Reflections

INDIA 2020 – A VISION FOR THE NEW MILLENNIUM BY DR. A P J  ABDUL KALAM & DR Y S RAJAN This is perhaps one of the best known books penned on India’s Growth Imperatives in its search for developed country status, penned by one of India’s favourite sons-  our beloved Late Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, Former President, Nuclear Scientist – and, as it turns out, thinker extraordinaire with a tremendous passion for India and all things Indian.  It has been co-authored with Dr Y S Rajan, who used to be the Scientific Secretary to the office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India. He was also associated with ISRO and the Department of Space This book, as it turns out, is far more than a mere problems/challenges-and-solutions stuff... it is the dream of a great Indian, a man who had given his entire life in the service of the nation. It is in every way a vision, a passionate dream; but one that is well presented, sorted out, supported with extensive res

There is a rather disturbing trend, currently at very minute levels, of identifying  the rise of a doctrinaire tenet in what we like to call Hinduism. I find this observation surprising at worst, and a sweeping generalisation at best. First of all, The word "Hinduism" has no historical or religious basis. Our religion has no name; Hinduism is name coined by our Colonial Rulers, to the best of my knowledge. I have not found this term beyond the colonial era; be that as it may – most of us accept it as the name for our religion. So be it. There is no mention of any name anywhere in all our religious texts. None whatsoever; the closest one comes to a name is the repeated reference to the term "Sanaatan". Thus, over time, it came to be called Sanaatan Dharm - closest translation : "The Eternal Path" . The religious connotation of the term Hindu is of colonial origin; the earlier term refered to a people from a particular geographical tract, south-eas

THE FLOCK OF BIRDS   It was an urgent tour; being a Sunday, reservation in an  AC Compartment was out of the question even in Premium Tatlkal – not for Mumbai. And thus it was that I was sitting in a lovely window seat of a three-tier reserved coach, on my way on my official business, drinking in the lovely sights for a change; and with my ever-present book by my side... this time, it was “ Storm The Norm : The Stories of 20 Brands That Did It by Anisha Motwani ”. My mind was steeped at that moment in business jargon, when it happened... when the surreal sight assaulted my senses... A flock of birds, flying some 3 or 4 feet above the ground at best. Pristine and the purest of white, against a solid backdrop of lovely, beautiful green, with not a brown splotch for miles; and outlined perfectly against this poetic green was a flock of white birds skimming the ground, almost... just a few feet off the ground... I was transfixed by the sight; I literally forgot everyth

This is the 3 rd and concluding part of my ongoing conversation into the Budget and The Indian Economy with Mr Amitabh D Sinha, carried on from : http://reflectionsvvk.blogspot.in/2016/03/indian-economy-msme-problems.html This discussion started with my contention that the recent budget is now on the right path, having focussed on Rural India; and that Rural economy should get preference over the Urban. The contention of Mr Sinha, an expert in Service Culture, Business strategy and the Director of Finance and Investment for the SME Chamber of India – is that we can do both; that the path of growth will be smoother and faster if we think out of the box and attempt the seemingly impossible In the story so far, the two {or three-four} of us had got to the point of systemic competence in the Indian Economy to gear up to meet the new paradigm facing India, Inc; and the preferabality of a model that focussed on both Urban as well as Rural segments of the economy. This goes