SJ and JS : Thanks for shaping my thoughts!! RIP

This is my first weekend in Mumbai after I started my internship in Citibank.

Pune, to me is a lot of good food, cozy home , lovely wife and sweet long drives. I missed it this time majorly for the sake of a deteriorated health which warranted travel. I didn’t just miss Pune this time but consciously avoided any other busy-ness.

It’s been long since I had a word with myself. The weather outside , the soothing sound of the rain , the lovely  breeze caressing my disheveled hair locks , the quietness of the floor and no pressing work calls for a perfect date with myself.

Well , I can talk about a lot of things , my work  - which I officially hate , my weight loss programme – which is yet to start , the future aspirations – that I am still confused about  or  the state of the MBA and engineering jobs being offered – a wholesale mandi these days.

However, I think I shall talk to myself about 2 important people in my life and about my favorite topic – my dreams.

Recently, there was sad demise of two important persons who had deeply touched my life and coincidentally their initials share the same letters: SJ and JS , i.e Steve Jobs and Jagjit Singh.The reasons though very different, their work in life has formed the pillars of my being and action.

I first got to know JS at the age of 14 , when most of the kids were lost in the cricketing fancies of Sachin. Thanks to the pathetic electricity at my hometown , I was bereft of many of those marvelous innings. However , the walkman that I had was an excellent company along with the then 60 Rs cassette of Sony Crescendo – Marasim.

I was a very thoughtful kid who had always wanted to understand and explore human emotions and JS voice and the lyrics of his ghazals were something I could relate to. My personal life was a collection of many subtle experiences, of which I had used to ponder endlessly.

With every  passing year, the  correlation between my life and the ghazals of JS became closer to the perfect  one.  Infact my first proposal to a girl in Class XIth was a result of one of the Ghazals “ yun mere khat ka jawab aaya”. Although not of JS, one can easily see the influence of Ghazals in my day to day life.

I was never a good student. However, the recipe to study which helped me work it out just fine for my IIT entrance examination was a closed room , with an airy window , a table lamp , black in colour , neatly arranged table  on which in one corner was the Philips tape recorder with JS’ s voice soothing my nerves. It was hours for which I could solve the numerical while listening to his masterpieces.

Thanks to You! The recipe worked and I could clear IITJEE.

Even then the tryst with JS continued while my life resembled a roller coaster. While it was sometimes about love , sometimes sadness , sometimes it was just for the peace of my mind. Yeah , somehow they had found me a way to be at peace.

SJ , too has affected my mind considerably and probably for the rest of my life. SJ for me is an epitome of imagination turned into reality. He is one of those original thinkers who can envision future. The  meaning of the word exciting for me is close to the bitten apple and his thoughts on how to connect the dots or how to stay hungry and foolish.

While at Infosys Services, I was selected as a research scientist in ISRO which I denied to work for Infosys R&D with the inspiration of creating something for the future, very much inspired by the Roark of my real life , SJ.

I kept following Apple closely and the protagonist SJ and his speech in Stanford about living each day was for a long time very close to my heart.

Today I am someone who wants to work on the products/services of the future, help create those, popularize them and make them reach the masses. I am an engineer from the heart , MBA from the mind and a philosopher from the soul, and I thank you both for leading me become what I am today.

Although I always thought there will be a day I could meet you, I think it shall have to wait till I give back to the world from the mind , heart and soul just as you both did !!! RIP...

Autumns Internship II

What is LIBOR?

The London Interbank Offered Rate, or LIBOR, is the European version of the federalfunds rate in the United States and represents the interest rate at which London banks charge each other on funds borrowed. This is not to be confused with the BBA LIBOR rate, which is a filtered average of inter-bank loans maturing within 1 year. BBA LIBOR is published once per day by the British Bankers Association at around 11 AM London standard time. The BBA is advised by a group of senior banking experts from at least 8 contributor banks and uses their lending activity to derive the BBA LIBOR rate.

How is it used?

LIBOR represents a benchmark for short term borrowing worldwide and is used to settle interest rate contracts in many of the world's futures and options exchanges. BBA LIBOR is created in ten different currencies and is done so by polling a new set of relevant contributor banks for each currency. BBA currency LIBOR will then provide the borrower with an interest rate to borrow a specific currency in the London cash market. You may hear the term Eurodollars or Euroyen; this defines the interest rate at which you can borrow US dollars or Japanese Yen in the London market.

BBA LIBOR is also referenced in many instruments that have a variable rate structure; such as, adjustable rate mortgages, floating rate notes, interest rate swaps, syndicated loans, and much more.

How do you calculate Interest using LIBOR?

BBA LIBOR is not a compounded rate; rather, it is calculated on the basis of the actual funding term. The formula to calculate interest using LIBOR would be done as follows:

Principal Loan Amt X BBA LIBOR rate X (Loan Term/360)

This formula would apply to the US LIBOR ; however, the GBP LIBOR is based on an ACTUAL/365 scheme and therefore you would have to adjust that formula to divide by 365.

How Do Banks Set Equilibrium Forward Rates?

Equilibrium in forward contracts occurs when the forward exchange rate of the two currencies in the contract yield equal returns. Banks calculate their equilibrium forward rates by using the current spot rate, the interest rate of the foreign currency and the interest rate of their domestic currency. Banks base their equilibrium forward rate calculations on the economic theory of interest rate parity  

Interest Rate Parity Theory

o    The interest rate parity theory is the economic theory in which the interest rate difference between two currencies is equal to the difference between the forward and spot rates of each country's respective currency. When the interest rate parity theory is violated, it disrupts equilibrium and creates arbitrage opportunities for investors. An investor takes advantage of an arbitrage opportunity when he buys and sells the same or similar financial instrument at the same time but in different markets. The investor makes a profit from exploiting the price differences that occurred due to the interest rate parity violation.

Equilibrium Forward Rate Formula Definitions

o    The forward exchange equilibrium equals the spot rate multiplied by (1 plus the domestic interest rate) divided by (1 plus the foreign interest rate). The spot rate is the immediate exchange rate between two currencies. The interest rates used in equilibrium forward rate calculations are typically based on the London Interbank Offer Rate (LIBOR). The LIBOR rate is the interest rate banks offer other banks in London's wholesale money markets.

Equilibrium Forward Rate Formula

o    To illustrate the formula, say you want to make an investment in euros (EUR). Assume that the current spot rate for EUR to United States dollar (USD) is 1.859, written as euro/USD=1.859. The one-year LIBOR interest rate is 8 percent for euro and 6 percent for USD. The equilibrium forward rate formula for this example is as follows: Forward rate=1.859*[(1+.06)/(1+.08)]. Banks have to break the formula down to: Forward rate=1.859*(1.06/1.08). This breaks down further: Forward rate=1.859*.981. This then equals 1.824.

Discounts and Premiums

o    Using that example, to obtain equilibrium, the euro would trade at a discount to the USD. Selling at a forward discount equalizes the higher LIBOR interest of the EUR against the USD and helps to prevent arbitrage. If the situation was reversed and the LIBOR for the USD was higher than the EUR, the EUR would trade a forward premium to equalize the higher LIBOR interest rate of the USD against the EUR.

Read more: How Do Banks Set Equilibrium Forward Rates? | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/info_8789113_do-set-equilibrium-forward-rates.html#ixzz1Y326s7tg

 Some more links

http://www.rbnz.govt.nz/statistics/exandint/b1/3401943.pdf
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/2002/wp0228.pdf
http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2010-08-24/news/27574810_1_currency-futures-exchange-traded-currency-interest-rate
http://glossary.reuters.com/index.php?title=FX_Swap
http://thomsonreuters.com/content/financial/pdf/s_and_t/RTFXQuickStartGuidev2.0_2.pdf
http://thomsonreuterseikon.com/
http://thomsonreuters.com/products_services/financial/financial_products/a-z/trading_foreign_exchange/
http://www.rbi.org.in/scripts/WSSViewDetail.aspx?TYPE=Section&PARAM1=6
http://www.treasurer.ca.gov/cdiac/publications/math.pdf
http://math.nyu.edu/~alberts/spring07/Lecture1.pdf
http://www.mysmp.com/bonds/libor.html
http://math.nyu.edu/~alberts/spring07/Lecture1.pdf
http://www.ehow.com/info_8789113_do-set-equilibrium-forward-rates.html
http://www.fabiomercurio.it/booksample.pdf
http://www.oup.com/us/ppt/derivatives/DMCH10.ppt - very imp

Autumns Internship

There is a market convention that determines which is the base currency and which is the term currency. In most parts of the world, the order is: EUR – GBP – AUD – NZD – USD – others. Accordingly, a conversion from EUR to AUD, EUR is the base currency, AUD is the term currency and the exchange rate indicates how many Australian dollars would be paid or received for 1 Euro.

The relationship between spot and forward is as follows:

where:

·        F = forward rate

·        S = spot rate

·        r₁ = simple interest rate of the term currency

·        r₂ = simple interest rate of the base currency

·        T = tenor (calculated according to the appropriate day count convention)

The forward points or swap points are quoted as the difference between forward and spot, F - S, and is expressed as the following:

where r₁ and r₂ are small. Thus, the absolute value of the swap points increases when the interest rate differential gets larger, and vice versa.

A foreign exchange swap is the simultaneous borrowing and lending of one currency for another with two different value dates.

What Does Forward Premium Mean?
When dealing with foreign exchange (FX), a situation where the spot futures exchange rate, with respect to the domestic currency, is trading at a higher spot exchange rate then it is currently. A forward premium is frequently measured as the difference between the current spot rate and the forward rate, but any expected future exchange rate will suffice.

Read more: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/forwardpremium.asp#ixzz1Y2muPmBL

Investopedia explains Forward Premium
It is a reasonable assumption to make that the future spot rate will be equal to the current futures rate. According to the forward expectation's theory of exchange rates, the current spot futures rate will be the future spot rate. This theory is routed in empirical studies and is a reasonable assumption to make in the long term.

Read more: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/forwardpremium.asp#ixzz1Y2mwqHrb

What is a forward premium in the foreign exchange market?
It's the price paid for hedging by buying dollars in the forward market. Forward transactions take place at a premium or discount to the spot rate. The outright forward transactions are over-the-counter transactions undertaken by dealers. In India, it is generally the banks that transact in forward markets.
The maturity date agreed upon by the parties generally varies from months to a year or two. But maturities beyond that tend to have wider bid-ask spreads, in other words, tend to be more expensive, so are rare. The forward rate could be in premium or discount, based on the interest rate differential in case of currencies which are fully convertible and in case of partially-convertible currencies, they are determined purely on the basis of demand and supply.
The maturity date agreed upon by the parties generally varies from months to a year or two. But maturities beyond that tend to have wider bid-ask spreads, in other words, tend to be more expensive, so are rare. The forward rate could be in premium or discount, based on the interest rate differential in case of currencies which are fully convertible and in case of partially-convertible currencies, they are determined purely on the basis of demand and supply.

For example, in India, the USD/INR forward rate for six months could be in premium or at a discount over the spot rate, based on how liquid the dollar is.

What determines forward premium?
Countries that have fully-convertible currencies, the forward premium is deduced from their interest rate differentials, respectively. The premium/discount is measured in points, which represent the interest rate differential of the countries to which the currencies belong, for the period of maturity.
These points are the quantum of foreign exchange that would neutralise the interest rate differential. Points are subtracted from the spot rate, when the interest rate of the base currency is higher, since the base currency should trade at a forward discount and points are added to the spot rate, when the interest rate of the base currency is lower, since the base currency is expected to trade at a forward premium.
This is, however, only applicable to non-rupee currencies, that are fully convertible.
What are currency futures?
Exchange-traded currency forward transactions are known as currency futures. Before April 2007, only banks were allowed to trade in currency forwards market through over-the-counter deals.
But it was not a structured market, in the sense that it was not traded on an RBI-recognised exchange platform. But in 2007, RBI and Sebi allowed trading of currency futures on the National Stock Exchange.
The objective of opening up trading in currency futures on the exchanges was to deepen the futures market by allowing the small retail investors to take a view and hedge their foreign exchange risks. The regulatory authorities in India are on their way to allow trading in currency options on exchanges as well, though it is already available as a product.

Reuters Trading for Foreign Exchange

Reuters Trading for Foreign Exchange (RTFX) offers a single point of access to global FX liquidity.

Available on Reuters 3000 Xtra and Reuters Dealing 3000, RTFX provides access to multiple market makers with a single login. Together with the real-time news and prices on these Thomson Reuters platforms, RTFX’s trading capability means you can move seamlessly from price discovery to execution.

RTFX is based on Reuters Electronic Trading technology, used by more than 100 leading FX banks

With Reuters Trading for Foreign Exchange, you can:

·         Access deep liquidity – ensuring tight spreads and a competitive market

·         Trade efficiently, in real time – with ‘one click’ trading on streaming prices

·         Choose from the most influential market makers – a single sign-on gives you access to multiple institutions

·         Increase efficiency and STP – with seamless execution that minimizes time constraints

·         Trade automatically – trigger one-click ‘fast trades’ when your price is matched

Why choose Reuters Trading for Foreign Exchange?

·         Neutral platform:  We have built relationships with leading global and regional FX banks that offer prices on a wide range of currency pairs from majors, to exotics, to precious metals.

·         Thriving FX trading community:  RTFX has grown month on month since its launch.

·         Multi-bank executable prices all in one place:  Having all your liquidity together saves valuable screen real estate.

·         Secure, trader-friendly environment:  Just select the prices on offer then click to trade and automatically execute with your chosen liquidity provider.

References :
http://www.rbnz.govt.nz/statistics/exandint/b1/3401943.pdf
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/2002/wp0228.pdf
http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2010-08-24/news/27574810_1_currency-futures-exchange-traded-currency-interest-rate
http://glossary.reuters.com/index.php?title=FX_Swap
http://thomsonreuters.com/content/financial/pdf/s_and_t/RTFXQuickStartGuidev2.0_2.pdf
http://thomsonreuterseikon.com/
http://thomsonreuters.com/products_services/financial/financial_products/a-z/trading_foreign_exchange/

Engg College Days : Madho Ki Kahani

आजकल  अखबार  की  सुर्ख़ियों  में  गरम  है  दास्ताने  प्यार ,
cseism2k6 को  बना  रखा  है  इन्होने  प्यार का  बाज़ार ,
माँ  बाप  में  मचा  हुआ  है हाहाकार ;
सोच  रहें  होंगे  इन्हें  बनाया  इंजिनियर  बेकार ....

जैकी  ने  शुरु  किया  यह  तमाशा  ...
फिर  राज  गौरव  भी  इस्पे  खूब  नाचा ,
अर्पित  ने लिख डाला  iisc का चोथा   ..
कंप्यूटर  स्सिएंस  के  नाम  पर  किया है खूब  धोखा  ...

अब  जब  दास्ताँ  चल  चुकी  है pyaar ki,
kissa sunate hain hum bhi apne ek yaar ki,
kahat hain bhaiyya suno bhai sadho,
naam hamare dost ka hai madho

acchi bhali jindagi chal rahi thi,
bas ek modern pyaar ki kami thi,
aadhi jindagi library main katthi thi,
aur aadhi inki aakhen unki raah dekhti thi.

21 saal ke ho gaye ..par koi mili nahi..
koi moti, koi patli toh koi khali nahi,


thak haar kar doston ki salah lee,
phir hero banke mahila college ki rah lee,
socha itni saari mein ek toh milegi,
is baar moti patli , koi bhi chalegi..

style se mobile nikal kar khade ho gaye side main,
baal aise the jaise devanand hon guide main ,
intezaar kar rahe the ki koi sahi dikhe,
koi toh unse pyaar ka pehla paath seekhe,

sabr ka baandh ab toot raha tha,
apna madho kab se wahan khada tha ,
ek ladki ne uske taraf nahi dekha,
tab usne formula 420 ke baare mein socha..

apna rumaal wahan girakar,
khada ho gaya nigahen gada kar,
tabhi ek bala gujari,
jise dekh kar madho ke uthi sarsari,

rumaal utha kar peeche bhaaga,
"aapka rumaal gir gaya tha" jhat se daga,
ladki muskarayi,thodi si sharmayi,
madho ne mano mann ki murad paayi,


honton ki laalima,aakhon ki gahrai,
pehle yeh ladki uski jindagi mein kyun nahi aayi,

apna madho uske sapne mein kho gaya,
tabhi ek jhanak ki aawaz sun use hosh aaya,
thoda dard hua toh mahsoos kiya ,
yeh thapaad to uski pari ne use hi rashid diya


public bhi jhat se jut gayi
rahi sahi kasar bhi puri ho gayi
wah ri anarkali kya khub kiya ..
ekkishwin shatabdi mein salim ko chunwa diya


police bhi aa gayi manjar mein....
gujarni padi raat andar mein

dost bhi aaye sawere....
dekhkar khoob hanse saare,


wah re bhagwaan .... kya dost banaya....
wah re doston ....kya khoob pitwayaa......



abhi khatam nahi hua .... madho ka prem rog phir jaagaa...
college mein phir suru hua ..... jaanne ke liye mail karen karte rahen

IMO - Flipkart : what next

Key focus of the company is customer delight and has gone extra mile to deliver that. The numbers show more that 50% as repeat business. This customer loyalty is delightful to any firm.
The company has done lots of good things but IMO, there are still many a milestones to be achieved and I believe with these it is not a distant dream to position Flip Kart as the best e-commerce site nationally & internationally.

Books Segment
FK started off with books and should be closer to their heart still now with only 1% of the book market being captured by online segment. Moreover infibean and rediff realizing the trends are also forcing themselves into book business.
Key Customer Insight: Online reading is going up : According to Forrester research (By Sarah Rotman Epps & James McQuivey) , Dual-screen mobile phones and netbooks will eat into e-reader demand and that most readers don’t read enough.

Another Report suggests that the e-book market has a direct correlation with the internet penetration , the demographic dividend and the mobile and internet convergence

Key Inference : While I see that the ebook reader market might be dominated in sometime by the smart phones, the e-book reading market is there to stay.

Another Customer Insight : Online reading or searching is a direct replacement to books. Hence cannibalization should not be an issue.

Lack of Space, the re-location constraints, etc indicate that a personal digital library would be a better option for fast moving professionals.

Moreover, not all books are qualified/ found great to be kept with him/ her. That is precisely the reason why piracy has taken up in a big way. They just want read an throw books and that throw-away prices.

Flipkart personalized e-Library

Objective : To tie up with the publishing house/authors to publish the books online and collaborate with the High potential user community to build a online digital library for them.
“In Short : To do what i-phone has done to the music industry” ; Price the books as low as 10-20 Rs
Use Subscription model or pay per use model.

Online Publishing

Another business which seems viable is either tie-up with Online publishing house like Pothi.com or do a vertical integration into online publishing area. This shall also help them in e-book selling.

Portal to Social

FlipKart Widgets : To be placed in social networking sites .
Social community for Book Lovers supported by Flipkart where people discuss about books new releases etc , comments etc .
While reading the reviews or chatting with their circles they can buy the books
Flipkart Credits to the contributors which they can use to buy the book or read e-books.

Store to the User

Similar to the Tesco’s model , Use posters on the substations /subways for people to order books through QR code activation.(www.techi.com/2011/07/augmented-grocery-shopping/)

Good Night!

It’s 3:15 am , should call it night as I still didn’t get a chance to hit the bed. My eyelids never felt as heavy as now. However I am writing this … why ? because I want to write. This is something I have loved to do and I shall love to do this. Amidst the furore of B-school , I am missing my life, my small observations , my take away from day to day life.
I shall quickly jot down some points I want to talk about and will elaborate later..

That day I had an exam . The auto walla comment “ rick doob bhi gaya tho bhi aapko college pahunchanhunga .. aap tension mat lo” and Customer Relationship and consulting …

The GF trouble “ Push pull strategy can only give you gf’s .. To get a life long relationship , you must learn to let go”

Realize what you want from life …companies shall follow .. on the placements 

The most imp ingredient for success is value … and is common across all companies …

Focus on Non customers and understand their needs to sustain your business.


I miss my frens .. my home .. my love and my family .. I am feeling extremely sleepy
There are many more to talk about ……germany , 1st year , IM conclave .. etc

Last One Year

Off late, I was reflecting on the last one year of my MBA education in SP Jain Institute of Management Research. Thoughts pondered from my engineering days, where I cleared the toughest exam in India (IIT JEE 2002), was selected as a Research Scientist in Indian Space Research Organization in 2006 and opted for research in Infosys R&D labs instead. I took a pause to travel back in the memory lane to that moment where I was considering admission in SP Jain Institute of Management Research Mumbai.

By that time, I had five international papers published in ACM and IEEE conferences across the world and was rated one of the best employees of Infosys and my career was flying high. A natural choice, other than to excel in the career, if any was to continue fundamental research with an M.S or PhD degree.

However, the last 4 years of work experience and 25 years of existence had deeply engrained some pearls of wisdom in my soul. The most important pearl being "The greatest happiness I have ever got is when I built something for the good of the society". My ultimate goal is to be an entrepreneur with a difference, the difference being to give back to the society especially to the lower economic strata of the society. In fact all my works were concentrated on green technologies, agriculture and, rural healthcare sometimes out of the purview of my work.

I found myself somehow lacking in reaching my work to the world and after cautiously evaluating the MBA at SPJIMR from primary and secondary research I found the below matching my thoughts about an education system that believes in reinforcing healthy thought process giving back to the society in a profitable way.

·         The institute intertwines the teachings of the west and that of the east – A firm believer in eastern learning's and of western science, this seemed and proved to be the most important reinforcement of my thought process throughout the last 1 year

·         The case based methodology – I firmly believe in multi-universe theory in physics and in multiple solutions to problems in case studies follow naturally into me.

·         DOCC – It is a program of 6 weeks undertaken by students to bring about a change in the society.

·         Abyudaya – the concept of reaching the under privileged and empowering them with the mentorship to succeed in life.

The highlights of my work in the past 1 year have been

·         Academically, I have excelled in all courses of study (currently ranked 9^th overall), practical and theoretical and it is reflected in my increasing slope of grade points in the last trimesters. I put keen and intense effort on the group works, case studies and individual assignments with the intention of discovering each subject such that it can help me in my ultimate goal of entrepreneurship with a difference. In all these situations I found myself ably leading groups, discussions, often charting the roadmap, analyzing the most critical aspects and finally leading the group to accolades of peers and professors.

 

·         Green Corridor – As a part of my DOCC project, I conceptualized and implemented the idea of pan- India revolution. Green Corridor is a novel and replicable model for afforestation with public & private enterprise, community, media and government, going hand in hand to cover the open area of 116000 kms along the railway tracks to address the issues of rising environmental concerns and Global warming. Nothing of this sort and scale has been implemented before in India and this is the first ever effort that combines the Indian railways with the private and public enterprises' CSR activities, the NREGA program of the government and the will of community through "Shramdaan" and voluntary donations in ticket bookings.         

 

The pilot project is being implemented in Pune, India and is aptly covered by the local and national dailies. When implemented fully, it shall neutralize the Indian Railways carbon footprint and enables millions of kms of biodiversity in India.

 

·         Paper on Agroeaze– Almost every farmer across India is a hostage, in one way or another, to a vicious cycle of the promises the land he owes vouches for at the sowing of the seeds and the dreams that are shattered at the harvest. Who is to be blamed? Not one but many factors together come to pounce the lightning on the Indian Agriculture. Agro EaZe[Educate anywhere Zero in on buyers Everywhere] is a mobility platform to cater to the needs of the farmers through the use of mobile devices and an integrated effort of the government, private enterprises and the Information Technology.

·         MedEaZe – On the lines of Agro Eaze, MedEaZe uses the same EaZe [Educate anywhere Zero in on buyers everywhere] platform to cater to the health needs of the rural sector.

·         POLOMO (Pollution Monitor)–The growing human population, declining natural resources and industrial processes, has resulted in the widespread pollution of our environment. Air pollution is one of the serious issues faced by the world today. POLOMO is an architecture based on wireless sensor network to enable the community to check the rising health concerns through comprehensive Web 3.0 approach.

·         Mumbai Oil Spill (Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT)India Disaster Management) – Armed with the knowledge of Technology and Management Skills I chose to  do our ADMAP project 70 kms far from college where I had to travel every week by land and sea . Having lead a team of four, we carefully studied the flaws in the disaster management system of JNPT and charted mitigation strategies to combat both natural and manmade disasters.

 

Business School Initiatives

 

·         Organizing Information Management (IM) Conclave 2011 – lead a team of more than 10 people in managing the Information management Conclave of 2011 on Web 3.0 era – the changing business world.  Right from conceptualizing the conclave which was only second to MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) in the scope and relevance of Web 3.0 to business, the bigger picture to the keen details was administered by me.It was the first conclave on India on Web3.0 and business.Moreover, It was one of the best organized conclave in the history of SPJIMR with highest numbers corporate delegates.

·         Consultancy Projects for Bakery stores & for buyinsuranceonline.in - While studying subjects such a Business research methods and Operations Research, I proactively chose live projects as my submission reports. Although it would mean extra effort but ensured greater practical learning.

--
A. Kumar

The Theory of Success

 “There is something in the word “Success” which differentiates the mighty from the mediocre” – that’s what I have always thought in my life. Success is different and it doesn’t come to one and all. It’s like that elusive lady very much there in the dreams but when you open your eyes everything is gone in a whiff. When I look back, I find that I have been true all this while about success, but what exactly the differentiation was, was elusive to me. I have always been thinking of the lady success right from my childhood. I remember my teenager days when I thought I have been godsend to do something great in this world. I needed to know what my success would be what my achievement of greatness would be and I looked around to find a clue about it from those whom the world admired, who was called successful by one and all. I came to a conclusion that one is successful when the rest of the world calls him successful.

In the quest for the same, I, being a poor student of anything but life, pulled out a miracle of IIT from a small town Bhagalpur, where the means are limited. I thought that was success, revered in the spirit for months and then came a revelation that I was wrong. There is something more to success than clearing IIT JEE. Next, I found the world around me craving and vying for the girls around them and somehow it struck me that that was the missing gem in the crown of success. I did all that too and became the prince charming of many. I paused and wondered if it was success? No it was not. I somehow felt miserable. In pursuit of professional excellence, I joined Infosys research labs while leaving ISRO. I was awarded with many accolades in professional life. I was the youngest member of Infosys to address the board, to question them and frame policies with them. Was it success? My answer was “no”-yet again. Then I joined SPJIMR Mumbai. This might have been the dream of millions in the country over the years. I should surely think I was successful. I yet felt like defeated. Then it was one long year with grades, competitions and praises and then I attended ‘Gita Shibir’.

Oh God! all this while I was right. Somewhere in me, there was a thought that said that success as happiness is internal and I was a fool all this while to look for it outside. This was the reason that I kept on discarding all the accolades that I got as futile, while they were revered by many. The inner self in other literature has also been called conscience and I still remember as a child I used to listen to it. It was taught in class that whenever you are in doubt; always ask your conscience as it is pure. However, I know-not when in the race of life, my conscience took a backseat in my thought process and I felt success to be what the other people thought it is, wealth, house, car etc. Although I have wrestled with the thoughts of the world around me for so long, I was failing to keep up in the past few years. I succumbed to vasanas and although I chose the right track for me, while working, I could not focus more on my efforts and also was prone to a negative mindset of failure. While satisfying the urge for success, I was left bewildered in the cycle of vasanas, vritti and karma. I feel that all this life I have been serving my vasanas in the name of finding success. The greed for external success or the objective success is itself a vasana that I had been savouring my whole efforts on.

I realized some vital things - By virtue of being born on earth we are in the state of incessant karma. To work is an inseparable truth from the existence of life form. Be it trees, be it single cellular animal, an ant or a man, we must go through the karma cycle. However, the choice of the karma and the way it is performed is very important. The origin of Karma for everyone arises from the duties that we must perform on this earth. Our duties towards our parents, teachers, the society, the universe and the forces of nature give us the basis to choose our karma. One might choose to serve the society or others might choose to spread the learning from his teacher. One could work for the environment or the universe.  The origin of the karma should be from our duties and not from our rights. If one works thinking that I have the right to be the richest person on earth, believe you me, it shall be very unhappy realization when he has actually achieved it. The way or the spirit in which karma is performed is also very important. It must be performed as an act of worship. It should be performed as an important but small part of the cosmic equilibrium around us. The desire for the result is very important, however, the humility to accept the outcome with grace is the most important. It must be understood that we are just –‘nimit matra’ in this cosmos and there are other things in the equation of cosmos that determine the result. Some rationalize it as fate and some as luck. But the point is to accept the results as it comes.

So what now is success? Success is progressive realization of a worthy goal. It is a means of being happy. Success is a fleeting thought. Happiness on the contrary, is in living each moment meaningfully and in synchronization with the inner being. It is important to understand that if one is at ease with the inner core while doing work, he shall always be happy.  The first step to be successful is to choose a worthy goal. A worthy goal is one which arises from the above duties mentioned above. Then the next step is to maintain a harmony between all the duties that must be performed above. The efforts put in should be in good faith and true spirit. It should be free from vasana of “Kama, krodh and lobh” and each step should be performed as an act of worship-‘yagna’. While doing the karma, one might hear applauds of the world and sometimes the curses of the same. While the praises around are nice to hear, to value the effort, one should always ask the inner core if the milestone reached is in line with one’s inner self or not. Any point in the karma-chakra should be analyzed with the inner self bhavana which is of ‘sattva’, for it alone is capable of giving true happiness. Any act, which is not in-line with the inner self, may give objective success but never the subjective success or inner success which results in happiness. Instead any such act which is not synchronized with the inner self is prone to creating a feeling of guilt within us.

It is my firm belief now that this guilt is the root cause of all the ailments that we have, somehow it is strongly related to the physical diseases as well. Although it’s yet unproven, if I look back at my life, I think it’s very true for me. Over the years the tasks I have performed in the chakravyuh of vasanas, I feel guilty of not doing my duties and somewhere deep inside; I have always had the realization of guilt. This feeling of guilt has made me weak inside. Although I show a lot of confidence on the face of it, I have almost lost my self-belief over the years. I have ceased to respect myself over the years and hence never really cared about my physique. Today I am obese and am prone to numerous diseases and when I look back, I understand today that, it’s all because of the chakravyuh, the vasanas, and the guilt which made me lose myself mentally and physically. All this was reflected in my psychometric test in PG lab as well (the science of the west). However, I was struggling to find the reason and it took me another nine months (Gita Shibir) to know the science exact science of self.

Now that I know all this about myself, the next challenge is to make things work for me. The last day while discussing with one of my colleagues, I remembered an interesting anecdote long forgotten – that we have two dogs (which now I understand as sanskars and vasana), I can choose to feed any one of them in order for the other to be weaker and the former to be stronger. Thus I am going to concentrate on developing sankars and pursuing goals in-line with my inner self and I firmly believe the vasanas shall fade away on its own. This thought was also reflected in one of the learning called ‘fake it till you make it’. Somehow all this time attending the sessions made me believe that I am not the only one facing these issues and it’s never too late to realize all these learning in life and I have noticed a couple of deliberate changes in me. I tend to talk to my parents much more than I did earlier. I also think about them more often and find more committed towards them. I have started to rethink my relationships with lot of people around and from the past. Now that I can see that people are essentially good inside and the same inside and that the ego of proving or disproving my success to others is futile, I would love to get back to my best friends whom I have long lost. I also understand that true goal is happiness and the role of success as “the progressive realization of the worthy goal” and am working towards finding a worthy goal for myself, of course in line with my inner self I think the end of this course has seen me walking on a new path, a path of self realization, true success and inner happiness and a different way of looking at things and I already like it.

 

Conducting Market research - help appreciated

Hi,

 

I am conducting a research for online insurance market as a part of my research work for an academic project. Please spare few minutes to fill what could change how insurance business is done in India.

 

Online Insurance

 

Just click the link above or copy paste the link in the browser : https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dGdjWmpIVUozVkR1MG5lWEVIWUsxa2c6MQ

 

Your timely help shall be very much appreciated.

 

Regards,

Amrit

 

 

Amrit Kumar PGDM 2010-12  |  Information Management S. P. Jain Institute of Management & Research, Mumbai            Mob: +91 8976662460 | pgp10.amritk@spjimr.org @linkedin

 

 

Rethinking Leadership!

"Leaders are not made, they are born" – has been the view of many theories in Organization behaviour; however I do not subscribe to it. On the contrary, I strongly subscribe that, leadership is an inherent quality of human being; it only needs a situation to emerge. Each one of us demonstrates leadership at some or the other point of their life. Leadership, I would classify into

·         Personal Leadership

·         Inter personal Leadership

·         Organizational Leadership

Each individual has a myriad of intertwined personalities which is also sometimes referred in common parlance as faces. The personality of a person is determined by which of these intertwined ones is demonstrated more often. Each of these personalities is important as per the situation faced by individuals .It is both an art and science to respond with the face/personality to the changing circumstances around oneself. Thus a stern order with something wrong going at the shop floor is as much required as the loving smile at your kid when he/she makes mistake. Many a times, one has to motivate himself, talk to one's own self and ask him to move ahead despite all hurdles. Hence Personal leadership is about managing the multiple self within oneself such that the right one is demonstrated with respect to the situation.

 Inter-personal leadership is about making others see the value in them and in you. It means motivating people around you, connected to you, be it old or young to be able to get the energy to move ahead and realize their potential. This kind of leadership is demonstrated in every small activity you do, be it talking to a poor kid asking for alms or convincing auto driver you just made friends with, to leave smoking. This leadership is often referred in common parlance as charisma and it is the most important aspect of leadership.

Organizational leadership is one that is talked about much and investigated into much deeper details. Hence in the abstract we shall not be concentrating on it in detail. It broadly means engaging your employees to deliver value in the continuously changing business environment.

However, the point to take note of is the view that leadership, all three components as described above are situational and leaders and leaderships have emerged out of situations and incidences. Personal leadership is the easiest example to refer to. All those people who have excelled in their fields of science, arts and in whatever they have done are a very good example of personal leaders. Even those people whom their children often call "their role model" are great example of personal leaders and all those who say that they are happy with their life are very effective personal leaders.

It must be noted that effective personal leaders may not be good interpersonal leaders. While scientists or people with flamboyant lifestyles may be very happy in their own world which they manage effectively, they might not be able to influence people around them and be an interpersonal leader.

--
[coyright]A. Kumar

Guide map for locating the SPJIMR Information Management Conclave 2011

Dear Sir/Madam,

Thank you for registering for the SPJIMR Information Management Conclave 2011.

Venue: Auditorium, SPJIMR
Time: Inaugration at 09:30 am
Date: 14th Jan 2011

To facilitate your travel to the venue, we are attaching few map routes to help you reach the location.

Kindly let us know if you have any concerns.

Thanking you.

Warm Regards,

SIMC'11
email: simc_2011@spjimr.org
website: http://conclave.spjimr.org

SPJIMR Invites you for Information Management Conclave -2011

 

Dear All,

 

I hope you are doing great.

 

As one of Asia’s leading business schools, S P Jain Institute of Management & Research (SPJIMR) has persistently followed the path of creating and launching unique initiatives, especially for fostering business-academia integration. For the past few years, SPJIMR Information conclave has been the pioneer in bringing together academia, business and thought leadership in India.

We cordially invite you to attend the Information management Conclave which cuts across multiple domain including microfinance, mobile payments, manufacturing, gaming , marketing etc.

 

 

 

 

 

Please register at : http://conclave.spjimr.org.  There are no registration charges.

 

PS : Economic Times Page 5 , 10^th Jan,2011.

 

 

 

Thanks & Regards,

 

Amrit Kumar,

SPJIMR, Information Management
PGP 2010-2012
pgp10.amritk@spjimr.org | amritkr@gmail.com

09321623699                     

 

[amrit001in@yahoo.co.in]