Tips to play in another country

A different country, a different situation but the underlying game and rules remain the same - be it in business or in sports. The expectations sometimes border on the unreasonable and its people who play up challenges and make it seem bigger than it really is. A game of cricket can become a much bigger issue, if emotions and political interests become vested in it. For instance, an India-Pakistan match can become a matter of national prestige instead of just remaining a game.

Former cricketer, Sanjay Manjrekar agreed, "It's a huge challenge for, I think people outside the cricketing world, I mean they perceive it to be the toughest and it's a huge challenge. But I can see Pakistanis being reasonably comfortable in India because it's very similar to Pakistan." The current Pakistan cricket team have a lot of fresh, and relatively inexperienced players, so "they they don't carry the emotional baggage that senior players would carry into India and they don't carry that intimidation. Kamran Akmal showed that in Mohali. He wasn't bogged down by India because he hardly had played against India. I think experienced leadership is important for Pakistan, because Pakistan as a team has always played well when they have a good leader. So perhaps that is where experience is lacking."

Lacking experience is not something that Indian corporates can complain about. They are racing across the world, in pursuit of good deals and acquiring companies on foreign soil. Is it culturally very difficult to operate in an alien environment? Chairman of Wockhardt Limited, Habil Khorakiwala told CNBC-TV18, "I think initially, the first acquisition, which we made 5-6 years back, we felt the cultural difference and it took us quite a while to understand how to manage a business."

"But since the two other acquisitions which we made, we find it very smooth going - for the simple reason that the process of management is the same, whether you operate in India or in Germany or in UK and as long as you follow a principle of management and establish a broad cultural identity of your organisation, I think it is possible to adapt to the social culture. I think organisational culture is quite distinctively different from the social culture that one operates in."

Learning more about local conditions and having inside knowledge will always help operate in an alien climate. Doing one's homework well helps. Khorakiwala explained, "Well I think our basic purpose of acquiring companies is to access the knowledge of that market from the people who are operating in that market. You know your product in your business but you still do not know the market you operate in. Therefore, it is extremely important to have people who have experience in that market."

Manjrekar agreed, "I think this is something that I have felt very often with Indian cricket. Suppose India is touring Australia. What's the harm in having a local Australian and a good student of Australian cricket or a good cricketer, who has been brought up in Australia, who knows the conditions in Australia well and is actually being employed as consultant to the Indian team."

He elaborated, "On a tour of Australia, he gives or reveals all the secrets of Australian conditions because there are a lot of basic mistakes that the visiting teams make. For example at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, Steve Waugh won the toss and decided to field first because he had some local knowledge. Now the Australian team hadn't employed a consultant but they were willing to question the locals and the same can happen with the Pakistan team, when they came to India. They can know more about Mohali even before they leave Pakistan."

After studying your turf, so to speak, on which your going to battle it out. There could still be an air of uncertainty about how to take on domestic heavyweights. Khorakiwala said, "I think it's how you can look at it. If you feel that you are going to compete with them head on, I don't think anyone can really win."

"Therefore, one has to really work on a strategy and I call it the judo strategy - you know it's about using the weight of your bigger giant (opponent) to your advantages. I think even in business, whether it's Pfizer or within the generic space also, we are new to the international market or within the Indian market also. So one has to recognize one's limited strength and the competitor's strength and if you develop a strategy, which they don't even notice, you are competing with them and slowly creating a niche for yourself."

Constant innovation will keep organisations and sportspeople on their feet. Khorakiwala said, "I think it is extremely important and there is no doubt about it. Especially in our pharmaceutical industry - whether you are in the drug discovery space or you are in the generic space, innovation and R&D is absolutely a must and what has happened in India, luckily is, that some of the companies have gone this route and what we are seeing today is that success."

Successful superiors could also be great mentors, if they set about motivating the younger people on their team. Manjrekar explained, "Javed Miandad has already tried several times. There is one problem, which is that great players aren't necessarily great motivators or great coaches, so Javed Miandad has still to prove himself as a good coach whereas Imran Khan is a great motivator, but he has set himself different goals in life so cricket is not his first priority now."

Khorakiwala agreed, "I think some of us have been investing enormously in the future and that is why one sees the result in research, in getting into new markets and these are high-risk situations and that is where it is paying off."

He added, "In our industry, as I look at it today, I think our key competitive advantage is our ability to acquire a company and turn it around very fast in a foreign country. We have made three acquisitions. We learnt with the first one and I think the second and third went exactly as per our plan. We have senior managers, operating in different fields. So our effort is, every time we acquire a company, the specialists go into each field and correct a situation."

Written for www.moneycontrol.com

Where first mover advantage counts

The big bad world of advertising is a cutthroat business at the best of times. To differentiate between the ad campaigms coming out of the various stables is easy, if creative juices have been in overdrive. No one can mistake an Airtel ad for Idea's, both being classy campaigns selling airtime (and handsets) to cellphone users.

The key is differentiation. How does one product stand out in a crowd of many identical or similar brands? Now some successful ad campaigns all seem to be making the same noises.

National Creative Director, Ambience Publicis, Pushpinder Singh agrees, "Yes. I guess what happens is whenever a particular campaign is successful and is successful for a certain kind of look, or a certain kind of feel to it, there is huge comfort that sets in, both at the agency's and at the client's end. I mean, if this is succeeded because it looked and felt this way, then it can work for my product too."

CEO of Paradigm Shift, Geeta Rao says, "I think we really got to step back and look at the fact that business will always respond to external trends. So it's a bit like the fashion industry, everyone will have a certain look and feel because currently that's fashionable. So some of the feel and look is actually coming out of the fact that this is the trend. Once black and white was a trend, the retro look was a trend."

"So people will use that but that doesn't necessarily mean that the ideas are also similar. So if execution is beckoning to be the idea, then yes, some of the executions have started to look very-very similar. External trends are one thing. The other thing that you have, is iconing brands which actually set up category norms."

"For example, skincare will have certain telegraphic norms that are the same and everyone uses them. Fair & Lovely has that six face visual and everyone else uses similar visuals just to communicate very quickly."

With execution looking similar, the only thing that makes a difference is the main idea or does it? Singh said, "It's the execution (which matters) of the idea, like you take Close-up for example, there it was that retro look that we gave it, which was the idea. We wanted to breakdown people's rational barrier to toothpastes' claims, and we set it in the Archie/Barbie doll kind of world. It worked and using that execution as an idea, a lot of advertisers followed suit. So I think increasingly, when the execution is the idea, we are seeing a lot of clones springing up."

These changes are the result of both advertisers getting slack and creatives getting lazy. Singh stresses, "I think it's a bit of both. Like I said, there is comfort, of precedence at the advertiser's end, there is also the lazy creative department." Rao adds, "I think some of it is laziness and some of it is a client's pressure. I see it happening all the time, where a client says that 'I need that kind of ad'. You know you define the kind of ad that you want. In the past, about five-years ago, everyone would say, give me an ad like MTV. Now that's not an idea. So I think pressures are coming from various places in terms of what you want your ad to look like."

This herd mentality is a product of the times, where success breeds clones, in the hope that some of that good luck will rub off on the other campaigns as well. Singh elaborates, "It's a little bit like bravery. Everyone appreciates bravery from a distance. When your called upon to be brave, you say 'hey that's foolhardiness'. So while a lot of people may be aware of the fact that their communication needs to cut clutter, when it comes to taking tough decisions for their own brands, a little bit of the comfort zone comes into the thinking."

"When we don't have creative directors who will stand up and say, I want to be counted on this one, a junior is much likely to come up and say okay I want to do an Amaron kind of ad, that was good. So, it's really creative leadership which counts, which says should we or should we not?"

Clones of well received advertisements are like a back-handed compliment. You have to admit that you have been bettered and you want some of that action as well. Singh said, "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, so yes, one does feel very flattered. But the more important point here is, the person or the advertiser who really reaps the benefit is the one, who has the first mover advantage. The one who was bold enough to experiment with something different in the first place."

Singh adds, "Personally I believe that if you try and replicate anything just because it was successful in the past, you are probably taking a bigger risk. The job of the creative person is to discover new ideas, new styles, new executions and one should keep doing that, and trying to fall back upon the old and the time-tested is really a recipe for the disaster."

With budgets and purse strings being in the hands of corporate marketing bigshots, there is always going to be pressure to do advertisments that were successful in the past and hope it gels with the audience, albeit in a slightly tweaked format. Says Rao, "There has been some kind of movement towards that (doing the same thing) but I think, everyone is trying to do their own bit, I think the whole industry is pulling in that (own bit) direction."

Written for www.moneycontrol.com

Matrubhoomi portrays a haunting reality

Matrubhoomi is not a film for the weak hearted. It's a hard hitting movie based on the subject of female infanticide, which gets regular coverage, even in this day and age in India. The movie is about a fictional village in Uttar Pradesh, where girl babies have been killed to such an extent that women have actually become extinct! One young girl is found and she's married off to five brothers.

This film is not graphic but the implications are obviously horrific. It brings to mind, scenes of gang rape and even more brutal violence inflicted on the few women who do survive in such a mileu. Matrubhoomi is based on a Unesco report that 35 million women have been killed or are unaccounted for in the past 100 years, in India.

This Rs 3 crore film has taken two years before it opened for viewing. It's set to be dubbed in five other languages - Bhojpuri, Tamil, Telugu, Gujarati and Bengali. The Gujarati and Telugu versions are expected to release soon. Each dubbed version has cost the producers Rs 50 lakhs.

Matrubhoomi has been directed by Cannes award winning director Manish Jha, who got finances for this film quite easily. Jha told CNBC-TV18, "I'm not making a film for the weak hearted, who don't want to face reality. Even reading the newspaper these days will make us aware of the things happening around us are so brutal. So, all I'm doing is mellowing it down and showing it visually. You won't see actual violence or nudity in the film because that would have taken it (the message) away. The film is going to be powerful or less powerful depending on the imagination of the audience."

Matrubhoomi has picked up four awards at International film festivals. In India, the movie is being distributed by Boney Kapoor's BSK Entertainment.

Producer Punkej Kharabanda said, Audiences have made up their mind about what they want to see and what they don't want to see. I've not seen a good movie being put down by the audience. The only thing that works is a good film. Going by the logic that people want escapism cinema, then this entire film will not do well in a multiplex because multiplexes also have their food courts, entertainment centres, shopping malls and audiences trying to take in everything together."

"On the other hand, we have the trade saying that multiplexes is the right place for this film. So I do not believe in any of these myths. The only thing I believe in, is that you can't put down good cinema and a good film."

Jha adds, "I could have made it a very unrealistic film - by making her stand against the whole village or by burning the whole village down and shooting everybody. People would have clapped at the end of the film but that would have been a very typical commercial masala film. But in a realistic scenario what would a woman do in this kind of situation where there are no women left and the men have gone crazy or are abnormal. So what are the ways that she can protect herself? That's why the movie ends with the entire village being destroyed with only the young girl, her baby and young boy left behind - it's like a new beginning for her."

With cinema like this, there is hope for more meaningful movies hitting the audience where it hurts - their conscience.

Written for www.moneycontrol.com

The case of Jaswant Singh and the jasoos (spy)

Jaswant Singh's book 'A Call to Honour' has raked up quite a storm because it claims that there was a mole in Prime Minister Narasimha Rao's government, who had leaked vital information about India's nuclear plans to the US government. The book goes on to say that when Jaswant Singh was a deputy leader of the BJP in the Lok Sabha in 1995, a letter was sent to him that was also sent to a US senator - furnishing details about India's intentions to carry out nuclear tests. Predictably, this created a furore, so much so that even the man whose book has already sold 20,000 copies because of this controversy, wishes he had never written the book!

As if to add fuel to fire, in an interview given to CNBC-TV18, Former Foreign Minister, Jaswant Singh said, "The government (of the day) was aware because elements of the government leaked the information - the government is not singular." Also in the same interview, he seemed to backtrack on things he had written in his book. He made a clarification that is not there in the book - that he got a note along with the letter in 1995, which contained the mole information and the letter itself was another matter altogether. He seemed to be moving onto more slippery ground than before, and this was proved later, when he couldn't name the mole and this has proved to be embarrasing for the BJP party.

Since his bold revelations, this issue has been a tussle between Singh and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who has gone on record saying that "if he has the courage or decency, he should name the person that he is accusing of being a mole." On his part, Jaswant Singh says he has sent word to the Prime Minister and his private secretary but hasn't heard from them and when he does, he will give them all the information he has got. He also adds that he hadn't revealed this information earlier because with the Second Pokhran test conducted in 1998, the purpose had been served.

He further explained, "Those were the years that dealt with CTBT. There were countries that were already testing weapons and the idea was to thwart India's CTBT programme and in this fashion I would actually be encouraging the discouragement of India's programme plus those who were responsible for decision-making were no longer in office."

Later in the week, Jaswant Singh told the members of Parliament that the letter had been sent to Harry Barnes who was the US ambassador to India between 1981-1985 but was never a Senator and anyway in 1995, when the letter was written, Harry Barnes was working with the Carter Centre. Former Director of the Intelligence Bureau, Arun Bhagat says because of this dilly dallying, the letter has lost credibility because the letter has not come from a serving diplomat but from an official who worked for a think-tank, which makes the authenticity of the document questionable. Jaswant Singh, in his defense, says he "obfuscated" the identity of the person to whom the letter was sent "to protect the identity of the Indian official." In the same breath, Singh had also said he did not know who the official was - so essentially, he was trying to protect the identity of someone, whom he didn't know to begin with!

As if these twists and turns were not enough, Jaswant Singh later told Parliament that the letter was written by a member of the Rockefeller Foundation, Thomas W. Graham. Former foreign secretary and ambassador to the United States, Lalit Mansingh said, "I find the letter credible but obviously when the content is of such a highly sensitive nature, it's likely that the person who provided the information will like to conceal the identities and the person who received the information would have an equal interest in not revealing the sources."

Former Cabinet Secretary, Surendra Singh also feels that from November 1995 to May 1996, when the Narasimha government finished its term - Jaswant Singh had ample time to reveal this information. So, was there more damage done because Jaswant Singh chose not to bring this information to anyone's notice then? Did he end up protecting the diplomat as well as the mole - however unintentionally? Mansingh explained, "It's not a case of high level espionage but high level diplomacy. It is customary for people in high positions to have discussions with foreign representatives. Informally, soundings are made but I'm not sure if this particularly gentleman did not have the Prime Minister's authorisation."

Bhagat suggests that Jaswant Singh may also have been naive and must have not understood the repercussions of this issue back then and also he certainly did not have expect such intense scrutiny and grilling, when he finally revealed the information, which is why he doesn't seem to have many credible explanations!

Is it any reason why this case has begun to be called 'Jaswant Singh and the Jasoos'! But as a final word, Surendra Singh said that Jaswant Singh should have kept the government informed, so any action against the foreign diplomat could have been taken. Who knows, maybe the spy could have been smoked out as well.

Written for www.moneycontrol.com

Coffee with your banker anyone?

Retail banks have shifted from trying to win over more corporate entities to borrow from them, to the aam aadmi - ie. the public, who saves and spends and generally keeps the global economy in motion. In order to make banking convenient to millions of Indians, there is internet banking, banking via your mobile phone or doorstep banking. Banks have suddenly become accessible and convenient like never before. So where is retail banking headed five years from now?

Are banks thinking of going to the street as it were, are they going to the grocer, the butcher, the fruit seller or are they just sticking with people like you and me. Vice President of Citibank India, Sharad Mohan told CNBC-TV18, "The reason why we are able to extend our customer base to the outside reaches of the cities or go to newer cities, is because we have distributed technology and infrastructure. So in a conventional scenario, if we had a just a few branches and if we sourced people from around those bank branches, then we would be concentrated in only those areas."

"The very fact that phone banking, internet, mobile are verbal, we are able to reach out to a larger section of the population, who are not closer to the branches per se."

But the perception still persists that the top end banks are not really trying to get the layman. Vice President, Head of Direct Banking Channels, Rahul Bhagat from HDFC Bank disagrees and says, "We have about 600 plus branches and 55% of our branches are outside the top 9 metros. As we got out and extended our reach into the non-metros, it's not that we are going and opening branches that are any different from the ones that you have in South Mumbai or that the service support available to them is any different from a tier 1 city. So clearly there is an opportunity there and a need for banks like ours."

On the other hand, PSU banks will be able to attest to the fact that reaching out to a rural audience is a low margins game. Director of financial services, IBM, Swaroop Choudhary explains, "There is a change taking place. A lot of PSU banks are moving from being a wholesale banker to a retail banker and branding is becoming important -whether it's a icon or the right colour combination. So there is the consciousness. In terms of reach, the private sector and foreign banks have the advantage of technology and they are able to use technology to capture the urban market."

"The PSU banks need to get their act right - in terms of integrating technology and having a common customer view. So, if they do extend out, then they have established franchises which are stronger because of customer relationships. So, if they don't do that early enough, the danger is that private sector banks/foreign banks will go in and take away your customer."

Country head of Yes Bank, Ravishankar agrees, "Yeah, there are opportunities on both sides of the city, whether you are going into cities or going into metros. The point is that the rural areas have been taken by PSU banks. They didn't take in technology but they were there first. But at the end of the day, you have to have a strategy which is clearly segmented for the urban and rural population. So, if we are doing the rural side, then we'll have a customised rural strategy - a strategy which understands the rural requirement. The service strategy is going to define who comes and banks with you."

Now are banks able to see themselves as experts imparting mere advice or are they seeing themselves as services providers? Mohan says that Citibank always has a good record of service but that customer expectations have risen. Earlier, when snail mails were cool, one could write in to a bank and wait for days for a reply but now, in the e-mail era, replies have to be in inboxes in an hour or less.

He elaborates, "Our call centres have service standards in terms of how many rings you have to pick the call in, what's the time you have to talk to the customer, whether you can put the customer on hold or not. If an e-mail reaches the bank, it has to answered in two hours, if a letter reaches the bank, it has to be answered within 24 hours."

Bhagat adds, "There is a service standard and turnaround time for everything. It's a wonderful position to be a customer in today's world because it's really a customer dominated world. There is an expectation and you've got to live up to that expectation."

Since technology has changed the face of so many industries in such key ways, will it help in keeping the databases clean, as in, will the banks be able to weed out a troublesome customer who doesn't have the proper paperwork done or is falsely opening many accounts to park money in or to obtain loans?

Choudhary says, "A aggregation of the data and know your customer, KYC, norms as suggested by RBI could help. With technology, you can extract commonalities from structured and unstructured data. There are packages which are designed for anti-money laundering which will give that protection."

But he feels PSU banks need a culture change because now they can't take it for granted that people will continue to bank with them. But if they decide to really compete with private banks, then they have the privilege of not investing but still providing the service. All they would have to do is outsource service to call centres, with the expertise to do it.

All service industries need to figure out their customers comfort zone. if a call centre's automated process intimidates a customer, then give him/her a voice to talk to immediately. Similarly, having a not-so tech savvy person negotiate through what is a technological minefield, with multiple ID numbers to use, then he should be given one PIN number to check out his account details.

Another important thing is that retailers need to emulate retail stores, in the way that the stores are able to attract customers. So PSU banks may need to look at redesigning the branches, which is very much in-line with old world British and European banks, which had needed to transform, in keeping with the times. So branches are here to stay but the way they provide service will keep evolving.

Service may eventually include giving people advice about their portfolio, especially when they see cheques going out regularly from their customer's account towards a particular pension policy or insurance policy, which they know is not the right thing for the person. So, they could be just politely educated about better alternatives.

As Choudhary says that, at the Chase Manhattan Bank in midtown Manhattan, the bankers actually go to restaurants or a Starbucks with their customers and serve them coffee and over coffee, a great business relationship could develop. That's how retail banking in India is going to look like in the future - service with a smile. If it's over a cup of piping hot java, then all the better!

Written for www.moneycontrol.com

Banking on a former fighter jet pilot

He knows what it feels like to be in the superfast lane because he’s trained at the National Defence Academy to fly airforce jets. From the sky to come down to terra firma Abhay Aima, Country Head of Equities at HDFC Bank made the transition pretty smoothly. He smoothly put across his capability to handle an aircraft, with the responsibility being his alone and if he could do that, he could certainly take care of banking!

He admits he told Jerry Rao this, when he was looking to hire people to work at Citibank. Abhay says that convincing Jerry to give him a job was important because even in then, people with MBA degrees were preferred and he just had an arts degree from Jawaharlal Nehru University, JNU, and ofcourse his NDA experience.

He recalled, "What I asked Jerry was who is more conservative - the government of India or you? He said well it is the government of India, we are an American organisation. Now, in the airforce, you actually sign off for the aircraft and technically not even the Chief of Air Staff can tell you what to do because you are in command and that's the example I gave him."

"I said I went solo after 11 hours and the government of India entrusted me the property of a multimillion dollar aircraft. So after three-months of training in banking you should be, if you are not as conservative as them, you should be able to entrust me with banking."

After Citibank, he joined an organization that had just been started by Pradip Shah, Crisil. He explained, "I thought, if I can do that, which is the highest form of analysis, then I don't think people should ever raise the question as to if I need a management degree?"

But Citibank called him back and he did go back. He candidly admits that his knowledge of Dalal Street was not up to par and he didn’t know how to read balancesheets. He did have to lend money against stocks, so he thought he needed to bone up on this.

He elaborated, "I guess I learnt from people, I think I was the first banker who actually used to go and visit people in the stock exchange and asked them do you want a loan. In those days, it wasn't the done thing, I mean a loan was a very coveted kind of thing."

"While its got to do with fundamentals and financials, I think investing has also got to do with basic common sense. I think it's got to do with human psychology. I think it has got to do with understanding the environment because anything that you are discounting in the future - by definition you can't have a hard and fast rule."

"So there is no academic qualifications that can really make you smart (about stocks), otherwise all scientists or analysts in the world would have been brilliant stock pickers.” At Citibank, he worked in the portfolio management, PM, division, where a part was allocated to equities. After the PM division was stopped, he moved to work for the Ruias briefly. They were staring a company called Insec and there was supposed to be a tie-up with an international organisation, which didn't happen."

"Since that didn't work out, there were various options, HDFC Bank had just started and the comfort level was pretty high in HDFC bank because most of the people that were there, I had at some time or the other, worked with in Citibank."

In 1995, HDFC Bank "recruited me and I think the position came later on. I didn't even have a cabin - it was a shot in the dark - we had a tie-up with a British bank and we thought of floating an AMC, doing private banking etc. There were various options and that's where I started off."

His job at HDFC Bank was a vague in the beginning. He said, "NatWest Bank was the bank in London and we worked with them to try to set-up this division but there was a proprietary desk which was a small piece of HDFC Bank, which I was to look at. I, at that point started developing, probably for the first time in India, the concept of advisory wealth management or private banking."

He said it’s easy to learn about numbers if you have the head for it but "the most important area was understanding the human behaviour or the psychology behind how people operated in the market." At HDFC Bank, he looks after the proprietary desk, which is a small part of the business. He also looks after third party distribution, ie. distributing all non-banking products - insurance, mutual funds etc. Then there is the private banking or wealth management department, which he has to manage.

Learning from his own experience, he now gives everyone a chance to prove themselves and not just the people with MBA degrees. He explained, "What I look for is, as a human being, how is he? What is his way of thinking? How will he deal with simple things in life? I believe, if you do simple things to perfection, brilliance will come on its own. But if you are brilliant and don't do the basics properly, then that brilliance is of very little use."

His job at HDFC Bank was a vague in the beginning. He said, "NatWest Bank was the bank in London and we worked with them to try to set-up this division but there was a proprietary desk which was a small piece of HDFC Bank, which I was to look at. I, at that point started developing, probably for the first time in India, the concept of advisory wealth management or private banking."

He said it’s easy to learn about numbers if you have the head for it but "the most important area was understanding the human behaviour or the psychology behind how people operated in the market." At HDFC Bank, he looks after the proprietary desk, which is a small part of the business. He also looks after third party distribution, ie. distributing all non-banking products - insurance, mutual funds etc. Then there is the private banking or wealth management department, which he has to manage.

When he’s eyeing a stock, he first looks at management and then the financials. He elaborated, "The bigger thing would be how has the management behaved over a period of time, what is their commitment? What is their shareholding? How have they done when the times have been bad?"

"Fortunately, even the newer IPOs that are coming up, have a track record as to what they have done. It's not totally greenfield, so you have a fair idea of what is happening. You have a fair idea of who the promoters are. He explained how Infosys caught his eye. "You know when the Infosys issue evolved, I remember going through the prospectus, it was sent to me by a merchant banker and I didn't know ABC of technology."

"I went through the prospectus, there was one column which was there and which said, Rs 80 lakhs allocated to employee housing. Now I said, if this is a people-based industry and the major part of this portion is allocating to housing, that was the one paragraph that made me decide that this is something that one should buy."

Abhay’s strong points remain being able to gauge the management and the way they come across in interviews and press conferences, when talking about their companies. If their body language showed confidence, then he would be inspired to look at their shares.

Has this method ever failed him? He said, "Only 20% of the time. So I have been lucky in that way. There were times, where I was totally convinced that this fellow is speaking from bottom of his heart and I realized a few years later that, that is not the case. But, I am still sticking to the theory, as long as it is in the 20:80 ratio."

On the wealth advisory services that HDFC Bank offers, there is no fixed formula. He explained, "It depends from person to person. In fact what I tell my people is that don't think you are wiz kids, who can generate higher than normal returns. If the market falls, rest assured that returns won't be high."

"But we emphasise on the fact that our job is to see he sleeps properly. If you can achieve that understanding – ie. not necessarily increasing his returns but the fact that if I can, my client can sleep more peacefully because of what I have structured for him. I think I would be successful."

He added, "What people fail to understand is, that the wealthiest of people, the best players in the stock market also have a psychological need somewhere, for which they may take a decision which is not necessarily based on pure return. I don't think life is based on pure bottomline and how much returns you generate. I think there is more to life than that."

"When people used to ask me, 'what is your idea of being rich?' My idea of being rich is when I don't have to work for money and that means that you have certain needs which need to be taken care of and after that I believe that there is something called colour of money. Money changes from time-to-time, so you can't have the same perspective on money throughout your life."

Keeping this in mind, Abhay is working towards his own goal of retiring young and vacationing three months in Goa and three months in Manali!

Written for www.moneycontrol.com

Poised between overachieving and collapsing

Human resources, if tapped correctly will ensure the success of an organisation. It is employees who make or mar the fate of any workplace and what will make them go an extra mile to give their best? How do employers keep things going and harness talent? Employers can be more attuned to the capabilities of those they employ and spot the things that are done well or with skill. After all talent counts the most.

Former cricketer, Javagal Srinath defines talent as "the expertise in one functional area of your profession", whatever that may be. This means that merely being good at academics or theoretical models will not help but working at developing one's skills matters.

CEO of Sony Entertainment Television, Kunal Dasgupta told CNBC-TV18 that a Gallup had come out with a study that defines around 30 different talents that an individual possesses. He said, "It's up to us (employers) to see that any particular job that somebody takes up, must have a list of talents that fit that kind of a job. So when we look for a person, we look at not only at the academic qualifications but also which of those talents suit this job."

Among a number of skills one may have, one or two may surface as being the person's core competence and these skills more than others need to be realised. Srinath agreed and says, "core competition is a potential to be realised. It's a future projection of what you can be for the company or for the team. At the very first stage, what you get to see is raw potential and how it metamorphosis, that's what you got to see."

Dasgupta also attributes leadership as one of the 30 talents listed in the Gallup study. He said, "There's a lot of research gone into talent. A lot of people believe that talent is inside you and that by the time your 16 years old, all your talents have already come in. Nothing changes after that. After that, it's all education, knowledge, skill, training and how you develop that. But biological research shows that by the age of 16, all your talents have been hardwired. So, basically you have to understand it that early, what your talents are."

Srinath agreed but said, when it comes to sports, one needed a "sporting talent", while in the corporate world, it is academic qualifications - something which is more tangible - that is required. Ultimately, it's up to the board, CEO or the leader to spot talent. Dasgupta said, "It's absolutely essential for success because this is a very competitive world. Your basically as good as your last hit. If your last year was great that's fine but going forward, you have to continue to perform."

To constantly get the desired top results, the team needs to be nurtured. For instance, in cricket, if a player has been sidelined, then the system, which includes the BCCI and the seniors should make sure that he's allowed to come in again quickly. The right cushion and atmosphere must be provided.

Meanwhile, in the business world, a person needs to have "promise and the ability to deliver." Here the talented people have to be able to deliver on what they have promised and this needs to be monitored, whether it's hapenning or not. As Dasgupta explained, "If it's not happening, then we need to assess if it's because of external factors or that person's weaknesses. If it's internal factors, then you try to correct and help that person along. But if you find that the person is not meeting up to the potential, then you need to look for replacements, consider counselling and finally just move on."

Talent can be a much hyped quality when the focus is on one aspect, with a variety of skills not being developed, it does not necessarily ensure a long and successful career. Srinath elaborated and said that Brett Lee and Shoiab Akhtar are hugely talented but have focussed on pace bowling, which is not the only thing in cricket. While Irfan Pathan can play "so well both ways and has logevity in cricket for the next 15 years."

Dasgupta agreed, "I've had people who have burnt out. I've had people who've overachieved and then collapsed completely. You have to look at each case and understand why that's happening. Also, there is a factor on which I put an important note on and that is the external factor of politics on the person. Because when people work in teams, there is an element of likes and dislikes that starts coming up, where one person may be isolated with the others ganging up against him."

This leads to an organisation losing talented people unless the leaders or seniors mentor the younger people. The top people need to make sure that they leave behind a good pool of talent to take care of the team or the organisation. The next leader should be able to rise up to the challenges of the next generation - be it in technology or otherwise.

Dasgupta elaborated, "If a CEO has a lifespan of say, 10 years, in the first five years, your looking at consolidating your position. Your also keeping an eye out for such a person. If you do find such a person, may be 2 or 3 rungs below, you start moving that person but not just one, because you can't start moving one person but 3 or 4 people up the ladder and bring them close to your position. Then in the last two years, you have to decide that this person is going to be the person (to take over the top job.) That's when you give more importance, more roles and also signal to the organisation, so that the transition is smooth."

Written for www.moneycontrol.com

How to make aggression work like a charm

Competition is everywhere and getting ahead of rivals is the key to staying afloat. Corporates have to look at their bottomlines and think of strategies that will help them outsmart their peers. Sometimes, even pure aggression helps along with a will to excel. In the world of sports, where a player is good only as long as his/her last win and have to stay in great form during their peak years, aggression can lead them straight to the top.

Acknowledging this, former cricketer Javagal Srinath told CNBC-TV18 he saw two types of aggression - attitudinal aggression and physical aggression.

He said one is obviously, all about attitude and is an innate quality and how it gets manifested in the workplace or on the sports field is up to the individual. As he puts it, "It could be through resoluteness, it could be strong qualities hidden in you or a commitment to the game. While physical aggression is an outcome of anger and frustration."

RK Krishnakumar, who is Vice Chairman of Tata Tea and Indian Hotels Company and is also on the board of Tata Sons agreed and said, "Aggression is the foundation for business but need not be physically expressed always. In the case of business, aggression means swift global growth and protecting your bottomline as well and that means learning from the Art of War and therefore aggression is an essential ingredient of business."

He elaborated, "Globally, Jack Welch of General Electrics, GE, was aggressive. He transformed that company to being the most admired company besides being the largest in terms of revenue and profitability. That's a little more physical manifestation of growth. There is a genteel form of aggression as well, which transforms companies and catapults them to global leadership and which also does some fantastic transformation within the companies and (does) all of this based on a strong foundation of ethics. The name that comes to my mind is Ratan Tata."

In reality, aggression is not only about cowing down competitors and acquiring them but also about building one's own brands. Krishnakumar said, "It's combination of both - building your own brands and acquiring more brands to become a global player to acquire size and scale."

Corporate CEOs or cricket captains - both have to pull their teams towards the bigger goal. But moulding the team or the organisation into a cohesive fighting force is another of the head's chief responsibilities. Srinath explained that Saurav Ganguly is an aggressive captain and is good at "picking the team, persisting on the youngters and giving them a chance."

Krishnakumar elaborated, "I think it's important that the leader has the vision to drive the business aggressively. But it can't be successful unless its cascaded down into the organisation itself. That passion has to be shared by everybody in the organisation if you want to move the organisation forward." Srinath agreed, "It can be an individual thing, which could blossom into a team thing. You can train an individual to be more aggressive. I pick Virendra Sehwag as an example. He not only shows the responsibility but at the same time endorses the responsibility. He says 'yes I want to do my best in the first 15 overs'. Now getting engaged with that risky situation - the first 15 overs - and then talking positively about it, is what is aggression."

Srinath points out two other players who demonstrate different types of aggression on the field. One is Glenn McGrath who personifies subtle aggression and the other is Shoiab Akhtar who displays the physical form of aggression.

Managing aggression well and in a productive manner is the what leaders have to do. Krishnakumar agreed, "Managing aggression is one of the principal tasks of HR management. But in sports, the duration of that challenge is shortlived whereas in business you have a much longer timespan. You need different qualities in business. You need to supplement those qualities to achieve your goal."

He added, "You need to be able to endure in the game for a long period - sometimes a decade. Business cycles are getting shorter and shorter, so a very key requirement of business would be, where aggression is expressed as innovation." Some aggressive peddling of your brand is what Reliance is good at, while some other companies chose to do it in a more subtle manner. Both the routes lead to the same end result. As Krishnakumar puts it, "The end determines success. How enduring is that journey. How do you achieve global leadership? That's really the test and that only time will tell."

It's true that only time will be witness to whether Infosys - a newer company with bigger market capitalisation and a more aggressive company will outpace Tata Consultancy Services, TCS, which has been around longer.

Krishnakumar elaborated, "TCS has been there for longer years. It's been the first company to establish software in India but it's a division of the holding company - Tata Sons - so its fortunes have not been really visible until it went into IPO mode last year. Now you can benchmark TCS against anybody. In terms of the quality of profits or the size of the revenues, it's probably going to cross $2 billion. Some of these things have been subterranean and not fully out in the open. Now in the case of TCS, its out in the open. So, you need to come to a decision as to the comparable figures."

He added, "Aggression is a necessary condition for success but not sufficient."

Written for www.moneycontrol.com

Reshuffle raises doubts of US interference

The Cabinet reshuffle has happened with new inductees being polticians from Maharashtra like Murli Deora and Sushilkumar Shinde. But the word out is that it looks like a half hearted attempt to retain the older politicians despite their lacklustre performance and keep out the the younger fresh blood, who have proven themselves.

This reshuffle has been called "unedifying and uninspiring" by newspapers, among other things. But what suspicions have arisen is that the US is calling the shots and our foreign policy may as well be dictated to us by them. So is this is a fallacy or a genuine concern?

Political columnist of the Indian Express, Neerja Choudhary says that when Mani Shankar Aiyar got the petroleum ministry along with Panchayati Raj, it was then understood that he was sort of keeping the chair warm for the right person to come along, who now happens to be Murli Deora.

So as Choudhary told CNBC-TV18, "There is a certain perception that he's gone because he did not please certain powers and Murli Deora has come in because he's corporate-friendly, US-friendly and anti-Sharad Pawar etc. There are a variety of reasons, why he (Deora) was chosen."

The feeling is that Deora would be able to assuage hurt US sentiments, if any and polish egos up, if needed, because of his better rapport with Washington. Everyone agrees with Choudhary's perceptions, that Aiyar was going about securing India's energy needs and that it created a conflict.

Editor-in-Chief of the The Hindu, N Ram explains, "The prime minister's office, PMO, has made no secret of the fact that this came into conflict with whatever the prime minister wanted to do and I think, the prime minister is in a foreign policy trap, with the US dictating many of the terms on key issues. I have no doubt about it. This is not a conspiracy theory, the evidence is pretty clear."

Editor-in-Chief of Outlook magazine, Vinod Mehta has a middle-of-the-road viewpoint on all this. He says, "There was always going to be the politics of oil and this (Iran) pipeline will be embroiled in big power politics." He does feel though, that this reshuffle has done nothing - either elevated or damaged the prime minister's stature, image or position.

Well, if these concerns are valid, then short of invading India, the United States did the next best thing - direct foreign policy, in a not so subtle manner.

Note: The Cabinet reshuffle happened in January 2006.

Written for www.moneycontrol.com

Who comes first: brand or star?

The mother of all games in India is cricket. The game as well as its players are well known and by extension the brands that support the game too have become household names - Samsung, LG, Pepsi - and with many more adding to this brimming basket. What was a British legacy has now become a national mania. Former cricketer, Javagal Srinath attributes this to the "television revolution in 1983 as well as the Indian team winning the World Cup. So both culminated into a real explosion of cricket in India."

Chairman, SKA Advisors, Sunil K Alagh begs to differ. He said, "I don't think cricket is a brand. Cricket is a commodity. I mean it's the people in it who are the brands." Even though, cricket's associations with brands can be a little indirect, as is the case with the MRF Pace Foundation. Here MRF is brand, which has setup a foundation to train future generations of cricketers. In an ironic situation here, the players coming out of this Foundation are products of a brand!

But brands associate with big names and well known faces. The bigger the brand, the more well known the face is likely to be. Sachin Tendulkar is one of cricket's best names and an product that he lends his identity to gets instant recognition. The converse truth applies as well - that Sachin Tendulkar is synonymous with cricket - both the game and the person could easily be marketed as a brand or commodity. The areas of distinction overlap considerably.

Srinath said, "I think it is the game which really decides, the spectators decide on the nature of the game. Now it's not the guys with charisma who really make the difference, I think it's the nature of the game, the quality of the game which produces a lot of top class players. So I would probably beg to differ to say that yes they bring some sort of value, no doubt about it. But I think the intensity of the game definitely brings the crowds to the stadium."

On the other hand, had Sachin Tendulkar been a hockey player, he might have not had it so good in India, where cricket gets major brand endorsements and more media coverage than any other sport. Alagh said, "At one stage it was all hockey, and cricket was not as prominent as it is today." But hockey can get there and become a recognisable and more importantly, a saleable commodity, if there is a will to push it as well and as much as cricket. All this, ofcourse, ties up neatly if a player is also a consistent and keen performer.

Alagh reiterates, "It (hockey's success) won't happen overnight. You need to begin first by branding them. In India, unfortunately you will have to begin by branding them in the names of companies. If you take the Premium League in UK, they have got Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool. So whoever stays in Liverpool, they pay their fee, the club becomes rich, they are able to attract players and they play the game."

Keeping that in mind, the latest experiment in Indian hockey has been a bold move. They have got regional teams battling it out at the Premier Hockey League. But Alagh suggests, "At this stage of the game, what went wrong was to call the teams 'Hyderabad Blues' or 'Chennai Blues' because they have gone one step ahead, which does not bring in funding.

"So the way I would do it is, maybe pick up Pepsi or Coke or xyz companies initially, so you get a base for finance, then you start seeing how much money starts flowing in - in terms of players, in trying to get viewers, in getting television rights and then move on to calling teams 'Hyderabad Warrior' or 'Sher-e-Punjab' or whatever. That's how I would do this." Also picking up sportspeople who have the glamour quotient helps.

Good looks will lure brands and so will intelligent marketing. How you market a sport matters, for depending on those objectives, a cricket match or a football game can be plugged. Alagh explained, "You can be in cricket, you can be in football and you can be a purist, in which case you are doing it for yourself. Perhaps, you are doing it for your country, which is fine. Once you say that's my objective, the whole system of marketing such an event becomes very different. If you say no, my job is to make the sport popular, to bring crowds into the stadium and to generate funds, then you have to go down to the average viewer and ask him what does he want."

The flip side is that the very brands that sports stars endorse could be flawed. Worms in Cadburys bars, pesticide in Coke being two obvious examples. Here the responsibility lies with the brands to acknowledge the flaws and not attempt to cover it up. Sports people only bring in emotional value that can be attached to those brands, especially in the minds of the cricket-loving public.

Pegging brands to their performance may not always be a good idea. Alagh told CNBC-TV18 why it's a bad idea, "What happens is that when the consumer watches a bad performance, you are affecting your brand. So try and build on the image of the player so it doesn't matter whether he scores a duck in one inning or he scores hundred in another inning, it doesn't have a direct repercussion to your brand immediately."

Brand building has its own pitfalls. Young and new players can be hyped up way too much and then they face the enormous expectation of the public. If they are just average Joes, then both the player and the brand could be in trouble. But if done adroitly, the correct impression can be planted in people's minds.

Srinath agrees, "The right platform has to be created for launching a new player. I think the World Cup is probably the most ideal platform for any cricket team to launch a new player. I can recall the example of Inzamam-ul-Haq in the 1992 World Cup. He was unheard of and straight from district cricket and Imran Khan said that I am introducing a new cricketer into the world of cricket - Inzamam-ul-Haq and he is as good as Sachin."

"Now that positioning of Inzamam-ul-Haq in the minds of other teams was so well done by Imran Khan, because he compared Inzamam-ul-Haq with Sachin. So the whole cricketing world, stood up to look at who is this Inzamam-ul-Haq and what he is all about? An instant brand building was done."

Written for www.moneycontrol.com

Little children go hungry in India

India is on the go to achieve greater heights but in the rush to get there, are we leaving our younger and defenceless citizens behind? A report suggests that our under 6 year olds are malnourished, stunted and usually not immunised against dieseases. In fact, their plight may be worse that expected. India has the highest rate of malnourished children, India also has the dubious record of having the highest number of children who are sexually abused and the highest rate of child labour. As usual, India seems to score the highest in the worst possible denominations.

The recent National Family Health Survey shows that 79% are anaemic, 46% are undernourished and 27% are stunted. Economist and Right to Food activist, Jean Dreze told CNBC-TV18, "These figures are embarrassing in several ways. Firstly, they confirm that the levels of child malnutrition in India is the highest in the world, which was also known for quite sometime. What is perhaps more embarrassing is that according to the same survey, there has been no improvement in child nutrition in the last eight years, despite runaway economic growth - this is truly alarming and should be a matter of national debate."

"I think it's also embarrassing that it has eight years for us to know this. I mean, why has it taken eight years for a survey to note this and why have such important facts and figures have not yet been officially released."

A UN report called 'Progress for Children' shows that the percentage of malnourished in India is almost twice that of sub-Sahara Africa, three times that of Thailand, six times that of China and is shockingly, is worse that Afghanistan! Supreme Court Commissioner on the Right to Food, NC Saxena admits this is an embarrassment, especially since the economy has grown by 8% every year and malnutrition has gone down by just 1% in that time period.

Executive Director of Haq, Meenakshi Ganguly says that this reflects the poliical will towards our children. She says, "When we were looking at the number of questions raised on children in Parliament, we found only an average of 3% of questions were raised on any issue by legislators - so that's the interest they have in our children."

In India, the worst offender against children is the state of Uttar Pradesh. Here are some figures - 52% of children under 3 years are undernourished and 28% of the deaths of children nationwide, happen in this state. Food meant for children is given to cattle. This kind of situation continues because of the lack of political will and as CEO of Child Rights and You, CRY, Ingrid Srinath puts it, "it reflects on our failure collectively. We've failed to make it important for our politicians to address the needs of our children."

NC Saxena feels that malnourishment have been targeted well by some states like Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Maharashtra while many other states have fallen behind. But he feels the target audience should be children between 1-3 years, the programmes should be taken to remote tribal villages and Dalit bastis and health and sanitation should also be looked at holistically - only, then can the Integrated Child Development Scheme or ICDS be considered successful.

The Supreme Court has ordered the government to roll out 14 lakh aanganwadis (day care centres) by 2008 - so they have been given 2 more years to universalise the ICDS scheme. Saxena's says, "I won't say the government has ignored the order - in fact, ICDS centres have expanded from 5.5 lakhs to 11 lakhs - so the government has tried to increase the number - but these centres have not become operational, which is why it is the state government's fault. The procedures are very long and the government has not tried to simplify the procedures."

He adds, "You have to make budgetary provisions through Parliament, through the assemblies and then recruit and all other kinds of formalities need to be completed."

Tamil Nadu is a state, which has a 75 year old social history that has empowered rural and local governments, feel Srinath, and therefore, they have been able to overlook factors like caste, class, gender and provide their children with adequate food, while in Uttar Pradesh, this is not the case. Ganguly agrees and says that, politicians have to be made accountable for this major problem, and they have gotten away because they have not been held accountable systematically.

Dreze also suggests that the government looks at spending on children's health and well being as a form of investment for the future. He also feels that just because they don't have the right to vote, they can't be politically marginalised, as they are going to be the citizens of tomorrow.

Written for www.moneycontrol.com

How to motivate people

Ace bowler Javagal Srinath has scorched the cricket fields and now brings some of the on-field expertise to highlight business strategies with Managing Director, Centurion Bank, Shailendra Bhandari. Both of them talk to CNBC-TV18 in a freewheeling interview, where they banter and field their opinions on how to get people motivated into giving their best.

Srinath speaks on what it takes to succeed and where it takes and how it is really the inner self which has to persevere and emerge triumphant against all odds. He says, it is the basis of success in all fields and for all kind of sports.

Srinath elaborates, "It's extremely important. Motivation is the foundation for any sport or for any profession. But somehow or the other, we have failed to really define motivation. You can see motivated people, you can see people who are not really motivated but somehow or the other we have failed to define what exactly motivation is all about?"

He does emphasise that it's people who "seek challenges and who persist in the face of diversities, adversities, as well as in periods of duress and somebody who is consistent, who is always keen to learn and somebody who has performed for a period of a time. These are the signs that you see, from a highly motivated character."

But Bhandari has a slightly different opinion of what is motivation and how it can be harnessed to make employees more enthusiastic about their work and their office environment. He says, "I personally think that motivation starts off with a commonality of a goals because you as an employee are motivated, but you could be motivated just to get a big bonus. So the important thing is that your goal has to be the same as the corporate."

"Now once those two come together and once you recognise what your doing and you see the rewards coming in, the two starts happening. To me, the final part of it is when an employee, who is in sync with the corporate's goals, he is motivated. He is excited by what he is doing. But to me the final part is, when he identifies with the organization."

Where Srinath and Bhandari differ is on who should be targeted for a serious dose of motivating. Srinath firmly feels that you can motivate yourself to greater personal success. But Mr Bhandari feels motivating the team at large, for the good of an organisation is how it should be done.

Bhandari says, "Motivation is again individualistic on the first level and then it goes on to collective consciousness and collective motivation. It's all the more important, for you to be motivated on an individual basis. Once you are motivated own your own or even 4-5 people who are extremely motivated, will make things fall into place and probably from a distance, you can see that the team is motivated."

He adds, "NR Narayan Murthy is, in some ways, is a great example. Because as a person, he is not that charismatic, say like Steve Jobs, who is the head of Apple. I mean he (Steve Jobs) is charismatic but their personalities are different. NR Narayan Murthy comes across as a tremendous intellect, a man who is driven to create something."

On the Indian cricket team and of his former colleagues, Srinath says, "Anil Kumble is a highly motivated individual. He is somebody who is extremely resolute. And number two is Sachin Tendulkar. He has been going on and on and on and he has had a lot of injuries, which he has carried along with him, but in spite of it, I think, he has a burning desire to continue playing cricket for some more time."

Despite setbacks, to learn from failure is important. Bhandari says, "I think it's (to cope with failure) essential, I presume similar to cricket, where you can be in form and out of form. Business does go through cycles and very often you can also just have bad luck. For instance, recently you have seen the tsunami occur, and if you happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, your business could take a beating. So I think a leader has to have the ability to actually withstand failure, which may or may not happen to you, to learn from it and to build from it."

Many times, though, timely criticism has saved a situation from deteriorating and encouragement has got superb results from people, and the same goes for players, be it in the corporate boardroom or the playing field.

Srinath agrees, "I think when a guy enters international cricket, his career is in a very infant stage, that's the time he requires all sorts of support from the social environment. That could be from parents, coaches, or the media. They are all external motivators. They write few lines about it, you feel good about it and if they write bad lines about you then you are dejected and you are de-motivated. So that's the reason why intrinsic motivation is extremely important. There should be pride, prestige and belief in what you are trying to do."

Bhandari reiterates saying that money is not always the sole motivation driving people's ambitions. He says, "It goes without saying, that if someone is going to actually try to create long-term value for the company, he has to see long-term value for himself. He has to identify with the company."

In the international scenario, where a corporation can have offices abroad and where people can be from various backgrounds, motivating each employee individually may not be possible. He says, "It is going to become more process driven and less personal. It will be much more goal driven, much more performance appraisal driven. There will be matrix organizations. You will probably have a geographical boss, you will have a matrix boss. So there are ways to handle it, but you can't do it on a personality basis. That won't work very well."

In cricket, Srinath says, "The coach and captain play an extremely important role in the player's career. I think Saurav's perseverance on the young wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel is good and I think the best thing about Saurav's captaincy, is his faith in Harbhajan Singh and Yuvraj Singh. Although Yuvraj has proved himself and sometimes he has not, but Harbhajan Singh has delivered. So that's the reason why the combination of Harbhajan Singh and Saurav Ganguly always does well for the team."

The former cricketer adds, "External forces are motivating you is a perishable one. It can't really last long, you got to stand on your own legs. As soon as you finish college, I think you got to stand on your own legs, you can't be expecting somebody else to help you out. I think they will probably be of some use to you but I mean, you can't be expecting to get motivated by what they do or what they don't do."

Bhandari has some parting advice for those looking for some motivating mantra. He says, "Obviously look for personal gain, in the sense that you will look for money, you will look for happiness, but I would say that early in life, identify a team with whom you feel you can belong. And once you do that, that belongingness, the feeling of ownership will foster its own motivation. Make sure that it's a team, which gives you enough wealth etc, so that doesn't fall by the way side. But once you feel that you belong to such a team, you are going to feel truly driven."

Written for www.moneycontrol.com

Lost innocence

The government has recently banned children below the age of 14 from working in the hospitality industry and as domestic help. But, as early as 2001, a constitutional amendment passed guaranteeing education to all children under 14 is yet to be implemented. But Raj Mangal Prasad, who is Vice President of the NGO Pratidhi called this a cosmetic step.

He explains why he said this because he felt that steps needed to be taken to improve the infrastructure, education prospects for these children as well as provide their parents with an alternative source of income. He feels the ban should have been the final step and not the first one and so late in the day.

On the other hand, International Labour Organisation, ILO, Director Leyla Tegmo-Reddy says that this is a positive first step and that registration and monitoring will come as a natural corollary to this ban. She says that on the question of rehabilitating these kids, there is the "Child Labour Project in 250 districts (in addition to the 150 now added by the Labour Ministry). There is 'Sarva Siksha Abhiyaan', which provides education to children under 14. Sometimes, people don't know about these schemes but we need to develop better safety nets."

Also on children being banned from working in hotels, tea stalls, dabbhas, this has always been the case, says Indian Hotels and Restaurants Association, Honorary Treasurer Santosh Shetty because he says they have always been governed by the Shop and Establishment Law in Mumbai. But he told CNBC-TV18, "The new law will prosecute the employer and that is grossly unfair. We do send them to school. We make them work only six hours a day and we don't make them work at night."

Reddy explains that rehabilitation can be done through "resident welfare associations, we can do some advocacy, some training. I think we should be working in schools, where middle class or upper middle class children can make very good advocates. We can work with teachers and the media but there must be a very constructive approach to this issue."

She says that going back to the drawing board and starting over is not an option and that people have as the situation of these kids is quite bad - they work long hours sometimes in hazardous jobs. So, to get started somewhere is the idea and then beefing up programmes for these children's rehabilitation will have to be undertaken with seriousness.

Though, Prasad says that unless the government leads by example and uses its resources to set the ball rolling - to rescue underprivileged children from working and putting them into schools - this ban will only remain a pipedream. And as a example, he points out that, even though government officials are banned from employing children as domestic help in their homes, one has to only go to a government colony and see for themselves, that a lot of children still continue to be employed in their homes! So, why should this ban, change anything at all? He may just have a point here.

Written for www.moneycontrol.com

India-Pakistan kiss and make up in Cuba

Havana seems like a good meeting point for Manmohan Singh and Pervez Musharraf. It was away from either India and Pakistan and may be the romance of Cuba worked its charm on the heads of the two countries - they got talking again about what really matters. Now the question is just what have they agreed to do and how much will the good rapport they share with one another, help them achieve their goals? So what was said in that one hour between the two?

Media Advisor to the prime minister, Sanjaya Baru told CNBC-TV18, "They have a working relationship and the Prime Minister has once described President Musharraf as a 'business-like person'. They were meeting after one year and they had a lot to discuss." He adds, "Compared to the chill in the air last year in New York, there was a different atmosphere and a willingness to listen to each other and work together."

But terrorism emanating from Pakistan has always been a problem for Pakistan and is also always a bone of contention, whenever the two sides talk to each other. This time, the joint statement issued in Havana says that a mechanism is going to be put in place, to deal with this problem. This initiative has been called the India Pakistan Anti-terrorism Institutional Mechanism. According to the statement made, this will "identify and implement counter-terrorism initiatives and investigations." So, just what does this amount to?

Baru explains, "I think the Foreign Secretary designate, Mr Shivshankar Menon spoke at length when he addressed the media is Havana. He also said that this is an idea that has to be fleshed out further. The real point is that today, we have a platform where one can actually exchange information rather than talk through the media and make public pronouncements. We can take to Pakistan, the information we have with respect to terrorist incidents and seek the commitment for dealing with it. We are looking at credible ways in which we can exchange information and deal with the problem."

Then there is Kashmir - the other 'issue' that refuses to die down. In January of this year, President Musharraf had suggested joint management and self governance of J&K and this sent the Ministry of External Affairs into a tizzy. Now, will this option be considered once again? Baru says, "The phrase 'out-of-the-box thinking' was originally Dr Manmohan Singh's phrase. I don't think we should be giving General Musharraf the credit for coming with out-of-the-box solutions. I think it's the Prime Minister who is seeking out-of-the-box solutions."

"For 50 years, the two countries have not been able to find a way out of the impasse. What the Prime Minister is seeking a credible way out, which is acceptable to India and Pakistan and everyone else, then we need to find those ways."

So, there may be back channels at work here which have come up with some innovative ideas and that could be from where the two leaders takeoff, to find a more satisfactory and hopefully permamnent solution to atleast one of the two big problems - Kashmir.

About terrorism - well, it is not only India's problem anymore. Osama bin Laden has ensured that it has been democratically spread to countries, which never suffered the way India did before. So, now every country on the world map is involved in looking for a solution to terrorism.

Written for www.moneycontrol.com

Bushfire of a different kind

With the US and India having signed the Nuclear Pact, that diplomatic circles are calling a giant and a historic step forward in Indo-US relations. But as there always is, there's another voice being raised. The Left has its own set of fears and it doesn't help that President Bush has run roughshod over some other countries in our neighbourhood lately. Besides, having cosied up to Pakistan all along has not exactly made him popular here.

So this nuke deal may be his way of appeasing India just a little bit. Strategic Affairs editor of The Indian Express and the author of a new book on India-US relations, 'Impossible Allies', C Raja Mohan feels that this deal is good news because "it confers on India, the legitimacy of being a nuclear weapons state and secondly, it gives us access to the entire nuclear energy market. Also, it gives us strategic parity with China and differentiates us from Pakistan."

Deputy Editor of The Hindu, Siddharth Varadarajan whose opinions have also been against such a deal taking place, now feels that because of the vigorous debate in this country over the nuke deal, the technical parameters have been met. As a result loopholes were plugged and unpleasant caveats were taken care of.

He credits it to "the negotiation process, in which public debates also played a role" and therefore this "agreement is something we can be happy with and a lot of the Indian reservations over what happens has been taken care of. This removes us from technological collonialism." So with this prickly nuclear issue out of the way, there is scope for growth in other spheres.

C Raja Mohan adds that in India, things do tend to get blown way out of proportion and some quarters overdid the anxiety and some of the fears were unrealistic. But India has been in control of this deal, and all of what the top scientists wanted is ably represented and will reflect in the deal, the details of which the Prime Minister will finally tell the Lok Sabha soon.

So what is not clearly known is the nature of safeguards that we have to accept, which have yet to be determined by the IAEA. The Prime Minister has assured the public that he will get them to create India-specific safeguards. But Rajamohan says that the IAEA has already said in July of last year, that India will get the same treatment as the others. Besides, there is actually a chance that the IAEA may be more stringent on India because we have not signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, NPT.

C Raja Mohan explains what India-specific safeguards mean in such a case. He says, "Unlike the non-nuclear states under the NPT, who have to put their entire nuclear programme under safeguards, we don't have to do it. And unlike the nuclear weapons states, who can switch in and out of the military and civilian list, we won't have that option. What we put in the civilian list, will stay there permanently and that's the only bad thing, of this undertaking."

Former ambassador to Washington, Lalit Mansingh feels that one of the safeguards could be that India has been assured that in times of an emergency, the civilian facilities could be shifted to do military duty. This is despite the 'perpetuity clause' signed yesterday.

Even Varadarajan who has come around to seeing the deal, as a good one has reservations on the issue of safeguards - on whether the US will sign off on the deal, that India wangles out of the IAEA. Even though, India's unique position means that the IAEA may not give India the same deal as the other five nuclear NPT countries, Varadrajan feels "it's not the end of the world."

C Raja Mohan agrees and says that when the big boss wants something, then the other countries will follow suit, so with the US endorsing this deal, India gets the opportunity to change its position in the nuclear order.

Mansingh adds, "If you think of worst case scenarios, you are going to be scared. But this is where the world is heading and besides the IAEA has been supportive of this, the UN Secretary-General has supported this and Russia, Britain France has also supported this deal."

Now it remains to be seen, if US President George Bush can sway the US Congress to support this deal. Again the consensus is that, though he has expended his political capital with the disastrous war in Iraq and the Katrina hurricane scandal, this is one deal that he just may be able to get support for. One of the chief reasons being that, if the President has chosen to make a foreign policy decision of this magnitude, then it must have been done with support in the first place.

But Varadarajan says that India should take this deal as a separate entity and not add any political baggage to it. So, India should not have second thoughts on its own political relations with other countries, that the US is threatening with sanctions - for instance like what is happening with Iran.

Another reason why India is getting the royal treatment today, could well be that India may be expected to support Bush's other foreign policy measures, vis-a-vis other countries. Varadarajan advises that, India should be able to see through this ploy and should remain firm on its position, otherwise India stands to lose its credibility.

For more on C Raja Mohan's book 'Impossible Allies' click here: http://www.prakashbooks.com/details.php3?id=19862&c=Current%20Affairs%20/%20Politics

Note: At the time of writing this editorial, the deal had yet to make its ponderous way through the House of Representatives, let alone the Senate. So, please keep that in mind, when reading this article.

Written for www.moneycontrol.com