Having just read the speech delivered yesterday by William J. Burns, Under Secretary for Political Affairs at the White House, I thought I’d list some of the phenomenal quotes, which should leave those suggesting otherwise in no doubt about the political capital that’s being invested by the Obama administration on India.
The speech is called India’s rise and the Promise of US – Indian Partnership and was delivered at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington DC on 1st June 2010.
You can read the full speech by clicking any of the quotes below:
“The simple truth is that India’s strength and progress on the world stage is deeply in the strategic interest of the United States. ”
“Never has there been a moment when India and America mattered more to one another. And never has there been a moment when partnership between India and America mattered more to the rest of the globe.”
“The further truth, however, is that progress in U.S.-Indian partnership is not automatic. It requires continued hard work and vision on both sides. It requires patience and creativity. And it requires honesty in dealing head-on with concerns and doubts that arise on both sides.”
“India’s leadership, and the potential for U.S.-Indian partnership, extends well beyond Asia. India’s role in promoting global security is growing.”
“……it is a striking fact that the U.S. military now holds more bilateral military exercises every year with India than any other nation.”
“Expanded U.S.-Indian defense cooperation, unimaginable not so long ago, is a valuable means of supporting our shared interest in India’s broadened international security role. Our stake in India’s defense modernization is real and increasing, and defense trade has taken off since our 2005 framework agreement.”
’’India and the United States have both suffered devastating terrorist attacks, with the scars of 9/11 and 26/11 still fresh in both our societies. Since the horrific assault on Mumbai in November 2008, U.S.-Indian cooperation in counter-terrorism has deepened rapidly, in the interests of both our countries. Partnership on cyber security is another area ripe for development.”
“Our Strategic Dialogue this week elevates India to the rank of our most important global partners, allowing us to discuss and coordinate policies of global import, including on the future shape of the international economic system and on what we can do together to promote human development in other parts of the world.”
“In addition to the regular dialogue we have begun on East Asia, we look forward to quiet, systematic exchanges on other regional issues, such as the Middle East and Africa, where we can benefit from each other’s perspectives, and each look for ways to contribute to peace and security. India’s expanding global role will naturally make it an important part of any future consideration of reform of the UN Security Council. ”
“We’ve found greater common ground on climate change, and the Copenhagen Accord could not have happened without leadership at the highest levels from India.”
“The United States has both a profound interest in India’s success, and the capacity to contribute to that growth in ways that benefit us both.”
“We can, and we should, transform our export control relationship, befitting the 21st century U.S.-Indian strategic partnership. That will open the door to historic new cooperation in space, and a number of other areas for high tech cooperation.”
“Next year India will be the largest single-country recipient of U.S. climate funding, because India’s success in charting a new energy future is deeply in America’s interests.”
“India’s development of its greatest resource — its immensely talented people — is another focus of U.S.-Indian partnership.”
“The Singh-Obama 21st Century Knowledge Initiative offers new funding to increase linkages between American and Indian universities.”
“India and the United States have reached the stage where our individual success at home and abroad depends on our cooperation. That is what is different about our relationship today. That is the promise unlocked by the civil nuclear agreement, and all the advances of recent years. That is the “big idea” that can animate our partnership for decades to come. And that is the challenge before us, symbolized by the inauguration of the first-ever Strategic Dialogue: how to widen the arc of our cooperation, how to build systematic habits of collaboration, how to turn the transformational accomplishment of the civil nuclear accord into partnership across a much broader front.”.
“I have no illusions that this will be neat or easy. It will take a lot of time, and a lot of effort. Differences will occur, and doubts will linger. But at this extraordinary moment, we have leaderships who understand and respect one another, broad public and bipartisan support, a growing record of trust on which to build, and remarkable scope for partnership in Asia, in promoting global security and prosperity, and in India’s historic modernization. If we get this moment right, Indians and Americans can have an enormously positive influence on each other’s future, and on the course of the new century unfolding before us.”
Yesterday I wrote a story for Reuters that talked about the challenges ahead for new British Prime Minister David Cameron. Not the public sector cuts he is going to have to make, but some of the changes British people can expect in future in the world around them.
[http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate-uk/2010/05/12/cameron-tasked-with-changing-brits-expectations/]
Living within our means is going to be a massive challenge. Middle-class Britain has spent decades analysing their house price increases and judging their personal wealth using this yardstick, it’s hard to imagine people here thinking of a house as just a place to live.
And a bigger challenge will be integrating into the world around. The globalisation focus at this election was actually on immigration and how the general public fears it. Yet ninety per cent of British immigration involves the citizens of other EU states – not countries like India at all. Fringe parties, such as the BNP and UKIP, claimed they could ban even this intra-EU labour movement without considering that most of our exports go into the EU. Stepping away from the community and believing in self-sufficiency is cloud-cuckoo policy making – and the electorate kicked them into touch.
I heard the economist Philippe Legrain speaking at the launch of his new book ‘Aftershock’ on Monday reminding the audience that there are more British people living overseas than foreign-born people living in Britain. I wonder what would happen to their resident visas if the fringe parties had been able to boot out the foreigners?
And yet why am I asking these questions on a blog primarily focused on India? Well, one of the big adjustments we need to make in the UK is to stop considering fast-developing nations such as India, China, and Brazil as threats. Our media is consumed with the fear of jobs vanishing to India and China, yet the British jobs of the future are selling to India and China. That needs investment in deep relationships now to ensure we are locked together for mutual future success.
My one fear is that some in India have not even appreciated their own good fortune. I was at the Nasscom (India’s hi-tech trade association) annual conference in Mumbai last February and I overheard delegates from the Brazilian government inviting senior Nasscom officials to Brazil – asking the Indians to come and see what’s going on in South America so they can work closer together in future.
What was the Indian response? It’s a long way to go. Things are growing again here now so we don’t need to really be exploring these ideas halfway across the world…
Hi-tech services, clean technology, and innovation are all areas where India has a remarkable head start on the rest of the world through the evolution of offshore outsourcing in the technology sector, but will it be Indian hubris that causes this opportunity to be lost?
Mark Kobayashi-Hillary is the author of ‘Global Services: Moving to a Level Playing Field’ and ‘Who Moved My Job’ and is a regular blogger focused on globalisation. He is a visiting lecturer at London South Bank University.
www.markhillary.com
I was in Birmingham yesterday, by coincidence the Leaders debate was taking place at Birmingham University, being hosted by my Alma Mater, Aston University, where I was delivering the keynote address on entrepreneurship at an event organised by the excellent Aston India Foundation & Deloitte.
In conversation with a few guests who’d been invited to the Aston event, one person expressed an opinion which over the past few weeks has been aired but not really hit home with me, as I was too naïve and (perhaps) young to remember the last Tory government.
The gentleman, who’s a small business owner explained that he’d either be voting for Clegg or Brown, when I asked him why he wouldn’t consider Cameron, he said that it didn’t seem to him that they’d do anything to support SMEs – an argument I’ve heard several times, but the killer blow to me was that he went on and explained that he lost his house under the last Tory government. He relived the experience and took the time to, very painfully, explain what happened.
Similarly, I was talking to a hospital doctor, who spoke about how Labour’s done an amazing job in rebuilding hospitals and under the last Tory government, the situation was very bleak – as if they just didn’t care about the NHS. I’ve been expecting nurses and support staff to tell me these kind of stories, but not a doctor.
I’m a Governor of my local school, and in line with this duty, a parent approached me to echo exactly the same theme. He went further to point out that at least there some sense of normality out there – where we live – restaurants seem busy on Saturday nights, shops seem to be trading etc – during the last recession, he remembered reading the headlines in newspapers of people committing suicide because they couldn’t afford to pay their mortgages.
It strikes me, that after all this, can the Tories change the perceptions of being the so called, “nasty party” that people have been relaying stories about to me?
It may be cool and hip to jump on the bandwagon, but can a political ideology and set of values really change that much in such a short span of time?
Election diary of an immigrant
As much as I want to believe that those who display the St. George’s flag are proud, fair-minded, and patriotic people, the truth couldn’t be further. Let me explain…
Last week on St George’s Day, I went canvassing for a friend of mine who’s contesting a parliamentary seat in North West London. As those who’ve knocked on doors before will recognise, you’re provided with a sheet of names and door numbers of those who may vote for your party, so that you can (once again) confirm their voting intention for polling day. Should they confirm that they’re interested in voting for your candidate (e.g. my friend), you do everything possible to ensure they leave the comfort of their home to cast their vote on May 6th.
Knowing this, you come up with all kinds of ways to ask them the most important question – “Will you vote for x, y, or z?” and unsurprisingly each person reacts in their own way, but as far as my experience shows, no one’s nasty – some are rude – but never nasty.
So, for this reason I’m prompted to write this post. It just so happened that every house that displayed the St George’s flag happened to show their total dis-regard, ignorance, and lack of respect – which bordered on being nasty and racist. One lady, even brought her dog (a bulldog!) to the door to tell me she wouldn’t be voting for my friend. She let rip on every single problem that “the immigrants” are responsible for. Right from litter on her street, missing light bulbs on street lamps, all the way through to the recession – it seemed that we were to blame.
Normally, I’m not flustered so easily, but I couldn’t get over the fact that I’d heard the same kind of stuff at all the houses that I knocked on which had the St. George’s flag displayed in their window or on their car. I’d love to believe this was a coincidence, but other houses, in this otherwise aspirational suburb, didn’t express such views when I engaged them!
As the son of an immigrant, I consider this my home (not India or Kenya, where I was born) and I believe that our diversity is also our biggest strength. We live in a country that is facing challenges that it’s never had to deal with. Take the challenge of emerging economies like China or India and their impact on us in the next 50 years, or of as an island nation tackling the threats posed by global warming – I believe we need to embrace new ideas, new ways of developing solutions to face these issues, and for this reason, to believe that immigrants who bring varied experiences that contribute to our society are fundamental to our future success.
I know that the vast majority of people will think that I’m making a mountain out of a molehill out of one bad day at the doorstep, but it’s important for all of us (red, blue, and yellow) to reclaim the St George’s flag from these nutters (not just for the upcoming World Cup), who’ve hijacked an identity that is so respected all over the world.
Back to door knocking tomorrow…
I thought this was a great article, so have copied & pasted it here for your convenience. It was written by Vivek Wadhwa on Mar 27, 2010 in Techcrunch (http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/27/why-america-needs-to-start-investing-in-its-workforce-again-2/)
Starts here:
Ask any old-time IBMer, and you will hear stories of IBM’s legendary workforce-development practices. When a manager identified a manufacturing worker with promise, the company would teach him how to dress, how to speak to clients, and how to service products. These technicians would then be trained to be computer programmers, sales reps, or product managers. IBM president Thomas Watson, Sr., considered education so important that, in 1932, he started a mini-university for employees, the Endicott schoolhouse (http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/vintage/vintage_4506VV2034.html).
That was until the ’70s. IBM still provides good training, but try getting a job there today: unless you have just the right skills, you won’t even score an interview. New recruits don’t receive the year or so of training that was common; they get a few days of orientation, after which they’re expected to be productive. It’s the same at Microsoft, Google, Apple, and almost every tech company. Unless you have the alphabet soup of technologies on your resume, you’ll get nothing more than an auto-response to your job application. If you do get hired, it’s up to you to stay current or get booted out with the first dip in sales. American corporations consider their workforce to be disposable — like ball-point pens and cigarette lighters. Gone are the days when a company would train a factory worker to become a computer programmer or offer lifelong employment. It’s all about quarterly revenue and profits now.
Large corporations do offer some employee training programs, but managers often discourage their workers from participating in them. Why invest in workers when there is no clear payback? After all, training requires time off, and costs the department money. And bosses fear that once their subordinates gain new skills, they will be more likely to jump ship — to a better-paying competitor. That’s the common belief.
But as lessons from the unlikeliest of places show, these assumptions are wrong. Workforce education increases productivity, decreases turnover, and leads to greater corporate growth. I was myself surprised to see this correlation when I researched the secrets of the success of Indian industry.
Industry pundits often tout India’s engineering-graduation rates as India’s advantage. As far back as 2002, “experts” claimed that India graduates 350,000 engineers every year. The reality is that India has a weak education system and produces far fewer engineers than is commonly believed. In 2002, it graduated 102,000 engineers. By 2006, this number had increased to 222,000 (and will be double that again, by 2011). India does have some excellent engineering schools, but at best, only half of the output of India’s engineering colleges are employable upon graduation. Yet in 2007, India’s five largest IT services companies added 120,000 engineering jobs. IBM and Accenture added 14,000 engineers each in India in the same year. That’s only seven of the hundreds of companies that hired engineers that year. Where did these engineers come from, and how is it that India’s R&D industry is booming?
My team made several trips to India during 2007 and 2008 and met the executives of dozens of leading companies to solve this puzzle. We also interviewed workers in R&D labs and reviewed the types of work they were doing. We were astonished at what we learned. I’ll explain.
During the 1960s and 1970s, the Japanese achieved major advances in manufacturing management, which led to their rise as an economic power. The Japanese economic miracle and the country’s new manufacturing skills and methods surprised western firms; but the Japanese had done this by studying, adopting, and eventually perfecting the best practices of the West itself.
My research team (at Harvard and Duke) found that India is achieving similar feats in workforce development by learning from the best practices of the western companies that have outsourced their computer systems and call centers there. It has adopted these practices and perfected them. Faced with severe talent shortages; escalating salaries; and a lagging education system, Indian industry had to adapt and has built innovative and comprehensive approaches to workforce training and management. Their initial focus was on training new recruits and filling entry-level skill gaps. Now, they are investing in constantly improving the skills and management abilities of their workers and in providing incentives for them to stay and to grow with the company.
We published a report titled “How the Disciple Became the Guru”, which details the workforce-development practices of 24 leading companies in India (note: there are many bodyshops in India that don’t invest in their people, we looked at the biggest companies). I suggest you download (http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1170049) and read this, but I’ll present some highlights here of what the best Indian companies are doing right.
Recruitment: When you’re looking for a job, what’s the first thing you do? Create a good résumé. What does a good résumé tell about a person? Simply the ability to write a good résumé. The résumé doesn’t reflect skill, potential, or aptitude. Indian companies figured this out long ago. So they started putting applicants through batteries of psychometric tests and rigorous interviews. They hire for general ability and aptitude, rather than specialized domain and technical skills. Indian companies also learned to cast a wider net when looking for people with potential. Instead of hiring only from elite engineering colleges, technology companies such as Infosys, HCL, and TCS recruit from second- and third-tier colleges all across the country, and also in arts and science schools. India’s largest call-center operator, Genpact, has set up branded storefronts in 19 cities, where applicants can learn about the company and apply for a job; no resume required.
New-employee training: Companies in India assume that new recruits will have to be trained practically from scratch. So most large companies have built dedicated learning centers, and some employ hundreds of training staff. The Infosys Global Education Centre at Mysore can train 13,500 people at a time. New recruits attend a 16-week boot camp that strengthens their technical, communications, and management skills. For its arts and science recruits, TCS provides an additional three months of training. That’s right: fresh recruits get four to seven months of training before starting work.
Continuing training: Employees are typically required to participate in a wide range of education programs, including not only technical and domain training but also a wide range of soft skills and management skills encompassing training in quality processes; communication; and cultural, foreign-language and personal-effectiveness skills. It is common for companies to mandate one to four weeks of yearly training for employees. That is more than the vacation time that many Americans get. And these workers get rewarded for improving their skills: career advancement and salary increases are usually tied to the completion of training.
Companies don’t just offer online courses. They have programs of mentorship by senior executives; peer learning and knowledge sharing; and job-rotation programs. Take the example of Cadence India. Its CEO, Jaswinder Ahuja, instituted a “leaders as teachers” program under which every manager is required to spend one to two weeks teaching internal classes. Not even the CEO is exempted from this rule. Training is considered so important that the most senior executives do their part. Trainers are often the most skilled and successful employees rather than those who couldn’t cut it in customer engagements.
Managerial development: Managers are typically groomed through fast-track programs that provide management training and mentorship to highly performing employees. Preference is usually given to internal staff to fill management openings. (Yes, many companies have a policy that insiders get first dibs at management jobs). The formal training curricula include project-management, team-building, people-management, communication, coaching, and other managerial skills. On-the-job learning is provided through a variety of structured developmental experiences: job rotations, early managerial responsibilities, cross-functional projects and experiences, and intrapreneurship initiatives.
There was a time when Indian companies were so desperate to hire western-trained and -educated managers that these people would command premium salaries. Today, companies find that they can hire better talent locally. Gone are the big salaries. Returnees to India with too much management experience from abroad can have a hard time even finding a job in India.
Performance management and appraisal: Companies use ERP-like systems to manage the human-development process. Employees usually get reviewed at the end of every project. They are prescribed training if found to have weakness. (Yes, the performance review is used to guide development, rather than to protect the company from lawsuits in case they need to fire you).
Mechanisms such as 360-degree reviews (wherein you review your bosses and peers) and balanced-scorecard reviews are widely used. Managers are evaluated on a variety of non-financial measures, including employee satisfaction, attrition rates, and mentoring.
Where is the proof that these policies work?
The myth is that Indian IT companies have high turnover that is and getting worse. At a time when the Indian IT industry’s growth rates averaged a dizzying 40%, attrition rates at top Indian companies fell, or stayed in the low-teen percentages. Compare this with Silicon Valley, where a typical recruit works for a new employer for three to five years at best — which translates to a 20–33% attrition rate. (Indian IT company rates dropped even further in 2009).
Most interestingly: Indian companies learned that with better education, employees became more productive so they could afford to pay higher salaries without hurting corporate profit margins.
Additionally, the Indian R&D industry has been moving into the higher realms of innovation (http://techcrunch.com/2009/11/14/india-rd-hub-silicon-valley/). In the aerospace industry, Indian companies are designing the interiors of luxury jets, in-flight entertainment systems, collision-control / navigation-control systems, fuel-inverting controls, and other key components of jetliners for American and European corporations. In pharmaceuticals (http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1143472), Indian scientists are discovering drugs and performing clinical research for nearly all of the largest multinational drug companies. In the automotive industry, Indian engineers are helping to design bodies, dashboards, and power trains for Detroit vehicle manufacturers — and creating their own innovations, such at the Tata Nano car. In telecommunications and computer networking, Indians are developing next-generation infrastructure for tomorrow’s intelligent cities. There are over a hundred thousand people in India doing this type of advanced R&D.
The Indian experience highlights what can be achieved by investing in upgrading the skills of the workforce. If workforce training can take the output of an education system as weak as India’s and turn its graduates into world-class engineers and scientists, imagine what could be done with a worker base that has received amongst the best education in the world, as is the case in the United States.
U.S. companies have long played the guru, developing and disseminating many widely adopted management and workforce practices. The time has come for the guru to learn from one of its disciples: India.
Threats from western economies like the US and the UK to enact legislation that protect their jobs are falling on deaf ears. The moment has passed and we’re too far down the road, so to do a u-turn would require a mammoth effort and defy logic – simply put, they’re hooked.
At least that’s the sentiment expressed by some of the IT titans that I interviewed for my newly published book that looks at the global achievements of India’s top 10 entrepreneurs. Of the top 10, N. R. Narayana Murthy, Chairman of Infosys Technologies; S. Ramadorai, Vice Chairman of TCS; and Shiv Nadar, Chairman of HCL Technologies speak frankly about where they’ve come from and what the future holds for their respective firms.
What I found spectacular was the manner in which each of them came to the fore. Shiv Nadar’s journey began in 1976 on a rooftop terrace, where he and his colleagues started HCL selling calculators – all at a time when India had a total of 250 computers! HCL began in the hardware space and later realised the need to move into software – ironic as India’s fame is based on the talent of its software engineers. His first breakthrough came courtesy of IBM, who were kicked out of India, leaving a void that Nadar’s HCL neatly capitalised on.
I describe Nadar as an opportunist, as he’s mastered the art of spotting trends to capitalise. In my view, his acquisition of a call centre in Belfast when the trade unions were kicking off demanding ‘British jobs for British people’ not only left critics dumbfounded but showed the vision which he had. Today, near-shoring is as popular as off-shoring, thanks to a trend popularised by Nadar.
Ramadorai’s strength lies in the simple fact that he knows how to scale up an organisation. Yes, he may be one of Ratan Tata’s trusted lieutenants, but his is a story about how Indian companies promote entrepreneurial thinking. Just cast your minds back to 1995, when TCS employed only 5000 people to today, where headcount stands at 120,000. Likewise with the sea change that Ram brought in, he also brought in a massive increase of revenues, which today sees them go toe to toe against the biggest and best in the industry and walk away with lucrative contracts, such as in the public sector which has long been dominated by a cosy club of vendors. Ramadorai disrupted the order of things, which he deserves credit for.
No book on Indian entrepreneurship would be complete without mention of Narayana Murthy of Infosys, who borrowed $250 from his wife to finance his equity in Infosys, Bangalore’s biggest and most known brand. Murthy explained that during their early days, they realised that it was tough to beat the blue-chip vendors of the West, on their terms in their territories, so he brought the competition to India, where he could compete in hiring the best talent by beating the Western majors in building the best work environments known to the industry at a cost that he could afford.
That he’s known as being the most ethical isn’t necessarily relevant for this article, but his behaviour at a time when the sector came under massive pressure following the Satyam scandal is worthy to note and is a pointer that Indian business leaders care about how they’re perceived globally.
The future of IT may rest on the shoulders of such giants, and for this reason it’s vital to not only know who they are but also know where they come from so we can get a better insight to where they’re headed.
Whilst in client meetings they may position themselves as being global companies, but there is no getting away from their Indian identity, something that should be embraced as opposed to hidden away. Rather than apeing Western business models, I’m certain they’re able to show an alternative way of delivering high-end solutions to a global client pool and by watching Murthy, Nadar, and Ramadorai, we may find the answers to some fundamental questions about the IT industry.
My naked p(P)olitical ambitions
For the past ten years or so – since I’ve been on the fringe of British politics, there hasn’t been one week where I haven’t been asked about my political ambitions. At times, I’ve been asked this question on a daily basis – usually coinciding with local and national elections.
The starting point behind every response in the last decade has been to thank the person who’s raised the question. It’s always flattering to hear that someone somewhere believes that you may be good at something. But, at a very early stage I point out that public service is in my community’s DNA, and that Westminster politics is merely one channel to serve.
I speak about my association with local causes, charities, temples etc who day in day out provide phenomenal service to the community – all of whom are working for the wider good of our society. I’ve been part of the founding team of an initiative called ‘National Sewa Day’ which seeks to mobilise thousands of people to do good deeds on 21st November. We hope to have nearly 5,000 people sign-up in the first year, which will grow in leaps and bounds in future years.
Despite my best effort at concluding this discussion, I often get told “there’s so many ethnic minority people in x,y,z constituency, who’d welcome you as a candidate” – in fact, I received an email yesterday from someone who I don’t know asking me to consider standing for the Crawley seat which Laura Moffatt is retiring from, along these lines.
Let me be crystal clear about my position on this. I think it’s a retrograde step to think on these lines and puts back all the progress made, by a couple of decades. We have plenty of examples of fantastic MPs who represent their diverse communities effectively – the likes of Steve Pound, Barry Gardiner, Gareth Thomas, Dawn Butler all come to mind – especially as I live in their neck of the woods. They’ve grasped the issues that my community faces and made effective representations on our behalf. All of them are decent people, who probably understand more about my cultural heritage than I do, and use it to speak on my behalf in the House of Commons.
Let’s also not forget that we also had Ashok Kumar, who represented a largely white constituency in Teeside, Parmjit Dhanda who serves the people of Gloucester, and Shailesh Vara who represents a rural farming seat in Cambridgeshire.
Surely this speaks volumes about our confidence and demonstrates the progress we’ve made.
On the issue of making Parliament more representative, how can any sane person argue against such an ideal in today’s age. I, too, believe that we need more Hindu / Indian / Asian MPs, but I’d want them selected for seats not just because of the “colour of their skin, but because the content of their character”. Let’s put our effort in achieving a more representative parliament by funding and cultivating candidates who are best placed to serve the people of our country, the United Kingdom.
I’m also asked to participate in various discussions regarding representation of ethnic minorities in the boardrooms of our largest private sector companies, which again is an ideal to aim towards, but a friend of mine – who’s a very senior banker in a large investment bank – rounded off his comments on this issue by saying “I actually don’t know whether there is a glass ceiling, as I’ve not been looking up, but rather, have been looking forward.. in achieving my goals.” In the same vein, rather than whinge about the so called glass ceiling in politics, we owe it to future generations to promote participation in the structures that exist – at every level.
As for me, I do believe that Parliament matters greatly. It offers the greatest opportunity to affect change. At this point of my life, I can neither afford – financially – to pursue a political life, nor have the traits required to excel in this sphere. This may change over time, but for now, there may be others who are much better suited.
In the upcoming election, I’m going to actively work to increase civic participation, encourage politicians to fully represent and listen to all their constituents and more importantly to get the communities to vote – because this is the biggest and singularly the most important issue that needs to be addressed in politics today. At such a crucial and close election, the electorate have to exercise their right to vote, a right that many people fought for.
I read on Iain Dale’s blog that in the next Parliament, nearly 50% of Labour MPs will be first-timers and that given the public mood, the Conservatives will also have a huge intake of their own – which presents a huge opportunity to civic groups to inform new MPs, who’ll hopefully be less prejudiced than the current lot to new perspectives on debates and legislation.
A role that I believe to be as important as anything else in modern politics.
For the time-being, thanks for your support and I’ll willingly take your goodwill and money to help fund National Sewa Day.
Ashok Kumar MP Mattered…
Ashok Kumar mattered. I first came across him in 2001, when I was appointed to look after a parliamentary group seeking to build bridges between the UK & India. That first meeting left a deep impression on me. In an age where we’re generally fed up with all politicians, its important to remember that people like Ashok spoke and fought for the common man. That’s why he mattered.
Ashok never made it to Ministerial ranks, but unlike many of his peers he never made that into an issue. He simply got on with representing his constituents to the best of his abilities.
The things that I particularly liked about Ashok all stemmed from his inability to plot effectively – which you wouldn’t necessarily think was a good thing in politics – but it was exactly this feature that endeared him to many. You knew that he spoke it how it was, he wore his heart on his sleeve, and had your best interest in mind.
As a person of Indian origin, Ashok mattered even more. He recounted the tales of how after losing his seat in 1992, his popularity within the local party had plummeted to the extent that when he wanted to pick the pieces back up, all he requested was one additional helper to accompany him on his rounds on the streets of Middlesborough. When I asked why just one person, his response left a mark on me. He said “I need a witness if someone physically attacks me on the doorstep”! As a ethnic minority, to win a seat like his – with little diversity – makes his achievement even more worthy of recognition.
His fearlessness inspired us.
He recounted stories of legendary people like V. K. Krishna Menon, who joined the Labour Party in the 1930s – in the context of the sacrifices and contributions made by people of Indian origin in British politics.
I hadn’t kept in regular contact with Ashok, but knew that if I ever needed any advice, he’d give me as much time as required.
In a world bereft of good role models, Ashok stood out, especially amongst his Asian peers in the Commons, as a caring man, who genuinely wanted you to do well.
This is why Ashok Kumar mattered.
The iPhone is for posers!
There’s no denying that Apple are good at what they do. They’re creative; understand the market need; and leverage their brand effectively – all of which has resulted in many of my friends ditching their regular handsets for an iPhone.
Well, given the praise by some, I decided to take a look at the iPhone as a replacement to my Blackberry. I thought that the worst case would be that I’d use it for a year and then jump back at the time of contract renewal.
At first, I was really impressed with the phone. I enjoyed the apps, and, in general, the novelty of the touch screen was great, but I simply couldn’t stand the fact that the battery life of the device was so poor. To counter this, my peers suggested that I needed to buy an additional battery sleeve type of thing, and encouraged me to keep the phone connected to my PC at work so that it remains charged – all of which, at least in my view, are totally unacceptable given the progress of technology.
Then, I went to Asia on my book tour and was constantly out & about. I had been pre-warned about data roaming charges, so made sure I’d turned these features off. But, when I turned data roaming on, the device took forever to get my emails and am sure have resulted in a very large phone bill at the end of this month.
My primary use for the device is as a phone and sadly, the iPhone is simply not up to it. What’s the point of taking a charger with you to meetings? I also found myself calling people accidentally as the touch screen was so sensitive – which is a disaster in my line of work! Who knows how many calls were made that I’m not aware of!!!
In the end, I’ve lost faith in the device and am relieved that I have the option to go back to a Blackberry, which by comparison is a mega reliable workhorse.
The BB isn’t as attractive, but it works exceedingly well – especially in the work context – leaving me to summise that the iPhone is for posers!
I write this post on the flight back to London after a mammoth visit to India and Singapore to promote my book. Gliding at 30,000 feet, I thought that I should write this before I forget the details I wanted to convey.
THE DELHI DURBAR
The visit started in Delhi, which I’ve enjoyed visiting for many years. I find the people I meet somewhat more relaxed than those in Mumbai, perhaps even more sophisticated in their dealings – all very unsurprising as Delhi is home to the thousands of civil servants, government officials, and parliamentary types – behaviour that is to be expected from an outwardly looking city.
But, this time, there was a marked difference. On the faces of the people I met, there seemed a massive anxiety, which when explored further centred on the Commonwealth Games, which are to be held later this year in the city.
The roads are gridlocked, hotels are overflowing and packed to the rafters, stadia aren’t finished – and on top no one seems to be articulating what the legacy from these games will be. One of my friends swept my observations away by quipping: “don’t worry, we’re a nation of 1.3billion, if required we’ll hand everyone a paintbrush to finish the job in the week preceding the games”.
The event at the Reliance TimeOut bookstore in Gurgaon was great. It afforded me the opportunity to practice my script and prepare for the big event hosted by the British Council the next day.
At the event in the British Council, we had a great line-up of speakers for the panel discussion. I was invited to deliver the keynote address and thereafter moderated the panel discussion, which included some heavyweights like Siddhartha Vardarajan (Strategic Affairs Editor of the Hindu), Saurabh Srivastava (Chairman, Computer Associates, India) and Rajesh Shah (Chairman of Mukand Steel and former President of the CII).
The discussion touched on themes like China, entrepreneurship, the future of family owned businesses, which the panel seemed to relish tackling. Quite a few people commented on the quality of discussion, which I too thought was incredibly good, if not fantastically moderated 
AAMCHI MUMBAI
This was my first visit to Mumbai after the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, and it was brought home to me as a result of both book events – 24th & 25th being hosted at the Taj Mahal hotel – the centrepoint for the attacks.
One of these was on the Terrace of a venue called Chambers, which was written about quite a bit in the aftermath of the attacks, as it was one of the places in the hotel that a lot of lives were lost. Without commenting on the emotions that were running through me, suffice to say that at the end of the evening I had a tear in my eye and a lump in my throat.
The following evening was easier to cope with. The CII hosted a great event which saw that a number of embassies and consulates were represented. More than anything, I invited some friends who had moved to India from the UK, with who it was great to catch up and re-live the good times.
Mumbai’s quite a place. On one hand you have the Dharavi slum – Asia’s largest slum – and on the other you have the best that money can buy. Despite knowing this and having experienced both extremes during my many visits before, I was struck by the same during this stay. Mumbai is in fact not one but many, many cities with several faces to show – all of which became more evident as the evenings progressed (I’ll leave it at that for now .
Lecturing to some of India’s brightest MBA students (at NMIMS) was as expected – great. To qualify for admission into one of these premier institutions takes a lot, so it was no surprise to see a class packed with phenomenal intellect and intelligence. Their questions, and also the discussion that ensued was eye-opening for me as their command on the subject was terrific.
VIBRANT GUJARAT
The Gujarat Electronics & Software Industry Association (GESIA) invited me to deliver a keynote address in Amdavad to an audience packed with some seriously influential people. The event ran on the lines of the British Council event in Delhi, with the only difference being that the book was released by three Secretary level bureaucrats – all of whom run massive state government departments in Gujarat.
Interestingly, the book launch took place on the 600th anniversary of the foundation of Amdavad City, which resulted in a massive celebratory event on the waterfront, which is being redeveloped in a major way.
One of the criticisms of the book is that neither Kamath nor Ramadorai are entrepreneurs. They were corporate professionals who lead their respective firms to global success. So, one of the questions that was posed to Ravi Saxena, Secretary for IT was whether this was a valid criticism. In his response, he rightly knocked the stuffing out of the question by demonstrating through examples of how some of India’s most successful enterprises are in the public sector run by public servants!
SINGAPORE SLING
The thought of opening an office in China fills me with fear, however it seems Singapore may be a great destination to get started, as it’s on the China trade corridor just as the UK is on the India trade corridor.
I was invited to speak to Aventis Business School, which is part of the New York State University, and the SP Jain School of Management, which is a leading MBA school in that part of the world. Naturally, I had to amend my messages for this visit, but I kept on being probed about the China Vs India theme that emerges in my book.
I have a few friends and relatives who’ve moved to Singapore for work, and used the opportunity to catch up with them. More than anything, what came through was despite the great lifestyle that can be afforded in Singapore, there’s no substitute for a city like London or New York.
MEDIA
One of the objectives was to drum up as much publicity as possible for the book, and I conducted interviews with the following:
Zee Business
Zee News
UNI TV
UNI Bloomberg
Press Trust of India
DNA
Sandesh
The Economic & Trade News
Hindustan Times
HT Cafe
IBN Live
Strait Times
Tabla
Asian Age
All of which, I’m sure, will begin appearing from next week. So keep upto date on www.indiaincthebook.com for the articles as they appear.
