Chanakya and his leadership ideals for Indian youth
 

               Dr. Radhakrishnan Pillai, who is the author of the book “ Corporate Chanakya” divided his presentation in to two parts. The first part was about Chanakya’s “Arthasastra” , a book which is a perfect manifestation of Chanakya’s views on statecraft, law, economics, war etc. He also disclosed the fact that this book written in Sanskrit has the proud privilege of being placed in the museum within the Supreme Court and ofcourse is considered to be the perfect exemplar of Chanakya’s noble thoughts. The book is considered to be a classic as it is based on psychology of human power and psychology.

             Second part of his discourse Consists of Chanakya’s ideas on Leadership:
I)Leadership depends on the level of confidence in decision making.
II)All undertaking can be preceded with consultation of those with matured intellect; but too much of consultation can also increase the difficulty to arrive at decisions and maintain secrecy.
III)Lot of quality time should be spent in youth, the stage which can make or break the career of an individual, normally 9 am -5pm is important but what is done from 5 pm – 9 pm is very important.
IV)A wise man should make use of sensible words of even a child and partner with those having strengths and try to avoid YOU vs ME but nurture YOU and ME attitude.
V)A leader should have broad shoulder and large heart , and the happiness of the subject should be the sole aim of the leader.
VI)Hence, to become a leader one should Act with Tact; sharpen the skills by applying whatever is studied.
VII)He also quoted Bill Gates who said to a candidate, “If you challenge me, I will recruit you”. This actually indicates the necessity of being vibrant and updated.
VIII)Leadership is all about transformation, genuineness, loyalty, objectivity, judgement, core values, being worthy of trust and being trusted.
IX)Battles are not won during war times but by the preparation done in peace times.
X)Only strength can appreciate strength, hence instead of feeling jealous collaborate with excellence.
He suggested that “Checklist Manifesto” is a book that should be read by everyone to lead a fulfilled life.

Will English kill off India's languages?

I happen to read this interesting article by Mark Tully, Former BBC India Correspondent.  Any takers?
 

Whether the government, the private sector or NGOs should deliver development is a question which will not have much relevance unless India's wealth continues to grow to pay for that development.

English is one of the advantages India has which are said to be propelling it to economic superpower status.

There are all those Indians who speak excellent English. It's the mother tongue of the elite and effectively the official language of the central government. Then there is the growing number of parents who now aspire to give their children an education through the medium of that language. But is the craze for English an unmixed blessing?

Back in the sixties the British regarded Indian English as something of a joke. The comic actor Peter Sellers had mocked it so comprehensively that I found it well nigh impossible to get the BBC to allow anyone with even the faintest Indian accent on the air.

In India, we native English speakers laughed at quaint phrases like "please do the necessary and oblige", or more simply "please do the needful", and "it is suggested that the meeting be preponed", which appeared regularly in Indian official correspondence.
 

Feted writers

A senior British diplomat once suggested that his PA should find some less geographically specific way of answering the telephone when he couldn't take the call than saying, "Sahib is not on his seat". Much to the diplomat's dismay a colleague told him that his PA had misunderstood the instruction and been even more specific. He'd told the colleague, "Sahib is in the lavatory."
 

Now with Indian writers carrying off the major literary awards, and Westerners in the IT and BPO industries talking of being "bangalored" when they are replaced by English-speaking Indians, Indian English is anything but a joke.

But could the very success of English in India "bangalore" India's own languages?

The linguist Professor David Crystal speaking in Delhi said: "A language is dying every two weeks somewhere in the world today. Half the world's languages will no longer be spoken in another century. This is an extremely serious concern, and English has to share the blame." Others put it less politely, describing English as a killer language.

But should India worry if English kills off some of its 22 officially recognised and hundreds of its not-so-official languages?

Perhaps the answer is no.

In his book comparing the future of India, China, and Japan, the former editor of The Economist, Bill Emmott, said India fell short of China in almost every measure except the ability to speak English.

So why shouldn't India build on its one advantage? One practical reason is because, looking back over the history of India since it became independent in 1947, it is clear that any threat to Indian languages has the potential to provoke a violent backlash.

Mark Tully is a writer and former BBC India correspondent. This is an edited extract from his new book, Non Stop India, published by Penguin Books, India

Most people think innovation is all about ideas, when in fact it is more about delivery, people, and process.

Entrepreneurs looking to innovate need to understand the execution challenge if they expect their startup to carve out a profitable niche in the marketplace, and keep innovating to build and maintain a sustainable competitive advantage. Everyone thinks they know how to make innovation happen, but I can’t find much real research on the subject. At the same time, myths about innovation are commonplace in business.

This requires a step-by-step through the innovation execution process, in the context the ten most common myths about innovation, which I think makes their approach particularly instructive:

1. Innovation is all about ideas.

While it is true that you can’t get started without an idea, the importance of the Big Hunt is vastly overrated. Ideas are only beginnings. Without the necessary focus, discipline, and resources on execution, nothing happens.
 

2. A great leader never fails at innovation.

When it comes to innovation, there is nothing simple about execution. The inherent conflicts between innovation and ongoing operations are simply too fundamental and too powerful for one person to tackle alone.

3. Effective innovation leaders are subversives fighting the system.

Effective innovation leaders are not necessarily the biggest risk takers, mavericks, and rebels. The primary virtue of an effective innovation leader is humility. What you want is integration with real world operations, not an undisciplined and chaotic mess.

4. Everyone can be an innovator.

Ideation is everyone’s job, as are small improvements in each employee’s direct sphere of responsibility. Yet most team members don’t have the bandwidth or interest to do their existing job, and well as address major innovations.
 

5. Real innovation happens bottoms-up.

Innovation initiatives of any appreciable scale require a formal, intentional resource commitment. That requires the focus and resources from top executives to sustain, even initiate, relevant efforts.

6. Innovation can be embedded inside an established organization.

Some forms of innovation can be imbedded, like continuous product improvement, but discontinuous innovation is basically incompatible with ongoing operations.
 

7. Initiating innovation requires wholesale organizational change.

Innovation requires only targeted change. The first principle is to do no harm to existing operations. A common approach that works is to use dedicated teams to structure innovative efforts.
 

8. Innovation can only happen in skunk works.

Innovation should not be isolated from ongoing operations. There must be engagement between the two. Nearly every worthwhile innovation initiative needs to leverage existing assets and capabilities.

9. Innovation is unmanageable chaos.

Unfortunately, best practices for generating ideas have almost nothing to do with best practices for moving them forward. Innovation must be closely and carefully managed, during the 99% of the journey that is execution.

10. Only startups can innovate.

Luckily for entrepreneurs, many large companies are convinced that they must leave innovation to startups. Yet research suggests that many of the world’s biggest problems can only be solved by large, established corporations.

Everyone agrees that the goal of innovation is positive change, to make someone or something better. Entrepreneurs need it to start, and established companies need it to survive. The front end of innovation, or “ideating” is the energizing and glamorous part. Execution seems like behind-the-scenes dirty work. But without the reality of execution, big ideas go nowhere, even in startups.
 

Excerpted from Forbes Open Source Newsletter.

Once upon a time a tortoise and a hare had an argument about who was faster .

They decided to settle the argument with a race. They agreed on a route and started off the race.

The hare shot ahead and ran briskly for some time. Then seeing that he was far ahead of the tortoise, he thought he'd sit under a tree for some time and relax before continuing the race. He sat under the tree and soon fell asleep.

The tortoise plodding on overtook him and soon finished the race, emerging as the undisputed champ. The hare woke up and realized that he'd lost the race.

The moral- "Slow and steady wins the race. This is the version of the story that we've all grown up with."

THE STORY DOESN'T END HERE

there are few more interesting
things.....it continues as follows......

The hare was disappointed at losing the race and he did some soul-searching.He realized that he'd lost the race only because he had been overconfident, careless and lax.

If he had not taken things for granted, there's no way the tortoise could have beaten him. So he challenged the tortoise to another race.The tortoise agreed. This time, the hare went all out and ran without stopping from start to finish. He won by several miles.

The moral - " Fast and consistent will always beat the slow and steady. It's good to be slow and steady; but it's better to be fast and reliable."

THE STORY DOESN'T END HERE

The tortoise did some thinking this time, and realized that there's no way it can beat the hare in a race the way it was currently formatted. It thought for a while, and then challenged the hare to another race, but on a slightly different route. The hare agreed. They started off. In keeping with his self-made commitment to be consistently fast, the hare took off and ran at top speed until he came to a broad river. The finishing line was a couple of kilometres on the other side of the river.

The hare sat there wondering what to do.In the meantime the tortoise trundled along, got into the river, swam to the opposite bank, continued walking and finished the race.

The moral - "First identify your core competency and then change the playing field to suit your core competency."

THE STORY STILL HASN'T ENDED

The hare and the tortoise, by this time, had become pretty good friends and they did some thinking together.Both realized that the last race could have been run much better So they decided to do the last race again, but to run as a team this time.

They started off, and this time the hare carried the tortoise till the riverbank. There, the tortoise took over and swam across with the hare on his back. On the opposite bank, the hare again carried the tortoise and they reached the finishing line together. They both felt a greater sense of satisfaction than they'd felt earlier.

The moral - "It's good to be individually brilliant and to have strong core competencies; but unless you're able to work in a team and harness each other's core competencies, you'll always perform below par because there will always be situations at which you'll do poorly and someone else does well.

Teamwork is mainly about situational leadership, letting the person with the relevant core competency for a situation take leadership.

Note that neither the hare nor the tortoise gave up after failures. The hare decided to work harder and put in more effort after his failure. The tortoise changed his strategy because he was already working as hard as he could."

In life, when faced with failure,sometimes it is appropriate to work harder and put in more effort.

Sometimes it is appropriate to change strategy and try something different.

And sometimes it is appropriate to do both.

The hare and the tortoise also learnt another vital lesson. When we stop competing against a rival and instead start competing against the
situation, we perform far better.

To sum up- the story of the hare and tortoise has much to say:
Chief among them are that fast and consistent will always beat slow and steady;work to your competencies; pooling resources and working as a team will always beat individual performers; never give up when faced with failure; & finally, compete against the situation - not against a rival.

I just happen to read the article Young Indian Heritage Walk to Arittapatti. There were two things which caught my eyes,  collective ownership of the city and civic sense. Every year in the month of August, "Feria de las Flores" or the Festival of Flowers is celebrated in Medellin, Colombia. The festival holds 2 Guinness world records, the largest outdoor horse parade (about 7000 horses and riders  participate) and the largest outdoor flower parade. There is a huge rush of tourists from across the world and for a change I happen to hear English tit bits quite often.  I saw collective ownership and civic sense in true form over here. My son's school send a message that the school will not conduct the extra classes during this week as they do not want to add to the traffic congestion which might have occurred. Further Pico y placa (peak and (licence)plate), a traffic congestion mitigation policy is implemented during the week. The policy restricts the movement of public and private vehicles ending with certain digits between certain times (rush hour). For further details on the policy, simply Google it...

The city of Medellin is in a party mode throughout the week. However, there is no aftermath of the party, no litters or garbage spewed across the city lanes, unlike the Ramlila Maidan which converted into a garbage dump after the historical fast of Anna Hazare.

Apart from the flower show, one can observe the horse show and the antique car parade. I was fortunate to be able to see all the shows. What was striking about the show was the after-works. In banking parlance we have a term called ABH (After Business Hours), where a group of system engineers readies the system for the next BOD (Beginning of Day) after running a series of EOD (End of Day) activities. They start the work after the bank hands over the system after business and ensure that the BOD starts without hitches. I happen to see similar activities during the show. A dedicated municipality ensured the cleanliness throughout. The streets are sweeped and cleaned with water after the parade, I mean almost immediately after the parade. 

For us, cleanliness ends with our home and we are not bothered about our surroundings. Being a civic society, we  must ensure that the ownership trickles down to everyone. Collective ownership and civic sense is the need of the hour.

YOUNG INDIANS HERITAGE WALK TO ARITTAPATTI

Young Indians of Madurai Chapter teaming up with district officials and Tamil Nadu Tourism Department organized a Heritage Walk to Arittapatti on 29th August '11 as an initiative to celebrate the World Heritage Week. The objective of the walk is to remind the citizens of Madurai about the rich heritage of Madurai and also to attract tourists to these places and enjoy the serenity it offers. Around 120 students of our college took active participation in the walk to a Rock Cut Siva Temple and Jain Caves. Mr. K. Nagaraj, Chairman, YI Madurai Chapter welcomed the gathering and Dr. R. Venkatraman, Retired Professor of Madurai Kamaraj University steered the interest of the students and other participants by narrating the erstwhile grandeur of the place. The main focus of the event is to

i) Develop an attitude of collective ownership for the city.
ii) Preserve ancient monuments.
iii) Inculcate appreciation of our culture and heritage.
iv) Imbibe civic sense.
v) Encourage tourism which would in turn increase employment.

Mr. Vijay Dharshan, Member, YI Madurai Chapter and Partner of Wings Restaurant delivered the Vote of Thanks.

        The following are considered as the 10 best tips for a better study & to emerge with flying colors along good grades.

1.ESTABLISH A ROUTINE
Set aside a particular time: each day for study and revision and stick to it.

2.CREATE A STUDY ENVIRONMENT
This should be away from interruptions and household noise, such as the television. Ensure there is adequate lighting and ventilation, a comfortable chair and appropriate desk.

3.SET A TIMETABLE
With a timetable you can plan to cover all your subjects in an organized way, allotting the appropriate time for each without becoming overwhelmed.

4.LOOK AFTER YOURSELF
Drink plenty of fluids, especially water, and eat healthy foods. Keep sugary foods to a minimum. Make sure you get enough sleep each night. Regular physical exercise makes you feel great, boosts your energy and helps you relax. So try to keep up regular sporting activities or at least fit in some regular exercise as often as you can.

5.REWARD YOURSELF FOR STUDYING
Watch your favorite television program, spend time with your friends, walk to the park and play sport throughout the week.

6.HAVE VARIETY IN YOUR STUDY PROGRAM
Study different subjects each day and do different types of work and revision in each study session.

7.AVOID INTERRUPTING YOUR CONCENTRATION
Have all the appropriate materials with you before you start a session of study to minimize distractions.

8.TEST YOURSELF ON WHAT YOU HAVE STUDIED
Ask your parents or family members to quiz you on what you have learnt. Use draft questions from books, past assessments or major exam papers.

9.DON'T PANIC AT EXAM TIME
If you have followed a study routine and have been revising your class work, there should be no need to worry. Try to keep yourself calm, positive and confident.

10.ASK YOUR TEACHERS FOR GUIDANCE
Especially if you're having trouble - whether it's grasping a new concept or understanding something you learnt earlier in the year. They will be happy to help.

Make studying a part of your everyday routine and don't be limited to 'cramming' for exams and semesters.

Good luck!

Thanks for reading!

Hola..Como estas? Hello, How are you?

When one has lived in a society which is so very apprehensive about the strangers, it was indeed strange for me to get used to these greetings from almost every one ..No wonder this became the first Spanish phrase which I understood. Many of you might be knowing that I am in Colombia, a beautiful country in South America..What is the picture which comes to your mind when you think of Colombia? Drug cartel, beautiful women (Of course, Shakira)...Believe me you are not alone.

Upon arriving here, all my preconceived notions of this country and the people were broken. The people here are so hospital, very beautiful both in body and soul. You happen to hear Hola como estas, bein, gracias, hasta luego (Hello, How are you? Fine Thank you, See you later) from strangers you meet in lifts, shops, restaurant and the likes.

This country is very beautiful, almost picturesque and the people here ensure that it continue to remain so. I happened to travel by the Metro rail here, and I could not help comparing it with our railway stations back in India. Believe me, I found the station so neat, so organized...and no hawkers . No graffiti and of course not smelly...The construction sites are covered and it is ensured that the normal traffic is not disrupted nor the general public is disturbed. The sites are covered and the surroundings are cleaned regularly. We have read about Cleanliness is next to Godliness...in this country it is practiced verbatim.

The annual flower show is on next week.

Until then, adieus, hasta pronto..

A one-day workshop on “Ideation Conclave” was organised in our college on 18.07.'11 at the conference hall. Student members of Young Indians contributed actively in the session. The programme began with the welcome address rendered by Mr. Raghu Ram, Co Chair-YI madurai chapter & Director Operations, ARC Group of Companies. Mr. Gowrishankar of Akshaya Patra Foundation, Bangalore, a 11-year-old NGO made an impressive presentation stating that it has undertaken the initiative of feeding 13 lakhs school going children in states like Rajasthan, Assam etc. The motto of this organisation is that “No child in India should be deprived of education because of hunger”. The presentation offered to be a source of inspiration to students to come out with novel and benevolent technological ideas.

The feasibility of the idea and its level of scalablility were critically assessed with a self-evaluation questionnaire. Mr. Rahul Mirchandani, Chairman, International Relations & Partnerships motivated the students to put forward their ideas by believing that all desirables are do-ables. Presentation containing a pool of ideas concerning Energy Conservation, Smart Headlights, Hydro-Potential Car and Touch screen and Light-Pen methods to be adopted in the examination system were made by the students. A jury consisting of four members including our Joint-Secretary Mr. M. SR. Raj Santhosh critically evaluated the presentations and selected Hydro-potential Car to be the best of all presentations. It was actually a day for the students to get together and prove their mettle.

I'm indeed privileged to share about the Young Indians meeting that took place at Hotel Pandian on 14th July 2011. It was a learning session on the topic “Leading Change” attended by 12members with representation from all departments in our college. Mr. Bhaskar Bhatt , Managing Director, Titan Industries addressed the gathering and began his speech by comparing a successful train journey to that of any successful organization wherein  the whole system has to be credited for any success. He also pointed out that change is necessary but it need not always be about winning and there also different  kinds of ways by which people react to change  namely, 1. Resist and Combat 2. Accept and Embrace 3. Initiate and Drive. People who adopt the first point of view will be bureaucratic, those who belong to the second category would be good managers and those who initiate and lead changes will be a good leader.

He thereby insisted  the necessity of picking up the impulse of change and acting accordingly.  With that he moved on to narrate the 23-year-old triumphant journey of Titan and its ways of catering to the needs of both premium and mass market. He also pointed out that success can even pave way for failures citing the failure of their jewelery business and therefore he cautioned saying that " Take risk but reduce the size of risk". He opined that generating high level of employee engagement  enabled them to become  world's 5th largest watch manufacturer and become a healthy, wealthy, sharing and caring corporate entity which is the envy of Indian companies. He was also confident enough to foresee that the next 25 years belong to Asia and therefore we don't have choice but to seize the opportunity. In doing that we should be collective , risk by piloting and make customers first. He  concluded saying that one should face challenges with real sustenance and accelerate the moment, for all that to happen he counts on a charismatic leader who can think like a visionary beyond the focal point.