Monday 26 September 2011

On Indian media

Following Dilip Mandal's detailed analysis of the Bihar’s media non-performance on the Forbesganj firings news story (FORWARDPress, July 2011], the Press Council of India issued a notice to Hindi & Urdu newspapers for partisan & biased coverage of the police firing in Forbesganj on 3 June 2011.

Thursday 15 September 2011

We are not as clever as we think we are

In THE GLOBAL TALENT INDEX REPORT: THE OUTLOOK TO 2015, written by the Economist Intelligence Unit and published by Heidrick & Struggles, India was, as could be expected, NOT in the top ten countries.

But it wasn’t even in the top twenty countries, or in the top 25 countries or even in the top 30 countries. It scrapes in at number 35.

K.A. Narayan, President of Human Resources, Raymond Group (India) was one of the team of five overseeing the Report, so the Report cannot be dismissed as being ignorant of Indian realities.

Isn’t India doing a lot to increase the supply of talent by investing in education? Maybe or maybe not, but clearly not enough!: ‘Mr Narayan believes that the rapid pace of economic growth means that Indian employers will still have a tough job on their hands finding the right people. “Despite the great increase in supply, the shortage of critical talent will only increase,” he predicts. “GDP is currently growing at 9%, and rural India is suddenly opening up, sucking in a lot of talent”.’

To make matters worse, the Report expects India to continue in 35th position, while China for example is expected to leap from its current 33rd position to 31st place in 2015, and Canada, Chile and Turkey are also expected to gain.

So we had better wake up from our arrogant laziness and do much more than we are doing if we expect to improve our competitiveness and our performance.

Tuesday 6 September 2011

Finally, a source of POSITIVE news on our country!

I am delighted to have discovered a source that provides not merely propaganda on the part of one party or group, or mere sensationalism, but positive news!

So cheer up as you click http://www.theweekendleader.com/about-us

Saturday 3 September 2011

India's cabinet members declare their assets

Well, the Anna Hazare campaign may not have done actual good so far, but one positive result is that the Indian cabinet has (mostly - excluding 5 people) declared their assets.

This is a positive step, and should have been taken long ago.

It not only gives a good signal, it sets an example.

Let us see when all members of Parliament, all senior Judges, and all senior government officials (specifically including members of the Police forces and Armed forces) declare their assets.

Meanwhile, it is interesting that the power of the Prime Minister, and the peer pressure of 72 colleagues has not been enough to persuade 5 members of the Council of Ministers to declare their assets.

What are they hiding?

Friday 2 September 2011

Thursday 1 September 2011

Congratulations to Zubin Mehta for continuing in spite of disturbances

Zubin Mehta is one of the foremost conductors in the world and I admire the way he continued despite organised disturbances of "his" performances at the world-famous BBC Proms in England yesterday

Pro-Palestinian protestors have every right to protest, but they need to have a better sense of what sorts of protests will win them public sympathy and what sorts of protests will lose them public sympathy.

As far as I can see, disturbing classical music concerts is going to lose them public sympathy - at least I am going to be marginally less in sympathy with them from now on.

Meanwhile, my admiration for Zubin Mehta has grown. He has proved himself unflappable as a human being and as a conductor.

When everything becomes war, small civilities matter even more - and classical music (for me, Western as well as Indian) is one of the things that enriches life.