Professional Discipline and Dedication

“Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.” – John Rohn

We hail China and Japan for their accomplishment in building their nation and excelling in whatever they do. They literally are ruling every field that they have entered so far be it Business, Science and Technology or Agriculture anything for that matter…….they may be trailing in services and IT sector due to their linguistic limitations but researchers say they will very soon catch up with this short coming and if that happens India’s dominance in IT and services sector will be at threat.

We envy their growth and we try to compete with them…..good……but are we trying to understand why and how they could achieve all this…….I strongly believe that their discipline especially their professional discipline that’s taking them to height…….when you have discipline mixed with dedication you can accomplish your goals with ease…….This is not only with China and Japan alone you can take example of any developed nation…….they may differ in the way they structure their discipline but they take it very seriously…….couple of other examples are USA and UK……..I have closely worked with North American business men and have always admired their discipline and dedication in doing their duties….NO EXCUSES…….

Today India is growing in IT and ITES sectors at a fast pace……..I am very much concerned about the discipline and dedication within the group of people working in this sector for the very reason that it employs young and fresh minds. They are in the right stage to be groomed/taught professionalism, discipline and dedication. This not only helps to create a good business but also helps to create good people, nation and future generation……..my worry is that there is many businesses who fail to take this seriously and just not bothered about these things…..they are keen in building their business and earn good money……..they exploit our young minds and leave the with nothing but little money in their hands…….it may look like we are growing and getting better but in long term we would fail to achieve our goals coz we have not learnt the basics of professional life’s…..

Discussing this topic will bring in some light to this topic and you can go ahead and suggest ways to tackle this issue……….

InterLinking of Indian Rivers:

A topic that has gained momentum in last 5 years in this country and we are in the very early stages of even exploring the possibilities of carrying out this project. There is various factors on why this is issue is highgly debated like change in the monsoon, high demand and growing intolerance between states. If you look at other countries grown up and gorwing have already started  implementing inter linking of their rivers now and the ones who have done it are enjoying its benefits. Our competitor China is linking its rivers in a fast pace. 

India faces certain challenges because the dunamics of geo-politicality of this country is very different. It is always quite difficult to gain support to such an issue in a democratic and diverse country/society like ours. I strongly believe this is not a political and politicians issue alone and a consensus cannot be reached by politicising this issue. Infact, politicising this issue will undermine the merits of linking of rivers. But the bitter fact is that it is one of the most politized issue in our country now.

In the recent past water sharing issue is one of the most heated thing going on between the states. The threat is so high that the relationship between any southern state is not in good side. In days to come this will contribute further spoling of good relationship between states and will fuel to fragmentation. While every state is affected by water sharing issue TamilNadu is on of the ost affected coz we are in the corner and our climatical conditions are not as favorable as our neighbour Kerala which is another corner state. I do not want to blame any government or state for their actions coz afterall they are trying to protect the interests of their state and everone does it. It should be handled with an open mind and should be considered as a national issue of concern. It should be debated, discussed and a consensus should be arrived at a national level.

It is important economically, politically and for the better future of this country to carry out this project as soon as possible. There should be a lot of work done and lets discuss, debate and do as much as we can to get this started viewing this issue in a broader perspective.

Belief and Positive Energy

I was talking to someone on belief and positive energy. These three components are something that everyman should have in surplus and every one should know how much of these they have in themselves. You may aim, dream or be ambitious in life…….aiming, dreaming and being ambitious alone cannot make you achieve in life. You should have faith in you, you should believe in you and most importantly you should have positive energy within yourself to keep you rightly motivated.

Belief and positive energy will portray you better in life..…..you will look confident and sound good and you can get along with people easily. One should be able to identify and learn through the good and bad things happening in his/her life. Unless you have positive approach towards things you will not be able to identify or learn from life.

It took 27 years for me to understand this very simple concept of living and making life easier and enjoyable. These days I literally enjoy everything and I get to learn a lot and am considerably successful after I started this approach.

You may fail in Business, Relationships, Work, and most importantly Love……there is nothing like failure in all the above said. It is a failure if you deject or shy away from facing it but if you have positive approach and learn from the happening you will win over the situation and regain your position in anything. I can quote hundreds of examples here………

Belief and Positive approach is not the only key to success but all successful people have believe and have positive approach…………so it is for you to choose……..I have always said why god made both good and bad, right and wrong, positive and negative. right and evil spirit, he differentiates to the ones who choose good what is bad and who choose bad what is good……..

Foreign Direct Investment - Ferociously Debated Issue

"It has been said that arguing against globalization is like arguing against the laws of gravity." Kofi Annan 

We welcome globalization, we want IBM's, Microsoft's, Hyundai's and Ford's to open up their shops here. We are delighted American jobs coming into our country but we don't want them to come and partner with us or invest into any of our businesses. Doesn't this sound crazy, I would say its idiotic. We put caps on Foreign investors coming into our market. Today's most politicalized issue is FDI in retail. Why shouldn't we allow full FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) into our retail sector what's wrong in it?

I was watching a TV show in which a guest who opposes FDI in retail and Reliance Fresh stores stated they will kill local small businesses. I was amazed when this guy said "Small players cannot compete with big players since biggies would out do them in price" WOW what a brilliant thought. This guy never thought such competition will favor the consumer and ultimately consumer the KING would get benefited. Indian retail is biggest when compared with some of the other Asian countries but ours is most fragmented and unauthorized RESULT: Local shop owners and mom-pop owners enjoy the maximum benefit.

We are talking about improving the life of our farmers; we give free electricity, whopping subsidies and what not. Just look at it the other way round. Reliance procures products directly from the farmers. So no middlemen so more profit to farmers and reduced price to our consumers. Why should we oppose it then?

WTO is pressurizing India to lift the ban on FDI if India doesnt then they will cross retaliate by withdrawing tariff and trade privileges that we enjoy today under the new General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.

Such was the cry couple of decades back when computers and computer operated machines came into play. Some looked at it as threats to job. What happened was totally different. It helped in productivity, it created more opportunities and it made us to compete with other global players. Had we not done that then today we would not be rated as the fastest growing economy. I strongly believe that this is an issue merely created and blown out of proportion by our self-centered politicians.  I do not understand why communists and PMK oppose FDI in retail. Look at these communists, the so-called saviors of farmers and working class. They want globalized West Bengal for which they are ready to RED paint Nandhigram with human (farmer) blood but they would oppose globalization elsewhere. The biggest communist country China has opened up their market, even their leader has advised our communists not to oppose FDI (reported in media) when he visited India, but god only knows why they play politics in this issue.

Chennai moves into the big leagues

I recently came across this article, a very interesting and factful one.

Chennai moves into the big leagues By Raja M MUMBAI - Red-coated specters haunting old Fort St George by the Bay of Bengal in Chennai, formerly Madras, would be happy. The 350-year-old stronghold, now the seat of local government, was the first British Empire fortress in India.
The imperialists have been long kicked out, but Chennai is regaining its stronghold status with a slew of major deals. Last month the government of Tamil Nadu state, of which Chennai is capital, announced a memorandum of understanding with South Asia's largest vehicle-manufacturing consortium.
The consortium of Mahindra and Mahindra (India), Renault (France) and Nissan (Japan), the first of its kind in South Asia, will set up an integrated automobile-making unit with an initial investment of about US$897.2 million to roll out utility vehicles and cars. To be located at Oragadam near Chennai, the unit will be the biggest vehicle-manufacturing center at a single location in the country.
Such deals could be more commonplace in Chennai, a southern Indian metropolis that seems a halfway living station between the hyper-energy and relentless ambition driving Mumbai and the deep cultural anchor of Kolkata. According to India's official pre-budget Economic Survey, Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry (a former French colony) together accounted for $1.63 billion (6.5%) of foreign investments, a figure that could double shortly. If India is the world's sleeping giant awakening, Chennai could be India's sleeping foot stirring, increasingly getting attention from local and global investors.
"Chennai's growth has been phenomenal in recent years," local businessman Vivish George told Asia Times Online. "The city has expanded by about 85 kilometers. The challenge is a shortage of workforce as the city's economy is booming and there are more jobs at hand. A restriction on business growth is getting vacancies filled."
Sure enough, other big projects are taking life. Vehicle maker Mahindra is also planning a Mahindra Research Valley in the Mahindra World City near Chennai. The project is expected to add a whopping $4 billion a year to Tamil Nadu's gross domestic product (GDP). Additional investment from vendors and supporting service providers is expected to amass about $2.2 billion.
The Tamil Nadu government is also building an "IT corridor" on the outskirts of Chennai, another Indian Silicon Valley in the making. This forest of information-technology companies is expected to create 300,000 additional jobs. The local Highways Department is speeding up work on an IT highway to connect the IT corridor with the rest of the city. The IT corridor and related infrastructure are expected to be ready this August.
Such developments have changed and raised the city's profile, besides sending real-estate prices through the roof. Still, rentals are very low compared with other leading Asian cities. A two-story bungalow with a garden can be rented in suburban Tiruvanmayur for $270 a month.
A visitor to Chennai after 10 years, as was the case of this correspondent, can be astonished at how much the city has changed: flyovers, glitzy shopping malls, cleaner roads and greater expectations. From being a region whose inhabitants have often been the butt of jokes elsewhere in the country (southern Indians are usually lumped together as "Madrasis", particularly because of the accent in which they speak Hindi, as well as eating and dress habits) the city now wears a quiet confidence, wielding not just serious economic muscle but political power.
The state's ruling Dravida Munnetra Kalagam (DMK) is a key partner in the ruling coalition in the central government. India's successful young information and communications minister, Dayanidhi Maran, is the grandson of the state chief minister, Muthuvel Karunanidhi. Karunanidhi, 82, a poet and former movie scriptwriter, is now in his fifth term as chief minister, for the past two decades gleefully throwing out the incumbent government and alternating with his arch-rival Jayalalitha Jayaram, a former top movie heroine in the 1970s and leader of the All India Anna DMK.
Jayalalitha, South Asia's version of Imelda Marcos, took over the party mantle after a brief power struggle following the death of her co-star, the party founder, former chief minister and movie idol M G Ramachandran or MGR. The dashing MGR, who initiated a state-sponsored nutritious-noon-meal scheme for schoolchildren, a program now widely adopted across India, was one of the first actor-politicians in the world to assume a major office and never lost an election until his death in 1987. Following in his footsteps, leading Tamil movie stars invariably join a political party or start their own, giving the state's politics a peculiar circus-like atmosphere unmatched anywhere else in the world.
Karunanidhi, besides indulging in many populist schemes including giving free color TVs to poverty-stricken families, has in his current spell as chief minister been energetically making the state investor-friendly to IT majors, so much so that questions now fly whether Bangalore, India's original Silicon Valley and the dictionary word for outsourcing (Bangalored), is losing ground to Chennai. Leading IT companies such as Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, HCL Technologies and other global IT giants such as Ford Information Technology, Verizon, iSoft etc are upgrading their Chennai presence or starting major new ventures.
TCS, India's leading company, will open its largest development center in Chennai and will hire 8,000 software workers over the next 18 months. Mumbai, with about 6,000 TCS workers, gets relegated to second place.
"Foreign direct investment in Chennai is very satisfactory," R Subramanium, secretary general of the Madras Chamber of Commerce, told ATol. "Per capita income in Tamil Nadu has tripled in recent years and savings comprise one-third of income. So the potential for much more growth is there."
Vivek Harinarain, the state IT secretary, told the media that he is "very bullish" on Tamil Nadu's IT prospects, with the state opening up another 4 million square feet (371,600 square meters) of space for IT and software companies.
An IT industry analyst pointed out that these IT companies do not have a mere presence in Chennai, but their operations there are the largest or the second-largest in India or in the world.

Source: www.atimes.com

I sincerely thank Asia Times (www.atimes.com) for letting me republish this article on my blog. This article is republished with the due consent of Asia Times.

Television! Teacher, mother, secret lover or a menace

Television!  Teacher, mother, secret lover.  ~Homer Simpson

 

It's the menace that everyone loves to hate but can't seem to live without.  ~Paddy Chayevsky
 

When I read these quotes I strongly agreed with both of them. But we are not going to discuss whether it is boon or a bane since televisions has crossed all those stages. Now you just need one (atleast). So lets tal about the latest technology in television and which is the better one.

I did a little research on Plasma VS LCD television sets. My research comprises of two parts 1.Web Research 2.InStore Research. I thought of doing a user research which I felt this blog (readers) can do, so I preserved it for you. Also I do not want to get too much technical so I leave you the features here.

LCD Television - A senior to plasma television which had some drawbacks and lately getting better and posing stiff competition to its predecessor Plasma televisions. LCD Television or Liquid Crystal Display televisions started with computer screens in the beginning and the technology creeped in televisions. Initial LCD televisions had a problem of blurring effect while there is a fast motion in picture, but later LCD televisions are made to address this issue. If size does matter for you then LCD television would not be a good choice for you since Plasma television is available in larger sizes than LCD. Tip to buyers: There is something called Refresh Rate and it shouldbe lower then the clarity will be better. They are less in weight and this would be significant in these types of television sets since it is hung mostly. Lastly installation is much easier, simpler and not too delicate in LCD's than in Plasma Televisions.

Plasma Television - A little technical information here would help me say how superior is Plasma televisions. All the pixels in plasma television illuminates almost instantaneously this makes the picture appear fast, sharp and there wouldnt be any blurring effect. I read that Plasma is better in contrast because it can actually show black colour better than a LCD television the advantage of this is finer details like shadows does not merge with original image and are better when viewed. They are available in larger sizes than LCD Television sets but anytime LCD's can surpass this.

 

I would say the advantage in plasma television is very marginal compared with LCD television but there is one important comparison needs to be done that PRICE. May need to wait a couple for days for me to finish my instore price research.
 

Bargain - Offer - Discount

I have seen some of my friends not bargaining or claiming for a discount after a purchase. When asked most common reply was they believe that bargaining is a cheap activity. I differ from this view. Bargaining or claiming for a discount is your right as a consumer since any product is not priced uniformly. Let us take an example: I bought an IFB - Washing Machine coiuple of years back. I did a thorough internet search and then went to several shops to know the price. I was shocked to realize that no two shop had the same price tag. Atlast I decided to buy it from a shop and bargained with them. Those guys knowing that am aware of prices in different shops gave me the best price. RESULT: I saved 900Rs. The was the case with my Air Conditioner and all the other artices that I purchased.

There is one thing that one should keep in mind before bargaining, we should thoroughly research on models and prices available in the market. If a seller can provide a good after sales service and if he is not ready to reduce the price you may need to compromise/consider on money.You may need to put some efforts in doing such a research but it is worth the effort. Atleast you can gain some knowledge on different products and its availability and maybe you can share this with your friends or write a blog like I do :-)

CAUTION: Please exercise caution while you buy products on discounts. Check for quality twice. Discounts may sound interesting but there may be a catch somewhere. See if there is something suspicious. If it is a Factory Outlet SALE/DISCOUNT you may get good quality of product/worth for money. Offers are generally made for promotional purposes but still you should double check before you make nay purchase.
I am of a opinion that any consumer looking to purchase something should look for offers-discounts-bargain and get the best out of their purchase.


ENJOY YOUR PURCHASE WITH GOOD OFFERS / BARGAIN / DISCOUNT ! ! !