Global Competitiveness rankings by World Economic Forum ..

The Global Competitiveness Index for 2012-13 has been put up by World Economic Forum.

My friend Venkat Swaroop has put it up here ..

India has a rank of 101 or so with an index of 4.44 out of 7..

What can be done to improve this index ??

george..

Should we be worrying on the Sen-Bhagwati exchange ..?

The Sen Bhagwati exchange is only exposing the strengths and weaknesses of each of the two great Economist from India, but sadly both settled in US.

While Sen is more of a development oriented man, Bhagwati is more of a growth oriented man. Until now I was under the impression that growth and development mean the same. I have to find what is the exact difference.

Sen, a Bharat Ratna, has tutored some great economists like Kaushik Basu from Columbia, but Bhagwati has great names as students like the Nobel Prize winning Paul Krugman.

Business Standard has this write up about these two great Professors and their exchanges. Prof Sen is keeping his cool, though.

Whoever becomes the PM next year, let us continue to be intellectually fed by these great Professors and we hope Prof Jagdish Bhagwati also gets a Nobel Prize very soon for his trade related and globalisation related economics work.

My question to both of them would be, what would favour the country is it growth (of trade) or development ( of the people) ? Is it not that both are equally important if India is to lead the world again in another twenty years ?

Or is it that one is more important than the other ? I would place development of the people (more humanised) to be ahead of trade (more material based) which anyway would happen if we have good development of the people.

george..

13 GREAT points to keep in mind throughout life ...

The other day I had the good opportunity to sit through a welcome session given by our new Dean Dr Ravi Rajkumar ( the MIT man ..) to the newly joined first year MBA students.

I found 13 points which he gave to students that would help them remain abreast of competition to be most useful and powerful. I am listing those points here for the benefit of the student community all over the world. 

Coming from a hard core academic with over 16 years of education at MIT, Boston and then another 28 years of teaching and admin experience at National University of Singapore, these principles will only add to our worth and make one a more confident person.

These are really heavyweight points which we can use our whole life !!

Point 1 : Keep abreast of latest happenings and developments in the world around you on a global basis.

Point 2 : Wherever possible ALWAYS try to gain practical exposure ..

Point 3 : Polish your skills and talents

Point 4 : Never stop learning, life itself is a big learning exercise.

Point 5 : Believe in yourself and your abilities, but never be complacent.

Point 6 : Improve your communication skills. It is better to learn a extra language and Chinese is the best !

Point 7 : Identify your strengths and weaknesses, highlight your strong points and overcome the deficiencies

Point 8 : Work on your personality, constantly trying to improve it

Point 9 : Always have proper etiquettes

Point 10 : Never bear grudges and grievances against others

Point 11 : Adopt a positive attitude, take failures as learning opportunities

Point 12 : Do not be afraid to take risks

Point 13 : Do not depend on others to get your work done, and also do not be disappointed if they do not help you..

Hope you find these points useful .. Keep this in mind..

Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events and small minds discuss people            - Hugh C Cameron

george..

Affordability - innovation in India..

Any innovation to succeed in India has to have the basic parameter of affordability factored in. 

Let the innovation be on technology, products, services, for the innovation to succeed in the country , it should be affordable for the masses. I shall try to explain my statement with the help of a few examples.

The recent innovation in mobile phone telephony is a case at point. When the mobile phones were expensive, rarely few people had mobile phones in their hands and tariffs used to be exceedingly prohibitive, like Rs 20/ minute for an outgoing call and the same rates for an incoming call, in the early 2000s.

In just 10 years everything changed. Due to advances in hardware and large quantities of production, the costs came crashing down. When the telecom companies realised the truth that more phones were in the hands of the people, the next question was , how do we make the new users take our mobile telephony plan. They started reducing the tariffs progressively till one day in 2009 TATA came up with the 1 paisa per second plan. Indians embraced mobile phones in large numbers and the result is there for the world to see.  Now we are the second largest mobile phone users in the world with about a billion phones, just lagging behind China and almost 3 times as big a market as US, 10 times as big as Japan, or any country in Europe.

The next example I wish to point out is that of Tata Nano car. It was the cheapest affordable quality car priced at less than 1.5 lakhs, in the country. This forced other manufacturers to come up with cheap models and the latest is Datsun Go under Nissan to plan to make an entry and capture the Indian market. The auto majors of the world rolling their offerings include GM Beat, Huyndai Eon, Maruti 800/ Alto (already there) and now the Datsun Go ..

Why is it so ? Indian per capita GDP is now about $ 4000. The basic difference is that the Indian society is one of giving and sharing, while the western community is one of individualism and materialism. We cannot remain complacent claiming that we are a peaceloving society, looking at the societal welfare and so on.

The Indian population is well informed about the need, the product or the service, but the question is only of affordability. This makes the innovators to really burn the midnight oil and offer great products and services at the lowest price. In India even the people who can afford would spend less with plans of saving his wealth for the future. People are not yet ready to spend out of the way and outside the thrifty methods practiced by their forefathers. It will take some time for the culture to change, but only if it has to. Large demands seeking lower costs are driving the innovators to do even better and come out with real value products, this is the real innovation !

Innovation which never had cost as a factor embedded in the system and in literature earlier, now finds affordability and low cost a very important factor responsible for the success of any innovative technology, products or process in the world as of today.

The innovation wave in the Education arena sweeping the world , Massive Open Online Courses, MOOC, is yet another example of free learning for the masses. The recent plan for Cognizant, TCS and Infosys to join hands with 7 IITs to offer MOOC courses for the Indian public who can access these courses from anywhere in the country, may be even from other developing countries from other parts of the world, may be really a defining factor in ensuring the roaring success of this model. Affordability, reach for the masses and scalability are thus the important factors for its success.

george..

Next wave of Innovations in (from ?) India .. Education ??

The next wave of Innovations to hit the world by storm will come out of India, experts say.

There is a school of thought which says these innovations will be in the technology sector. But India is a country which is at a weak position in relation to technology, excluding our advances in nuclear and space technologies.

An area where an innovation could make a great difference is in the delivery of education. Since there are lots of Indians who are waiting to get educated and find meaningful, worthwhile jobs and thus build careers, the social impact of such an innovation would be very high.

The case of MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) is a good case to push this point. MOOC enables people from different parts of the world to continue their basic as well as higher education in small steps through small courses delivered for a large audience over the net.

Let us look at the educational demography in India as of now.

1. India is said to have approximately 200 million youngsters in the age group of 20 years to 27 years, (of the 610 million below 26.7 years which is the median age of our population). 

2. Of 100 students who finish high school, only 18 have the opportunity to do higher education. (Gross Enrolment Ratio of 18%, ). what happens to the rest 82% ?  

3. Out of 200 million between 20 and 26.7 years (assuming 33% of 610 million below 10, 33% between 10 and 20 years and 33% between 20 and 26.7 years), 26% remain illiterate ie.52 million,(literacy rate is 74%).  

4. Of the rest 148 million approximately, 50%, 74 million would go for jobs.   ( my fair estimation..)

5. Of the rest 74 million, 18% is roughly 13 million of youngsters get a chance to do higher education and the rest 61 million exclude themselves from the higher education (Tertiary Education). 

(With 636 Universities in the country to give higher education with 31,324 educational Institutes affiliated, at an average of 400 students per Institute, there are presently 12.53 million (roughly 13 million) students enrolled for higher education in the country. )

Do they remain content with the high school degree they have and stick to mundane jobs or would want to get higher education and contribute positively to the nation  by carrying out high value jobs ?

It is the need of the hour to ensure that the rest 82% completing schooling do their tertiary education and contribute to the nation. But how ?

We need innovative solutions in the education and education delivery areas in the country to solve this great problem our country will face in the coming years. Can our people deliver these innovative solutions or will we again depend on foreign countries to help us here too ?

Let us do something FASTTTTT ... As already mentioned, MOOC ( Massive Open Online Course) is a solution , but again it needs access to PC, Internet etc.. Can our people afford it ?

It was very timely to find the industry and academia getting together to offer this new MOOC fare for the people of the country ( as reported in Economic Times of 19 July, 2013, of the collaboration by 7 IITS, TCS, Infy and Cognizant to offer high quality MOOC courses, initialy three in Computer Science to be later incrteased to many subjects based on the exparience and learning from this exercise.

Meritocracy counts, but have we offered the people of this country a level ground to do this ? The chance for people from all across the country to compete for knowledge, degrees, jobs and careers on a fair and equitable level ground, I feel should be in place. This innovation will give just that.

But we need to ensure that

1. broadband internet access is made available across the rural areas of the country at affordable rates ( India has about 150 million Internet users, ie. 12% of our population while China has 43% (600m) and US 80% (250m) of their population respectively on the Internet)
2. the modules are offered on mobiles as android or iphone apps so that more people can access
3. the modules really optimised (both in terms of content and the software coding, for faster downloads)

We need to ensure least human interference, as MOOC courses can succed only if they are majorly machine and intelligence driven. Human interference in payment and the resultant delay will only kill this initiaitive ( as MOOC is basically designed keeping lakhs of students joining for any course in mind).

I am sure the concerned authorities have given enough thought to it and will do everything in their kitty so that this idea does not die out, instead will blossom to a great innovation of industry academia collaboration, to bridge the 'digital divide".

My good wishes .. ( an IIT Bombay alumni, which is also a partner Institution in this GREAT initiative. Proud of that ....)

george..

Shri Jiji Thomson, an able sports administrator .. Will he deliver ?

This piece of writing is meant to introduce Shri. Jiji Thomson IAS, to the youngsters of the country.

Nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion . Georg Hegel

Jiji Thomson is a name most of us back in Kerala recollect very fast, mostly for the right reasons. He has been a known figure in Kerala for a long time because he is in elite company, being from the Indian Administrative Services and known to be a proactive personality. After completing his MA (Economics) from Trivandrum, he joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1980 in the Kerala cadre.

Usually civil servants are considered to be capable of doing great service for the society and the people. (we too can do it wherever we are in what small position it is..) At some point in life, due to preoccupations or some hiccups in their career, these top civil servants consider giving their best to society is not in their personal interests and withdraw into a cocoon. But there are certainly exceptions to that !!

Here you about to find a person totally different, always looking for opportunities to interact with people, passionate to take on challenges and responsibilities, wanting to do more and more good for the society and the people, with an abundant resource of untapped energy for the society. What an ideal "civil servant" should be ! True to that word, very humble and approachable .. Every time you meet him he is energised and enthused as never before..

Right from his initial stints as sub-collector of Alleppey, Kerala, 1983, in his office-cum-residence anyone visiting him would be amazed and taken aback by the cheer, discipline and passion with which he works, interacting so effortlessly with people big and small, rich and poor, patiently listening to them, helping them dispose their files. Shri. Jiji Thomson used to be a popular figure then.

Besides popularising the Nehru Trophy boat race at Alleppey and bringing it to international acclaim, he was instrumental in conducting "community marriages" for hundreds of couples in Alleppey in the early eighties ! From there it went on to the cultural, social scenes in Palghat as District Collector when he revived the Kalpathy Carnatic music festival and conducted many camps for the physically handicapped by implanting Jaipur foot. In Kerala, Jiji Thomson's contribution to the socio-cultural-literary scene in Kerala has been very interesting, eye-catching, eventful, varied and colourful.

He was also the Convener of the first National Games in the country with corporate sponsorship in 1987 held in Kerala. The events were for the first time held at different towns and cities in the state of Kerala, networked through technological innovations with the help of Keltron. (His discipline also saw him submitting the final audited accounts in time after the games, generating an overall profit of about Rs. 55 lakhs, again a first of it's kind in the country). This caught the attention of the then PM, Rajiv Gandhi who invited him to take over as the DG of Sports Authority of India then, which Jiji politely refused. He had loads of work left to be done ..!

Throughout his life he has decorated various bureaucratic positions in energy, agriculture, tribal welfare, sports and youth affairs, transport etc., gained invaluable experience and is now an Additional Secretary to the Government of India, (just short of a full blown Secretary), presently posted in the Ministry of Youth Affairs, New Delh. From March, 2013 he has taken over as the Director General of the Sports Authority of India (SAI), New Delhi, in line to get the Chief Secretary posting in Kerala soon !!

Jiji Thomson : A capable sports administrator ..

One of his "noble and worthy" accomplishments which will be remembered by the country for all time, is the successful execution of the Common Wealth Games (CWG) in Delhi in 2010. When the original organising committee had bungled under the leadership of the now discredited Suresh Kalmadi, with just 3 months left, the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and Sports Minister asked Shri Jiji Thomson along with two other senior IAS officers to take over the running of the CWG from Kalmadi and team and successfully execute it. Jiji Thomson who was in charge of Transportation, Catering and Media during CWG, did his tasks well and brought laurels to the country. People in Delhi still very fondly  remember the transport and smooth traffic arrangements in Delhi during the games and are full praise for that.

One point which all of us Indians look forward to is whether Shri Jiji Thomson with his wide, varied and eventful experience in sports administration of the country over the years will he be able to deliver..? will he be able to cleanse the sports arena of the country of all sloth and lethargy and be able to rejuvenate it in time for the Olympics ?

An eloquent, motivating and inspiring speaker, right from the the school and Balajana sakhyam (Malayala Manorama) days, Jiji Thomson is a very simple and sincere person, with a pleasing personality, known for sticking to time, performance and exacting work standards and ethics. A born orator, he has also been decorating many stages as spiritual speaker for the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church. He has carried out his advanced studies in Economics in UK and is a widely travelled personality. 

Never underestimate the power of dreams and the influence of the human spirit. We are all the same in this notion: The potential for greatness lives within each of us. - Wilma Rudolph

His life reminds us this strong conviction : each one of us has the potential to be great. Be humble, prayerful, modest and simple. Love your fellow beings, friends and the less fortunate in society, pray for them.

A more recent Sportstar writeup ..

george easaw.. (photo courtesy The Hindu..)

Some hints to MBA youngsters .. How to think BIG .

Many students are interested in knowing how to gainfully spend their free times during the afternoons. Is there a better way to spend the afternoons ? Can they so something worthwhile, like any good reading, research work, Six sigma training etc during the free time ? Here are my few lines .. Outside one's academic work, assignments and case study discussions, one needs to make use of the extra time gainfully.

Students who join an Institution of Higher Learning has to look out to acquire enough mastery in the following three areas.
1. Subject  matter expertise
2. Personality development and
3. Market readiness.

Making sure that you get enough and more of subject matter expertise through textbooks, interacting with your faculty members and friends, reading extensively from many knowledgeable sources and the library, the points which I am making here is for your development in the other two areas of personality development and making yourself market ready ..

My simple advice to them would be these six simple points :

Point 1. Elevate yourself to a higher level. Nobody rises above low expectations !! Human beings have an infinite potential to rise to whatever expectational levels they aspire to ..

Point 2. Make it a habit to read some quality newspapers and books from great authors, CEOs. management thinkers, reputed Professors from across the world on Strategy, General management etc. like company turnaround strategies, unique business practices, biographies of modern thinkers, great management gurus and so on. Jeffrey Immelt, Thomas Peters, Micheal Porter, Stephen Covey, C K Prahlad, Eliyahu Goldratt, Jim Collins, Jack Welch etc are some great authors..
Click here for top 25 from Time magazine and here for top 20 from Forbes magazine....

A well written book, to say in short, is the life of the author expressed in a few hundreds of pages.

“It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it.” - Oscar Wilde. 

“If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.” - Haruki Murakami

This not only sees that your time is gainfully spent, it also ensures that your thought process changes from discussing silly, mundane matters to professionally enriching, satisfying, intellectually stimulating topics. You can see for yourself, your talking style, thinking style, interactions with peers/faculty/industry personnel etc changing for the better. At last, it guides your life through your actions, elevating oneself to a higher intellectual level. Make it a point to keep notes in a notebook. Read at least one book in a week, if possible two, but make it a point to jot the important learnings. you may need it at some time in future ..

Point 3. Transfer your scribblings and learnings after reading the book as time permits, to a weB LOG (also called blog) either on blogspot (blogger) or wordpress, so that your writings get immediately published for a worldwide audience. (It also helps to improve one's writing style too). To make your writings worthwhile to the reader, add some fine analysis to the writing, some suggestions to improve the organisation, what could have been avoided, what could have been done better etc. ie. ADD TO THE DEBATE .. Do not just be a journalist !

Point 4. It is said interaction with friends and books result in 70% of the learning. To ensure that you spend your time gainfully, discuss with your friends about their internships / projects etc. Discuss how things could have been done better. or about the organisation / business promotion activities in their state, or if there is nothing else, discuss about the latest book you have read.

Point 5. Keep your GOALS in life a little higher than others .. Plan out what you will be in five years, ten years and twenty years .. The higher your goals, the better ingenious ways you will find to attain them. The otherwise painful obstacles now become just enjoyable steps to reach your ultimate GOAL.

Point 6 : The Library is a very good place to find the best books for general reading and read them to your hearts content. I am reminded of this quote : “I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.” Jorge Luis Borges. Once you enter your professional career you may not get the time to do all the reading !!

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

If you try to follow these simple points, it should improve the quality of  your thought processes, peer / external interactions and will put you on a lifelong habit of self-learning. With more and more points being ingrained, the comprehending abilities of the individual also changes for the better, helping you perform better at group discussions, interviews etc..

Do not miss out on any opportunity where you can contribute positively (be it a classroom discussion or with friends in the cafetaria). By being a patient listener you can learn from others too !

It opens to you an exciting future of terrific opportunities in life, which you never ever dreamt earlier. I am sure you will gain from these few thoughts which came to my mind. Wish you all the best !! ( if it was beneficial, do not forget to let me know..)

george..