Why India is a good 3-5 year bet

I have been quite worried and am still so as to the short-term prospects for the Indian equity markets. In the short term the worries are many - the global slowdown, the possibility of our economy getting overheated, the slow pace of reform, huge market gains over the last three years and the lack of valuation support.

These issues have been bothering me for some time and continue to do so. We can have and most likely will have another correction in the markets, which can cool things down, but that will be in the short term.

However, having been recently given a mandate to look at stocks with a genuine 3- to 5-year view, the picture and nervousness change quite dramatically. There is little doubt in my mind that the country is transforming, and if you are willing to take a three-year bet, ideas abound. The longer you extend your time horizon, the more the feeling of the markets being too expensive fades.

What lies at the root of my optimism are the changes evident in both manufacturing and agriculture. The services story in India is very well-known, and it will undoubtedly be a strong growth engine, but on the margin the growth surprises will come from elsewhere.

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Hi-speed railway tracks for development in Maharashtra

The Maharashtra government has asked the railway ministry to upgrade its track in the state for 200 kilometre per hour speed to achieve double digit growth of the economy and development of backward regions.

Speaking with Business Standard after participating in the National Infrastructure Development Mission conference in New Delhi, state finance minister Jayant Patil said, "We all know that railways were the engines of first industrial revolution in India in the late 19th and early 20th century and if we want to have manufacturing-based growth, which will provide employment to millions, the time has come to invest in the modernisation of the rail network".

He further said, "Maharashtra has always remained in the forefront of the economic development of the country and the growth of the gross state domestic production has been in the double digit mark for the last two to three years. If investments are made in the rail network, state will easily grow at the present 10 percent rate and lift the country's overall growth rate".

He said the present average speed of Indian railways is just around 55 kmph and maximum speed is about 110 kmph, which is even lower than the speed in some of developing countries."

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Telecom to farming: Mittals plan it BIG

The first export shipment in 2005 was a complete disaster. By the time the containers of mushroom, grapes and okra reached the Middle East, much of the produce had rotted.

It would have broken the back of any budding exporter, but the Bharti-Rothschild FieldFresh joint venture survived the setback. And a fortnight ago, fortune seemed to be smiling on it when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited Ladowal village, near Ludhiana, to be shown its 300-acre model farm.

The visit was both an acknowledgment of the importance of the agriculture business as well as telecom major Bharti's ability to focus public attention on whatever it does.

So moved was the Prime Minister that he abandoned his prepared speech to speak extempore. "We need more corporates to enter farming for the creation of wealth," he said. That hope, at least, may take a little longer to fulfill.
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The inspiring rags-to-riches tale of Sarathbabu

When 27-year old Sarathbabu graduated from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, he created quite a stir by refusing a job that offered him a huge salary. He preferred to start his own enterprise -- Foodking Catering Service -- in Ahmedabad.

He was inspired by his mother who once sold idlis on the pavements of Chennai, to educate him and his siblings. It was a dream come true, when Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy lit the traditional lamp and inaugurated Sarathbabu's enterprise

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Also read..

7 money lessons to teach your kids

1. Piggy bank
2. Pocket money
3. Value inculcation
4. Introduce financial jargo
5. Bank account
6. Summer jobs
7. Lead by example

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9 essentials of entrepreneurship

"Entrepreneurship is an attitude," says Ramalinga Raju. "It's for people who are willing to fail."

So what is entrepreneurship all about?

* It is all about hard work and applying your mind properly.
* It needs complete dedication to your ideas and putting your best efforts into them.
* It is going to bed thinking about the idea and waking up in the morning thinking about it.
* It is a field where you need constant attention at every detail.
* It is about driving yourself: If you are a professional, your boss will remind you that you are not working, if you an entrepreneur you have to remind yourself.
* It is about convincing others about your ideas too: You have to get the full support of your family and friends to succeed.
* It is about networking: Being an entrepreneur also means that you have to be constantly in touch with clients, customer and business partners at close quarters.
* It is about leadership: You should know how to be a leader and add value to the leadership with your ideas.
* It is about confidence: You have to live with the conviction that even if things don't work out in the initial stages, later on everything will be in place and you will emerge a winner.

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6 qualities that make you a crorepati

1. Self-Belief
2. Perseverance ( A Never-say-die attitude)
3. Seizing opportunities
4. Innovation
5. Betting on talent
6. Constant Learning
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A VC's story: How to build BIG companies

Srini Raju came back from the United States to join Satyam Computer Services as a partner and he was the chief operating officer from 1992 to 2000. He was also the first chief executive officer of Cognizant Technology Solutions from 1994 to 1996.

In 2000, he left Satyam to become a venture capitalist. He founded iLabs Capital to help start new ventures. iLabs now funds 13 companies, many of them leaders in their respective market segments. He is also a founding member Indian Institute of Information Technology.

He recounts the long successful journey he has undertaken so far.
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Dataone Billing software

Dataone Billing software: "If you are a user of BSNL's DataOne Broadband service, run (don't walk) to http://dobs.sourceforge.net Download, configure, be amazed, be very amazed. In short, this is a script to capture and calculate your Dataone Usage from Dataone's unhelpful Usage site. Lots of options, well written. And excellent documentation included as well. Kudos to Aravind SV - make sure to send him a thank you message. I have only tried the Linux version. Gaurav tried the Windows version, and reports success as well. Good stuff, and please note - it's Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) :) BTW - I am being flooded with requests for help for Dataone setups. I'd love to help, guys, but I simply don't have the time. You should *really* be going to VinuThomas.com and check out the forums there - lots of people, lots of help. "

Why China won't be able to match India

If George W. Bush wishes to be remembered in future ages -- and what high-spirited world leader doesn't? -- he will devote much of his second term to forging close and durable links with India.

Naturally, US President Bush must seek to get Continental Europe back into the Atlantic camp. With the sun of the anti-US Jacques Chirac setting and the star of the realistic and sensible Nicolas Sarkozy on the rise in France, and with the likelihood of the pro-US Angela Merkel's taking over Germany's chancellorship from the ridiculous failure that has been Gerhard Schröder's, the Continentals are already moving Bush's way.
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India rises, Silicon Valley drools

Promod Haque grew up in the old India, born into a lower-middle-class family, but he was lucky enough to attend a school in New Delhi for the children of wealthy dignitaries. His father was a bureaucrat; his mother took a job as a teacher elsewhere to cover his tuition. "I was very fortunate to go there," he says, "but I was an outsider."
After he graduated in engineering and started selling medical gear in India, he proudly bought his parents their first refrigerator. Two years later, in 1972, he arrived in the US for grad school at Northwestern -- and was stunned to see that every student apartment had its own fridge.
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Build Systems if not Leadership

   Govindraj Ethiraj of CNBC-TV18 writes about the need to build Systems if not leadership by relating Mumbai Blasts 2003 and Mumbai Heavy Rain.
   "A system is agnostic to people and personalities. And that's what this city needs, at least in the area of information management"
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Bored on phone? Beware Jerk-O-Meter

   Ever wonder if that spouse, friend or co-worker on the other end of the phone is really paying attention? The 'Jerk-O-Meter' may hold the answer.

   Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are developing software for cell phones that would analyze speech patterns and voice tones to rate people -- on a scale of 0 to 100 per cent -- on how engaged they are in a conversation.

   Anmol Madan, who led the project while he pursued a master's degree at MIT, sees the Jerk-O-Meter as a tool for improving relationships, not ending them. Or it might assist telephone sales and marketing efforts.

   "Think of a situation where you could actually prevent an argument," he said. "Just having this device can make people more attentive because they know they're being monitored."
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Do you talk loudly on the cellphone?

   The complaints are familiar and frequent: People on cell phones talk too loud, they use them at inappropriate times, and they just don't seem to care if they are bothering anyone.

   The horror stories are famous too. Cell phones at funerals. Cell phones at weddings. Cell phones in class. And of course, cell phones in restaurants.

   President Bush has a well-known low cell phone tolerance. He gives a withering evil eye to those whose cell phones ring during his public appearances.
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KPO, the latest buzzword in Indian IT

   India's business process outsourcing industry will soon be edged out by the emerging knowledge processing or KPO sector as the biggest revenue grosser, according to an industry expert.

   Kiran Karnik, president, National Association of Software and service Companies, on Friday while predicted that the country's IT exports would grow by 32 per cent to touch $22.3 billion by the end of the current fiscal, said KPO was set to outgrow the BPO sector in the coming years
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Narayana Murthy's dream for the future

   India's software giant Infosys Technologies Limited has entered its 25th year of existence. In these 25 years, the company has scaled many a peak, making the nation proud of it.

   N R Narayana Murthy, Chairman, Infosys, however, has plans to turn the company into a bigger, stronger, and global player.

   At an analysts' meet, held to mark the silver jubilee celebrations of Infosys in Hyderabad, Murthy spoke about his future for the company.

   Here's the speech that he delivered...Read More...

10 rules to manage your boss

Jacques Horovitz, Professor of Service Strategy, Service Marketing & Service Management at IMD, one of the world's leading business schools says :
   1. Decisions: If you do not want a 'no' or procrastination, give him/her a hand
   2. Manage her time: You may represent only 1% of her problems, don't make it as if it is 100%.
   3. An opinion: If you ask for her opinion, she will always have one
   4. Information: It is not data.
   5. Problems: Don't just come with problems, come also with solutions.
   6. Assumptions: Do not assume she knows as much as you do, but assume she can understand;
   7. Delegations: Constantly test the waters.
   8. Promises: Do not promise what you cannot deliver, and avoid surprises, trust is at stake
   9. Differences: Manage differences in culture
   10. Trust: Don't be sloppy in your documentation. It undermines trust
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Why 'work-ex' is must for MBAs

    Barkha Shah & Malavika Mariswami writes in Rediff :
   You don't understand risk till you actually take one, and if you don't understand risk, you're training to be a Bureaucrat of Business Administration, not a Master.

   Ouch! That hurts -- if you're doing an MBA without any work experience ('work-ex' in campus lingo), as most Indian B-school students are. Work experience is not a hard and fast part of the admission criteria for most institutes, and an MBA is the 'done thing' nowadays straight out of college.
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Cheap computing for millions!

      Novatium Solutions, a Chennai-based startup is building a $100 (Rs 4,300) computer using the "thin client" architecture. This, the company hopes, will take "computing to the next billion."

      In Bangalore, Encore Software is engaged in a similar experiment. Its SofComp is being promoted as a sub-Rs 10,000 mobile computer. Earlier, the company had developed the handheld Simputer with the help of professors from the Indian Institute of Science in the city.

      SofComp combines affordability, computing ability and mobility, say Encore's chairman Vinay Deshpande and vice president Shashank Garg. It works without a hard disk and uses the system-on-chip architecture.

      Set up by Shishir B Purohit, Novatium, meanwhile, dreams of making low cost PCs widely available, an effort backed by Ashok Jhunjhunwala, the Indian Institute of Technology (Chennai) professor who took wireless telephony to villages. Its computer, based on "thin client" architecture can handle most routine office work such as e-mail, word processing, spread sheets, presentations, and Internet browsing.
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How to set up a large start-up

   Think big, start small and scale up fast: it's every manager's dream.

   For Shikha Sharma, Managing Director of ICICI-Prudential Life Insurance Company, it was a challenge. Hiring people, opening branches and offices across the country, unleashing a media blitzkrieg, getting customers: She explains the strategy and the processes employed in founding a large start-up.
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