Sunday, October 31, 2010

Expertize

Narayan Murthy, Infosys founder are available for comments on various topics. He does not shy away for making his views known. His take on two topics are reproduced below. One is close to his field of interest, where his expertize lies. The other is little far. And the difference is palpable. First excerpts from his interview appearing in today's Economic Times.

On another note, one of the US Senators referred to the Indian IT companies as ‘chop shops’. Did the remark dismay you?
If somebody who knew what we were doing or had an industry view or were a respected analyst, we would be worried. But somebody who has no idea what this industry is all about and the kind of infrastructure we have built here and in 70 other countries, makes such a statement, we should be charitable to such a person. All of us, when we get older, tend to do
things that are not the best. Once in a while our logic lapses, our memory lapses, we tend to say things we don’t mean. So I’d say let us look at it in that spirit.

Next is his observation on Science & Technology in India that appeared on The Hindu, dated 28th October.

Industry finances about 75 per cent of the R&D in Korea and Japan, 70 per cent in China and 65 per cent in the U.S. In India, by contrast, the government finances more than 80 per cent of our R&D expenditure. In a recent report, the Science Advisory Council to the Prime Minister noted: “Except in sectors like pharmaceuticals and drugs, our industry does not appear to be making major investments in and demands on Indian science.” Shouldn't Indian industry, especially the high-technology sectors, be doing more to create and drive domestic R&D?

I think it works both ways. While the Indian industry has to show more interest in collaborating with the Indian academic community, it is necessary for the Indian academic community to show more interest in working with industry. Let me give you a very simple example. Every year, I receive a number of visitors from several International universities like Cornell University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Cambridge, University of Michigan, etc, etc. The professors from these universities are so keen on solving our problems. I would be very happy to also receive professors from our own institutions like the Indian Institute of Science, the IITs, and others. Our academicians must be interested in solving our problems.

Many multi-nationals have established R&D facilities in India. Do you think India's Information Technology industry is doing enough by way of creating R&D capabilities for itself?

We at Infosys have our software engineering and technology laboratories where there are 600 people working on issues that are relevant to our needs. So those are huge research laboratories. I think there are other companies too, which have such things. So therefore the answer is yes.

The best students will always go to where they get the best jobs and pay, and that is to be found in industry these days. A research career on the other hand, means protracted training and less remuneration. So how does one make such a career attractive to young people?

I have suggested several times to various institutions that for every paper that is produced in a world-class refereed journal, they could give Rs. four lakh. So that if you produce four papers in a year, then you have got Rs. 16 lakh. Add to that a salary of Rs. six or eight lakh a year, then you have got a decent sum.

Does anybody see a connection between these two interviews? There are few comments by academicians on the later in a blog maintained by an IISc Professor http://nanopolitan.blogspot.com/2010/10/nr-narayana-murthy-on-how-to-attract.html#comments . Excerpts from that.

1. "Where do the institutions get the money to give 4 lakhs per paper?..What happens when industry hikes the salary to put the 4 lakhs/paper money to shame?...Scientific research is not a money-making enterprise. It is high time people realize that. If they dont, I doubt whether they would really have the patience to spend years on researching something that might or might not throw up cool results. The type of folks who cant see beyond the $$ cant bet a scientist - they are more suited to be a manager and deserve to be in the industry....IMHO, the other benefits of an academic life are equally, if not more important than the $$$ - freedom to choose research topics, get adequate research funding, access to quality research facilities, all the while earning an amount that lets us life comfortably (and given the campus housing, one doesnt even need to think beyond the 6-8 lakhs of basic salary). Long time back, I recall a professor telling me "The difference between the industry and the academic payscale is the amount of money you are willing to pay for your freedom". This is something anyone wanting to come to academics will do well to keep in mind. There is a price to be paid for everything."

2. "Mr Narayana Murthy seems to be the typical Indian businessman: he thinks throwing money is enough to solve any problem. I am disappointed....But the first question really is -- do we need more scientists at our existing research institutions? I think not. What we need is more and better universities. And, of course, scientists to fund those universities -- but we need to make our universities attractive places for a career in science (and humanities and other fields). Perhaps Mr Narayana Murthy has thought about throwing money at that problem?"

3. "The views of Narayan Murthy are hardly surprising. He has always been fairly trivial, particularly with regard to education, science and research. For them everything boils down to money. Just because you started a successful outsourcing company does not mean you have the wisdom to know how to encourage research...BTW by his prescription (and to make it slightly ridiculous) Einstein's paper, say on special relativity, and say any one of my papers, say in Physical Review D would get Rs 4 lakhs each. How nice...didn't know my papers had equal value. And poor Mr Einstein would finally end up with fewer lakhs than many of our local scientists who are paper producing factories."

Strong words. From what he said in today's paper, we may find Murthy worrying about these comments and soon we shall have something from him in another interview. Till then ...

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Flat Rate

Eradicating poverty with flat rate of interest? SKS Microfinace, the largest in India with 73 lakhs of customers is in limelight for two reasons - hugely successful IPO and sacking of its CEO immediately after that. This got attention of people and we get educated about this flat rate of interest the profiteering microfinance companies charge. Today's edition of TOI reports, "While offering a loan, they often quote a “10% flat” rate of interest, which, on the face of it, appears like a good deal. However, there is a catch. This ‘flat’ rate of interest means that it will not be calculated on reducing balance. It implies that even after the borrower has paid a few installments, the interest would still be calculated on the initial sum borrowed, and not on the balance loan amount. The result is a (hidden) final rate of interest of 24-30%, or even higher for the poor who can barely afford a square meal a day. “Microfinance, as practised by MFIs is unethical to the extent that it evades the truth in lending,” said R Balakrishnan, a financial market veteran turned independent adviser." And SKS uses 12.5% of flat rate of interest!!!

Now one cannot be faulted to think them as "no better than moneylenders but have so far been able to operate under the pious garb of poverty eradicators."

Add to this the strong arm tactics used. TOI further says,"The high rate of interest is also leading to defaults and fraud. Recently, there has been a spurt in suicides in Andhra Pradesh and Orissa, allegedly due to harassment by MFI agents who started resorting to strong-arm tactics to recover loans as chances of default rise. M Subba Rao, of NGO Masses, who trained under Grameen Bank founder and Nobel prize winner Muhammad Yunus in Bangladesh, describes the cases of alleged harassment by MFIs as the result of ‘irresponsible lending’. “There is high pressure on the staff (of private MFIs) to lend. They have targets to meet and they dump money (on people) in many cases,” said Rao. Consider this: The loan outstanding, according to the latest estimate by Microfinance Institutions Network (MFIN), the organization of 40 MFIs, is about 30,000 crore with about 3 crore poor banking on MFIs for their financial needs. While the four southern states of AP, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala account for a chunk of this borrowing, West Bengal and Orissa too have rural poor relying on MFIs. Besides, the sector is also on an uptick in UP and Haryana."

This was lesson for even seasoned bankers like State Bank of India chief. The concludig part of TOI report says, "Of course, eradicating poverty through the MFI route, for some, is a lucrative business. The IPO document by SKS disclosed that Gurumani was drawing an annual salary of Rs 1.5 crore, an equal amount or more as performance bonus, and also a onetime bonus of Rs 1 crore. Akula is entitled to up to 1% of SKS’s net profit, in addition to ESOPs.
Not surprisingly the ‘success’ of some of the MFIs and the mega-listing of SKS recently have stunned even seasoned bankers. When asked about the success of the MFI business in India, during a recent interview with TOI, O P Bhatt, chairman of State Bank of India, said even he was surprised by their numbers. He wanted to go deeper into their finances and business model to understand how MFIs, who borrow from banks, including SBI, can make profit which these very banks can’t make. The same is the case with some other finance veterans. After all, like mobile tariff plans, no financial product is protected by patents and IPRs and the uniqueness of any new and lucrative one cannot last for more than 24 hours.
The problem seems to be with the business model, and not the approach. In India, largely there are three kinds of MFIs: The self-help groups (SHGs) which are government-supported MFIs, nonprofit NGOs and the private for-profit firms.
"

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Hiring

We are yet to see the advt. in IITkgp online notice board. Since closing date is 27th Oct. and in between we have Durga Puja holidays, we are trying various means to reach out to prospective candidates. Feel like putting this up in blog too. A right candidate getting a right opportunity is as precious as a right opportunity getting a right candidate. Expected date of interview is 2nd Nov., 2010 for them who satisfy the criteria mentioned in the advt.

Two Advt. to recruit 2+2 = 4 candiadtes

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

KHARAGPUR – 721 302, INDIA

Sponsored Research and Industrial Consultancy

Mr. S.K. Biswas

Administrative Officer (Projects)

ADVERTISEMENT NO. : IIT/SRIC/R/VLS/2010/203(a), DATED 5th October, 2010

Applications are invited on plain paper for the following assignment in a purely time bound research project undertaken in the Department of Electronics & Electrical Communication Engineering of this institute.

1.

Name of the temporary assignment

:

Junior / Senior Research Fellow - 2 posts

2.

Name of the temporary research project

:

Virtual Labs [Degital Electronic Circuit Lab (DEC)] (VLS)

3.

Name of the sponsoring Agency

:

MHRD, New Delhi

4.

Consolidated Fellowship/ Compensation

:

Rs.12,000/- - Rs. 18,000/-p.m. (depending upon qualification & experience)

5.

Essential Qualifications & Experience

:

B. Tech / B.E from Electronics / Electrical preferably with valid GATE / NET Score

OR M. Tech in Electronics / Electrical Engineering (preferable).

6.

Relevant Experience

:

Competence in Signal Processing, Digital Circuits MATLAB. Programming Knowledge of PHP, Javascript, Flash.

Interested eligible persons may apply on plain paper, giving full bio-data along with attested copies of testimonials to the undersigned on or before 27th October, 2010.

(S.K. Biswas)


INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

KHARAGPUR – 721 302, INDIA

Sponsored Research and Industrial Consultancy

Mr. S.K. Biswas

Administrative Officer (Projects)

ADVERTISEMENT NO. : IIT/SRIC/R/VLS/2010/203, DATED 5th October, 2010

Applications are invited on plain paper for the following assignment in a purely time bound research project undertaken in the Department of Electronics & Electrical Communication Engineering of this institute.

1.

Name of the temporary assignment

:

Junior / Senior Research Fellow - 2 posts

2.

Name of the temporary research project

:

Virtual Labs [Degital Signal Processing Lab (DSP)] (VLS)

3.

Name of the sponsoring Agency

:

MHRD, New Delhi

4.

Consolidated Fellowship/ Compensation

:

Rs.12,000/- - Rs. 18,000/-p.m. (depending upon qualification & experience)

5.

Essential Qualifications & Experience

:

B. Tech / B.E from Electronics / Electrical preferably with valid GATE / NET Score

OR M. Tech in Electronics / Electrical Engineering (preferable).

6.

Relevant Experience

:

Competence in Signal Processing, Digital Circuits MATLAB. Programming Knowledge of PHP, Javascript, Flash.

Interested eligible persons may apply on plain paper, giving full bio-data along with attested copies of testimonials to the undersigned on or before 27th October, 2010.

(S.K. Biswas)




Sunday, October 10, 2010

Gold

The phone call came as a sweet surprise. Deputy Magistrate cum Deputy Collector of Kharagpur was at the other end. "I saw the work that NSS, IIT Kharagpur is doing. I thought that I should ring you and tell that we very much appreciate these initiatives. I wish I could be there on NSS Day celebration (24th Sept.) but for the admin. work. However, I have gone through the links. You are doing great work." We conversed in Bengali and this is a poor translation and I must say I was overwhelmed by that Sunday morning call. All that I could say was to thank him and the district admin. for lending all support and that it is all teamwork.

Now to some more golden moments of last 24 hours.

This advertizement cam up in today's TOI, Kolkata Edition. I do not have any insider information of this organization. Apparently, they are doing well for the masses in healthcare. More important is the message that they want to send across which clear, distinct and loud. Appears that not only they have a heart of gold but they are the ones who do not believe in passive goodness.

Newspapers are bustling these days with the news of a golden girl, Deepika Kumari of Ranchi. Not cowed down by the hardship of an extended family mangaed by father, an auto-rickshaw
driver and mother, a nurse this tribal girl started practising archery only 3 years ago when she was spotted to accurately aim mango fruits in orchards. Besides the most recent Commonwealth Games Gold she won youth world archery championship last year.

Deepika's mother says that Deepika does not have a mobile phone which makes one distract. She is quite appreciative of the seniors in the Indian Archery team and she reaches her through these seniors. Good to see that more famous seniors like Dola Banerjee who received a bronze medal does not envy the younger team member and have taken up the
responsibility of nurturing the talent.

The other gold spot is the Tata Archery Academy who is training most of India's archery talents. It will be wonder if other corporate houses too look at other sports and nurture talent in a nation obsessed with cricket. Now few quotes from Deepika's parents, school teahers from various newspapers: (The Hindu, The Telegrap, Hindustan Times)

Ms. Mahato (Mother), was not too pleased with Deepika taking up archery. “She was the first in the extended family to play any sport. I never supported her decision at the beginning. But now things have changed I feel proud of her,” she said.

As a Class XI student, she has plenty of school work and Deepika never neglected that part of her life. She is an average student and does well in exams,” said Mr. Mahato.

She has the ability to concentrate for long and this has helped her,” her parents said.

Her parents don’t have to pay anything for her sport as she gets a monthly stipend of Rs. 6,000 from the Tata Archery Academy, which is enough for her they think.

---

In the crowd in front of the archer’s house was Nand Kishore Jha, the principal of the state-run APEG Residential School, Ratu, where Deepika had studied till Class VIII.

Deepika scored average marks. She would go unnoticed at school except for the times when she used to target mangoes on the campus. Her target was mostly on the mark. However, in case of misses, she would continue to target that elusive mango till she succeeded. I was impressed by her marksmanship,” Jha recalled.

Another teacher, Chotan Vishwakarma, recalled that Deepika was weak in math. “She passed matriculation in 2009 though she was away most of the time. That year, she clinched a gold medal at World Archery Youth Championship in Ogden and we were proud of her. We had to give her special coaching for two months before her exam,” he said.

Friday, October 8, 2010

CSR

Got interested to know about Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Read this article at http://www.ibef.org/artdispview.aspx?in=84&art_id=26104&cat_id=926&page=1 More to come.
There are interesting articles at
---------------
Corporate Social Responsibility / Human Resource
Last Updated: June 2010

Indian companies are now expected to discharge their stakeholder responsibilities and societal obligations, along with their shareholder-wealth maximisation goal.

Nearly all leading corporates in India are involved in corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes in areas like education, health, livelihood creation, skill development, and empowerment of weaker sections of the society. Notable efforts have come from the Tata Group, Infosys, Bharti Enterprises, ITC Welcome group, Indian Oil Corporation among others.

The 2010 list of Forbes Asia’s ‘48 Heroes of Philanthropy’ contains four Indians. The 2009 list also featured four Indians. India has been named among the top ten Asian countries paying increasing importance towards corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure norms. India was ranked fourth in the list, according to social enterprise CSR Asia's Asian Sustainability Ranking (ASR), released in October 2009.

According to a study undertaken by an industry body in June 2009, which studied the CSR activities of 300 corporate houses, corporate India has spread its CSR activities across 20 states and Union territories, with Maharashtra gaining the most from them. About 36 per cent of the CSR activities are concentrated in the state, followed by about 12 per cent in Gujarat, 10 per cent in Delhi and 9 per cent in Tamil Nadu.

The companies have on an aggregate, identified 26 different themes for their CSR initiatives. Of these 26 schemes, community welfare tops the list, followed by education, the environment, health, as well as rural development.

Further, according to a study by financial paper, The Economic Times, donations by listed companies grew 8 per cent during the fiscal ended March 2009. The study of disclosures made by companies showed that 760 companies donated US$ 170 million in FY09, up from US$ 156 million in the year-ago period. As many as 108 companies donated over US$ 216,199, up 20 per cent over the previous year.

Although corporate India is involved in CSR activities, the central government is working on a framework for quantifying the CSR initiatives of companies to promote them further. According to Minister for Corporate Affairs, Mr Salman Khurshid, one of the ways to attract companies towards CSR work is to develop a system of CSR credits, similar to the system of carbon credits which are given to companies for green initiatives.

Moreover, in 2009, the government made it mandatory for all public sector oil companies to spend 2 per cent of their net profits on corporate social responsibility.

Besides the private sector, the government is also ensuring that the public sector companies participate actively in CSR initiatives. The Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) has prepared guidelines for central public sector enterprises to take up important corporate social responsibility projects to be funded by 2-5 per cent of the company's net profits.

As per the guidelines, companies with net profit of less than US$ 22.5 million will earmark 3-5 per cent of profit for CSR, companies with net profit of between US$ 22.5 million - US$ 112.5 million, will utilise 2-3 per cent for CSR activities and companies with net profit of over US$ 112.5 million will spend 0.5-2 per cent of net profits for CSR.

-----------------------------------

The following points are notable from the document http://www.civilsocietyonline.com/Polic.htm

DRAFT NATIONAL POLICY ON THE VOLUNTARY SECTOR - 2006

4.4 There has been much public debate on the voluntary sector, particularly its governance, accountability, and transparency. It is widely believed that the voluntary sector must address these issues through suitable self-regulation, as is the practice in various other fields. The government will encourage the evolution of, and subsequently accord recognition to, an independent, national level, self-regulatory agency for the voluntary sector.

4.5 At the same time, there is need to bolster public confidence in the voluntary sector by opening it up to greater public scrutiny. The Government will encourage Central and State level agencies to introduce norms for filing basic documents in respect of VOs which have been receiving funding by Government agencies and placing them in the public domain (with easy access through the internet) in order to inculcate a spirit of public oversight.

4.6 Public donation is an important source of funds for the voluntary sector, and one that can and must increase substantially. Tax incentives play a positive role in this process. Stocks and shares have become a significant form of wealth in the country today. In order to encourage transfer of shares and stock-options to VOs, the government will consider suitable tax rebates for this form of donation. The government will also simplify and streamline the system for granting income tax exemption status to charitable projects under the Income Tax Act. At the same time, the government will consider tightening administrative and penal procedures to ensure that these incentives are not misused by paper charities for private financial gain.

----------------------------------

The issue raised by Ramesh K. CTO & Human Search Engine at http://www.linkedin.com/answers/non-profit/social-entrepreneurship/NNP_SOC/719461-14264156 is also important.

Big problem is identifying the deserving candidates. Misuse of funds by agencies and/or identification of deserving candidates are critical factors. Some donate 'extra' money to tell others that they donate .

Corporate Social Responsibility has become a style statement.

Many people claim to be into charity. Ask them how much they personally contributed. And then see the salaries of the people working in NGOs/Charity organizations.

I also heard that the NGOs can retain some 15% of the contributions for 'operational expenses'.

Many people who claim to champion charity may have collected donations from other and they themselves would notnhave contributed a single penny. But, this is a bit better as they are atleast getting some help from others who can.

I strongly believe that Corporates can do a lot. Even individuals can do a lot.