Newsynews

There is a lot of talk of war in the newspapers. First there was unofficial war, now there seems there will be a conventional war. Wonder why the people in charge cannot formulate a better strategy to deal with this problem

Some time back I read a report by a Japanese newspaper on India’s foreign policy. They said that despite being such a large country with a huge population, it is a soft country. Most of the rulers cannot defend the country, they are always looking to others for approval.
There is a good article on the colonised minds of the elite in India. Till the mindset changes, things will never improve.

Till 6 months ago, there was a lot of hype in the media about  India shining and India as the next super power.  I think the newspaper editors are brainwashed or too busy attending parties, they did not realize the reality.  They think that politicians who speak in English with the right accent are efficient.

A country which cannot defend itself, where terror attacks take place on a weekly basis,  will never be considered a superpower by other nations, whatever the English media may print.   I wish the editors took a crash course in history and economics.

Stock market crashes  - seems the stock market bubble is bursting, most of it was media hype anyway.  If your turnover or profits are not increasing, how can your company be so valuable?

I had seen first hand how big Indian companies are run, so I knew this was going to happen.  I had invested some amount in mutual funds in 2001 when I had just left my job and had some money from leave encashment. The Sensex was below 3000 then.  After that I have always invested in  my own business, you have better control over the returns unlike publicly traded companies , where you may end up sponsoring exotic foreign junkets and a lot of other “official expenses”.

IT sector responsible for poor roads  - Interview with  Larsen & Toubro’s  MD.  I strongly feel that the hype in the media today about the IT sector and the craze for an MBA is responsible for the infrastructure mess today.

I worked in L&T for several years (I left because I always wanted to start my own business ) and after interacting with  people outside, I feel it  offers the best working environment for an engineer fresh out of college.

In contrast, in the IT sector, you write code and work on a single project for months.  Unfortunately , due to media hype and high salaries, most of the better engineers today either join the IT sector or do an MBA.  You have to be really thick skinned to ignore people  who ask you what is “wrong”  with you, why you are not doing an MBA or joining an IT firm.  Software languages can be learnt at any time, I do the coding required for my websites myself, but you learn to design and manage engineering projects only from practical experience. 

  If the IT firm is developing its own products, it is OK,  but most Indian companies are  just IT sweatshops doing low end work.  And if all the good civil engineers are working as cybercoolies in IT companies, why are people so surprised that the roads are so bad?