Thursday, December 14, 2006

Tata Corus CSN - Three way Deal?

Instead of fighting over Corus if CSN and Tata Steel combine to form a three way alliance, it may be the best for the shareholders for all three companies (at least for CSN's and Tata's). The ongoing bidding war would only mean that either of the two companies would end up overpaying for the deal and the other would miss out on the synergies.

It may be best to try a new form that companies Corus's access to markets, CSN's access to raw materials and Tata's managerial capability. But would all the managers be ready to give up personal gains for this option? This remains to be seen as the story onfolds.

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

This week at ISB...

The week has been interesting to say the least. Not only did we get to interact with to top honchos of the corporate world but also had a chance to be in close quarters with our very own 'MAN'. I mean our very own PM Manmohan Singh.

It started with the Capital Markets Conference on the 29th followed by the ISB Leadership Summit on the 2nd of Dec and then the two day GLS. Each of these events were special in their own rights and have been clubbed with the five year celebrations of the ISB.

We are not sure where we may be another 10 years from now but know where we want to be and the promise is worth the wait. But hope is to be a part of that promise than just a spectator.

It is very easy to get disillusioned by what happens at ISB. So you need to keep you feet firmly planted in the reality and work towards what you want the most. The idea is to prioritize they say.

Saturday, November 04, 2006

P.C. on microfinance

Chidambaram states yesterday what he should have a long time ago. Recognising that 22-25% percent interest charged by MFIs could reflect actual costs of transactions and put to rest attempt of some states to cap interest rates. What must be kept in mind that even at these rates MFIs cannot reach the poorest of poor. One of the most efficent (SKS) MFIs charges 26% and it may not be possible for others to reduce their costs to this extent.


The need of the hour is innovation in the business of micro credit. But there is hope, only recently has micro-fin become a hot debate topic around the world and attracting talent in some of the top B Schools. ISB has a full time elective on microfinace.


Problems of micro-fin are many fold in India (as in any other state). Lack of information leads to adverse selection and difficulty in monitoring leads to moral hazard. Both of these added to the problem of limited liability of borrowers and high transaction costs. The need of the hour is to create innovative products that make the process efficient reducing the risks ie costs associated with the small loans

Saturday, October 28, 2006

Placements Ahoy!

This is that time of the year. It has come in earlier than was expected as some of the companies have been accommodated to coincide with their international recruiting schedules. However to keep the process fair to the later recruiters, while interviews would be conducted now, the offers would be announced only at the end of Day 1 of the placement week in February. For some, their focus companies are coming now and this is the chance for them to grab early positions. For the rest it is at least good early preparation for the placement week.

I plan to apply to a few as I find the roles interesting although that has nothing to do with my prior experience. The challenge would be to display skills that I can transfer to the open positions.

CAS has promised a lot of fireworks in the coming few months and indicated that this year's the recruitments are going to be our best yet

Me!! I am keeping my fingers crossed.

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

The topology of apology

Some say that one of the most difficult task for a person is to issue an apology. Ideally it should be one of the easiest things to do if one realizes one's mistakes and has a clear conscience.

However in corporate settings, it has other complexities. Some of the complexities arise bacause managers sometimes have to apologise for sins committed by their predecessors or by oversight of others. Other complications exist because doing so may not be in the best interests of the company, at least in the short run and since most managers' incentives are tied to short run performance it becomes an even ardous task.

Then again, there is a problem of how your apology is perceived. It is equally important that the company is perceived correclty and the wording and timing of the apology are appropriate. Lastly, the companies also must match the words they say through their actions.

Reference: Economist.com

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

V

Well the title is not 'V'ictory. It stands for term fi'V'e during this one year long journey called ISB. Added to that, it also stands for the number of courses I am taking this term different from term IV ( We had IV each in first IV core terms).


However, if I add the PaEV course, technically it should count for VI. I might end up applying to V or at the most V+I companies in the first round between Terms V and VI. Would be glad to make it in I of them. I mean I would be glad to make it in at least one.



Having slept at VI in the morning, am not sure if I am making any sense. But thought it was kind of interesting.

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Terrorism and Index of Political Freedom


Globally, people tend to view poverty and deprivation as a cause of terrorism. However, in a research, conducted by Alberto Abadie at the John F Kennedy School of Government (Harvard University), factors such as GDP per capita, Human Development Index (HDI) and the Gini Index were found to be non-significant predictors of level of terrorism in countries around the globe.

In the study, Abadie used regression for measuring terrorism as measured by World Market Research Center's Global Terrorism Index (WMRC-GTI) upon various indicators of poverty including GDP per capita, HDI (measure of development in terms of health, education and income) , the Gini Index (measure of income or consumption inequality), Freedom House's Political Rights Index (Freedom House, 2004) , certain geopolitical features including include measures of country land area, average elevation, fraction of the country area in tropical climate and landlock and Indices for linguistic, ethnic, and religious fractionalization which measures the probability that two individuals chosen at random from the same country belong to different linguistic, ethnic, or religious groups.

The data suggests that the dependence on GDP per capita, HDI or the Gini index is not statistically significant and fails to explain terrorism differences. However the other variables including differences in linguistics, geography and climate and lack of political rights are significantly related to the incidence of terrorism.

The study, however, suggests that political freedom has a non-monotonic effect on terrorism i.e. terrorism does not rise with more oppression of freedom but is maximum in the intermediate range (E.g., Iraq, which is making a transition from an authoritarian regime to one with more political freedom is witnessing increased amounts of terrorism and North Korea, which has one of the most oppressive regimes in the world, has the lowest levels of terrorism as indicated by the WMRC Global Terrorism Index (2003-2004)

Also, certain geographical areas have been attributed to cause failure to eliminate terrorism such as mountain terrains (Afghanistan) or tropical jungles (Columbia).



Figure 1 Terrorism and Political Freedom (1- Politically Free to 7 - Authoritarian)

Reference:
Poverty, Political Freedom, and the Roots of Terrorism, Alberto Abadie, October 2004

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Hierarchical Human Development Index (HHDI): Search for a better index


There is a multitude of indicators that quantify human progress on economic and social development. But what makes a person developed? Yes for the vast majority of people, getting the basic necessities of life, food, shelter and clothing is an everyday struggle. Once a persons basic needs are taken care of, is he content in mere sustenance. Can we call him developed?

If we say that a true measure of development is happiness, what is the index that measures true development of people? Until we develop happiness meters to measure happiness, we have to keep looking for better indicators that measure development.

One way of thinking about and happiness and development is in terms of evolution of needs. As a person evolves, his focus shifts to a new level of needs. If we consider Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to be absolute (although there is no proof of that) how would we want to measure our progress? For some one in search of Actualization, how good is to force him or her to think about basic material needs. Every excess is limited by the law of diminishing returns. Having one common measure of development index is like forcing everyone to keep thinking about needs that he or she derives only a marginal benefit from.



Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
5. Actualization
4. Status (esteem)
3. Love/belonging
2. Safety
1. Physiological (biological needs)

Countries, just like individuals, differ in their focus based on the level of collective development. After having achieved a level, they may want to focus on another set of needs to satisfy. Although, HDI indicator in its present from is a powerful tool for countries to measure their development on the bottom level and there is no doubt that there is a pressing need for them to do so, it has limited significance to top one third of the countries. Why not have different levels of HDI for countries on different levels. This index, called HDDI, would retain the advantages of the current HDI, and would give the relatively advanced societies a handle on their development based on their current level. Countries would be rated on the level they are and compared to countries at the same level. Measures such as environmental protection, political freedom, and gender and secularity issues can be built into appropriate levels. Also, the level of a country can be used to decide upon its responsibilities on each of these levels and those below it. The goal of the nations would be to move up in the hierarchy and then move forward in its level until they reach a new level.

Such an index should take care of the concerns of most nations and possibly give them relevant measures to focus on.

Saturday, September 16, 2006

World Without Engineers (Part I)

Here's a quick reminder of what the world would be without engineers. More in part deux!











Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Paper Presentation

Finally managed to send out my first ever paper. This was finance paper for a B School competition. Even if I do not win or do not get shorlisted, it gave my a lot of satisfaction. More than anything, it meant that I had to read and understand a lot of greek stuff that I initially thought was I was weak in. Anyways this is a good beginning.

Hope to do at least a few more before the course ends ,provided I can afford some time. This effort meant that I slept less than four hours every night over the past 3-4 days. Hope to catch some sleep now on the weekend.

Or maybe not...

Thursday, September 07, 2006

Skill and Resume Verification by NASSCOM?

Came across this post about NASSCOM creating a repository of information about skills of IT and BPO employees. While it solves some problems for companies and some for employees (Think lemons market...), it can potentially create a lot of trouble if not used properly. It says that the employees would decide about who can view their personal information, but do you think that a poor BPO employee can stop anyone from viewing his or her information.
Other problem would be deciding who updates the information with NASSCOM and the frequency of these updates. Lets say an ordinary IT worker, has learnt a new skill and now wants to update the skills registry, maybe to switch jobs. How would this information be authenticated. The current employer would be reluctant to update even the current skills of his/her employer on the repository. Well they can't even do it successfully on intra company databases except for a few companies. Consider this,1) why would a company, which is fighting attrition, want to update its employees skills on a common database so that others could simply poach these employees. This could also lead to a few companies blackmailing its employees. 2) If on the other hand, the employees themselves update their own skills, there would be no difference at all from the current situation or make the current situation worse. I see huge 'Agency Costs' in both these situations.

The answer is educating people about the pitfalls of resume fudging, and relying on honor system. Performace, in the first 3 months should give ample proof of the fudging if that happens.
A possible solutions could be, a registry for those who are found to have fudged data. The onus of proving the fudging should lie with the company.

Efficient Markets or A Random Walk

What affects stock prices or everyday basis?

Are markets efficient or a random walk?

If Current Price = PV of future cash flows for each share discounted at cost of equity and if stock prices change everyday than does cost of equity change everyday or cash flows change everyday ?

Is CAPM the right model for measuring the cost of equity for efficient markets or just a tool for efficient markets.? Does Cost of Equity determing P/E of stocks ? What about Sectoral effects?

Why do stock prices change every day? Is that so because of buying and selling?

If Behavioural effects determine stock prices how does it change every day?

If marakets are efficient than markets should move only on events, but what are these events? How many events take place each day? What are these events?

How do markets discount/price these events?

If large institutional investors use market models, how do they restimate risk everyday? Do they even use these models.

What causes market in efficiency?

Transaction Costs ?
Information Assymetry?
How Soon do people with information exploit this assymetry?
Minimum Tick Size?
Currency Risks?

What about trends? Bollinger Bands, Inverted Heads and shoulders, cups and handle , break outs? How come do market technical analysts make a living?

What about irrational exhuberence?

So how efficient are markets anyway? Perfectly efficient or Varyingly efficient?

Monday, August 28, 2006

My Kinda' ATM

There are ATMs and then there are some.

Finished both exams atleast half an hour before time each, so had time to chill out. Came across this link. Wish all ATMs were like this or atleast a few. Its swell.

Sunday, August 27, 2006

Term 3 Exams

Its just today and tomorrow between us and end of term 3 at ISB. However there would be four end term exams, as per ISB tradition, in these two days. I am not sure what I am doing writing this blog at this hour and if you are here at ISB, between now and and day and a half after, you should be thinking the same as to why you are reading this now ;. If you are not, I am not sure what you are doing reading this post. Please come back later for more :)

Saturday, August 26, 2006

Six Degrees of Separation

I never believed it. But having used orkut, its seems more and more a possibility that people all over the world are connected to each other with atmost six peole between them.

Consider this, I was able to link back to my brother, whom I had not added as a friend, through my group mates here at ISB. Even most of my other friends from school are connected through at least one of my group mates here. Just wondering, would this have been possible before the advent of the internet. And I haven't had to go beyond 3 intermdiaries yet.

Thursday, August 24, 2006

No ELP :(

Well! Actually thats not too bad considering I am taking the PaEV Course and taking both would have been difficult to manage.(Though some alums have done that in the past). But the reason why we did not get the ELP.. For starters did not have enough diversity on my team inspite of having some really good profiles, or was is poorly crafted application. Should have focussed more on them.

Term III exams are next week. Between today and 3-4 weeks later, need to figure out what stream would I be majoring in, as the bidding for electives starts 3 weeks into the fourth term. Would need to do some serious thinking on the matter. Its been too long waiting for enlightenment ;).

Thursday, August 17, 2006

Consulting or not to be?

Had a session by a group of 5 consultants from BCG. 3 of them were ISB alums. The other two had been with BCG for over six years and held the stage for the most part during the presentation.They were kick starting their recruitment drive from ISB for the year. I just about managed to drag myself into the session, while thinking that a consulting career is not meant for me. But really, they exploded a lot of myths that I had about them. But more importantly, I could relate to the the life and culture they portrayed or at least gave the impression. The challenges of living up the the levels of consultants notwithstanding, while some may argue that consultants are overrated, they did manage to impress me.

They plan to conduct a few more follow up sessions, apparently to help the students prepare for the placement week. However, it may have more to do with identifying the right people early on. Anyways, nobody's complaining, considering they can hardly afford to make, what they call recruitment mistakes and students benefit too. Some of the students turned out in suits. Reminded me of the MIB recruitment line,''... Best of the best of the best", for those who have seen the movie. Although the presenters themselves were dressed more in business casuals. But, I think they flew in to hyderabad, after a full work day.

It has been a long day and I must get some long deserved sleep now. Alas! There are three more assignments due for Monday morning.

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Disruptive Technologies! Myth or reality?

Here's and article by John Dvorak, that certainly makes for an interesting reading. Enough to put doubt into theories of Clayton Christensen. However, on a closer read, you realize that he is just twisting the facts. This is the classical case of just arguing and proving point . You make a convincing argument for X and then concluding by refuting Y. By the way X never really had any relation with Y. But atleast the people who are not familiar with Y, would tend to agree with you and wala, you've got yourself a fan following (Of those who hate X or know nothing about it).
Its like saying..
Cows eats grass
Cow is an animal
Therefore Animals eat grass
Lion is also an animal
Therefore Lion also eats grass.
Other variations of this twisted logic are frequently employed by war mongers or politicians. A classical example is that used by Senators to convince Brutus that Ceasar would lead to Rome's demise. They convinced him that although Ceasar was not evil now, but evil resides in him. Resident evil, would rise some day and that day, Ceasar would take Rome down. So its better to kill Ceasar now than wait for eventual doom.
Its amazing how even well meaning people like Brutus, get taken in by this twisted logic and kill a good man(read idea)
Oh, by the way the here's a link to X. Make up your own mind.

Monday, August 07, 2006

The hottest hand in Silicon Valley

This lad from IIT Delhi went on to be known as the hottest hand in Silicon Valley. If you do not know him, he founded or helped to find these companies

Founding companies
Sun Microsystems Inc.
Daisy Systems
i-Ram Systems Inc.
Khosla Ventures


Helping to found companies
NexGen (now purchased by AMD)
Excite
@Home Network
Juniper Networks
Cerent
Corvis

Well, if you still do not know who I am talking about, then read this. Saw an old video of him of a session he conducted at ISB. Could not help being impressed. He certainly knows what he talks about.

Anyways, every year ISB plays host to TiE-ISB connect every year and if you are wondering what is this TiE I am talking about, then look here or here.

Our man has been one of the speakers at this event in the past.

Well, if you are even remotely thinking about enterpreneurship then you have got to be here at ISB for the TiE-ISB Connect.

Sunday, August 06, 2006

ISB Applicants - Query Section

Life has come a full circle for me. From being and aspirant myself and asking for help I now have the opportunity to help this year's applicants. Having benefited from numerous sources, I think I need to return the favor by keeping this tradition alive. Thus, if you are aspiring for ISB and have some questions, please leave those in the comment section here. I would try to answer them as quickly as possible and to the extent possible, provided I am not deluged with assignments or impending exams ;).

So if you need any info or advice just shoot your questions.

Friday, August 04, 2006

Would I Bite The Bullet? Rather, Would They?

We had a session today by two eminent corporates, from two large corporations. One a global services giant and another a pharma major. They were here to tell us about recruiter expectations when they come to a B-School like ISB today. The pharma guy was an HR person and had fairly relevant points, one's that we could relate to, and he massaged our egos once in a while. The other guy was in a key strategy role in a big IT services company, was an engineer and had grown writing the company to take up this role. Clearly he discounted the fact that the audience was MBA students. The inhibition that a tech person would have (maybe, even I had against MBAs before I came here) were clearly visible. When asked about the roles that MBAs would get post ISB, he clearly thought that an MBA added little value to a persons skills that are relevant to corporates.

Now, I come from a similar pedigree myself, having worked at a tech company for a considerable period. This conflict between managers and engineers would always be there in such a company. Should they value their engineers more than the engineers or vice versa. An engineer would say that they are the real bread winners of the corporation and without them the company would collapse and Managers would feel the same way about themselves, but would probably not say tell this to the engineers.

Truth, for a technical firm, would be a combination of both. Fact is that without technical talent corporation would suffer and would suffer too, without good managers.
Now, I am wondering whether in the next session I should ask, who do they value more as an employee, an Engineer or a MBA? I am not sure I'd would like to hear any combination of the multiple choice answers without hearing out a complete explanation.


Sunday, July 30, 2006

Blogs are like opinions, every one has them !?

A few weeks back, ISB hosted a talk on lack of political involvement amongst the youth in India and its ramifications on the India's economy. One of the eminent speakers felt that the problem is not that Indians are not involved, but rather they are involved only superficially. What he said was that even though a large number of youth discuss politics, they are only voicing their opinions while being ignorant of the facts.

Well, my post is not about that It is rather about blogs. A lot of people vent out their feelings on the blogs. A lot of that can be compared to the situation above. While, it is any day better than not having any opinion voicing at all, but the readers must read these blogs in that context and be aware that a lot of what is being propagated through these blogs are actually personal opinions and looked at in that perspective while forming your own conclusions. With the increasing power of blogs to influence opinion these days this assumes greater importance.


This is not to say that blogs have no utility. On the contrary, I feel that blogs have the power to become a huge tool for empowering the general public. But they should become more than the topic of this post
PS: Name of the topic lifted from http://adamo.wordpress.com

Friday, July 21, 2006

We, the Voyeur!


The above picture refers to the the search volumes in differrent cities, all over the world, for ''Pamela Anderson''. Once again saddi dilli manages to top the list. Amchi Mumbai comes in a close 5th. (For the current scores click here). Need, I say more. Google does not give exact figures so we cannot comment on the relative figures, ratios, per capita searches for 'Pamela' from this trend but the big picture still remains true. Long live C.J. Parket

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Death and Taxes!

Just one hour to go before final exam today (Global Economics- which is second of two today, and last of four in two days.), I could not help but look at this on my google homepage.


"But in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes."
But then again, it was followed by this...


"The two most common elements in the universe are Hydrogen and stupidity."

Life, exams and google can play tricks on you...

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Honor Code

One of the systems that ensures that we, students at ISB, remain true to our words is the ISB Honor Code. Modelled on ethics codes at top US B-Schools, this umbrella code covers all aspects of our lives and expected behavior for the duration of our stay at ISB. It applies to both academic and social life at ISB and is the first thing that is drilled into a person as one enters ISB.
Every year, ISB is becoming stricter in terms of adhering to guidelines.
One of the basic tenets of this code is 'Thou shall not Plagiarize' and we are all very careful not to violate this rule and its fair and simple enough.
While going through Liar's Poker, a book by a former Soloman Brothers, the author mentions the attitude they had towards this
"God gave you eyes,
Plagiarize!"
Was wondering, if there are any situations where plagairism is good. Of couirse, I am not talking about re-inventing the wheel every time you want to build a vehicle. With the easy availablity of papers on the internet, there is certainly a temptation to copy, paste and be done with it. But that would not be real learning.
But what about corporate life, between corporations. One should certainly not pass someone else's work as one's own. This is where IP laws come in. But would it be alright, if these laws were not there. Or more specifically, consider generic manufacturers launching products that are covered by IP laws elsewhere.
Is adopting evil for greater good alright or is it just self preservation and service and exploiting loopholes and market opportunities ?

Sunday, July 09, 2006

TiE-ISB Connect 06 - Sculpting Ideas, Building Businesses


The TiE-ISB Connect is a joint initiative of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), Hyderabad Chapter and the Centre for Entrepreneurship at the Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad. It is a forum that brings together early stage venture capitalists, start up and growth stage entrepreneurs and academicians, on a common platform to interact and help build successful enterprises. The first TiE-ISB Connect held in July last year was a resounding success with over 300 delegates attending the full-day event. Over 100 business ideas were presented of which about 15 are in different stages of development/ discussion with investors.

The TiE – ISB Connect 06 is scheduled at the ISB during September 20-22, 2006. This year we have significantly up-scaled the scope and magnitude of the event, with discussion tracks on diverse sectors including Internet & IT Services, Bio-Pharma, Media and entertainment, Infrastructure/ Real Estate, Telecom/ Wireless, Semiconductor, and Retail. Each track will have a keynote address by a successful entrepreneur, a review of global trends in the sector by an analyst, and a panel discussion by venture capitalists and successful entrepreneurs on sector opportunities. Entrepreneurs seeking opportunities in these sectors may attend the event as delegates.

The entrepreneur community can also benefit from three specific opportunities: Investor Pitch (Presenting plans to potential investors); Venture Showcase (Exhibiting product/ service) ; Jumpstart your venture (Workshop preparing the aspiring entrepreneur for an exciting journey)

For further details, please visit www.tie-isbconnect.com
Source: Indian School of Business

3.23 billion to watch the world cup finals!!??

I am not sure how they come up with these figures. Its seems to me that this is more of a marketing ploy then any real figures. Considering the world's population is 6 billion, ( The times of India reported the no of people watching would be 32.3 billion), 3.23 billion means which means over 50 percent would be interested in watching the French and the Italians slug it out in Berlin In India and China alone this number combined is not going to cross 10-20 percent of the population. Similarly for America it is only likely to be 30 percent. I would put most optimistic figures to be around One billion of people who would want to watch this contest. Finally out of these assuming 50 percent actually get down to watching it live puts the number at 0.5 billion. Mind you not a small number by any means.

I believe the 3.23 billion, in theory, to be the population of countries/regions where these matches would be aired live.

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Online Search Trend for 'ISB'




The picture on the left shows the trend for online search volume for "ISB" and in the lower part shows how often the word "ISB" was referenced in online news.

Two trends are clearly visible. There was a huge surge around 'E', early april that an ISB student had bagged a 1 crore salary. On the news reference trend, onve can see the trend line really taking off after the Bush Visit and continued to rise higher with announcements of placement results and even higher with announcements of profile of batch of 2007 (Marked 'F' ).

The two events have generated massive publicity and good PR for the Indian School of Business.

Picture Source Google Trends









Saturday, June 24, 2006

Why England might not win the world cup?!!

Its all about the fans

Brazil


Australia



Paraguay

Holland



Italy



Guess ??? !!!




Saturday, June 17, 2006

How Bernanke's utterings affect the Sensex

We hear everyday on CNBC about how as a reaction to Fed action of raising interest rate the equity markets around the world are flundering. For the uninited this happens in the following way.

Though Indian markets as well as the other emerging markets have been responding in a positive way to the growh in the economy, their meteoric rise has been fuelled by the supply of FDI.

The rate of inflation is related to the supply of money in the market. With oil prices touching new highs, there is a real danger of inflation affecting people all over the world. One of the ways to keep inflation in check is by reducing the liquidity in the market ie reducing the flow of cash or easy money in the market. One of the ways of doing this is by increasing the interest rates on all lending.

This has a two fold effect. One, it reduced the amount of cash people are willing to borrow from banks to invest else where it also increased the amount of money going into fixed deposits and loans. Also, incurring new debt becomes expensive for corporations and they decrease their spending and hence growth. All of there have contributed to the outflow of hotmoney from the market leading to the crash that happened.

Now with BB, under playing the fears of inflation, it is hoped that there would be no futher increase in the nominal interest rates and we might see a resurgence of funds into emerging markets. This is what we may have seen during the last couple of days.

Also the fact that we bounced off the support level of 8800 we have may a stronger case for markets to gain some strength.

There have been some predictions of markets (BSE sensex) going up to 18000 in the next 2-3 years but for that cetiris peribus India would have to maintain its growth rate. of above 7 to 8 percent.

Leaders we deserve!

Its and easy game blaming someone else for all the things that do not go right in our lives. It is still fashionable in India to blame our leaders /politicians for all that is wrong in India. I would not say that this statement is far from truth but we are confusing cause and effect here.
We all eventually get the leaders we deserve. At least collectively as a nation, the leaders are a reflection of the current state of society. Once we get out acts together and are responsible citizens, politicians are abound to get their act together after all they are our own mirror reflection. They did not land from outer space and were not forced upon us(As much as conspiracy theorists would have us believe). Rather, they are chosen from amonst us and by us.

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Sensex Support

Last support for sensex is at 8800. Below that it could see another 1000 point slide.

Sunday, June 11, 2006

Life is good... @ISB

Term break has come and gone at ISB, faster than we could say break. After the hectic schedule of the first term we have to contend with Term 2 which is supposedly has the most packed schedule atleast in terms of the amount of reading, one has to do before each class. Even a super quick reader would have his or her reading skills being put to test just to keep up with the mandatory reading, other recommended reading notwithstanding.

Any how, we probably could do with some strategic skimming of the course. Ironically competitive strategy is one of the courses on offer in term -2 (probably should have been part of the first term, to help us all prepare for the grind ahead). Not that we need to be more competitive. The junta here is as competitive as can be but we surely could use some strategizing for the exams and on how to tackle.

That said, I did manage to skim through the introductions to all the four courses and am really excited about it. Besides comp., strategy we have macro eco.. (aka global economics), marketing and decision making (or Mark II as knows in US schools) and decision models and optimization. The faculty is great (atleast on paper). After putting up a decent show in the first, would need to get my 'A' (all puns intended) game in this term.

Amidst all the partying and playing in this break, did manage to catch a glimpse of the city, courtesy one of the local students. The weather has been excellent all this while so absolutely no excuse to complain.

Life is good...

Monday, June 05, 2006

Term I at ISB - almost over!!

Time has flown by so fast. Its hard to imagine that Term 1 is already over. (Well not actually. Two more exams tomorrow) Most of it has been great and some real moderate. Most profs have been great, some have been exceptional. In total we had 7, teaching 4 subjects, to each section. Profs were from Wharton, Kellogg and Columbia and teach mostly what is taught in these schools albeit customized for the Indian context. Gives you a good perspective on the differences between the two. (True for Finance and Marketing)

I think the best thing about ISB, is that we have 4 exams in 2 days flat. You can clear most if you are attentive in class and follow up on your assignments. This also means that there is greater focus on learning and understanding rather than expecting students to mug up and puke stuff out on the day of the exam.


Okay, before I get carried away, I still have 2 exams tomorrow. So Chao....

Thursday, June 01, 2006

Technical Support Levels for Nifty

Nifty Support

Besides the support for Nifty at 2896.4, the index also has support level at around 2840 to 2850 levels. Below that level, it may go into a free fall all the way down to 2670

Fundamentally the market seems ripe for cherry picking, but the news flow and technicals are just dragging the market down. Buyers would jumpe in at any fresh signs of consolidation.

Monday, May 22, 2006

One more crash !! Support at 10250 still intact

Although the sensex crashed today, it racovered in the afternoon to close above the support level of 10250. That should, ideally hold. If it does not then there may be some more pain and bloodshed left in the market.

Dynamics of Learning

Finally figured out how to get these dynamic pictures in the header. Had tried that on my previous site a couple of months back, but had not succeeded. It may have been due to the lack of effort on my part. But today I was determined to get it right and finally, it seemed so easy and elegant.

This seems to be a pattern in my life. (at-least academically) It seems, I only get things right or get a deeper understanding if I re-read a second time. Maybe I work things out in my sleep. Talk about tapping the latent power of the mind.


Anyways, the mid term exams (here at ISB) were on last Friday. So after a couple of days of partying and catching up on sleep, people are back in full swing to studying. There weren't too many takers for the soap box presentation for two posts of directors for student body. Tomorrow promises to be more exciting with the position of PlaCom director at stake. There is one clear favourite, but maybe some black horse can win the race at the last minute. Would take some running on his or her part though.

With that, I think its time to go back to the assignments.

PS: If you like the header/title hack, you can find it here and here

Saturday, May 20, 2006

Reservations: Food for though !

Food for thought

Would you want someone to vote operate on you or your loved ones, after knowing that they made it to medical school because they belonged to a special category of people and not on merit?

Would you trust an airline that got its planes designed by some one who made it there because of similar reasons a above?

Would you send someone to fight for you and trust them to defend you when he or she came from some special quota and not on the ability to defend you?

You dont get someone to represent you at the olympics, just because he came from a special group and is not our best athelete?

Hell, you dont have reservation in the Indian Cricket team. Would you let someone change that?

Do you still believe in legislation for quotas in the private industry or that matter government jobs?
Would you vote for XYZ if he carried on the chant for having quotas?
What do you want to do

Friday, May 19, 2006

Sensex Support Levels

Markets closed down more than 10 percent for the week.

Sensex - has support at 10750 levels
below this there is support only at 10250.


After mid-terms, its time again to party at ISB.

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Micro Finance Institutes: The lesser evil?

A recent probe into the functioning of MFI in Andhra as recommended that MFI's should fix the upper limit of interest chargeable at 12 percent and the repayment period should be at least monthly and not weekly as practiced by some. The probe has also highlighted the human rights violations by some MFIs in collecting payments, which should clearly be stopped.
While both of these steps are desirable, the basic premise of MFIs should be social impact but with a go to market model. Because, some of the borrowers are not able to repay the money i.e. the NPA are large the MFIs have to charge a higher rate of interest from the people they lend to. The model is to give out huge number of small loans (which involves costs) to people who are in need and sometimes giving loans without guarantee(which a person may not be able to provide even though he may have intentions to pay back the loan) .
Consider a firm like Citi Financial which operates in towns and cities and lends small personal loans at 18 to 30 percent pa. On the other hand the loans charged by local money lenders in small villages can even go up to 2000-3000 % PA. With high default rate it would be difficult for these MFIs to make a real impact as they would be forced to lend only to people with a credit history and or resources to offer as collateral. So while some might suffer under the high interest rates of these MFIs majority would benefit because they clearly are a lesser evil as compared to the local money lenders(Though not all are really as bad)
Mean while, at ISB the class economist contest has been unveiled. One of the groups has got Micro Finance as the discussion topic. Sadly our group did not get that. Anyways hope to apply some classroom learning to real life topics.

Saturday, May 06, 2006

Assignments- at ISB

We got our first dose of assignments at ISB. Amongst all the parties happening, majority of the people are also quite serious about doing their assignments. Others rely on the rest of the group mates (All of us have been divided into study groups of 6 each) to get them through.
The level of competition forces (rather psyches you into studying more) I have surprised my self at the amount of study hours, I have put in, during the last week. I never thought that I had it in me to do so(Although I have, more than had the share of the parties as well). I wish, I had studied a bit more during my graduation(or under grad, depending on where you live). Anyways, I am happy that I aced the first quiz (Finance). I just submitted it and scored 78/78. I am sure most others will, but that does not take away any shine from my score.
I hope the maxim.. "Well begin, is half done" , would hold true in my case as well. Although, I am not really gunning for the 'D' list or an MC job, starting well is always a good feeling.
Anyways, have two more assignments to complete during the week, and fourth prof has just posted some material for practise.
Chao, gotta study.. Oh there is another party at SV-2 tonite (Student village- 2) ... Any takes on where I mite be tonite....

Bloggers at ISB

I would like to blog more often but do not do it because of the following reasons.

1. I am lazy.
2. Too little time.
3. I would like to and have some thoughts that I want to put down but do not do so because either I do not want to share them or may not think that it adds value to any reader in any particular way. Cause, whether you agree or not you do at times want to be read but sometime you are split right in the middle.

The blogs that I want to go back and read do not necessarily have the most valid point but also articulate them really very well. So hopefully when I am thinking aloud, rather in this case I am just writing what I am thinking, I would make some sense and not just ramble incoherently.

That said, quite a few people here at ISB are frequent bloggers. A couple of them really write well. Others, like me .. Well I'd just leave that to the reader.

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

The race has begun?

With Term 1 scheduled to start next month, people have already started to prepare for the classes and pre-reads. Others, like me are still in a party mode or taking things one at a time. Its difficult really, to get your bearings back into study mode after spending 5 years in corporate life.

However, the truth is that we are all here to make something out of the the one year at ISB. People have decided upon their course of action. Some just want to study, others just want to make friends and network, others are sharing knowledge and are trying to prove themselves as eager, yet capable club presidents.

For some the end goal is important while others want to soak in the journey.

For me, I hope, it is the middle path leaning towards the latter.

Saturday, April 22, 2006

Trauma Transforms!!!

Phew! Just got through the orientation week at Indian School of Business, Hyderabad. 7 Days, 2 Night long parties, lotsa booze and even more gyan I already feel tired but also fired up by the thoughts of what is going to pan out in the next twelve months.

I was shortlisted for TAS (Tata Administrative Services) and although I was really looking forward to this I have decided not to go to mumbai for the final interview round.

We have a saying here at ISB. "Trauma Transforms". To what? is the question....
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