Great Indian Dream

Dr.JP and Lok Satta

2009-02-21T01:32:00.000-08:00

I was an audience for a speech by Dr. JP at a TiE annual conference in Santa Clara about 4 years back. I was impressed and I communicated to Dr.JP the same after the speech. He gave his business card to me and said people like you should join the new movement. 'Yes, of course!', I thought. But today, I am more than convinced about his comment.

I used to read Dr.JP's columns online once in a while after that. It was not until a month back I checked what's this person up to and I was once again impressed by what I found out. I couldn't agree more with him and the agenda that he has outlined for his political party. I also couldn't agree more with him that if you need to make a real large social impact, political revolution is a must.

Indian politics today has turned out to be a joke. It's a business line for many - it's a corrupted business line. Invest Rs.6Cr for an MLA election; if you win, you can double the money or make even three times more! Invest Rs.15Cr in an MP election; if you win, make 5x in five years! Yes, it is an open secret. Why do you invest money for? To buy votes, of course. The amount of corruption today is about Rs.200 thousand crores per annum!!! Every party secretly wishes for a ‘Amar Singh’ today.

I am aghast by the current state of Indian politics. This is no VC business!!! There was a time when the job of a political leader was a respected one. When I was young, I grew up with stories of great leaders who fought for independence for our country. Today, unfortunately, we acknowledge that politics is the last option of a career of a scoundrel! Don't we deserve better? Doesn't our country deserve better? How can we bring a change? We need leaders like Dr.JP.

There has to be a massive movement at the grass root level. It's high time that the 300 million middle class come out and participate in change. One third of our population could definitely influence the rest. We need thought processes like the ones in Lok Satta party.

Jai Hind.

H2E is the need of the hour

2009-01-07T04:06:00.000-08:00

I have told this before, but it is worth repeating several times. India needs more entrepreneurs in Healthcare, Environment and Education, I call them H2E sectors. I refrain them calling social entrepreneurs, because every entrepreneur serves a social purpose. Every entrepreneur is a social entrepreneur.
Coming back to H2E sectors, well more than 50% of Indian population is under served in Healthcare, Environmental issues (clean energy, clean water, clean air) and Education. As long as we don't conquer these fundamental sectors, it will be hard for us to sustain the economical growth that we are aiming towards (8-10% GDP growth every year).
I am aware that there are several people who work for a cause in these sectors, but has it been enough? With the size of a population that we have, we must utilize this as a valuable asset. It is with our people we can make this India's century. We simply can't look at our population as a burden.
The population can be utilized as a valuable asset only if productive population is in good health, enabled with energy and education. That's the fundamental reason why we need more thrust on H2E sectors. Current efforts are not enough and we need entrepreneurs in these sectors.

Agenda of Development

2008-12-12T09:30:00.000-08:00

I am impressed with our voters. How much ever it may seem that there is cast combination game in our elections, at the macro level, it is still about development issues. Recent results in Delhi, Rajasthan, and MP etc. are glaring examples. Our fellow citizens know what they are doing - master plan of some of those in BJP to camouflage the communal issue as a terrorism issue backfired. People have gotten over with the communal issue. It is actually very nice that Sharukh Khan mentioning he doesn't feel like a minority. We need more Muslims openly condemning terrorism - this will totally defeat communal politics. We need more dalits opposing cast based reservations - this will totally defeat cast based politics.
Let us not forget the fact that BJP had stormed to power in MP, Rajasthan etc. in last elections based on bijli-sadak-pani issue. We all need development. We all know we want to get over with the issue of communal politics. Only people who are getting exploited - politically labeled minority communities, can make this happen - they have a huge role to play to bring our politics back into development agenda.

Jai Hind.

My Country, My People

2008-12-01T00:58:00.000-08:00

Last few days have been a show of failed leadership in our country. It's surprising to see that our leaders don't have an appropriate response for an attack on our country. Our leaders have left us in shame. Where are the bygone days of Subhash Chandra Bose or Bhagat Singh? Where are the days when we did nuclear tests? Where are the days of of Kargil?

Here is a Dy CM who calls an attack on the nation a small incident. There is a CM who dares to take a picnic like tour to the ground zero. Here is a Home Minister who says terrorists had left before he reached spot. There is a Prime Minister who gives a speech which is depressing! Hey, what are we? Where is our courage? Who in this country is saying "bring 'em on".

We are better than this. Let's go get those who attacked our country and who killed our people. Let us punish all these lazy dumb politicians who don't understand what an attack on our country means. Today, let us stand united, in the name of India, to protect our country.

Jai Hind.

You don't have to have a written business plan!

2008-07-06T11:59:00.000-07:00

I want to be clear here - you don't have to have a written business plan to be successful in life. Sportsmen like Tiger Woods, Pete Sampras, Shumacker, Sachin Tendulakar or showbiz successes like Madonna, Tom Cruise, Amitabn Bachan or politicians like L.K. Advani, Obama etc. you name it - am sure didn't have a written business plan to become successful. I would agree some of them might have had professional managers or advisors to manage their ongoing businesses, but not until they figured it out.

However, you need to have a strategy - a plan to win. It could be written or it could be in your mind - but you gotta have it. You need to think about it. You can raise money if you can successfully convey your talent or ideas in some form of communication - need not be a business plan. But, in the business world, business plan has become a norm of communication - your idea to create wealth, how you are going to implement your idea, who will be with you etc. If you can successfully do this with 6-10 slide presentation, go for it. If you can do this over a whiteboard, go for it! But you gotta have it.

Dream and then plan to achieve it

2008-06-22T11:25:00.000-07:00

One of the hardest jobs for many entrepreneurs is to write a business plan. But a good entrepreneur knows a good business plan wins 50% of the battle even before it begins. Dreaming about what you want to do, what you want to be, is the first step and the most important step, but charting out a map to get there is the second step to become successful.

A "business plan" is a plan to get to your target. It is a description of what you are planning to do to win. It is true that you can't always reflect what you have in your mind onto a paper. However, if you are not able to write a business plan, you can't build an organization or a company. You can still be successful as an individual, but effectively communicating the plan to get to your objectives can enable you to build a successful organization, a successful company.

I view many successful actors, politicians, artists etc. as successful individual entrepreneurs. Amitabh Bachan wouldn't have written business plan, but I am sure he had his plan charted out pretty well. Whereas, Vinod Khosla, when he started SUN, had an excellent business plan (described as one of the best business plans by John Doer). Both are successful in their own right.

In my experience, writing a business plan which communicates your path to win is essential to build a great company. It is also true that you probably don't end up doing what you planned. However, as the Chinese proverb says, if don't have a plan, you can't deviate from it.

Whether you want to be successful individually or want to build a great organization, one must have a plan to win. But if you want to build a great organization, you must communicate the same by putting it in writing. You never know someone would always guide you through uncharted territories. And yes, the moment you are committed, providence changes too!

Entrepreneur and commitment

2008-06-04T22:56:00.000-07:00

The following passage occurs near the beginning of Murray's The Scottish Himalayan Expedition (1951):... Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way. I learned a deep respect for one of Goethe's couplets:
"Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it! "

This is precisely what an entrepreneur needs - dreaming is the first step. Beginning your journey towards your dreams is the second step. Figuring out your way is the beginning of third step.

Once you commit yourself to the journey, providence changes. If you are committed, let us explore the third step a little in our discussions next.

Early Stage Deal Flows

2008-05-10T15:17:00.000-07:00

One of the Venture Capitalists in the Silicon Valley recently asked me why there are no early stage deals (arguably) in India like they do in the Valley. The reasons are clearly unclear to me.

One of the reasons could be the lack of development of culture of entrepreneurship overall. There is definitely a ‘business mentality’ in many communities in India – is it of wealth creation? Small business is not exactly wealth creation. What we see in Silicon Valley is the culture of wealth creation through entrepreneurship. It is a culture of creating value, working for betterment of human life and creating wealth. What does it take to create a culture of entrepreneurship to create wealth and value? What does it take for VC's to invest? A large section of investment community agrees that VC's are opportunistic investor (by definition?) and it is up to the entrepreneur to create or find opportunities. Or, is it? I have seen both venture capitalists and entrepreneurs working in a perfect eco system to create this culture. In many of the start-ups which succeed, it is a 50-50 partnership (give and take a small percentage here n there) between the VC and entrepreneur.

The other reason could be lack of evangelism on entrepreneurship in universities. Stanford university encouraged its faculty to participate in commercializing technologies through private industries. Entrepreneurs are rock stars in the valley. They are not looked as “money making” capitalists. To be an entrepreneur is to be cool in the valley. Not so much everywhere yet in India. We need more evangelists for entrepreneurship.

The other reason could be education – classic argument – teach students to work for others OR make students to learn to work for their own?

Whatever the reason is, we definitely need more entrepreneurship. People may say what am I talking about – there is a flurry of VC activity in India. Well, there is only Private Equity arbitrage going on right now – very few early stage deals.

Looks like I get it

2008-01-18T14:17:00.000-08:00

In one of my earlier blogs, I mentioned 3 E's - Energy, Education and Exposure. I would like to shift my approach a little bit in this blog. We probably need H2E's - Healthcare, Education and Energy. Exposure should happen as part operations.

I have observed the average life span of people in developed countries and it astonishes me when I compare the same to that of in India. US and UK have been able to achieve this through consistently advanced programs of healthcare, good food and exercise. I think this is one of the fundamental elements that we are missing for the large population in India.

I recently learnt about the factors of production, productivity and how this relates to the GDP of a nation. A healthy workforce, empowered with right kind of education and abundant resources of energy can create wonders. I think enough has been said and done in technology to jumpstart that sector. Many people understand now how technology can change life. Many people understand how my H2E's can also change life of a nation, however, there are not enough wealth creation opportunities yet.

John Doer keeps saying Education and Healthcare sectors in the US need urgent attention. These two sectors suffer from two different problems. Healthcare is dominated by complexity of FDA, R&D and power of few providers. Whereas education is suffering from its own bureaucracy. Both have high entry barriers to innovation (there by high entry barriers to entrepreneurs).

However, it is a different scenario in India. Both education and healthcare segments are wide open and not so much controlled by the government yet. Education sector is somewhat controlled by the state governments, however there are enough opportunities for innovation.

Indian entrepreneurs must look into these segments, which can make us leap orbits and make a Great Indian Dream come true.

Entrepreneurship and "Making Money"

2007-09-10T19:26:00.000-07:00

"Making Money" is still a taboo in many communities (I am NOT referring to any religious communities) in India. One's upbringing is never to "Make Money", but to earn knowledge and spread knowledge. Money is viewed as evil and earned only how much is needed to live a simple possible life.

We need to change the view of "Making Money" into "Creating Wealth" or "Creating Value". This is very key to the development of Entrepreneurship in India. This is hard; especially if you have to do this within moral, ethical and legal framework.

We want to see entrepreneurship in many sectors - energy, education and exposure are fundamental. In addition to these, Healthcare and Technology are the two sectors which need to evolve around these core sectors. It will be hard see traditional investors and entrepreneurs in core sectors; however, I think there is significant profits to be made in core sectors.

How could we make money or create wealth or create value in these sectors? How can we stimulate growth in entrepreneurship in India?

New kind of intellect

2007-05-07T06:05:00.000-07:00

Shri Krishna Shastry (Balila school fame) and Shri S.L. Bhairappa (well known novelist) are the different kind of intellectuals I saw in my life till today. I met Krishna Shastry through one of my close friends, Jags, in a school where he studied. This short writing is not sufficient to write about both of these scholars; I will just make some mentions of my recent experiences.

I recently met Krishna Shastry again in one of the social gatherings. As usual, I was thrilled to meet him. Conversation turned towards western culture. I opined to him that USA has a great culture of honesty, integrity & professionalism and social and family values very similar to India. I also mentioned to him that USA is ahead of any other country today in every field because they work harder and have high level of work culture. He asked me why should then Indians say that western culture is bad! Media problems! Perception problems!?

I have been telling this to many of my country men I met during the past several years. But none resonates like Shri Shastry. We continued our great conversation and concluded that if such is the culture of western states, we must welcome it!

I have seen S.L. Bhairappa only through his works. Let us talk about him in the next blog. He is kind of "right to the center" as per me. Anyways, he is one of the courageous one!

3 E's that we need

2007-03-28T14:57:00.000-07:00

Energy, Education and Exposure are what we fundamentally need to achieve next level in our villages. I am convinced if we work these three, other things will fall in place.

Energy: One of the main resources which is at scarce. There are abundant unconventional ways through which we would be able to substitute traditional energy. I very well remember we used gas from animal waste to light our houses and cook in the village where I used to live. It is a normal practice in India to use solar energy to heat water. We need to now see how we can use these unconventional sources to run water pumps, to switch on stoves, to run TV’s & computers, and provide heat in the winter.

Education: There are thousands of lectures going on every hour in many parts of the world. Technology can help in recording these and re-broadcasting in every village in India. We could be using internet, mobile phones, TV’s or radios. With kind of realization that we have about education, every village will accept this gladly. People would be willing to pay fee to learn in a structured way which will in turn help to build a career.

Exposure: There are gazillion things which need to be told to the world about India. World has just scratched the surface with the discovery of talented software engineers. We have scholars in every field. We need exposure through internet, broadcasting and what not.

I want to see social entrepreneurs focusing on these areas. Microfinancing has got its popularity and growing. Our next challenges will be energy, education and exposure.

Is US winning the war in Iraq?

2006-12-20T19:28:00.000-08:00

The reality could be different - answer may be "Yes"! If you think US wanted to achieve a successful division between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, US is certainly winning the war. History has seen many wars where the winner's strategy was to divide the enemy.

US successfully created a war ground in Iraq when it didn't know where to fight its enemies. Afghanistan wasn't a good war ground - enemies of US just flew out from there (or at least it appeared so). US said, we will fight them in their land so that they don't come to US. Great strategy! However, where is 'their' land? Where is the battlefield? Well, Iraq served as one.

WMD was a facade. Getting Saddam was a by-product. Oil? Well, there is always that. But most importantly, you can't fight an enemy when they are scattered all over the world. You can't fight something that you don't know. Get them in the shooting range to shoot them! Iraq was the shooting range.

What we see today in Iraq is a division and a divided enemy. It might be appearing that US is losing out on the goal of establishing democracy in middle east. What if the real goal wasn't that?

Don't get me wrong here. I don't support killing innocent people. I am just an interested observer of global affairs. I took great pain by attacks on WTC as well as attacks on Indian parliament. It hurt me when the bombs blasted both in London and in Mumbai. It also hurt me when innocent people got killed in Lebanon. I always wished if at all Mahatma Gandhi was present there.

It really gets me wondering sometime what was the objective of war in Iraq? Goal of achieving a divided enemy seems like one of the strongest goals US had right from the beginning.

Judiacial Renaissance

2006-10-30T08:20:00.000-08:00

Wow! This is great! Matto, Imrana, Afzal - judiciary is taking back its position. It is a great reassurance to the 1BN people who, for the last 60 years obeyed every decision (except for couple of parliamentary interventions and emergency - which was widely condemend).

Our judicial system in India is grossly understaffed now. But the system has shown it can stand up for itself and rejuvinate the platform on which people can conduct business legally. Our great instiutions are capable to correct themselves. We can do this.

We need more reforms in corporate legal systems. As Mukesh Ambani once noted, we would need reforms in labor laws, employee and employer regulations, minimum wages - laws that govern private sector. There hasn't been much known to common man about these. An American citizen is much better educated on these laws and these part of their lives. It needs to be in India as well. It is a good part!

The making of a Village Entrepreneur

2006-08-31T13:45:00.000-07:00

Our education system contributes in a big way in turning people away from entrepreneurship. Doing business is not actively encouraged as a way of life in many families either. Rather business is looked at least by some as a way of making money at the expense of another. Which is not true for a good business.

Depending on the formal education system to teach a villager on the business infrastructure is useless. We could educate the youth of the villages on how to make a living by doing business. For some it come naturally. For the others it need to be shown. Fears of lack of capital kills one too many entrepreneurs. But if one does not know the avenues of finances possible great lives get nipped at the bud. Information is power.

In America, kids run lemonade stands in summer. They take part in many other entrepreneurial activities through out their childhood. These and the iconic glory of a capitalist society paves seeds of a business mind.

The disparity is even greater in Indian Villages. So any entrepreneurship based village development program we implement in the coming Years, should have an additional investment budget item for Educating a potential entrepreneur. Results can wait. But the hopes are great!.

Exposure to Villages in India

2006-08-29T21:21:00.000-07:00

Our villages in India need more exposure. I am confident that there are thousands of innovations going on - mainly because of the basic need - and they say necessity is the mother of invention! Just a Google search will tell us how innovative are our villages - starting from basic medicine to sophisticated psychology issues! Look at this - http://www.sristi.org/anilg/

I found this very interesting link some time back when I was searching for this topic: http://www.rediff.com/money/2006/aug/25spec.htm

Lot of these innovations and inventions tie naturally with the cycles of nature – be it related to conservation of water or related to medicine. In my view, it was unfortunate that we had it in our culture to say greed is not good! Let us accept this – little greed is good. Everything is bad when it is too much, isn’t it? So is greed.

http://www.sristi.org/cms/files/Transforming%20Indian%20villages%20through%20innovations,%2021%20Oct%2005.doc

I had earlier discussed we need capsules of capitalism in our villages to boost them. These are the avenues where there is a scope for unconventional investments. Exposure, venture capital help, education on IPR can make our villages pretty rich!

Terrorism and us continued...

2006-08-23T14:02:00.000-07:00

Let me follow on to Girish's thoughts on terrorism.

I'll start with the age of cliché that one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. I believe so too. I do not have any reference to the old British New Papers. But at least some monarchical press could have stamped Gandhi and Nehru at some level as mindless terrorists. We know for a fact that Bhagat Singh and Azad heard the exact same names. Fidel Castro was one for both United States and the Cuban Government.

What rights do India have to criticize US invading Iraq?. Our short term memory forgets Sri Lanka and Maldives, let alone Bangladesh where we masterminded a coup.

What is termed as terrorism is caused by fundamental level conflicts between humans. In places where jurisdiction is powerful and just, humans will turn to the system to correct a wrong doing. Unfortunately the wrongs and rights of this world are all relative. For a father with a hungry child at his home, stealing a loaf of bread may be the only solution at times. I know I am over simplifying. Bear with me on this please. The justice frame work in our current world ends at the maximum at the state level. The international court of Justice is not a powerful organization.

Many south Indian states have fierce water disputes. Not many go around blowing up each others dams. But they approach the courts. However the Kashmir referendum will never be heard in an Indian court or in a Pakistan court since the respective states will not give a damn. What will happen then?, Some people will feel the powerlessness when faced with an unjust System. Could this feeling be the root cause of turbulence usually termed terrorism?

I believe so; since mercenaries cannot have passion, and without passion one cannot tie a bomb around ones waist and blow up ones own body. Once the passion for the cause is created there will be vultures who wants to make money off that passion. May it be by selling arms to fighters in Afghan mountains or by finding a market for their only crop opium. The short sightedness of actions creates Frankenstein out of commoners. This brings us to the topic of state supported disruptive actions by factions.

The world we live in always had differences of opinion at the highest levels. If viewed at a macro level these differences may sound more childish than those by the first graders fighting over the right to sit in a particular seat. In my opinion there are no near term solution for what we now call as terrorism, Civil war and Wars. Inherent human nature craves for certain rights. Right or wrong, the perception when translated to a wide group of people the opinion, becomes more powerful than what is the right thing to do. Political interventions is a very powerful tool. I believe in democracy and I believe that democracy calls for the prevalence of the opinion of the majority. However hard it may be opinion of an informed population should be heard. Those voices matter irrespective of where they are voiced: Kashmir, West Bank or in Jakarta. Problems should be acknowledged and addressed. State should not under estimate the power of mass will, after all mass will is a democracy.

At the grassroots level a solution will be to engage the youth in activities that earns respect and money. An idle mind almost always is a workshop for the omnipresent devil. Let those vultures be at bay, empower the youth with economic independence. Entrepreneurs create jobs. Jobs keep people busy and happy. Jobs bring in money and harmony. Harmony fosters family relationships. And such a society has a lower chance of getting attacked from the inside.

Terrorism and us

2006-07-21T19:26:00.000-07:00

The strongest challenge that we face today is terrorism. Nobody has any clue how to fight this. I don't understand who is the enemy of terrorism? Is the word terrorism itself a political jinx? Or is it the age-old fight of 'haves' and 'have-not'?

The roots are obvioulsy are not too old - may be not more than 25 years. Few say it is the by-product of cold war. Few say it is the by-product of power hungry nations. Everybody has a justification. Every to-be terrorist has frustration in life.

Mahamtma Gandhi's principles of non violent war were never more relevant. Terrorists don't need arms (who supplies arms to them anyway!) - they need to talk, express and negotiate instead of hiding behind civilians of Lebanon.

It is a complicated world and simple answers do not exist. A start of non violent war somewhere would be a new start. Mankind has seen the impossible before and I hope to see an end to terrorism too.

Rahul Mahajan episode and public conduct

2006-07-05T21:51:00.000-07:00

Hyped up too much. It is hard to believe that there is no vested interest of few people in exploiting Rahul Mahajan's situation. But that is how the challeging it is for Rahul Mahajan. He must realize he is son of one of the powerful leaders of BJP and act accordingly. Allegations against him are formidable.

This is one clear example of how not to manage a public life. The alleged drug abuse is still under trail and hence we can't comment anything on this. However, it is important for young leaders to know how to conduct themselves when they are public life. There is no room for mistake or even alleged mistake. One can't afford allegations and go under trial by sacrificing significant amount of time with judiciary. It is important to conduct in such a way that you are respectable and nobody dares to do an allegation.

There are a very few people in public life like that. Vajpeyee, Manmohan Singh, L K Advani, Chidambaram, Antony of Kerala to name a few who still strive to hold high moral grounds in the eyes of public. Of course there are critics, but allegation is different from criticism.

BTW, would there be a possibility of Rahul Vs Rahul?

Let us live for a cause

2006-07-04T21:21:00.000-07:00

We live for a cause. In the movie Million Dollar Baby, Hillary Swank said "boss, if I quit Boxing, there is no reason for me to live"... one of the most intriguing statements. When one lives for a cause, everything around the person changes. The cause and the means will find you.

Indians today must live for a cause - to contribute and make our country the strongest leader world has ever seen. There has never been a better time than this. World wars made many countries gave an opportunities to be stronger, to invent new ways, to get disciplined and what not. We are having a different challenge today - a war within ourselves.

We must stand up for the cause and contribute. Reverse brain drain that is happening is a great sign. New political parties launched by students is a great sign. We are all made for a cause. We all have it within us. Just the right kind of enabling will take us there.

Chanlleges for the Social Entrepreneur

2006-06-14T17:19:00.000-07:00

Alright, the job for a social entrepreneur is to solve problems. In my previous chat, I also identified that an entrepreneur creates wealth. Even before, we said only jobs for an entrepreneur are innovation and marketing.

We need to identify what problems do we need solve, what are the innovative ways with which we can come up with solutions and how do we market these to create wealth in the society.

One of the fundamental problems that we have is the way we utilze our natural resources. Be it Monsoon or be it Himalayas. Be it our population potential or be it our heritage. We have not enabled people to utilize these effectively to create wealth.

Water conservation could be our first and foremost problem that needs to be solved! Whatever the project is, we must approach the problem with 3 things in mind - the project must be profitable, it should be affordable to the people at the bottom of the pyramid (however, it is not free) and create jobs locally.

Let us chat more soon.

Social Entrepreneurship

2006-06-09T13:44:00.000-07:00

I think social entrepreneurship is the need of the hour in India today. I think it is a process of enabling those who want to get on to the progress boat. It is process where the people involved will profit from the ventures and enterprises.

We need to liberate those who are at the bottom of the pyramid. We need to make everybody educated so that they are not exploited. India still has the world’s largest number of poor people in a single country. Of its nearly 1 billion inhabitants, an estimated 350-400 million are below the poverty line, 75 per cent of them in the rural areas.

Nobody says this is an easy task. This is certainly a daunting task which involves political, economical, cultural, technological strings attached.

Microfinancing is certainly a small and good start where this could begin. When you enable people with finance, there are a lot of possibilities. This in turn opens up many buying opportunities. We all know the buying potential of 300MM people in the USA.

Social entrepreneurship is in no way a charity. Well, it is work to improve the society, but while doing so, we must create wealth, number of small businesses and entrepreneurs. It is a challenge.

Let us see what are the different ideas of social entrepreneurships come out in the near future. One of the websites that I keep watching is http://www.ashoka.org/fellows/social_entrepreneur.cfm

Reservations

2006-05-18T14:52:00.000-07:00

There is too much politics going on with the reservations. I support reservations for the needy. I don't support reservations based on cast.

To understand reservations in India, we need to understand a little history of India. The argument always runs that the so called backwards casts are so because of injustice in the old age society. Agreed. Why do we have to still continue to harvest the cast system? Isn't it an injustice still? We need to take a re-look at the reservation system.

We need to take a re-look at the reservation system. I would support a system based on economics, reservation based on income. We could increase funds for scholarships. There are hundreds of entrepreneurs who would be willing to participate. Free primary education for everybody in rural areas along with incentives like nutritious meals, financing for higher education with lower or no interest rates - these kind of planning certainly need to be in place. Dividing our society on cast is just a crime and a shame on governance.

Microfinancing or Micro-Investing?

2006-04-30T22:11:00.000-07:00

I am sort of convinced that Microfinancing is the way to grow entrepreneurs in India. May be we will need some variations of pure Microfinancing – like how www.prosper.com is doing; people-to-people financing.

We certainly need innovative ways and means of achieving new economics for our rural areas. Liberalization of Manmohan Singh era was certainly great – it gave us tremendous exposure. I personally don’t think I would have been in this position if liberalizations had not taken place!

Microfinancing has a charitable angle. It is targeted towards improving quality of life by lending small amounts of loans with specific parameters. Though the business of Microfinancing is profitable, the value that this creates for entrepreneurs is less.

The variations of this could be micro-investing. Why not people directly invest in venture ideas and get equity? Why not create a micro-private equity place virtually?

Enterpreneureship - Innovation and Marketing

2006-04-17T22:43:00.000-07:00

Peter Drucker once said there are only two jobs for an entrepreneur - Marketing and Innovation. All other are execution and operational.

I think it is perfect! I didn't see any other contributions that entrepreneurs ever made! Larry Ellison is happy developing products, marketing and letting the execution parts to someone else. Bill Gates is happy being Chief Software Architect and no one knows marketing better than him. Narayana Murthy is as happy as ever being a chief mentor. Google founders are happy that their company is being run by Eric Schmidt. Hardly anyone actually even knows the name of Google founders.Biggest quality of entrepreneurs may be that they are happy in innovating and marketing; letting other people run operations.

Well, I don't have much of empirical data on this, but wherever I see, there is a strong evidence for what Mr. Drucker says. After all, it is Peter Drucker and no one has any questions about that.

Walk the talk

2006-04-16T18:00:00.000-07:00

Dear Friend:

You are reading this either by accident, or because you have interest on India. In either case, read on. You have all the right to carry a different opinion than I have. You have all the right to criticize me to the bone. You have all the right to post your comments right below my thoughts to communicate your thoughts.

Freedom of speech is a right. Actively practiced, at least in theory, in all modern democracies. Recently I heard from a friend, who lived for three long interesting years in Singapore, that it has different definition for the freedoms. Thought and action actively controlled by the state is borderline dictatorship. If that is what is being practiced, it is a wrong practice.

Human Resources has become a nice name in the corporate world. Similar to many other small words made to convey a packaged pre-defined aura of a meaning. Leaders have a huge responsibility when it comes to managing human resources. They wield the power to direct, restrain, channelize, activate, put into action, the humans who listen to them. To quote a famous comic strip, "With great power comes great responsibility". Leaders are sometimes created. Sometimes by accident. Sometimes through hard work. Some times through bloody wars, and sometimes thorough an electoral process. In a democratic society, the leaders chosen through a fiercely contested election almost always have the Himalayan task of leading more of opposers than supporters. Winning over the opposers is of as much importance as leading those who balloted one to power. A positive and a negative combined forms zero. For each negative that is converted to a positive, the opposing forces decreases by two. So a hard question to never to be ignored for a new leader is, how to win over the opposition?.

Yes, you are absolutely right. That is not an easy task. We are not looking for easy solutions here are we?. If there were a Silver Bullet, I'd have given up my first born for the cause. But there exists none (Neither the Silver Bullet, nor my first born).

A new leader can start by realizing that, he or she has the responsibility to lead every one who is not a leader in his circle to a better state. That is the simple definition for what a leader is supposed to do. The leader needs every helping hand from his circle to achieve the common goals. Any actions that will increase the negative charge should be avoided. Every action should convert as much negative charge in the circle to positive charge. Every action must be evaluated prior and post to plan and and measure.

The Human resource is the most important tool a new Leader has. A leader always leads humans. Even with technology advancing so much we do not see any leaders running around setting the goals and objectives of a bunch of Computers, do we?. Lucky us, I must say!!. Time is the constraint many a new leaders has. There is a fixed term, and then uncertainty beyond. The results are important, and the resources to start with are few. End of the term the new leader gets his report card which lists the number of things he or she achieved, not the number of things he or she 'thought of achieving'. I say, do not worry about it. There are umpteen things in this world which you do not have control over. You are not going to be the last leader either. If the number of negative charges you converted to positive are large enough, either you or someone who thinks and acts very similar to you is going to succeed you. Leader, apart from the charisma and oratory skills has a defined set of characteristics. The styles may be different; but the objectives are not.

India needs leaders; India needs young leaders. It is time, IIM's concentrate an elective on political leadership. A coherent approach and study on successful leadership styles, coupled with the correct management techniques will go a long way in channelizing our tremendous human capital.

I grew up in an era where family planning advertisements adorned the highway sides. Now, suddenly both India and China are waking up and realizing that population is a capital. Channelized thought and action will take India a long way ahead.

If you have traveled by Train through India you will see a lot of uninhabited land. Hundreds of kilometers of stretches in most of the states, where the only human being you may come across will be a small line of women balancing pots of water on their head walking back to some destination you cannot see. Those are the places where our human capital needs to be distributed on. Lets us have a clear strategy to identify places to build new cities. Let us identify the local resource availability at these places. Let us pick the Industries, and crops for those places. Let us mine out all those rock lands for construction work, Let us explore our land and the sea to get to our much needed natural resources.

A booming stock market and a booming real estate market in the cities does not mean anything in the long run. What matters is what is the GDP. Gross Domestic Production. How much we manufacture in our factories and how much we reap out of our agricultural land.

A thriving economy cannot sustain growth without providing the much needed infrastructure. The growth of China is so different from the boom in India. China is decades ahead of India in that, it is now starting to show the results of a well thought out plan to utilize its human resources by providing the necessary infrastructure. But it is not a race with China that we are on. Our objective is to get Indians to a better state by channelizing the potent energy.

I hope I have made my introductory post to outline my thoughts at a macro level. I believe India needs young leaders who could strategically build infrastructure and channelize the human capital for a better India. My future posts will elaborate this outline.

Stay tuned, and Jai Hind!!

Jama Masjid blasts

2006-04-16T12:10:00.000-07:00

It was shocking to learn about Jama Masjid blasts. It is as barbaric as Akshadharm or Ayodhya attack. It is as cruel as attack on religious places in Iraq. It is as cruel as bringing down babri masjid. There is no justification for attack on religious places. There is no explanation for terrorism. There was no other period in the history of mankind where innocent people were terrorized.

We need more assertion from every community in opposing terrorism. Every honorable citizen of India condemns these incidents of spreading terror. I want to see more assertion of muslims as a community in condmening these incidents. There are tons of great leaders in India from Muslim community. They need to condemn this as leaders of our country as well as leaders of Muslim community. There are two roles for these leaders mainly because we need good life in our country and we need good quality of religious harmony in our society. Good harmony starts at one's own religion.

I was personally very happy when Advani decided to start communicate the right message of what he stands for, when he commented on Jinnah. It could have been obviously one of the most effective stands taken in terms religious and sectarian harmony in the country. We need to shed age-old meaningless root causes and concetrate on quality of life of our citizens. We need to concentrate on development of basic amenities.

Any incidents that come in the way of development should be condemned by everybody. What we need is not bomb blasts - we need long lasting physical, spiritual, intellectual infrastructures. We need to stimulate great indian dream.

Leadership

2006-04-07T17:07:00.000-07:00

Alright, it has been a while that I blogged. Few people told me that they read my blog; great! It inspired me to come back and write more!

As a child or even as a teenager I used to wonder why do leaders get the importance that they do get. Nitish Kumar for example, is a simple man - I could be the chief minister of Bihar as well! What is the difference? I could be a leader as well.... in fact I did - I was a student leader all along my life. The real leadership role that made me realize the leadership importance was at my Engineering College. Let us talk about it some other day.

Next leadership role I was with was at Entelligentia - I was not so good as a leader. I lacked communicating; I lacked leading the team to a successful venture. I was extremely fortunate to have 5 excellent partners - Boni, Mahesh, Jagadeesh, Raveesh and Sunu, who are also excellent leaders. I am fortunate because they accepted a sacrifice at the end of the venture.

Leaders are unique in their own way. I always want to learn what makes a person a good leader. Influence is probably one of the most characterizing qualities of a leader. Be it influence through hard work, or influence through speech, writing, demonstrated work, thoughts, charisma - what not.

Somebody once said - the power of faith and love are unbeatable. Leaders may be those who generate enormous amount faith in something and stand by it. Be it a country or an issue. Look at Advani and Ram Mandir. No leader other than Advani could so easily be associated with Ram Mandir. Leaders may be somebody who stand by their beliefs. Look at George Bush. No leader other than George Bush could be associated with war on terrorism. Look at Narayana Murthy with Indian IT industry. Look at Manamohan Singh with liberalization. Look at Mahatma Gandhi with non-violent war. Look at Budha with Nirvana. Look at Romeo with love. John Doer with Venture Capital. Everyone had one faith and they stood by it to become leaders.

Well.... my learning continues. May be somebody will standby for entrepreneurship in India and transform.

Derecognition of Congress?

2005-12-02T12:58:00.000-08:00

Has anyone thought about this? Derecognition of Congress as a political party!

Congress has been a mark of Indian politics for over 110 years. People grew with Congress, people opposed Congress, people were ruled by Congress and what not. It was unimaginable to think something like politics without Congress till we saw some serious politics in the late seventies.

I am still fascinated by the reselience of Congress. The political party keeps moving on though I can't see any clear ideology associated with the party. Old school politicians like Jagdish Tytler, Natwar Singh still have strong foothold there. Very few people like Manmohan Singh, Chidambaram, Praful Patel (NCP) are conspicuous with their new thoughts on progress. Most of the people in Congress give an impression that they are there to make money. In my personal opinion, Congress has let down our conuntry.

It will be good see a watershed in Indian politics - we need new ideas and new parties. Parties that fight elections on development and performance agenda. Parties that strive for improving living conditions. I am not partisan here towards BJP - they have similar problems too except that they have shown signs moving in a direction of development and governance.

Let's come out of old school politics my fellow Indians. Let's support political parties who can build good infrastructure, who can improve living conditions and who can make India a very proud country.

Entrepreneurship capsule

2005-11-29T05:25:00.000-08:00

We Indians need an Entrepreneurship capsule! We need the definitions of Entrepreneurship enclosed in a management course. We need a new phylosophy, a new phylosophy of Economics.

I think we are so entrenched with the concept of social service, we often mis-understood and built our society on the concepts which, I think are ill-conceived by many. For example, I was talking to my friend about a very good Ayurvedic doctor in my village. He is one among those who could produce juices out of a dry nut. He serviced at least 25 people a day and never took money from them. He lives his life in poverty and is a happy person. He is very skilled Doctor - no questions about that.

While his service is greatly appreciated, what I personally don't appreciate is the concept of free service for 25 people per day - many of them are frequent visitors. This great Doctor is building a culture where people are not careful enough! People don't think twice before going to a treatment. They are not responsible for their health - as there is this angel who can cure them if they fall sick! Even better, they don't have to pay for anything! Wow!

I think people got to be more responsible in society. Especially people with skills. The service doesn' come free. Don't provide your skills for free. This is not hard. The knowledge doesn't come free. I still remember many well read scholars in my village, who never charged a cent when people came to them for suggestions, knowledge.

Indian villages need a culture where services and knowledge should come with a fee. This is a new phylosophy of economy. We need more debate on this.

BJP - Movement towards development agenda

2005-11-28T16:08:00.000-08:00

It is apparent from the recent showdowns that BJP is aggressively leaving behind the Hindutva agenda and marching on towards "Development" and "Governance" agenda. Great! I always wanted to see this in Indian political parties.

First party that ever created a sort of cast based vote bank is Congress. Obviously, other leader took the clue and then followed the Mandal and Mandir. It was a milestone move when Manmohan Singh opened up the market when he became the Finance Minister in Narasimha Rao government (Though BJP claims Manmohan Singh stole their agenda, Singh's execution of the idea was remarkable given the circumstances) .

From the wins at Rajastan, Madhya Pradesh and Utharanchal, BJP thought it would be fair to contest an election nationwide on Development and Governance agenda and we know the outcome! I guess it was a communication problem with BJP. Another problem could be the internal ideological tussle between BJP and RSS. Whatever the case may be, BJP was successful in communicating the development and governance agenda at a state level, but was not successful at a national level is what my feeling.

Other strong pieces of evidence that strengthen my arguement is the showdown with Uma Bharati, Madanlal Khurana, Yashwant Sinha... Needless to say they were also voicing against the party top leadership.

Kudos to BJP, rather NDA for sticking with its agenda of development and goveranance. How it actually gets implemented is to be seen in the coming days!

Bihar Elections

2005-11-24T23:14:00.000-08:00

One of my great dreams came true with the debacle of Laloo Prasad in Bihar. It was my firm belief that democracy will eventually vote for progress. This is no certificate for NDA, but clearly a mandate against Laloo.

We have tons of articles on Bihar lost Laloo or Laloo lost Bihar. But the fundamentals of democracy keep working every single time.

I have no doubt left in mind that we will be a developed nation soon.

Great Indian Dream

2005-11-24T23:10:00.000-08:00

We all have dreams and all our achievements began with dreaming. My dream is to see our country as one of the developed nations where people want to visit because India provides a great and happy life for anybody who comes in. How is this possible? Well, we are already on the move! If you are in doubt, look at us – IT Professionals!

I think only an entrepreneurial culture among individuals could accelerate this change. Shri M K Gandhi once said – “Entrepreneurs are trustees of our nation”. Entrepreneurs, not necessarily capitalists, have the tendency to “make it work”. Of course, I am a great fan of capitalism, but also aware of what took place in France, Russia and what took place in India as recent as last general elections. Entrepreneurial culture need not necessarily mean a business man as well – there are entrepreneurs in politics, in social service and in every path of life. An entrepreneur finally creates a great value. It is daring to dream, will to face challenges and take risks that marks the characteristics of an entrepreneur.

So, how exactly am I proposing to go about in achieving my Great Indian Dream? - by individual contribution – by creating a system which subsequently creates as many entrepreneurs as possible. Creating an eco system where competition demands small businesses. Would you believe that more than 60% of the jobs today in the USA are generated by small businesses? All these small businesses are started by people like us. Some make it to the bigger league, some are happy where they are and some people fail (and start again!). But most of the people are the makers of their own destiny.

To analyze any phenomenon, I believe one need to consider three major influences – History, Current state of society and ambitions. I am talking about the individuals to start with! How do we make a person an entrepreneur?

Every one of us has a great history – a great story. Hardly any one of us reading this article are in the position today just by cruising – everybody worked hard, faced hardships and faced many challenges. Challenges may be different but there were them for sure. Everyone always wished to be one more step ahead.

I believe current state of society offers more challenges and more opportunities. A good political leader knows a messed-up situation is always an opportunity! A good business man knows how to cash out the entire buzz happening around. A good innovator knows what the next step to solve the current problem is. A good entrepreneur will make a way to create value to the country and its people.

To take the current state of affairs to the next step, we need to have ambitions. Higher the ambition, more excitement it is! Dhirubhai Ambani – I think he had an ambition to create a value, which is 4% of GDP of India. Narayana Murthy – I think had an ambition to create 10,000 millionaires in India. Abdul Kalam had an ambition to be a nuclear power. None of these people got there in 1, 2 or 5 years.

We have very less in control of our history – but we have great learning. We need to understand that we have a terrific history and take strength out of it. We need to understand the core values on which our society is built upon. Current state of society opens up opportunities. Ambition is what we can really control, define and work towards. Let’s remember, ambitions can’t be achieved unless they have the foundation of core values. Let’s remember, ambitions of Dawood Ibrahim or Osama are not what we are talking about here. We are discussing about creating, not destroying.

How do we create an eco system where we dare to dream audaciously? Certainly, to start with, by defining it. Yes, by defining the entire eco system of how do we want to live – how do we want to travel, how do we want to buy things, what do we want to own, how do we govern ourselves? I am not talking about this at a national level – that is the constitution. What is your life’s constitution? How do you want to live? Dare to dream individually and try working towards it – you can see an immediate frustration. Navigating through this with a focus and dedication will make everybody an entrepreneur.

A good entrepreneur is a good team player, a loyal follower and never a destroyer of values. He/she is always will stand up with integrity to question what is wrong and at the same time, will contribute with what is right.

Let’s start a culture of entrepreneurship within us. Let’s make it with Iteamic. Little contributions lead to bigger things.

“I am not a great man or an icon, but I don’t mind becoming one” – Girish!

How do you become an entrepreneur? As you read earlier, we need to realize our roots (history), realize contemporary affairs (business, social, technological etc.) and have ambitions.

Our roots, (History) teach us great values. We need to have core values from which we will never deviate – come what may! To become an entrepreneur, you need to define core values. I have analyzed this so much that my strong belief is that there are only three values that one needs to adhere to – truth, love and fear of unknown (compare these three to lies, lust and psychology of power!). My belief comes from analysis, experiments and ongoing experiments!

Truth encompasses character, honesty, integrity and commitment. For those who want to know more about truth, I strongly recommend reading – “My experiments with truth” form M K Gandhi. Yudhishtira, in the great epic of Mahabharata, is a shining example of truth. Jesus is a great example of integrity and commitment (He is much more that). Buddha committed himself in what he believed. Alexander Graham Bell was committed to invent electricity. Ambani believed he could be BIG some day. M K Gandhi never thought he couldn’t get freedom. So did Subhash Chandra Bose. Vajpayee always believed he would become prime minister some day. They all believed in the truth and tread the path of truth, belief, commitment.

Lies will destroy you. We can take examples as recent as American presidents – Nixon, Regan and Clinton – they all went down because they lied! We will need to wait and see what will happen to Bush!

Love encompasses a pure relationship and passion. Examples of love and passion becoming triumphant in the history are so many – I don’t need to quote any examples.

Fear of unknown is what I think will need debate and convincing. We usually name the “unknown” as God, risk etc. Fear of unknown is an inevitable ingredient of an entrepreneur. It makes the person more careful, more calculative, more dignified and peaceful.

Jim Collins, one of the most intelligent and pragmatic management gurus who live with us now, once observed that great business leaders have “Professional will and personal humility” (In his book – ‘Good to Great’). I believe truth gives you the professional will and fear of unknown gives you the personal humility. Love gives you the meaning for life.

Well, apart from core values, an entrepreneur needs to live in the present – contemporary affairs – one need to be timely, modern and charming, of course. One could achieve this without deviating from core values – that’s how great people are made. This takes constant learning, hard work and discipline.

I always love to attend trainings – learning is a constant endeavor. Well, I am not a great man or an icon, but I don’t mind becoming one! Training and learning would never stop. One of the Japanese motivational lectures said during their recovery from 1942 tragedy – “The moment you stop learning, you are dead. Being alive means either working or learning”.

Ambition is the greatest part of entrepreneurs. You can’t move forward unless you are ambitious. One can’t be ambitious unless he/she is dreaming about what his/her life should be!

It would be a great discussion on entrepreneurs and my great Indian dream. I am looking forward to this discussion. Entrepreneurship, NOT capitalism built America – it could build a great India as well. We need to make it folks; and I think we have a great chance to this with Iteamic.