The Debt Trap… are you safe?

The New York Times has brought this interesting series about the surge in consumer debt and the lenders who made it possible. Some of the views and comments from readers are also engaging.

KPO… Knowledge Process Outsourcing

It’s all about convenience, from whose perspective should you view this issue, and who finally gains or (loses) from KPO.

If you’re a bank or a corporation in the US, in present times it suits you to go set up an office (or several of them) in India or any other “cheap outsourcing location”… as long as it is cheaper than what you’d pay in the US for the same service or “knowledge”. Simply because your overheads will get trimmed dramatically, and that reflects in your bottom-line.

If you’re an employee of either a US bank or a US corporation, and based in the US - although locally raised, educated, even belong to American society - culturally speaking, you may still be laid off by your employer in present times. Your job may be handed over to someone in India. You’ll find it hard to palate this harsh truth - but the fact of the matter is that you are dispensable; your employer does not need your services any longer. Cry out aloud, soak your pillow with tears, protest, or remain silent - yes, you have the right to indulge in any of the above. But for the time being at least, neither the banks, nor the corporations will pay heed to your outcry. While the jangling may rankle you, the sound of money jingling in their treasuries is all that they can hear; all from the profits they’ll be able to show. (Your 6-digit salary replaced by far lower amounts paid to your substitutes in developing nations.)

If you’re an employee of either a US bank or a US corporation, but based in your home-country, say e.g. in India, you’ll be mocking the New York or London-based executives (for the paltry receptionist-like roles they would be assigned in the not-so-distant future), while you will be doing the prestigious work (e.g. closing multi-million dollar deals).

But isn’t it strange? If you had immigrated from India in the not-so-distant past, with those very same degrees that Wall Street (or the ad agencies, or the corporations) seek today among employees based in India, they were not willing to hire you - why, one questioned and all you heard back from them was silence. They just did not want to hire you. Trash your degrees, bury your past professional experience… they didn’t care, they didn’t want you among them. Trim your resume so you can apply for at least the $10/hour (no benefits) part-time job as ‘Teller’ at the bank around the corner. (Don’t bother showing your experience or the professional qualifications you have.) Sorry, but even those doors aren’t open. There’s so much insecurity among people… lest I take their job away, they won’t even invite you to an interview. At your expense, other out-of-job losers posing as recruiters fill their databases by luring hopeful job-seekers like you, with their cheap spamming, phishing or phony email techniques.

In the mean while, young men and women taking on steep student loans still hope that they will land plum jobs on Wall Street, Mad Ave or anywhere in Manhattan by the time they graduate with their finance, marketing, or management degrees. While they’re busy gaining knowledge in local US universities, the banks and corporations are quietly moving the knowledge base to India. Come to think of it, where would these new students like to build their new home, career or life - locally in the US, or will they be compelled to seek jobs abroad, move to other countries as new immigrants of developing nations?

Naina Lal-Kidwai

It seems like eons ago when I met Naina Lal at ANZ Grindlays Bank, in Bombay. She had just joined as head of Merchant Banking. On my very first meeting with her, I was thoroughly impressed - someone whom I instantly admired but was a tad in awe of. My meeting with her, as a Client Service Executive, was in connection with a brochure my ad agency would be producing for the Bank. A long time after that she made headline news when she was offered what then seemed like a mind-boggling high joining package (especially for a woman) by Morgan Stanley. I was mighty pleased for her then.

Strangely, I missed the news but it just caught my attention that Naina Lal-Kidwai, currently Country Head of HSBC India, was awarded the Padma Shri in 2007, for her commendable contributions in Trade & Industry. “Congratulations to you, Naina! This is indeed well-deserved. You have earned this honor!”

Wall Street moves to Dalal Street… Is that right? How nice!

Rather than layoff middle-rung executives, banks like Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley have been moving their middle men (and a few women) to the Middle-East or South Asia - most often to Mumbai, India’s financial hub. The ‘fortunate few’ may have been relocated by their company, while numerous others who were already laid off after the Bear Stearns debacle have been fielding calls from greener pastures farther-off East - Hong Kong, Singapore, and even from way down South - Sao Paulo, Brazil.

It is indeed ironic that numerous highly educated new immigrants from India, living in the US, struggle for years on end before they can find suitable jobs with six or seven-digit salaries in finance or marketing. The commonly held belief (excuse) is that new immigrants take away jobs from locally educated youth. In truth, neither is their education, nor is their experience recognized in the US, which continues to discriminate on the basis of color (Shh… I shouldn’t have said that!). One only hears about the success stories of folks in Silicon Valley and the generation that arrived as engineers or doctors 30-35 years ago. Nobody cares (nor dares) to speak the unpalatable tales of hope-filled new immigrants who arrived in the US with the same big dreams, but in the late 90s or in the 21st century.

Middle-rung officers in the US would have had to toil for years before they earned promotions that would allow them the luxury that the senior management execs enjoy on Wall Street. But with this “stroke of luck” they will occupy the highest-ranking positions in Asia, Latin America and in other developing nations. Not only that, they will be highly revered in these nations, which tend to bestow respect, love and admiration on people who are sent by “headquarters”. Does anyone out in those nations question whether these newcomers will understand the local culture, or whether they can perceive the subtle nuances of the home-grown English dialect (Hinglish/Chinglish)? US companies will send them to India which will serve as their training ground! So what happens to those locally-trained youth who were aspiring for high positions? Those who were raised and educated in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Kolkatta… their hopes are dashed or the field now gets ‘unfairly’ competitive, or seemingly just for the time being. (There are exceptions to this e.g. Goldman Sachs, who recruited from from the local pool of talent during the last 2-3 years.) But who knows, life can get rather comfortable for the expats… they may never wish to return to their mundane, dreary, hard life back in the US! To have to drive in the snow for hours to cover the miles before getting to one’s desk by 8.00 a.m.! (Hell, no, the middle-rung guys may not be all living in Manhattan just a subway ride away from work.) We’ll gladly accept the company-paid chauffeur-driven luxury car, luxurious ocean-view penthouse equipped with servants and servant -quarters, thank you! Wouldn’t you?

Well, dear wife, you may have to stay back home, but hey… do you see the silver lining? There’s a company-paid vacation to exotic India, every time it gets uncomfortably cold out here for you, or if you’re missing your spouse a tad more than you would if he was here!

For all those who’re not quite savvy yet about India or Indians - Dalal Street in Mumbai (Bombay) is the equivalent of Wall Street in Manhattan. In local parlance, “Dalal” means “broker” - a middle-man. But what does it matter, whether or not you understand India or Indians… they’ll embrace you anyways! If you’re Leaving Wall Street for a Job Overseas, welcome to Dalal Street!

Twitter’s glitter… see the gold?

Tweets sound sweet. Swift 140 character-long missive updates sent within social networks by users, they may convey anything - tiddly trivia or lowdowns on budding love affairs; newsflash about an oncoming tornado or turmoil-ridden political fiasco.

But for the budding 2 years plus company, there’s still uncertainty about where the real moolah will come from. Last June I blogged about how difficult it is for young entrepreneurs to comfortably articulate about their business model. No matter how tech-savvy they are, or how popular their new website turns out, when it comes to making money, long before the initial venture capital or angel finance begins to dry out, the question about monetizing the product crops up… “How will they make the money?”

In the present glut of emerging technology - several that are simply clones of each other - it remains a hard question that few succeed in responding with adequate confidence. Effectively, although from afar the glitz appears attractive, the real gold continues to be elusive. (Is Silicon Valley, today’s El Dorado?)

But techies, please do not despair. Without you, the world could not have progressed thus far. I would not be writing here on wordpress, millions of others would be unable to share their views, the people of this wide world would remain unconnected and ideas would die within cocoons, without taking flight. Thank you to you all.

“Interesting Facts about India”… I’m tired of the boast statements!

Every other day, my Inbox has a ‘new’ email which reflects the glories of India and Indians. While I’m indeed happy for this country, her countrymen (women, and children) and all their successes, I’m kind of tired of reading emails forwarded by hundreds of people, en masse, literally. It seems that the people who created these emails and those who forward them daily are folks gloating in glories that are dated so far back in history, that in the present day the email may initially evoke interest, but after receiving it numerous times, it tends to annoy. Here’s why…

Claim 1: India never invaded any country in her last 1000 years of history.

Me: But in the past 1000 years Indians allowed over 1000 invaders to plunder and loot their motherland (and continue to do so, in one form or another).

Claim 2: India invented the Number system. Zero was invented by Aryabhatta.

Me: But since then did India not regress to sub-zero (to the nth degree)? Could it possibly be attributed to the looting and plundering? A nation so wealthy but one that has always remained divided is invaded. Is that surprising? Or were the conquerors not invited to loot at will by ruling kings (so as to safeguard personal interests)? Inventors, please take the rear seat (so as to safeguard your inventions)!

Claim 3: The world’s first University was established in Takshila in 700 B.C.
More than 10,500 students from all over the world studied more than 60 subjects.
The University of Nalanda built in the 4th century B.C. was one of the greatest achievements of ancient India in the field of education.

Me: But in 2008, Indian students who can afford to do so flock to the US, if not, then to Australia, or to the Dominican Republic or… in the hope of acquiring a string of ‘foreign’ degrees so as to gain better employment in their own country.

Claim 4: The art of navigation was born in the river Sindh 5000 years ago. The very word ‘Navigation’ is derived from the Sanskrit word NAVGATIH.

Me: But today, wealthy Indians fly to the US, or to Canada, to board on a week-long leisure cruise that will take them to the Caribbean, or to Alaska… how many cruise-liners take Indians (or world travelers) around the coast of India? (All you hear about is how many boats sank in the Ganges!)

Claim 5: The value of pi was first calculated by Budhayana, and he explained the concept of what is now known as the Pythagorean Theorem. British scholars have last year (1999) officially published that Budhayan’s works dates to the 6th Century which is long before the European mathematicians.

Me: But today, Budhayana ki buddhi toh dur ki baat reh gayee; ask any poor man on the street… “Woh toh pi(e) pi(e) ke liye mar raha hai!”
[Translated from Hindi, it means that the poor man on the street dies everyday before earning a single (pie/paisa - the old Indian penny, almost literally!)]
Besides, why is the statement still touting that British scholars acknowledged Buddhayana… will it be centuries before Indians themselves acknowledge the fact, or are able to figure out Buddhayana?

Claim 6: Algebra, trigonometry and calculus came from India . Quadratic equations were by Sridharacharya in the 11th Century; the largest numbers the Greeks and the Romans used were 106 whereas Indians used numbers as big as 1053.

Me: But now the Americans and the world talks in terms of trillions… Indians also now understand billion, especially after India’s population crossed the mark, not too long ago!

Claim 7: According to the Gemmological Institute of America, up until 1896, India was the only source of diamonds to the world.

Me: But Indian diamond merchants today gloat when they set up a single office in Israel or Amsterdam!

Claim 8: USA based IEEE has proved what has been a century-old suspicion amongst academics that the pioneer of wireless communication was Professor Jagdeesh Bose and not Marconi.

Me: Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose was born on November 30, 1858; he died on November 23, 1937;
Marchese Guglielmo Marconi was born on April 25, 1874; he died on July 20, 1937.

They were contemporaries; Bose was the first from Indian subcontinent to get a US patent in 1904. But as early on as 1896-7, Marconi was giving lectures on “Telegraphy without wires” and “Signaling through space without wires”.

Claim 9: The earliest reservoir and dam for irrigation was built in Saurashtra.
Me: But gloating about the past engineering does not prevent present-day floods and famines, year after year, in other parts of the nation. Wake up, Indians!

The hyperlink transposes you from my pix (above) of a step-well in Hampi, to a beautiful image of the same structure. Thank you, Charukesi, your gallery is amazing!

Claim 10: Chess was invented in India.
Me: But who were the undisputed chess champions, year after year (until Vishwanath Anand displayed his skills at the turn of the millennium)? Ask yourself this question, search for the answers… they were not Indians. (But please don’t act like you’re shocked!)

Claim 11: Sushruta is the father of surgery. 2600 years ago he and health scientists of his time conducted surgeries like cesareans, cataract, fractures and urinary stones. Usage of anaesthesia was well known in ancient India.

Me: That was over two millennia ago… please do talk about why millions died in famine, child-birth, plague, pox, tuberculosis and during other epidemics in the last 1000 years. Why did numerous Indians need to flock to Cleveland’s Mayo Clinic for open heart surgery even 30 years ago? Please do give that some thought.

Claim 12: When many cultures in the world were only nomadic forest dwellers over 5000 years ago, Indians established Harappan culture in Sindhu Valley ( Indus Valley Civilisation).

Me: Then whoever put this list together with the objective of forwarding it for almost a decade now should be ashamed to think that given a chance, millions of Indians today would rather move away from India, away from the prevailing poverty, and from the lack of infrastructure even in modern times. A land where indeed there are numerous vehicles but roads and bridges cave in. Where dams are built but human beings are displaced without provision for adequate shelters. Where food grows in abundance, but a poor man, woman, child and a pariah dog may eat from the same garbage can! Where cotton grows in abundance, and yarns are exported, but clothing for the poor remains a dream unfulfilled.

Claim 13: The place value system, the decimal system was developed in India in 100 BC.
Me: Alas, India and Indians were decimated for hundreds of years!

Me: Stop gloating in past glories, Indians… If you wish to make progress, stop spinning tales, put an end to these urban legends, and please do discard those fragile yarns!

Someone has rightly stated that Indian culture has been petrified since the 13th century. Oops, I hope this does not begin a chain email related to how 13 was unlucky for Indians and is to be blamed for limited progress since then!

Finally, check this out… either the Government of India picked this up from numerous “forwards”, or numerous Indians found the easy way out and plagiarized from here. It’s futile to say anything further!

Blogger on Sacred Songs

When I last checked, this blog-spot had 139 songs! These numbers include Buddhist recitations, Sanskrit shlokas, Pali verse, Latin renditions, and even some Chinese & Japanese translations! A very commendable effort, indeed, Nila-Kantha-Chandra. Thank you.

My favorites:

Gayatri Mantra

Yakundendu Tushara

Vaishnava jan to tene kahiye je

Four Great Bodhisattva Vows

Folks, if you’re interested, do visit Sacred Songs to search for your favorites.

Smug or self-important?

It’s the same thing, and I’ll add selfish, if I may.

• The phone rings, you look at the caller id, you choose not to answer because the caller is yours truly - someone you usually call and speak to, either when:
  • you have to kill time while you’re waiting for your kid to come out through the school doors; or,
  • you’re waiting in queue at Costco; or,
  • when your fingers get itchy while you’re stuck in traffic; or,
  • while your partner is away on a business trip; or
  • when your kids are too busy on mySpace, and don’t need your attention. It’s so simple… you just hit the speed dial button to call me… quack quack quack…

• When you speed dial to call me during any one of the above situations, do you pause to think that I may have often been busy (or perhaps not in the mood), but am too polite to say so, regardless of when you call? That rarely have I turned away saying, “Let me go, I’m busy”, or, “I have another call”, or, “I’m snoozing”!
• Do you ever consider that when I call you it’s almost always to return your call which I missed while I was in the shower (or if I wasn’t at home), or if the phone was in use by someone at my end? Usually when that happens, I call back within moments of your call, by which time you’re already too busy to speak to me (what happened within moments that you then ‘politely’ say to me, “Can I call you back in two minutes?” almost as if to otherwise say, “I don’t need to speak to you just now but I’ll call again when it suits me”!
• That more often than not, whenever you’re speaking to me, soon after you’ve finished your bit of whatever it is you wanted to say, you claim you have another call “I have to go, there’s another call” is what you say, just about the time when you’ve finished and I may be trying to get in a few words after your 25-40 minute monologue! Can’t that other call wait? Surely it can’t be so urgent - your kids are at school, not calling their parents during school hours!
• Does it ever occur to you that I may be bored, wish to chat, or need some cheering up because the sun isn’t out and it’s dull and gray in my part of the world? That, for once, you should make the time through your ‘busy’ schedule and listen to me for a change, rather than be self-absorbed

Well, here’s my take on the subject… people with cellphones just have itchy fingers. We shouldn’t accuse young teenagers for their low attention spans. They pick it up from their parents may be; perhaps the grown-up adults suffer from more serious attention deficiency problems. If not that, then the only thing I can think of then is that such people lack consideration for others, are smug, and are thoughtlessly self-absorbed, not to mention lacking respect for others.

Is it important to ask a web (2.0) site owner, “What’s your business model?”

We know, time will tell, and a method will evolve, later, rather than sooner!

When any new product (read “social networking or, web 2.0 website”) is ’soft-launched’, it’s very fashionable for tech trend followers to question right away, “So, what’s their business model?”. These people soon try to determine whether they’re the next ‘Google’ (or Bill Gates) around the block; are immediately curious about how the two-week-old site is going to be “monetized” and be profitable; or how the bunch of kids conceiving this site while fooling around in their ‘garage’, will now leapfrog directly from “Pop & Mom paying for their Tall Starbucks Lattes” to becoming “Grande millionaires in any Californian city”!

I have often wondered whether the timing of such a question is appropriate. On the one hand, these people are deemed as ‘kids’, who were ‘just pottering around in their basement’. What, and how much should we expect them to know about business models especially given that they are the tech types, probably just out of school or killing time before they head to MIT, Caltech, Harvard or Stanford (not to Wharton, please note). Furthermore, will it not be a long time before their site actually has enough ‘measurable stats’ on traffic to determine the success or failure of their site. Why is there a pressure-of-sorts right away to make money, even before these guys have found their feet? (Even in a brick-and-mortar operation the ROI expectations are rarely immediate, despite a relatively better knowledge of business and market environment and clear product, revenue, sales, cost of production, overheads & profits and a clear business plan.) Besides, for every ‘breakthrough’, ‘killer application’, or ‘new concept’, there are (or will be) at least a dozen copycats. After all, that not being difficult, next item to worry about is how does one build one’s user base? The quickest way to acquire new users is to allow them free login at the end of a simple, two-minute, three-step registration process. (To begin, get on to the affiliate marketing bandwagon.) These sites are geared towards teens, tweens, young adults or singles seeking mates, hence WOMM (i.e. word-of-mouth marketing, or any form of referral or viral marketing) is the fastest method of bringing in new users - that is sooooo obvious.

With new websites (along with each one’s alpha, beta versions) brought to the WWW every day, it’s rather difficult to keep track of all the sites. Unless, these whiz kids find angel investors and venture capitalists to fund them at least for the first few years, visibility of these sites certainly diminishes over time. Out of sight, out of mind… Likewise, it follows, as a user you better be on the same site as your buddy, or else, out of site, you’re out of their minds (and out of the social scene, buddy)! But, how many sites can you be active on, how many sites will you register on? Which sites will be around for a long time, or then of course, why even bother about brand loyalty? (Who pauses to dwell on these issues, anyway!) The target groups have short attention spans, fewer loyalties (at least perhaps in these matters, without me sounding presumptuous), so they’re bound to go hopping around on whichever site holds their fancy at least for a while. Of the hundreds of Web 2.0 sites that have been launched, why is it that one hears only about a handful… Facebook, mySpace, youTube, LinkedIn, Flickr, Shutterbug and some others? Until such time that the investor funding lasts, they’ll keep advertising hence the high visibility. Besides, the frenzy of new registrants (active or otherwise) appears good on the books. The stats look good too. Well, they’re the sort who devise the mathematical models to track user stats as well, right. But somewhere along the line, they also have to “monetize”, right, and make it a profitable business model. Once they’ve been around for 4-5 years, their funding either has dried up, or now, the investors want to see the profits roll in. Well, do the users care whether or not you - the site developer, founder, management or owner - makes money? Of course not, they’re not on your site to click on the ads that are going to bring you revenues. They are smart, remember, and they’re not loyal. They’re inundated with advertising through all their gadgetry. They have this great knack of ignoring what they don’t wish to see or hear. Remember, you and I were in our teens, tweens and are now young adults. Should we pause for a moment to think about this?

Top 1000 List - Everything Web2.0

How many of us have heard of them all, leave alone signed up on 100s of them?

What do you think is the business model for each one of the 1000 and at least a 1000 others like them?

And today, we read about this…

It’s Friday the thirteenth…

Does it actually freak out many people?

The National Geographic published an item under its News section, a few years back about how the US lost almost 800-900 million USD on this day only on account of people’s superstitions and phobias related to flying or doing business on Friday 13th.

If anxiety builds up due to beliefs, phobias, and folklore, the probability of something bad occurring is bound to increase. When that happens, chances are such people are more likely to meet with an accident, or, are prone to all ‘bad luck’. The phobia feeds on itself. So folks, remember, think good thoughts, think of the weekend, think of the warm summer, think of all the fun activities you can indulge in… and today, on Friday 13th you will find yourself sailing along happily, humming happy tunes and singing, “Thank God it’s Friday”!

After you’ve had an enjoyable weekend, come back to share your joy with me. Who cares then about its roots in ancient history.