Indo-US Business Opportunities - The Road Ahead

President Obama became the first US President to grace the Republic Day celebrations as Chief Guest last month by accepting the invitation from PM Modi. And when he arrived in Delhi PM Modi set aside the protocols to greet him personally at the airport. The media has been abuzz by their surprise friendship and bear hugs, but the fact of the matter is they share a good rapport. This rapport between the leaders of the two largest democracies in the world seems to strengthen the relationship and collaboration between the two nations – India and United States.

Both Obama and Modi share some similarities besides their excellent oratory and people connect skills. One of them is that both had come to power by making strong promises for the growth of their country’s economy. While President Obama had failed in delivering some of them, it would be interesting to see if PM Modi would also follow the suit or will be able to deliver on his promises to bolster the Indian economy.

I’m impressed by how PM Modi recognizes the importance of the role that US can play in the further growth of Indian economy and the efforts he has made to woo the American investors to do business in India are commendable. With a bullish Indian economy and the past year showing revival from recession for the US economy; the business opportunities are there between the two to benefit from. In my opinion there’s a huge potential for PM Modi’s ‘Make in India’ campaign to boost the Indian manufacturing sector from US investments.

The steps taken by the Modi government to make the process of starting business in India easier and faster; are the steps in the right direction to build trust and attract foreign investments. But certain lacunae needs to be addressed first; like the delay in implementation of uniform Goods and Service Tax, lack of stable policy on labour and taxation laws etc. act as deterrent to foreign investors from coming to India. The Indian market had been optimistic till now from the entire positive environment that Modi government had brought. It is action time now for the Modi government to deliver on the promises made. PM Modi will have to address the roadblocks from the way of his ambitious ‘Make in India’ campaign of making India a global manufacturing hub; and investments from US businesses can help in realizing this dream.

The success of the bear hugs of the two leaders will be gauged by the trajectory the trade volume between the two countries takes over the year. Still the road ahead for Indo-US business relations appears to be bright, and would be of smooth ride too if the policies and agreements to increase trade by both countries could be implemented soon.

The time is now for India to ‘Shine’!

What is your carbon-footprint?

I’m sure everyone in Delhi must have been baffled and to some extent annoyed by the recent dust storm hitting Delhi and other parts of North India last week.

Baffled, because a dust storm of this magnitude and force has not been witnessed in these parts for some time now. And annoyed, because the inconveniences caused were not limited to lack of visibility and the strong winds – Delhi’s biggest commuting service, the metro was shut down and many parts of Delhi NCR witnessed power outages that lasted well into the night.

This is Mother Nature just showing a small glimpse of what it can do. If it can procreate, it can very well finish life, as we know it. We can very easily accept it as change and give it a fancy name like evolution, but the question to be asked is – how are we contribution to this change? Do we have the power to stop it or are we helpless at the hands and whims of nature?

We all know how greenhouse gases and other man made anomalies have the capacity to change the very nature of earth and its environment. But, do we take that point into consideration when we use products, which create these gases? We always think it’s the big industries and corporations who are to blame when it comes to environment damage when the harsh reality is that we at a personal level ignore the environmental impact of our usage of products and services which generate these gases.

The Wikipedia describes a carbon-footprint as "the total sets of greenhouse gas emissions caused by an organization, event, product or person." When you drive in your car instead of utilizing public transport services – you are leaving behind a carbon footprint. Do you want to know what your carbon footprint is for the last month or the last year? You can check that here:

http://www.nature.org/greenliving/carboncalculator/

We need to motivate ourselves to make the small changes to our lives, which can make a big difference to the environment. Reducing our personal carbon footprints will go a long way in ensuring that we live in a safe and clean environment that is capable of sustaining life for a long time to come.

Think green!

Carpooling – The Good, the Bad and the Environment

Fuel prices have been stable for the past couple of weeks, but this trend is not going to continue nor is it going to go backward (wishful thinking). Some newspapers have already carried the news that we should be prepared for a substantial hike in fuel prices once the election season is over. The lull in price fluctuation was enforced by the Election Commission of India and comes under its code of conduct, which was lifted last week.

When faced with news, especially bleak news – there are two ways a person can go about dealing with it. Accept it or take steps for change. In this scenario, we can either accept that fuel prices will keep on rising. After all, that’s how it’s always played in the past OR we can take concrete alternative steps to counter it. The rise in fuel prices is just one of the many reasons why we should start looking at ways to share our daily commute. Look at it this way, more people in one automobile = less number of cars on the road = less chances of a traffic jam happening. More people reaching on time to their destinations is just one of the many positive outcomes arising out of this practice.

What’s stopping us from making group commuting a habit? Not only are we saving money, resources and time – we are making sure we leave a small carbon footprint in our country (more on carbon footprints here: http://www.carbonfootprint.com/calculator.aspx).

The only challenge I can see can come in the form of organizing everyone’s time and habits when heading out together in a single vehicle – but technology can help us here with many online services coming out to help us in this regard. One of the more helpful ones is - http://www.carpooling.in/

Here at Hero BPO, we have a culture of our employees travelling to and fro from work and home in company cabs – highlighting our commitment to group comminuting. People living in the same neighborhood travel together saving costs and thus helping leave a leaner carbon footprint.

“We're in a giant car heading towards a brick wall and everyones arguing over where they're going to sit” ― David Suzuki

The story of democracy from around the world

There is just one thing that has been talked about this previous month and, most probably will continue to be talked about in the next couple of weeks as well.

The Indian General Elections 2014 has made its buzz and impression in news around the world. One of the star highlights has been the impressive number of Indians preparing to vote this time around – 815 million. Morgan Stanley's Ridham Desai declared this would be the "biggest election in world history!”

So what is the story of democracy from around the world? Are elections and democracy universal? The answer, I’m afraid is not a yes. Even though 80% of countries on this planet are democratic – there are still a handful of countries that are autocratic. 

Even the quality of many of these democracies remains deeply flawed. Only 15 percent can be described as "full democracies," with 31 percent counting as "authoritarian regimes." Another interesting fact about democracy is that the wealthiest countries tend to be democracies: outside the petro-states, the top 25 richest countries in the world (as ranked by the World Bank) are also fully established democracies.

It all began way back in the 1900; New Zealand was the only country with a government elected by all its adult citizens. By the end of the century, there were ostensibly 120 electoral democracies in place!

Here in India, the story of democracy will take a new turn when the new government will be decided next month based on the majority of votes from the current electoral process. For good or bad, only time will tell.

Hope each of you exercised your voting power this time around. Why? Read my post on the importance of voting here: http://sandeepsonisays.blogspot.in/2014/04/one-citizen-one-vote.html

Source for all the amazing facts and the picture in this blog: World Bank  

Elections in the World’s Biggest Democracy

“Power to the people.”

That’s what democracy promises to deliver. The positives and negatives of this system can be debated over and over again and we can end up in an endless loop of discussions with no perfect alternative. That’s the brutal reality – there is no perfect system and the same can be said of the current electoral process. But, we have to make the best of what we have, quoting Winston Churchill here, "It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried."

India, the behemoth of cross-culturalism, has been busy this week with one of its biggest electoral activity in the recent past – General Elections 2014.

I’ve picked up some interesting facts and figures that’ll give you an astute picture of how big the elections in India really are this time around.

·      This process will see more than 814 million Indians voting in the polls. That’s roughly 100 million more than the last general elections in 2009!

·      168 million, or about 20%, will be eligible to vote for the first time.

·      The election will cost about $5 billion or 300 billion rupees!

·      919,000 polling stations have been set up with approximately 3.6 million electronic voting machines. 

The logistics of the electoral process are mind-boggling. Man and machinery have been in constant action to make this happen. 10 million people have been working to make sure that every eligible Indian voter makes it to the polling booth within 2 km’s of their residence.

Incredible, isn’t it?

Hope each one of my readers and followers went out to vote for their respective candidates and parties. After all, your, mine and the country’s future depends on the choices we have made this week!

Source for all the amazing electoral facts: Business Insider – 8 incredible facts about India’s massive elections.

One Citizen, One Vote

They are here and there is no way you can miss them.

The Indian general elections 2014 are already being tagged as the ‘biggest elections’ in world history. There are some staggering figures that go with this mammoth activity for e.g. these also will be the longest and the most expensive general elections in the history of the country with the Election Commission of India estimating that the election will cost the exchequer INR 35 billion! 

The promotions for the two biggest political parties in India are not just hitting television and internet but the online and social space as well. Massive rallies and ground activations are in full swing.

The real question to be asked here is – how much are you as an individual being swayed by it to actually go and vote for the candidate of your choice?

We can never downplay the importance of voting – your future and the country’s future are directly affected with your decision. If you have an opinion which resonates with the thinking or views of a candidate, then it’s your moral obligation and duty to vote for that person and see through that your opinion gets a voice in the parliament. Voting also helps democracy to prevail and if you don’t make that decision to vote, then the chances increase of you getting ruled by by someone who wouldn't necessarily represent your opinions or have your interests at heart.

The reason to vote cannot be overstated. Here at Hero BPO, we have decided to give all the employees and the staff, whose shifts are in the morning and afternoon, an off on the day of the election. This would make sure that our employees go out and exercise their responsibility to vote as they should.

“One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.” - Plato