Financial Management

A beggar to another beggar: I had a grand dinner at Taj yesterday.

How? The other beggar asked.

First beggar: Some one gave me a Rs 100/- note yesterday.

I went to Taj and ordered dinner worth Rs 1000/- and enjoyed the dinner. When the bill came, I said, I had no money.The Taj manager called the policeman, and handed me over to him.

I gave the Rs 100/- note to the police fellow, and he set me free.

Friendship Day

Just few hours before the end of this friendship day ... latest friend added .... by the way she happens to be my 200th friend on orkut and one of the two persons who had sent a personalized Happy friendship day message. Other one was of course my child hood pal who happens to be the oldest friend of mine to date .. don't mistake his age ... it is the age of our friendship that falls short of our age by probably 7 years.

If one has to value something over oneself it is friends..... and I feel friends are the people who ensure that one grows as a person and develops a personality. You need them to take you through difficulties and cheer your achievements. They are the only ones who knows all about you and still like you. And I think it is the day we honour all the friends who had really helped us to discover ourselves and understand our strengths and limitations.

I am happy that I have a small set of good friends and this very feeling makes me proud. By God's grace I hope I make a few more friends in this lifetime!!!

Best gets Best

Though its boring to see the same teams playing each other umpteenth time in last three years . There is one feat which will make into the record books and will stay inimitable for a long long time

Yesterday leading wicket taker in the history of the game gets the wicket of the leading run scorer in the history of the game ... I would be really surprised to see that this event will ever happen again in the history of Cricket in centuries to come... Unless of course Murali cancels his plans of retiring or makes a improbable come back to Test Cricket before the batting great retires from the game

Love Maths

Math tells us of the 3 saddest love stories:

Of parallel lines, who were never meant to meet.
Of tangent lines, who were together once but then parted forever.
And of asymptotes, who could only get closer and closer, but could never be together.

Traffic jam ... Houseful

Wow... Reached home !!! But daily I reach home why the wow? As usual we left office and reached Churchgate to catch the return local to Andheri. But today the scene was different - motormen went on strike for reasons known to all from ages. And this is a completely new situation - never seen Mumbai without local train. Then the option was to travel 40 km by road in the heavy traffic of mumbai and this journey will definitely as big as Hum Aapke hai kaun or Jodha Akbar. Wait are we talking about the length of the movies? Now why not watch a movie.... nice thought .... four of us went to a movie theatre and watched Houseful ... Came out of the hall after some 3 hours and took a cab back home and reached home in less than the time a hockey match is played with a sense of truimph over the challenge posed in front of us. While, many of them would have experienced a big time chaos caused by traffic jams in Mumbai we had a good time laughing at a mindless comedy made and reached home easily. But now its too late for today and I hope that we need not go to work tomorrow and take a long awaited break.

Trains, Rains and Drains

Sea change is one word I can say when I moved from Serene Campus in Garden City to the most busiest city on the coast of Arabian Sea. Coming to the city for the third time probably for a longer stay this time and a tougher time this time. Induction to the city life is no less than first week at IIMA ... Daily travel of 40 kms from quarters to office seemed to be even longer due to the traffic and rains. Rains did not waste any time in greeting us. .. From the day one they are there to ensure that I have no illusions about the toughness of life here ... Trains never fail to remind the population of the country and apart from crowded trains one more common thing is potholes and drains on the roads.. Wait did I call them as roads ... should I really call them roads ... till I get the definition of road right may be I can call them so.

So next few days it will be trains. rains and drains. In for a challenge!!!

Subtle difference

This is a story from a great person. Once a devotee went to this great person and asked him to explain the differences between Lord Rama and Lord Krishna. The great man thought for a while and replied as follows – “Lord Rama always smiled before saying anything where as Lord Krishna smiled after saying everything – if Rama’s smile ensured that the person does not really bother to listen savoring his pleasant smile Krishna’s smile ensured that the person forgets what he actually listened before this ecstatic smile. Another difference is Lord Rama always told that he is a common man and was always away from the masses where as Lord Krishna always said that he is God and has always been with masses. Lord Rama ensured that he lead the people by example as a great leader in the final battle with Ravana where as Lord Krishna has managed the entire Kurukshetra war without actually participating in it”. The devotee was amazed by this answer and was happy to understand the subtle differences through this great person.

No more a joke

I am writing this piece with less than a couple of hours to go for the mega final of African IPL. I have a reason to exhibit this urgency and write before the match starts. Both the teams that would be part of this game are so close to me – one being my home team and the other filled with two of my all time favorite players Rahul and Anil. Agreed on all the previous occasions I have supported Bangalore in the encounters between these two teams but today I would definitely not be disappointed with result going either way as long as the game goes down to the wire and we get a chance to see a thrilling encounter for one last time this season more so after these one sided semi finals. This has been great turnaround from the previous edition for the simple reason that the teams with wooden spoon last year are fighting out for the trophy. Last year if one team was seen to be filled with star hitters who could blow away the match out of opposition hands with their hard hitting prowess and may not even stand for 20 overs on a bad day, other team was regarded more suitable for the lengthiest format of the game and was seen to be needing atleast 5 overs more to be alongside the competition. But this year they have proved all their critics wrong. Interestingly, these are the two teams that made a cut into the semifinal during the last day of the league stage.

The two teams also had a contrasting journey. Hyderabad started off with four consecutive wins and seemed to running much ahead of the other teams but then they ensured their level best to have mixed results there on to see that they are the team with least points to enter semis interestingly on the basis of their better NRR. On the contrary after the inaugural success Bangalore looked like repeating their previous year results and end up in the bottom two. However once they got rid of the million dollar baby, our own Jumbo showed why he is one of the greatest fighters in the international cricket. This is one team which started playing knockout when others were still in league stage and register one of the greatest fight backs in the cricketing history.

If last year’s battle between Australian leg spinner and Indian wicket keeper was won by the former now it is time to see who would dominate this year – is it going to be Indian leg spinner or is it going to be Australian wicket keeper? Let’s watch it!

Missing Havells

Much to the anticipation, sorry beyond the anticipation circuit broke today not once but twice ensuring a holiday for the traders of both BSE and NIFTY and of course for a so called pleasant reason. Exuberance and excitement is exhibited beyond expectation and now I fear that these very expectations might overburden the new government and it is to be seen how many of these expectations would be really met by Manmohan and Co – If you ask me it would be very few and hence I see that all the enthusiasts are in for a shocker and might crumble down once they are back from their wonder land to this real world. If I am proved wrong I would not mind but I believe that though things are slated to be better but they cannot be so irrational. Agreed LEFT has left the government but do watch out for the people like the one in race for the railway ministry!

Amazing Verdict

Finally the public verdict is out and the results are beyond everyone’s expectations. It is a clear Jai Ho for the incumbent prime minister to take over at the center for five more years. I am glad the Indian voters have given one tight slap on the face of all irrational small party prime ministerial aspirants. The regional parties have been stripped of their unreasonable bargaining power. They will be rushing to center to offer unconditional support with whatever little strength they have … reason being no one other than UPA has even a slightest chance to have a go at setting up the government. Other main features of this verdict have been voter has rejected hate based and religion based political parties. And most importantly Left has been decimated even in Kerala and Bengal pushing them into some serious introspection mode. Finally congratulations to Dr. Manmohan for being first PM after Pandit Nehru to take over the charges for a second five year term. Sorry that Mr. Advani’s dream of occupying the PM’s chair will remain a dream for ever – this is the last time he would be contesting in election.

With political stability investors on D-Street would be euphoric and we could see a Mega Monday or Magic Monday where markets could hit circuit breaker for a different reason this time atleast in NIFTY if not BSE. Yeah, media would be disappointed for not having a chance to cover all the horse trading and other political speculations as a result of this clear mandate. Now with IPL getting into the last week the focus shifts there. There have been many close matches in the last few weeks and the teams are still jumping all across the table. Except for Delhi no one seems to be safe zone and five teams leaving Kolkata and Mumbai are contesting closely for the semi final spot – it looks like it’s likely to go down to the wire and final positions would be clear only after the final league match between the last year’s rock bottom teams and yeah they are very much in contention for the semifinal berths.

Closing In

After a series of one sided affairs and rain affected games it is heartening to see some close encounters. The fever is slowly catching up and the teams are finding themselves all over the table swapping positions after every game. No one except the last year flop teams Hyderabad and Bangalore are playing predictably, the former winning consistently and the latter losing consistently after their inaugural victory over the last year champs.

So the contest is definitely closing in and yeah Sri Lankan troops are also closing in on the LTTE camps and the NEWS is that the LTTE and Prabhakaran would be history in a couple of days from now. I wish that the story ends forever and both the Sinhalese and Tamilians lead a progressive life in future. What is difficult to comprehend is why is Indian government intervening now? If we wanted to do something we should have done it during the 48hour cease fire break last week; not at the stage when the war is almost nearing the end. We can suggest the Lankan government to ensure the safety of the civilians but there is no way we could hamper their plans of trapping the tiger to restore the much awaited peace in the area. Anyways it is too late for the sleeping Indian government to do anything silly and I hope that Lankan government just go according to their plans.

Masterful Beginning

The NRI version of the cricket carnival begins today much to the respite of many like me who are finding it hard to fight the boredom … and what a beginning this is!!! There is absolutely no hangover from previous edition as both the finalists of the first edition were humbled on the very first day by the two great batting maestros of the Indian cricket. So any punters betting based on previous records beware.

Absolutely dream beginning with both Sachin and Rahul winning MoMs to start the tournament. The run feast is there to stay for a month and I hope the Indian youngsters make the most of this ‘special’ opportunity … special because thanks to Chidambaram and general elections in the country – the players have a chance to play on foreign wickets. I wish this time the franchises play more competitive cricket unlike last year where Hyderabad and Bangalore teams were virtually out of contention for semifinal even before the halfway mark of the tournament. If there is anything I can ask for after such a great beginning it is Hyderabad and Bangalore teams making it to the semifinals if not finals … ok jokes apart. I would be surprised if this edition will be as bright as the previous one – courtesy absence of Indian crowds but I can always wish that it provides good exposure to the young players both Indian and foreign and lots and lots and lots of entertainment to the billions of the cricketing fans glued to TV.

Musical Chairs and One India

With fewdays to go for the public verdict for the 15th time after Independence, we have atleast two dozen aspirants from various parties for the coveted prime ministerial post. If the scene continues so we might see a different PM each month as part of their power sharing program. Scary ..isn't it? During this period of economic insecurity, political instability is the last thing we would want to have. I wish people become prudent and vote for one of the two biggies or their pre poll alliance partners .. in short UPA or NDA and put an end to the dreams of the selfish small party captains - They are anyways not in a position to provide a stable government. As some one said Third front is just a parking lot before the elections every one joins it and leaves it to choose their partners after the poll verdict.

Meanwhile this elections made sure that Lalit Modi had tough time MODIfying the IPL schedule to make it feasible and finally the summer cricket bonanza is moving to South Africa. And the publicity of the mega event is in full swing. If last years ad showed IPL as mano, ranjan ka baap... this time it says that it is possible to see one billion people doing the same thing at a given point of time i.e, watching IPL. Nice Concept, however the ad has few glitches, for example - it shows that all Indians are reacting similarly after a runout dismissal ... a Mumbaikar would feel low after Sachin's dismissal where as a Bengali would rejoice on the same and hence it is not true that one billion people will react similarly - Remember people take sides and only then they can enjoy this shorter version cricket festival.

Hmmm with both the elections heat and IPL fever catching up media must be licking its lips to cover these events and increase TRPs!

Rock On !! Spot on!!!

I always liked the albums that tells a short story in 4-5 minutes with a cool music or song in the background and often wondered why it gets over so soon. Today, I came across a 140 min album with a nice story of four friends who felt they could create magic with music - but as usual the good things are always delayed and this one was no exception and it had to wait for 10 years - the story is all about why and how, with a touchy feel.
Great music - Shankar Ehsaan Loy trio rocked as usual , crisp story telling and smart casting were highlights of this musical magic. The makers got everything spot on in making this Rock On!!! For me it had an interesting quote which will stay with me for ever -

Rock On!! Zindagi milegi naa dubaaraaa

Mahi Way

Mahendra Singh Dhoni , not so favorite name for me since he threw the seniors out of the ODI team, but cannot resist myself from writing this post. The player who failed to manage an average of 10 in the world cup last year in spite of entering the tournament as one of the top3 ODI bastmen impressed one and all by regaining his No1 ODI bastman position last week after his performance in the Emerald Isle.

It should be appreciated that as soon as he became captain he made an effort to inculcate the good points of his predecessor, Rahul Dravid - who always lead the team by setting up an example through his master batting. Once known as the swashbuckling hard hitting symbol of Indian cricket, now bats with a purpose and responsibility and controlled aggression slipping into the shoes of his previous captain. (Strike rate as captain is 83.23 compared to 96.26 before being captain of Indian team). He has mastered the art of shifting gears - His batting might not look pretty and neat but it ends up being effective. Cool head has always been a plus point over his predecessor. As a captain over the last one year he averages close to 55 in 36 ODIs which by no means can be belittled and called as fluke as it was done when he saved the Lords Test last year.

Now everything is not over - just like Yuvraj, Kaif and Dhoni were groomed by batting around Dravid ... time has come for Dhoni to take up that role as well to allow young players like Rohit Sharma, Raina and Badrinath to blossom, batting alongside him. It is definitely a great role to be taken up by this young dynamite but then I am sure for a player who had found answer to the mysterious carrom-bowling even with lack of so-called technique, it will be just another challenge and he will find a Mahi way to it!!!

Discounting Toss

India won their first bilateral ODI series in Srilanka, it is heartening that this was achieved with an incomplete team - no Sachin and Sehwag. But if we look at the tour - what we actually did was won the toss 4 times in a row. Nothing to take away from excellent performance of Zaheer, Dhoni and company. But the results were rather sealed as soon as the toss happened- this should be agreed atleast for Premadasa.

This reminded me of some of other grounds where you more or less know whats going to happen as soon as the toss is done - atleast the match is not unbiassed anymore. Let us look at results of day-night matches from some of the grounds during various timeframes in the last decade and a half.

Ground	Time Period	Matches Played	Won batting first	Won batting second
Newlands, Capetown	1992-08	24	19	5
Premadasa, Colombo	2000-08	40	26	11
Kingsmead, Durban	2003-08	14	6	3
PCA,Mohali	1996-07	14	9	5
Gaddafi, Lahore	2007-08	8	8	0
Eden Gardens	1993-03	9	7	2

These results are mainly affected by dew that either helps the bowlers get some swing under the lights and trouble the batsmen. When we have the data to support the argument that the toss plays a very important role in deciding the result of the match is it fair to still play under these conditions.

Of course there are some grounds where the results are just reverse as the weather is relatively dry and dew only results in spin bowlers not being able to find the grip of the ball under lights and the batsmen makes the most out of it

Ground	Time Period	Matches Played	Won batting first	Won batting second
Motera,Ahmedabad	2003-08	7	2	5
SMS, Jaipur	2006-08	7	2	5

A couple of options come to my mind at this point which I think would make these games competitive.

Option1: Each team would play 50 0vers in two splits such that each split is at least for 15 overs. Also there is at least one power play of 5 overs in each split. A vs B goes some thing like this -

The team winning the toss would decide what they want to do and the team batting first say A would declare when they want to split, then team B bats and declares when they want to split so that the team A can continue their innings and complete it following which team B would chase the target.

Option 2: This one flows from the huge success of 20 cricket. A couple of innings of 20/25 overs each where the team winning toss would either choose to bat or bowl in the first innings and team losing toss would decide what they want to do in second innings.

The options sounds crazy is it - but let us wait and watch!!!

43434343

This is one of the most familiar numbers these days in Hyderabad ... yes you guessed it rite - Radio Cabs, a concept that was non-existent in the city before the new international airport came up six months ago. The old airport was mainly served by autos, taxis and cabs. But the ultra modern airport has limited itself to radio cabs and call taxis as there was need to generate some revenue out of this business opportunity. GMR, the partner of the country's second PPP airport is now leaving no stone unturned to generate revenues - and the commission from radio cabs seems to be one of the options before the firm.

There are number of players who ventured into this business with a total of close to 2500 radio cabs between them and some of them are still waiting to enter the market. The government regulations exist even in this business ensuring that there is an entry barrier - read minimum of 100 cabs are required to enter the business and at the same time there is no monopoly - the number of cabs for any player is restricted to 1000. The sudden surge is largely helped by three factors - the distance of the airport from the city , lack of convenient commutation options and of course the increase in the disposable income . However, this wave has not been a smooth one - it has its own issues, major one being lack of supply of quality drivers. What it meant was another business opportunity to some of the driving schools and also the training schools to teach some etiquette to the drivers so that they present themselves well before the customers.

The radio cab companies are coming up with an lucrative salary and incentives to attract the limited pool of drivers. Now some of them have taken a step further and this is what has interested me and thats why the post - They have announced a scheme that any driver who drives a cab for a period of 7-10 years can own the car. This gives them various advantages - firstly the drivers can be retained, secondly the drivers will be careful after all it is their car in future and lastly it will become easy for the companies to dispose off the cars in future and may be they can gain some tax advantage utilizing the appropriate accounting mechanisms. Smart way to think - Isn't it?

Bouncing thoughts

This is the title of the mail that I received last week from one of my colleague and mentor at Wilco. The summary of the mail is to explore an option of developing low cost applications (may be at INR 1000) for SME's and use of rural IT talent to develop these simple tools using simple mySQL and VB. This mail definitely sounded very interesting and wanted to put in some efforts to have a closer look into this.

The rural entrepreneurs are enthusiastic to embrace the IT products if they are convinced about the benefits and of course ROI. Now who will help them out in creating such a solution - a new venture? Quick economics shows that it would take not less than INR6000 to create such a product- and how many takers are there for such kind of products at that price? It is very difficult for such a venture to sustain in long run and at the same time these applications needs to be priced lower so that the enthusiasm is converted into business . This is the reason to invite big Indian IT houses to cross subsidize these products and empower the rural entrepreneur with technology.

Typically the kind of applications needed by SMEs are simple work flow applications and may be some billing and inventory monitoring solutions. These can be comfortably designed by any software engineer with 2-3 year experience and these can be developed by any software literate with basic guidance. There is huge talent that is being wasted on bench in all the big IT firms and it would be a good idea for them to use this bench strength to tap this opportunity. Even if not there are engineering graduates and students in every nook and corner of the peninsula (True at least in case of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu) - the companies could use them to develop these applications after giving appropriate training - which in turn would also make them employable in future.

In the wake of weakening dollar IT companies are facing severe pressure to maintain the margins. The US Economy and the turmoil in the financial and banking sectors across the globe is only adding to the problem and would make it tough for the IT companies to find new outsourcing assignments. (Please note that BFSI sector forms 40% of the total IT-ITES exports) It is the time for Indian IT companies to check out the opportunities lying inside the nation in parallel. Agreed that they are not as lucrative as the existing ones in terms of margins but they are definitely challenging and moreover it would help them develop the nation overall. Promote the rural entrepreneur help him grow big and get a bigger business from them.

More over it makes sense for the companies to spend money on these kind of opportunities which would lead to an inclusive growth of the nation - if an entrepreneur becomes efficient the whole nation would be benefited, rather than just donating huge chunks to an unknown entity in the name of CSR where you don't even know where the money is reaching to. The government has provided the required conditions for the sector to grow over the last two decades, of course it was done in the larger interest of the nation - but this is time for the sector to pay back to the nation.

300

Yes I have crossed the 300 hurdle last weekend in the game of free cell after losing the very first game of the season - over taking my second best streak of 276 - but this post is not about that and yes this is not a review of the movie 300 either.

India scored a comfortable win against Sri Lanka to secure a spot in Asia Cup final (not sure about the viewer ship of this tournament) and has a chance to go at the title and win the fifth cup playing against the same opponents that they defeated today who also have three titles to their name. In the course of victory India had scored above 300 which is the 300th occurrence in the history of the One Day Internationals.

Way back in 1975 when the ODIs used be a 60 overs a side affair England scored first 300 plus score against India. However West Indies was the first team to achieve the feat in a 50 over game against Australia three years later in 1978. India took the longest time to join the league - in fact it was the last of the top 8 cricket playing teams in the world to do so - in 1996 against the arch rivals Pakistan at Sharjah. From then on in the last ten years India crossed the magic figure 47 times winning 39 of them.

First twenty years i.e, the period between 1975 and 1994 witnessed only 31 instances of 300 plus scores where as last ten years i.e, from July 7 th 1998 to July 4th 2008 the game had 235 such instances. We already have 20 such scores in this year and it is just the half way mark of the calendar year.

Australia has surpassed the score more times(53) than any other team and India has been on the receiving end on most occasions(42). The details are shown in the graph below.

The game also had 43 games so far ( just two games before the 96 world cup) where both the teams playing the match achieved the 300 plus score India tops the list figuring in 18 such games and winning ten of them. More than 25 sides have lost matches after scoring 300 plus in the last four years or so and looking at the trend we might see more such matches and 300 is not a safe total anymore.

Effort less Ad

What is common between Farookh Engineer, Kishore Kumar, David Beckham, Denis Compton and Mahendra Singh Dhoni? Think hard and if you can recollect that they have all endorsed the product Brylcreem Well Hats off. Are you wondering where this random question came from? I was browsing through the ads and then came across this amazing ad and a video showing how the ad was made. Thought this a good forum to share the same

BrylCreem Ad

Making of the Ad

Indeed it was a tremendous effort and hope you liked it

PS: Click on the links to view the videos