An important notice for the ill informed people

For all those who dare to think beyond IIMs, please read the notice below. This is not intended to malign any institute's name but only to warn people before they fall prey for the full length advertisements and fancy captions.

UNIVERSITY GRANTS COMMISSION

Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi — 110 002

It is hereby informed to the public at large and students that Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM) is not a University within the meaning of Section 2(f) of the University Grants Commission Act, 1956. Further, as per Section 22 of the University Grants Commission Act, 1956, IIPM does not have the right of conferring or granting degrees as specified by the University Grants commission under Section 22(3) of the University Grants Commission Act. It is further clarified for information that IIPM is neither entitled to award MBA BBN BCAdegree nor it is recognized byUGC.

The public and students are also hereby informed that the universities established either by a Central Act or a State Act or an Institution deemed to the

university under Section 3 of the Universit y Grants Commission Act can confer or grant only those degrees which are specified by the University Grants Commission under Section 22(3) of the University Grants Commission Act, 1956. A list of degrees specified by the University Grants Commission is available on the University Grants Commission website www.ugc.ac.in for information of all concerned.

(NilouferAdil Kazmi) Secretary

PUBLIC NOTICE

No.F.2-1912007 (MPC)

back(this time,the smaller 'k') with a bang!!

Never thought that personal stuff would keep me so occupied and far away from social blogging..perhaps, that's what, life in an IIM takes. It severs the relationship (the usuall wake up and good night calls) between a couple, will teach you to sleep at all odd hours, will make you call your parents only after 10 in the night and many more..but it's all worth it, isn't it. Atleast the academicians and the world around is convinced that the millionaires who are going to be churned out, deserve all of that. I agree neither with the premise nor the reason. Yes, all IIM passouts are no millionaires and also not every minute that you spend cracking those enormous cases is really worthwhile.

However, they(IIMs) teach time management, confidence, business acumen and working in pressure cooker situations, which are mandatory skills for top notch positions in the corporate.

I thoroughly enjoyed and loved the two years spent at Kozhikode. Though I couldn't still discover what I really want to do in life, it atleast ruled out some options. While it is true that it ruled out few, there are numerous more that suddenly opened up at the same time and I am back to the square one, yes, still confused.

All the while, I used to appease myself reminiscing that 'Steve Jobs graduation speech at Stanford'..be patient and wait till you know what you really are made for; It works no more as this time it is post graduation..yeah you battled it out and neared your quarter century and you still don't know if you should play defence or go thrashing for the rest of your run..you are still settling!! :(

And to make things worse, new problems arose, thanks to the place I am sitting and typing this post(the 50 star country)..I don't even know where to spend the rest of my life. I was happy till now reading the 'feel good' success stories about India, its growth and how it is gonna be the focus of all big businesses in the coming decades. While the success and efforts of few hardworking and smart Indians(mind you, I am talking about the population ;)) have brought India in to the limelight (It didn't become the market with double digit growth potential overnight you see), our policy makers are still not able to create a safe and conducive environment for the future generations of it(India).

I received an e-mail asking me to sign an online petition protesting a bill that is gonna be introduced soon. Reading many such e-mails, I digged in deep to find out what all this clamor is about and trust me, it is ALARMING.

I am talking about the "Civil Liability for Nuclear damage bill" which will allow US companies to retreat scot free even after causing nuclear damage in India. Yes, this bill limits the liability of US companies towards the nuclear damages that their plants can cause in India and Indian government is going to pay for the liabilities incurred upon such accidents. In a very simple language, Indian tax payers will be bearing lions share of the recovery and rehabilitation costs incurred incase of a nuclear disaster while American companies will be let off legally and financially.

You can get a detailed account of this hazardous bill at the links below

http://www.groundreport.com/Business/Wakeup-to-Civil-Liability-for-Nuclear-Damage-Bill/2919665

Yes, It is true that energy security is priority for a growing country like ours, but not at cost of peoples lives and health. Such a bill(if it becomes act) will fail to caution sufficiently, the private companies that setup and provide nuclear equipment in India, about the potential danger of the stuff they are dealing with. It will only give some unscrupulous officers, if any, and their bosses, a leeway to not function to their moral and integral bests.

If you feel that the equations and terms being agreed to by Indian government in this bill are not upto the safety standards a one billion population like ours, demands, then you can sign the below petition.

http://www.greenpeace.org/india/stop-the-vote

Need for better technical education

Today there is need for high quality technical education in India than ever before. It is quite evident that there is big deficit in the talent pool and fast growing IT and manufacturing sectors are in dearth of well qualified professionals. Talking about qualification and our engineering, the latter has unfortunately got the image "passport for a quick job"...well it may indeed be as easy as it sounds, but the fact is its not just a quick job but also a cheap job...yup if you took your studies easily and made it into some software company X speaking all "blah blah blah" during the interview, it is most likely that the work they have chosen you for is something which people in abroad detest to do.....but we never realise that and sadly feel elated about how we fooled the interviewer(s) and how we managed to grab fat packages in the MNCs....the truth is we are being fooled...whatever we get paid is by no means comparable to what our counterpart in US would get...

Getting back to remark i made about the lack of qualified professionals, it may sound surprising, isnt it ??? We are producing more than 2-3 lakhs of engineers every year and they are qualified definitely with a BE/BTech or ME/MTech...still there is a shortage ?? Yes, there is shortage of employable engineers...Our engineering college standards have reached abyssmal levels, that even toppers passing out of those colleges remain unemployed..Even if they manage to get employed somehow (thanks to the placements concept, where the employer comes with an intention to pick you up, unlike in off-campus, where they would try to reject you), most of them are least interested in the jobs they are doing and dont have any respect for their work...It should be evident from the fact that almost 70% of the two and half lakh students who appear for CAT every year are engineers...the number is high not because students in India have management bent of mind or they are all most capable future enterpreuners...the reason for such a high number (trust me most of that 70%are people with work ex) is simply because, these engineers are frustrated to do the work they are doing, they just wanna get out of it and MBA provides an easy option to switch....No wonder with the kind of education our engineering colleges provide and the quality of work the infosyss and TCS's of India make them do, these candidates are left with no other option...

So the bottomline is there is an urgent need for quality education, well qualified professors, state of the art infrastructure and knowledge hungry students...which our neighbouring country and competitor China has recognised quite early and has been working on it meticulously.

Do we need politicians ?

Well, while i ask this question, i dont really know what my answer itself is...i may say we dont need them...no thanks... but who are the alternatives??

but i got enough reasons why i should hate them

-They are the most selfish souls on the planet. Inconsolable pains and intolerable troubles faced by aam aadmi doesnt even seem to bother them. If at all there is anything for which these creatures exist -- It is to gaurd their seat for the next tenure and to heap up millions of black money...
- They raise hue an cry over the pettiest of things just to seek attention of particular community and in the process forget about the worst of problems that pose a threat to the future of our country
- Everything seems to wait for these babus, from road constructions to departure of flights.
-It doesnt matter to them if the quality of students in premier institutes takes a hit, all they want is major share of vote bank..
the list simply doesnt end...

Stock Markets -- On a lighter note

How Stock Market Works!!!!!

Once upon a time in a village, a man appeared and announced to thevillagers that he would buy monkeys for Rs10.The villagers seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out to theforest and started catching them.The man bought thousands at Rs10 and as supply started to diminish, thevillagers stopped their effort. He further announced that he would now buyat Rs20.

This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again.Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back totheir farms. The offer rate increased to Rs25 and the supply of monkeysbecame so little that it was an effort to even see a monkey, let alonecatch it!The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at Rs50! However, since hehad to go to the city on some business, his assistant would now buy onbehalf of him.In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers. Look at allthese monkeys in the big cage that the man has collected. I will sell themto you at Rs35 and when the man returns from the city, you can sell it tohim for Rs50."The villagers squeezed up with all their savings and bought all themonkeys.Then they never saw the man nor his assistant, only monkeys everywhere!! !Welcome to the "Stock" Market!!!!!


(have received this as a forwarded mail....too gud)

The IPO and NFO fever

There is a sudden craze for investments in equities. Whether it is because of sky rocketing sensex that has created new hopes in stock markets or surplus cash with the educated middle class, companies are able to raise huge amounts. IPOs are creating records in terms of market cap raised one after the other. DLF followed by ICICI and now Reliance Power. Junta is not thinking twice to invest in securities. The returns are definitely high and more than in any other form of investment. The present market price of the ICICI or DLF or NTPC are more than 3-4 times their initial selling price. Clearly returns of 200-300%.

The present Reliance Power and Future Capital IPOs have created a new demand for demat accounts and it is not surprising that broking companies have ran out of stamp papers and forms. Any new request or a service request for an exisiting account is taking too much time. Stock brokers are coming up with innovative ways to help the investors buy shares even without a demat account(they allow people to subscribe by giving random DP Ids and by the time shares get allotted, demat account will be opened). Within few hours of the start date, Rel Power is subscribed four times..God knows how much it will be by 18th Jan.. Eventhough the chances are very unlikely (1 among 10 may be allotted shares) that every investor gets the amount of shares he subscribed for, there is no hesitation in peoples mind.

It is not just with IPOs, even in case of mutual funds, the investments have seen a rise of 25% over the last two years. Any New fund is making a killing with investors trying to put their money in diversified portfolios and thus reducing the risk of any loss. Also the tax saving advantage that some of the mutual funds carry is definitely the best option for a long term investment which returns back with dividends from time to time and good amount of tax benifit.

Definitely peoples risk appetite has increased and every has a dream to become a Warren Buffet.

Kudos to Ratan Tata and the team behind Nano

Everyone including the experts and a man on the street alike laughed at the idea of one lakh car and stated such a thing is impossible..but it is been proved from time to time, that nothing beats determination. Very few people have the conviction to fight all odds to realise the dreams they dreamt of. Ratan Tata is one such man and to describe the latest wonder from his production house in his own words

"since we started the project four years back, there has been a steep increase in input costs,but a promise is a promise " . YES SIR, you delivered what you promised. KUDOS to you.

No doubts, the most attractive thing about Nano is its cost, but what is appreciable is the engineering teams' ability to still provide superb features within the budget.

623 cc engine, 20-22 Kmpl, Nice looks, Good interiors, environment friendly and more space...what else..just everything that is needed.

It is indisputably one of the major technological achievements in the recent times by any of the Indian companies. All of us should learn a lot from the Nano story and work with re-newed energies to accomplish even more significant innovations.