Back on popular demand

Actually far from it. Yes there were those handful visitors who missed me. But the traffic to this web page did not die down in the last 5-6 months. Sounds unbelievable in a way. This period of no blogging started with pre-occupation with other stuff, then manifested itself into inertia and then the need to write just disappeared.

Anyway, this post started with a visit to Chadha's blog. Read what his profile said and I felt like writing again. Chadha, I do not know if that was for me but it has certainly helped me get back to blogging. Your profile did remind me of those IIT days and the email signature that I used to have at that time.

Meanwhile, people tell me that blogging is passe and there is something new called twitter that is gaining favour with the net. I have realized that the pace at which net is changing is much faster than the rate at which I adapt these days. Finally, after half of the world had gotten a facebook ID, I got one as well. I remained an island for a while and then people started adding me. But the level of involvement till now is much lower than the initial days of Orkut.

Speaking of Orkut, I finally deleted my orkut ID. I think it was taking a lot of my time. Though I would miss the good birthday calendar that it had become.

Rest later!

Lets Kill The Brand

These things often start with an advertisement. Somebody in the HRD ministry had this idea of putting up an advertisement in all the newspapers calling for applications to the IIM director’s post. This is indeed in line with the tempestuous relationship that the IIMs have had with the HRD ministry of the governments of the last decade. One might want to ask, what is the big deal with a seemingly harmless advert? Traditionally, the Director’s name has been proposed by the governing council of the institutes and the approved by the HRD ministry. The approval has been a formality but it seems that things might change as the man in the charge of human resource development for the nation wants to meddle more. Bakul Dholakia (Director, IIMA) was initially combative and then allegedly struck a re-conciliatory note (With TOI group, everything has to be allegedly).

What is the big deal with autonomy? Institutes like the IITs and IIMs want greater autonomy because they want the freedom to fix salaries (get/retain the best faculty), start cross-border collaboration programs, improve infrastructure, spend on capability building initiatives etc. However, governments have wanted to increase their grip on these institutes of excellence because it makes strong political statement. I am not sure about the target segment of voters that they are trying to approach via this increasingly meddlesome approach.

So while these steps try to destroy the last vestiges of idealism and excellence in the country, I hope someone wants to build something as well. Governments should try and build alternate brands to the IITs and the IIMs. Merely creating more of such institutes might be counter-productive at best. It would be better if they inject funds for infra development and to attract better faculty at the NITs and the next line of Management institutes. While such steps make headlines, I really wonder if Arjun Singh is bothered beyond gaining some cheap publicity out of this. Would be great if his bunch of cronies apply themselves to improving the primary and the secondary education infrastructure than with such retro steps. Anyway, all this would be nothing more that noise for them so let me not waste my time either.

A Little Dash Of Irrationality

When things like this happen, I start feeling that we are approaching a point where too much money is chasing woefully small number of opportunities. The event might not even qualify as a rounding-off error in the 350$B Revenues for the year that Wal-Mart closed exit January but what makes me so vexed about it is the inappropriateness of the entire affair. They do need to make the right noises to speed-up the legislation for allowing FDI in retail. But, is this the best trick they have got to lobby with the Indian Government? I am sure that it is not and if the Indian management of this firm thinks otherwise it desperately needs a re-jig. I hope someone is inquiring about the results expected from such an exercise.

It is the same with Cricket, all advertising money chasing one game. This year’s ICC world cup is a case-in-point. Every marketing manager worth his salt might have constructed an IMP (Integrated Marketing Plan) around the world-cup. A host of promotional activities, ad-campaigns, event and what-not planned around it. Even if the India-Pakistan teams were to make it super 8s, most of these plans would have fetched a poor ROI for the firms. At best it would have ended as another bullet point on someone’s CV, who would have then moved on to a better role within or outside the firm. As for money spent on such an activity, one can always site the fact that it is of tactical importance to do so since the competitors would be doing it anyway!

And what is the deal with Jhanvi Kapoor? Out of hibernation on the wedding day? The entire drama was outright hilarious. Apart from the Aj-taks and Mid-Days, International Herald Tribune and Fox News could not resist her charm as well. Indeed she got all the hype that she was looking for but where are film offers that she might have thought would come her way. Even Ekta Kapoor is not willing to cast her in Kayamath (Yes! that is the spelling). And what is the deal with Ekta kapoor? Even the Kanadda and Tamil serials are as weird as the hindi names e.g. kadambariii!

Yes, the world is irrational. And that is the reason why economists and statisticians have a job. The more they try to untangle this chaos into identifiable patterns the more arcane it seems to get. Thankfully, the world is not yet, as insane as it is irrational. Anyway, a little dash of irrationality is something that makes it livable, Warna yeh duniya agar mil bhi jaaye to kya hai?