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’!

Focus, Happiness and Life Priorities

Feel like you’re juggling too many projects and struggling to get your work finished? Feel that there aren’t enough hours in the day? And there’s just too much happening and it’s flat out exhausting?

Then there is definitely a need to look back and set your priorities right!

It happens a lot of times that one gets distracted and diverts their vital time into some other thing that captures one’s interest. Has this happened with you? If yes, then there’s definitely a need to focus on the work or pursue the work/activity where your focus and attention is undivided.

Successful people in life have always gone from one work to another after getting bored with their original work and fallen in love with a new one. The result: they never had the kind of success they could have enjoyed if they’d only stuck with and relentlessly pursued the work which they didn’t like and work which they could never focus on.

In my opinion, one should pursue the work that one loves and is passionate about. This would lead to undivided attention and focus.

Also, it necessary for you to always prioritize! If you keep all of your options open you haven’t made a commitment to anything. If you’re keeping your options open you’re not wholeheartedly focused on the business or the project that can help you fulfill your highest goals. One should always stick to what one is doing and what one can do best. It’s important to not be tempted by false opportunities. Focus on what is going to make you happy. Ask yourself – “What can I do to achieve greater success and help myself and people who I love?”

Apart from this, there are whole bunch of techniques to help one focus on what matters most. I’m sharing two that work for me.

Tomorrow’s List: End each day with a to-do-tomorrow list. Leave it on your desk and go home. It will be waiting for in the morning and you don’t have to spend time at home thinking about tomorrow.

Stop Doing List: The greatest leaders, like Warren Buffet, learnt to say “no” to almost everything not important. Not only they refuse to do anything that is not absolutely essential, they spend a lot of time looking around their companies for things that can be eliminated. The best leaders seem to have figured out ways to say “no” to the nonessential items. Now figure your.

Hope this article was useful. Please feel free to share your views with me by writing down a comment below.

My take on ALS Ice Bucket Challenge!

I am pretty sure you must have heard about the Ice Bucket Challenge viral fundraising campaign (under the hashtag, #ALSIceBucketChallenge), which challenged participants to either post a video on social media of having a bucket of ice water dumped over their heads or donate $100 to ALS, or both – within 24 hours. There have been reviews and comments of every kind about ALS’s Ice Bucket Challenge.

To those who are not aware of it - ALS is a fatal progressive degeneration of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. The disease disrupts muscle control, causing paralysis and eventually death. About 6,000 Americans are diagnosed annually. There is no cure and no known cause
Interesting things cropped up on the internet and there was a debate between people who opposed it and those who supported it. The debate between the two groups highlighted and challenged the existence of the Ice Bucket Challenge, which is simply interesting when supported by evidences.
People who are thinking that raising money for an incurable illness is a “waste” of water, have taken to the Internet to protest the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.

I feel that although the popular ALS ice bucket was about creating awareness about the disease yet, it comes with its own catch of wasting water.
Some say it was genius, some say it was frivolous. Critics have called the Ice Bucket Challenge a gimmick, a waste of water and a way for people to get recognition by not donating.
Bollywood also engaged in this viral activity of dumping bucket of ice-cold water on themselves. Some did it just for fun and didn’t even know much about the cause according to the reports.
Whether this was necessary or not is still debatable, but it did influence and garnered attention of everyone in the world.

What surprised me was how creative people became leveraging the campaign publicity and came out with their own campaigns supporting other causes. While some were really funny such as Dirt Bucket Challenge and I need not mention their purpose; Others came up with their own version, posting videos as they donated rice to those in need.
In line with the mantra of ‘charity begins at home’, this campaign titled ‘Rice Bucket Challenge, aimed to save water and feed the hungry.

Hunger in India remains at “alarming levels”. Far from enthusiastically dumping buckets of grain over their heads, this trend actually urged participants to donate a bucket of cooked or uncooked rice to a needy person. A further option was the donation of medicines to the value of 100 rupees to a local government hospital. Now this is something that’s inspiring and motivating. Isn’t it?
To all the readers! I would love to know your view, too. Feel free to share your opinions by posting a comment.

Inculcating the trend of ‘Green Holidays’

It is that time of the year again. Summer for some brings back the reminiscence of being in school and getting ready for the summer break and for some it is that time of the year when they need to take a break and unwind. As an employer, it is with the latter bunch that you have to engage with but for reasons bereft, you sometimes have to deal with the inner child as well. I say this because, here arises the need to educate and inculcate a habit, culture and trend amongst your workforce to not only make sure that they do take a break to unwind and enjoy summer but, to make sure that during this period they do something for the environment as well.

Most of my readers would agree that Indians, as a rule go for vacationing to one of two places, its either the exotic south of the country or the mystic northern hills and valleys. Both these places, especially the hill stations are big on environment and greenery and the ideology of preserving it. The idea is to make sure that when your employees go vacationing, you as an employer should stress on the need to carry forward your company or organization’s green culture to these places. Your employees are your ambassadors and they carry forward the legacy of your organization.

Some of the planning for a green vacation begins well before, like choosing the right accommodation – not going for a fancy vacation hotel which has a high carbon footprint but instead boarding a simple local tourist hut or even, if the area allows it, your own tent! Taking whatever perishable food items in a biodegradable packaging to be bought back instead of just throwing it away for Mother Nature to deal with.

The idea of vacationing is to get away from the crowded city clutter and get as close to the environment as possible – and you can’t do that unless you sacrifice some of the urban comforts that you’re attached with. Once you have this part figured, the rest is going to fall in place.

“Green is the prime color of the world, and that from which its loveliness arises.” - Pedro Calderon de la Barca

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