“Any new reform in India is often clouded by debates and discussions about its need and viability. Opposing a change comes naturally for the self appointed so called public messiahs of the country. One such reform that has not been able to meet its due fate is the issue of FDI in retail. Anaggh Desai shares an interesting take on the benefits of FDI from a customer perspective”…..This article appeared as a Perspective in StoRai magazine Jan-Feb 2012.

A debate on this question has been going on for a long time; with government wishing to introduce the bill, it just gathered momentum recently.

The past couple of weeks, every platform/gathering somebody or other has asked me the question ‘Why should FDI be allowed in India?’ I do not object to the question on principle, it is quite amusing to note that everyone has a view about why it should be allowed/not allowed – mostly like East Bengal & Mohun Bagan match in Kolkatta. Read the rest of this entry »

A month or so ago, I had either received a tweet or mail from Abhay Nagarajan, wondering if I had read the above mentioned book.

Frankly, it was of no interest to me and had forgotten, till last week, looking for a book on flipkart saw the book and price (Rs. 100/-) ordered it along with Witness the Night by Kishwar Desai The Premier Murder League by Geeta Sunder.

Aha, well back to the afore mentioned book. A sort of poor @sidin about investment counselor from two tier B school and his boss, with too much jargon and extremely thin story line, trying to encash on the so called ‘market melt down’

Personally, I think it should have had a better story line, with less jargon and more humane touch.

Also for me the fact, that everyone wants to write, manage to write publish is ‘courage to follow your dreams and realise them’ is cheers time.

And hey, it may probably work for that age group, B school people, with a great price point.

I remember a time, when there were no multiplexes and visiting a cinema was a special occasion, where you dressed up and reached there much before time, to see all the government advertisements AND there was no popcorn, pasta being delivered to your seat. Maybe if your parents were feeling happy and not having carried snacks from home, you would have been treated to a samosa.

The National Anthem used to be played in the end of the movie and everybody stood at attention, sung along in their not so melodious voices and then the doors were opened allowing you to go out.

TIME flew, for a while they stopped playing the national anthem, before somebody recalled and it was made mandatory all over again.

Now there are multiplexes everywhere, working couples, friends, families come rushing last minute to see the movie, carrying practically meals that would feed a small nation, stepping all over your toes, hands mostly without a nary of an apology.

The National anthem is played before the movie begins.

And more than 30-40% people wait outside the door, chatting for it to begin and get over. Out of the ones who are already seated there are always those, useless bums who refuse to get up or get up slowly, muttering to themselves.

There are some people, moi included who take umbrage about this and there is an argument, even a fight at times. (newspapers have reported too)

Compared to the past couple of years, I have noticed that the people not getting up is in a very negligible minority these days, however the fidgeting, muttering still continues.

The most popular reason cited is “Democracy” which is all fine, but the same people stand at attention when applying for a visa, traveling abroad amongst other things, but feel it beneath their dignity to respect the country that they live in.

We are all to blame for this. Well I do stand up for the national anthem & sing it proudly. Do You?

A dedicated fiction reader, who once upon a time used to complete a 400 page book during a Bombay - Delhi - Bombay flight including the waiting time at the airports; over the past year or so found my reading habits breaking away completely, more maybe from the fact that I do not travel at all these days, a little less from the fact that have been watching more movies, tweeting?

Having said that had decided to rectify the situation this year. Flipping thru Flipkart sometime a fortnight ago, saw some Indian authors, whose books sounded simple, in terms of story & price both. Ended up ordering the following:

Love, A rather Bad Idea….All it gives is a lousy hangover by Anirban Mukherjee
Zero Percentile..Missed IIT Kissed Russia by Neeraj Chhibba
Nothing can be as crazy by Ajay Mohan Jain &
The Dork by Sidin Vadukut (heavily tweeted on twitter by his well wishers)

Whilst this was in transit, I made a trip to Malvan and picked up a book at the Goa airport - Devil in Pinstripes by Ravi Subramanian having read his earlier ‘If God was a Banker’

Then overcome with work, did not even glance at those till, last week, when glancing through them, saw that most of them were 200 pages easy to read font & decided to go for them & so began:

Devil in Pinstripes - A good book taking a look at the Banking & financial segment, boss, mentor, couple relationship etc. nudging & offering some insight of what it is all about in a superficial way.

Dork - A good enough book, that gives an insight into Management placement, Consulting industry, taking a swipe at the perception & hype created vs how actually it works.

Zero Percentile - Halfway decent writing, that takes a look at lower middle class home, destiny mish mash. A book that can be missed without missing anything

Nothing can be as Crazy A decent book on the Banking Industry with neither a complete coverage on banking or institutional politics. There but cannot be there.

Love, A rather Bad Idea - A breezy book trying to convey that IIT has everything that the world can show and friendship, love, loyalty overcomes everything.

Having said that, some common factors which are not so surprising:)

Out of the 5 authors 2 are from IIT & 2 are from IIM or combination of both.
All the books can be called “ILIT” that has sex, loyalty, destiny, family & happy ending with of course IIT or IIM as background.
A bit of superiority “we were there, we are better, and now besides we can write” comes through.
The cost of the book is sub 200/- something like ‘chiclit’ take it on the flight & throw it.

As the DNA & Sunday Midday of 22nd February says that 1000 copies is enough to break even all of them have broken even, if nothing else but through their network, loyalty, friends & relatives.

What is painful is that such intelligent (obviously with IIT & IIM tags) people have chosen extremely mediocre, flat subjects to write their novels on, truly hope that they come out of their comfort zone & contribute more.

The Question this raises now is - “Do Indian Authors need to be IIT or IIM”

BUT in the end Hey they have written, published & people read, whilst I have not, so whilst this may sound, it is NOT sour grapes.

A couple of weeks ago RTNE invited me to look at what they had achieved in the past one year.

Whilst I would have loved to travel on the Highway from Bombay to Goa, paucity of time forced me to follow their instructions and so my journey began.

If flew from Bombay to Goa where I was received by Prathmesh a young local from Kudal who has been trained as the DMC (Destination Management Company) Officer who does the local level liaison.

We drove down on NH 17 passing Kudal, Sanatwadi before reaching Malvan at around 4.30 pm. Once checked into an RTNE trusted Stay Swami Samarth a nice stay right on a private beach, was taken around to meet other home stay owners, recce their property as well as understand the philosophy.

I was stunned to see the number of home stays that had evolved and more importantly, the kind of numbers that were bandied about by the owners.

The stays were well done, clean, with nearly 3+ star category at the most economical rates possible. Amongst the ones I visited were Omkar Deluxe, God’s garden, Satguru Kripa, Sidhivinayak (of Pednekar bandhu).

Having completed the recce, went to see the sunset at Devbagh Sangam. Then a spot of relaxing, before dinner was called around 9.30 pm.

Mind you, the dinner is cooked specially for you after asked about your choices & imagine eating on your private beach with the waves crashing, bit of wind whistling & distant light. (In Goa during my previous avataar we used to charge Rs. 15,000/- ++ for something like this). The menu was amazing - Sol kadi; Golpa; Halwa rassa & fried; warm chappati; rice.

I could barely keep my eyes open after this repast. After a long time, I was fast asleep at 10pm opening my eyes at 8 am the next morning.

Some amazing kande Poha, accompanied by fresh coconut water, though I gave the malai a miss started the day just right for my drive back to Goa & then back to Bombay. With no camera, but my trusty Nokia, managed to take some photographs, unfortunately do not do justice to the place.

With the new airport coming up soon, this place is going to just take off. I recommend that you visit the place before this happens. To read more about this, click here & to book here

After a lot of discussions, debates, advice I had opted for a custom DELL XPS M1330 in March 2008.

Except for a couple of small glitches (more to do with my being a technical retard) the order placement, delivery etc. was all seamless.

I loved working on it (though at times I did miss the finish of my Sony VAIO) but you cannot have everything.

In June 2009, I had done some editing for my daughter’s presentation, but before I could copy it for her, the screen went black:( And the next day we had to leave for Pune with it.

In desperation called DELL, quoted all the numbers etc. was assured that by 12 noon the next day, a technician would be there to ensure that it would work soon.

So whilst the old copy was there & started work on it again, hoping against hope that DELL would deliver. Mind it! They did - promptly at 11.45 am their technical support came with a large box & upon enquiry was told that “Sir, you had opted for 3 yr on site warranty, so I need to change the panel, including the motherboard” Wheee, it took him an hour & half but the complete new DELL was ready & raring to go!

Now only if they work out a super NETBOOK, I do not have to opt for Lenovo or Asus!

Sometime in February/March 2009 after MTNL had finally connected my WiFi, in an attempt to curtail costs, I went on a lookout for a dongle which would connect my daughter’s desktop in the adjoining room.

Croma, Vijay Sales; etc. were checked out & prices were not exciting enough. Visiting Hypercity for something else found a good deal nearly 15% cheaper than others on Linksys.

The installation was a breeze, worked fine for the next couple of months, when one fine day, just stopped.

Called Hypercity & got the details, logged in created an account, complained online, called the number in Tardeo & were told to bring it the day after.

Being away, the wife went with the old modem & printout. Unfortunately, there was a mistake in the number, asked her to rectify it on the spot, replaced the dongle with a new upgraded one, wished her all the best & that’s it.

Smooth, minimal people interaction but WOW service. I like it very much!

During the past 1 year have had occasion to travel by Rail a couple of times.

My experience with their website has been good & bad, more to do with connectivity, traffic issues, I would guess. But I was thankful that at least the booking could be done from the safety of my office/home with options that I could play around with.

However, the call center service really blew me off on all counts.

• Picked up promptly every time
• Pleasant modulated voices
• Knew answers or how to get them
• Helpful when you sounded confused

All those which maybe some years ago were not expected from the Railways. Did Laloo Yadav do it, I do not know, neither do I need to know.

The fact remained that they consistently delivered what I required. On the other hand my Cell phone company, credit card company are supposedly more sophisticated hire only MBA’s yada yada but do not please me!

I had written Why Independent Directors are ineffective here sometime in May 2009.

Some time ago I read about Relics in Board rooms, where the types were categorized by a Prime Database study that classified in 4 broad types

75% Home directors - known personally to promoters - relatives, friends. Several loopholes exist in the Companies Act allowing their induction.

15% Value directors - people that either bring knowledge and expertise to the company - lawyers, technocrats etc. or provide it with a strong network.

5% Celebrity directors - inducted to add an aura of respectability & news value to the company including film stars, sportsmen etc.

5% PSU directors - typically appointed by political high command or ministers concerned, most are either politicians or bureaucrats.

So finally except 10-15% do Independent Directors really add value? And why does the Companies Act not get modified? Everyone I spoke to really had no answer.

Yesterday morning a friend from the Press, made my day by sending this lovely photograph early in the morning.

Opening Ceremony BWSL Mumbai Ishtyle

This has been tweeted, long hard & fast….renamed PeeLink etc.