What does India need today?

This blog is written and owned by Saurabh Gupta
India has 1/6th of world's population, best technology institutes and biggest democracy in the world. We have lots of other things to feel good about and we are in the direction to make this country best of the places to live in the world. There has been numerous preachers, thinkers and philosophers existing for thousands of years who have given directions to the countries.

What have we got today? We have got the work force, the energy and the zeal, not to compete or think relative w.r.t. other countries, but to evolve at an absolute level, at a level much higher than any other level existing, much broader than anyone can imagine. What we truly need today, is a leader and its not anymore the ancient Roman empire where everything can be governed by a Church.We truly need first generation entrepreneurs, who have the vision and appetite to eat the world.

If I ask the honorable Prime Minister of India that where is our country heading, he will very humbly say 'to the future', but he can only provide us the means and show us the direction. What we truly need is a thought, a virus (keeda) which can lit up millions of souls in this country to create business and to sell it through out the world. Its not because it would solve the employment, infrastructure, literacy and growth problems of the country; but it would provide a platform for innovation and excellence to cultivate. Innovation that can take us to the next millennium, to the next level.

I have always believed that we live not in our times but in our dreams. If we can dream the future and help thousands of other people do the same then we, the country of India, can contribute a ton, for the growth of the society.

Whose responsibility is it at the first place to redefine what is already defined? Or, let me reframe the question, who is expected by the common man to redefine what is defined? India invests crores of rupees on the Technical institutes, Management institutes (IITs/IIMs/NITs) and its our responsibility to not crib about the system but deliver and preach what we have learned.
I have heard thousands of people all over the world cribbing about the social conditions, economic policies, infrastructural issues etc existing in India. If its a way to justify yourselves that you don't want to contribute in the corrupt system, then you were never destined to do that anyway. But if you have slightest doubt that you will feel sorry for not paying this debt back, then its not worth a life.Thousands of IITians and IIM grads move out for everything that they curse don't exist here. Who would the government look up to solve these problems?
It has happened forever that some people crib about the system in their entire lives, while others go out and solve the problems. We are born in a time when we have the freedom to choose and think about our futures. At least use it to contribute and not to crib and plug in negative energy in the system. If you can't do anything about it, then at least support the people who are willing to do the same. That would be better than sitting in your balcony and cribbing.

Remember one thing, if you choose this or ignore this, don't mean a thing to anyone. Its bound to happen in the coming time, you would feel good in the end if you work for it.

This is what they call Gunda Raj

Date: 21st Oct. 2008, I woke up in the morning and like everyday, I switched on my TV. It was some news channel with its “Breaking News”. To my surprise, news this time was indeed breaking news. It said 'MNS Chief, Raj Thackeray arrested in Ratnagiri at about 2:30 AM'.

Raj Thackeray has addressed the issue of growth and opportunities of Maharashtrians (“Marathi Manoos”) all the time which according to him meant growth of Maharashtra. It's good to see that he cares about its local people much more than most of our leaders who visit their constituencies once in a while just to ask for their support. Somehow I am not quite convinced about his intentions and approach. In his campaigns, I see same old tactics of politicians to misguide voters and common men, just to grab power and public wealth.

Just to mention, political career of Raj Thackeray started when he quit his Uncle’s (Bala Saheb Thackeray) party (Shiv Sena) and started his own political party “Maharashtra Nav-nirmaan Sena (MNS)” to gain some power and establish his own identity. Most of us already know how a virtually non-existent leader of Shiv Sena grew up to become one of the most popular leader of Maharashtra almost overnight. Since then he is trying to prove his superiority over his counterparts in Shiv Sena.

Now my concern is that if this is someone’s personal matter then why common men is being dragged into all this. How can anybody expect to show his superiority by openly challenging law and order? It’s certainly not possible in an educated society, but I guess it’s baseless to assume such things in our country where you can convince anyone to fight and even kill others for incentives that can be as small as a bottle of liquor and meal for one time.

These leaders (I do believe MNS chief is not the only one. Almost 90% of our leaders are doing this) make use of this population and misuse their powers, resources, infrastructure and above all man-hours. All of above mentioned things are to a large extent tax payer’s money. So directly or indirectly it is affecting all of us.

Let us analyze few incidents that happened in the recent past:

At the time when our popular leader got arrested recently the very first reaction of his own party workers (who I assume share same feelings for their very own state) is to torch buses, taxis, bus stands, toll plaza. What are they doing now? Is it a agitation against North Indians as half of the labor employed in these places are North Indians, or is it agitation against the system which did not take any action against their leader till it became inevitable. I assume, in the end, that it's nothing but agitation against growth and progress of wealthiest state of the country.

In the end they are doing same things against the reason for which they are fighting … poor people!!! Or maybe they have been ordered by their chief to destroy everything that has any association with North Indians. :)

Secondly, let’s go back to from where it all started? How is it possible that our dedicated leader has realized that this state is being dominated by North Indian population just when state elections are close? Why is he doing all this? If this is just to be in power, I have a different opinion on it. Assuming MNS might come into power by all of this. What next??... Raj Thackeray will become new Chief Minister of the state. He will have few more powers to influence local people or maybe he can go ahead and ban North Indians from working in the state so that his very own “Marathi Manoos” get a preferential treatment in their very own state. But wait!! He is doing all this right now and maybe he is doing it much openly and effortlessly than he will be able to do when he is in power.

What else might be the reason to do all this? Next thing which I can think of is monetary gains. But in common man’s language we call it corruption. Oops!!! Knowingly or unknowingly quite a few of us have supported a potentially corrupt leader in this case.

Huh!! Not again. It’s hard to believe so much blind followers of a person who has indicated his greed for money and power. If this is even 10% true, I simply feel sorry for the future of this state. There should be a law that can impose a life time ban on political careers of people with such intentions. But, we are living in a democratic country where anything is possible if you have power. :)

There is no doubt that standard of life and opportunities in few cities in Maharashtra is much much better than any other city in India. Having said that, we can’t deny that it's a collaborative effort of more than 50 years rather than efforts of a particular community or group. So it’s my sincere request to our Marathi friends to not get carried away without any reason and collaboratively contribute towards the growth of the state.

If incidents like this keep on happening, I, being an employer, don’t find a reason to continue creating jobs here when I don’t feel safe and I am forced to employ workforce on the basis of their origin rather than their abilities.

This is just my personal opinion and everyone is free to agree or disagree. I chose this platform just because I could not organize a rally in some huge ground or gain media attention like our esteemed leaders to express my opinion.

Singur Nano story - Was Bengal ready for it?

This blog is written and owned by Saurabh Gupta
Nano (Lakhtakia) has remained in the news channels, summits and discussion forums worldwide for various reasons; be it the cheapest car tag, car for poor tag, India's technology showcase tag, Tata's promise to poor tag or the dispute over the farmer's land.

This story brings in the foreground the other side of the emerging Brand India, where some States are not ready for the change or atleast the political leaders are not ready for the change. It's the beauty of democracy which gives us the right to get the public cooperation and turn around things, and India is a living example of this concept. I would also like to bring up that if we really want things to move as planned by the government then we should move to the concept of Communism like China, but do we really want that? I would vote for 'No' as we cherish Freedom - freedom of words, thoughts, ideas and we believe in the same. I am sure that Tatas would have done great job for the future of Bengal, no doubt about it but is it only Future that we should invest in? I want to quote an example out here to give a lateral picture of what I am thinking - I always used to curse people who steal National property but never thought why they do the same. Some do it for fun and I still curse them, but there are some who are hungry and hunger comes before National identity; they steal because they are struggling with their Present. They laugh at these speeches because they are not sure about their Present and leaders are busy planning for Future. The leaders are putting money for Future but are they fulfilling the dreams of the Present? I don't know the answer to this question because all of this is politically driven but I think its a good mathematical problem as to what proportion of the national funds should be used for Future and what for Present?

Let's discuss Singur plant story, Tatas are finally planning to move out of Bengal and Singur plant is shut. Somewhere over the net, I read that its a black day for Bengal and India, and I will say Yes & I might support No too. Ratan Tata said it right that if Bengal doesn't need them then they will go away and they stood by their words. It's the decision taken by the State of Bengal to not support Tatas and they will see impact of the same in coming years, but who knows they might be happy with it. Mamata might get people's support and become CM, people would feel happier with no industrialization in the State and Tatas would get a better deal in other State. So, in the end everyone might feel happy, except the current CM who wanted the change but didn't check whether the time is right or not. You can't bring a change until the time is right. Among all of this chaos ,what will happen to the youth of Bengal. What about their Future? No issues, people move to other places if there are gaps in the system. IITians used to move to US in 80s & 90s for the same reason. People from all over the country come to Maharashtra for the same reason. We might see the Bengal government after 15 years cribbing about brain drain problem. But what should a good leader do in between all this bullshit?
Some weeks back I was given a brain teaser, when this whole Singur issue was connected to Indian partition issue in 1947. Jinnah's role was assumed to be played by Ratan Tata who is interested in Nano project only, Nehru's role was assumed to be played by Mamata Banerjee who is interested in West Bengal only, Nano plant was assumed to be Pakistan which either stays with Bengal or go away (with Ratan Tata), West Bengal now was assumed to be India and Mahatma Gandhi's role was assumed to be played by Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. I didn't know that answer then as I wasn't sure whether moving out of Bengal (or parallely having a separate country) was a better solution or not, but in the end its about safety of our people and in democracy people come first. So, Bengal people decided against Singur and Tatas are out. People call 14th August 1947 as a black day for India and we are still fighting because of that one decision. Gandhi in 1947 was looking for peaceful lands which didn't turn out as planned. Same might exist over here too, but living in the same land and fighting is not the solution. I don't know whether it is right or not but I am sure that there exists many dimensions to this whole story.

Will this have impact on India shining story?

Answers turn up to questions now

This blog is written and owned by Saurabh Gupta
Dynamics of the world economics is at the verge of changing and it will impact, in a big way, our age old thought process and the way we used to solve problems. The failure of US financial system questions back the authenticity of all the answers and solutions known and taught for decades. This situation also questions back all the notions told in the existing lecture series, workshop sessions and other study material.
Now, a kid can question back in the class that if a 150 year old bank can collapse with all the smart people around, then what is the guarantee that the theorems taught in my class will solve the world problems; and we should stop faking that we know the answers. We should look for new approaches, then simply looking up to some one to come up with answers. We can crib for almost everything around saying that this is the way this business is run, but we are living in a time where history is written and we should learn from it.
You might find these words bookish but this is my solution to the problems around, and if you think other wise then it's good too because any successful economy requires two types of people - Leaders and Followers. People in between these two categories create problems in the system.

Things around are about to change; many big giants will go down and new empires will emerge. It's not a time to feel bad about the lost money. Soon we will see many new empires defining new rules and changing world dynamics.

Lets see how things shape up ......

Feeling that you have a thought to add, go for it!!