The Great Job Hunt

Since I dropped out of the job market in 2007 for health reasons and also because I wanted to do something of my own for a bit, I had been inundated with some great job offers and some not-so exciting ones. Three years later, I'm back in a full-time job but I've also had a fair share of experiences that I thought I should share.



They are meant to highlight hypocrisy, evasiveness and that slippery-floor feeling, where you can feel the person is doing a bad job of trying to pull the rug from under your feet and hopefully pull it over your eyes! Well, it didn't work with me and so I thought I should tell everyone else about it. We've all heard of job-seekers fudging resumes but job-givers are not beyond acting weird either. So here goes...

1. This is a website that used to take stories I had written for my ex-employer - moneycontrol - because we had a content sharing arrangement with them. The site is affiliated to the CII and showcases India in a positive light to foreign investors through articles and research powerpoints put up online. I got in touch with them to offer working part-time on their content. In my e-mail I mentioned I live in Mumbai and that I would like to work at their office here, if they had one. After two weeks of silence - a lot of people don't know the art of acknowledgement - I sent a reminder and then heard from someone there, who asked me if I was willing to come out to Gurgaon as they had a vacancy there, which I was not willing to do. She then told me she would discuss the matter with people at her end and then do a con-call with me to take this further. The con-call happened where she again asked me to come out to Gurgaon and when I said no yet again, she told me that she would send across some PPTs for me to edit, and see how I did it. She also left it to me to quote a figure, in terms of time spent on doing the PPTs. They were on the food processing industry in India and Assam. She sent it to me on Friday evening and I sent one back on Monday morning and the other bigger one back on Wednesday. After all this, she realised that she would not be able to make out where and if I had done any work on those PPTs and hence she didn't want to give me any more of them to do.

I e-mailed her back and pointed out to her that she should have thought about this 'before' sending me the PPTs in the first place. After all, she had discussed this move with her colleagues and then done a con-call with me..hadn't she? What followed were e-mails which were in typical cover-your-ass mode because how else can you back out of a situation where you want to get work done, but for peanuts or for free.

2. This little magazine was hiring a features editor and both - a headhunter and a friend got in touch with me about it. I decided to go ahead and pursue it and see what it was all about. I didn't hear from them for months and so I took to calling up and finding out what had happened. They hemmed and hawed and I was told the editor was never in. It's amazing how the magazine gets published every month without him. Anyway, when I was finally called in to meet him, he told me they had hired for the position already - this was in March this year - and that he was looking out for someone to help with any contract publishing projects they got. The fact is, this magazine does not do much of contract publishing and I was just shown a couple of tiny booklets put out for a pharmaceutical company every other month or so. I didn't think they had the means to hire me for insignificant amount of work that may or may not come in every month. I was right because after all the due process was done, I never heard from them except to tell me, I was not acceptable to them.

So, why call me in the first place for a position that was not there to begin with, and which does not justify hiring anyone? As of today, this magazine's masthead does not even have the name of the 'new' features editor they had told me they had hired. If anything, since this magazine has gone bankrupt in the US, the names on their masthead have dropped to just the bare minimum, so it's possible that even the position that had been advertised, has not been filled as a cost-cutting measure. What's more, the previous issues even had the ex-editor still on the masthead and possibly on the payroll, as a consultant. That's not the case anymore, as his name has been removed lately. With two editors around - it's no wonder the current incumbent never felt the need to be in his office much! In fact, when I was called over for my interview and I was doing my written test, he kept getting his Facebook profile updated by a staff member, with his latest holiday pictures.

3. This is a newspaper that had a vacancy which seemed like 2000 redux - meaning like the first job I had when I began working in 2000. So I turned down the job but asked if I could write for them. A senior editor talked to me and told me how things worked and what the deadlines were. All said and done, I finally asked her about payment and she said she needed to 'check' on that and would let me know. Well, for a major newspaper that claims to take freelance content, she didn't know how much they were paying their freelancers - or that's the impression she wanted me to get. So, I waited for a week to hear from her and sent her a reminder. Guess what..she's still checking up on this after all this time.

4. This is a brokerage firm's online magazine that is difficult to spot on their own site unless you know where to look. They got in touch with me to write for them. I was told by the editor that they did not give bylines but paid between Rs 2- Rs 4 per word, depending on the content and the seniority of the writer. I was told by her that quotes were sourced by them and I would have to give a written sample - this is after they had looked up this very blog and got in touch with me.

The sample was submitted on 'Power Trading in India' and the worldly wise editor saw two paragraphs on carbon emissions in the entire article, and said she couldn't accept it. Again, I emailed her gofer - the editor got this person to answer e-mails on her behalf and she edits a 27-30 pager PDF and not even an actual magazine - and told her that this was supposed to be a test to decide on future payments and was not to be published. Well, that girl had the decency to apologise for a very abrupt and in my opinion a non-transparent experience. That writeup I did for them has been posted by me on this blog, last month. Take a look and see if you don't find it worth reading, considering the topic is as exciting as watching paint dry.



Moral of the story - Willingness to work should not be confused as willing to be snubbed.

Power trading could energise investment options

Power trading in India is a nascent industry and one with huge potential. Apart from Power Grid Corporation and PTC India which are public sector undertakings, there are private sector players ranging from the established Tata Power, JSW Energy and the new player Adani Group, also entering the market. Then there is the ‘alternative’ power generator like Suzlon, which is in the wind power generation business.

These companies’ stocks are traded because balance sheets reflect the profits made on selling electricity to layusers but what about the actual commodity that they sell? What’s the market for energy trading like? PTC India has already been selling surplus power to Bhutan and is looking to do business with Nepal as well soon, as transmission lines are being built and operationalised for the same.

But according to the power trading consultant Feedback Ventures’ website, the volume of exchanges in India that trade in power is low - at about 2.5% of the total energy generated. So, there are businesses - like the above-mentioned website – who are stepping into the breach and helping some big names setup trading desks and also put together a business plan and structure a transaction system into place.

Power Exchange India Ltd lets you list with them as a member to start trading on the NSE and the National Commodities & Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX). Their membership list is not publicly available, so it is not clear how many institutional and retail investors are registered with them. Thought the site maintains watch by mentioning firms who are ‘inactive’ members.

Globally, all the environmentally-conscious economies are looking to tap and develop sources of power, that is about moving away from fossil fuels like coal and crude to cleaner power like wind, water, biomass and nuclear energy. Published sources state that in India, wind power is likely to hit 6,000 MW but it is below the actual target of 10,500 MW, that has been set by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy for 2012.

As of now, the only ‘energy’ that is being traded is carbon emissions and it is not something that most retail investors look to trade in or even understand. Since, the industry is a new one even globally, in India, even fewer people are in the business of carbon emission trading. In the US, despite the downturn, it is a $144 billion industry. So, saving on pollutant emitting carbon is making some firms rich despite what is actually happening to their economy at a macro level.

So, just what is carbon emission trading? This is buying and selling of carbon credits. ‘Credits’ being literally awarded by how much a company has saved the environment from being polluted by its own factories or plants. There is a limit specified by a central authority for each firm/business, beyond which they cannot pollute and if it does so, it has to buy ‘credits’ from less polluting businesses, or countries as the case may be. So polluters pay a penalty while the good guys get rewarded. This is incentive at its best because it is money gained for being the good, cost effective and cleanly efficient business at work.

At the moment, even nuclear power which is at the centre of so much policy debate in India and the US, provides only 2.83% of power generation from 17 operational nuclear plants across the country. All of this is under-utilisation of the installed capacity to actually generate 1,45,588 MW of power. What really comes out is a meagre 4,120 MW. Nonetheless, India is looking to push this target even further - to 20,000 MW by 2020 at a cost of Rs 80,000 crore.

So, with figures like these, it’s easy to see that when this sector really gets going, an entire new roller coaster of a ride is in store for people, who invest in power futures or trade in energy, like they trade in other natural resources like gold and commodities, at the moment.

At least One Indian Supermart Encourages Recycling

At least one Indian supermarket is thinking of all those juice cartons people buy from them, and what they could do with it, to keep our environment a little more clean and green.

In Mumbai, a supermarket called Sahakari Bhandar has an 'How to dispose Tetra Paks' initiative that encourages consumers to bring back their empty juice cartons and they are offering recycled gifts on the spot.

• For 5 cartons returned, you get a recycled pen.
  
  
• For 7 cartons returned, you get recycled tissues.
  
  
• For 12 cartons returned, you get a recycled notebook.
  
  
• Before chucking a carton into a bin - cut it open and wash it.

A pamphlet on recycling also educates consumers on disposing off these cartons in their dry trash bins and not a wet garbage bin because then ragpickers get a better price for it. 

Want to know what can be made out of your juice   carton? Check out this cool bookmark. It feels like   it is made out of expensive hand-made paper   instead of a used tetra pack.

A 250-years old legacy sails into the modern era

They are heirs to a 250-years old legacy. The family started in shipbuilding and, one of the ships that they built has history written all over it because on this ship, the American national anthem was written and the Treaty of Nanking was signed. Since then, the Wadia family have diversified into various businesses. Today, they have got about four businesses, which are listed public companies and which are governed professionally, in terms of transparent corporate governance.

Nusli Wadia and Maureen Wadia's two sons are sure making them proud. Jeh Wadia's plunged into the airline industry with his GoAir and is looking to scale up operations. While Ness Wadia is looking to move the family business into uncharted waters - of retail and real estate. He assures that their plans in these areas would takeoff anytime soon and his objective "is to provide an international mix."

Ness Wadia told CNBC-TV18, "We want to give something different to the Indian consumer. Why does one person always need to be in the office building and why can't one enjoy other things? So we are sort of sensitizing businesses toward customers in small things, like providing a concierge service in a building. So any tenant can go there and get flowers, or dinner reservations etc, we'll provide that assistance. So, again it is moving forward into customization and ensuring that we enthuse and delight customers, which we believe has not happened in India and definitely not in Indian real estate or in Indian retail."

Jeh Wadia adds, "We started as management trainees in our businesses. So we started basically from a very young age. From there, we moved on to say that, maybe we should not be too hands-on - to be less operational driven and more financial driven. Hence the restructuring and the need to look at new sunrise businesses like real estate and retail and the airlines." So, 2004-05 has been when the media really got to know, that the Wadia boys are more than just goodlooking faces with money and a famous surname to their credit. But Jeh explains, "Those (earlier) businesses were not linked to a national presence. For example, GoAir requires a national presence, it needs to be splashed all over the place. So, that the company gets more visibility with people."

"Financially, we came up with the executive summary in 2001. I used to go to Chitrakoot every once in a while, using a private jet. Eventually the person I represent and who is my mentor, Shri Nanaji Deshmukh, said to me, "Don't you think you should come like the common man comes?" and I did go by train many times. I found out that basically going from one village to another - for example going from Bombay to Chitrakoot took 22 hours. This took a lot of our time. So, where is the easiest opportunity today - from putting capacity into connectivity? That is air travel. Is there demand? There are fifteen million people who go by train in a single day. In 2004-05, six-seven million people bought 17 million (GoAir) seats."


With Jeh Wadia looking to snap up and convert the price-sensitive railway travellers to using his airline, he's also looking to move on once a stable team is in place at GoAir. He's going to move into cargo, engineering and all other areas of the aviation industry.

So for these young 'uns, apart from having enterpreneurial blood running through their veins, were there other people, whom they looked up to? Ness Wadia says, "I have always been influenced by people. I believe people are the success to any endeavor. I struggled to find leaders I could look up to in today's world, who are ethical, who support teams and who build from the bottom up. JRD Tata was one good example. Today we have people like Narayan Murthy and Ratan Tata. But more Narayan Murthy because he says very clearly, that 'my goal is to ensure that I can help people to dream and then help them to cross that water'."

Ness's way of helping people achieve their goals and live their dreams may just revolutionise how work gets done in his offices. He explains, "In Bombay Dyeing, we have flexi-time. We did that because we wanted to provide freedom to people. My dream is to have a situation where I can empower people - they can work from where they want. Today we have laptops, connectivity and telephones. Why does a person need to come to an office?"

He adds, "We as managers and leaders are insecure and we want to see people. I do not subscribe to this. Every human being has similar aspirations, to spend time with their children and their family. In Bombay Dyeing, we are looking to start paternal leave. So we are changing with the times."

Written for www.moneycontrol.com

Kamat brings home cooking to travellers

It's a favourite snack point for many travellers and hurried city dwellers. When doing a roadtrip, a craving for warm food overtakes you. One will invariably, find a Udupi joint doing brisk business selling crispy medhu wadas, soft idlis and paper-thin dosas. These typical South Indian delicacies are now being eaten by millions across the country. They have been made popular because of their easy availability, even while on the move, and their served piping hot.

Despite its presence all over the country, there is no big hotel chain that has been set up by the most prominent name in this business - Kamat. The family has small establishments dotting cities across India but nothing remotely huge, like the Taj or Oberoi properties.

Chairman & Managing Director, Kamat Group, Vithal Kamat said, "Kamat (the restaurant) was started by my father Venkatesh Kamat. The first restaurant was 'Satkar' at Churchgate. When he started that, for 20-years, the 'Satkar' was the only restaurant. We joined him and after that we created a brand called Kamat. But six years back, there were family problems and the family divided and that's why we couldn't take this brand to its height."

"Otherwise, Kamat was known for idlis, vadas and dosas. So we created a new brand called 'Orchid', the environment-friendly hotel. If we would have prefixed or suffixed anything to 'Orchid' like Kamat, then people coming to the airport would have thought that this (hotel) would also be about idli, vada and dosa."

He continues, "There are 4-5 reasons for it (the business not going abroad), the dishes cannot be taken away with you. Secondly, it's very messy. That means with idli, you have to give sambar and chutney. And the third most important point is like dosa, it is an individual skill. It differs from place-to-place. Now sambar also differs from place-to-place. The burgers, which are made for hamburger, are common. The bread is also made in a factory. But in South Indian food, you cannot just assemble (the food). The Kamat brand was in Singapore and had gone overseas but the thing is that in between the family broke up and that is why it could not go overseas (and expand)."

Is there a string of Kamat restaurants in the offing, Kamat says, "Yes I'll have a chain called Vithal Kamat very soon. We are coming out with more than 50 hotels and this is going to be the Kamfotel - a comfortable Kamat hotel. Clean beds, clean kitchen, clean toilet and at an affordable price and that will have the Vithal Kamat brand." But will this mean the death knell of his unique selling proposition, USP, the affordable, fast and tasty almost-like-home cooked food.

Kamat replied, "Idli, vada, sambar is (available) at an affordable price, which is between Rs 12-Rs 15. The property prices are so high, it is becoming very difficult (to keep prices down). I read that the big chains are getting out of the mall because they can't afford it and the turnover is only during nine hours. If you take pizza, it can be eaten 15 hours later. There will be speciality restaurants serving idli, vada, dosa and that will cost a minimum of Rs 35-Rs 45. Earlier, because the property prices were low, these items were served between Rs 10-Rs 12. Also there is great skill required. I will find out a solution for that but the presentation has to be different."

South Indian delicacies continue to be most people's favourite foods, but it can be made over to the fact that most restaurants that serve these meals are South Indian establishments - from ownership to sometimes even the cook being from a part of India called Mangalore (where Udupi is the name of a place). So, is the magic in the recipes or in in the hands of a few?

Kamat said, " In this business, you require family and you require people to manage this because it is a day-to-day affair. If there is sibling jealously, if there is a family fight, nobody is prosperous. What you also require is, you should be able to tickle the tongue of the guest and it should be value for money. Business is not an individual's monopoly, anyone can be successful in the hotel industry."

To succeed, what really matter is that, "basically the South Indian restaurants must have a clean sitting area, clean kitchen and normally the guest should sit there for 10-15 minutes. If you make it too comfortable, then the guest also sits for a longer time and the equation changes, then it won't be a profitable venture anymore. So you have to give him comfort to eat for 15-minuts. Wherever you provide comfort at an affordable price, success is guaranteed. The lesson I have learnt is, keep your eyes and ears open always. Second, follow the success route of others and third speak less."

These kind of businesses tend to be exclusive family affairs. One of the things that one is used to see is that while visiting a restaurant, the owner or a family member is sitting at the entrance, at the cash counter. Is the culture of bringing in professionals from outside catching on? Kamat said, "Actually I am a free man because I use the three 'R' formula. The first 'R' is respect for self. The second 'R' is respect for others and the third 'R' is to create responsible people. We have managed to create responsible people. Each and every person is part of the 'Orchid' family and is responsible. Sitting on cash does not give me pride, making profit for the company and for the shareholder and for the staff gives me pride."

Does the Kamat name, which rings a bell with most Indians and is synonymous with the food it serves, have any copyright protection? He states, "In India, copyright protection is not observed. So the point is that you have to fight it, someone will add some suffix and prefix to the name Kamat. It is very difficult to control piracy in India."

Despite the success he has seen, there are a few regrets too. He said, "The biggest mistake that I did was 30 years ago. I should have joined an engineering course or I should have joined the hospitality college."

He, however, knows what makes restaurants in general, tick and what they lack. He elaborates, "First, the smile is missing in those restaurants. Why is mother's food the best? Because she puts love into it. The chef has all the ingredients, but a mother puts in love. The same way, if you love your business and you do it from the heart, you are bound to get success."

He admits keeping his staff happy which is also a reason for his being successful. He agrees, "I have made them (employees) responsible so they understand. Second, choose the right person for the job. Third, never pay them less. Pay them 5% more than the market and at same time, give them respect and admire them. Whenever you see a good thing, appreciate them because when you see a bad thing you reprimand them ten times! But if you see a good thing, please tell them that you have done a good job, and that is how you can create responsible people."

Written for moneycontrol

The Mirage that is the Modern Indian Woman

Being a mother is possibly a wonderful experience. But why do so many educated women, in this day and age, make a career out of it, rather than put their education to better use? I have always wondered what would my grandmothers have done, had they been given an opportunity not to marry young but pursue an education and then a career of their choice? I don’t think it would have included having eight children each, at home, from the age of 14 onward. Would they have willingly looked after huge homes and in-laws and the unmarried siblings of their husbands as well as their own kids. Not to mention work on the family land.

Delving into their minds, which knew nothing better than what was ordained for them by their parents, is not easy. I know there must have been regrets and longing for some amount of freedom from the monotonous chores and the constant pregnancies. But did they both make their peace with their lot or did they do a wonderful job of hiding their discontentment? These questions will never be answered by them because after all this time, it wouldn’t matter at all. For better or worse – their life is over and lived the way it was set up for them.

Ironically, marriage and children are the very things that most modern 21st century women in India, are still going after. They do have careers but a lot of them throw that up to raise kids. This is what our grandmothers did because they had no other choice and they were hampered by lack of education. So, what have we educated women done that is so different from our semi-literate grandmothers?

Here is a list:
1. Had children later and fewer of them, yet we need more servants to run nuclear- family homes. We also have the aid of electronic appliances, which they didn’t have and yet we can’t seem to do as much work as they did.

2. Have more servants – sometimes one servant per family member – and still claim we can not have a career and kids at the same time and therefore, drop out of the job market entirely. I mean even women with MBAs don’t seem to find ideas to do something from home, apart from changing diapers and helping their children with their homework, when their slightly older.

3. Only some women have it all – career and marriage - and these women are really the exceptions and still not the norm. So, that’s how long the list is, of the difference that education has done to women’s lives. It has done wonders for women with drive, organizational skills, intelligence and some amount of ambition. For the rest, it’s really a case-study of how education was wasted on some women who wanted to do nothing more than what their grandmothers had done, for lack of a better choice.

The modern Indian woman, despite having a choice, some of them are content getting married in their early 20s and raising kids. True, family pressure begins to build up around the time that a woman graduates from college and everyone says that one should have children early and get that out of the way. But the fact is that, I’ve now seen enough women who’ve had their first child after 30. I also feel that by then they are emotionally and mentally mature and they have accomplished goals - apart from marriage and children – that they set out for themselves.

This is not to say that women in their 20s don’t have it all but most of them have willingly sacrificed their own aspirations because they chose to go with the flow. I do think this herd mentality does cause regrets later, in some of them. If there is some amount of envy at the freedom I enjoy and which so many of them have willingly given up for love, convenience or just sheer laziness, then it shows in the kind of advice I've got over the years. Some of these friends of mine told me 'why are you bothering to work, get married and let your husband look after you.' They are financially bound to their husbands and want the same thing for me. How wise is their attitude is doubtful.

Here is an anecdote - I once bought a diamond ring with my savings and flaunted it at an office Diwali party. A lot of my colleagues loved it and the next day, one of them had bought an almost identical pattern with bigger stones, at considerable expense...to her husband. She admitted this, so I'm not just assuming it. Besides, having known her for a while, I had seen how she never saved her money anyway and she actually told me that she earned to burn the money on herself. So, I’ve often wondered why they have opted for this botheration of kids and marriage early in life rather than later?

When marriage happens later, by then you’ve enjoyed a successful career and made money for the children you can still have. Why give into family pressure when you are supposed to know your mind and have the backbone to stand up for yourself? Isn’t that what education was supposed to have enabled? Thinking through the pros and cons of being married is still not something that 21st century women in India do a lot about. Honestly, they just find the right man and hitch on to him like a crutch. I know this sounds crazy but, I have seen enough women of my generation who have thrown their education away and they might as well have never bothered to get one.

After all, our grandmothers were denied an education because their fathers decided for them, that they were anyway going to be married off and, to make babies, cook, clean and pick up after their husbands, you didn’t need an education. They also wouldn’t be given control of any finances, even to run the household. But it’s not all that different for my generation either.

I know of many who have never worked for any decent length of time to have built up a bank balance. So, they don’t know anything much about investments or taxes either. Most of the time, they have not earned the money to buy any of the jewellery they wear at their own glitzy wedding receptions. It's all done for them by their parents. So, after an early marriage such educated women still run to their husbands for everything, as a result of not having some ‘mad money’ of their own. Hence, husbands oblige with the add-on credit card. Most husbands pay off car and home EMIs – not only because they earn more because their wives are not earning at all! So, how does being educated benefit, either the woman or the man, in such an antediluvian situation is a mystery.

The big difference now is that, fathers are paying for their daughters’ education and some of those daughters want their grandmothers’ job profile! What a waste – I know atleast one of my grandmothers who would have swapped places with these modern doormats in a jiffy. She would have taken that education bit between her teeth and galloped away with it, to pursue another life for herself. Marrying and having children wouldn't have been the sole purpose of her existence.

After all, education is like money - if it's not put to good use, then it's of no use.

Here are three women entrepreneurs - two of whom have also defied life's odds and done something with their lives, apart from marriage and motherhood.

1. Sarala Bastian - http://business.rediff.com/slide-show/2009/sep/30/slide-show-1-how-with-just-rs-15000-she-turned-an-entrepreneur.htm

2. Patricia Narayan - http://business.rediff.com/slide-show/2010/jun/08/slide-show-1-from-50-paise-to-rs-2-lakh-a-day-success-story.htm

3. Srividya Rabindranath - http://business.rediff.com/slide-show/2010/feb/11/slide-show-1-she-became-an-entrepreneur-by-accident.htm

Nature's fury teaches Mumbai a lesson

Ever since the flood devastated Mumbai on July 26, the spotlight has been on the Mithi river. Well, this river has been systematically reduced to a stinking drain, thanks to politicians encouraging rampant encroachments along its way. Environmental experts and the government are unanimous on the sustained damage being done to the river as the cause of the July 26 floods.

Uncovered traced the path of this now infamous river - from its origin to where it finally meets the sea - every curve of the river was altered by greed and neglect over time. Mithi river consists 1,600 acres of water and the Vihar dam is the source. It flows South meandering its way to Powai, a Mumbai suburb. Another dam at Powai feeds into the river.

From here, the river begins its journey to the sea, which is 15 kilometres away and it is from there that it is relentlessy battered. The river passes a four kilometres stretch, where lakhs of illegal hutments and industries that have been dumping waste for decades. It then moves toward the airport to its final stretch at Bandra-Kurla complex where it was once at its widest. What finally opens out to the sea is a tiny drain. The mouth of the river was once 1,200 metres wide and is now shrunk to 300 metres.



But even as citizens of Mumbai have slowly recovered from the equivalent of the biblical flood, there are some who have lost their homes and loved ones. For them, all the buck passing between the BMC and the politicians has just added to their grief and devastation.

So as the relief work carries on, MLA Nassem Khan vehemently blames the Municipal Corporation. But this is his constituency, so the hundred odd lives drowned or buried under debris or the fifty thousand houses on the banks of the river that was washed away, were just a vote bank for him. These people were living in illegal encroachments and no one saw it fit to move them from there. The minister, predictably, refutes that he was under the influence of any politicking.

Nawab Mallik is responsible for the Kurla, Nehru Nagar constituency, which was one of the worst hit areas. This politician told CNBC-TV18, "No one paid heed to my warning and the BMC is responsible for the damage." Ironically, he should know. His area, Kurla, has numerous illegal industrial belts and illegal hutments by the riverside. So water up to 12 feet high got hemmed in and could not find its way to the river and it stayed there for days because the surrounding areas had been raised.

Mallik's constituency is right next to the airport. For the first time in its history, flights were halted for four days. The reason ran beneath the runway. The airport has been built on reclaimed land and the airport authorities have often sanctioned projects to lengthen runways.

But how does one alter the course of a river, which kept getting in the way? Airport officials permitted the use of embankments to divert the river's course. This was done thrice and the diversion caused the river to turn 90 degrees. Yet the airport's expansion plans are far from over. When contacted for explanations, airport authorities refused to comment.

It's not like the floods were not anticipated - letters of warning, reports by the pollution board - were all sent out but people who make decisions for Mumbai city refused to read them. These documents and reports clearly pointed out the danger and the state government and the every successive administration was warned on many occasions.

In fact, the Pollution Control Board asked for immediate action in 2003. Corporator of Vakola, George Abraham says, "I had asked the BMC to take immediate action." He wrote a letter as late as June 15, to clean the Mithi river or else Mumbai will flooded.

In May 2003, the Central and state pollution control board sent notices to the municipal commissioner and the state government. The notices categorically stated that the Mithi river had to be cleaned urgently. Numerous meetings took place and letters flew back and forth but nothing happened.

Kirit Somaiya, a former MP has been writing letters to all concerned authorities since 2001 and now, as a concerned citizen, he has filed a public interest litigation, PIL, with the Bombay High Court, over the failure of the state government to protect lives and property.

In 1992, the road to Vihar dam was closed to the public for 'security' reasons but behind the high walls, the Mithi is in for trouble and no one is talking. Ten years later, even in 2002, the road remained close to the public and now a reason has been discovered.

Tonnes of earth is being dumped every day there, which is burying a valley of trees right on the riverbanks. Behind the high walls, machines work for hours into the day because the road is being widened. No one knows for what reason, only that it passes by two seven-star hotels.

Naseem has lived by Powai lake all his life. He's a caretaker at the Angling Society. He was stuck for two nights at the dam on July 26. He explains what he has been observing for quite some time now, "The water level in the lake is rising steadily and there is dumping of waste happening there."

Conservationist Debbi Goenka adds, that the river is important for Mumbai but the siltation, concrete and water level is rising every year because of so many buidlings coming up haphazardly, around its vicinity.

Before it finally meets the sea, the Mithi used to be at its widest - that's till the majestic Bandra-Kurla complex, BKC, was built and the river was in the way and needed to be diverted yet again. The Secretary for special projects, Government of Maharashtra, Sanjay Ubale says that environmentalists were consulted before building the Bandra-Kurla complex.



Now, in a typical case of pointing fingers and doing what was needed to be done almost 10 years ago, committees are being formed to clean up the river. This in itself is an indirect admission of guilt about the disaster. But will the government be able to clean up its act before the next monsoon?

At every point, a force of nature has been battered and abused and it's only fitting that she would strike back with fury. So, when finally the rain poured down on the city, the river coughed it right back in Mumbai's face.

Written for www.moneycontrol.com

Plantation firms leave investors uprooted

They promised to make your money grow faster than their trees. Investors put in Rs 15,000 crore into these plantation companies, only to see their money vanish along with these companies. This is a scam no one talks about any more. The trees don't exist, and perhaps they were never supposed to. Regulators have thrown up their hands but many cheated investors wait in hope, to get their money back.

One such innocent investor who was led astray by false promises was Chandrahas Tiwari. He was looking for a safe scheme to invest his retired sister’s savings. He was on the look out for a scheme that would give higher returns than banks and yet be safer than investing in the market. Then one morning, he saw the pamphlet in his newspaper, which was advertising Anubhav Plantations' scheme. The ad was enticing enough he recalled. He told CNBC-TV18, the ad said, "Put the money and they will double it in three years. They were also giving away 2 gram gold coins for people above 65 years."

The Chennai-based company owned 2,600 acres of land, on which teak plantations were to be cultivated. The saplings were already planted and insured. The deal was simple - invest money and own a part of the land. The money that Tiwari and other investors put in would be used to tend to the plantations. He immediately invested Rs 30,000 and waited for it to turn into Rs 60,000. He told CNBC-TV18, "He gave us post-dated cheques too." And then, one morning, he heard rumours that the company was going to shut operations. He did not want to take a chance with his savings. Immediately, he rushed to their office in the city to withdraw from the scheme but it was too late.



He recalled, "In the evening, I went to the office to tell them I want to withdraw from the scheme. They said come in the morning for your money." By the next morning, he says the office was shut. The operators had left town. Tiwari tried tracking the company for two years, till he finally gave up.

The reason behind Tiwari’s problems was a failed project in a small village in Chennai. On October 21, investors of Anubhav Plantations were asked to attend a meeting at the head office in Chennai. Thousands arrived in the hope of receiving repayments. When they arrived, the office was deserted and none of the officials were present. The crowd, then, went on a rampage. The owner C Natesan was arrested the same month in Chennai by the Tamil Nadu Crime Branch. In early May this year, liquidators asked investors to submit their claims. It's been seven long years since Natesan's arrest and there is still no sight of any cash showing up.

The modus operandi was simple. Newspaper and television advertisements promised the moon and returns that no other instrument could ever give you. You just had to buy a tree for Rs 500 and this would magically multiply to Rs 50,000 or even a lakh in a couple of decades.

It was just such a innovative campaign that caught the interest of Nirmal Punwani. So impressed was the 32-year-old with the whole idea that he invested in not one but three plantation schemes - Enbee, Parasrampuria and Okara.



He explained, "I saw their ads everywhere - on the television, in the newspapers. Even my insurance agent was recommending them to me. I that thought that by the time I get the returns I will be able to buy my own house." In one year, from 1996-97, Punwani invested Rs 2 lakhs in these schemes. The schemes offered him returns between 21%-27%, which was a massive amount, compared to the interest being offered by banks at that time, on long - term deposits.

His faith was reinforced when the companies gave him post-dated cheques for the interest along with the principal amount. Punwani’s dream of owning a house seemed so much easier now. He elaborated, "They gave me contracts on a stamp paper. Each contract made me an owner of a tiny plot of land. It seemed all so genuine. I never imagined eight years down the line, I would have to write that money off."

His cheques bounced one after the other. When Punwani contacted the companies, there was no response. The agent who had recommended the companies to him was untraceable. Finally, Punwani had to take a loan from a bank to help finance his house. Reports of default began to replace the ads that had once filled newspaper pages.

Meanwhile, as usual, it took a while for authorities to even figure out who should be regulating these companies. After the initial confusion between the Reserve Bank of India, RBI, the Department of Company Affairs and Sebi, a press release was issued by the government on November 18, 1997. Such schemes would then on be called Collective Investment Schemes falling under the Sebi Act, 1992. Just another instance, of shutting the door after the horse had bolted!

Even while regulators were setting up guidelines and researching these investment schemes, the post-dated cheques began to bounce. In January 1999, a committee was set up under the chairmanship of Dr S A Dave. The committee had representatives from the government ministries, regulatory bodies, consumer forums, professional bodies and the plantation industry.

The Dave Committee started analysing information submitted by these plantation companies and visited the plantation sights. It was found that a large amount of money was collected and most of them did not have any experience in agro-based activites. There was also high risk associated with these ventures due to the long gestation period that was involved. Thus, Sebi made it mandatory for all existing plantation schemes to get a credit rating from a rating agency.

When the plantation companies applied for ratings, there was a big shock in store for the investors. Almost all plantation companies got a high risk rating from the credit agencies. It also meant, that once the ratings were out, the companies would have to carry them in all their advertisements, which were aimed at mobilising funds.

Both Anubhav Plantations’ teak scheme and Enbee Plantations were assigned a Grade 5 or the lowest grade by Duff Care Rating, DCR, and CARE respectively. The ratings only confirmed the investors worst fears - they might never see their money again. Angry investors did everything from agitating in front of offices of these companies to filing petitions in courts. All through, the companies said that they ran genuine schemes and that each and every investor would be paid.



While investors were still trying to come to terms with the fact that these schemes were never going to give them what they promised, in November 1999, the Dave Committee drafted guidelines that were to regulate these companies. Today, there is not a single Collective Investment Scheme that is registered under Sebi. The units that small investors were given have never found their way to the stock exchanges.

On January 18, 2002, Sebi filed an affidavit in the Delhi High Court, according to which 513 companies had failed to wind-up their schemes and repay investors. The high court passed an order to freeze the bank accounts of these companies and their directors. The order was circulated in all the leading newspapers and the RBI was ordered to circulate this order in all the banks.

Even after court orders being passed and the properties put under liquidation, investors still haven’t got their money back. So will they ever see any sight of their money? Former Executive Director at Sebi, Dharmishta Raval who headed the legal division and was also a member of the Dave Committee admitted, "It took Sebi 4-5 years to frame regulations for these Collective Investment Schemes and these regulations were not too stringent." He added, "Sebi went to court to freeze accounts of promoters of these schemes. Also, Rs 1,200 crore has been repayed to investors."

Primary Market expert Prithvi Haldia who has culled out enormous data on these plantation schemes remarked, "Sebi had stopped new plantation schemes from coming in."

But this is cold comfort for people whose money is still in some other grubby hands and not in their own. The lesson to be learnt from this story is, to not fall prey to promises that sound too good to be true. After all, you owe it to yourself to be sure when you part with your hard earned money.

Pictures are representative.

Written for www.moneycontrol.com

Source code theft may blight BPO bubble

India is at present, a favoured haven for outsourcing. Whether it is data or software research, here brilliant minds come with a cheap price tag. This is where every foreign company wants to move its back office or its services end of their business to save on costs.

While everybody is celebrating India’s great outsourcing success, there is a darker side to this sunny, happy ever after picture. What do you do when the product you spent years and money researching on, is stolen and sold with effortless ease on the internet and having stolen your cyber - identity, the criminal roams free on the streets, while the law stands and gapes in amazement.

The Managing Director of Geometric Software Solutions, Manu Parpia said, "The source code is a readable blueprint copy of any software. Anyone who has access to the source code can alter the software dramatically and the dangers of it falling into the wrong hands are great."

A source code looks like a string of letters and numbers jumbled up. Get your hands on the code and you can easily make a lookalike copy of the Adobe Pagemaker software and print identity cards for high security firms. A source code holds the key to a product, that could give any software firm the upper hand in the market and change the security dynamics of a nation. Today, stealing these lines of code is also the latest buzzword in the world of computer crimes.

CNBC-TV18 reports on this darker side of the world of outsourcing. The seamier story of what sometimes occurs in swank looking buildings with their laptops and blinking monitors and as more and more international companies furiously outsource their core functions to India, along with critical products, India is also fast becoming a haven for source code theft.

In August 2002, a former employee of software firm Geometric Software Solutions Ltd, GSSL, was caught red-handed trying to sell a data source code. It was the property of GSSL’s American client Solidworks. The employee had demanded a price of $240,000 for the code. It was the first reported case of data source code theft in India.

During his tenure at GSSL, Ashok Mehta left to go home like his other colleagues. He was frisked by the security guards but no one noticed an innocent CD that he carried on his person. On that CD was the data source code, for a product that GSSL was developing for Solidworks. The product accounted for sales between $60 to $90 million.

Mehta left the company under mysterious circumstances but he was not finished yet. A a year later, in 2002, someone from India contacted a firm in the US, offering to sell the source code for a Solidwork product. With this, Mehta was back in business. The company got suspicious and informed Solidwork and GSSL. They got in touch with the Central Bureau of Investigation, CBI, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI.

In August of that year, Mehta set up a rendezvous for a buyer at a five star hotel in New Delhi. No sooner was the transaction through, that the CBI moved in and arrested Mehta for attempting to sell the code. The buyer was an FBI agent Nanette Day. He had offered to sell the code for $200,000 to Nanette Day.

However, it was not the price that had GSSL worried. Says Manu Parpia, "I cannot say exactly what it was worth, but the product was getting Solidworks sales of around $90million every year at that time."

While the CBI and the FBI celebrated, Solidworks had more worries on their mind. While a case had been filed, the trial was nowhere in sight. It was a long wait. One that lasted two entire years and in the meantime Mehta was out on bail. All Solidworks could do was pray that there were no more copies available for prospective buyers.

Meanwhile, GSSL is still recovering from an immediate loss in business and probably loss in prospective clientele. Parpia said, "There were many American firms who were in touch with GSSL but after the incident, they vanished. I don’t know if it was the incident that scared them away but they never came back to India for any projects. I think GSSL and India lost a lot of business.

Then two months later, in November, the biggest hit-of-them all occurred. Cisco, admitted that they were looking into a source code theft. A group called the Source Code Club, SCC, claimed they had the code and demanded a price of $240,000 for it.

A Cisco employee on the condition of anonymity said, "My friend used to find means of cheating company security systems. He used to use his bluetooth enabled devices to upload the source code files to the internet, and then sell it to other companies or pretend it was his own work and get better jobs with other companies."

Sources say the Cisco code has allegedly been stolen by former employees based in India. If that is confirmed, then this would go down as the third high profile source code theft in the country to have been reported in the last two years, all within a span of four months.

Sources told CNBC-TV18 that after initial investigations were through, the leads are now pointing towards India. How groups like the SCC get their hands on a data source code is not so easy to trace but there are employees who are on the constant lookout for a buyer.

A huge faction of the foreign media and many American firms are now branding India as every outsourcers nightmare, in terms of security and the enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights, IPR.

Some players feel it is too early to call the thefts in India, a rising trend. What is worrying however is the way the Indian judiciary has responded to such cases and that is what differentiates the US from India.

Parpia added, "The essential difference is in the enforceability. In the US, people are more relaxed because they know the law will take its course. But the judiciary in India works on a precedent and there are none right now. The outcome of the GSSL case will be of great importance to the IT industry in India, in that sense."

Another situation which came to light is of Sandeep Jolly, the owner of Jolly Technologies. He was operating from San Carlos in the US. Then in 2004, he decided to cash in on the hottest outsourcing destination - India. He began research and development for his products in Mumbai, from an apartment in Powai. His products included identity cards for security firms in the United States including the US army.

He hired a group of young enthusiastic software engineers and began operations in March 2004. A few months into the operations, Jolly’s executives say they noticed one of their recruits spending a lot of time on the internet. Taking precautions, he moved her to a different department but according to him, the damage had already been done. His investigations revealed that the employee had been uploading several source codes to an unknown e-mail account. Gathering further evidence, Jolly and his employees restored deleted files. He took these to the cyber crime department, but he says they took no interest.

Sandeep said, "They (the police) were not of too much assistance. They told us that property enforcement rights are not there in India and they cannot do too much about it." He adds that the links in the case are details of the files that were uplinked by the employee to various mail IDs. He approached Yahoo for the details but was asked to get a letter from the local police. Jolly claims this has not been done yet.

While the police refused to comment officially, sources in the cyber-crime wing told us that they did not believe the Jolly case was genuine. The company had not kept records of computers on which their employees were working and as a result it could not be ascertained if there was source code theft or not.

Jolly Technologies has sued the Mumbai Police. But the police have their own version of this case. They say that the employee alleges that Sandeep Jolly sexually harassed her and persistently asked her out to movies and dinner. Apparently it was not anything overt but but there was something happening here, which has led the police to believe that Sandeep was making a preemptive move.

In a recent hearing, the high court has asked the Mumbai Police to file an affidavit of what actions they have taken so far. Jolly fears it may be too late. The FBI officials say that since the matter has already been reported to the local police, it would not be proper for them to investigate. Jolly has pulled out of its operations in Mumbai.

Those directly affected by such thefts, say that many major firms in the US are watching these cases and will act depending on the outcome of the trial.

Vice President of Zinnov Technology, Vamsee Tirukalla said, "Every client meeting I go to, they ask me what has happened in the GSSL case. Every major player in the US wants to know what the outcome of the case will be and here in India the case has only just gone to trial. I guess in the US, when someone is arrested for a source code theft, the organization knows the law will take its course. However in India, people think they can steal a source code and get away with it."

Analysts however say that the benefits of outsourcing are too many, for an international company to pull out of India entirely.

Written for www.moneycontrol.com

Burnout: First sizzle and then fizzle out

A great career and having achieved everything early in life is a sure sign of success but it may come at a very high price. Burnout is evident, when too much is done at a breakneck pace. Stories abound of players in their teens who shone and had a lot of promise and then fizzled out in their early twenties. Hot shot popstars, sportspersons and movie stars are more prone than most to this phenomenon

Former cricketer, Javagal Srinath agrees, "It (burnout) is a real issue, if you see the demands on players these days, as well as the length of the season, these two factors definitely contribute to burnouts. And burnouts is just not for everyone, it’s for the people who have really achieved and the overly dedicated people.

Managing Director & CEO, Deutsche Bank India, Gunit Chadha told CNBC-TV18, "Even though one would argue that the longevity in the corporate world, of an average life span is much longer than in the cricketing world. But increasingly, I think a combination of peer pressure, of the reward which goes with success, is making a lot of young talent actually burn themselves out by the time they enter the late 30s or early 40s. So I think it is a real phenomenon, which has started to emerge in India."

Burnout - the very term connotes an ending. It may be true in extreme cases but most people mistake a slump for a permanent fizzling out. Even though retiring from centrestage for players may be due to their physical condition, psychological condition or motivatio levels. Ironically, these are the same factors that also characterise people who have burned out. Srinath prefers to call certain temporary down periods as a "slump or staleness."

Both the physical and emotional aspects affect a person's preformance. Srinath explained, "If your mind is really stressed, then obviously it reflects in your body and if your body is really tired then it reflects in you mind. So I think both equally contribute to the staleness or burnouts that we are talking about."

In the corporate scene, there are certain people with extreme perfectionist tendencies who are at a high risk of fading away at a younger age. The employee who spends 70-hours a week in office and does not take any vacations or it may be a person who is really a perfectionist and hugely competitive and is struggling under a lot of peer pressure.

Chadha said, "I think it’s a convergence of the the two. The two prototypes really become one prototype - aggressive, competitive - who wants to put in those extra hours, wants to have excellence plus be a perfectionist."

He added, "One thing is that I lead by example - I take my 3-4 vacations a year! So that’s a good start. But on a more serious note - at Deutsche Bank for instance, we have Friday dress downs, which again inculcates a little amount of relaxation in the office. We recently had a Deutsche Bank cricket tournament where we invited Deutsche Bank teams from Sri Lanka, Pakistan, India and Singapore to come down and spent three days in celebration."

"We do a lot of Deutsche Bank off-sides. So in various respects, we try to make employees have fun, build team work and not let people become the victims of their own success. So I think leadership in an organisation has a lot to play in this as well." However, Srinath reiterated that spotting this tendency to overdo things is half the problem solved and is a great preventive measure.

Chadha opined, "I think most of it is because of the pressure that you put on yourself. As you build longevity in your career, you start judging yourself in your own mirror, in your own soul, within ourselves rather than in the eyes of the beholder. I think when you reach that realization, I think you can cut back the pressure because then you are not doing it for public opinion, you are doing it for yourself."

Corporates are taking the issue of burnouts seriously. But with corporates tightening their belts, "people are moving from 40-50 hours work weeks to 72-80 hours work weeks. The pressure on individuals is growing and burnouts are starting to increase. I think it’s a very clear phenomena in this century," says Chadha. The flipside is that managements are also encouraging the habit of burning the midnight oil by rewarding such hardworking employees with bonuses and thus perpetuating the vicious circle.

Chadha explained, "Very often what happens is when employees burn out, people make wrong judgments and rather than remodify the situation, the employee probably leaves the company or takes VRS or does something to that effect and that’s what the competitive pressure of life makes you do."

"But I think as employers start respecting talent more and creating preventive conditions in organisations that are more amenable to employees ie. creates balance between work and family, I think the problem will correct itself. Companies' responses would get more preventive driven, but at the the same time I think the social stigma, which is associated with burnouts and losing jobs will come down. People will just accept it as reality."

Written eons ago for my former employer www.moneycontrol.com but it's still valid today.

Cut the crap

Indians are travelling a lot these days, which is a good thing because travelling widens your horizons considerably. What I really enjoy hearing about is how amazed they all seem at the level of cleanliness and civic manners found there.

It’s such a pity that we need to go abroad to learn it ourselves. I have some questions to ask such globetrotters.

* Do you not know that defecating, urinating, spitting and worse in public is not exactly entertainment for others? These things are not done only by the lower class and illiterate people in India. A lot of educated people throw snack wrappers out of their cars or spit in public or get out of cars and water the plants, where they can find them!

* Do you know that your pampered pets called Frisky, Rhino, Cocoa etc are not allowed to poop in public? Since they don’t know that, you should be vigilant and pick up after them, the way you would be expected to do if you were walking your pet in New York, Sydney, London or Moscow. I’ve seen so many well-heeled pet owners – yes, the ones who look like they travel quite a bit – who look the other way while their pets are decorating places like Worli Seaface and Marine Drive. No wonder, pets are going to be banned from Marine Drive.

* You can bet some bleeding heart will object to this and it most likely will be a pet owner, who never picks up his/her doggy poo. Why should they? Aren’t they paying a poor BMC worker to do that?

Would they be using this line of argument with a US cop who would have fined them with a look of disgust on his face. The minute he said something like ‘Go back to India and do this because it’s not allowed here’, they would have gone crying to the media and claimed racial abuse. I, for one, would applaud the cop’s attitude. After all, he’s doing his job and maintaining law and order in his country, so obviously he’s not going to accept tourists and immigrants treating his country like a public toilet.

Foreign countries are clean and great places to visit because they are kept that way by their citizens. I don’t think they have started importing our poor BMC souls yet to clean up after them. We need to wake up and take responsibility for our (and our pets’) actions and not expect a ‘clean and green’ country to emerge like a miracle overnight. We need to make it happen.

The only constant thing is change and a drastic change in attitude would help. To start with, importing a desire to keep our country clean would be a great idea. Let’s live and learn the good stuff.

Written for www.dancewithshadows.com

A Sip Tip

 

Every other day or so, going to a coffee shop to unwind and enjoy rich, creamy coffees is what almost anyone can do these days. With Cafe Coffee Day, Barista, Starbucks, DiBella and Costa outlets present in every nook and corner, this is a convenience anyone can indulge in.

The teas and coffees are not 'cutting chai' rates obviously, but they are worth the bucks you pay for them. But I have actually noticed something at the Barista I go to often here in Mumbai and you need to watch out for this cheap little trick as well.

I once ordered Triple Sec, which is a mocha with an orange liqueur in it. I never add the sugar without taking a sip to see if it's needed or not because most often it's not really required and, I like the slightly dark and bitter tang of ground beans to hit my taste buds.

This is personal quirk and in this case it proved to be so right. That's because the Triple Sec drink came - and after a quick sip - I realised that something was off. No, they had not spiked it with anything fishy, but I didn't even get a whiff of oranges. So, I had some more of the coffee, and then asked the staff to add the liqueur in because I didn't feel they had put in any, in the first place. This way they had to even top up my coffee while adding in the liqueur, so I got a free refill as well. Also very clearly visible at the bottom of the glass, was a layer of orange liquid that I had not seen there before. Seeing is believing.

They had tried to fool me into paying them for something that they didn't include in my coffee despite them always asking customers, if they wanted any extras like toffee, hazelnut, Irish liqueur, chocolate sauce etc, and for which they charge anywhere between Rs 40 - Rs 50 extra.

So do what I did - take the sip test and make sure you get what you ordered because if it is not added in your coffee, it will be surely added in your bill.

100 best global brands: Indian brands absent

BusinessWeek put out a list of the 100 Best Global brands in 2009, compiled by the consultancy Interbrand. Some brands have prospered amid the hard times — or at least held their own. Others have slipped a number of places. However, the magazine's website also issued a disclaimer that, "The brand valuations draw upon publicly available information, which has not been independently investigated by Interbrand. Valuations do not represent a guarantee of future performance of the brands or companies."

Overall clothing brands like Gucci, H&M and Zara have risen on this list and so have producers of perishable consumer goods like Kellog’s, McDonald’s, Marlboro, Pepsi, Budweiser, Heinz and Nescafe. Coca-Cola reigned supreme for two years in a row (2008 and 09) – that’s probably because it’s the one thing that most people consume without too much thought given to it. What’s a few liquid calories - it’s not like you have hogged a cholesterol filled meal at McDonald’s, right?

Some electronic manufacturers who did better than their peers are: Hewlett-Packard, Cisco, Apple, Samsung, Philips and Canon. Tried and trusted Sony and branded-assembled PC-maker Dell dropped down this list.

The brands who retained their last time’s position were IBM, Nokia, Microsoft, GE and Coca-Cola. While two software manufacturers – IBM and Microsoft – stayed true to their brand perception, Intel and Oracle actually fell down this ladder while SAP climbed up this beanstalk.

Car brands BMW, Toyota and Mercedes also slid down the list but Honda raced ahead. Ford remained at starting position – at No.49.

Bankers like American Express, HSBC and Citibank all fell in this ranking possibly because of all the scandals that continue to keep emerging about how over-extended most banks are in the US and how non productive some of their assets have turned out to be. If after analysing all the data and having all the best brains at your disposal, one can still make goof ups of such gigantic proportions, then some solid, plain ole common sense is the much required commodity now – not some more fancy and abstruse hedge fund. The ones who maintained their position but really lower down the list were JP Morgan (at 37) and Goldman Sachs (at 38).

Online brands, Google and Amazon moved up but eBay stayed stagnant at No.46.

The luxury brands Ikea ranked higher but Louis Vuitton stayed put at No.16.

News service provider Thomson Reuters climbed up this list to 40 from 44, as did advisory firm Accenture to 45 from 47.


The children’s entertainment segment was represented by Disney which dropped to No.10 (from 9) and Nintendo which crawled up to No.39 (from 40). So, what’s happening here - kids were bored with saccharine sweet princesses and were more interested in animated machismo?

What this list also shows is that not a single Indian brand made the cut. Where are all those loudly advertised, publicity hogging 'brands' created by fashion designers, architecture and interior design firms or manufacturers of leather products and furniture and car designers. Our car manufacturers didn't make it either. The reason could be that Indian brands have less recall than the people behind it - very much to their brand's detriment.

India doesn't have any Frank Wright, Philippe Starck, Roberto Cavalli, Steve Jobs, Richard Branson - no one who is globally recognisable and synonymous with either a particular brand or India. So, it's high time, India's businesses let their brand do the talking for them. Make it more about the product and less about the personality...especially if the personality is not going to be à la Richard Branson.

Data: Interbrand, BusinessWeek. To view the table, click here: http://bwnt.businessweek.com/interactive_reports/best_global_brands_2009/

Job hunting: What's the forecast?

More than any other crises, the only one people truly care about is whether or not they have a job. Everything else looks tolerable when you have steady income coming in and shoring up your bank account. With the plethora of job websites up, there are a lot of resumes that can be scanned and there are apparently a number of jobs available as well. These jobs ofcourse don’t fit every experience profile but that’s where head-hunters are expected to do their matchmaking – fixing up the right people to the correct jobs on offer.

Naukri.com has been coming out with a monthly report of what’s on offer with regard to jobs, salary and increment expectations, which sectors are hot and which are not etc. The report is a nice glimpse at what’s going on in the jobs scenario, especially when the hearsay is that recruitment is stagnating or the jobs on offer are not quite in keeping with a person’s experience or expectations.

The former may be a myth but the latter is true. I’ve personally got offers from just about anyone and everyone who wants to do something or anything with writing and editing. There is no saying how long those firms have been around and how long are they likely to last, if you went to work for them. So, I’ve not been tempted to apply for most of those job-alerts I keep receiving from the website. There may be many like me out there – eminently employable but just not eager to grab drab offers.

May be that is the reason why the naukri.com report JobSpeak states that: “Hiring activity dipped across all experience bands in December ’09 owing to the end-of-year holiday season, with the maximum decline of 6.7% in the 4 to 7 years experience buckets.”



Graphic source: Naukri.com JobSpeak Report

As the pie chart (from the JobSpeak report) shows, the number of people who fall in the 4-7 years job experience category is the largest at 36% followed by 31% who are in the 0-3 years category of experience and 22% who fall somewhere between these two – in the 8-12 years experience category.

Here are some other points to ponder from the Naukri Hiring Outlook Survey 2010 that the site has e-mailed with their routine report. Since this is going to be subjective and the nature of the questions require people to ‘project’ a picture, let’s hope that in actuality, things develop along these lines.

Recruiters say that:
- 72.3% of recruiters say that new jobs will be created.
- 24.2% say that replacement hiring will continue.
- 1.2% believe that layoff will happen.
- 2.3% of the population believe that no jobs will be created.

There’s a slight goof up with this one in the report. I’ve corrected it here. Most hiring to take place in the 1-3 years experience bands. So, this is not good news for people with more experience who don't want to do BPO kind of jobs.
- Fresher's- 9%
- 1-3 years- 42.1%
- 4-8 years- 40%
- Above 8 years- 9%

Recruiters say that:
- 43.6% say increments will range between 5% to 10%
- 40.7% recruiters expect it to range between 10% to 20%
- 8.9% expect above 20% increments
- Only 6.7% expect it to be less than 5%

There’s more easy-to-understand information in this 10 page survey report. Read it here: http://w10.naukri.com/mailers/recruiter/Hiring_Surve/Hiring_Outlook_Survey_jan10.pdf?othersrcp=10385&wExp=N

Who created the most wealth in India?

The global economy is dancing all over the scoreboard and the people who have to keep up with twinkle toes – stock brokers, bankers, economists, business-owners – all have their hands full. Everyone is coming out with a set of numbers and studying them for us - laypeople. Motilal Oswal has also done the same but they have come out with a wealth creation study which makes for interesting reading.

This report looks at the top 100 companies who have added atleast Rs 1 billion to their market capitalization over a period of 5 years – 2004-09 – that was reviewed. The report also aims to gauge by when India will hit the next trillion dollars (NTD) high note again after having done it for the first time in the financial year 2008. But the next NTD is predicted to be created a lot quicker – in the next 5-6 years - if India continues to grow nominally at 12%-15% per annum and at the current US$/INR rates.

In the run-up to this NTD era, the report sets down the criteria, by which Indian companies will be significantly adding to their bottomline as well as your portfolio, if you held on to or bought their stocks. These companies all enjoy three kinds of entry barriers and have great managers helming them:

1. Demand-side includes customer captivity due to a strongly differentiated product/brand, force of habit or high switching costs, including the difficulty of searching for substitutes. These brands enjoy strong distribution network. Demand-side entry barriers such as trusted brands are intangible and typically result in firms enjoying very high return on capital.

2. Supply-side entry barrier mainly arise from the company being the lowest
cost provider of goods/services in the category due to one or more of the following:
a. Patent protection for products and/or production processes; and
b. Privileged access to critical inputs (eg captive ore mines).

3. Economies of Scale

4. Great management

So, which companies made the grade based on the above selection process? Here they are:

- Hero Honda Motor because it’s a market leader.
- Maruti Suzuki because it has appropriate product mix with the widest distribution and service network.
- Mahindra & Mahindra because it’s a market leader in UVs and tractors with an excellent track record of innovations.
- BHEL because it enjoys near monopoly in thermal power plants.
- Larsen & Toubro because it’s the preferred engineering/construction company for complex projects.
- HDFC Bank (in private sector) because it’s a high brand equity with the most consistent performance track record.
- State Bank of India (public sector) because it’s the largest bank with the highest reach and which offers play on insurance as well.
- CRISIL because it is the No.1 in India and belongs to the group of global No.1, Standard & Poor.
- HDFC because it is the long-standing market leader with lowest processing costs.
- Dabur India because it enjoys strong positioning in the ayurveda / herbal products platform.
- Nestle India because it’s a near monopoly in instant noodles and infant nutrition.
- Mundra Port because it’s one of the largest ports on the Gujarat coas.
- Sun TV because it has dominant market share in South India.
- Pantaloon Retail because it is a market leader by far and enjoys significant early mover advantage.
- Bharti Airtel because it has the highest market share, lowest cost and is a well-recognized brand.

What also emerged in this study was that:
• Value migrates from basic spend to discretionary spend categories.
• Winner categories emerge when demand hits the J-curve – this means that when product prices match a large section of the customers’ affordability level.
• The categories which can become large in relation to the economy emerge winners.
• Consolidated categories will benefit more than fragmented ones.

Some 66 companies with entry barriers created Rs 8,314 billion between 2004-09. The remaining 34 companies with no or low entry barriers accounted for Rs 1,323 billion in the same timeframe.

Here are some of the other salient points:

• The sensex earning per share (EPS) will grow up to 29% in the early FY11. Beyond this period, it will revert to a median of 15%-20%.

• Interest rates may remain at the same level or may move higher.

• The highest wealth destroyer industries between 2004-09 were: Others – 24%, Oil & Gas – 17%, Banking & Finance – 16%, Auto – 13%, Pharma – 12%, IT – 11%, Metals – 6%.

• The highest wealth destroyer companies in the same time period (in the order mentioned) were: Ranbaxy, IOCL, Tata Motors, ICICI Bank, HPCL, Satyam Computer, Oriental Bank, Tata Steel, Reliance Infrastructure and MTNL.

• Wealth creating companies were mostly new-blood firms that were around less than 40 years. For eg. There were 60 companies that had been around for only 40 years and they had created wealth amounting to Rs 6,700 billion. While the older firms of 50 years and above (there were 40 of them) had created only Rs 2,917 billion between 2004-09.

• 30 public sector units (PSUs) at one time were contributing almost 50.6% of the wealth between 2000-05. After the phased out divestment process, 16 PSUs contributed 27% between 2004-09.

• The best performing PSU sectors were mining & metals (37%), engineering (25%) followed by oil & gas (23%).

• 43 MNCs created a high of 50% of the wealth in the country between 1994-99 and it dropped to 2% (by 8 companies) between 1999-2004. From 2004-09, around 23 companies made 14% of the wealth.

• The best performing MNC sectors were FMCG (63%), Engineering (13%) and Automobiles (10%).

• The private sector created 73% of the wealth – by 84 companies in 2004-09.

The Fastest Wealth Creators were: Unitech, Areva T&D, BF Utilities, Opto Circuits, NMDC, Shri City Union, United Spirits, Jindal Steel, Sterling International and Chettinad Cement.

The Biggest Wealth Creators were: Reliance Industries, Bharti Airtel, BHEL, NMDC, ONGC, ITC, Infosys, Larsen & Toubro, SAIL and HDFC.

Consistent Wealth Creators - 2005 to 2009
Pharma
􀂄 Cipla (4)
􀂄 Dr Reddy's Lab (3)
􀂄 GSK Pharma (2)
􀂄 Piramal Health. (4)
􀂄 Ranbaxy Lab (4)
􀂄 Sun Pharma (2)
FMCG
􀂄 Asian Paints (3)
􀂄 ITC (5)
􀂄 Nestle India (1)
Others
􀂄 Hero Honda (5)
􀂄 HDFC (5)
􀂄 HDFC Bank (1)
IT
􀂄 Infosys (3)
􀂄 Wipro (3)
􀂄 Satyam (2)
Others
􀂄 Reliance Inds (2)
􀂄 Ambuja Cement (1)

Number in brackets shows how many times these companies appeared in the top 10 list.

For a more detailed study, take a look at the report here:
http://www.motilaloswal.com/MOSL/uploadedFiles/MOSL/Knowledge_Center/Wealth_Creation_Study/Download_Reports/14thWCS.pdf

Destination: Lush & Serene Kodaikanal

Take a holiday and journey through lush Kodaikanal in Tamil Nadu via this photo essay.







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Written for Jetwings.