Another World Cup - Different but very Similar

2011: A 26-year-old with the world exploding around him. Not good enough to have his life mapped out, no high-paying job, no love of his life, no secure future; the six that Dhoni hit represented an average guy believing in breaking barriers, imagining an India that is going to dominate the world. It was not about greatness anymore. For all the reverence to Sachin, we all knew the victory was about Sehwag's belligerence, Yuvraj's impact, Dhoni's temperament, and many more who played as a team. Gambhir, Zaheer, Sreesanth, Raina, Bhajji; everyone in the squad contributed when called upon. Oh, and there was a 22-year-old Kohli.

2023: A 38-year-old with the world just as it should be. A high-paying job, married to the love of his life, a 4-year-old daughter who can light up a bomb shelter with her innocent smile; the 2023 World Cup represents where I, and my country India, have reached in life. Favourites to win, dominating countries who basically invented the game on the field and in the boardroom (no little thanks to a behemoth called the IPL). In 2011, the Indian team was favoured and won. Since then, for 12 years, India has always managed to be favourites and stumbled before the finish line.

But now, the 35-year-old Kohli is challenging the reverence we had for Sachin; Bumrah is challenging what it means to be the best in his generation; Rohit is challenging the belligerence of Sehwag, Gayle, and Gilchrist with much better technique, and so on. We might still lose; two unpredictable winner-takes-all games are no guarantee of success. But the fact is that this team has already announced their dominance, a team of confident, bellicose individuals who believe they are the best and play accordingly. If we lose, it is going to be because the team did not play even close to their potential, or the other team played way above their potential. As the stunner that Kapil grabbed onto, or the dolly that Gibbs grassed can define a World Cup, there are still turning points waiting to happen.

But I sleep easy. In the world today, we are no longer fighting to prove our ability. It has been made self-evident, not by a one-man army named Sachin, or an unbeatable batting line-up, but by an all-round team of match winners who enjoy and accept their dominance of the sport. Is the off chance of a bad day in the semi-final or final going to take that away from us? I doubt it. Is Kohli, the Sachin equivalent, the most important player in this team? I doubt it. Reverence, India as a country, as a team has grown above it. We the fans couldn't be luckier.

The transition of Greatness! Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli

Fandom is a fickle thing in sport. Especially in India. One day you are the savior of the world, and one bad performance later, they are calling for your blood. But some players manage to transcend the vagaries of fans by the sheer weight of their genius. They become living legends, revered and even worshiped. Their faults are forgotten, their inconsistencies invisible. An entire generation looks up to them as a template of genius. Like Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar.

But athletes retire. And new generations grow up. And new geniuses turn up to usurp their mantle. They show the new generation a new level of performance, more in tune with their attitudes and aspirations. They overcome the fickleness which knows no generation and by weight of ability and attitude, put their hand up to be considered a legend. Like Virat Kohli.

Comparisons will naturally arise. But objectivity is close to impossible to compare careers spanning separate decades, even with the huge amount of statistical data available. Those who have experienced the magic of Tendulkar in the 90s and 00s will be hard pressed to accept Kohli in the same light. Those who have grown up watching a fading Tendulkar replaced by the arrogance of youth in Kohli are wondering what the fuss about Tendulkar is all about.

The similarities are many, similarities shared by great players spanning the nature of sport or the time they played in. Both are born talented, have honed their skill to maximum by sheer hard work and discipline, and have the temperament to perform independent of pressure and situation. While Tendulkar along with Lara, Ponting and Gilchrist bridged the gap between Tests and ODIs with classic stroke-making, Kohli has seamlessly molded himself into a Test, ODI and T20 machine. Kohli, ABD, Smith, Williamson etc. represent the new generation of powering up and switching gears at will.

Tendulkar might not be remembered for finishing off matches scoring 10-12 runs an over regularly, for scoring 50s off 25 balls and hitting sixes at will but then, very few of his peers will be. That was just not the pace at which cricket was played in his time. A run a ball innings was good enough to win most games and doing so consistently was excellence. Flip the coin and Kohli and his peers will not be remembered for dominating a Donald-Pollock on a bouncy Durban pitch or a Gough-Caddick on a swinging Lords morning. Or a Shane Warne turning it square on the fourth day at Eden gardens. Domination then was hitting the ball on the middle of a straight bat with the bowlers spitting fire.

Both are match winners in their own right. Both have won matches single handedly for the team. While Kohli has done it under extreme pressure when the rest have failed him, Tendulkar, by the sheer weight of his ability has carried the pressure of the whole team every time he goes out to bat. 5 wickets down in a crunch game, Kohli will take the team home, but come a crunch game, reading Tendulkar’s name on the team sheet has already taken the pressure off the other batsmen. The pressure on Kohli is to finish the innings, Tendulkar carried the pressure of creating the innings for two decades. Kohli revels in the pressure, it focusses him and perks him up while Tendulkar just absorbed it within him all the time, barely giving it any notice.

Externally they are chalk and cheese. Tendulkar the perennial introvert while Kohli is the poster boy of aggression and in your face attitude. A Rolls Royce and a Ferrari. But both ensure that there is nothing that comes in the way of performance. While Kohli can bring his concentration to Yogic levels while batting, Sachin with the bat could be as aggressive as anybody. Both in their own style.

Where Tendulkar today is ahead is only in the sheer years of performance he has delivered. Kohli has the opportunity to surpass him, and has shown more than enough ability to do so. But then the new generation has never been about looking too far in the future. At the here and now, Kohli is the new great. The older great man though, has not relinquished his title. Merely allotted his successor. At least not until those who witnessed his brilliance wither and die away. 

Service Retail - An Overview

The Indian organized service retail industry can be considered to have grown from having taken its baby steps to having begun to blossom in its youth. Today one of the major verticals of service retail, the wellness and beauty industry has seen the entry of multiple organized players turning an entirely neighborhood business into a battleground for growth and innovation.

Service retail, to be more specific, the business of selling an intangible service directly to a customer at a fixed location has multiple limitations with respect to its perception and scale-ability while at the same time can boast of numerous advantages, the most important being high margins and lower operational costs.

Brand value for service companies has always been a difficult hill to climb as the common customer fails to register the importance of the brand in the value that has been provided.  With results being intangible (beauty is in the eyes of the beholder while health is always judged on one’s sacrifices to attain it) the credit more often than not goes to the client touch point – the stylist or the gym trainer. Imagine the credit for an excellent perfume going not to Brut or Chanel but to the saleswoman who suggested it. Hence brand building remains a huge challenge, affecting both the valuation of companies as well as single location scale-ability. For example, a successful product retailer can easily build a 50,000 sq.ft. mega-store with multiple SKU’s and brands while even the best beauty and wellness retailer is limited to a maximum of a 5000 sq.ft. carpet area.

This disadvantage is offset by large margins, generated by lower product costs and operational expenses. Saving in logistics, inventory, shrinkage etc leads to much lower bottom lines enabling companies to increase the number of outlets much faster. Thus we see the major players growing in numbers exponentially. In the beauty segment, the major players are easily able to open 50 to 60 outlets in every large city (in some cases more than a hundred) as capital investment costs are low and monthly expenses even lower. The franchise model has ensured that lack of capital need not be a hindrance to brand expansion if the business model adds value to the investor.

But being a localized business, no service retailer can realistically have a customer catchment of more than a few kilometers in a city. Thus the threat of competition is high and saturation in a major threat. The huge margins available have led to heavy price wars hitting the top lines while the importance of word of mouth publicity in brand perception has led to no brand being able to leverage its successes in new markets. Intra-city growth has been easy for all players while inter-city expansion is a major roadblock.

Though there are a lot of problems to be ironed out before any brand in any of the service retail verticals can claim to have reached a level of stability, the outlook for the industry remains highly positive with a growing middle class with deeper pockets driving demand and an increasing number of players driving supply. While product retailers increase their dependence on services to differentiate themselves from the competition, service retail in itself will soon hold its own in the Indian retail space.

Mobile marketing your next election.

More than half the population of India now own mobile phones. Barely half the population of India cast their vote. If half of all the mobile phone owners have never voted, you are staring at a huge potential customer base just waiting to be tapped. A market at your ready reach, a market one can engage sitting at ones desk in an air-conditioned office. A customer who is connected to you 24/7. It is an opportunity any political party would be stupid to ignore.

For winning elections in the end boils down to selling yourself, as an individual, as a party, as a brand. The government of any country is its biggest service industry. And in India’s multi party democracy, the number of ants trying to bite into this massive pie is copious. As in any service the essential idea is to understand what the customer wants and to deliver it efficiently. So how does one engage the mobile customer and motivate him to vote for you in an election.

Just as in retail, you have to first get the customer to the shop before you can make him to choose your product. Initially you have to convince him that his voting matters and is required for his own wellbeing and betterment. In marketing parlance it is called “creating a need”

This is where mobile applications play a big role especially among the educated smart phone or even low range phone users. It is not practical to get somebody to go, stand in queue and vote as an impulse. It also cannot be incentivized in any way. “Vote tomorrow and get 50% off in the next elections” will just not work. It requires constant engagement and motivation so that the message can gradually sink in. This is where social media applications can really be effective.

Mobile applications, be it extensions of web based platforms like Facebook, Twitter or Google or exclusive mobile platforms like We-Chat or Watsapp can keep users constantly interested by providing a huge variety of content which he or she can choose and interact with. For marketing any service or product on social media, there are certain parameters that mainly define the effectiveness of the campaign. They are:

·         The relevance of the content.

·         The consistency of the message.

·         The gratification it provides – how interesting it is.

·         Differentiation from existing content.

·         The regularity at which it is communicated.

·         The scope for interaction and feedback.

·         The ease of sharing.

When a message, be it a general call to take part in the election process as an appeal to ones responsibilities as a citizen or a specific campaign to vote for a single individual or party will have to stay true to these values to succeed. Ensuring that the user is not overburdened on his time while at the same time being able to provide him enough quality content regularly to change his opinion is a challenge, but not insurmountable. If effective, mobile applications will provide unlimited reach due to the ease at which content can be shared between people. Positive or negative, on opinion can spread within hours to thousands and lakhs of people.

For the content to be relevant, one has to ensure that it reaches the right audience. While in regular Social Media like Facebook and Google, one can depend on demographic and interest based targeting, most apps depend on the user’s judgment to share relevant content to the relevant people. This ensures that information remains credible to a certain extent as well as that there is a human sanction for all content shared. Over mechanization and repetition of any message shall directly affect its credibility and can create the exactly opposite effect to what was intended.

In summary, the digital generation, be it the early adapters or the new entrants are a fickle lot. Digital content does not share the credibility as yet of any mainstream medium and thus influencing opinion is still a huge challenge. But the potential is obvious and any stakeholder in the electoral process should be vary of ignoring this medium.  

Written for a contest on www.indivine.com

Rahul Gandhi, waste or wasted....

Leaders might be born, might be made, might happen by accident or by necessity, but to expect leadership by sycophancy is stretching it. To shout from rooftops that somebody, who has neither the upbringing nor has shown the intellectual ability to lead a party, leave alone the nation, is the next big hope of the nation will not make him a good leader. To accept everything he says blindly, keep him away from any criticism even if he takes positions against his own government, to simply hand him responsibility without accountability will in no means get him ready to lead a nation. Not now, not ever.
While both have failed the nation, it’s a matter of debate if Rahul Gandhi has failed the Congress or the Congress has failed Rahul Gandhi. Yes, sometimes leaders have to be made, potential candidates have to be groomed, initiated gradually into their roles, allowed to make mistakes so that they can learn from them so that at a give point, when they are ready they can take over and lead. Rahul Gandhi could have been that person, groomed from a young age to understand the country whose history has been shaped by his family, and take it forward. The Congress had the senior statesmen, the Pranab Mujherjees and the Manmohan Singhs, the Sheila Dikshits, who could have taught him the nitty-gritty of running a country responsibly and efficiently. Leaders who have a wealth of experience as well as the personal integrity to show a young man the ways of government. To discipline him and gradually give him responsibility, teaching him first to follow before he learns to lead.
And he would have had a good team to assist him and grow with him. The Milind Deoras and the Sachin Pilots could have been his peer group, a group of young men ready to take on the mantle of India’s oldest party when the time is right. Men with vision and a connect with the young Indian, but with the experience and political discipline imparted by older leaders. They might not have been baked in the oven of grass-root politicking but would have learnt enough to lead.
Now who do we blame for such an ideal situation passing us by? Do we blame the same elderly statesmen who were unable to hold their hand up and take responsibility for this young scion, unable to find the steel to discipline a Gandhi, be it the mother or the son? Do we blame the overpowering queen bee, for whom politics has been about power, about being able to shield her fallacies and her personal ambitions under a cloud of opaqueness and ultimate authority? Who could never have the confidence in her heir to work his own way without her pampering and carte-blanche to do whatever he pleases. Or is it all the fault of Rahul himself, a young man who has never shown any propensity for leadership, for discipline or responsibility, whose youth is a story of failed academics and partying ways, who even at forty plus has difficulty maintaining intelligent conversation. Was he always destined to be a failure, no matter how hard the rest tried?
Nobody in these times expect political decisions to be taken keeping the country in mind. Neither are decisions on leadership going to be based entirely on the ability of the individual. But for the Congress to pin its entire hopes, with head and heart on a person who has shown absolutely no potential, no propensity to improve speaks of a depravity of ideas unbecoming of any party, leave alone the Grand Old party. It is as if by screaming long enough and loud enough, reality can be fooled and Rahul might one day turn into the great leader the Congress is waiting for.
Sad is it not?

The West will wait....

An old post for my college blog. Still relevant.

For all the hoopla around the entrance in FDI in retail and other sectors, we Indians have not fully comprehended the reasons the west is in such a hurry to set up shop in our country. Like us, the western countries are just as protective and just as concerned about their own economies. The protective nature of the west might be hidden behind their investments and technological advances but the fact is the east is no longer just important to sustain western economies and their way of life but a necessity without which they will no longer be able to sustain their rising expectations and popular demands.

The capitalistic economic model sustained for so long has been based on growth and rising demand. An expectation the slowing growth rate of the west has not been able to sustain. This model of investment by taking up huge credit in order to grow requires that companies need to keep growing at a certain rate or they will implode. Be it growth in terms of GDP, population growth or growth in consumer demand, the developed world has reached a saturation point. The economic crisis we see today are just manifestations of this saturation. Manufacturers need to produce more, retailers need to sell more, banks need to invest more. But where will the demand, the raw materials and the labor required come from? The developing world can provide all this and more. But unlike the earlier centuries the west can no longer grab what they want by sheer force, they will have to participate in the development.

To the west India and China represent opportunities to keep their domestic population satisfied by giving them opportunities to grow. The sheer numbers in terms of potential purchasing power that these two economies together have is what drags them to us. That is why even though domestic incomes are dropping and unemployment is rising, multinationals are encouraged to invest in India and invest heavily. Companies know that if they can successfully leverage their international experience while at the same time adjust to local conditions India and China can rescue them from stagnation or even decline in their home markets.

Every sector in the country is in a nascent stage with potential for new entrants and ideas. While there are latent inadequacies in Indian infrastructure and decision making processes, the gradual opening up of the economy has given foreign companies time to study the market and the Indian customer. The young, upwardly mobile population ensures a market receptive to new ideas and brands. Unlike China, India has a stable political and social structure and have democratic institutions similar to the west. Thus engaging India makes not only economic sense but also strategic sense. The Chinese economy might be attractive for its size and efficiency but come inherent with risk. The Chinese model of huge investments in infrastructure and a controlled currency is untested and is considered unsustainable by many leading economists. India meanwhile follows a tried and tested model of organic growth both in infrastructure and in supply-demand growth.

If the Indian government can ensure continuity and consistency in reforms, there will always be companies willing to invest in Indian no matter how slow or regulated the reform process is. India represents a long term strategic investment to them. Thus it remains imperative that we take a slow and steady path to opening up the economy ensuring growth without effecting local industries. The opportunities globalization and the world economic system has thrown at us need to be utilized to solve our internal deficiencies. Corruption and infrastructure bottlenecks will have to be addressed.

They need us more than we need them. Something we would do well not to forget.

Why minorities should vote for the BJP

The Ishrat Jahan case may have judicial authenticity but no one can argue that the timing and the blatancy with which the government is pushing it is a purely political move. With elections around the corner, it it time for all parties that cater to minority vote banks to start consolidating them. Such consolidation is easiest done by polarization. With the BJP unwilling to play the Hindutva card openly, the onus has come one the so called secularists to rekindle communal animosities and insecurities so as to retain and collect all those opposed to the BJP-RSS brand of Hindutva. It is high time the grassroot minority voter saw through this.
Any community, be it individually or collectively expects two things from a democratic government, development and empowerment. In other words mental and material upliftment. Now while the majority, in this case the middle class and socially upward classes, mainly Hindus, have had development, they have always found themselves on the short end of empowerment due to the pandering of minorities by decades of pseudo secular governments. At the same time, the minorities have not gained the necessary development and thus get solace from what they feel is empowerment. Their propensity to vote as a block and show their strength in numbers has led to them having major roles in political battles, their chosen leaders holding major political posts and enjoy being pampered during elections.
But their political masters understand that these minority cross sections will only remain a malleable vote bank if they continue to lack development, essentially education and a good standard of living. Because as soon as a person gets educated and is no longer having to commit all his faculties for his day to day existence he begins to think on his own. He gains the confidence to take his decisions based solely on his convictions. He then becomes an individual and not just a herd animal who can be influenced only by generalizing his caste or religion. Thus he ceases being a vote bank. Which politician will want his well cultivated herd to disperse by providing them such development. Any dissatisfaction is papered over by blaming the majority and thus polarizing them even further.
An example of this is the state of Kerala. North Kerala has a dominant Muslim minority while the south has a dominant Christian minority. The Muslims of the north are catered to by openly Muslim political parties like the Muslim League and the Indian National League. They are the beneficiaries of the entire Muslim vote and no government can be formed without the support of one of these parties. Thus Kerala Muslims have always had their leaders in plum ministerial posts with their parties having the power to make or break governments. But this power has not resulted in development. They still remain poorly educated and with lower standards of living than the average. Mistrust and hatred is high and communalism is an ever present danger. Their leaders are served by keeping them alienated from the majority and ensuring that they do not gain the education to question them.  Compare this with the south where the Christians do not have a political identity of their own. By joining the political mainstream they have ensured that to get their votes, politicians have to cater to their individual wants and have thus ensured prosperity and development. They might not have politicians clamoring for their votes or leaders just for them but they have ensured that the fruits of progress have not passed them by. They cannot be separated from the majority today from a political perspective.
Thus we find that it is those who claim to champion the cause of minorities who have the least to gain from their upliftment. From a national perspective the only party that has anything to gain by educating the minorities and bringing them into the national mainstream is the BJP. The BJP with its ideological foundations as an upper caste Hindu entity cannot appeal to the minorities by playing to their vanity or ego. The BJP has in the past tried to polarize the majority vote and make them vote en-bloc too but the middle class is already past that stage of blind following. Their only option is to break the herd and appeal to the individual voter. Their only choice to attain a decisive majority is to break apart or neutralize the minority political blocks. By thus breaking the chains of minority appeasement the BJP can also cater to its core constituency by providing them with more empowerment. Its only when every person votes individually that an ideology accepted by the majority can prosper. This can only be done by giving them development as an alternative to the pseudo secularism that gives them a sense of power but nothing else. Education, opportunities and security should be the priorities that must be valued.
Even though the BJP as a party, being cast from the same mold of vote bank politicians hasn't yet completely realized this path that they should take, there is a change in the wind. A lack of an alternative to gain more vote share has resulted in every BJP state government having to concentrate on development as their only election plank. There is no reason to believe that at the center their policies will be any different. These is no reason to believe they will have an alternative.
All this and more reason for everyone in the minority, who feels left out in the Indian growth story to give the BJP a chance. The alternative is only more of the same. Who is communal and who is secular is a question that has to be answered consciously as per the realities of the day. An individual perspective is the only way forward for a responsible democracy.

Modi Mantra

Indian politics, unlike in more mature western democracies has always been ideology driven, and to a certain extent personality driven. Rather than being issue based or development based, parties have stuck to creating and maintaining vote banks based on intangible ideals like socialism and hindutva. Ideals that can easily serve as a smokescreen for accountability. But as our society matures, the new generation can no longer be attracted by ideology alone.
As mainstream India began to get more knowledgeable, better networked and most importantly gets younger, they no longer remained shackled by the past. Memories of the Independence struggle, of a country finding its feet in the harsh world or of riots and communalism no longer are a factor of whom to vote for. Political parties have been slow, well neigh static in changing to a changing India. A lacuna that the Congress managed to take advantage of for two terms, not consciously, rather by virtue of their own ineptitude. By projecting a leader like Manmohan Singh working under the shadow of Sonia Gandhi, both of whom do not have any ideological standing, the Congress inadvertantly appealed to the young masses. A choice made easy by lack of any viable alternative.
But where there is a void, sooner rather than later, there will be a clamor to fill it up. With the Congress making a royal mess of governance, virtually making their reelection on the continuity plank impossible, and elections only a year away, it was time for someone to step up and try to fill the void. That is when one Mr Narendra Modi decided to strike when the iron is hot.
Modi had started his political career as the very symbol of the hindutva ideology, as a right wing firebrand leader who came to power riding on polarized emotions of a state. Ten years hence, he has converted himself into an icon for the youth, a champion of growth and development. He has shown ambition and hard work, ability to innovate and take prompt decisions. These are traits the upwardly mobile young Indian understand and appreciate. Add to this an ability to communicate effectively with his target audience, be it as an orator or on social networks, and he comes across a breath of fresh air, a person who can connect with the new India and take it forward. His work talks for itself and he talks for himself. Rather than empty rhetoric, he has amassed a whole CV of successes during his tenure as the CM of Gujarat to impress the neutral observer, a breed that is becoming the majority day by day.
Along with his achievements and abilities, another factor than plays to Modi's advantage is the absolute lack of any viable alternative to him. The Congress, by compulsion has hedged its bets on Rahul Gandhi, trying to portray him as a youth icon and harbinger of development. Unfortunately he has neither the charisma nor seems to have the intellectual or leadership abilities to impress. Instead he comes across as a spoilt young man, thriving on his family name and power and with no achievement of his own to speak of. The very antithesis of a youth icon the country has been looking for. Add to that the unholy mess that has been the government of the last few years, with scandal after scandal and minimal achievements to note, economical, social or in foreign policy. To expect another chance at forming the government seems terribly optimistic. The rest of the field consist of regional satraps hedging their bets on a hung government to stake their claim. Their chances are dependent more on permutations and combinations and less on their appeal or abilities at the national level. 2014 is five years too early to consider Arvind Kejrival of the AAP as a contender on the national stage.
This is not to say that Modi's ticket to the prime ministerial post is a done deal. In fact it is not even certain that he will be the candidate his party puts forth for the post. Such is the mechanics of Indian politics. Within the BJP itself, Modi has lots of detractors, those insecure with his growth as well as those justifiably alluding to more senior leaders who deserve a chance of their own. Insecurities fed by his autocratic style of government and the ruthlessness with which he deals with those who oppose him. This brings into question his ability to handle a coalition government, the most possible scenario in 2014. This along with the albatross of the Gujarat riots which still keeps him unacceptable to the minority community and as an extension to the coalition partners of the BJP that depend on the minority vote for their power, ensures that Modi will not have an easy run in.
Will elections still a year away, the Modi camp should be worried that Modi has peaked too early. Today it does not take much for someone to fall from grace, to be a villain one day from the hero the day before. To maintain the momentum that Modi has managed into the election year will need excellent man and media management skills. It takes only one wrong sound byte, one unintended gaffe, one scandal in the news and an image built over years can be shattered. Only time will tell if the Indian public will select him for the top job. As of now he is the candidate who ticks the most boxes.

Kasab is dead... Long live Kasab....

In the end Ajmal Kasab has got what he deserves. Four years after he became the face of terrorism against India, the slow wheels of the Indian judiciary and the dirt bed of the Indian political system have managed to together send him to his well deserved fate.
Kasab has maybe lived a better life in Indian jails than he would have in strife torn Pakistan. The four years might even have been more than he would have managed to stay alive back home. A four year holiday package with daily nourishment and security at the taxpayers expense might be what we gave him in the name of due process, but have we served a higher ideal by keeping him alive. I would like to think so.
Kasab could well have been shot that fateful day. No one could have blamed a spirited policeman for lodging a fatal bullet in his body that day. After all, Kasab was a Pakistani terrorist sent to mercilessly murder Indians. The police had witnessed civilians getting shot, their own colleagues dead, they would have been fully justified in being judge jury and executioner that day. The fact that it did not happen in itself speaks highly of he discipline and rationality of our security force. At least in the eyes of the world, we have passed the test of a law abiding society.
Bringing him in alive, albeit more for intelligence purposes that humanitarian considerations, served to give living flesh and blood to terrorism. Until then a common terrorist was just a monster bred in a training camp identified only by his bloodied corpse in an encounter somewhere. Only terrorist leaders and masterminds seemed to be rotting in Indian jails waiting for their Kandahar to get free. The foot soldier always arrived as a corpse. Kasab gave that monster a name,a village, a history.
The terrorist could now be separated from the terror. The common man reading the newspaper now knew how a terrorist grew up, that he has a family, circumstances no different than any strife ravaged region in our country. Without justifying his crimes in any way he taught us that he is also human. A bad human, to be punished with a deserving death, but human nonetheless. Kasab gave us a perspective we never had before. What makes a young man across the border willing to risk his life to kill us Indians in cold blood. The intelligence gleaned from him might be invaluable but so is the understanding.
Because one day we will have to stop treating the symptoms and address the problem. Why is our neighbour, with no provocation from our side that my history has taught us, so hell bent on destroying our society? What breeds these fanatic haters of our country? One day we will have to cross over and remove the hatred. Removing the guns in itself will not win us the war. Israel for all the technology and superpower support has learnt this the hard way.
There is no better way to remove barriers than education. By educating ourselves on the plight of the common Pakistani, distancing him from the militant leaders and bloodthirsty fanatics, we might yet be moving in the right direction. For in the end, for all the political and military manoeuvering, it is civil society that has to build bridges between the two nations.
Kasab has made me look at a terrorist in a new light. No longer do I see an evil monster. Only a mere pawn sucked into a game he does not understand. Swayed by illogical ideologies of heavenly glory and revenge, these pawns hide the true evil kings from their fate. Engage the common man and the kings will weaken on their own.
Easier said than done. To overturn the perception of our country from that of an enemy to that of a friend, a brother of common lineage will not happen in a day. But it is the long term vision we have to keep in mind in engaging Pakistan. Kasab might have been the start of an awakening in our society for the same.
Kasab might yet be worth the crores we spent on keeping him alive.

The politics of retail

The Indian government is today a minority. It's one major ally short of a simple majority in parliament. Two years into it's term, it didn't take any huge scandal or crisis to make this happen,  though there were no shortage of both,  but just allowing FDI in organized retail. How the times have changed.

True,  retail is an indispensable part of civil society and accounts for 11% of our GDP but it has never been a part of any five year plan or government scheme.  With 95% in the unorganised sector,  retail has been growing happily without any government intervention.  If there is demand, whatever it might be for, there will be someone ready to sell it for a profit. Retail as an institution is easily far older than governments themselves.

When big Indian corporations came out with organized retail chains, there were but whimpers of protests. When full FDI was allowed in the back end, it barely made the papers. Why now this hue and cry against foreign investment.

Let us consider the various stakeholders involved one by one, the farmer, the shopkeeper, the retail employee, the customer, the country and the politician. Let us try to remove the hype created by the media and other political instruments and concentrate purely on the normal man's understanding of what is going on around him.

The common small farmer lives in a very micro level society.  Tell any farmer in India about any government initiative and his initial questioning will be limited to four basic questions. Will I lose my land?  Will I get more money for my produce? Will I get loans easily? Will I be able to work less? A positive answer to these questions and the farmer and family are happy. FDI as such will not be able to bring any change that Indian retailers haven't had the opportunity to provide.  The farmer really doesn't care if it's an Indian or a foreign company. Why should he?

The shopkeepers are the ones the media portray as the biggest losers. But are they themselves so worried? A normal kirana owner has the pulse of his customers. He has with him the best of CRM techniques in person to person interaction which no large retailer can compete with.  He understands that his share of the pie is large and growing enough to sustain him.  While the big players cater to the top 20-25 percent of the income pyramid,  he is the owner of rest of it.  While his customers might grow up to visit the nearest Big Bazaar,  there are enough growing up from below to sustain his shop.  McDonalds hasn't exactly destroyed the local tikki-waala has it. Growing congestion and rising real estate prices have already taken the rich metro customers out of his reach. It's again the politician and the trade unions that are doing his worrying for him.

The employee is happy. The unemployment is growing and the job market is not keeping pace.  Any new job opportunities are welcomed with open arms. The country has too many young skilled and  semi-skilled laborers to sustain everyday.  Foreign players are looked upon as saviors providing better pay and better working conditions. But considering the track record of major retailers like WalMart, they may be in for a shock.  Under more liberal labor laws,  retailers are notorious in the west for their treatment of employees. Expecting them to do any better here would be foolish.

The customer is ecstatic.  Rising competition and rising assortments can only lead to cheaper products and more variety.  The monthly grocery purchase now entails more than one option while products all over the world are available through multiple channels. Retailers are beginning to get more customers centric and customer satisfaction and retention are the new buzzwords. Foreign retailers used to serving highly demanding customers will surely bring something new to the table. The customer will remain the king.

The country really needs the confidence of investors. Terrible fiscal management and growing infrastructure needs has left the economy in dire need of foreign capital. FDI will increase FIIs boosting up the stock market as well as bringing much needed investment in infrastructure. More competition and efficient practices might drive down inflation giving the RBI more freedom to control our growing current account deficit. As the Kelkar report has put so explicitly,  growth is no longer an achievement,  it is a necessity our country needs to not collapse on the weight of its growing population. FDI across the board in all sectors previously protected is the need of the hour. We have a huge market. Now is the time to leverage it to fulfill the potential our country holds.

Last and unfortunately not the least are our politicians,  the policy makers.  The ones supporting FDI as well as the ones opposing it seem to have similar reasons and similar arguments.  In the game of politics it is easy to take a stand or raise one's swords on issues whose gestation periods are long and the benefits or losses immeasurable. Thus corruption or price hikes get sidetracked as they might fall prey to immediate action which no politician wants. FDI will be seen as a boon or a bane depending on which side of parliament you sit while larger issues can be swept under the carpet across the board. Sufficient loopholes have been kept for manipulations and the numbers game in parliament has got a safe issue to hedge its bets on. What else do politicians want.

Thus neither is FDI in retail going to usher in any golden age in the country nor will it cause any catastrophic collapse.  But as long as it makes economic sense,  it could benefit the population.  Whatever be the end result,  the politicians rest smug in the knowledge that the Indian will move on and survive come what may.

India needs more such milkmen. Dr Verghese Kurien.

When Dr Verghese Kurien passed away, aged 90, India lost its leading innovator and visionary. One whose vision was able to transform the entire dairy sector, rewarding millions with quality products and all encompassing growth. But the lessons to be learnt from Dr Kurien’s life include more than just the dairy sector. It is an example of how India requires processes customised to our unique demographics and social indices and not custom made solutions peddled by MNCs and unabashed globalisation lobbyists.

  The Indian growth story is unique. While opening up of the economy and a young population has led to excellent economic growth, infrastructure and social development remain bottlenecked in political and bureaucratic red tape and corruption. Compared to India, in China infrastructure and social development comes first, and they become the major force driving economic growth. We wait for the demand to arise and then build the infrastructure to satisfy it while in China the infrastructure is already in place to drive the demand. While this makes our economy more stable and sustainable in the long run, it has led to an income divide proportional to income growth.  Today, strictly in numbers, India has more millionaires than most developed countries while at the same time is straddled with more poor than most under developed nations.

This glaring disparity has led to global corporations making a beeline to India to be a part of the bludgeoning upper-middle and upper class market, especially in the metros. The metros and other Tier 1 and some Tier 2 cities have the infrastructure and a growing population to leverage their global practices and brand values. This upper class market is large enough with enough growth for both Indian as well as global players to grow and prosper. Thus it is no wonder that the lower section, without access to the same infrastructure and purchasing power have been neglected. Even in a cosmopolitan city like Mumbai, census data show that more than 40 percent of the population live below an income of Rs 2 lakh per annum. A market segment that will need innovative processes and long term investments to tap into.

 All the large Indian corporations today are multinational players with access to global resources and able to compete with their western counterparts in their respective fields. They have access to funds as well as technologies available all over the world. But they lack the motivation to get their fingers dirty in the muck of the great Indian cattle class. Business considerations do not lend support to innovative ideas and vision in markets that involve huge efforts and low margins. To expect western MNC’s who built their businesses in developed markets to take this step is unrealistic to say the least. Thus we see that out of the box thinking is limited to small entrepreneurs who do not have the capital or other resources to operate on a large scale.

To ensure that advantages of globalisation reach the lower strata, it is imperative that Indian businessmen and entrepreneurs awake to the potential that these sections of society have. Fresh ideas designed and customised to the specific problem areas are required.  The government, even if they do not build the roads, should ensure they do not build the roadblocks to new ideas. Dr Kurien was able to make a success of Amul incorporating the automatic milk bulk vending system re-engineered from a similar process invented originally by Rowe International of USA. Such a synergy of global technology and local customisation is required. India does not lack to brain power or the technological competence to ensure more such success stories. All we lack is the vision and commitment of the great man.

An open letter to the Indian Olympics Team

Dear Olympians,
Lying on my bed, it is a little difficult to appreciate the effort, the sacrifices you had to do through to reach where you are today. But i am trying. So don't get me wrong. But I am confused.
It is true there are lots of other countries with infinitely more resources to match our infinitely larger population. Each one of you has reached where you are after competing with a billion others. That's more people than New Zealand might have given birth to over the last couple of centuries. But tell that to their hockey players whipping us in our national game. A lack of physical fitness, of technique, of talent is understandable. We do not have the resources, what we have are spread too thinly and the rest siphoned off by the corrupt Indian. Even talent can be excused as a lack of proper genetic material. But mental toughness is as much imbibed as born with. Then why do we lack so?
Why does a world number one fail to clear the first round? Why does a shooter placed in the top five until the last few minutes falter and end up eleventh. Why are two excellent tennis players who could have easily dominated the doubles game for a decade still squabbling at the ages of 38 and 39? Where are we going wrong?
Surely lack of sponsorships, poor training facilities, and illiterate associations should have made you stronger, not weaker mentally. Then what is lacking I wonder. Is there something lacking in the Indian diet that fails to nourish that part of the brain? Or is it the climate? Or maybe our culture.
Each one of you represents the best we have. The strengths of a Sachin Tendulkar or a Vishy Anand are in you. A Dhyan Chand is lurking in that Olympic village somewhere. Today an Indian can walk into any sphere of life proud of his identity. Then why do you fail at the biggest stage? After you have surpassed all those obstacles, obstacles athletes from other nations might barely comprehend, why do you give up before your time? Why do not the pressures of success spur you on? Has the effort put into participation fatigues you so much that you can no longer compete? Have you travelled too far to be able to go that extra mile?
The armchair critic tells me you have reached your crescendo of ambition. A medal is just a dream too far. But the Indian refuses to believe. And the Indian will wait. Till the last of you catch the flight back home.
Godspeed.

As Osama sleeps....

So Osama is dead. I'll miss him. More than I'll miss the Sai Baba.
After all he is the most wanted guy in the world ever, wanted by the greatest power in the world. Didn't they just run over Afghanistan for him. While he has all this time been living a luxurious life in the heart of Pakistan. Hope he had sattelite TV. Can imagine a few old men sipping their black tea and having a good laugh over the latest BBC reports. Must have been one hell of a ego trip.
First the postmortem. I wonder what actually happened. Was the American intelligence actually good enough to capture him from  under Pakistani noses. Or maybe the Pakistanis in the end ratted him out for a few extra billions to use against India. Or maybe he just got old and bored and decieded to go out with a bang before the Gaddafis took his throne. We will never know. Or maybe we will. With wikileaks we never know.
For me, it was completely unexpected. Had seen more chances of his beard catching fire than the Americans getting to him. But there is a sense of relief. A hope that the Americans having burnt the house to catch the rat will now stop messing up our neighbourhood.  But is it really over. I doubt it.
In whose name will stories be told, posters printed or comments posted? In the name of the victor or the old man shot dead. When two bad guys fight each other, human nature will support the weaker, wont we? Will Osama end up a symbol of all the hatred the Americans have painstakingly collected over the years. Fertile breeding grounds for terrorists have been sown by the Americans themselves. Will a dead Osama be just the fertilizer they need to grow.
He was a terrorist, an evil person. But being so evil, he has brought out the evil in the rest of the world. When in todays world, humanity and freedom and the common man is ranked way below national security and strategic depth or even ideology, it's tempting to find him no worse than many others. It's a dangerous feeling, one that breeds violence.
Its difficult to believe that bullet in his head has just made the world a better place.  Damage he has done is too permanent for that. Too much innocent blood has been shed, both by him and by those fighting him already. All I can think of is hope.
Some bad people just don't go to hell, they make wherever they go a hell.



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