A Nation on the March

paramu · Post by **paramu** » 10 Dec 2009 05:23

If you have real hard power, whatever you do will become a softpower

Others will simply try to imitate whatever you do thinking that that is the root of your hard power.

AnimeshP · Post by **AnimeshP** » 10 Dec 2009 09:33

andy B wrote:
RamaY wrote:
Completely agree...there has been too much hooha lately about the so called "soft power".

Tharoor's speech is quite amusing not much of any real consequence IMHO.

Hard Force is always understood and respected a lot more than sof power...overall there is a need to upgrade not only the country's image but the individual's as well.....

Well ...the erstwhile Soviet union had tonnes of Hard Power ...

Hari Seldon · Post by **Hari Seldon** » 10 Dec 2009 14:48

Well ...the erstwhile Soviet union had tonnes of Hard Power ...

Yup, and Stalin is quoted to have famously asked ahead of the invasion of Poland:

How many divisions does the Pope have?

Seen, end of the day, both are needed. In Des, we have a tendency to understate, underestimate and underdevelop hard power, methinks. Just a shift in emphasis should suffice for healthy balance.

Rahul M · Post by **Rahul M** » 10 Dec 2009 15:12

hard and soft power both are needed. carrots and sticks anyone ?
china for example in recent days has been investing furiously in soft power viz. the confucius institute.

kmkraoind · Post by **kmkraoind** » 16 Dec 2009 10:30

Gujarat to make voting mandatory in local bodies

Again first move by progressive Modiji. Hope one day, participating in Elections will become mandatory throughout nation. This will make vote-bank politics less incentive, because delusioned, dejected middle class people tide will turn against such moves.

The bill allows negative voting if the voter does not wish to vote for any of the listed contestants. The manner of negative voting and its impact on other candidates will be worked out by the state government through special rules framed later. ‘‘Under consideration is a proposal to disqualify all candidates in case negative voting is the highest,’’ an official said.

negi · Post by **negi** » 17 Dec 2009 07:15

Pune supercomp to propel Mallya’s Formula 1 cars

Vijay Mallya’s Force India Formula One racing
team will soon get the edge it requires to develop its next generation cars. And the help, chiefly by way of reduced design cycle time, will be coming from a supercomputer based right here at Hinjewadi.

On Wednesday, India’s first F1 racing team signed an exclusive, three-year deal with Tata Sons’ Computational Research Laboratories (CRL) to develop a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) solution for designing F1 racing cars.

The multi-million dollar agreement means that the design cycle time will reduce significantly and aerodynamic efficiency will improve, giving the team’s drivers their best chance of a good result.

Neela · Post by **Neela** » 17 Dec 2009 13:41

negi wrote:Pune supercomp to propel Mallya’s Formula 1 cars

Vijay Mallya’s Force India Formula One racing
team will soon get the edge it requires to develop its next generation cars. And the help, chiefly by way of reduced design cycle time, will be coming from a supercomputer based right here at Hinjewadi.

On Wednesday, India’s first F1 racing team signed an exclusive, three-year deal with Tata Sons’ Computational Research Laboratories (CRL) to develop a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) solution for designing F1 racing cars.

The multi-million dollar agreement means that the design cycle time will reduce significantly and aerodynamic efficiency will improve, giving the team’s drivers their best chance of a good result.

Good man this Mallya, good man!

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 18 Dec 2009 00:27

End of the road for Bajaj scooter

Bye bye Bajaj

It means they are discontinuing the scooter production and not the company!

shravan · Post by **shravan** » 19 Dec 2009 20:52

kmkraoind wrote:Gujarat to make voting mandatory in local bodies

Guj Assembly passes mandatory voting bill

Babu Bihari · Post by **Babu Bihari** » 20 Dec 2009 00:43

shravan wrote:
kmkraoind wrote:Gujarat to make voting mandatory in local bodies
Guj Assembly passes mandatory voting bill

http://www.ndtv.com/news/india/narendra ... on_law.php
Good points made by Modi in the above video. ELM which was in great distress on seeing the voting in Mumbai to be only 45% after 26/11 should support this bill. This is a secular bill, religion neutral, caste neutral...all should support it.

shravan · Post by **shravan** » 24 Dec 2009 11:31

shravan wrote:
kmkraoind wrote:Gujarat to make voting mandatory in local bodies
Guj Assembly passes mandatory voting bill

After must-vote, Modi govt plans voter’s right to recall
Dec 24, 2009

After its controversial Bill making voting in Gujarat local body polls compulsory, the Modi government is now mulling another — giving voters, among other provisions, the right to recall non-performing local representatives.

The state election commission has already vetted its final draft for Modi’s nod.

Once operational, the law will enable the electorate to recall elected representatives across all local self-government bodies — municipal corporations, municipalities and panchayats — if he or she fails to deliver or is involved in any serious misconduct.

Once the Bill goes through the Assembly, District Collectors would have the power to remove any elected local body representative and order a repoll, if one-third of the electorate lodges a complaint, and the Collector finds substance in it. Elected representatives, however, can serve an initial two years of their five-year term, before voters could exercise the right to recall.

“The draft for this and some other recommendations are ready. We will soon hand it over to the government for its consideration,” Gujarat Election Commissioner K C Kapoor told The Indian Express, adding that he “strongly believes” the government would accept it since ‘right to recall’ is already being implemented in local bodies in BJP-ruled Chhattisgarh.

The SEC has also suggested to legislate for barring anyone above the age of 65 from contesting any local body poll.

JE Menon · Post by **JE Menon** » 28 Dec 2009 02:40

I've deleted a lot of posts here without warning and without consultation. Please note this thread is for "Nation on the March" articles, with brief elaborative comments. Not for discussion, and not for whining. There are plenty of other threads for that.

Hari Seldon · Post by **Hari Seldon** » 28 Dec 2009 09:53

Saw a couple of days ago in the ET - entire page adverts by the Guj Govt announicng a slwe of projects and initiatives in the healthcare arena. NM seems to have his eye on the med-tourism mkt in addition to the large domestic demand.

And going simply by sheer past record (and the availability of ample, acquirable, semi-arid land in the state) that the Guj govt will get its house in order and steal a mighty chunk of a lucrative, long-term stable and jobs-rich business sector that could have gone anywhere in the country.

All it needs is a Sham,shabad (Hyd) like Airport to come up near Amdavad. It is fitting that administrative competence is rewarded. Good going, I say.

Katare · Post by **Katare** » 29 Dec 2009 00:42

Second-largest Airport terminal after Beijing set to wow the world

The terminal, built at a cost of Rs 8,996 crore, has four boarding piers with 48 boarding gates and 78 aerobridges, which is the highest for a terminal of its size. Three aerobridges would cater exclusively to Airbus 380 aircraft.

T3 also has many firsts to its credit. It would have 89 travelators, eight of which would be inclined — a first-of-its-kind in India. The 118-metre travelator would be the longest in Asia. The terminal would also have 63 elevators and 31 escalators .

The terminal has an eight-storied main building housing 168 check-in areas and 90 immigration counters .

“We will complete it (T3) in 37 months, which is much less than the time taken by international airports of this size,” said DIAL Chief Executive Officer (airport development) I Prabhakara Rao.

Suraj · Post by **Suraj** » 29 Dec 2009 00:54

This post on SSC has recent pictures of the New Delhi airport T3. Most of the exterior is already done.
IGI T3 pictures from 18 December 2009
Note that the angle of the pictures in the above link doesn't quite convey its dimensions. Here's one that provides a better perspective. The small triangular building just above T3 is the current international terminal T2:
New Delhi airport aerial view

Katare · Post by **Katare** » 29 Dec 2009 07:38

The size and stats are truely amazing and worldclass!

Hari Seldon · Post by **Hari Seldon** » 30 Dec 2009 09:45

x-post from the persp thread:

At a time when news channels are breathless with recaps of 'the year that was' and some with 'the decade that was', excitability does tend to overtake caution. Sample this, for instance:

It is the decade of the fastest rate of economic growth and the biggest jump in per capita income. These were the best ten years for tax revenues, government spending, savings and investments, all of which lifted the economy's size to above $1 trillion.

Now some highbrows may admonish such 'triumphant lungi-dances'. Take their feigned takleef with a pinch of salt, I'd say. Success creates momentum - and it is important to celebrate achievement in order to hunger for more. Strictly IMHO, of course.

Anyway, back to the topic of excitability: Take with salt some of the headier stuff you will see down below. But, good fun read overall. Jai Ho.

60 Years to $1 trillion, 10 Years to $3 trillion (Business Today)

Some quotable quotes:

The reversal of fortune was explained best by Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairman, The Aditya Birla Group, at the India Today Conclave in 2005 when he said: "Our companies used to be market-driven, (today) they are driving markets."

"We believe that growth is the best antidote to poverty," former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram told a gathering in Harvard in 2007. "Without growth, India will remain a poor, rich nation." Statements like these should one day soon settle the age-old debate between "the size of the cake and slice of the cake"—that is, whether economic policies should focus more on wealth creation or on wealth distribution.

Hear, hear!

But there is one factor that deserves special mention and explanation — productivity growth. Since 1980, nearly 60 per cent of India's growth has come from the rise in what is called the total factor productivity. That is, from using men and machines more efficiently—from using our resources more efficiently. The contribution of productivity to growth in India is close to the highest in the world over this period. That augurs very well for the coming decade when India will have more resources.

The ratio of non-working population to working population will fall from 0.62 to 0.48 over the next 20 years in India. Not only will this mean more potential labour, but also if this labour is fully used, it will mean more savings—by one count an additional savings rate of 14 per cent of GDP over the next 20 years.

Add to it the capital India is already beginning to attract from abroad as it becomes a more attractive investment destination and as foreign aging populations save for retirement. Clearly, neither labour nor capital should be a constraint in future.{if all goes well, that is. I wouldn't count on all going well, though}

Of course, for balance reasons, the caveats are aplenty and shouldn't be lost sight of:

Our trillion-dollar economy still has some 100 million families without water at home, over 150 million households without electricity and 40 per cent of its villages without road connectivity. The economy loses roughly Rs 30,000 crore annually because our roads don't allow commercial vehicles to cover more than 250-300 km a day, compared to 500-600 km a day in developed economies. These are serious challenges, and unless these are addressed even the anticipated higher-than-the-past-decade-growth will look hollow.

and

If growth is a marathon, then India has just finished one lap. Others are well into the race, but India is young, and has fresh legs. We should be proud of the past decade's achievements, but not satisfied. As Raghuram Rajan, Professor of Finance at University of Chicago's Booth School of Business and Honorary Economic Adviser to the Prime Minister once said: "If India has to take its rightful place among nations, every sixth CEO of a Fortune 500 firm should be an Indian. Every sixth Nobel Prize winner should be an Indian. There should be food on every table in the land. Only then we can afford to pause and say, with justification, mera bharat mahan."

Amen to that.

svinayak · Post by **svinayak** » 30 Dec 2009 11:10

Indian company to takeover Uganda’s biggest tea estates
http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/ ... /wgnhd4/-/
By Walter Wafula & Agencies (email the author)

Posted Sunday, December 27 2009 at 00:00
McLeod Russel, an Indian company through its United Kindom-based subsidiary Borelli Tea Holdings, on Wednesday said it was set to take over Rwenzori Tea Investments Limited in Uganda for $30 million (about Shs57 billion).

Mr Aditya Khaitan, Managing Director of McLeod, the world’s largest tea-producing company, said Borelli has signed a share purchase agreement with UK’s James Finlay and James Finlay International Holdings which own Rwenzori Tea, acquisition of 100 per cent of the share capital of the Fort Portal-based company, according to India’s online media Business Line and moneycontrol.com.

Rwenzori which owns six tea gardens and five factories spread over 3,300 hectares in Uganda, is said to account for more than a quarter of the country’s tea exports, making it the largest producing company. Tea is one of Uganda’s largest export earners and last year, tea exports (about 42 metric tonnes) fetched shs142 billion or $76 million, according to the Uganda Export Promotion Board.

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Prices of processed food, metal products increase

The earnings have grown from shs108 billion ($58 million) a year earlier and is considered to be one of the fasted export growing areas.
News of Rwenzori Tea’s takeover comes less than a month after Jay Shree Tea & Industries, another large tea producing and processing company in India said it was close to acquiring a Ugandan tea firm.

c
Jay Shree Tea Managing Director D P Maheswari told Indian media that the company was in an advanced stage of negotiations for acquisitions in Uganda.

tejas · Post by **tejas** » 30 Dec 2009 19:28

{Deleted}

Folks, this thread is NOT meant to debate problems and to whine about politicians.

Vipul · Post by **Vipul** » 31 Dec 2009 06:26

India's decade could pave way for an Indian century: Report.

WASHINGTON: Calling it "The Decade That Was India's", a leading US daily says India's ability to make the success of the last 10 years the norm across regions and industries, "could well pave the way for an Indian century."

"Nobody knew what would happen when 1999 ended. Would computer systems crash and paralyse machines, power lines, lights, life as we know it?" the daily said recalling how the world turned to India to take on the dreaded Y2K bug.

"This was the decade that defined India - and India defined. Think back to the mid-1990s, as software services entrepreneurs assure me, and Americans didn't know India at all," the leading US financial daily said. "Ten years later, the world is in panic mode again -and some economists think India will come to the rescue yet again."

"This time, it's from the evolution of that nascent outsourcing model into the engine of a robust global player that can do more than serve US companies; Indians can buy their products, too," the Journal said noting, "The bookends of this decade are significant for India and its place in the new economic order."

"The backlash against outsourcing remains a very real threat, intensifying amid 10 per cent unemployment in the US," it said. "But outsourcing - and the idea that companies must operate cheaply, efficiently, globally - has come to be an accepted, inescapable reality."

A majority of Americans believe the US is in decline, the daily said citing a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll from earlier this month. "A plurality went as far as to say the US will be surpassed by China in 20 years as the world's top power."

"India can hardly be far behind, given its population projected to exceed China and its democratic form of government," the Journal said noting, "That would have been unthinkable in 1999."

"But congratulations for India must be fleeting. It is too easy to look backward to see how far it has come. It is hardly fruitful to look forward to a time that it might surpass China or the US as a superpower," the daily said.

"What will distinguish India in the decade that begins on Friday is its ability to now look inward, to clean its government, to uplift more of its population, to foster the businesses and innovations ... and make their success of the last 10 years the norm across regions and industries," the daily said.

"That might just clinch more than the next decade - it could well pave the way for an Indian century," the Journal added.

Stan_Savljevic · Post by **Stan_Savljevic** » 04 Jan 2010 07:19

Bihar’s miracle: growth rate at 11.03 p.c.
http://beta.thehindu.com/news/states/ot ... e74958.ece

This is the best turnaround story that the country can boast of-Bihar, the worst performing state for decades, has surprised one and all by clocking an astonishing 11.03 per cent growth during the period between 2004—05 and 2008—09. According to the latest Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) data, this growth is just a shade behind Gujarat, which grew 11.05 per cent during the same period. During this period the national GDP grew much less at 8.49 per cent.

Avinash R · Post by **Avinash R** » 07 Jan 2010 10:34

This is great news, while one section of jholawallas led by ToI is selling india blood under a fake peace campaign another section wanted to go support the blood thirsty maoists who continue to kill and oppress the native tribals. Well all the education didnt wisen up the jholawallas and make them patriotic while even the illiterate tribals can identify a traitor and teach them a lesson that these parasitic jholawallas better not forgot soon.

Dantewada tribals teach jholawallas a lesson
Suchandana Gupta, TNN 7 January 2010, 04:08am IST

BHOPAL: Tribals angry with activists fighting for human rights of Naxals while ignoring poor ‘adivasis’ threw rotten eggs and tomatoes at Magsaysay award winner Medha Patkar and Sandeep Pandey as they reached Dantewada town in Chhattisgarh on Wednesday.

While Medha, being a woman, did not face much humiliation, her companion Pandey was pulled down from the motorcycle and given a hiding.

He was pushed around and asked why the activists had done nothing for the tribals but found cause to support Naxals.

Medha, who leads Narmada Bachao Andolan, and Pandey who founded Asha for Education, were on their way to participate in a ‘jan sunwai’ (people’s court) in Naxal-hit areas on Thursday. Patkar and Pandey were on a motorbike when tribals carrying banners of ‘Maa Danteswadi Adivasi Swabhimaan Manch’ surrounded them, asking them to go back.

Shouting slogans like ‘‘Wapas jao, wapas jao (go back)’, the tribals alleged that NGOs ‘‘support Naxals under the pretext of human rights.’’

The police resorted to lathicharge to rescue Patkar and Pandey. Dantewada SP Ambreesh Mishra, however, said the two should have been more careful.

‘‘We have been telling human rights activists that the situation in Dantewara is highly volatile. If they plan to visit these areas, they should inform the administration so that we can provide them with protection. Neither Patkar nor Pandey informed us. After they were rescued, we advised them to leave Dantewara,’’ SP Mishra said.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/indi ... 418415.cms

And it's time the state govt bans these fake ngos acting as fronts for criminals and traitors and tadipaars these parasites from their respective states.

vijayk · Post by **vijayk** » 07 Jan 2010 22:33

Avinash R wrote:This is great news, while one section of jholawallas led by ToI is selling india blood under a fake peace campaign another section wanted to go support the blood thirsty maoists who continue to kill and oppress the native tribals. Well all the education didnt wisen up the jholawallas and make them patriotic while even the illiterate tribals can identify a traitor and teach them a lesson that these parasitic jholawallas better not forgot soon.

Dantewada tribals teach jholawallas a lesson
Suchandana Gupta, TNN 7 January 2010, 04:08am IST

BHOPAL: Tribals angry with activists fighting for human rights of Naxals while ignoring poor ‘adivasis’ threw rotten eggs and tomatoes at Magsaysay award winner Medha Patkar and Sandeep Pandey as they reached Dantewada town in Chhattisgarh on Wednesday.

While Medha, being a woman, did not face much humiliation, her companion Pandey was pulled down from the motorcycle and given a hiding. He was pushed around and asked why the activists had done nothing for the tribals but found cause to support Naxals.

Medha, who leads Narmada Bachao Andolan, and Pandey who founded Asha for Education, were on their way to participate in a ‘jan sunwai’ (people’s court) in Naxal-hit areas on Thursday. Patkar and Pandey were on a motorbike when tribals carrying banners of ‘Maa Danteswadi Adivasi Swabhimaan Manch’ surrounded them, asking them to go back.

Shouting slogans like ‘‘Wapas jao, wapas jao (go back)’, the tribals alleged that NGOs ‘‘support Naxals under the pretext of human rights.’’

The police resorted to lathicharge to rescue Patkar and Pandey. Dantewada SP Ambreesh Mishra, however, said the two should have been more careful.

‘‘We have been telling human rights activists that the situation in Dantewara is highly volatile. If they plan to visit these areas, they should inform the administration so that we can provide them with protection. Neither Patkar nor Pandey informed us. After they were rescued, we advised them to leave Dantewara,’’ SP Mishra said.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/indi ... 418415.cms

And it's time the state govt bans these fake ngos acting as fronts for criminals and traitors and tadipaars these parasites from their respective states.

Ha Ha Ha

if it was middle class folks, these scums, TOIlets, Outlooks would have labeled them as rich, spoiled, hindutava radicals or something. Now they have to just swallow these insults. I am sure they will find a way to blame VHP.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 15 Jan 2010 03:01

How Mehmood Khan quit Unilever and tranformed his village

Mehmood Khan quit his high-flying global career to focus fully on transforming his poor village in Haryana.

Nai Nangla village is a tiny speck on Haryana’s map. As far as the state’s administration goes, the speck probably doesn’t even exist. For several decades this little village in Mewat district languished in misery. Apparently, since Independence, no administrator bothered to visit the village. Until recently, there were no roads leading up to the village. The poor remained poor, access to healthcare was limited, there was no clean drinking water, illiteracy was rife, and women were downtrodden.

But something changed last year. The village, as a collective whole, clocked a Rs. 40-lakh increase in income (Rs. 80 lakh to Rs. 1.2 crore) from agriculture and allied services in one year. For the 200 village households, 80% of whom depend on agriculture, this is a lot. The extra cash allowed the villagers some degree of freedom. The little school in Nai Nangla saw enrolments increase from 250 to 320 children. From 23% literacy in 2003, today the village enjoys 95% literacy.

Nai Nangla owes it all to one man — Mehmood Khan, the former global leader of innovation process development at Unilever. Khan is an unlikely son of Nai Nangla. Unlike his peers who remained trapped in the village, he “escaped” — as he puts it — and led a life that people in Nai Nangla can’t even dream about. Khan got a good education, including an MBA from IIM-Ahmedabad, and worked for Unilever across the world. He launched Unilever’s brands in Cambodia, Mongolia, Vietnam and Laos before becoming the innovation head at the company’s London headquarters.

Each time Khan came to India to visit his family, he could feel the difference between him and his brethren. He decided to do something about it. Charity wasn’t the answer — at least not a sustainable one. “Look at the Lee Kuan Yew model of development. The only resource he had was people,” says Khan. And so he set upon the task of improving the lives of these villagers through education, skill development and better access to the basic amenities in life.

The income rise is due to a Mother Dairy milk collection booth that Khan has been instrumental in bringing to the village. It was the first time that the villagers got a chance to break away from the stranglehold of local milk vendors who gave them absurdly low prices. The villagers were forced to accept it because they had no other avenue and also because they had taken loans from these milk vendors and were, in a sense, ‘bonded’ to them.

Other changes are visible in the village. A ‘common facilitation centre’ came up here with a computer training facility and a sewing centre around a year back. Basic literacy classes for women were held. A lot of the village women took up sewing as a vocation and earn between Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,000 a month. If things work out as planned, they will soon be sewing garments for a Gurgaon-based manufacturing unit. Some of the men, after having been trained in computers and basic English, have been hired by insurance company Aviva, Max New York Life and ICICI Bank.

Geoffrey Probert, Executive Vice President, Deodorants Category (Unilever), sees parallels between what Khan did at Unilever and what he is doing now. Probert was the business director for Unilever International and Khan’s boss when he launched Unilever in Cambodia and Mongolia. Probert says, “Mehmood knows how to create a market where none exists.” Khan launched Unilever brands in Cambodia in 1993 which was a time of political unrest and great uncertainty. Khan remembers landing at Phnom Penh airport and filling his immigration form in candlelight. Probert says, “There was no rulebook at that time. You had to just use your wits and Mehmood was an incredibly good resource for us in these markets.”

It is these skills — ingenuity, the ability to think and act on the fly and create opportunity where none exists — that Khan brings to Mewat after spending 40-plus years in the corporate world. He views Nai Nangla’s problems like a puzzle, the pieces of which he looks for and fits in. That’s the beauty of Khan’s model: While looking for the pieces that fit, he looks beyond the ordinary.

Nai Nangla had many problems. A firm believer in the power of collaboration, Khan roped in his networks and contacts from all over the world into his venture. So if it was about computer training, Khan roped in his IIM-A alumnus N.V. ‘Tiger’ Tyagarajan, COO, Genpact, who gave Khan’s computer training facility a few used computers. For literacy, Khan talked NGO Pratham into setting up operations in Mewat, a district it had never worked in before. He convinced Mother Dairy to set up a milk collection centre in Nai Nangla. “One of my early memories of Mehmood is going to sell him services and walking out after writing him a big cheque for his charity work. He is very good at making business people act with conscience,” says Trevor Davis, Global Subject Matter Expert in the Consumer Products Industry, IBM.

For many years, Khan managed to squeeze out time to do his work for Mewat even while handling his full-time job at Unilever. But in 2009, at 54 years, he took an early retirement from Unilever. “This work has been slowly beckoning me and I feel that I can add more value to rural India,” says Khan. “Once you are in that state of mind, you want to be with the people. For me the transition has been from driving topline growth in a multinational through innovation to driving growth in an area neglected for 62 years.”

From his plush Chorleywood apartment in the UK, Khan has now set up base in Gurgaon. But most days he ends up sleeping on a bare bed in Nai Nangla.

The decision to moveback wasn’t hard though it did come out from the blue. Khan spoke to Davis before making the decision. Davis says, “I was very surprised when he said he wanted to go back. His passion for the villages was growing. It was very obvious that it was becoming a very important part of his life. It was a very short call when he said he wanted to retire. He is entering a new phase in life. A moment in time arrived, personal circumstances were right and his head and heart were in the right direction.”

Currently, Khan is getting a small room ready for himself in Beria Baas, another Mewat village. It is time, Khan feels, for Beria Baas to go through a similar transformation. He is trying to get Mother Dairy to set up a milk collection outlet here. But Mother Dairy won’t come unless it gets a minimum of 500 litres a day. Khan is setting up his own dairy to provide critical mass. He has joined hands with the biggest gaushala in Hansi to source high-quality buffalos and cows. “I am creating a complete ecosystem in this dairy. The milk will go to Mother Dairy, the dung will be used for biogas and vermicompost and the male offspring, which is always neglected, will be taken as bulls by a breeding organisation called BAIF [Bharatiya Agro Industries Foundation] which is starting a bull farm in Jind.” In fact, nearly 35 years ago Khan was a part of BAIF, an organisation he joined as a management trainee straight after his MBA. Kishor Chaukar, managing director, Tata Industries, was an executive secretary at BAIF at that time. Says Chaukar, “When I look at what Mehmood is doing in Mewat today, I see the same passion, the same orientation and the same dreams as what he brought to BAIF.”

Not everything that Khan does in Mewat takes off as expected. Finding talent to manage these projects is tough. People are just not willing to work in villages. Khan has had to resort to developing raw talent from scratch in the villages. “I have learnt in my corporate life that you create so many ideas in the funnel, and not all of them will work out. There may be ideas where we have been wrong in our assessment. But I want to work with 10 ideas — even if two make it big, I’ll be happy,” says Khan.

Great job Khan saab. Now why doesn't SRK make a movie on him instead of the sappy Swades!

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 15 Jan 2010 04:44

X-Post...

SwamyG wrote:Some stats

About India, From the book "Riding the Indian Tiger - Understanding India - the World's fastest growing market'
1.World's largest truck manufacturer.
2.World's largest manufacturer of motorcycles
3.3rd largest stock exchange in terms of volume.
4.2nd largest producer of sugarcane.
5.3rd largest producer of cotton.
6.Largest producer of milk and fruits.
7.5th largest coal reserves.
8.3rd largest bauxite reserves.
9.4th largest steel producer.
10.6th largest aluminum producer.
11.3rd largest producer of CDs and DVDs.
12.Indians purchase 6 million cell phones per month.
13.Has 40 million Internet users (expected to climb to 200 million by 2015)
14.700 million own property.
15. 100 million households have bank accounts.
16. 80 million hold secondary degress.
17. Largest number of engineering graduates in the World.

Varoon Shekhar · Post by **Varoon Shekhar** » 15 Jan 2010 06:59

Good stats on India. Just curious: for the '40 million internet users', does that mean there are 40 million people with access from home, with subscription to an ISP? Or does it simply indicate total number of people with e-mail, including those who use cyber cafes?

Some rankings missed in that list: bicycles, cable TV users, number of satellites( must be in top 10) , fish catch, newspapers and magazines( very high ranked here!) number of railway tickets/passengers per day.

Another worthwhile stat: Where would India be placed in number of TV channels and also number of programmes, including sitcoms, dramas, actions, not including Bollywood movies shown on TV. Instinctively, one would place India very high, in the Top 5 if not Top 3, in number of TV shows, simply from number of channels and consequent growth of TV programmes.

kittoo · Post by **kittoo** » 15 Jan 2010 09:09

ramana wrote: Great job Khan saab. Now why doesn't SRK make a movie on him instead of the sappy Swades!

Great job by khan sir.
I felt Swades was absolutely brilliant movie. A little unrealistic, but brilliant nonetheless.

anishns · Post by **anishns** » 15 Jan 2010 21:02

Simply amazing!!!

Check out this video:

http://business.in.com/video/magazine-e ... -khan/1102

I think TOIlet and other media outlets would have done a better job by promoting this in our country rather than Aman Ka Tamasha

SwamyG · Post by **SwamyG** » 15 Jan 2010 22:01

A link to CNBC video that "reviews" Tata nano in Detroit.
Linky
The Tatas are planning to get Nano into USA in about 3-4 years. This was already in the news. A CNBC TV reporter test drove this in Detroit and had good things to say about the car that is targeted for the Indian conditions. The only negativity came from the studio anchors; while the reporter on the ground having tested and sat inside the car and decent things to share.

Looking at the video and comparing with Mercedes-Benz SMART car; I think Nano is more roomier than SMART.

SBajwa · Post by **SBajwa** » 15 Jan 2010 22:50

speak softly and carry a big stick.

svinayak · Post by **svinayak** » 16 Jan 2010 01:53

http://www.pranavmistry.com/

about

Nothing can be and can not be one and at the same time and I am, I am Pranav Mistry.

Currently, I am a Research Assistant and PhD candidate at the MIT Media Lab. Before joining MIT I worked as a UX Researcher with Microsoft. I received my Master in Media Arts and Sciences from MIT and Master of Design from IIT Bombay. I have completed my bachelors degree in Computer Science and Engineering. Palanpur is my hometown, which is situated in northern Gujarat in India.

Exposure to fields like Design to Technology and from Art to Psychology gave me a quite nice/interesting viewpoint to the world. I love to see technology from design perspective and vice versa. This vision reflects in almost all of my projects and research work as well. in short, I do what I love and I love what I do. I am a 'Desigineer'

Stan_Savljevic · Post by **Stan_Savljevic** » 21 Jan 2010 08:15

Journey of Change: A Story from Uttarakhand
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126396127202531769.html

Vipul · Post by **Vipul** » 25 Jan 2010 23:14

The Great Indian Technolution.

negi · Post by **negi** » 26 Jan 2010 01:47

South Korea upbeat on nuke deal with India; signs IT, space pacts

Manmohan Singh assured his South Korean guest that his government was doing everything possible to fast-track the $12 billion South Korean Posco steel project at Jagatsinghpur district in Orissa, the single largest foreign direct investment in India. He also hoped for more investment from Seoul in manufacturing and infrastructure sectors.

Abhijeet · Post by **Abhijeet** » 27 Jan 2010 00:41

Varoon Shekhar wrote:Good stats on India. Just curious: for the '40 million internet users', does that mean there are 40 million people with access from home, with subscription to an ISP?

No. It is an estimate of how many people use the Internet "regularly" (defined in various ways) in India, from home, cybercafes, offices etc. Regularly normally means at least once a month.

The total number of Internet subscriptions in India is a surprisingly low number, around 12 million about a year ago. Of these, about 6 million are broadband - or what passes for broadband in India. There is apparently a growing segment of users who use EVDO datacards as their primary Internet access mechanism.

Another worthwhile stat: Where would India be placed in number of TV channels and also number of programmes, including sitcoms, dramas, actions, not including Bollywood movies shown on TV. Instinctively, one would place India very high, in the Top 5 if not Top 3, in number of TV shows, simply from number of channels and consequent growth of TV programmes.

I read in a report today that India has something like 417 operational TV channels. 100 million households own TVs, 1 million households use a badly-implemented, government-directed (almost a tautology) scheme called Conditional Access System or CAS, and 18 million households have DTH. I remember reading earlier that there are about 60 million households with cable. As usual, last-mile physically-based distribution is the weak point in India, so DTH systems (no wires!) have the most potential for the future IMO.

svinayak · Post by **svinayak** » 27 Jan 2010 03:42

Abhijeet wrote:
I read in a report today that India has something like 417 operational TV channels. 100 million households own TVs, 1 million households use a badly-implemented, government-directed (almost a tautology) scheme called Conditional Access System or CAS, and 18 million households have DTH. I remember reading earlier that there are about 60 million households with cable. As usual, last-mile physically-based distribution is the weak point in India, so DTH systems (no wires!) have the most potential for the future IMO.

THis is what Reliance wants to tap with settop boxes for those 120M household for broadband and IP based TV. They did a deal with Mickeysoft and then they ditched it and came up with their own solutions.

SwamyG · Post by **SwamyG** » 27 Jan 2010 03:57

India:
* 60% literacy ~ 600 millions literate.
* 45,000 newspapers published. 7,500 in English.

USA
* Literacy almost universal ~ 300 millions literate.
* 1500 newspapers published.

China
* 90% literacy ~ 1 billion literate.
* 2000 newspapers published.

Conclusion: Indians are exceptional readers.

Source: Arriving India book.

Suraj · Post by **Suraj** » 27 Jan 2010 04:19

Literacy was 65% according to the 2001 census, which collected information in 1999-00. The prior census in 1991 reported 51% literacy. Considering the 2000s were the most economically transformative decade in our history, it would not be farfetched to assume that the next census will report literacy well over 80%, because of a combination of very young population combined with the concerted push for primary education, and the inability to attain gainful employment without functional literacy.

Neshant · Post by **Neshant** » 27 Jan 2010 09:34

USA
* Literacy almost universal ~ 300 millions literate.
* 1500 newspapers published.

that's because the vast majority get their news from TV, the internet which most Indians don't have.

SwamyG · Post by **SwamyG** » 27 Jan 2010 18:48

^^^^
Internet is a recent phenomenon. Until then it was just a bunch of few companies controlling the TV news. The term 'brainwashing' comes to my mind.