Seed makes Jungle

There is nothing called good or bad, thinking makes it so. I think what this has done is put the responsibility on the people who analyze and comment and not on the doer. Good Taliban and Bad Taliban, Good business practice and bad business practice, Migration of Jobs to the developing economy to unemployment in the very recession stuck developed economy. There are different views on each side of the story making it good for one and bad for other. I will leave this debate for some other day. What is for sure all this mentioned above were once the seed before becoming a dense jungle of thoughts, processes, people, culture and practices.

Let’s see something from the story of now famous son of a school teacher, a part from his biography “He was the second son of a school teacher. When he was 16 years old, he moved to Aden, Yemen. Initially, he worked as a dispatch clerk with A. Besse & Co. Two years later A. Besse & Co. became the distributors for Shell products and he was promoted to manage the company’s oil-filling station at the port of Aden...”. The biography continues “Yemini administration realized that their main unit of currency, the Rial, was disappearing fast. Upon launching an investigation, they realized that a lot of Rials were being routed to the Port City of Aden. It was found that a young man in his twenties was placing unlimited buy orders for Yemini Rials. During those days, the Yemini Rial was made of pure silver coins and was in much demand at the London Bullion Exchange. Young man bought the Rials, melted them into pure silver and sold it to the bullion traders in London. During the latter part of his life, while talking to reporters, it is believed that he said “The margins were small but it was money for jam. After three months, it was stopped. But I made a few lakhs. In short, I was a manipulator. A very good manipulator. But I don’t believe in not taking opportunities.”. His most famous quotes are “You do not require an invitation to make profits” and the one that I like the most is “Think fast, Think big, Think ahead, ideas are no one’s monopoly”. So what was the seed? Probably the appetite to do big and the fuel came from the silver in Rials. Today those seeds have graduated in jungles (divided into two and both are growing) I must say. There were tons of allegation on his business practices but so it be the seed kept on getting its fuel and it grew to a tree and then to a jungle.

Some love it, some envy, some get there daily bread and some are simply proud of it. I am talking of what “Bangalore” stands for today, it again started with a small seed. Mysore Maharaja wanted electricity for Kolar gold mines(KGF), he did set up a hydroelectricity plant, the wires were crossing Bangalore and they decided to replace the oil/gas street lights with the electric one with the surplus electric production. This made Bangalore to be the first city in the country to have electricity. This proved to be an important resource for fuelling scientific, academic, research and technology around Bangalore. Finally when the India’s time came in the flat wired world it was actually Bangalore which was ready to grab this opportunity. Surely the small seed planted by the Maharaja has grown into a full-fledged jungle.

There was another seed sown way back in 1947. The formation of Pakistan was on the non proved theory of its founders that Hindus and Muslims cannot stay together in peace. They thought that the religion they represent will be in danger. Sometime I see merit in the famous communist quote “religion is the opium of masses”. If there is tasks unachievable just add religious mix and there will be a lot of buyer for that. A famous columnist and writer comments in his Sunday column “The two strands within Pakistan's DNA began to slowly split its personality. The father of the nation, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, thought he had produced a child in his own image, but his secular prescription was soon suppressed. His ideas were buried at his funeral. His heirs began to concede space to mullahs like Maulana Maudoodi who asked, in essence, that if Pakistan had been created to defend Islam, then who would be its best guardians?” So thus started the religious bias which was further fuelled by the politicians and the dictators the country had from time to time. You should not ride a tiger as the tiger do not know how to help you in dismounting; all it knows is to have a morsel. Hence nobody in Pakistan dared to dismount it and they continue. I was hearing a famous Pakistani cricketer turned politician for his reason on “sariat” (Islamic laws) implemented in one of the province (Swat), he said that it was implemented because there was no remedy to the normal people for their legal woes and this is the most efficient way to provide them this facility, it was there long term demand and the Government just conceded. I some time pity the people appearing to defend Pakistan in the Indian television from the Pakistani side. It is left best to the readers to estimate where this country is heading. The columnist concluded his column with “I had a previously arranged speaking engagement at a university in Delhi before largely Muslim students. I began with the suggestion that every Indian Muslim should offer a special, public prayer of thanks to the Almighty Allah for His extraordinary benevolence - for the mercy He had shown by preventing us from ending up in Pakistan in 1947. The suggestion was received with startled amusement, instinctive applause and a palpable sense of sheer relief.” All I have to say is see the seed and its growing as a jungle .

Today, we all in our daily life sow a seed on quite a regular basis. It can be that of a thought in oneself, one that is in your work place, one in your home or your children, one in your community, state, country, world and so on and so forth. It is good to watch out these seeds, you never know which seed can survive and get enough fertilization to become a jungle. For seeds do not know good or bad they only know to grow and multiply albeit it gets its fertilization.

GDP again

Do numbers like 5.3 – 7 – 9 make any sense? To me it surely rings GDP. GDP growth 5.3 is the actual announced for the last quarter, 7% was promised, 9% was actually where we were. Recently going thru the news and there was a mention of India’s GDP growth for the third quarter coming down to 5.3% way below 7% promised by the Government as recently as in the last budget speech couple of weeks ago. I always had my own doubt on this GDP guy any ways as expressed in my earlier blogs and hence felt the responsibility to write on this issue when it made news headlines once again.

Well I have been going thru tons of information and hearing/reading as many analysts as I can. Finally I could find some solace in one announcing “Won’t get better soon, learn to live with slowdown”. I know you must be shouting “Solace?” I would still say “Yes” because he declared the truth and wanted us to accept the fact instead to keep us seeing Government’s false claims that we are not much affected. It’s time to start planning to handle the given situation now. Please change your mode from “Growth” to “Survival” if you survive you will eventually grow for sure. Bad news is rupee has taken the upward path again, new numbers to chew upon 50 – 52 – 54 - - - 60. We have started from Rs.50 for a dollar and already reached 52, near future we must see 54, that’s what the analyst have been saying, today morning in the GYM my CFO friend announced it will eventually go to 60. As soon as he was away few of the other friends who did not want to believe to this wild suggestion commented “How can one make this kind of statement, I simply do not believe””60, but when, he should answer that too” added another. Well at the end of the day we all were in the denial mood. Rupee flexing the muscle any way left me gloomy and I had no interest in flexing my muscle any more in the GYM.

Earlier to this my CFO friend also commented “All the major economy is in negative, that way our net growth compared to all those economy is still better”. I would say we never stop these feel good self solacing business. Worst part is agriculture is substantially down, Industry contributes mere 0.5% to the GDP. The sector which contributes the maximum is services and I have my own doubts on this sector as there will a lot of false elements contributing here.

Any ways guys still more bad news for people in IT and ITES as well as in job. Obama Government announced that the companies which have taken support package from the Government will not be allowed to outsource. That means millions of Indians will hit the shore from US soon and we will lose on the outsource business too. There are say about 6 million Indians abroad who remit some $30 billion a year. Labour migration has been the force behind globalisation which has gone is reverse gear for now. Recently I was chatting with a friend who is heading a US companies operation in India, on this he commented “Tell me, how they are going to implement that? How are they going to segregate? Example AIG has taken the financial package and they have a partnership in India, Do you mean to say the Indian arm will have Americans now?” I actually had no answer but for the sake of answering I said “You know, in US they plan everything to the minute details, I am sure the Obama administration would have done that”, he had no option but to accept that.

The positive side is Government announced few stimuli packages. I think the substantial one was on FDI which has surprisingly made quite less a headline. It is just like opening up the flood gates, I understand there is not much funds overseas but as soon as there is a flow it is bound to flow handsomely this direction. If things goes well we might see some Investments, may be from gulf region. Yesterday RBI announced the CRR cut of 0.5%, a third one in a row. If the banks finally decide to pass it off to their customers it should be good, they did not adhere to in last two anyways.

I conclude from the statement made by one of my friends in the armed forces. In the armed forces the proverb goes, "if rape is inevitable lie down and enjoy it". Civil society, it is perhaps, "God, give me the strength to change what can be changed and endure what cannot be changed, and to know the difference between the two" and” something is better than nothing" etc.

Philosophy has the last word.