The mainstream media in India, particularly Mumbai is so obsessed with celebrities that it is disgusting. There are so many more interesting things, but the media owners cannot think of spending time and money researching it (though they have plenty of resources). Some times I really wonder why our media is so shallow.
It only happens in India - newspapers start PR agencies
A few years ago, I spent a lot of time analysing the accuracy of news stories and was surprised how easily it was manipulated. At times I wonder why they cannot be neutral.
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?