A Nation on the March

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A Nation on the March

Post by Rakesh »

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Post by mandrake »

The previous thread seems to be in trash can, wouldnt it be better if it was archived?
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Post by Katare »

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Global Indians: New architects of the world

Post by Rudranathh »

Global Indians: New architects of the world
Devesh , 16 January 2008

Going global is being looked at as not just a harbinger of limitless opportunities but also as a potent catalyst in the growth of our economy. Hard work coupled with strong ethics has enabled the global Indian to reach the zenith in every profession.

THIS GLOBALISATION would not have been possible without the global Indian reaching out to people of different cultures, religion and languages all across the world. The global Indian has brought about a revolution. We should not skip it but accelerate through it. Indians have done wonders overseas in almost all professions.

Indians have truly rocked the corporate world. Indians are among the 15 foreign-born chiefs running Fortune 100 companies in the United States (US). Indra Nooyi, the chairman and chief executive officer of PepsiCo, received a Bachelor's degree in Chemistry from Madras Christian College and went to Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta to pursue her MBA.

An alumnus of Yale School of Management, she became the 5th CEO of PepsiCo in the year 2006. A resident of Connecticut, Indra was named in the Time’s list of most influential people in the World for the year 2007.

LN Mittal, born and brought up in Sadalpur in north-west Rajasthan, broke away from his father’s Calcutta-based steel business and built his own firm, buying steel plants from Algeria to Kazakhstan to Ukraine to the US. Mittal, the biggest steel tycoon in the world now lives in London. He owns a 12-bedroom mansion at Kensington Palace gardens.

The latest to join the list of Indian global CEOs is Vikram Pandit. A native of Nagpur, Pandit completed his engineering and PhD from the Columbia University. Pandit was appointed the CEO of the world’s largest bank - Citigroup in December 2007. Then there’s Arun Sarin, CEO of Vodafone, an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur. Indian American Shantanu Narayan- CEO of Adobe, Vinod Khosla- founder of Sun Microsystems, the list is endless.

All these corporate giants are an epitome of the Indian success story far away from home. It’s not the just the corporate ladders that the global Indian has been climbing. In the field of arts and entertainment too, Indians have done wonders. Punjabi girls Neena and Veena, who were voted America’s sexiest twins, are rocking Hollywood. Also known as the Belly twins, the girls have been performing all over America and Europe. M. Night Shyamalan or to be precise, Manoj Nelliattu Shyamalan was born in Pondicherry, India before moving to the United States.

A critically acclaimed director in Hollywood, Shyamalan gave us the Oscar-winning Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs and other cinematic masterpieces. Zubin Mehta was born into a Parsi family in Mumbai. Son of Mehli and Tehmina Mehta, he is one of the greatest orchestra conductors in the world. Deepak Chopra’s books have been a revelation in spirituality and mind-body medicine. Also, there is Raj Patel, the next-door neighbour of Archie Andrews who has been spreading the Indian culture in Riverdale.

Then there have been quiet a few who have not been in the limelight but have been working incessantly. Bhairavi Desai, the founding member of the Taxi Workers Alliance in New York works for the betterment of the taxi drivers in the city who are primarily from an Asian background. Amrit Singh is the daughter of the Indian Prime minister, Dr Manmohan Singh. An alumnus of Yale, Oxford and Cambridge, she has been working with the American Civil Liberties Union. She co-authored the book ‘Administration of Torture’ with Jameel Jaffer.

It is the most detailed account of what took place in America's overseas detention centres. It features the atrocities committed to the prisoners in Abu Ghraib. Vinita Gupta, an Indian American, took up the case of immigrants exploited by a factory owner in Oklahoma City. Upendra J Chivukula, first Asian American elected to the New Jersey General Assembly was born in Nellore, India.

In science and technology, Indians have perhaps excelled the most, forming a bulk of the research teams in Silicon Valley, NASA and almost every other place under the sun. Subramaniam Chandrasekhar - Nobel Laureate in Physics, 1983 and Har Gobind Khorana - Nobel Prize winner in Medicine, 1968 were both American Indians. Amit Singal, George Sudarshan etc. are just a few of the thousands of Indian scientists who are involved in research in the US.

In sports almost every cricket team in the world, people of Indian origin seem to be present in abundance. Global Indians seem to have globalised cricket too. Monty Panesar, Vikram Solanki, Nasser Hussain are just a few of the names of such cricketers who have played at the international level for their countries. It’s not just about cricket.

Mohini Bharadwaj, who has an Indian father, won medals at the Olympics for Gymnastics. Dalip Singh Rana aka, the Great Khali, has embarked on a successful professional wrestling career in WWE. But before Khali took to weightlifting and wrestling, he was a mediocre officer with the Punjab State Police and had also won the coveted Mr India title in 1995 and 1996

The list of Indian achievers on the global front is a never-ending one and could go on for pages. Even while I’m writing this, some Indian around the world is making news for his sheer performance despite all odds.

Every time an Indian succeeds abroad, it goes on to show that Indians have exported the most sought-after commodity in the world - talent. For the global Indian, the future is very bright. He is the future architect of the globalised village, called Earth.
Theo_Fidel

Post by Theo_Fidel »

I knew we were alone, but not that alone.

Scary. :twisted: :twisted:

So much for the spread of democracy.

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Post by Rishirishi »

At least Russia, Ukraine and Georgia are partially free.
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Post by SK Mody »

There is a mistake in the map. Pakistan is very free. In fact the US is free do do almost anything it likes in Pakistan.
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Post by pradeepe »

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Post by vsudhir »

Well mantriji, how abt u walk the freakin' walk rather than just yap on and on about how we will beat every one else out there etc??

Esp since your sarkar has much less reform to its credit than even the most pessimistic among us back in 2004 had predicted. You've been riding a boom not of your making and you go around making statements like these essentially setting us up for mockery should we stumble somewhere ahead, even if temporarily....

Bah, rant happening. Shall stop here.
/Have a nice day, all.
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Post by rachel »

vsudhir wrote:
Well mantriji, how abt u walk the freakin' walk rather than just yap on and on about how we will beat every one else out there etc??

Esp since your sarkar has much less reform to its credit than even the most pessimistic among us back in 2004 had predicted. You've been riding a boom not of your making and you go around making statements like these essentially setting us up for mockery should we stumble somewhere ahead, even if temporarily....

Bah, rant happening. Shall stop here.
/Have a nice day, all.
Pray that in 2009, BJP will CRUSH the sc&mbags an achieve a solid majority govt. No coalition, no 'NDA' cr%p, just a solid majority with the help only of Shiv Sena in M'hastra.
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Post by Ananth »

rachel wrote: Pray that in 2009, BJP will CRUSH the sc&mbags an achieve a solid majority govt. No coalition, no 'NDA' cr%p, just a solid majority with the help only of Shiv Sena in M'hastra.
Nationalism is not the monopoly of BJP. If it becomes then we are screwed. Howsoever the nepotist ridden, DIE dominated Kangress might they cannot suppress the urge of the nationalists within. Here is an excerpt from Kamalnath's book extolling jugad. http://www.rediff.com/money/2008/jan/28spec.htm
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Post by sanjaychoudhry »

Made in India

Sujata Dutta Sachdeva

Driving through the American countryside, an Indian visitor was taking in the sights when something caught his eye. Amid the vast, rolling fields was a farmer riding a Mahindra tractor. Conceptualised and designed at Mahindra and Mahindra’s R&D centre in Mumbai, this made-in-India farm vehicle has managed to grab 6% of US market share in its segment. And now it’s making inroads into mark-ets as diverse as Europe and Sri Lanka.

Surprised? Not when you consider India’s steady emergence as an engineering and design hub. Tata’s Rs-1 lakh Nano has already made a global splash. Then there is HCL’s homegrown Mileaptop. Weighing less than a kilogram and priced below Rs 15,000, the entry-level laptop is touted as the cheapest in the market. "The idea is to increase PC penetration in India and improve Net accessibility," says Rajendra Kumar, executive VP, HCL.

And let’s not forget Maruti’s first concept car. Saurabh Singh and Rajesh Gogu created waves at the recent Delhi Auto Expo. The duo designed the A-Star at Maruti Udyog’s Manesar plant. Soon, the car will be seen on European motorways. Maruti engineers have worked with Suzuki Motors to design Swift and Zen Estilo as well. "We hope to design and produce our own car model from India by 2011," says C V Raman, chief general manager (engineering), Maruti Udyog.

From cars to tractors, refrigerators to laptops, made-and-designed-in-India is becoming a sought after label. One that also means serious business. According to some studies, India’s contract industrial engineering revenue is expected to grow from around $500 million to $10 billion in the next five years. Worldwide, the market is growing exponentially. International market research firm IDC expects the product engineering services industry to double, hitting $53 billion annually by 2009.

Closer home, Nasscom in its study ‘Engineering Service Outsourcing (ESO)’, pegs global spending on engineering services at $750 billion per year - almost equal to India’s GDP. By 2020, this amount is expected to increase to more than $1 trillion. Of the $750 billion being spent today, only $10-15 billion is being offshored. India has about 12% market share. By 2020, the ESO market would be worth $150-$225 billion. India’s share will be 25-30%, or $50 billion annually.

In fact, much like software design, the volume of sophisticated engineering design work being done out of India is growing rapidly. While many IT majors have already set up captive centres for design development here, local firms too are getting good business from global customers. Harita TVS in Bangalore does engineering design services for customers across US and Europe. It’s the preferred partner for many OEM and Tier-1 customers. Similarly, Plexion Technologies has worked on interior design and windows for a top European car brand. Other car makers like Toyota Motors, Ford, Ferrari, and Honda have all boosted Indian outsourcing.

Realising the potential, Indian companies are now focusing a lot more on innovation and design. Sona Group, the well-known auto accessories maker, is now working on an electric power steering for non-highway vehicles in the US. "We are trying to create a mindset for innovation. To keep ahead of the competition, innovation in design is a must; we are creating tools and developing skills so that people are able to think out of the box," says Kiran Deshmukh, COO, Sona Kyo Steering Systems. The company was involved in the making of the Nano’s steering wheel.

"A lot of product design is already happening in Indian industry. The final products will be as impressive as the Nano," assures Sarita Nagpal, deputy director general, CII. Take, for instance, Godrej’s latest fridge-in-the-works. The folks who gave us our first indigenous locks, vegetable-oil soaps and colour fridges have come up with the low-cost Hedge. "It’s a refrigerator with convection floors that allow uniform cooling and is competitively priced," says G Sundarman, president, product strategy, Godrej Appliances. Competitive pricing is also the USP of HCL’s rural PCs that run on car batteries.

Last year, Mahindra created Shaan, a multiutility farm vehicle which won an award from the American Society for Agricultural and Biological Engineers for design. "We have a patent for it. The tractor is aimed at people who use it in their farms, as a family vehicle and for transporting goods," says Manrao, senior VP, M&M. They also created India’s first bio-diesel tractor in 2004.

Likewise, the Tata Group has been in the forefront of design engineering in India. Their Indica was touted as the ‘first truly Indian car’. Now the Nano’s become a global talking point. As Sunil Sinha, CEO, Tata Quality Management Services explains, "As a group, we started looking at innovation seriously in the ’90s. Internally, we have amplified the message of innovation, strengthened our R&D and increased our budget spend."

And it’s showing. While Tata Tetley designed an iced tea dispenser that’s become a rage in the US, Tata Technologies, which operates in 12 countries, is designing cars and vans for top foreign carmakers. However, Sinha feels a lot still needs to be done. "In 2006, India had filed only 400-odd IPRs while companies like Microsoft and Intel alone filed more than 2,000. We need to change the mindset and make innovation happen here."

The problem is that over the years we have focused more on excelling in production engineering rather than on creating our own designs. "It’s time to think beyond and recognize the importance of product design and innovation. Only then can we remain competitive," says Deshmukh. Else, we may only end up creating the occasional ripple with a Nano or a Shaan - hardly adequate for the long drive to design stardom.
Mahindra Shaan:

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Post by bart »

While I agree with the above about Tata, Mahindra and TVS there is no way Maruti and HCL hardware division should be compared with them.

The so-called HCL laptop is an Intel package which HCL has used with almost no changes, and shamelessly marketed as their innovation. Nothing wrong in not innovating, but to pass off someone else's product as their own innovation sucks.

Coming to Maruti, the A-Star might be the first to have real design work done from India, most of the others are baloney. This is a company that piggybacked on Govt monopoly for much of its life, has quite brazenly passed off rubbish to Indian customers, has innovated little in India and has the nerve to abuse genuine Indian innovators such as Tata with the Nano. Remember the much-hyped 'all-new' Zen, that turned out to be a (rather ugly) bumper and tail light cosmetic change? The Zen Estilo is a Suzuki MR Wagon transplanted with the older and lower tech Wagon R engine and rubbery gearshift, and can hardly be shown off as an example of Maruti's innovation.
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Post by bart »

http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/c ... ries_ssi_5

For those familiar with the state of Indian international connectivity even 5 years back, this is a very big deal.
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Post by SwamyG »

Mama mia.... an awesome speech: IT industry has its own Hiranyakashyap to battle
I kept forgetting if it was Mahindra or a Tata who was giving the speech. His speech displays immense recognition & respect to his competitors. For some positive examples, he gives Tata's example first and then talks about Mahindra itself.

I like companies that dig into our culture to solve our problems.
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Post by pradeepe »

SwamyG wrote:Mama mia.... an awesome speech: IT industry has its own Hiranyakashyap to battle
I kept forgetting if it was Mahindra or a Tata who was giving the speech. His speech displays immense recognition & respect to his competitors. For some positive examples, he gives Tata's example first and then talks about Mahindra itself.

I like companies that dig into our culture to solve our problems.
Very nice. Please post in full....lots of quotable quotes too.
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Post by SwamyG »

Due to popular demand :-), posting the article in full. All copyright, credits , ithyadi to Economic Times:
I have highlighted some of the things I liked. No criticisms of IT or Tata, all 400% positive onlee. A leader has to inspire to people to make the change. Hope some of the people took back some of it.
Nasscom Leadership Summit has always been a place for good story-telling and provocative thoughts. This year, the spark came not from a software veteran or a BPO moghul, but a captain of an old economy industry. Anand Mahindra, vice chairman and managing director of Mahindra & Mahindra drew from mythology to call for game-changing innovation from the IT industry.

One of the tasks we at the Mahindra Group have set ourselves is to aspire to be recognized as the most customer-centric organization in India, and why not, in the World!

In order to walk the talk, every time I'm asked to speak at a conference, I have made it a default option to ask what the audience--my customers--might expect of me.

And so I found myself wondering what this conclave of IT wizards expects from a predominantly right-brained character like myself. You certainly haven't called me here to deliver a sermon on technology. And I wouldn't even risk doing that with Nandan (Nilekani) and Kiran (Karnik) sharing the dais!

Of course, I might have been able to do that by getting one of my IT colleagues to write this speech, but then it would have been comprehensible to you, but incomprehensible to me!

And although the title of this session is 'Building a Knowledge Economy for Growth', I believe that a) All of you out there have helped build the foundations of a knowledge economy, so again, you don't need me to pontificate to you about that and b) I think there are some urgent pressures and imperatives the industry has to deal with at this point.

So, I'm going to talk about something completely different: I will talk about the Trimurti.

Most of the Indians in this audience will know the Trimurti – the trinity in Indian mythology of Brahma the creator, Vishnu the sustainer and Shiva the destroyer. There is a wonderful depiction of this in stone, just ten kilometers across the bay, at Elephanta. Both as a businessman, and as someone who tends to see life in visual images, the Trimurti reminds me of India's IT industry. Think of it.

You people have gone through a stage, where like Brahma, you created something out of nothing. You created a new and global industry. You created a service sector that is today, a major pillar of our GDP. But most importantly, you created a perception of a new India, both in the world and in Indian hearts and minds.

CK Prahalad once told me that in universities in America today, there are almost unfairly high expectations from Indian students, because there is a huge perception that all Indian students are brilliant, outstanding. You created that perception. And within India, what you created was self-belief. You showed us what Indians could do, and now the rest of India believes that Indians can do anything. Brahma created a physical landscape; you sowed the seeds of a new mental and psychological landscape. In that sense, you are truly the Brahmas of the age of liberalisation.

But creation is only the first phase. You then have to move on to the next phase of sustaining that creation - to the realm of Vishnu the preserver. Creation is a one-time affair. Sustaining that creation is obviously a longer haul, subject to many attacks and crises. Perhaps that is why Vishnu comes not in one, but in ten incarnations.

Every time there is a new danger, he changes his avatar to a form best suited to meet that danger. At various times he has come as a fish, as a tortoise, as a dwarf. But his most interesting avatar came when he had to fight the demon Hiranyakashyap. Hiranyakashyap was a bad guy, who had obtained an amazing boon from the gods. Neither man nor beast could kill him; he could not be killed by daylight or at nighttime, within his home or outside it, on the ground or in the sky. All this made him pretty invincible – he went on a rampage, and only Vishnu could tackle him.

The IT industry today faces challenges every bit as complex as those Hiranyakashyap posed for Vishnu. It is hit by a macroeconomic tsunami of adverse currency changes, rapidly escalating costs in both salaries and infrastructure and inadequate talent pools below the tier 1 and 2 institutions.

At the Company level, firms are begin to feel the penalties of poor differentiation and lack of focus (trying to be all things to all people); and an over-emphasis on high volumes and price competition.

Suddenly, the industry seems to have fallen off its pedestal; You are facing your very own Hiranyakashyap.

It's interesting to see how Vishnu dealt with him. How do you destroy someone who can't be killed by man or beast, inside or outside, by day or night etc etc. The demon pretty much had all bases covered. So Vishnu took on the Narasimha avatar to bypass the boon. Narasimha was a hybrid creature, half man half lion, and therefore neither man nor beast.

He killed Hiranyakashyap at twilight, which is neither day nor night. He killed him in the courtyard, which is neither inside a house nor outside it. And he killed the demon by placing him across his knee and tearing him apart, thus circumventing the terms of the boon that he could not be killed either on the ground or in the sky. Now that's what I call an innovative algorithm!

So what are the lessons for the IT industry in this story? Well, the first thing Vishnu did was to reinvent himself. It was not the gentle and contemplative Vishnu who fought Hiranyakashyap – it was the fearsome Narasimha avatar. Vishnu reinvented himself to suit the circumstances. The circumstances have changed drastically. Reinvent yourselves.

Do I have all the answers on the modes of re-invention? No, obviously not, otherwise I'd be out there filing patents, although I can suggest two broad approaches.

First, why don't we design business models that challenge traditional industry approaches and then transform our organizations, people and processes to execute. If we simply keep knocking on the doors of clients with our traditional offshoring options, we'll meet the fate of hearing aid salespersons: our best customers won't hear the doobell!

For example, software-on-demand and open source models changed the rules of the software game. Can we not try to change the rules of the game this time around? Why didn't we invent Zoom technology or Virtualisation? Thus far, India's brand of innovation has been identified with the IT industry, but is it truly innovative. Is it really game changing? Ironically, you can now look to the old smokestack industries for inspiration.

A few weeks ago, an Indian car company made a game-changing move. Maybe the Nano will ultimately not retail for a hundred thousand rupees. Maybe it won't have great margins, or replace as many motorcycles as it would like to, but it was a game changing move; it fired a shot that was heard around the world. Can the IT world make any such claim?

There was an old saying, apparently adopted by the IT industry, that the secret of success is to jump every time opportunity knocks. And how do you know when opportunity knocks? You don't, you just keep jumping!

So when are we going to stop simply jumping every time a client seems to sneeze, and actually create products and IP that become their own opportunities?

Let's look at new areas where India may have natural advantage. I remember C.K Prahlad telling us that we didn't realize how important it was to leverage emerging innovation ecosystems in our country. He gave us the example of how, due to a fortunate coincidence, India's IT and automotive industries were situated in roughly the same geographic clusters. So why wasn't, according to Michael Porter's competitive theories, a world beating automotive telematics industry taking shape here.


Why aren't IT companies using the massive potential of India's soft power, the film and TV business to exploit technological dominance of what Telco's call the 'last mile' but is actually the 'first mile' in the brave new interactive world?

Secondly, why don't we try to focus on a vertical industry (e.g., telecom) or horizontal domain (e.g., supply chain management) selecting the key dimensions of competitive differentiation – product vs. service, breadth vs. depth, speed of delivery, customer service responsiveness, fixed or outcome-based pricing, proprietary technology or intellectual property, and so on.

And let's be prepared to make hard decisions along the way – change people who don't fit, walk away from businesses that doesn't fit.

It's essential, while attempting this, however, to recognize that focus, differentiation and brand building require time and investment. Selling value or doing business differently than the norm tends to elongate sales cycles, which tends to put pressure on cash flow and we need to resist the temptation to broaden our offerings or slash prices just to win the business and keep people busy.

Along with re-invention, during the course of reinventing himself, Vishnu figured out the loopholes in the boon, and regrouped his physical and mental aspects to take advantage of these loopholes. That's something the IT industry can do as well. Its often been pointed out that in the Chinese word for crisis is also the Chinese word for opportunity I love that mindset. I truly believe that the adverse rate of the dollar can be viewed as the glass half empty or the glass half full. Sure it affects margins. But it's also a chance to take advantage of the loophole and buy yourselves what you don't have, so that you can regroup your structure to meet the challenge.

To me the fact that our currency is more valuable and our price earnings ratios are still higher than average, means that we can acquire the front-ends and the large IT businesses that we never thought we could before. And the bigger the better. If people are egging us on to leapfrog, then they should also cheer as you bid for companies that seem bigger fish than you. It's happening all the time today in the manufacturing sector—Tata Corus being the stellar example—and we at Mahindra, while starting from scratch, have inorganically compiled together a portfolio of acquisitions that make us the fourth largest steel forging company in the world today.

This is not without historical precedent. If you look at Japan and South Korea, both of them went through a phase of enduring the worlds' skepticism, then painstakingly building strong and competent domestic businesses, and then on the back of global liquidity support and strong price earnings ratios, compressing time by acquiring global firms and their customer credibility.

In effect, by acquiring the strengths and skill sets you need, you will regroup your profile and create a new entity, which can vanquish your challenges as effectively as Vishnu vanquished Hiranyakashyap.

And finally, while reinventing yourselves, you will have to bring in some of the aspects of the third element of the Trimurti – that of Shiva the destroyer.

Destroy for example the premise that cost arbitrage is the way to go. Recognize that the low cost, high volume offshore outsourcing battle has already been fought and won. Often, when strategic frames grow rigid, companies, like countries, tend to keep fighting the LAST war. If you are not already on the winners list, you need to think of other ways to compete on value and differentiation, rather than price and scale.

Destroy the premise that success comes only from size, and desist from comparisons with other Indian companies.[/b] There are still many IT companies in India who define success as "we want to be one of the top ten Indian IT companies". Why not, for example, "we want to be the world's #1 banking back office solutions provider"?

And lastly, perhaps the time has come to destroy the notion that the world may be your oyster but India is not. There is a huge domestic market in middle class and corporate India that has not been plumbed. Even selling to the bottom of the pyramid is profitable today. But it needs a creative destruction of the current mindset and a re-think on many of the assumptions we hold dear.

So, in conclusion, perhaps there really isn't that much distance between avatars in the mythological sense and avatars in the technology sense. Perhaps they are both symbolic expressions of the same reality. In their different ways, they both underline the same message – that it is necessary in any situation to reinvent, regroup and re-think our way out of whatever challenges confront us.

I'd like to close with one of my favourite quotes—such a favourite, that I can't even remember where I first read it:

My father thought the world would be same;

My children, however, wake up EVERY day thinking the world will be different.

Let's begin emulating our children. Time to wake up and make the world different.

(Anand Mahindra's speech at Nasscom Leadership Summit on February 13 th , 2008)
Last edited by SwamyG on 15 Feb 2008 02:47, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by shyam »

...
Most of the Indians in this audience will know the Trimurti – the trinity in Indian mythology of Brahma the creator, Vishnu the sustainer and Shiva the destroyer.
...
So, in conclusion, perhaps there really isn't that much distance between avatars in the mythological sense and avatars in the technology sense. Perhaps they are both symbolic expressions of the same reality.
It was a good speech indeed. However, Indians should stop using the word mythology for puranas, and instead use the word purana or pouranic and let that become another English word.

It is the westerners who started calling it mythology, while they don't want to call old testament another mythology.
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Post by Vipul »

'India's transformation more successful than China's'.

New Delhi: The reform process that has taken India's economy to new heights has taken place more rapidly and in a more successful manner than in China, said a study.

The study, called Transformation Index, was conducted by German NGO Bertelsmann Foundation. It has ranked 125 countries on the basis of development, management and market economy.

India has been ranked 25, just behind Singapore, Brazil and South Africa, in terms of development as compared to China, which obtained 85th rank.

India attained position 19 in an evaluation of the management performance of its political decision makers, whereas China has been ranked 67.

The study applauded the steps taken by India over the years to accommodate the various minority and sub-minority groups into its social fabric.

However, it has urged the Indian judicial system to be more proactive. It has also asked for more measures to be taken to protect civil rights in conflict regions.

"That the country has one of the most dynamic national economies in the world is beyond doubt, but deficiencies in the area of reform have threatened to block this development," the study's authors said in a statement.

For India to maintain its growth rate of eight percent, it has to pursue its economic reforms more rigorously, which it has to do by addressing issues that have created obstruction in its development, the study said.

"The most pressing requirements are the resolute pursuit of reform in the state sector and the curtailing of unproductive subventions, along with reducing the existing household deficit," it said.

"A need for reform also exists in the adaptation of legal controls governing occupational safety, property ownership and bankruptcy to bring them into line with international standards. The modernisation and expansion of a still underdeveloped infrastructure also demands considerable efforts," it added.

The Bertelsmann Foundation Transformation Index analyses and evaluates the quality of democracy, market economics and political management in 125 developing and transformation countries.
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Post by Kakkaji »

shyam wrote: It was a good speech indeed. However, Indians should stop using the word mythology for puranas, and instead use the word purana or pouranic and let that become another English word.

It is the westerners who started calling it mythology, while they don't want to call old testament another mythology.
We should call it 'Scriptures' as they do their Bible. Has a lot more weight than 'mythology'. Call them 'Hindu Scriptures' to distinguish them from their versions.
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Post by Rye »

No, it should be referred to as Hindu Theology, not mythology.

Hindus need to coopt the "theology" word which is deliberately meant to differentiate the study of the christian god...
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Post by Kakkaji »

Rye wrote:No, it should be referred to as Hindu Theology, not mythology.

Hindus need to coopt the "theology" word which is deliberately meant to differentiate the study of the christian god...
Good idea. In the west, theology is considered a proper subject of study in a university, and you can get even a PhD in it, with all the attendant respect as any other college degree.
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Post by saip »

gashish
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Post by gashish »

35 Places,People and Things that will shape future.

A nice slide-show to go thru...but do look at the 11th:India
http://www.eetimes.com/galleries/slideS ... &imageID=1
To hear the pundits tell it, India's future in electronics is bleak, and the subcontinent will remain merely an outsource destination. Don't believe a word of it. The digital electronics in the next-generation HDTV that Sony introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show were like a growing number of communications, consumer and industrial products designed and developed in India. Their "Made in China" label belies the fact that more and more of the core engineering value takes place in India. India is not China, but its future in electronics is far more certain, for two reasons: software and innovation. The Nokias, Sonys and TIs of the world are quietly doing some of their most advanced R&D and design work in India, in everything from networking systems and advanced communications to consumer electronics. China copies, India innovates. Domestic electronics industry growth has been slow, but that's about to change. An expanding network of OEMs, EMS providers and chip makers is coalescing around a next-wave design ecosystem that's domestic-market focused. China, take note.
By Richard Wallace
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Post by Sanjay M »

On the March yesterday, but backsliding today?

http://www.rediff.com/money/2008/mar/03forbes.htm
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Post by Surya »

often been pointed out that in the Chinese word for crisis is also the Chinese word for opportunity

Sigh this is worng but continues to spread.

Maybe a Chinese lurker can confirm this
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Post by gandharva »

It is the westerners who started calling it mythology, while they don't want to call old testament another mythology.
The Judaic, Christian, and Islamic books are revealed scriptures of the type made familiar by these historic religions, but the Vedas are, if I might extend the word used for the religion of the Hindus for their basic texts as well, 'natural' scriptures. They are not the word of any God or gods, but mostly words addressed to gods.â€
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Post by Rye »

gandharva wrote:
Because the Hindus are marked as neither having a religion nor expounding any philosophy, then much of what is contained in their scriptures is proclaimed 'myth'. Mythologies can be interesting, profound, symbolic, and entertaining.
That would be the benevolent explanation for the usage of "theology" as opposed to "mythology" by western elements.

The point is that Hindus have to coopt the use of theology to describe their own beliefs instead of concocting excuses for continuing to use "mythology". Myth == false....so draw your own conclusions in whichever way it gives you mental peace.
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Post by Ameet »

4 Indians (well of Indian descent) in the top 10 richest in the world!! With a new #1

(4) Lakshmi Mittal (5) Mukesh Ambani (6) Anil Ambani (8) KP Singh

http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budget ... aires-2008
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Post by Nandu »

Ameet wrote:4 Indians (well of Indian descent)
They are all Indian citizens.
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Post by wrdos »

Surya wrote:
often been pointed out that in the Chinese word for crisis is also the Chinese word for opportunity

Sigh this is worng but continues to spread.

Maybe a Chinese lurker can confirm this
Crisis is "WeiJi" in Chinese, while "Wei" means "dangerous" and "Ji" "opportunity".
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Post by Kakkaji »

Ameet wrote:4 Indians (well of Indian descent) in the top 10 richest in the world!! With a new #1

(4) Lakshmi Mittal (5) Mukesh Ambani (6) Anil Ambani (8) KP Singh

http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budget ... aires-2008
And 2 Indians among the 5 "notable new billionaires" 8)

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Ne ... spx?page=2

(1) Gautam Adani
(5) Sameer Gehlaut
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Post by Vipul »

53 Indian billionaires mentioned in Forbes List.

The Merrill Lynch/Cap Gemini report says that India’s population of millionaires grew 20 per cent last year, to about 1,00,000.
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Total Productive Maintenance awards at Japan

Post by SaraLax »

TVS Motor wins TPM Excellence Award by Japan Institute of Plant Maintenance
The Japan Institute of Plant Maintenance (JIPM) has awarded the coveted Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) Excellence Award to TVS Motor Company in the first category. The company won the award for its exemplary implementation of TPM processes in its Plant II in Hosur and its Mysore plant.
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The TPM Excellence Award indicates that the company has been consistent in terms of significant business results and performance indicators on Quality, Cost, Delivery, Productivity, Morale and Safety.
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This is the second time that TVS Motor Company has bagged this esteemed award. In 2004 the Engine Component Division at Hosur had received the distinguished honor in recognition for excellence in application of TPM methodology.
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Zero accident has been achieved in both plants and productivity has improved by 35%.
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The company is the only two-wheeler manufacturer in the world to be honoured with the hallmark of Japanese Quality – The Deming Prize for Total Quality Management.
TVS Motors is actually going through some rough time....falling profits across sequential financial quarters...ongoing court battle with Bajaj over latest TVS Flame model bike's dual-spark plug engine technology & etc

132 Indian manufacturing cos join TPM Excellence League (Mar 17, 2008)
With 23 companies receiving the Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) Excellence Award at a ceremony in Japan, the number of winners has swelled upto 132, industry body CII said.

Hindustan Unilever Nashik and Pune, Hosur and Mysore plant of TVS Motors, Hospet Steel Ltd, Brakes India Ltd are among the 23 companies which included in the TPM Excellence League.

TPM is the concept originated and developed by Japan Institute of Plant Maintenance (JIPM).

"While the number of companies challenging the TPM Excellence Awards has been reducing in Japan, it is heartening to see that the number swelling up in India," JIPM Solution Co Ltd CEO Tsuoshi Kodera said in a statement.

CII has also inked an memorandum of understanding with Japan Institute of Plant Maintenance (JIPM) to collaborate and cooperate towards the spread of Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) excellence in India's manufacturing sector.

TPM is based on zero-loss concept viz, zero break downs, zero accidents, zero defect, primarily to achieve high reliability/flexibility of equipment and reduce costs through minimising wastage of man hours, raw material, power, tools.
Around same time last year..... (Mar 12, 2007) Link
When Japan Institute of Plant Maintenance (JIPM) confers the TPM Excellence Award on 16 companies in a special ceremony in Japan, it will be a celebration of India having embraced Total Productivity Management as an integral part of business. While India remains amongst the countries with the highest tally for the year, the total number of TPM Excellence Awards winners now stands at 111 – no small achievement.

To drive the TPM mission in India, Confederation of Indian Industry, in line with its mission to promote competitiveness in the Indian industry set up the TPM Club in association with the JIPM-S in 1998.

CII was also recently appointed as one of the 5 TPM Assessment Agencies outside of Japan. CII has been entrusted by JIPM to become the point of contact for the assessment of the “TPM Awardsâ€
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Post by SaraLax »

Country’s only golfing robot perfect to the tee
[quote]
PUNE, January 31: He would be the envy of any golf pro. Standing six feet tall, he hits the ball right into the hole at a success rate of 97 per cent. What’s more, he repeats the feat almost as many time as he’s asked to. And the only reason he is not giving Tiger Woods a complex is that he’s a robot.

Playing the popular sport with utmost accuracy and panache is the Golf Robot designed by Pune-based Precision Automation and Robotics India (PARI).

It was this invention that caught the fancy of the crowd during the Auto Expo exhibition held at Pragati Maidan in Delhi earlier this month. The only Golf Robot in the country, it was designed by a team of engineers at PARI three years back and works on the principle of three-axis servo-operated robot. “It has movements like that of our arm. The whole system is computerised and the robot re-hits the ball periodically, you can set the time gap though,â€
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SBI is a world major in branch network

Post by SaraLax »

SBI is world major in branch network
[quote] March 9, 2008
State Bank of India (SBI) on Sunday became the second bank in the world to have 10,000 branches after China’s Industrial and Commercial Bank of China when finance minister P Chidambaram inaugurated its latest branch at Puduvayal at Sivaganga district in Tamil Nadu. Sivaganga is the home constituency of Chidambaram.

Delhi-based Punjab National Bank (PNB) has the second largest network in India, with about 4,500 branches.Canara Bank, Bank of Baroda and Central Bank of India are the other banks with extensive branch networks.

Chidambaram, in his inaugural address, said: “It is a great moment for all of us. It is not an easy task for a bank to have such huge number of branch network and SBI did it in its 202 years of existence. I wish SBI to become a one-lakh branch network major in the next 50-60 years.â€
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Soon, India to become a global engineering hub

Post by SaraLax »

Soon, India to become a global engineering hub
[quote](21 Mar, 2008)
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In the faraway land of America, when Eaton Corporation acquired Aeroqip Vickers ten years ago, it inherited two manufacturing plants in India. These small units in Pune and Mumbai were not a major part of the $1.7 billion acquisition, but they inadvertently marked Eaton’s re-entry into India. The company earlier had a stake in joint venture with the TVS group which it exited in the late 90s. Now it was back for a sequel and it couldn’t have happened at a better time.

Since the acquisition, India has become central to Eaton’s global strategy and when chairman and CEO Alexander “Sunnyâ€
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Post by bart »

Paul
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Post by Paul »

"We brought in McKinsey's to help. They told us to dump steel and go for automobiles and retail consumer goods," said Irani. "So we ignored their advice on steel. I like to remind them of that."
Well well well....
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