India's Tryst with Destiny

It was a day which all Indian fans and players were looking forward to. A day that would decide whether India would stay at the top of the pedestal or not. And my god what a day it turned out to be. Initially it looked like the South Africans would take away the honors when were nearing the lunch interval without losing any of their overnight batsman. Then came sher e jalandhar, who picked up the wicket of Ashwell Prince, who tried to play across the line and was caught at mid off by Ishant Sharma. This created an opening for the team. Soon after AB devilliers was dismissed LBW by Amt Mishra and suddenly South Africa was 5 down at lunch.

Post lunch it was the turn of JP Duminy and Dale Steyn both of whom became victims of Bhajji. Behind all this excitement there was a batsman who had made up his mind to test india's patience and temperament, Hashim Amla who was unperturbed by all the chaos. He along with Wayne Parnell prevented SA from any more mishaps as they went to Tea 7 down.

Post tea was the most exciting session of Indian test history as it would decide who will end the season as Number 1. The session started ideally for India with Ishant sharma picking Wayne Parnell and Paul Harris in quick succession and suddenly to the great excitement of Indian fans SA were 9 down with almost 2 hrs of play left in the day. It seemed as if India being no1 is just a matter of time. Then as they say "The match is not over till the fat lady sings", this proverb fit perfectly for India at that time. The last wicket partnership of Hashim Amla and Morne Morkel started blossoming, and slowly they started creating some panic amongst the Indian ranks. All the tactics applied by Dhoni was fetching no results. In a bizarre incident Sehwag intentionally pushed the ball to the boundary so that India can keep Morkel on strike. Such were the stakes. Finally it was the second last over of the day and may be India’s last throw of the dice. Morne Morkel on strike and Bhajji bowling. Suddenly morkel is wrapped on the pads by bhajji and a loud appeal goes on and the umpire raises the finger and India win the test and with it retains the number one spot. Bhajji was just jumping with joy and ran directly towards the Press Box and he was followed by the entire team. Indeed a great victory for India.

A word for Hashim Amla who played brilliantly and almost made South Africa win the series

Chidambaram-India’s Best Home Minister

Just to look at his track record for the last One and a Half years it certainly seems so. With Indian facing an Existential threat from the terrorists it was very essential to curb the extremism and my god he has succeeded in doing that. Be it cross border terrorism or internal security issues such as Maoism. He has been very upfront and bold in tackling these issues without anytime downplaying the problem.

Just for a record, India hasn’t faced a major terror strike after 26/11. This in a country like India is quite appreciable, taking into account our neighbors and Red tape in our beaurocracy. Never has India been such an important international player.

He is open to change in the functioning of his ministry as well and not afraid of taking responsibility. NCTC is a good example of the same. Now there is even a talk of R &AW coming under the purview of Home Ministry.

He has changed all this causing minimum trouble to a common unassuming citizen, which makes his achievement even more noteworthy. Once a Journalist asked Chidambaram how you have achieved this terror free India to which his reply was “It is Luck”. I am sure the extremists aren’t thinking the same with so many of their attempts to harm us being foiled.

To conclude I think Chidambaram’s achievements have been great and have set a good precedent for others. Hope he continues his good work for the coming months and years.

Budget 2009 – A Hit or a Miss

If you go by the market reaction it definitely seems to be the latter. But are markets a true indicator of Indian economy. Ponder over this, according to a rough estimate there are around 10 Million demat accounts in India. Lets assume that there are 10 Million people having trading account which is not true as a person can hold multiple accounts. How much is 10 Million of the total Indian population?—1% roughly, which by no means represents a majority. Therefore it is safe to assume that stock market is not a representative of a good or a not so good budget.
Now lets get into some details of the budget. If we look into it, this budget is basically for inclusiveness. Many schemes that were introduced for rural India are been continued, for eg NREGS(National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme) is being taken forward with an extra allocation of 144%. There is scheme for Food Security for every Indian. Other schemes like Mid day meals are also taken forward. So the finance minister has taken care of the real India which comprises of 60 to 65% of total population. The only hitch is the implementation, the budget had no mention of how the schemes will be implemented. Just a mere confidence that this money would really reach the needful and not get lost in the BABUDOM would have helped the sentiments.
For the middle class he has increased the tax slabs by a bit but abolition of FBT has put some extra pressure on the Salaried middle class. For the small businessmen he has exempted them from advance tax.
The only real concern with this budget is the estimated Fiscal Deficit which stands at 6.8% of our GDP which is high. But considering the global meltdown and the FM trying to generate a consumer and a domestic market driven growth he needs to spend now for the economy to grow in the future.
The market reaction according to me was just a way of offsetting extraordinary gains it had after the election results. It will consolidate for some time and being the results season its future course would be decided by the Q1 results of SENSEX and NIFTY stocks.
To conclude a message to all the critics, India wont be able to achieve its true potential until the poorest of poor has access to basic food and shelter. For that I think the FM has his heart in the right place.

Regards,
Yash

The Satyam Fiasco

They call it the Indian Enron, but I prefer calling it our own Satyam Fiasco. What caused it is the question on everybody’s mind, but to be frank no one knows what actually has happened to the company. Supposedly the company has over cooked its balance sheet, it has “cooked its books” as they say in commercial terms. The greed of a few has put the future of the stakeholders at stake.

This raises big questions on the corporate governance of Indian industries. It cannot be that such big wrong doing (Rs 7000 Crores) has taken place with the involvement of only one or two persons. What were the Board of Directors doing, what was the role of the independent directors, were they actually incapable or complicit in the crime. To play with the future of 40000 employees is just unpardonable. The role of auditors is most significant in such case because they are the people who should have brought the cat out of the box. It seems the auditors were also complicit in the crime. Banks too cannot be spared, usually where such big money is involved banks usually are one of the culprits, remember ketan parikh and madhavpura bank. The role of the politicians can never be ruled out especially when a lot of property is involved that too in a single state. So all in all it seems like the entire machinery got together in this case.

Now what can be the way out or the way that can cause minimum damage to the company and its stakeholders. The first and foremost task ahead of the newly appointed BODs is to secure the future of the 40000 employees. Truly speaking the government and the regulatory body(SEBI) have been quite quick in their actions, this has sent a positive signal to the clients as well the FIIs. Now the way forward will be to take the case to its logical conclusion and shouldn’t be allowed to get lost in the legal and political tangle as it could prove to be counter productive. Take enron as an example which was probed, prosecuted and executed within 3 years of the case coming up. This case should be taken as learning by the concerned bodies and see to it that this kind of an incident doesn’t get repeated.

Finally to conclude one satyam doesn’t represent entire Indian IT sector. The true character of any institution is tested in the time of adversity and I believe that Indian IT industry has matured enough to come out of this mess winners.

Thanks,
Yash

Shahrukh the Charmer

None of my blogs can be complete without the mention of my Favorite Personality Mr. Shahrukh Khan.

A self made person who started his journey from Delhi and now rules the world of
Entertainment in actual sense. He is by far the most charismatic personality I have ever seen.

Who would have thought a person who started as a lean main lead in tele serials ‘Circus’ and ‘Fauji’ will acquire such humongous success. A romantic hero par excellence he hasn’t bound himself to just romantic roles, Darr,Anjaam being some examples. He is one of those actors who can carry an average movie to become a superhit.

I just love the way he handles himself in public, he always has a joke or two up his sleeve. So when ever you watch him on any TV shows or an award ceremony you are guaranteed of some great entertainment.

The success that he enjoys is not just in the field of entertainment, he is truly a power to reckon with in India. He was recently listed in the top 50 most powerful personalities in the world by the News week. It’s a great achievement for an actor to be in that space which is predominantly meant for politicians and/or terrorists.

Being such a big superstar in a star struck country like ours, its very difficult to be out of controversies. And by and large he has conducted himself superbly notwithstanding all the detractions both in the film industry and otherwise.

How much I write about him is less, so I call upon all the shahrukh fans and even others to express their views on him.

Thanks,
Yash

Don’t Draw a Parallel between Israel-Palestine and Indo-Pak Conflict

The Israel’s Gaza incursions are very much in news now-a-days. Its very easy to believe that India being a large country that it is can wage the same kind of a war on Pakistan as done by Israel. Some points that must into consideration before thinking on these lines

Military Strength: Pakistan is a nuclear armed state which Palestine is not.

International Support: Pakistan has a very strong backing from US and China because its a strategically important partner for both of them. For the Chinese it acts as a very important buffer state between them and India and for the US it is really important due to the war they are fighting in the border with Afghanistan. So before India tries to Inflict a war on Pakistan it has to take these Super powers into confidence.

Other Considerations: India’s is a Blossoming economy. The prime motive of any terror strike is to destabilize the economy, so before jumping into any conflict the economic implications must be taken into account.

Finally before concluding will just add one more point. It is widely believed (in India) that we are a super power and can demolish Pakistan, to say the least we are not a super power by any stretch of imagination. Remember Kargil, we came to know about the intrusions after they had almost succeeded. Even though we won the war we mustn’t forget the amount of human loss that we suffered. All that to regain our own territory.

The best solution for this is to put as much diplomatic pressure on Pakistan as possible. Stop trade, put other sanctions. Persuade the international community to take some action. Definately war isn’t a solution.

Your views are welcome.

Thanks,
Yash

About Myself

Well where do i start from. To say the least i am a very shy, a go getter occassionally, sometimes an introvert person. I make friends quite easily, it contradicts my first point right, but this is the way i am. I like playing sports(except chess if you consider it as a sport), cricket being my favourite sport.

My History

I had quite a normal childhood. Hated going to school, always wanted to play and do masti. To tell you the truth i was quite Frivolous during my childhood which lasted till i finished my schooling. I played for my school volleyball and cricket teams.

After i finished my schooling, i did my diploma in Digital Electronics. This was the time from which i started taking my life seriously. After diploma i did my degree in Electronics and Telecommunication. Diploma and Degree days were the most fun filled and satisfying days then.

Now as irony may have it, i an Electronics and Telecom engineer am working in a Software company coding since last 2 1/4 years and may i add quite happy in doing this stuff.

This is my life till date in short. Could have gone into greater detail but did not want to bore the hell out of you right from my first blog.