-- Stories from India --

Going Black

2008-05-14T22:18:00.001-07:00

You might be wondering why my blog is/has-gone black. There's a reason behind this. No, black-is-sexy is not it. Read on.

A few months ago, Mark Ontkush wrote a post titled 'Black Google Would Save 750 Megawatt-hours a Year' on his blog EcoIron .

The post gives the following argument: “An all white web page uses about 74 watts to display, while an all black page uses only 59 watts.” Google, which has a white background and gets about “200 million queries a day” could reduce global energy usage by 750 Megawatt-hours a year by simply changing the color of its homepage to black.

In response to this post a black version of Google called Blackle.com emerged.

According to Blackle.com (at the time this post was written), 614,653.551 Watt hours have been saved. The site encourages users to make a difference today by 'blackling'.

Nice idea I thought. And hence my blog turned black. India isn't able to fully meet its energy requirements and I'm doing my bit here. Ofcourse, my blog doesn't get 200 million hits a day - I confess that I'm not sure if it'll remain black forever. Perhaps I'll just wait for my next color-mood-swing :).

The MBA hunt - Part 1

2008-05-14T04:52:00.000-07:00

As mentioned in my previous post, about 4 lac Indians try to get into B Schools every year. I, untill recently, fell in the same category. And I led a life of the-typical-MBA-aspirant for about a year. Here's a quick flashback.

The beginning:

As is the case with thousands of engineering students I too was persuing engineering not for the love of it but for the tag. Engineering (and that too Computer Science and Engineering in my case) is considered cool - I was just being cool. Despite being a merit scholarship holder for all semesters my main interest lay in the Student Activity Council, the apex student body of the institute - I loved living the manager's life through it. The outcome was evident - I decided to jump into the MBA band-wagon and to start preparing for the MBA entrance examinations. Since I evaluated myself as a cut-for-MBA material ( conceit?! :) ) I made a list of about 15 institutes which were my targets. I was just not interested in anything of lesser value.
I started with grabbing a big load of old Career Forum MBA study material. The stuff looked comprehensive and I thought that I'll cream it within a stipulated period of say 2 months. Ofcourse, needless to say, the plan crashed and failed. When there's so much fun to have around you, why would you bother to waste time on these two dozen booklets! And thus I could not qualify to be an early starter. This was January 2007.

The beginning again:
May 2007-
My strong extra-curricular background landed me with a super cool internship opportunity in an international students camp at (hold your breath) Kazakhstan. No, that's not some market in Kashmir. It is a former Soviet Union country with a per capita income more than that of India. So now I had to choose between one of the following two options:

1) Go to Kazakhstan and enjoy life and also earn $1000 and later brag about my experience to all my mates.

2) Go to Lucknow and live a hot summer and struggle with B-School entrance preparations.
After some speculation and repetitive coin tossing I decided to not take up the super cool former option; instead took up the hot latter option.

A lot of people spend a lot of time in camparing a lot of MBA prep institutes - I didn't do that. I, under the influence of mob-behavior, just went and joined TIME. Till date I'm not sure how good a decision was that :).
Classes started - I took an overload of them. Did that for one month or so. Then just left it.

Mock Tests started - Started with decent 90+ scores.

Sooner than I thought, it was time to get back to college - to Hyderabad. I continued to stay out of touch with prep classes there too - had lost the money, why lose precious time now? ;).

As you can see, the momentum was not too great. This was August 2007.

Top 20 B-Schools of India in 2008 - My Ranking

2008-05-06T00:28:00.000-07:00

Every year about 4 lac candidates compete to get into B-Schools in India. Out of these, about 3 thousand make it to the top 20(crème de la crème) schools. In this article, I rank the best of the best B-Schools of the country.
The Objective:
A dozen different magazines publish B-school rankings. However, it is any ones guess how genuine these rankings are. Since none of the B-schools agreed to pay me money to put them on my ranking, I couldn't help but come up with an authentic and unbiased ranking.

I have interacted with many MBA aspirants this year and have taken their inputs on the perceived value of the top B-schools of India. This ranking is a reflection of what the actual MBA aspirant believes. Only Indian B-Schools with 2-year MBA/PGDBA programs have been included. As my comprehensive research is still going on I might update the ranking from time to time.

The Criteria:

1) Present and long-term brand name perception

2) Placements

3) Return on investment

4) Quality of students and toughness of entry-level competition.

5) Infrastructure and intellectual capital.

The Ranking:

1. IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Bangalore

3. IIM Calcutta

4. IIM Lucknow

5. IIM Indore and IIM Kozikhode

7. XLRI Jamshedpur

8. FMS Delhi

9. SJMSOM - IIT Bombay and DMS - IIT Delhi

11. NITIE Mumbai

12. MDI Gurgaon

13. SP JAIN Mumbai

14. VGSOM - IIT Kharagpur

15. IIFT Delhi

16. JBIMS Mumbai

17. NMIMS Mumbai

18. XIM Bhuvaneshwar

19. IMT Ghaziabad

20. SIBM Pune

Yours truly, till recently, was an MBA aspirant. Now, he is packing his bags to join one of the above mentioned schools for a two-year MBA experience. The journey to one of the top-20 B-schools has been memorable. Ofcourse, the best part - the actual MBA program - is yet to come :).

Comments and reviews from readers, as always, are welcome.

Sex Ratio: India's score

2007-09-09T03:16:00.000-07:00

Pick up any lifestyle magazine and it will give you tips on how to make your sex-life steamier. Pick up any Sunday tabloid and the chances are very high that in there you'll find a sensational article on the sexual-preferences of the urban male/female. Yours truly's blog here doesn't offer any of that. Instead, its aim is to bring a not so prominent piece of reality to your notice.

Hypocrisy:
Phrases like 'India, a world leader', 'India shining', 'India liberated' etc don't seem that bright once you look at one particular aspect of India's demographic details: The Sex Ratio. India's Sex ratio, which is the ratio of females to males in the population, is far too skewed from normal(which is equal to unity; alternatively written as 1000).

While we boast that we have a female President in Pratibha Patil and a female leader of the ruling coalition in the Parliament in Sonia Gandhi -- while we celebrate the staggering achievements of Kalpana Chawla, Sunita Williams, Indra Nooyi, Kiran M. Shaw and Sania Mirza -- we all fail to undo the hypocrisy of sex selection in India.

Some figures:
Lets get some statistics into the picture. According to the CIA World Factbook, India ranks 197 in the 'List of sex ratios by country/region' which lists 216 countries of the world in descending order of their Female:Male sex ratio. Northern Mariana Islands, with the Sex ratio of 1298, tops the list. Try guessing what is India's corresponding statistical figure. The 2001 census found it to be a measly 933 ie India has only 933 females for every 1000 males.

The following table gives the sex ratios found through national census in the last 10 decades:

Year ---------------Sex Ratio
1901 ---------------- 972
1911 ---------------- 964
1921 ---------------- 955
1931 ---------------- 950
1941 ---------------- 945
1951 ---------------- 946
1961 ---------------- 941
1971 ---------------- 930
1981 ---------------- 934
1991 ---------------- 927
2001 ---------------- 933

Most shocking is the trend that is seen if we peruse the data: the figure in question has steadily fallen from 972 in 1901 to 933 in 2001. Do I need to explicitly state that the hype and hoopla about gender equality is all but a farce!

Sex-selective abortion and infanticide:
Sex-selective abortion is the targeted abortion of a fetus based upon its sex. This is done after a determination is made (usually by ultrasound but also rarely by amniocentesis or another procedure) that the fetus is of an undesired sex. Sex selective infanticide is the practice of selective infanticide against infants of an undesired sex. One common method is child abandonment. Unfortunately these practices are widely prevalent in India. We should be ashamed of this. I'd rather not talk of the motivation/reason behind such unethical and ghastly acts as it just does not make any sense to me.

Societal effects:
Sex selection has larger societal effects, particularly in relation to demographics. It is estimated that by 2020 there could be more than 25 million young 'surplus males' in India. The worsening sex ratio in India is affecting gender issues related to sex compositions of Indian households. The ratio is significantly lower than the national average in certain states such as Punjab and Haryana. However, most importantly, the loss of the 'natural balance' will result in a skewed society which will be warped from within to the extent of being unable to concentrate on other important issues of national interest. The hindi movie Matrubhoomi (2005) tried to portray this. The movie takes one to a village which is a representative microcosm of a nation: a nation in which women are almost extinct as a result of rampant female infanticide. And the men have been reduced to a state of absolute desperation and barbarianism.

Ethical Concerns:
If one sex is preferred over another, individuals in the non-preferred sex would be at a disadvantage. Opponents of social sex selection argue that the procedure would artificially unequalize the ratio of females to males, leading to discrimination, potential violence and abuse of the smaller group.

There may be psychological implications for both the parents and child if the procedure does not produce a child of the desired sex. Furthermore, problems may also arise if the gender-related expectations of the parents are not subsequently fulfilled by the child. However, it may be the case that any child will fail to fulfill particular parental expectations. Perhaps more emphasis should be placed on promoting acceptance and tolerance within parents as opposed to completely banning sex selection.

Many argue that by selecting the sex of their child, parents are using the child as a means of fulfilling their own desires rather than respecting the child as a person and an end in their own right.

A Call:
It is upon us to change our ideology and thus change that of our nation. We, who are fortunate to be educated, must do whatever little we can to bring about a positive change in this respect in the society. If God made the girl child and the boy child equal who are we to differentiate between the two.

Lets take India ahead.

Mr. Karat, are you listening?

2007-09-07T05:14:00.000-07:00

In the last one month we, in India, have witnessed a lot of political action with reference to the 123 Nuclear Agreement. Thanks to the Leftists (Mr. Karat, President of the Communist Party of India, and Co.) who are chronically programmed to oppose any positive change.

Dear Mr Karat:

You have vociferously opposed what has been termed as a historic international deal by India. You have made scathing remarks on the Government's international policy and have castigated all those who support the deal. Here are a few observations. I'm sorry if I give the impression that I consider you a spoilsport.

1. Foreign policy:

Foreign policy is a dynamic enterprise, which addresses the realities of today in the context of our concerns for tomorrow. In this ever changing world, why should India remain static? The Common Minimum Programme is not in the nature of a Stand-Still Agreement with the Left. India cannot remain Still and Standing while the world moves on.

India needs to address the forging of close ties with major players in a globally changed environment. The end of the Cold War, the disintegration of the former USSR, the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the end of the Warsaw Pact, the emergence of China as a key Asian power and the formation of the European Union are some examples of expansive changes in world dynamics. India, since the opening up of the economy, has been recognised as a significant global player. India must recognise the role that it is destined to play and the leadership of India must ensure that we contribute our might in policy-making to meet the emerging global challenges.

Sir, for you to opine that the civil nuclear energy cooperation is a compromise and a step towards weakening the sovereignty and stature of India betrays lack of understanding of contemporary politics and the dynamics of change. Also, your statement that Naval exercises with countries like Japan, Australia and US are bad for India's security only makes you look like a curmudgeon.

2. Nuclear Power:

You undermine the importance of nuclear power and emphasize its limited contribution to our overall power generation: you say that it is just 3% presently and it cannot exceed 7% even if the ambitious plans for expansion are implemented by 2020.

The argument is preposterous. With exponential growth in demand and on the assumption that the economy will continue to grow at 8 to 9%, the demand for electricity in 2020 will be around 4.5 lac megawatts. By 2030, it is expected to be anything between 8 to 10 lac megawatts. 7% of a million megawatts is 70 thousand megawatts. Comparing this with the present mere 2.7 thousand megawatts it cannot be regarded as a limited contribution. And mind you, these are conservative estimates. By opening up the civil nuclear energy sector to investments and by allowing private players a significant role, we can enhance our estimated levels of generation at least two-fold.

3. Concerns over the Hyde Act:

Mr Karat, you then state that the Hyde Act and its provisions run contrary to the assurance given by the Prime Minister in August, 2006. Kindly note that the 123 Agreement, after it is accorded the approval of Congress, will be the “last expression of the sovereign will” and the Hyde Act at any point of time cannot possibly override the provisions of the 123 Agreement. In the context of the 123 Agreement, India is only bound by the terms there-of and not by any extraneous domestic legislation of the United States. Any prescriptions in the Hyde Act with reference to India’s foreign policy are neither binding on India nor will our foreign policy decisions be influenced directly or indirectly by the domestic law of any country. India is no puppet in the hands of the premiers of other nations.

Sir, Kindly listen to what Mr. Manmohan Singh and along with him intellectuals the world over are saying: The 123 Agreement, instead of impacting negatively on our sovereignty will allow us to be global players in a competitive world, your arguments to the contrary, not-withstanding.

Unfortunately, it is not out of choice but out of habit that the Left is 'crying'. May God give the Leftists some wisdom and some common sense to you Mr. Karat.

Yours truly,
Jalote

PS: You are steadily progressing on the path of a Left-Hara-kiri. I sincerely hope your bandwagon survives the next general elections.