'The twenty-first century is India's to lose'

Came across a nice article recently. This article outlines a lot of issues that India currently faces and how it is still able to move ahead.

Read it here

Some favorite excerpts from the article:

1. India is like a truck with twelve wheels: even if one or two are punctured, the truck moves on. China, on the other hand, has fewer wheels that enable it to move faster, but others wonder what the consequences will be if a couple of wheels fall off.

2. The shining India that every newspaper praises as the country of the future is thwarted repeatedly when it seeks to acquire the trappings of a great power like permanent membership of the UN Security Council.

3. India never loses an opportunity to lose an opportunity.

Media blues!

After India was thrown out of the cricket world cup, Sharad Pawar, the BCCI chief made the following comment on Greg Chappel(according to PTI)...

"Definitely there is a responsibility to train properly but at the same time one can show water too hot but cannot compel him to drink."

Water too Hot!! I think Pawar meant to say "water to horse". Not sure who made the mistake here, did Pawar really say it wrong or did the journalist goof it up?

Whatever it is...PTI needs to careful what it releases or else we could have a big problem...


Read the article here

Somebody get the pig a glass of champagne!!

Nicolette Hanh Niman writes in the New York Times -

"As a cattle rancher, I am comfortable raising animals for human consumption, but they should not be made to suffer. Because we ask the ultimate sacrifice of these creatures, it is incumbent on us to ensure that they have decent lives"

Read the article here

Don't know what to say, people are ok with killing animals to satisfy their hunger, but, they would like that the animals they eat, live in good conditions. Talk about human(pig) rights in the stomach!!

0.5 MBA

Its the end of trimester 2, meaning am halfway through. Another 8 months to the finish line.
This was the longest trimester, with the christmas break in between. The first half was frentic-paced and the second half was pretty relaxed.

T3 promises to be more balanced. Am taking some heavy-duty courses this trimester.

1.Global Business Management in Manufacturing: The fomer chief of Nissan, America; BMW, Japan is taking this course. The course deals with Japanese manufacturing expertise with a special focus on the Japanese automotive industry.

2. Life Sciences - A business perspective: This course deals with businesses relating to the biotech and pharma industry.

3. Corporate Business Strategy: This course focuses on the application of strategy theory and principles. "Think like a CEO" is what the prof mentions.

4. Statistics & Research Methods: The objective is to build the design and analysis skills necessary to carry out applied business research.

5. Competitive Strategy: This course examines how firms build sustainable competitive advantage.

6. Strategy Implementation: All about the issues encountered when implementing strategies.

Pretty interesting stuff.

Insecurity?

Have been experiencing this since school times, albeit in different proportions. Was the most in school, a little less in college and lesser in the MBA, nevertheless it still exists.

Am sure most of u must have heard your friends telling you "Kitna padhega yaar, bas kar"
Is that out of genuine concern or is it the insecurity? In most cases, its the insecurity, the person asking you this statement is worried more about himself/herself than about the person he/she is asking the question to.

The situation becomes more evident in the opposite case. You wont find many people asking you "Kitna cigarette fookega, bas kar". Only people who are genuinely concerned will tell you this.

Time to change...so now if you see a person smoking tell him/her, "Kitna cigarette fookega, bas kar" and if u see a person studying, you say, "Arre tu padh raha hai, padh padh. Main bhi join karta hoon".

In MBA lingo, channelize your tension in an efficient manner to do value-adding work rather than bring the other person down and hamper overall growth!!