Sunday Posts

Two people forced me to write this post about India's Caste system. First, Narayana Murthy , the famed founder of Infosys , who said in a recent interview that India is not a nation of doers and pointed to our Brahminical tradition of undermining physical work as the reason. And, then I met Dr. William Boyd, a Kiwi banker who worked for Natwest in London and now resident in Malaysia, in Manila, who turned to be surprisingly well informed about India's culture and tradition and we had an enlightening conversation about caste over lunch. Dr. Boyd, unlike others, were deeply respectful about India's culture and that made me feel good. Talking about the caste system is always an embarrassment, as most Westerners I know look at it as a terrible social practise which makes India a really backward place. Dr. Boyd was different - he was speaking my language.- and was telling everyone else at the lunch table how caste was actually a system of division of labour that helped India ...

We are now in the final week of India's General Election, and we shall know the results by the end of this week. The political maneuvers are already on and one can see possibilities of coalition, including some impossible ones like a Congress- BJP coalition, emerging suddenly. This is going to be interesting to watch, indeed. That said, this is a crucial election. May be one of the most crucial ones. I am no expert in Indian politics, so can not really say where it will rank in significance. One can possibly argue that this is as important as the one in early 90s, when India needed to get its economic policy right rather desperately , and needed a stable and decisive government therefore. Or, one can also say that this is as important as the one in 1977, which was watershed in the sense that it dawned a new era in Indian politics. I am tempted to go even further and compare this with India's first election in 1951, which tested the idea of the republic and was crucial for the...

We finally see the green shoots of life! Newspapers exclaimed recently, as stock markets around the world moved North. Our policies are working - governments crowed! It is just money thrown at the problem, the opposition said, and this was bound to get fixed anyway. We went out and shopped for a new TV again. Before the new figures came out, traders booked profits and stock indexes went south again, and everyone went home to our natural pitches. Is that what one should keep doing in the middle of a recession? Hope? Hope is indeed God's gift to Man. But then, one should remember the context that gift was given. I shall repeat the story [imprecisely] though one would know it already. Prometheus stole the fire from the gods and gave it to mankind, which made it equal to gods. So, Zeus, the king of gods, was worried. He needed to bring the mankind back into subservience. He then sent a splendid box of gifts, with the instruction that this is never to be opened, to Pandora, the beautif...

Is going nearshore a strategy which will help lift the fortunes of the embattled Indian BPO industry? Seems so, as one can clearly notice the rising public sentiment against offshoring of jobs when the domestic opportunities are drying up. Earlier, the economic logic that this keeps the cost of service cheap was good enough; but today an organization employing overseas workers may appear insensitive and overtly motivated by profit, not a good thing when such public goodwill is so necessary for ongoing existence of the business. We have noticed that there was a premium attached to 'UK Call Centres' even before the recession hit. However, most people did not care. Though this was a slightly more sensitive issue than buying Chinese toys in the supermarket - manufacturing seemed remote and people preferred lower prices on goods - this was okay. However, as the recession bites and everyone suddenly knows someone who got affected, this uneasiness about services being offered by ov...

After I set down the categories, it was much easier for me to focus on things and starting to get things done. I have worked a bit on all of the areas. Booked my Life in the UK exam for 13 th of May, and pushed myself into studying. It does not look complicated at this time. The sale of our centre progressed modestly, at least the discussion progressed too. I am now being asked to file a daily activity report, which I hate, but this shows me how little my company understood the nature of my work and why this whole thing is running towards abyss at a breakneck speed. But anyway, I am very good at passivity, and this is what they will get. I shall do everything they ask for, but take no new initiative myself. Of course, I still have the accountability to our customers and I must carry this out properly. But I must admit, this is a terrible bind. I should resign and go away now, immediately, as my mind is not into it and I am not doing justice to my work, but I can see that everything wi...

As I came back to work after bank holiday, my work was cut out - numerous things clamouring for my attention at the same time. I had to get things done now, but my motivation to do things is at an all time low. Indeed, once I have decided to leave, I should have left - I am not certain prolonging this for six months will actually help anyone. But, then, I have responsibilities towards various franchise outfits that we have put up - the people investing in the business in Kolkata and Mumbai are both known to me personally and I can not just leave them in the larch. Besides, our partner in Manila, though a recent acquaintence, is true to her goals and I would love to see her successful too. So, I have to get on with this restructuring and reach a level of profitability before I can move on with a free mind. My strategies are now to shift away from pure English offering and move into a diversified education offering, making our business sort of an one stop shop for UK education. I am alre...

A Linkedin group discussion pointed me to a new possibility - that Amazon actually targeting their new version of Kindle, which is supposed to come out with a bigger screen and better everything, to the textbook market. Yes, rather than the newspaper market. I have not seen a Kindle yet - this has not been released in the UK - but read about this on readwriteweb . I know of the talk, mostly on CNBC - that Amazon Kindle will do to books what iPod has done to Music - and I am waiting eagerly to lay my hands on one. However, targeting at the textbook market is an interesting shift of strategy, and this made me write about this immediately. Accordingly, this post is not about Amazon Kindle. I have not seen it yet, so I can not comment whether it is worth its $300 price tag. I did think the idea is novel, a new generation ebook reader which comes with wireless connectivity and newspaper subscriptions to download. I think the newspaper men also saw this as their deliverance. I read Wal...