As a voracious reader who enjoys reading books that are more related to us and near to reality, I do appreciate the bold write of an young Writer Aravind Adiga. Also proud of the way, he made it to the Booker Prize. Aravind Adiga's White Tiger reflects on the injustices and poverty that is still scaring India. The rapidly changing face of India with still persistent problems that we endured for almost 6 decades after Independence in one way reflects India in poor light. The edifice on which the development and growth of the Nation happened and still previaling the rich ruling the poor in the country once again throws us to an debate of the emerging India.
India is currently in the verge of becoming a super power and very shortly accepted as a developed Nation. One way, the book represents the actual India.. In other way, it represents what we could best avoid in a global scenario. This is like the world channels still showing India as a land of elephants, cows and people moving around half naked, sleeping on streets and children carrying concrete bricks for survival.
Unlike most of the critics, I want to highlight one core aspect of Adiga's White Tiger. The huge disparities of wealth , the way rich treats the servants and poor, the greed and theiving which happens in form of growing corruption, is clearly drafted in various sequences in the book. The book also highlights on the emotions, sorrows and aspirations of the invisible poor. In one way, it dares to proclaim that anyone can dream big in this country. The other aspect is not just a villager moving from a rural village to a urban city, the feeling is the same when an Indian immigrates to a foreign land as well. For those who are not exposed to the different cultures, climate, food and way of business, there is always a cultural shock that awaits them.
One thing that hurts me really when took a look deep into Adiga's White Tiger is that it talks more about the bad and troubled things in India. At a time, when India is highly regarded across the globe for the best of hi-tech advancement, human intelligence and we being the best in the fashion world, information technology, science and bio-technology, nuclear physics, spiritual enlightenment, world economy and lot of other good things. I only wish India is shown to the world around for the best of traditions, our rich heritage, our spiritual enrichment, intellectual brilliance, and hardworking Indians, the people of a nation who stand united being so diversified in languages and regions, we should be proud for what best we hold.
I would like to leave a note for Aravind : Think from making the best of your writing skills to promote India for the other side of the coin. I am sure we are no more a land of snake charmers and rope walkers alone with Chandrayan ready to hit the moon coming wednesday. Hats off India, for the way you go towards becoming a developed nation, making Dr Kalam's dream of 2020 a reality very soon.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Earn-and-Burn Generation
This used to be the usual comment from my friend Hari's father, that we folks do belong to a generation which can be called EB Group. My mom used to sing the same song. The song that they managed families within 4 digit incomes, many more children, limited spending, and safe savings. The usual complaint not just from these two parents but almost all of the retired group that I met was that the young generation do not know the value of money. Most of the young lot would just knock their ideas and suggestions by saying that these people never know to enjoy their lives.
All her life, I have not seen my mom even accepting a debit card from the bank, for she thinks that the 1- 2% charges of the shopping made by swiping the debit cards is also ridiculous. And a credit card is a definite no-no. But to us, plastic money is handy, convenient and a usual thing. What started as a pride to have credit cards, slowly became an addiction to spend more. Thinking that every transaction has a record, and the convenience to purchase what we want at the time of when we want, irrespective of when we could afford in fact had ruined many people who never tried to look at the backside of their credit card bills. The cumulative effect of the interest rates laid, the hidden costs, taxes and service charges, surcharges and every aspect of the charges levied have a Banking Act reference, making it a more legal document. It is like signing an P-note without reading it at all.
In US, I have seen people making payments even for $1 by credit cards. There are no hidden charges that threaten the people here as the system is so regulated and controlled. But that is not the scene in India. We do not have the option of declaring individual bankruptcy and taking the social security to fight our difficult situations. The thing which started as a pride on the day you went to an ATM to draw money from your debit card, lured by the well-trained credit card agents of various banks who made you feel like a king when the offer is made is in long run a doom. Taking multiple credit cards to manage one after the other and finally by just making the minimum balance payments, the 45 day cycle of the credit time given expires to land up in more cumulative costs which the customer is not even aware of. The banks which have their own primary system of call centre followup on credit card payments, and legal letter and notices on defaulters, and subsequent personal visits of the credit collection agents of the banks have also the secondary system of collections. The system of Dada-giri or goonda-giri which I am sure the massive defaulters would know what I am referring to.
The second most biggest threat in a bad economy for the salaried middle class is the EMI's. In 1980's, I have seen people struggling to get a home loan, which was given by LIC, or few banks after so much of documentary verification and assessment. In beginning of 2000, this changed drastically, where Loans were sanctioned at the click of few mouse strokes. Online processing, real estate melas, and limited verifications, and minimum requirements like 2 months salary slips, confirmation from employer, 10 open cheques, few photographs made loans for homes, cars, and foreign education, personal needs like marriages, household goods, foreign travel a reality to many people. All for an easy-monthly-installment.
For almost 40% of the salaried class in urban India today, nearly 20-40% of their monthly income goes of in paying for the credit cards or EMIs.
The Third biggest disadvantage of the EB generation is investing in the speculation market. Nearly 20-25% of the investment of young India is shares and stocks, with limited or near to no knowledge on the markets is a major risk. Expecting high returns, quick money and going by own assessment would prove costlier in a bad economy. The concept of recurring deposits, investments in nationalised banks have considerably reduced.
One good option that survived is investing in the yellow metal and real estate that for sure in India is ever booming. Though in general, we hate to adhere to the advice of our old gen, sometimes, giving a thought too helps.....
All her life, I have not seen my mom even accepting a debit card from the bank, for she thinks that the 1- 2% charges of the shopping made by swiping the debit cards is also ridiculous. And a credit card is a definite no-no. But to us, plastic money is handy, convenient and a usual thing. What started as a pride to have credit cards, slowly became an addiction to spend more. Thinking that every transaction has a record, and the convenience to purchase what we want at the time of when we want, irrespective of when we could afford in fact had ruined many people who never tried to look at the backside of their credit card bills. The cumulative effect of the interest rates laid, the hidden costs, taxes and service charges, surcharges and every aspect of the charges levied have a Banking Act reference, making it a more legal document. It is like signing an P-note without reading it at all.
In US, I have seen people making payments even for $1 by credit cards. There are no hidden charges that threaten the people here as the system is so regulated and controlled. But that is not the scene in India. We do not have the option of declaring individual bankruptcy and taking the social security to fight our difficult situations. The thing which started as a pride on the day you went to an ATM to draw money from your debit card, lured by the well-trained credit card agents of various banks who made you feel like a king when the offer is made is in long run a doom. Taking multiple credit cards to manage one after the other and finally by just making the minimum balance payments, the 45 day cycle of the credit time given expires to land up in more cumulative costs which the customer is not even aware of. The banks which have their own primary system of call centre followup on credit card payments, and legal letter and notices on defaulters, and subsequent personal visits of the credit collection agents of the banks have also the secondary system of collections. The system of Dada-giri or goonda-giri which I am sure the massive defaulters would know what I am referring to.
The second most biggest threat in a bad economy for the salaried middle class is the EMI's. In 1980's, I have seen people struggling to get a home loan, which was given by LIC, or few banks after so much of documentary verification and assessment. In beginning of 2000, this changed drastically, where Loans were sanctioned at the click of few mouse strokes. Online processing, real estate melas, and limited verifications, and minimum requirements like 2 months salary slips, confirmation from employer, 10 open cheques, few photographs made loans for homes, cars, and foreign education, personal needs like marriages, household goods, foreign travel a reality to many people. All for an easy-monthly-installment.
For almost 40% of the salaried class in urban India today, nearly 20-40% of their monthly income goes of in paying for the credit cards or EMIs.
The Third biggest disadvantage of the EB generation is investing in the speculation market. Nearly 20-25% of the investment of young India is shares and stocks, with limited or near to no knowledge on the markets is a major risk. Expecting high returns, quick money and going by own assessment would prove costlier in a bad economy. The concept of recurring deposits, investments in nationalised banks have considerably reduced.
One good option that survived is investing in the yellow metal and real estate that for sure in India is ever booming. Though in general, we hate to adhere to the advice of our old gen, sometimes, giving a thought too helps.....
Attrition coming down to a single digit
First time in the several years, reports have stated that attrition had seen a serious fall from 13% to 8%. This brings in a cheer to the HR community which otherwise struggled for several years with the paper work, resource hunt and a critical match path of the right people for the project needs. HR community also faced a biggest challenge of identifying the right profiles, and over the period of time, became experts to identify fakes certificates and experiences. The wildfire of attrition has stopped in the BPO and IT industry for a while. Major reason being "IT companies stopped hiring". This is a generic statement and there are exceptions like Infosys who are still head hunting. But overall, the market mood is sober and unpredictable.
A year back, the situation was different. Retention was a major concern to organizations with people hopping jobs at the fall of a hat. There were several reasons and major demand across the sector and people took things for granted. Now the Ring of Fire is different. Now it’s the companies which are having a Tea Time. In the sense, that with appraisal cycles round the corner in the last quarter of the year, lot of companies is at the advantage to handle people and their demands in a more passive manner. It would not have been the state a year back. But things are different and people are now backing in form, expecting job security, consistent projects, known environments and loyal atmosphere. This infact is going to bring back the lost loyalty of the people in the organizations. People would now naturally get back to the mode of being connected to the companies they work for. For one reason, they would not like to be detached in such an economy for a job in hand. There is nothing wrong in the change that is going to happen in the mind set of the IT professional, for one reason, that they are seeing such a chain reactions of the economy at a large for the first time after the recession of 2001.
IT companies overall revenue is estimated to be in the range of 40- 65% happening from the Banking, Financial and Insurance industry and related sectors. Travel and hospitality industry also had seen greener days as the IT and BFSI sectors worked towards rapid growth in the last several years. It is time for the ROI for IT companies which have invested on the human capital in terms of training, recruitment, travel, recreation etc. The overall IT spend will be coming down as there are going to be less and less of projects coming from UK and USA at least in the next one to two years. The support, maintenance and operations contracts would still survive. It is going to be very challenging for the sourcing teams who would pursue new projects. Employees also would understand the need to make use of the economies of scale and learning to be contributing to the company cost cuts. The first and foremost responsibility would be for everyone in the organization to feel the need to minimize costs, increase productivity and understand that only the best would survive under such a situation. This paradigm would continue at the current environment where supply is over stripped to the market demand. It’s no more a choice but a nomenclature to live within one's means.
A year back, the situation was different. Retention was a major concern to organizations with people hopping jobs at the fall of a hat. There were several reasons and major demand across the sector and people took things for granted. Now the Ring of Fire is different. Now it’s the companies which are having a Tea Time. In the sense, that with appraisal cycles round the corner in the last quarter of the year, lot of companies is at the advantage to handle people and their demands in a more passive manner. It would not have been the state a year back. But things are different and people are now backing in form, expecting job security, consistent projects, known environments and loyal atmosphere. This infact is going to bring back the lost loyalty of the people in the organizations. People would now naturally get back to the mode of being connected to the companies they work for. For one reason, they would not like to be detached in such an economy for a job in hand. There is nothing wrong in the change that is going to happen in the mind set of the IT professional, for one reason, that they are seeing such a chain reactions of the economy at a large for the first time after the recession of 2001.
IT companies overall revenue is estimated to be in the range of 40- 65% happening from the Banking, Financial and Insurance industry and related sectors. Travel and hospitality industry also had seen greener days as the IT and BFSI sectors worked towards rapid growth in the last several years. It is time for the ROI for IT companies which have invested on the human capital in terms of training, recruitment, travel, recreation etc. The overall IT spend will be coming down as there are going to be less and less of projects coming from UK and USA at least in the next one to two years. The support, maintenance and operations contracts would still survive. It is going to be very challenging for the sourcing teams who would pursue new projects. Employees also would understand the need to make use of the economies of scale and learning to be contributing to the company cost cuts. The first and foremost responsibility would be for everyone in the organization to feel the need to minimize costs, increase productivity and understand that only the best would survive under such a situation. This paradigm would continue at the current environment where supply is over stripped to the market demand. It’s no more a choice but a nomenclature to live within one's means.
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