What I Learned

Below is an idea for developing a location-based mobile app. In India, RBI allows customer of any bank to use ATM of any other bank to withdraw money, check balance, get a small statement of account etc. Banks are supposed to settle the transactions between them and pay each other some fee when their customer uses ATM of another bank (similar to telecom companies paying landing charges). So, banks incur a cost when their customer uses ATM of another bank, which they recover from the customer as transaction fee (free up to 5 transactions from ATMs of another bank). The proposed solution would detect if a customer of a bank is standing within 5 meters (configurable) of an ATM of another bank and would proactively send SMS to the customer with address of the nearest ATM of the bank where the customer has an account. This way, a bank may save money by informing their customers about their nearest ATM when a customer is likely to use ATM of another bank. The bank using the sol...

Though I am not an expert in banking, I am wondering why we can’t have a common bank account for multiple asset classes like different currencies, gold and silver. If possible, also stocks in the same account? This may bring a lot of dormant wealth like gold and some foreign currency lying in households into the banking system. This makes even more sense in a country like India that is largest consumer of gold globally where huge amount is converted from currency to gold and silver every year. We may also allow an account holder overdraw cash by automatically marking a lien on the gold or silver held in her account. This way, loan against gold and silver may be automated for banked population. This may provide flexibility to an account holder and safe lending for banks. Rate of interest may vary based on the asset class (cash, gold or silver) and currency, as part of business rules for the account. This may also encourage financial inclusion by providing depositors a cho...

My 3 learnings from AAP’s success in Delhi … 1.        Being stubborn for a right cause is good. Conviction! 2.        Agreeing to disagree, with elders (Annaji) on approach to solving an issue is key to success 3.        Understand the difference between the cause/goal and means is key to focus on the goal and not on means as long as the means are clean!

After many years, since childhood days, I feel like dancing on the street again today! Seeing Arvind Kejriwal as a Chief Minister of Delhi is like a dream come true for many like me who wholeheartedly supported the cause he fought for. In fact it was my own cause that he was fighting for. It is so proud to see something that we all believed in, succeed against so many odds and skeptics. I feel almost as if I won the election in Delhi and I am partly responsible for the victory of AAP! AK truly gave a voice and a movement to many like me who are against corruption but didn't have the courage, family support and leadership qualities required to pull on a fight as big as this! Even after winning 28 seats and being short of a majority to form the government, the way AAP team handled the pressure and made the right decisions is commendable. I am so proud to be a small part of the India Against Corruption movement and AAP! It is my victory in Delhi and I am sure ...

We have a strong relationship for over 3 years with a reputed client, with 2 mission critical systems delivered and being maintained by us. We get multiple repeat orders from them every year. I thank them for their business. We were recently restricted from bidding for a relatively large project by the client saying that we are too small to bid for the project. The BRD for the project is written by us. This almost felt like a slap for providing delighting service to the customer over years at a price no one can beat! I don’t know how to react and hence this blog post. The lesson I learned from this is that its not always timely service at reasonable cost with good technical capabilities (overall, proven track record) and personal relationships, that help you grow. There are other factors at play beyond pure value-proposition that determine the choice of a vendor. Immediate reaction to this was that we increased our pricing to make sure we increase our profitability, as that i...

I am perplexed with all the hoopla around Agile methodology in IT Services industry. I know the industry thrives on a new  wave of jargon every few years but sometimes we need to ask ourselves if it really makes sense to create this much ado about something, as if there is a new life-form arrived from somewhere in the universe! To me, Agile is just a natural way of developing software that we all did while learning programming in college or elsewhere. While buying a car how many of us bother what methodology was followed to manufacture it? Or what methodology or technology is followed for building a new building or bridge as long as we get it done on time? Do we ask the way concrete will be mixed or the bricks will be built or the grade of steel used or type of pipes used? I am not sure. We focus on results while relying on the developer for this knowledge and expertise. Don’t we? Is anybody in the industry promising results and outcome on time by following whatever meth...

मेरी पहली हिंदी कवीता. भाषा कवीता ने खुद चुनी, मैने सिर्फ कागज पर उतारा है। जिंदगी फिर आज एक चौरहे पर खडी है ... कुछ साथी बिछुडे, कुछ नये जुडे कुछ समीकरण बने, कुछ बिगडे आज फिर एक मोड चुनना है सही या गलत, वक्त पर छोडा है कुछ पाया, कुछ खोया बहुत कुछ सिखा, बदला नजरिया आज फिर कुछ फैसले करने है प्राथमिकताएं बदलनी है फिर एक कदम बढाना है कुछ नया कर दिखाना है फिर खुदको साबीत करना है औरो की तो पर्वा नहि, पर ....... फिर अपनो कि तसल्ली के लिये कुछ कर दिखाना है

Ever wondered why free float indices have become so popular of late, particularly, with increasing proliferation of ETFs? Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are based on the concept of ‘passive investing’ by just following an underlying benchmark for investment, to reduce cost of research and investment decisions. Simply put, ETF are mutual fund units whose portfolio mimics the composition of a benchmark index like S&P500 by investing in stocks that form the index in the same proportion as the weightage of these stocks in the index. This way, performance of the fund fluctuates with the index performance. ETFs provide investors with facility of a mutual fund with Liquidity like stocks to invest or divest at will in the market. ETFs are the primary customers for licensing indices. What is free float – free float or investible weight of a stock is the percentage of the total issued shares of a stock that is available for trading or investment (floating) in the market. This factor...

Let me start with a disclaimer that I am not an expert in Banking or Finance. In fact, as my family and some of my friends know, I am pretty bad at handing and managing money. Having admitted that, while thinking about subprime crisis and reading about ponzi schemes and loan defaults by some of the well known so-called Indian industrialists, I started wondering if the idea of lending and borrowing and the greed is the root cause of all this evil. Being a hardcore Hindu, the best thing I like about Islam, is the principle that lending and borrowing for interest are sins! Perfect! I think at least half the financial troubles in the world may disappear if just this one rule is put in place. If not complete ban at least there has to be a ceiling on the amount that can be borrowed or lent, to help in case of emergencies, and education for deserving student. Below are some of the consequences I could think of, of such a move. Farmers in India may stop committing suicide be...

Today while studying geography, my son, Om asked me about Earth’s orbit around the Sun, the distance earth travels around the sun in a year. I didn't remember it and hence I searched on Google and read it on Wikipedia within a few seconds (many thanks to the Internet, the Web, Google and Wikipedia, and to the people who created these technologies and sites – this would have easily taken me at least over an hour without these to buy/find a book and read the information). The answer is … hold your breath, the Earth rotates around the Sun at the speed of 30 Kms/second (1800 KMs/hour) to cover a distance of about 946,080,000 KMs in a year, while rotating around its own axis at 25 KM/second (1500 KMs/hour)! ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth's_orbit ). Now I know why they say, fact is stranger than fiction! Facts are anytime more surprising, fascinating, amazing than fiction. Who needs fiction to get amused? And this is just one example! The world is full of such astonish...

I explaining how what is market capital, market cap index, free float or investible weight, adjusted market cap, index divisor, formula for computing market index etc.

Now since differences of opinion are public (which is a sign of an intellectually matured society), I got thinking about whose path seems more correct at India Against Corruption, Annaji or Arvindji. Good people replacing bad ones in the parliament, seems to be the only practical way to clean the political ‘system’ to me and hence I support the path of political alternative chosen by Arvindji. I  am sure at the same time that Annaji also has an elderly role to play to ensure that people who are good today don’t become corrupt tomorrow. So, we need both. If Mamta, Maya, Raj and Jagan can form separate political parties what’s wrong with an Arvind forming one? At least Arvind has a proven track record of activism and being absolutely clean, transparent and open! Aren’t these qualities required in the politics today for a change? As Gandhiji said, you must be the change you want to see in the world! If it requires giving a political alternative, so be it. And we are doing thi...

Being a studious one :-), for an assignment from our real estate firm in the family, over the weekend I read guidelines by the Indian ministry of environment and forests for environment clearance of building, construction, township and area development projects in various states of India . The guidelines provide a standardized process and requirements for environment impact analysis of these projects. It is heartening to see such a comprehensive document made available by a government ministry. It will help reduce subjectivity in the environment clearance process across 25 states that have formed State Environment Impact Assessment Authorities (SEIAA) and state export appraisal committees (SEAC). The guidelines make 2 categories of projects. Building and construction projects, and township and area development projects. Building and construction projects involve construction of one or more standalone buildings sans the infrastructure development while Township and area developme...

Here is my response to all who call Anna undemocratic. What was parliament doing for last 42 long years? Parliament itself is responsible for reducing its own sanctity by being inactive on this issue of corruption for so long! People of this country have given enough time to the parliament and successive governments to ACT on this matter and now only thing acceptable is ACTION and NOT JUST WORDS and that is not negotiable. Politicians are hiding behind the parliament and constitution as an excuse for inaction and to buy more time to continue their own corrupt practices as long as they can. Anna is right when he asks why suddenly the parliament got concerned about his health after 10 days of his fast. It is only because of the power of the number of people supporting him made the parliament and politicians take him and the movement seriously. We have been cheated long enough and now we refuse to provide more time to the government and the parliament. Just in case the politicians of Ind...

Manish Sawankar and I recently (around May 20, 2009) visited a magnificent ancient Bawadi (a well with staircase and community space) situated at Vela (Harishchandra) about 12 KMs from the zero mile, on Wardha road, Nagpur. The Bawadi still has good clean water that is being used by the Church nearby. The structure is ill maintained like most other ancient structures in India and needs immediate attention from the Archaeological survey of India. It may be a good option to involve some corporate sponsorship to augment resources for the maintenance of the historically and culturally important water-body in these times of water scarcity in India. Photos are available at http://www.flickr.com/photos/29473404@N08/3603117284/

In last June this year I was discussing with a senior friend about protests by environmentalists for the expansion of the NH7 between Seoni and Nagpur. Below are a few details on the matter. Tigers are definitely in a BIG BIG danger in India (only 1411 remaining at last count, last year!) and I am afraid whether the future generations will have an opportunity to see one, a few years down. I am personally for doing whatever it takes to make sure tigers are protected and their count increased, though I am also for development of much-needed world class infrastructure in India. Development v/s conservation is a perpetual debate and I am of the view that humans have unfairly exploited the planet earthforour desires while it is a shared resource of all theflora and founathat live and contribute to the life on the planet. With global warming being the most important issue facing the very survival of all of us, one wonders what should take precedence if we have to choose between developmen...