"Use" or "Utilisation"

I have often seen the word "use" being frequently used by managers in the corporate world. E.g. "We can use Mr. X for support and use Mr. Y for coding". I am against using such words, which amounts to the insult of the person in whose context it is being used. The correct word, which sounds better, is "Utilisation". After all, organisations utilises your skills for performing certain tasks or activities that you might be expert in.

The word "Utilisation" shows respect for that person's skill set. It also makes you feel that you will be paid or rewarded as per your skill sets whereas word "Use" makes you feel exploited. It makes you feel that they just want your skills without paying you appropriately.

The word "Utilisation" expresses two-way give and take relationship, while "Use” specifies only one way flow - from employee to employer. Though, employee anyway continues doing the work, that he is assigned, the use of words shows up it's difference in his quality of work.

Different words send different vibrations among employees, even though managers might not have intended what the receiver interprets. Thus, managers should be extremely careful in this regard as different words with almost same meaning, create different meanings for different people.

Rule 49 (O)

Here, I got a very interesting e-mail from a friend regarding exercising Rule 49 (O). It says :

In a particular constituency, if a voter has dislikes all of the candidates competing there, then he can show his dislike to all of them by registering for 49 (O).

Steps for doing this :
1. While registering the name at the time of voting, convey the booth officials that, you want to go for Rule 49 (O).
2. Register your signature in the 49 (O) form available there.

Done.
Now, if the number of 49 (O) count is larger than that of the winning candidates total vote count, then a re-election is called there.

More than all, the shameful fact is,
This 49 (O) is available ever since 1960, but it is in no way conveyed to the people. Neither the government communicate this, nor did the election commission.

As long as the people are unaware of this one, the political parties are enjoying by winning the election and ditching our country. To stop this disaster to continue further, we don't need to take a sword and fight against the government. Just help every citizen to know that they have such a powerful weapon which can be used for ensuring their welfare.

None of the media will be ready to publish this 49 (O). Let us do this by ourselves. Communicate this information with all your family, friends, neighbors as much as you can and let them know their right. Please send this mail to everyone you know and request them to spread it across to everyone.

Convey this information to as many people you know. Not only, we get a satisfaction that we have done a good service for our country's welfare.

This is very well equal to what our patriots have done for the independence of our country.

Very less time left before the next election drama. Before that lets make sure that everyone speaks about this word "49 (O)".

Need v/s Greed

There is a very thin line between man's need and his greed. Say, if a man earns Rs. 10,000 and is able to satisfy his basic wants with Rs. 6,000, he will be a satisfied individual. He will feel happy. But, when his income increases, his wants too increase proportionately. In economic terms this is called 'Marginal propensity to consume'. This increase in expense then turns into greed. We will always find such individuals running for more money to satisfy their "unlimited demands of life". That's how we find most of the people in this world, unsatisfied.

His want for more money never ceases and he enters a rat race of living life with more and more lavishness. Thus, never allowing him to do something big, that he had wanted to do in life. A self-controlled and disciplined man keeps his wants stable, even when he has a raise. This allows him to do things that he had always wanted to do. He is not afraid of failure and becomes a successful individual in society.

We can see this from various examples. One of it is, Infosys head and founder Narayan Murthy. He still lives a common man's life, washing his own clothes and utensils. He has not employed any servant at his residence, even though Infosys employs more than 20,000 IT professionals.

This shows that living life simple will leave you with more money, allow you to be more satisfied and do things that you had always wanted to do, as money is no more a concern.

Secrets of Management

A man flying in a hot air balloon realized he was lost. Reducing altitude, he spotted a man on the ground and descended to shouting range. "Excuse me," he shouted. "Can you help me? I promised my friend I would meet him a half hour ago, but I don't know where I am."

The man below responded: "Yes. You are in a hot air balloon, hovering approximately 30 feet above this field. You are between 40 and 42 degrees North Latitude, and between 58 and 60 degrees West Longitude."

"You must be an engineer," responded the balloonist.

"I am," the man replied. "How did you know?"

"Well," said the balloonist, "everything you have told me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to make of your information, and the fact is I am still lost."

Whereupon the man on the ground responded, "You must be a manager."

"That I am" replied the balloonist, "but how did you know?"

"Well," said the man, "you don't know where you are, or where you're going. You have made a promise which you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve your problem. The fact is you are in the exact same position you were before we met, but now it is somehow my fault."

Oil companies - Making losses or PROFITS

Regularly, we hear the hue and cry from oil companies making losses and their demand to increase petrol/diesel prices. Especially, oil PSUs take front stage in this rally to increase prices of petro products. Making losses is a very ugly reason to raise prices in a competitive business. When private players can afford to make huge profits without raising prices, it's a matter of shame for the PSUs to beg for their alterations.

The issue lies not in prices but unnecessary operating expenses lavished by careless government officials. It's not the prices but the system and culture prevalent in these companies that requires change. Our largest refining and marketing company IOC, controlling 50% of the country's diesel market and 45% of the petrol market reported a loss in the third quarter. For the first nine months of FY06, net profit stood at Rs. 890 crore against a net profit of Rs. 3,998 crore for the same period in FY05. Company's director marketing, NG Kannan said,

"Indian Oil will lose Rs 5,000 crore on the sale of petroleum products, even
after taking into account government subsidies, oil bonds and cross-subsidy
payments by upstream oil companies."

Private players like Reliance, spearheaded by Ambanis have shown impressive growth in the same period eating into IOC's market share. Despite of constant pressure being put on the Govt. for price raise, I have never seen any negative figures in their balance sheets. Is this cry only fictitious to make more internal profits for the babus to enjoy? If it is real, then Govt. should insist on them following efficient, sound and proven practices to cut-cost, while learning lessons from private companies.

Budgeting the Future

What does Budget 2006 holds for a common man? We saw FM P. Chidambaram delivering his budget on 28th Feb 2006. Nothing more than, "increase in service tax from 10% to 12%" was talk of the town among majority of the individuals. What went unnoticeable was the reduction in excise duty on small cars, which could badly impact the lower middle class and below, in the near future. This reduction would spruce up the demand for small cars, increasing the demand for fuel. Last year we saw fuel prices increasing as faster as Indian Stock Markets. Fuel prices are the key and important deciding factor for pricing necessary commodities.

E.g. Increase in diesel prices, push's up the transportation cost and thereby increasing the prices of commodities being transported. Though FM has made an attempt on reducing the excise duty on processed food, it anyway won't affect the lower middle class. Since, they form the least population who buy processed food. FM should seriously think about it and come up with a policy that would protect them from being dejected or left out from the budget.

Real estate greenfield - Pune

Over the years Pune has outgrown as a hot IT destination. Given the mount-top salaries enjoyed by young software professionals, it has zoomed the property prices. A place costing Rs.1500 in area like Kalyani Nagar now quotes at around Rs. 2700 - Rs.3000 per sq. feet. That's almost a 100% appreciation in a year's time. Kharadi is an fast upcoming area, which looks good from the investment perspective. I guess this area would fully develop in a span of 4-5 years. Only disadvantage that it has is, it is 9-10 kms away from the station. But, folks who do not have much to do with plying to station area frequently can seriously consider this option.

To me Alandi road area near RTO also looks good. It has Golf Course in it's vicinity. Pune station is just 5 kms away while Shivajinagar, Deccan and Kalyani nagar are almost at 3 kms distance. If you are planning to drive down to Mumbai, it has a more convenient route to follow to the expressway. And last but not the least, even the rates are not too high, given the openess and the location that it enjoys. Military establishment called ‘Bombay Sappers’ surrounds this area. This won't allow much of a construction activity while retaining it's natural aesthetics. People from Mumbai can definitely consider this for investment.

A job or a career?

Pankaj Bhargava from TNN, for Economic Times wrote :

Even today, in most homes, the emphasis is still on being educated enough to get a primary qualification, like engineering or medicine.When I hear such discussions, I remember a story I read many moons ago. In short, it was about two lads in a village.

One went on to complete his education, got a job in a government organisation and was well regarded. His job, however, never excited him and he would drag himself to work everyday, coming to life only when he reached home. By his mid-forties he looked as if he were in his fifties. The second lad did not complete his education, and went on to work with a mechanic. He was not well regarded in his village.

But, he enjoyed what he did. He keenly observed all that happened in the shop, interacted closely with customers and understood their issues. He also learnt to identify defects and find ingenious solutions to them. His reputation as an ace mechanic grew. He managed to set up on his own and soon collected a large clientele. Whenever anyone met him, he would be extremely cheerful, enjoying every moment of his time. In his mid-forties, he still looked thirty.

So, is education about learning in the formal system or is it about learning continuously from life?

This is very true, atleast for a developing country like India where formal education is still considered a top most priority without giving a second thought to something more than that.

What is RSS ?

Tim O'Reilly writes :

RSS is the most significant advance in the fundamental architecture of the web since early hackers realized that CGI could be used to create database-backed websites. RSS allows someone to link not just to a page, but to subscribe to it, with notification every time that page changes. Skrenta calls this "the incremental web." Others call it the "live web".

Now, of course, "dynamic websites" (i.e., database-backed sites with dynamically generated content) replaced static web pages well over ten years ago. What's dynamic about the live web are not just the pages, but the links. A link to a weblog is expected to point to a perennially changing page, with "permalinks" for any individual entry, and notification for each change. An RSS feed is thus a much stronger link than, say a bookmark or a link to a single page.

RSS also means that the web browser is not the only means of viewing a web page. While some RSS aggregators, such as Bloglines, are web-based, others are desktop clients, and still others allow users of portable devices to subscribe to constantly updated content.

RSS is now being used to push not just notices of new blog entries, but also all kinds of data updates, including stock quotes, weather data, and photo availability. This use is actually a return to one of its roots: RSS was born in 1997 out of the confluence of Dave Winer's "Really Simple Syndication" technology, used to push out blog updates, and Netscape's "Rich Site Summary", which allowed users to create custom Netscape home pages with regularly updated data flows. Netscape lost interest, and the technology was carried forward by blogging pioneer Userland, Winer's company. In the current crop of applications, we see, though, the heritage of both parents.

Keyboard or Pen

As they say "The pen is mightier than the sword". But, I would say Keyboard has become mightier. Blogging has given new dimension to the above quote by Edward_Bulwer-Lytton. Blogging has given individuals the freedom to exercise their right to ‘freedom of expression’.

Apart from giving a global reach to the web community it allows bloggers to publicise their area of interest without bothering much about who’s who of the readers in different parts of the world.

Given the free sites like Blogspot, Bloglines, etc,. which allow you to create blogs, and other sites providing free services like hit counter, xml feeds, blog ratings form easy ingredients for bloggers to use.

Shall this new trend of sharing information, rephrase the quote as “Keyboard is mightier than fighter jets” ? Or advancing further should we say “Blogging is mightier than nuclear weapons” ?

What Matrix Persona Are You?

You are Morpheus, from "The Matrix." You have strong faith in yourself and those around you. A true leader, you are relentless in your persuit.

What Matrix Persona Are You?

Reality of "Taj Mahal"

"The Moghul Emperor Shah Jahan in the memory of his wife Mumtaz Mahal built the Taj Mahal. It was built in 22 years (1631 to 1653) by 20,000 artisans brought to India from all over the world. Many people believe Ustad Isa of Iran designed it." This is what your guide probably told you if you ever visited the Taj Mahal. This is the same story I read in my history book as a student.

NOW READ THIS.......
No one has ever challenged it except Prof. P. N. Oak, who believes the whole world has been duped. In his book Taj Mahal: The True Story, Oak says the Taj Mahal is not Queen Mumtaz's tomb but an ancient Hindu temple palace of Lord Shiva (then known as Tejo Mahalaya) . In the course of his research Oak discovered that the Shiva temple palace was usurped by Shah Jahan from then Maharaja of Jaipur, Jai Singh. In his own court chronicle, Badshahnama, Shah Jahan admits that an exceptionally beautiful grand mansion in Agra was taken from Jai Singh for Mumtaz's burial . The ex-Maharaja of Jaipur still retains in his secret collection two orders from Shah Jahan for surrendering the Taj building. Using captured temples and mansions, as a burial place for dead courtiers and royalty was a common practice among Muslim rulers.

For example, Humayun, Akbar, Etmud-ud-Daula and Safdarjung are all buried in such mansions. Oak's inquiries began with the name of Taj Mahal. He says the term "Mahal" has never been used for a building in any Muslim countries from Afghanisthan to Algeria . "The unusual explanation that the term Taj Mahal derives from Mumtaz Mahal was illogical in atleast two respects. Firstly, her name was never Mumtaz Mahal but Mumtaz-ul-Zamani," he writes. Secondly, one cannot omit the first three letters 'Mum' from a woman's name to derive the remainder as the name for the building."Taj Mahal", he claims, is a corrupt version of Tejo Mahalaya, or Lord Shiva's Palace. Oak also says the love story of Mumtaz and Shah Jahan is a fairy tale created by court sycophants, blundering historians and sloppy archaeologists. Not a single royal chronicle of Shah Jahan's time corroborates the love story.

Furthermore, Oak cites several documents suggesting the Taj Mahal predates Shah Jahan's era, and was a temple dedicated to Shiva, worshipped by Rajputs of Agra city. For example, Prof. Marvin Miller of New York took a few samples from the riverside doorway of the Taj . Carbon dating tests revealed that the door was 300 years older than Shah Jahan . European traveler Johan Albert Mandelslo, who visited Agra in 1638 (only seven years after Mumtaz's death), describes the life of the city in his memoirs. But he makes no reference to the Taj Mahal being built. The writings of Peter Mundy, an English visitor to Agra within a year of Mumtaz's death, also suggest the Taj was a noteworthy building well before Shah Jahan's time. Prof. Oak points out a number of design and architectural inconsistencies that support the belief of the Taj Mahal being a typical Hindu temple rather than a mausoleum. Many rooms in the Taj Mahal have remained sealed since Shah Jahan's time and are still inaccessible to the public. Oak asserts they contain a headless statue of Lord Shiva and other objects commonly used for worship rituals in Hindu temples. Fearing political backlash, Indira Gandhi's government tried to have Prof. Oak's book withdrawn from the bookstores, and threatened the Indian publisher of the first edition dire consequences.

From the archeological perspective to discredit or validate Oak's research, the current government should open the sealed rooms of the Taj Mahal under U.N. supervision, and let international experts investigate. But this won't be a good idea for a country like India. A situation could arise where a few religious zealots or politicians acting as religion guards will decide to destroy the Taj Mahal to restore the original temple, which may or may not exist underneath.

Sometimes its better to keep some things undiscovered for the better good of "religion", called humanity.

Magic 10000 - Sensex shining

FIIs continued it's inflow of funds, propelling the BSE to reach a magic figure of 10000. This was a moment to be noted in the history of Bombay stock exchange. On the other TV channels when Sachin was showing Pakistan way to the boundaries, we saw BSE hitting new highs.

But, that's not all. In days to come we could see Sensex peaking the heights of 15000. Budget will play a key role in fuelling the exchange further. Presently, country's economic policies are being designed, governed and closely monitored by the two economists, Dr. Manmohan singh (Prime Minister) and P. Chidambaram (Finance Minister). Both have earlier experience being the finance minister of the country. Mr. Singh introduced the 1991 Liberalisation policy, throwing economy open to the foreign investors when he was the FM. Mr. Chidambaram too in his last budget introduced policies, bringing common man's money into the equities.

Looking at the International market Dow, after the time of technology bubble burst, here is what Economic times reported today:

"Sensex crossed 6000, then a historic high, in the same year. But then, both the indices crashed as the technology bubble burst. However, the sensex suffered far more. Dow fell to a low of 7286 in late ’02, while the sensex plummeted to 2595 in late ’02.

Since then, however, the sensex has skyrocketed almost four-fold, while the Dow has not even recovered to its earlier peak. All those global financial managers who rated India as risky and the US market safe are looking rather foolish."

This clearly indicates the confidence shown by the FIIs in the Indian markets and Indian Economy.

Never start a project unless all the resources are available

This is one of my bitter experiences to have witnessed in my career. It's not only about the number of resources, but also their skill sets. Always commit the estimate, after you have evaluated the skill levels of the resources available. Concrete estimates come only after all the requirements are freezed up.

It should not happen that requirement that is given to you initially, is just a tip of the iceberg. Later on, you may find yourself trapped in a soup fighting over the new requirements and time, all the way throughout the project development. Especially, when you are also fully involved in coding, testing and management. This won't leave you with enough time to manage as well as solve the problems/hurdles.

Development is not the only factor that should be considered, but also the environment under which the work is to be carried out, plays an important role. Due to lack of office space in small companies I have seen developers being made to sit parallel to the marketing and call support departments. Core development requires peaceful atmosphere where developers can concentrate writing creative lines of code. Given the nature of job for marketing department, they are the people of interactive personality and are in the habit of sharing unwanted stuff whenever they find time between marketing calls. This may frequently interrupt the development process. It is not to blame them, but is the requirement of their job profile. I mean interactivity and not bugging the the developers :-).

One more aspect of environment is your software system environment. This is where you will initiate coding. Ensure that system environment is all setup to the satisfaction. If not, also provide the estimate for the same.

Invest wise, haste foolish

It's high time of the year to file income-tax returns. Especially, for the salaried class its impounding necessary to meet their investment commitment of Rs. 1,00,000 u/s 80C. This will allow them to enjoy tax-exemption in the first tax slab of Rs.0 to Rs.1,00,000.

Investors need to be careful while selecting from various investment options available. Amount should be wisely divided among LIC Insurance, ELSS, PPFs, MFs, etc. LIC is a safe bet but do not provide handsome returns. Depending on your income, minimum of Rs. 25000 can be allocated here. PPFs are not much attractive and would recommend, not to invest more than Rs.10,000. MFs provide handsome returns and can be looked forward to form a major part. Though, all the MFs may not provide consistent returns and a reliable investment agent can be consulted. One should not ignore the fact that equity MFs are subject to market risks.

ELSS also prove to be a good option covering tax-exemptions at the same time giving handsome returns. They carry a locking period of 3 years.

Here are some basic checks that investors can consider before making investments in ELSS :

1. Look out for the history of returns.

2. Company should be well-known and have a good operational record.

3. Shares in the portfolio should enjoy good sentiment in the Cash-market.

4. NAV movement during bad times.

5. Frequency of dividend payments.

So, go ahead, load your gear and wisely meet your commitments.