7 Habits of effective Entrepreneurs

Source: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, by Stephen R. Covey

Highly successful people have exactly seven habits according to Stephen R. Covey. 

Get involved - Standing on the sidelines does not befit an entrepreneur. Involvement in not just your own business but also the segment you are in will be beneficial. Sitting in your own office and hoping people will seek you out is just wrong. Go to conferences, meet people socialize, and who knows you might just find inspiration or the next best thing a mentor… 

Prioritize - Learn to attack your work from a priority point of view. Some things are more necessary than others. Often the curse of success is that you have no idea where to focus because you have so many projects going at the same time. Sit down with your team, find out what needs immediate attention, and get cracking. First priorities first will get you though a mountain of work in a jiffy…

Delegate - For an entrepreneur to handing out responsibilities may seem a very natural thing to do but most of our ilk refuses to give up the reins. The other extreme of no involvement is the perfectionist who tries to do everything… Learn to place trust in people, choose a team that inspires trust and is worthy of it. Delegate responsibilities and free up time for yourself to focus on the matters you are good at. You cannot possible be an expert at everything so DELEGATE…

Inspire - An entrepreneur is the ring master of the circus that is their start up. You have to be the one who gets everyone fired up when the going gets tough. Remember everyone looks to you for leadership so learn to be inspiring. Get to work before others, be the change that you want to see in your employees, set examples and push people to be the best they can be.

Read between the lines - Learning to understand what is not being said is an important quality for an entrepreneur to have. Imagine of you could tell which employee is disgruntled just by reading their body language or tone. Would it not be great if you could gauge the reactions of investors just by glancing at their expressions?  Deciphering Body language may not be for everyone but if you stay approachable then people will open up to you be they employees or prospective investors.

Hiring talent - Someone once told me that great idea with a mediocre team will fail but a mediocre idea with a great team will inevitably succeed. The reasons are simple your idea is not a stagnant entity but grows with the inputs that are made to it. The better the caliber of the people who are making the inputs the better the end product will become…Hire smart responsible people, run background checks keep a close eye on your hires and that should do the trick.

Share success - An entrepreneur is only as good as the team that backs them up. Share the limelight with them whenever possible, make your team feel wanted and not as if they are slaving away for you for just a paycheck in a 9 to5. If they believe in your vision give them assurances that they are a part of it. Sharing profits is great but sharing the limelight too is even better.

India to sign trademark protection treaty

India would join the World Intellectual Property Organization's Madrid System for the International Registration of Marks this year. This would enable the owner of a registered trademark to protect his brand in the member countries.

"There is a big process to join the Madrid System and India would come [on board] in 2010," WIPO Director General Francis Gurry said. He said more countries from South America, particularly Colombia, Mexico and Brazil are expected to join the trade mark protection system.

Though India has been holding consultations with WIPO for several years about joining the Madrid System, the government was unable to take a final call till now, analysts said.

Infringement of trademarks is a huge problem in some of the Asian countries, especially China, Vietnam, and India, where pirated goods with well-known global marks are easily available at a fraction of the actual price.

China ranked first among countries most designated for trademark protection last year. Close to 15,000 trademark owners chose China for designation of their marks, followed by the Russian Federation, the United States, Switzerland, and the European Union.

The members of the Madrid Union notified 303,344 new designations (contained in new registrations or extension in other countries) last year, a drop of 20 per cent compared to 2008. In submitting a trademark application, an applicant has to indicate where the goods or services are designated for protection.

The global economic downturn has had an adverse impact on trade mark filings last year, said Gurry. "International trademark filings took a hit in 2009," he said, "this is not surprising given the difficult financial conditions and restrained consumer demand facing countries around the world."

Last year, the number of applications for international trademark filings dropped by 16 per cent, from 42,075 in 2008 to 35,195 last year, a development vindicating that companies are more cautious about bringing new products to markets when there is considerable economic uncertainty.

D Ravi Kanth

Source: 

Weblink: http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/india-to-sign-trademark-protection-treaty/389111/

Approaching a VC? Here is a checklist

By   Sikta Samantaray

Bangalore: Seeing the growth of Indian software market, Ravi Varma started its own software venture in 2005, but could not go long and had to shut company's door in 2007, as he failed to raise fund from venture capitalists (VCs).

Currently working as a Vice President - Strategy in an IT firm, Varma graduated from IIM, Bangalore in 2004. After running the business for two years without any financial support, Ravi thought that his company had all the right credentials needed by venture capitalists, but when he pitched his ideas to around 10 VCs, he realized that his idea is premature and cannot be funded by any venture firm. 

Not only Varma, there are several such start-up entrepreneurs, who are in a race to raise VC funding. So, to help these emerging entrepreneurs, SiliconIndia talked to some of the VCs to know the important factors that can help these entrepreneurs to improve their chances of getting funded. Here are some important thoughts being given by VCs:

Do you have a Team to lead?

A company may have a big business idea, but working individually may not help it to achieve the objective. It is the team which may help one's idea to convert into a profitable product or service. Anurakt Jain, Analyst, Draper Fisher Jurvetson India said, "VCs invest in a team, so sell the team. A start-up should know well about their team members before pitching to VCs."

Pitch

The process of raising fund can be one of the more physically and emotionally draining parts of starting a business. It can go on for weeks or months, taking away focus from business. As an entrepreneur seeking funding, one need to demonstrate that he/she is very clear about his/her idea and how he/she would build an economically viable business around it. Rajesh Vakil, Head, Siemens Venture Capital, India said, "Put together a good investor presentation that covers all aspects of the business plan. A weak presentation can put off VCs easily." Speaking on the similar lines, Jain said, "The first 5-10 minutes of pitch to VCs are very crucial - get VCs on the hook. Describe the company in one-two lines - that would be helpful in running the business as well."

What is your USP?

While explaining about the product or service, a company need to avoid using jargon and adjectives. VCs say that startups should explain the product or service in simple language and emphasize its competitive edge or USP. Manav Sethi, COO BigMaps said, "The basic objective of a start-up should be to show that there is a need of this product or service in the market."

Business Plan

For any start-up, the purpose of presenting a business plan should be to show the potential to investors that if they invest in its business. Vakil said that a business plan must have a very effective executive summary, and in that summary a company should highlight the market, the product or service, management team, stage of the startup, location, market, market size, business, business model, capital structure, capital required and exit options. He also asked these startups to critically evaluate the business plan and do a market opportunity analysis to determine scalability of business. "Ask honestly "Will you fund this if it was someone else's business plan," added he.

Customer Base

Before presenting to VCs, a company needs to evaluate the customer business case, benefits and payback. Also, it needs to know in details about its existing customers as well as its potential customers. Any company can’t have any better evidence than customers to prove its claims about the marketability of its product/service.

A company needs to understand that it is in the market to sell a product, its business idea, which can't be sold unless its customers are satisfied with the product, which they plan to buy. Raghu Batta, Partner, Ojas Ventures said that startups should always make something or sell a service that people want.

 Revenue Model

To make it easier for VCs to understand the financial plan, a company need to do a proper thought out strategy that may also help in company's growth plans. Vakil says that preparing a sound financial plan is very necessary for long run, and also a company needs to keep an eye on the total funding requirement over subsequent rounds till scale up and its impact on investor's ROI.

He also advices companies to analyze its present and future margins in detail, bearing in mind the potential impact of competition. The monetary projection should also include the sale prices or fee charging structures of your product or service.

Marketing Plan

Having everything, but no marketing plan can force any start-up to taste the failure soon. The objective of marketing plan should be to convince the VCs that the market for its product/service can be developed and penetrated. Also, the marketing plan should have all the details including pricing, distribution and promotion strategy for the product or service. All these details must be supported by verifiable data. 

Apart from these few thoughts, VCs feel that in India first time entrepreneurs are unclear in their own heads about what their idea is about. In fact, many are even not able to articulate it in an easily understood manner either. Adding to this, these VCs also think that startups should raise the fund at right time. Vakil said, "VC funding taken prematurely can be very expensive capital, and company may end up giving up its ownership to the VC." He also thinks that startups should never think of raising fund if the business is not scalable. It will probably waste time unsuccessfully trying to raise finance. The real danger however is that, incase it succeeds; it does not only lose an opportunity to run a lifestyle business that is personally lucrative but is stuck with an unhappy investor. 

This article was originally posted at SiliconIndia.

Weblink: http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/Approaching_a_VC_Here_is_a_checklist-nid-66252.html/1

3 Symptoms of Successful Entrepreneurs

by Chrys Bader

Since I moved to the Valley after graduating from YCombinator (YC) Summer '08, I've spent over a year observing startups in multiple stages. Some are well funded, some are brand new, some have just raised funding, and some are just an idea. I've noticed several trends that define entrepreneurs who are destined to succeed as well as several leading indicators of a startup's failure.

Successful entrepreneurs are relentless in their pursuits

I can't count how many times I've been taken aback by an entrepreneur's dedication to solving a problem, reaching a milestone, or achieving something everyone thought impossible. A good entrepreneur will baffle you with their relentless dedication in pursuit of a goal. I've been amazed by the number of times I've heard an entrepreneur make a claim that I thought was ridiculous, risky, or undoable, and then watch them accomplish it. It's inspiring. It has changed me from an entrepreneur who would only set the bar only as high as I could rationalize to an entrepreneur who is willing to chase the impossible.

Successful entrepreneurs move in packs

Successful entrepreneurs are like wolves. They survive in packs. Since graduating YC S08, several of our fellow YC startups have remained in touch while others have drifted and either died or disappeared. We're very close with the founders from our YC batch, and we share things with each other in the utmost confidence, which is not something most startup founders can do. It's almost like group therapy. Having a trust circle is an invaluable resource in the Valley's competitive battlefield.

The startups that are still alive are the ones who remained in touch. We've fundraised together. We've introduced each other to potential investors and deals. We've vouched for each other. We've constantly been exposed to each other's triumphs and defeats.  We've inspired each other's products. At least one feature you see in every remaining YC S08 product was inspired by another YC S08 founder.

If we ever feel a member of our pack lagging behind or straying in the wrong direction, we do what we can to get them back on track.  We've seen too many entrepreneurs fall to the wayside, and it hurts us to see them go.  And when they go, they usually remove themselves slowly and fade into the fog of war. In the words of Paul Graham, startups don't die "loudly and heroically... mostly they crawl off somewhere and die". And like wolves, they die alone.

Successful entrepreneurs crave knowledge and are eager to share it

An entrepreneur who is not starry eyed and dreaming is an entrepreneur that will fail.

Almost every time I meet with a successful entrepreneur, I see that spark in their eyes. Maybe they just had a vision or just read a great blog post.  Maybe they just solved a problem or they just learned about a new product.  Whatever it is, they are excited to talk about it.  Entrepreneurs are always searching for knowledge, and they can't wait to share it with you. You'll find that this is reflected in their products.

This passion for knowledge is what makes a pack of entrepreneurs so unstoppable. It's essentially a collective cognitive force that is determined to take over the world.  Some of the bigger packs are referred to as "mafias" in the Valley, e.g. the YC Mafia, Paypal Mafia, XG Mafia (ex-Googlers), etc.

To sum it all up, successful entrepreneurs live in a distorted reality that they create for themselves. They have a vision that they pursue like food during a famine. Satisfaction is rare and never immediate. To be a successful entrepreneur, you need to live in a world that doesn't exist yet: the world that you want to create.

How to Ask for Help — Without Looking Stupid

by Jodi Glickman Brown

You may be afraid of looking dumb, but to be afraid to ask for and get the help you need is inexcusable, especially when the stakes are high. Asking for help in the workplace is a good thing. In fact, asking for help the right way can show how smart you are: it demonstrates that you've got good judgment and shows that you know what you know and what you don't know. Moreover, getting help up front saves endless time, energy and resources on the back end.

1. Start your question with what you know. Do your homework first. Get enough background information to put your issue or problem in context. Give the other person an idea of what you've completed to date or what you know already and then proceed to explain what's outstanding, where or how you're struggling, or what you need help with.
2. Then, state the direction you want to take and ask for feedback, thoughts or clarification. Form an opinion on what you think the answer should be. Don't just ask, "How should I reach out to the brokers?" Instead propose a course of action and get your boss's feedback: "I'm thinking of sending out a mass email to the brokers but I'm not sure if that's the most effective format...what do you think of that approach?"
3. If you don't know the direction to take, ask for tangible guidance. Instead of asking "What should I do?" ask specifically for the tools you'll need to make that decision yourself, such as a recent example of a similar analysis or a template for a given task. Or, ask for a referral to someone who has worked on a similar initiative or project in the past.

In the vast majority of cases, you'll get a lot further in your career by asking the tough, smart questions.

Read the complete story at:

http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/cs/2009/11/asking_for_help_the_smart_way.html

Official Google Blog: Investing in a mobile future with AdMob

Official Google Blog: Investing in a mobile future with AdMob
On November 9, 2009 Google announced an agreement to acquire AdMob, a mobile display ad technology provider, for $750 million. This acquisition will enhance Google's existing expertise and technology in mobile advertising, while also giving advertisers and publishers more choice in this growing new area.

• The deal will bring new innovation and competition to mobile advertising, and will lead to more effective tools for creating, serving, and analyzing emerging mobile ads formats.
• This deal will benefit developers, publishers, and advertisers by improving the performance of mobile advertising, and will provide users with more free or low-cost mobile apps.
• The mobile advertising space will remain highly competitive, with more than a dozen mobile ad networks. The deal is similar to mobile advertising acquisitions that AOL, Microsoft, and Yahoo have made in the past two years.

Mobile advertising is a rapidly growing and competitive space, and Google and AdMob are currently specializing in different areas. Though Google offers many forms of mobile advertising, its focus to date has been on mobile search ads, while AdMob's focus has been mobile display ads and in-application ads.

How to Make Money with Free

by Nathan Hangen

We live in a world of free. If you’re trying to make money, especially online, you might think that would make things difficult.

Every day, someone releases a new eBook, video, or podcast that not only contains tremendous value, but gives away many of the “tricks of the trade” that we used to have to pay for.

You’d think that the paid content business would be shrinking in the face of all this free information, but it keeps getting stronger. How can that be?

For instance, there are a lot of free materials that teach people how to set up a Wordpress blog or to use Twitter effectively. A quick search on YouTube will provide you with hundreds of videos that can teach you to do almost anything you want to know.

Yet, there are still people making plenty of cash selling products explaining how to do any and all of those things.

How do they do it?

Building relationships

People buy from those that they know and trust.

Sure, there are people in the yellow highlighter brigade who can sell ice to an Eskimo, but it isn’t easy to do. (And you may not even want to.)

Most of us can’t write the ultimate sales letter. We also can’t afford to hire a $20,000 copywriter. So how do we do it? We build relationships.

When you establish a “winning difference” or USP, you can start attracting the people who really dig what you do.

If your stuff is good, I guarantee you can find at least one evangelist to recruit others to come check you out. They’ll spread the word for you, which attracts more evangelists, and means that you will have ever more people stopping by.

Nurture relationships with your readers and evangelists and your small army will continue to grow.

The benefit of free

 

Content marketing is all about giving away some of your best stuff for free. Not just your “pretty good” content, but content that will improve and add value to the lives of your readers.

As they learn more, their game will improve and they’ll keep coming around for more. And they’ll want to reciprocate by either buying your paid products or spreading your message.

Most people won’t buy from you unless you’ve proven to them that you know what you’re talking about. Great content is one of the best ways you can do that. When you give content away for free, you earn trust and anchor your business in the mind of that reader. If they use your stuff, and it works, they’ll keep coming back for more.

They’ll pay for souvenirs

I first heard this idea from Seth Godin when he gave a speech about book marketing, but the concept applies to nearly every online business.

He said that people buy souvenirs, not products. In the music industry, Nine Inch Nails does this by selling collector’s editions of their albums. In the blogging industry, we can do it by selling a physical version of a product, limiting quantities of digital products, or by publishing a book.

If your blog creates a great experience, think about what kind of souvenirs you could offer that would let them hold onto that experience.

They'll pay for access

Particularly if you've used your blog to build your reputation and authority, you can also sell different levels of access to you.

The people who truly love what you do want other ways to access your knowledge. Your raving fans will start by picking up every digital product you offer. From there, many will want more exclusive access, such as a consulting service, a mentoring or coaching program, or a monthly membership with exclusive access to you.

If you empower people to do what they most want to do, they’ll want to buy something in order to feel closer to you. (And, of course, it goes without saying that you’ll deliver value that’s in line with the prices you’re charging.)

JB Glossinger does a great job of this with his Coach Cast. Brian and Sonia do it with Teaching Sells.

You’d have to sell thousands of eBooks to make a living as a blogger, but it might take only a few hundred premium members to do the same job.

Free samples have been part of marketing and selling since long before the Internet. Give great value and follow a few proven models, and you’ll discover not only does “free” not hurt you, it can actually be a great boost for your online business.

About the Author: Nathan Hangen writes about web entrepreneurship at NathanHangen.com, and about how to use social media to fuel your brand at Making It Social. Follow him on Twitter @nhangen.

Everyone is clueless

This post is copied from Seth Godin's blog

The problem with "everyone" is that in order to reach everyone or teach everyone or sell to everyone, you need to so water down what you've got you end up with almost nothing.

Everyone doesn't go to the chiropractor, everyone doesn't give to charity, everyone has never been to Starbucks. Everyone, in fact, lives a decade behind the times and needs hundreds of impressions and lots of direct experience before they realize something is going on.

You don't want everyone. You want the right someone.

Someone who cares about what you do. Someone who will make a contribution that matters. Someone who will spread the word.

As soon as you start focusing on finding the right someone, things get better, fast. That's because you can ignore everyone and settle in and focus on the people you actually want.

Here's a video that David sent over. I am thrilled at how much this guy loves his job, and I'm inspired by his story of how he turned down Pepsi as a vendor. He turned them down. But everyone wants Pepsi! Exactly. Once he decided he wanted someone, not everyone, his life got a lot better.

Is MNS on the verge of being banned?

There are few politicians in the country who simply don't understand the basic concepts of macro economics like brand image of the country in international arena or happiness index of the society, because what they care about is their 1 lakh votes. This is the current state of MNS, a local political party in Maharashtra, India.

Rediff quotes - "The 13 Members of Legislative Assembly of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena on Monday, 9th Nov 2009, created a ruckus in the Maharashtra assembly, after Samajwadi party MLA Abu Asim Azmi started to take his oath in Hindi, in spite of their demand that all legislators take the pledge in Marathi.As soon as Azmi began taking the oath in Hindi, the 13 member-strong MNS contingent rushed towards Azmi, snatching the mike away from the podium"

Today's shameful act by MNS MLAs has not only shown disrepect to the Marathi / Indian culture but to the law and order of the country. The way our leaders of MNS behaved today in the parliament made us feel ashamed in front of the entire world but I think we should not lose hope from our country's law and order. I hope there would be strict actions taken against these MLAs and the political party. This poses a follow-up debate - Is MNS on the verge of being banned?

Raj has threatened the legislative assembly saying, "If any MLA does not take the oath in Marathi, the House will see what happens,". Is this acceptable in any economy where law and order exists. Are these guys Indian Talibans?

Some views from people I know and which I found intriguing:

• MNS should be banned by Supreme Court and if not then PMO or President, else I will go and start shooting these street gundas
• If action isn't taken against Raj Thackeray and MNS then we will never feel like a democracy again. If action isn't taken on this incident then how can we ever feel like the law exists
• I love this city and we all do so how does it matter if we say Bombay or Mumbai
• This is a cosmopolitan place and we should all be able to live peacefully together

We would love to hear your views on this shameful act of MNS...

TATA TiE Stree Shakti (TSS) Workshop and Awards on 12 December

The TATA TiE Stree Shakti (TSS) Workshop and Awards will be held on 12 Dec ‘09 at Trident Bandra Kurla. It is a forum for women entrepreneurs to create trust-based partnerships through active networking. The objective of TSS is to create a platform of belonging for women entrepreneurs.

Enterprising Indians, Women Entrepreneurs and Intrapreneurs, Homemakers wanting to start their own business and Anybody who wishes to support and encourage women entrepreneurs in their network can attned this event.

Speakers are Shikha Sharma (Axis Bank),  Neelam Dhawan (HP) – (to be confirmed),  Dr. Mirai Chatterjee (SEWA) - (to be confirmed),  Vinita Bali (Britannia),  Rama Bijapurkar,  Sanjay Jha (Head of Dale Carnegie),  Dr.Anjali Mukherjee,  Veena Deepak,  Devita Saraf (to be confirmed).

20 of the Best Resources to Get Your Startup Off the Ground

 1. The Entrepreneur.com Startup Kits: Entrepreneur Magazine’s website has a gem for entrepreneurs: startup kits. There are kits for everything from starting a restaurant to a consulting firm, complete with articles, guides, marketing tips, and more.
2. eHow’s Introduction to Entrepreneurship: Collaborative knowledge resource website eHow has hundreds of thousands of great articles, including a strong set of guides and resources for how to open a business, how to incorporate, raising money, and bookkeeping.
3. About.com Starting a Business Hub: Another resource you should not miss is About.com’s Entrepreneurs Hub. They’ve curated some of their best content for starting a business, including checklists, a small business startup kit, and detailed articles on naming and calculating the cost of your startup.
4. Library of Congress’s Entrepreneur’s Reference Guide: Yes, the U.S. Library of Congress has an entrepreneur’s reference guide, while it’s dated (1999), it also lists a lot of great books that are updated yearly. It covers practically every topic related to starting a small business.

Click on the link below to read more --

 20 of the Best Resources to Get Your Startup Off the Ground

Rediff Losses Widen Even As It Invests In ‘Improving Customer Experience’

This article was originally posted in contentSutra

Nasdaq-listed Rediff.com (NSDQ: REDF) India Ltd today said net loss for the quarter ended 30 September widened by 84% to $2.61 million, from $0.41 million during the corresponding quarter last fiscal. 

Total revenues dropped 43% year-on-year to $4.19 million. Revenues from India Online dropped 45% y-o-y to $3.08 million.

	2Q 2009	2Q 2008
Earnings Per ADS	-$0.089	-$0.014
Net Income	-$2.61 million	-$0.42 million
Revenue	$4.19 million	$7.32 million

“As we had said in our last earnings call, we have taken a number of steps to improve the customer experience on our site, including the removal of ads from our home page, reduction of intrusive and non-contextual ads on other pages, as a result of which we expected a reduction in our revenue in the upcoming quarters. Accordingly, we saw a decline in revenues for the quarter ended September 30, 2009 by 16% over the previous quarter and by 43% over the corresponding quarter in the previous year in US Dollar terms. However, we believe that these user–experience-improvement initiatives have started to show results and have helped us restore the growth in our user base, as measured by ComScore (NSDQ: SCOR) Media Metrix,” Rediff chairman and CEO Ajit Balakrishnan said in a statement.

Balakrishnan said the company will continue this strategy and invest in product development and brand building at the rate of $1-1.5 million in the next few quarters.

42 ‘harassed’, many in jail for seeking information under RTI in Bihar

42 ‘harassed’, many in jail for seeking information under RTI in Bihar

I blogged this article of Indian Express mainly because of two reasons, one that it is an attempt to highlight the current state of law and order in Bihar, and other that it paints skewed or only half image of the story. The heading of the blog itself is misleading since it mentions that people are being harassed which is correct but I guess this is the first time in the history of Bihar when the government is trying to bring in transparency in the system; CM has set up a call center for RTI applicants. 

I am thankful to the journalist of this article 'Santosh Singh' who brought this issue in lime light, but a misleading heading can lead to biased opinion about current state of law and order in Bihar. We know that its not the best in the country but it is definitely improving and there are some NGOs and independent bodies who are contributing to the state. We should boost up their morale by praising their efforts, and not highlighting the terror or harassment, which is true for states like WB, UP or Delhi also.

Excerpts from article: 

In Bihar, often a time, information officials harass RTI applicants by filing false cases against them. The Bihar Human Rights Commission (BHRC) has now recommended that all these officials be placed under suspension. 

BHRC member Justice Rajendra Prasad wrote to the state government on October 29 directing it to “look into the complaints of harassment of RTI applicants by lodging false criminal cases against them by, or at the instance of, state public information officers”.

The allegations, Justice Prasad wrote, constituted “a serious violation of the human rights of the people of Bihar in general, and the existing and potential seekers of information under the RTI Act, 2005, in particular”.

All information officials “to whom such (RTI) applications were given” should be “immediately suspended” and “departmental proceedings (should) be initiated against... (them) within four weeks of receipt of a copy of this order”, Justice Prasad recommended.

“...All criminal cases filed against RTI applicants (should) be dropped wherever such cases have been initiated after the date on which such applicants or their family members gave applications under the RTI Act”. 

The Commission has asked the government to send “a report of the actions taken... within six weeks from receipt of copy of this order”, failing which it would be “constrained to invoke provisions of Section 18 (b) of the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993”.

Section 18 of the Act deals with “steps after inquiry”, and includes provisions such as approaching the high courts or the Supreme Court.

The officials under the BHRC scanner range from the District Magistrate, Muzaffarpur (who was in charge in 2006) to sub-divisional police officers, circle officers and block development officers, down to officers-in-charge of police stations.

The Commission acted on a complaint by Bihar Right to Information, a voluntary group devoted to taking RTI to the people since 2007. Group coordinator Parveen Amanullah told The Indian Express: “We wrote to the CM thrice, took up the matter during his janta darbars, but there were follow-ups in only two cases.”

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has won accolades from the central government and other agencies for setting up the country’s first RTI call centre — a pioneering concept that has been replicated subsequently.

 

'Being an entrepreneur makes you a better person'

This post was originally posted on rediff 

Professor Nandini Vaidyanathan, an alumni of Delhi [ Images ] School of Economics, has spent 20 years in the corporate sector, working in a cross-section of industries -- security, media, pharmaceuticals, gas, office automation, equity market and animation -- all over the world.

She has been teaching entrepreneurship in premier business schools in India (IIMB), US (Princeton), Singapore (NUS) and UK (LSE) for the last four years. In 2008 alone, she taught over 2,300 students around the world.

She has been working in India, Afghanistan and the Sub-Saharan Africa. She is a mentor with New Ventures India, a joint initiative between World Resources Institute, Washington, CII Godrej [ Get Quote ] green building, Hyderabad and MentorPartners, an on-line enterprise support and mentoring platform for entrepreneurs.

She is also the mentor-promoter of a company called Startups that mentors young entrepreneurs.

Startups is actively involved with micro finance institutions in facilitating business models that transcend poverty lines and loan recovery.

She was in Hyderabad to speak at the TiE-ISB Connect 2009 on Incubation Centres and Mentors at the 'Start Up Your Venture' workshop. Soon after her speech, she was surrounded by young entrepreneurs for advice.

She took some time off from the young future entrepreneurs to speak to rediff.com.

You have spoken to many entrepreneurs all over the world. Is there any difference in the way Indians approach an idea?

I see two big differences. Entrepreneurs in India are more intelligent and better educated. That is the positive difference. But the negative difference is that there is no ecosystem in India that encourages them to be entrepreneurs.

In other parts of the world, when you say you want to be an entrepreneur, nobody raises an eyebrow. In India, if you say you have done your engineering and want to be an entrepreneur, the first thing parents ask is 'Have you gone mad? Why do you want to do that?'

Everybody will tell you that the opportunity cost of becoming an entrepreneur is very high and after you finish your MBA, you are offered fancy salaries and why would you want to give up that? I had a student in IIM Bangalore who told me, 'Ma'am, I have an offer of Rs 26 lakh (Rs 2.6 million). If I become an entrepreneur, I may not make Rs 26 lakh in my lifetime'!

This is the case with educated people. What about the not-so-educated people who start various businesses in their little space?

I work with women in the micro-enterprise space in India, Addis Ababa, Rwanda, Kabul, etc. Kabul is very difficult for women entrepreneurs.

Are these people bigger risk-takers?

They don't look at it as risk-taking. For them there is no other option to come out of poverty and build a meaningful quality life. So, they see entrepreneurship as the only option for a better life. This is how it should be.

I feel this should be the attitude of all. I was saying the same thing to some youngsters who said, 'We are engineers, how do we go about as entrepreneurs?' I said, first, you don't go for placement, be an entrepreneur. That is the only way you do it.

How does being an entrepreneur enhance the quality of life of an individual?

If you are an employee, it will take about ten years to learn all the aspects of business. If you are entrepreneur, you pretty much learn it in one year.

The downside of it is that you get grey hair faster when you are an entrepreneur! The upside is, the learning compression is phenomenal. And that makes you a better person. If you are working for somebody, you may be a marketing person or a finance person or a technology person but if you are an entrepreneur, you are all rolled into one.

The kind of exposure across functions and the ability to think on your feet, the ability to take risks, the ability to visualise tomorrow, the ability to plan for tomorrow -- I think those are skill sets you are able to acquire literally overnight. It's a hard knock. I am not saying it is easy. But you do it the hard way and you learn them at the end of it. That makes you a better person.

How should an entrepreneur look at becoming an entrepreneur -- as a wealth creator or creating something more for society?

Primarily, the motive of an entrepreneur should be creating meaning in life, enhancing the quality of life around him. It is not about making money. He wants to be an entrepreneur because he wants to create meaning for other people and himself. He is creating a better quality of life, the way it can be done.

The unintended consequence of that is wealth creation and wealth distribution, but that can't be the primary motive. Having said that, I don't mean he does it for charity; not at all. Every entrepreneur, every enterprise has to have wealth creation in the agenda. He can't keep making losses for the rest of his life because he can't sustain it. But that is an unintended consequence.

The primary reason why you become an entrepreneur is because you want to create meaning and you want to leave a footprint! That is the only way you can do it.

You said 'they leave a footprint'. In the last few years, can you name a few entrepreneurs who have impressed you?

There are many. In the last three years, I worked with over 300 entrepreneurs. Each one of them is unique. To me, every one of them is a hero. They are doing something phenomenally out there.

What will you tell those young people out there who have a desire to be entrepreneurs?

Go ahead and be an entrepreneur! Don't keep saying, 'I want to be an entrepreneur' and 'One day I will be one'. There is no 'some day'; just go out and chase your dreams!

Rediff article on Indian political atmosphere

Professor Dipankar Gupta

Do you believe Mayawati is not winning because she is getting votes of her caste?
Are Dalits not voting en masse for the Bahujan Samaj Party? Are Indian elections not won essentially with help of caste-based voting? Not at all, says Professor Dipankar Gupta, who has devoted substantive energy and time in understanding class and caste in India. He is a scholar of political sociology at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
His book Interrogating Caste; Understanding Hierarchy and Difference in Indian Society is a must-read for anyone who wishes to understand India.
After Mayawati won the UP assembly election in 2007, Professor Gupta and Yogesh Kumar conducted the study of her historic win. That study appeared under the title When the Caste Calculus Fails.
While analysing the BSP's victory in the UP assembly elections they said it has been incorrectly explained in terms of caste. Mayawati did use caste, but only as a metaphor to build innovative grassroots alliances.
Professor Gupta's latest book The Caged Phoenix: Can India Fly? among other issues, examines why India's phenomenal growth story has not been translated into development.
In March, just before the election campaign commenced, Professor Gupta spoke to rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt at his home in Vasant Vihar in New Delhi about current politics and the elections.

How do you describe today's voter? What is he thinking?

Like in the past, today's voters are also segregated. There is a big movement from the villages to the cities, much more than we would like to believe. There are a number of people who live in the villages, but do not work there anymore. At one level there is more urban consciousness than we used to have earlier. But the fact of the matter is that on the delivery front, our governments have not done a good job.
I am talking of simple things like education, health, energy and transport without which ordinary people cannot live. We have not been able to provide for that.
Governments have come and gone, but they have not provided a health budget of 3 percent of GDP and an education budget of 5 percent of GDP as promised. There is no audit of delivery. There is an unspent budget in most departments.
I think today's voters should be paying attention to delivery. Unfortunately, voters are not yet interested in the fact that unless the poor are better off, the rich will not be really rich. For the middle class to get rich or for the upper class to have a certain lifestyle on an enduring basis you cannot have or afford the poor at the bottom of the heap. They also have to come up.
Unfortunately, that is not happening. There is a blockage over there. They are slipping through by coming to cities, coming to urban centres. They are not coming with skills. They are not expanding their skills.
A man who comes to the city aged 21 lives up to 60 at the same level with which he came. I wish young voters today will look at these issues. But, I don't know how far they are.

How do you look at young voters's political beliefs? How do they perceive the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress?

There are young voters everywhere. But what is it in our politics that actually helps the young? To help the young you have to help them in speedy development, in terms of jobs and in terms of an outlook towards life which should help her/him have public honesty.
Politics should help young people to think about the larger welfare of society.
Just putting up young people in politics doesn't help. Even young people can think like old people.

Can we say young people will relate more to Rahul Gandhi than L K Advani?

No, I don't think so. A young face may not have young issues. As far as I see the issues raised by the BJP or the Congress doesn't have specifically anything for the young.
The young could identify with Barack Obama because he promised transparency and honesty which the young wanted to see. He had transparency; he talked of accountability, so the young appreciated it.

Mr Advani has said he will bring development through IT. He has promised to give computers for Rs 10,000.

People are unable to buy even a lamp, why talk about computers? People do not take these promises as promises. You should be able to think about a way to change the system and make it more dynamic.
We don't have leaders who have the exuberance and swing on their side to identify with young voters.

There are leaders like Jayalalithaa and Mayawati who have a magical sway over voters. How do you explain that?

They come and go... come and go. They don't expand their vision beyond their region. The seats Mayawati won in 2002, she lost many of them in 2007. The places she won were not always dominated by the scheduled castes.
In India to arrange for 5 lakh (500,000) people is not a problem. You arrange for lunch and you arrange for trucks, then even I can get you 5 lakh people.
The issue is not their hold on the people. The issue should be what kind of government they are offering to the people.
We can only vote for leaders who are available in the political marketplace. Those people who have money, are corrupt and violent. This is the entry price for politics.

What do we do?

I don't know. I can say only two things. Each one of us should be as professional as possible in our personal lives. I am saying professional... not saying be moral, be holy.
If you are a professor, be a good professor. If you are a journalist, then be a good professional journalist. Live up to the job description as a professional. That would help the country a lot.
Second, we should have a very good audit of deliverables. Many people join politics not because they are corrupt; they join politics because they want to be corrupt. I don't care how bad the man is or I don't care how much he drinks at night. As long as he behaves professionally in public and he delivers what he has promised, he is fine.

What is the major change you have seen in the last five years?

I see certain awareness of developmental projects. The anti-incumbency factor is not always working and I see it as a positive sign. Earlier, they were voting out somebody and people came to power by default.
There is a greater awareness about politicians, how they are performing on the ground. Let us see if this trend lasts for two, three elections.

Do you find India changing in some big way?

I don't think we are doing anything extraordinarily different. Our exports are hit. Foreign money has been withdrawn and taken out of India. Our internal market is also not very strong. Our workforce is highly unskilled. These things don't change between two elections.
Also, remember voting in an election doesn't represent anyone's political views.
Very often someone votes for the BJP, but doesn't think like the BJP. Many times a person votes for the Congress, but when girls are attacked in pubs for drinking, they say, "bada achcha hua (good it happened)."
To think that voting means everything is wrong. Voting means a small thing. It's a good bazaar. It's a small thing with respect to our commitment to the process.

Do you think in the last five years the United Progressive Alliance has taken India further?

No, there is no change. In fact, some of the changes that I was hoping for from Mayawati have not come through. Like, I thought she will put more emphasis on training skills for the poor. I am not talking of scheduled castes. Mayawati won in UP because of the poor in all castes. I am waiting to see deliverables to the poor by her.

How do you look at her leadership?

I think with the power base that she has, she could have risen above caste. She gave an indication that she might. But as far as I can see she has not been able to.
She called the bluff of the OBCs (Other Backward Classes). This is something she successfully did. OBCs were basically positioned on the Mandal Commission report. I thought if she could apply brakes there, then it would have a cascading effect in other parts of the country that will see that the OBCs are really a paper tiger.
So far, that has not happened. I wanted to see how she handles the OBC reservation issue. She said she will give reservations to the poor. Let us see.

How do you see Rahul Gandhi as a political force?

He has yet to become a political force. He has all the support, backing and positioning. As of now, he is not a political force. I think so far they don't have a specific agenda.
What you are saying will only enthuse people. What you are doing will create an appeal. See, young people in villages want a job in the cities. What are you doing about that?

Is Narendra Modi doing that?

What are you saying!
In Gujarat, 93 percent of the labour is still in the informal sector. The numbers of skilled labour in Gujarat has not gone up in the last 20 years. The ratio of main and marginal workers remains the same.
Gujarat's progress from 1980 to 2007 is the same. The biggest jump Gujarat made was between 1960 to 1980. It is not that Gujarat is a miracle state.
Modi has done very well because he has been able to use Gujarat's advantages and he has made some advances. People thought he may not be able to make it because he was just the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh type. But he has been able to do a good bit of management.
He has not lost the advantage. He has capitalised on what Gujarat gave him. He has kept Gujarat's image in more or less the same advantageous position as it was earlier. He has done something else that is very interesting.
After the riots, because of the attacks on Gujarat from outside when people said the government is anti-Muslim, Modi turned it around and said they are attacking Gujaratis, so they are attacking me. This is something that Gujaratis fell for. He showed himself as a reluctant secessionist.
'I don't want to be against the country or the government but they are against us. They are putting us down,' was his message. This is what Jyoti Basu also did in West Bengal. That is what made Bengalis protective of Jyoti Basu. He gave the impression that from 1965-1966 onwards the Centre was treating Bengal like a stepson. This is the same thing that Modi has done.

Do you think one day Modi will become a pan-Indian leader?

Not on current form. He doesn't have it in him. He doesn't appear a pan-India leader at all. People of the country won't vote for him. He won't get the 11 percent (Muslim) vote straight. You take that 11 percent out, then you can imagine it is a very tough job.
What does Modi have to offer? Why should I vote for him? He may be trying, going around and talking to people. He may be playing down the anti-Muslim part.
In the Gujarat 2008 exhibition he gave a special kiosk to the Memons, but the hurt of the 2002 riots will not go.

Do you think Sonia Gandhi is now completely Indianised?

When Sonia Gandhi first came into politics I saw an Italian who has come to Indian politics. Over the years, maybe the way she has conducted herself, maybe due to her linguistic skill, I am not sure, but now I don't see her so much as a foreigner.
Now, I see her as a politician with whom sometimes I agree with, sometimes I don't.
The foreigner thing doesn't bug me anymore. It used to bug me when she started off.
Maybe she is very public, she speaks Hindi, whatever it may be, but that foreign element is no longer distracting.

So, if at all she becomes prime minister of India, will she be accepted, more or less?

I am not sure. I think, right now there is no leader in the country who has a pan-India presence, which is why Manmohan Singh is the best bet.

You are doing some research on the voting patterns of Muslims. In Indian elections, we always talk about the Muslim vote bank.

The Muslim votebank does not work. Fatwas don't work. You can still talk about the Muslim factor in a certain fashion, but the caste factor you cannot talk about at all.
There is no constituency -- I repeat -- no constituency in the country where a caste on their own numbers can win an election!
I have done the study, I know. In western UP, which is called Jatland, where there is a concentration of Jats, we saw that the Jat factor alone is not enough.
In Muzzaffarnagar, do you know how many Jats are there? Only 8 percent. In Madhepura, only 18 percent. The Marathas are 34 percent in Maharashtra, but they are divided from amongst the Maoists to the Shiv Sena.
No constituency in India can be won on caste. It is empirically and logically impossible. If you are a diehard casteist, I challenge you to vote in a village anywhere above the gram sabha level only on caste basis. You cannot, it is nonsense. I have written about it.
There is no winning formula. If there was a formula, do you think politicians would lose? Would they face anti-incumbency? Would they run pillar to post to win an election if caste votes were just enough?
Nobody wants to work for the poor and for the people. Still, you want a ticket. So what you say to your party is that I have got my caste people with me, some argue for other castes. You may get a ticket on the basis of caste, but not the vote.
Since journalists hang around politicians, they think caste is everything.
Mayawati's victory has been incorrectly explained in terms of caste. Nothing works in Indian elections. It is different things every election.
In the last UP assembly election, the level of lawlessness changed the mood and poor OBCs were fed up with rich OBCs. Mayawati is not winning on the basis of her 18 percent caste votes. My study proves otherwise. She has lost in places where the scheduled castes are dominant. I did a study in 2007 in Maharashtra, UP and Bihar.
We are not casteist. It is not possible. There are 15 castes in my constituency, how can I vote on caste grounds?
The Muslim factor may still work, but the caste factor doesn't work. But here too if a Muslim leader has not done the job, they shift to a new leader and he or she may not be a Muslim.
Number two, fatwas do not work.
My study includes all the elections after 1990.
Mayawati did use caste, but only as a metaphor to build innovative grassroots alliances. Her victory demonstrated that the concerns of other communities mattered as much as those of the Dalits.
There is no simple correlation between caste and outcome. The electorates are too large and the social interests too diverse for any simplistic caste calculations to hold. Caste is an important factor, but only one of many.
To explain everything in terms of caste robs voters of their secular credentials. Caste cannot logically vote as a block.
Are we becoming modern enough when we go to vote? Are we still voting out of fear or always driven by some emotion, as many BJP leaders claim? Is there any fundamental change in voters?
Basically, people are bad. What makes them good is the law. They think on caste grounds, on regional, family and on kinship grounds. These are a natural tendency. Not just Indians, across the globe, people I have looked at all talk in the same way.
What makes people good is the citizenship. This factor does not work easily. It is always under threat because this natural human tendency to see things in terms of caste, race, ethnicity, language and religion.
What we do is that we make culture as an expansive variable as if it is nature. We keep hearing... Bengalis are naturally like this, Punjabis are just like that, Blacks are like this. This is the way we think.
That is why democracy is always under threat in every society. To make democracy stand the most important thing is to make sure nobody breaks the law. I don't care if someone is racist, but he cannot practice it. That is what democracy means.

My question is: Are we changing? Are voters changing?

So far? No. Give me two elections more, I will let you know.

Are you hopeful about India?

Not yet. Look at the composition of the work force, look at agriculture and industry.
Only three million people work in IT and ITES. That's all. Only 2 percent of Indian household own cars. That's all! What are we talking about? We don't see the entire picture at all.
We are very good at denial. We don't see things we don't want to see. That's why we react to Slumdog (Millionaire). We don't want to see poverty, so, no poverty! But that's not true. We haven't done anything. I am not hopeful.
In fact, as I get older, I am getting more angrier because I find things are getting worse than better. Some parts are getting richer and richer. But I want India to be developed.
Why do people have to go to private hospitals and spend money? Why can't they go to government hospitals? The last big government hospital in New Delhi was AIIMS. Around that there are hundreds of private hospitals. If a person has an illness he worries about money first.
How can you say India is doing well? How can you say that? I am very angry with India.