Although I have historically been a supporter of BJP, I feel that everyone should be open to change and if anyone does something right then it should be commended. I have been trying to follow the political happening in India and recently Mumbai has been on its forefront. Shiv Sena, once a powerful force and probably a righteous organization, has started taking the same path as MNS and going on the Marathi and Maharashtrian Fundamentals. For a good number of days when MNS and Shiv Sena both were making statements which promoted regionalism, and no national leader came out criticizing them and this made me feel all the more terrible. continue

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Its 2010 and as we step into the next decade, Business and Technology remain the scale of measuring the overall strength of any country. Though jaw-dropping start ups keep coming forward from the dorm rooms and garages of the Silicon Valley, investors in US are worried that the  government is not doing enough to entice entrepreneurs to stay. continue

(South Block houses the Ministry of External Affairs)

When I look back and see if India should really have been like what it is today after 62 years of our freedom, I feel that we could certainly have done much better. We have shown progress on several fronts, both domestic and international, but a lot more needs to be done and a question that needs to be addressed is ‘Are India’s foreign policy makers holding India back?’ continue

3 Idiots is an amazing movie! It hits the right chords in comedy, philosophy, romance and everything else that any bollywood movie can touch. Till now everyone whom I have asked has given only positive feedback about it. Amir Khan has given an amazing performance and the movie has done very well at the box office as well. The message of the movie is also very clear, follow your heart when picking your profession, and not necessarily the safe professions like Engineering / Medicine in India. A very good concept indeed. continue

This is an article by our guest strater – Sasmita Patnaik – a student from XIM , Bhubaneshwar. We thank her for her thoughts and hope she would continue writing on strat.in!

Today we often talk of concepts like Globalization and World Economy. While we reinforce these ideas again and again, what we tend to ignore is the reach and impact of these concepts. Do we ever think of what these mean to a man in a village in rural India where more than half of Indian population lives or to an illiterate housewife. They say India engulfs an America and an Africa in her. On one hand while Delhi is looking forward to launch the Common wealth games hoping it would bring great publicity, exposure and opportunity to the nation, there is another part of India that is struggling to locate itself even on local maps of District Authorities. The question here is not if we should stop focusing on events like the Commonwealth Games and Olympics that India aspires to host in 2020 but if the focus is balanced. As much as we need to work at increasing opportunities, it is equally important to ensure that these opportunities created are accessible to all sections. Can we look at alternative modes of passing on the benefits of the Globalization to the ones who are indirectly an integral part of world economy? No one may recognize the individual farmer who cultivates crops, but he definitely is a part of our nation’s export economy. Recently the finance minister of our country came up with this idea o having cluster meetings with banks once in 3 months instead of annual meetings. This was done to ensure that smaller banks have a say in the meetings and are able to express their opinions more openly. If the government is looking at making the meetings more Participative, why can’t we come up with similar models of ensuring participation at grass roots. We have tried to integrate villages with nearby town economies. Why not look at a village – village integration, where the villages are interdependent for raw materials or markets. There are several small villages which cannot become self sustainable unless they are provided with adequate infrastructure and employment opportunities. It becomes too expensive for the government to develop infrastructure for smaller villages and settlements. So, the government could look at integrating smaller villages with larger ones and bring in cost effectiveness. continue

This is a guest article by Saswata Das. He graduated from IIM Calcutta earlier this year and works in the Financial sector. We thank him for his article and look forward to his future articles!

With trade volumes of IRFs in NSE barely touching the 1000 mark these days, it seems that all the initial excitement has fizzled out. This apparently dismal performance doesn’t bode well for the second edition of Interest Rate Futures introduced after a long hiatus of six years. continue

An avid cricket fan, say Swami was watching the India-Pakistan cricket match in Mumbai at his office. Since it was a long weekend, he had to catch a flight to reach his home in Bangalore. So, he left the the small TV sets in office albeit reluctantly. But, Swami was keen to stay in touch with the scores all through. So, while he was waiting for a cab, he sent an SMS to an cricket-SMS channel about latest scores. In the car, he asked the driver to put on the live radio (and cursed his luck for not getting the FM mobile connector with him) Then, at the airport he enjoyed the match on a flat screen plasma TV. In the plane, he enjoyed live satellite TV (note: he had booked a KF flight knowing that there would be a match on) . Next, after alighting at Bangalore, he called up his friends, for expert commentary on phone - who in turn advised him to go to this new cool website on internet for live commentary. So, he checked the mobile internet on GPRS for the match. So, finally he reached home, where he quickly put on his LCD tv and logged onto the internet for a detailed scorecard as well! Clearly, Swami had not missed a moment of the match!! continue

Milton Friedman, in his famous quote, “The business of business is business”, implied that companies should not bother about any responsibility towards the society. But off late, there are quite a few companies who have gone out of their way to contribute to the society. The million dollar question is “How can we encourage company to devote resources towards the betterment of the society?” continue

A mobile phone has become as ubiquitous as a wrist watch these days; one rarely leaves home without it. However, if asked about the economic benefits of having a mobile phone, most of us wouldn’t look beyond that important conference call we were able to attend while in the car or being able to access voicemail anywhere, anytime. Mobile telephony can have very real economic consequences, above and beyond the value proposition that is offered to the average urban citizen. According to UNCTAD, the growth of mobile teledensity has been shown to have a direct correlation with the growth of GDP per capita in developing countries, which tend to have overwhelmingly high percentages of rural populations. continue

Indian Institute of Technology (IITs) are a brand known all over the world in technology, and Indian Institute of Management (IIMs) have also made their mark in the world in terms of management. The premier institutes of India are known for selecting the best of the best, or the cream of the country as some people call it and make this cream even better. Well I really don’t think I need to write more about IITs and IIMs, as the identity is well established. But the question right now in front of us is the dilemma of Central Government opening 7 more IITs and 7 more IIMs. I will try and present some points around the topic and hope for a nice discussion in the comments. continue