It appears that we were just being confronted with the implications of the dawn of the new millennium and the impact of the Y2K problems and here we are staring down the fact that not only have we completed another year of the millennium but a decade in that.
Memory they say is short lived and therefore one tends to remember the events that are happening closer to the end of the year! The one that sticks to mind is the now famous “Ruchika Case”! Without going into the case, what is appalling is that it has taken the system 16 years to deliver the judgement. How on earth can a judicial system operate with these delays? Even worse, there has been the gross abuse of the system over the years. Should only the accused be charged with abetment to the crime or the entire criminal justice culpable of the same offence?
If the case was the only one wherein these types of delays have taken place then we could hope that it was an aberration. Unfortunately there appears to be many such cases. Untraced senior police official for 13 years, the convicted son of a senior police official who jumped bail and this list could evidently go on.
The other aspect is the crime registration to conviction ratio. The ratio would evidently be the poorest when it relates to politicians. One is invariable wondering as how this class can get away with such impunity. Either the case has not been investigated or a case has been registered without a prima facie justification. Either way it speaks poorly of the police mechanism.
Let us only hope that we see light at the end of the tunnel in the new decade of next millennium hopefully not that of an oncoming train!!
Best wishes for the season
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Tourist friendly, Resident Unfriendly
Recently the Government of Tamil Nadu declared open the beautified "Marina Beach" for public. The beach, for many, is associated with some unforgettable childhood moments. The beautification of one the longest natural beaches in the world hopefully would represent the need for recognition of the natural creations before they are consumed by manmade negligence. One definitely is left wondering if we have mastered the art of fire fighting as more often than not we were instrumental in creating the fire!
That apart what caught the eye was the press release that stated that beach has been more "tourist friendly"! What is that supposed to mean - Resident Unfriendly?! This represents yet another instance of negligence to recognise the rights of the locals and that is invariable is the source of problems in future. We end in creating second class citizens of our own residents. Tourist friendly autos when the local residents are being fleeced? I was reading an interesting news item according to which the estimated amount of excess charging by autos in the city of Chennai alone is in excess of Rs.1100 crores!
It is high time we overcome this export quality and export surplus obsession. The world is recognising the potential of the Indian markets but we are still looking external!
Another news item that irritated me was the proposal to clean up the Elloits beach in Chennai using children from schools during the third week of January 2010. Why on earth should we ask innocent children to clean up the mess up of irresponsible elders? We make fancy statements like the current generations are the trustees of the future generations but end up doing just the opposite of asking the beneficiaries to protect their property. Wonder what the social activists are doing?
It is time we fast track on both educate and enforcement aspects rather than continuously ask children to clean up the beaches making them rag pickers. If at all we need to use children let us use them for community policing which make act a deterrent to the elders!
That apart what caught the eye was the press release that stated that beach has been more "tourist friendly"! What is that supposed to mean - Resident Unfriendly?! This represents yet another instance of negligence to recognise the rights of the locals and that is invariable is the source of problems in future. We end in creating second class citizens of our own residents. Tourist friendly autos when the local residents are being fleeced? I was reading an interesting news item according to which the estimated amount of excess charging by autos in the city of Chennai alone is in excess of Rs.1100 crores!
It is high time we overcome this export quality and export surplus obsession. The world is recognising the potential of the Indian markets but we are still looking external!
Another news item that irritated me was the proposal to clean up the Elloits beach in Chennai using children from schools during the third week of January 2010. Why on earth should we ask innocent children to clean up the mess up of irresponsible elders? We make fancy statements like the current generations are the trustees of the future generations but end up doing just the opposite of asking the beneficiaries to protect their property. Wonder what the social activists are doing?
It is time we fast track on both educate and enforcement aspects rather than continuously ask children to clean up the beaches making them rag pickers. If at all we need to use children let us use them for community policing which make act a deterrent to the elders!
Misplaced Focus
The Indian system has an uncanny knack and ability of beating the system or taking it such levels of irrationality that it grounds it!
The recent emphasis by the regulatory authorities on compliance to the "Know Your Customer" guidelines is yet another case in example. The process has been reduced to an absolute farce with whole emphasis having shifted to the documents rather than tweaking a very critical marketing and risk management tool to meet regulatory requirements also.
The other cases relate to quality management systems like ISO 9001 certification or the CMMi and the like. The objectives of these systems and standards have been completely forgotten! The emphasis has completely shifted to the documentation with little or no focus on the process or the metrics! So much so that these systems have been completely commoditised resulting in a significant erosion of the faith.
The accreditation bodies, the certification agencies, auditors, assessors, consultants’ et al have all to take blame for the same. The mechanism that is prevalent in more mature markets cannot be and should be used in the Indian markets. If we ape the west we will make monkeys of ourselves! The Indian system has always been a much policed system and needs to be dealt as such for some more time to come! Assessors also need to reorient they audit mechanism which currently is operating in extremes mode. They are either so flippant or so very critical. Assessors should be constructive and refrain from taking positions that may their personal point of view.
Till these happen we can only sit back and hope!
The recent emphasis by the regulatory authorities on compliance to the "Know Your Customer" guidelines is yet another case in example. The process has been reduced to an absolute farce with whole emphasis having shifted to the documents rather than tweaking a very critical marketing and risk management tool to meet regulatory requirements also.
The other cases relate to quality management systems like ISO 9001 certification or the CMMi and the like. The objectives of these systems and standards have been completely forgotten! The emphasis has completely shifted to the documentation with little or no focus on the process or the metrics! So much so that these systems have been completely commoditised resulting in a significant erosion of the faith.
The accreditation bodies, the certification agencies, auditors, assessors, consultants’ et al have all to take blame for the same. The mechanism that is prevalent in more mature markets cannot be and should be used in the Indian markets. If we ape the west we will make monkeys of ourselves! The Indian system has always been a much policed system and needs to be dealt as such for some more time to come! Assessors also need to reorient they audit mechanism which currently is operating in extremes mode. They are either so flippant or so very critical. Assessors should be constructive and refrain from taking positions that may their personal point of view.
Till these happen we can only sit back and hope!
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Inconsistency and Mob Mentality
It is a no brainer to confirm that what is good for the country is good for the economy, industry and the companies that constitute the industry. This would apply to the entire value chain. If that was true then the reverse logic should also apply to a large extent!
This logic has however been given a go by in the recent political developments. There is evidently a double speak by the government on the matter. I was reading a news item of the finance ministry calling the bank unions for talks over the proposed merger of banks about which there are protesting. Here we are at one end of the spectrum justify merger/consolidation of banks to ensure greater strength & optimization of resources and on the other hand we go about taking decisions on bifurcation of states just to appease political classes. It is extremely surprising that successive governments have been procrastinating and holding talks over the need for consolidation banks for years but did not arrive at a decision but took a decision at midnight to bifurcate a state just because one individual has been fasting for a couple of days!
No sooner than an announcement was made regarding one state, the rest of the crowd of political classes joined the chorus making similar demands in other states. Small mercies that I am through having written all my exams - Imagine trying to remember the state capitals of all these states!
This brings me to my next favourite topic of the mob mentality in India. The average Indian firmly believes in my opening statement – what is good for one is good for all! If one person engaging in a activity you will soon find hoards doing the same thing! Be it a business, investing or even frauds!! The media and channels would do well to investigate as to how this information travels so fast down chain!
This mob mentality is already beginning to hurt the telecom companies. The sunrise industry is surely heading towards disaster if companies do not work hard on innovating! The ARPU is dropping quite fast and the only growth in revenue has been through new acquisitions. That is bound to flatten at some point of time. Compounding to the woes number portability is going to add pressures. Consumers are going enjoy but investors may see bloodshed at the market place.
This logic has however been given a go by in the recent political developments. There is evidently a double speak by the government on the matter. I was reading a news item of the finance ministry calling the bank unions for talks over the proposed merger of banks about which there are protesting. Here we are at one end of the spectrum justify merger/consolidation of banks to ensure greater strength & optimization of resources and on the other hand we go about taking decisions on bifurcation of states just to appease political classes. It is extremely surprising that successive governments have been procrastinating and holding talks over the need for consolidation banks for years but did not arrive at a decision but took a decision at midnight to bifurcate a state just because one individual has been fasting for a couple of days!
No sooner than an announcement was made regarding one state, the rest of the crowd of political classes joined the chorus making similar demands in other states. Small mercies that I am through having written all my exams - Imagine trying to remember the state capitals of all these states!
This brings me to my next favourite topic of the mob mentality in India. The average Indian firmly believes in my opening statement – what is good for one is good for all! If one person engaging in a activity you will soon find hoards doing the same thing! Be it a business, investing or even frauds!! The media and channels would do well to investigate as to how this information travels so fast down chain!
This mob mentality is already beginning to hurt the telecom companies. The sunrise industry is surely heading towards disaster if companies do not work hard on innovating! The ARPU is dropping quite fast and the only growth in revenue has been through new acquisitions. That is bound to flatten at some point of time. Compounding to the woes number portability is going to add pressures. Consumers are going enjoy but investors may see bloodshed at the market place.
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