The Green Tiger.

From  the  title,  I‘m  sure  that  the  instinctive  reaction  that  most  of  you‘ll  would  have  is  that  this  article  might  just  be  a  metaphor  or  spoof  of  the  Booker  win-ning  ‗The  White  Tiger‘  by  Aravind  Adiga.  However,  what  I‘m  referring  to  here  is  one  of  the  biggest  hurdles  in  India‘s  development-  CORRUPTION.

Corruption  has  spread  its  evil  wings  to  every  strata  of  society-  be  it  at  the  grass  root  level,  or  at  the  Government  level.  By  corruption,  I  mean  political  corrup-tion,  which  is  the  dysfunction  of  a  political  system  or  institution  in  which  govern-ment  officials,  political  officials  or  employees  seek  illegitimate  personal  gain  through  actions  such  as  bribery,  extortion,  etc.

Its  many  ill  effects  in  various  fields  are:

1.  On  politics,  administration  &  institutions:

Corruption  erodes  the  institutional  capacity  of  government  as  procedures  are  disre-garded,  resources  are  siphoned  off,  and  public  offices  are  bought  and  sold.  In  elec-tions,  it  reduces  accountability.  People  lose  their  trust  in  the  ruling  bodies,  which  affects  representation.  Corruption  in  the  judiciary  compromises  the  rule  of  law.

2.  On  Economics:

In  the  private  sector,  corruption  increases  the  cost  of  business  through  the  price  of  illicit  payments  themselves,  the  management  cost  of  negotiating  with  officials,  and  the  risk  of  breached  agreements  or  detection.  Corruption  also  lowers  compliance  with  construction,  environmental,  or  other  regulations,  reduces  the  quality  of  gov-ernment  services  and  infrastructure,  and  increases  budgetary  pressures  on  govern-ment  .

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3.  On  Environment  &  Society:

More  often  than  not,  a  lot  of  projects  and  factories  are  audited  without  any  Government  objection,  despite  them  having  flouted  several  laws.  On  the  other  hand,  the  one  who  refuses  to  pay  under  the  table  is  unfortunately  the  one  who‘s  at  loss.  Officials  often  steal  state  property.  In  Bihar,  more  than  80%  of  the  subsidized  food  aid  to  poor  is  stolen  by  corrupt  officials.  Simi-larly,  food  aid  is  often  robbed  at  gunpoint  by  governments  and  criminals  and  sold  for  a  profit.

On  health,  public  safety,  education,  trade  unions  etc.:

Bribes  made  by  suppliers  of  safety  equipment,  etc  are  hardly  uncommon.  To-day,  corruption  has  become  widespread  in  the  field  of  education,  where  in,  parents  literally  PURCHASE  seats  for  their  children.  Corruption  can  also  affect  the  various  components  of  sports  activities  (referees,  players,  medical  and  laboratory  staff  involved  in  anti-doping  controls,  members  of  national  sport  federation  and  international  committees  deciding  about  the  allocation  of  contracts  and  competition  places).  Match  fixing  is  yet  another  form  of  cor-ruption.

The  most  glaring  of  all  corruption  related  offences,  however,  is  compromise  in  secu-rity  related  matters.  All  of  us  are  aware  that  no  terrorist  attack  can  succeed  without  an  inside  hand.  Take  for  instance  the  1993  Bombay  bomb  blasts.  The  perpetrators  could  not  have  even  got  the  weapons  through  to  the  Indian  shores  had  they  not  been  assisted  by  the  Naval  commandos  and  small  time  henchmen,  who  for  a  paltry  sum,  risked  a  nation  as  a  whole.  Not  once  did  they  flinch  at  the  thought  of  selling  their  country  for  the  sake  of  money.

Citizens  do  not  report  crimes  to  the  police,  fearing  action  against  them  for  having  charged  powerful/well  to  do  individuals.

Cash  for  vote  is  another  scandal,  which  has  become  quite  prominent  of  late.  Several  politicians,  actors  and  businessmen  bribe  Income  Tax  officials  for  tax  eva-sion.

Contractors  bribe  employees  of  companies  in  order  to  receive  lucrative  con-tracts  without  having  the  merit  to  serve  with  honesty  and  efficiency.

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It  is  thus  not  wrong  to  say  that  the  system  itself  is  corrupted.

Examples  are  endless  and  occurrences-  infinite!!

So  why  am  I  calling  Corruption,  The  Green  Tiger??

Just  as  a  tiger  waits  to  pounce  on  his  prey,  corruption  is  laying  its  hands  on  everything  that  it  can  possibly  find.  It  is  a  hungry  animal  which  can  attack  anything  it  can  sight,  and  if  not  curbed,  can  lead  to  the  complete  failure  of  democracy.

Corruption  is  worse  than  prostitution.  The  latter  might  endanger  the  morals  of  an  individual;  the  former  invariably  endangers  the  morals  of  the  entire  country.

SAY  NO  TO  CORRUPTION;  SAVE  YOURSELF  FROM  THE  GREEN  TIGER!!

-Kavitha  G  T.e.  etrx

India Inc.

India Inc.

The promenade of sanguineness

Talk about our nation and we find a can of worms; worms of corruption, illiteracy, unemployment, higher prices, weak infrastructure and a bunch of social problems- worries, botheration and glitches everywhere! Moreover, external threats merely ex-tend the list of challenges confronting India (Let‘s not get started on terrorism!). En-ter the various arenas of agriculture, business, technology – the box of worriment keeps expanding in volume, thus making the future, ultra-mosaic! Amidst such sinis-ter clouds, India has a zealous set of young work force and a resourceful population too! With an astute cluster of B-schools like the IIMs, XLRI and MDI, and their B-dexters, our business is surely going to boom! Commingle this ingenious and avid youth class and you find a spark, the one which aims at reinventing models for India, radically! These very ‗business creators‘ not only ascend the country‘s opulence but also place India competitively in the global marketplace. Thanks to such Einsteins, the business design principles in India have undergone a reform- a shape for the good of the common man, and they have been ameliorating day by day. Today, inde-pendent of the special market conditions, India exhibits the Westerners a pivotal source of inspiration; the design principles which everyone should consider…. (At least, once!)

The 10% Rule:

India has been good at revamping constraints into creativity and adroitness. The 10% rule states that the goods and services are delivered to the market at a price which is 10% of the western world‘s average price. This could raise competitiveness to altogether a new level. Take an instance of Seva Foundation‟s Clinton Global Initiative Commitment whose sole vision is to eliminate blindness in spite of the bar-riers of indigence, remoteness and ignorance. The motive is simple: one million more eyes will see again every year by 2015. In the past year alone, it has performed over 500,000 eye surgeries and screened over three million people for eye health. So, it is necessary to lower the costs instead of assuming big budgets so that every common man has access to such awe-inspiring goods and services.

Mass Mobilization:

This principle draws out a model to ‗employ‘ the unemployed rather than ‗pay‘ the unemployed. India has cogently tapped human networks to deliver both, marketing and social services. (A bizarre, yet a blooming combination!) Rings a bell? 9

The Mumbai Dabbawallas! Having delivered over 200,000 lunches to people in offices and schools from their home every day for decades, they have set up a gilt-edged paradigm to this principle. This delivery system is zappy yet simple-

You employ a swarm of scantily literate delivery men to manage deliveries in a cost efficient manner! So, while we can recurrently talk about the perils of nesting a huge population, mass mobilization can be the tour de force behind serving a large consumer base.

Technology as infrastructure:

An effective use of technology instead of physical infrastructure can improve the delivery of social and commercial services efficiently and effectively. ITC‘s ‗E-choupal‟ system depicts how efficiently technology can be used to establish a spread-out infrastructure. The E-choupal is designed to tackle the problems faced by Indian agriculture characterized by weak infrastructure and involvement of nu-merous intermediaries. ‗E-choupal‘ services today reach out to over 4 million farm-ers in over 40,000 villages across ten states in India. It solves the problems of infra-structural inadequacies by deploying several innovative solutions like power back-up through solar batteries, upgrading BSNL exchanges with RNS kits, 24 x 7 help-desk, etc. Through internet kiosks, it provides the farmers with information on weather, and access to wider markets. This not only generates economic value but also transmits a flow of links from the business to the social world!

Broader Platforms for collaboration :

It is necessary to pursue more cross institutional collaborations and joint ventures; collaboration is an efficient means of enhancing the delivery of development pro-grammes. The Andhra Pradesh Government has introduced an online citizen ser-vice portal, APOnline Limited, a tie-up with the Tata Consultancy Services Limited. It provides services in the areas of agriculture, health, education, business and gov-ernment services which have helped the government in improving transparency and reducing delivery cycles, thus reducing the cost of compliance with governmental regulations. Such examples shake the roots of the naïve belief that cross institu-tional collaboration is an unwanted means of extending the reach and capacities of any given institution.

Retracing the model:

Sketching new models requires the status information about the current model, the cream activities of the current one and the novel ideas that would match up the old ones. Besides, rethinking on ideas that would bring values and redesigning errors (may be, faults!) in the earlier model, form an unavoidable part. And this is not like making a duck soup!! 10

With a lagging education system on one hand and a whopping emerging man-power on the other, India has completely rethought the ways in which it can re-cruit and train its workforce. These will handout India to capitalize on its re-source and become a major global R&D hub. (By 2020, India will have the larg-est labour surplus in the world—45 million people.)

Imagine an ad interim educational system that considers workers with wobbly educational backgrounds and turn them into R&D specialists- sounds filmy? Well, it isn‘t! The Indian industry has worked out a codified industry-based skill development program draping rigorous training programs. With this resourceful new model, offshore R&D has become a booming business in India, and is ex-pected to grow over 20% a year, to a $21 billion industry in India by 2012. So, now, it need not count on a multitude of PhDs to make way through an educa-tional system to serve the commercial agenda!

The above designs canvas new models of enterprising brushed from the princi-ples of a blossoming business! Such examples are worth challenging the status quo and asking ‗What if?‘ One never knows- more radical possibilities indeed stimulate a nimble reality; these models might give rise to a few aristocratic Mom and Pop and spawn a country full of Biz pundits!!!

Abhishek Manian, TE EXTC

Roma Kalani, TE CMPN

HOW TO BE A RICH PERSON?

HOW TO BE A RICH PERSON?

If anyone asked my brother, when he was small, what he wanted to be when he was big, he would say in clear, unhesitant, fierce and assured tone , ―mujhe ameer banna hai !‖ I want to be rich. The old relatives would then laugh hysteri-cally unaware that my (dare I say it!) intelligent brother chose the easiest profes-sion on earth: to be rich.

Experienced men and wealthy people themselves claim that to be rich one must have qualities of hard work, sincerity, virtue, determination, persistence and blah blah. That‘s good enough as an advice…good enough only as an advice.

I have done a great deal of research observing quite a few wealthy chaps and being a very benevolent person I will tell you the real secrets of becoming rich.

The first secret, the one that can never fail, the easiest, most convenient, abso-lutely full proof plan to richness is inheritance. Be born in a rich family. Simple. When the angel of child-allocation in heaven sits with his notebook and pen in hand, assigning babies to human couples (obviously human! What‘s the use be-ing a rich poodle! All you would get is a fancy hair cut and pink chain. What a waste!) make sure you flatter the angel enough to assign you to a rich man‘s house. If you are a prodigy sweet talker it would be an icing to the cake to be able to convince the child-allocating angel to make you the only child. Then you are all set for life. No need to even read this text. No worries…no issues just get up in the morning spend some money… sleep at night spending more money and keep doing this till you die after which it does not really matter how is left or gone. All you would have to think is how to convince that child-allocating angel again (Ha! Good luck with that now!)

If you aren‘t born rich then be sure you are born poor. (Biting the child-allocating angel‘s wings should do the trick). All the rich people of today, were at some juncture poverty stricken, loony chaps with scraps of money in their pockets. Am serious. Really. Look at any millionaire‘s interview. He was born in a financially wobbly household and by the age of 15-16 runs away with a few hundreds to spare. So on an urgent basis, be poor. If you aren‘t, start pretending to be one. Having adequate money now will not make you rich in the future. Be sure to take the train by the time you finish school (we are already late for that now! So hurry…! Kurla station is 10minutes from college)

To be rich embrace the richness, be a part of the culture and imbibe its qualities. The early sleepers and risers can kiss money goodbye. All that funny business of turning down the lights at 10:30pm and hauling yourself out of bed at 6:30 like the lark needs to be stopped right away. Sleep with the owl & rise at a decent 10:00am enjoying the lurid warmth of your cozy blanket. Have you ever heard any rich bees barging their work places before noon? Huh? Tell me! Call at their bally offices and you will be greeted with an absurdly sweet voiced lady, slowly

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10:00am enjoying the lurid warmth of your cozy blanket. Have you ever heard any rich bees barging their work places before noon? Huh? Tell me! Call at their bally offices and you will be greeted with an absurdly sweet voiced lady, slowly lowering the axe on your plans by callously announcing that Mr. Richie Rich won‘t be checking in before lunch time.

You have to be apt at understanding semi-funny, meagerly-funny, not-at-all-funny and that-was-sad-enough-for-me-to-kill-you-so-help-me-I-will business jokes and laugh at them in a controlled but booming bear-like sound.

At least five cups of expensive coffee must be consumed everyday each- half drunk and half thrown on account of it being nasty.

By law, the phone should never be answered by you and even when received by your absurdly-sweet-voiced lady it must be transferred only at the third attempt of the caller. Exceptions however can be made to this rule (I mean if your mother/spouse/mother-in-law throw you out of the house for making them wait an hour on the phone, then don‘t coming whining to me!)

This is as far as social norms are concerned.

In matters of business too, there are certain things that are worth replicating.

While placing proposals sport the stern no-dilly-dally expression on your face; keeping the statement- „1000 bucks a piece; take it or leave it‟ at the tip of your tongue. It‘s not the sentence really. It‘s how you say it. It must sound like you wouldn‘t give a joker‘s hat for the money even though your insides are screech-ing otherwise because in reality you would probably have to be recruited as a pirate‘s ship sweeper if your client left the ‗take it or leave it‘ deal.

My father is a business man and this has enabled me to catch enough interesting conversations of rich blokes to safely conclude that theses richies care about lit-tle money as much as they do about their big money. A penny saved is a penny earned.

I once witnessed two men sitting in a café, sipping coffee and muttering in hushed voices. (God knows why they have to ‗mutter‘ in public places. It‘s not like a family eating donuts on the next table would take a sprint to their broker, with open mouths & donut still hanging in air, the moment they eavesdrop on your conservation. Tchah! What vanity! But I guess that must be another es-sence to richness or most of them wouldn‘t be croaking like they have almonds stuck in their throats every time they discuss business in cafes. )

First man asked second man: ―How was the meeting with Mahindra?‖

They do this all the time- call people by the name of the company they work in. Absolutely ridiculous, if you ask me. Just imagine how many Microsofts and Walt Disneys there are in this world!

Second man to first man: ―It was alright. I put forth my budget for the proposal- One million. Not a penny more, not a penny less‖

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See…! They are very sensitive about one penny. Doesn‘t matter where the One million go, the penny is the nub of the situation. So I think it would be prudent potatoes for 50rs a kilo, not a rupee more, not a rupee less‘. Oh and please call me when you do this. I'd like to bear witness to the priceless expression on the vendor‘s face who was most probably about to offer you 30 for a kilo. (Haha…!)

Bankruptcy has to unavoidably occur in your life. Every rich person has gone bankrupt at least once. It would be a good idea not to pay your income taxes compelling a raid whose consequent would be you behind bars. For instant rich-ness do all of it -- swindle other people‘s money, never pay taxes, go bankrupt when asked to pay anything , get yourself into critical criminal offence then pro-long it for years till every other businessman, employee, secretary, driver, sweeper, chai wala, paan wala know that you‘re an absolute goner. After this, make a miraculous entry into the business world exploiting an old wasted invest-ment you once made, as a mistake, but is now the pinnacle of financial earnings. To mask your self-conceived notoriety image engage uselessly in social endeav-ors. Protest against deforestation, even though you dwell on a land which was once abundant with greenery, strive for the uplifting of poor humans, even though you haven‘t paid your domestic servants 10 months worth salaries, sup-port women‘s progress and education, cleanliness drives, garbage collection, cultural encouragement, gift blankets to orphans, kiss babies, feed sick animals so on & so forth. You won‘t really have to do much. Just say that you‘re doing them, get a few fancy photographs taken with a smug smile and the paparazzi will go crazy! (Oh! that rhymes!)

Above all, there is one thing which if not instigated will force your plans to col-lapse faster than the leaning tower titled a wee bit more. It is wit. You should and must be exceedingly, unimaginably, exceptionally, absurdly and awfully witty. Smartness and intellect must be in your blood corpuscles. You have to be intelligent enough to deal with air headed humans, understand & judge them correctly, know their worth, how true or false they are and how much to rely & believe. You must be able to see right through them in the same manner as you must be able to see right through this article!

Good luck!

May the force of Richie Rich be with you!

— Saanjhi L S.E. ETRX

Realizing your Dream.

REALIZING YOUR DREAM

Love for your country can take on many dimensions. For some, it exists at the superficial level, for the sake of identification, for some a fact of life that is passively present, an identity which is present somewhere around, whereas for some, it is a part of who you are, your family, your blood. Whatever level one is on, the fact that you owe your country for whatever you‘ve achieved cannot be denied. In this era of globalization, the concept of nationhood seems to be dwin-dling in stature. But our country still holds a deep significance to our identity, our existence. India, the name itself brings a varied sense of emotions, a feeling of pride, a sense of belonging to something magnificent. So, why not give some-thing back? Why not pay back our dues in whichever way we can to the country that has given us so much?

With this thought in my mind and an already present admiration for the armed forces, I decided to give a shot in choosing defense as a career. Reaching an important juncture in your life, where the path you choose becomes your identity is a particularly difficult time for many. The balancing of the various factors that account for deciding your career path will rival even some of the complexities of nuclear science. On one side, you would have your life-long dream, the most-cherished ambition that you wanted to achieve and on the other side, the lucrative salaries and the ‗safe bet‘ option chosen by all those around you. The urge and temptation for the latter is too big to overshadow the former, at least for the most of us.

And this is exactly where I found myself, having to choose between the two. The initial opposition from parents and others almost bogged me down and I began having second thoughts over my decision to join the armed forces. It is quite a difficult phase to be in and it tests your determination to the hilt. The ini-tial doubts then turn into anxiety over whether I‘m good enough, dedicated enough for the job. Then comes the ‗What if?‘ scenarios where you begin to go into a spiral of negative thoughts. What if I don‘t get it? What if it was not worth it? After a plethora of questioning and cross-questioning, you tend to get stabi-lized in your thoughts and come out either satisfied and aware, in some cases or still, confused and doubtful, as in most cases.

Still, trudging on in spite of all these thoughts, I went on to give and clear the written examination for armed forces (CDSE) and was called by the Air Force selection Board. After a grueling week of tests and activities, it was a pleasant surprise to hear my name being called out in the recommended list.

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It was a great feeling to move one step closer towards my dream. But, there are more obstacles yet to be crossed, more steps yet to be taken before the final dream gets accomplished. Till that time, one cannot rest but must work on tire-lessly.

I write my experiences because I want everyone to know that your dreams, if not already, are well within your grasp. If you limit your choices only to what seems possible or reasonable, you disconnect yourself from what you truly want, and all that is left is compromise. The struggle that one undertakes in achieving the dream makes the journey a much more memorable experience. So, when the time comes to make a decision, a decision to pursue your dream or let it slip away for the sake of a safe, bankable option, remember this saying ―Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly.‖

―Some choices we live not only once but a thousand times over, remembering them for the rest of our lives.‖

-Suraj nair– B.E. Computers