evaluate, here are a few things that the finance minister could have considered:

- Providing waivers for only “really” marginal farmers, and for the rest just restructuring loans to make servicing easier, or just waiving off a percentage of the loans rather than straight-write-off.
- Investing more (out of the Rs 600 billion waiver) on creating long term sustainable environment in farm lending – such as trying to bring discipline in un-organized lending sector, better structuring in loans provided by nationalized banks, more avenues for micro-credit, etc.
- Improving ground-level situation for farmers in terms of technology support, providing better seeds, enabling them to directly sell in free market, water management, other infrastructure, etc. For instance, allocation of Rs 750 million towards setting up mobile soil testing facilities is a positive step in this direction.

And, who is financing this waiver? It will come from projected higher tax receipts and non-tax sources such as disinvestments. So this will come out of our pockets and at the expense of further “more meaningful” development in the country.

I am happy for the farmers, but I strongly feel that the finance minister has just postponed the problem for a few more years till it bites back yet another government.

Budget 101...

Not being from economics background is a handicap around this time of the year when all that people want to talk about is “budgetary implications”, “fiscal tightening”, “fiscal deficit”, and other such stuff which is “almost-Latin” to my ears. Here are excerpts from a Budget 101 article that I recently read somewhere and found really helpful in my constant struggle to “sound knowledgeable” in Budget-related conversations…

- The government needs money for its huge expenses. We can broadly divide government expenses into two types: revenue expenses and capital expenses.
- The government incurs revenue expenses in running its day-to-day business, whereas capital expenses include all expenses incurred by the government for creating assets. The money spent by the government for paying salary to its staff is revenue expense, and the money spent for constructing a hospital is capital expense.
- Some of these expenses ultimately come out of our pockets. But taxes alone can’t take care of all the government’s expenses. So, there are other sources through which our government earns money.
- We can broadly divide the sources of government earnings into two categories: tax and non-tax sources. Tax sources include all the direct and indirect taxes, and non-tax sources include revenue receipts and capital receipts. Revenue receipts consist of a variety of things such as dividends received from public sector companies, fees, fines forfeitures, etc., received by the government. Under the category of capital receipts, we keep the money received from the disinvestment of public sector undertakings, recovery of loans, borrowings of the government, etc.
- The main difference between revenue receipts and capital receipts is that revenue receipts are recurring in nature, which the government can expect to receive year after year, whereas capital receipts are a kind of one-time income.
- The government borrows money to cover the crack between its income and expenditure. But, to see the true picture, you need to put aside the borrowed amount. So if you remove government borrowings from government income, you will see the gap between what the government is spending and what the government is earning. This difference is what we call fiscal deficit. It is expressed as a percentage of gross domestic product.

I Finally Complete My Web Site on Renewable Energy

I have been away from my blog for the past few days (or rather nights) spending time cranking HTML code (sounds “nerdy”!) to complete my Web site – www.newenergyindia.org. It is finally up and running (and I am so proud of it). I can almost feel like a proud father as I see my first “almost living” creation on the Web.

The www.newenergyindia.org Web resource simply aspires to provide latest and comprehensive information to build awareness on all aspects of renewable energy in India. The mission of the Web site is to create a vibrant Web community that uses and exchanges renewable energy information and opinion. It is a not-for-profit initiative, has no commercial objectives, and does not aim to endorse any product or sell any service.

Well it was a lot of hard work to say the least. But I hope I can create a community of RE enthusiasts through this Web site.

If you are passionate about renewable energy, visit the site and become a member of the New Energy India community.

The Countdown has Started…

It is finally sinking in. Today I start the countdown on my last 30 days at my work place (well 22 if you discount the weekends!) before I head out for a one year sabbatical. The place has pretty much been my second home for the last four years. After three office moves and four role changes, and after having worked with seven bosses and countless colleagues, it is hard to imagine that I will miss the “action” for the next one year. The pain and anxiety of leaving the “safe and secure” environment of the office which I have seen grow from 3 people to 160 odd is suddenly weighing on me.

As it sinks in that I will be away for a year (or maybe more) everything in the office looks good and exciting. The office building that I loved to hate till recently looks beautiful, my cabin and work station which always seemed too inappropriate (too large, or too crowded, or too cold, or too hot; depending on my mood) looks good and comfortable, the office lunch (really unpalatable at times) suddenly tastes good, the window that I sit next to (my window to the world – Gurgaon in my case) which I always complained was too much of a distraction seems like a blessing, my work which I sort of always liked seems even more interesting and fulfilling!! And, all this makes me tentative and unsure about my idea of taking a one year break from work (which till recently I thought was grand and very forward-looking at my age).

Also, as I prepare to head out of Gurgaon for a year (hopefully), a town (and a very chaotic one) which has been my home for six years now, I am strangely beginning to enjoy little nuances ("nuisances" till very recently) that it has to offer -- little walks to the chaotic and crowded local bazaars, spending time at the shopping malls (which I used to hate till recently!), watching movies at the several almost-always-packed theatres (I hated that too), and the crowded park where my wife and I go for morning/evening walks.

Suddenly my grand idea of a sabbatical to do something different – studying, starting a Web community on clean energy, writing on renewable energy – does not seem that smart to me! Or is it my nerves, I don’t know!

It is crazy that when you are looking forward to something for such a long time, a one year break from work in my case, it is strange that you feel sort of intimidated, unsure, confused, tentative, when you finally get it. I think god has designed mortals to almost always run after something or the other, and when there is nothing to run after (only briefly till you identify the next thing that takes your fancy) the human mind is confused. I am going through that emotion at the moment. And, I hope I handle it well.

Cheap Laptops, Low Cost Cars…..Is India at the Innovation Tipping Point?

Kudos to the Tata Group for delivering on its promise to manufacture the cheapest car – Nano – at half the price of the cheapest Chinese car. This feat was achieved through some ground-breaking work by the Tata team in putting together cost effective designs, using cost effective material, and (as News reports suggest) optimizing distribution and sales channels. Another recent news that was relatively much less celebrated (unfortunately Tatas hogged all the limelight) was HCL’s launch of a Rs 14,000 laptop (approx $350). Though these two news items were quite unrelated, they definitely point towards the fact that the Indian industry is finally spreading its wings and coming out of the shadows of the West dominated technology terrain. After decades of benchmarking its technology and manufacturing advancement against the West, the Indian industry is setting new standards. This makes me think if we are at the Technology Innovation "Tipping Point" (thank Malcolm Gladwell for the term).

Till now the technology and to some extent manufacturing in India has largely followed an "incremental" approach towards improvement. And, this "incremental-ism" is what causes a linear-sloping growth in technology improvements. While engineers in the developed countries mostly considered a "step" approach to technology (Germans in engineering; Japanese in technology; and now Chinese in low cost manufacturing!), Indian industry was happy to register gradual improvements in technology and process fine-tunings in manufacturing.

Thanks to the courage of Mr Tata and some other great business leaders, the industry seems to be evaluating a "Stepped" approach to technology/manufacturing innovation (and breaking the linear growth pattern). And as Malcolm Gladwell writes in his book "The Tipping Point," I sincerely hope this quest for setting new benchmarks in technology and manufacturing is infectious and spreads like wildfire in the Indian industry!

All the Best for Your New Year Resolutions

I spent the last one week randomly asking people around me (friends and colleagues at work) about their new-year resolutions. And I was surprised to note that most people had very predictable set of resolutions for 2008. People who had nothing in common (going by their personality type) strangely had very similar resolutions! The only trend I saw was that almost all resolutions could be tagged in one of the three categories (directly or indirectly) – Health, Relationship, and Money.

While relatively not-so-young (30 years +) went for “better work-life balance” and “shed extra weight”; younger folks went for “better career”, “make more money” and “regular exercise”. (Though “shed extra weight” and “regular exercise” appear quite similar in terms of desired end-results, there is stark difference in the motivation behind the two.)

Based on my one week of sampling, here are the top-five most popular resolutions (see if your resolution shows up here):
1. Regular Exercise: Most popular with young folks. Key motivator: looking attractive.
2. Shed Extra Weight: Most popular with the not-so-young. Key motivator: looking “presentable” (read: not ugly).
3. Better Career Move (read: make more money): Popular with all (more with the under 25 year category). Key motivator: peer pressure (sad but true!).
4. Quit Smoking/Drinking: Popular for all ages; more for the young (strangely).
5. Develop a New Skill (take up a hobby, etc.): Popular with the not-so-young. Key motivator: too much monotony in work/personal life.

How many people will be able to keep their resolutions is another story all-together. Random Googling points to the fact that four out of five people who make New Year’s resolutions eventually break them. In fact, a third won’t even make it to the end of January 2008.

All the best to you!