What I Learned

A meeting yesterday got me thinking about value systems we all have. I think the most important thing that separates individuals is their value system, leading to their thought process about what is right or wrong. Major part of the value system is developed during childhood by observing parents, and from their teachings. I am so grateful to my parents for having given us siblings following values. 1.      Joy of reading – my father is a voracious reader. We get about 8 newspapers at home daily. Aa a child, I saw him reading many books in Gujarati, Marathi, Hindi and English. He made sure we had enough books available for us to dive into. That developed the interest for reading classy stuff for us children. I think, this is the best legacy my father has given us and we are trying to pass it on to the next generation of our family. 2.     Whatever you do, do it openly – if you can’t openly do something, avoid it by all means. This ensures go...

Some of this may sound repetitive but is increasingly relevant with each passing day. Considering the way, the Internet is evolving and engulfing various aspects of life, soon we may have one gigantic network, and any screen for all of the following, and more… ·        Information (the Web) ·        Communication (phone, email, chat, instant messaging - Whatsapp) ·        Entertainment and media (Videos, TV, Movies, Media, Social Media) ·        Education (information and knowledge as text, images, video and audio) ·        Commerce (Catalogs, Banking, payments) ·        Maps and Navigation (GIS, GPS, Uber and Ola) ·        Tourism and hospitality (Trip Advisor, Yelp, AirBnB!) ·        Healthcare (Telemedicine) ·  ...

After a month in the USA across 9 states, 5 major cities and travel through various media except the space; below are some learnings/observations. 1.        Nothing much changes if your phone is not reachable for a whole month without international roaming This realization is a big liberating factor for me, who always thought I must always be reachable to family, customers, colleagues and friends. But, if you inform them that you won’t be reachable on phone for instant talk while being reachable on other channels like email and Whatsapp, most didn’t bother us and some contacted on data channels after failed attempts to call. This encourages me to take a 10 day Vipassana course with no contact with external world!      2.        If you can avoid media, distractions and clutter, there is enough time for everything we want to do It was surprising to see how much time one has if there are no distr...

We know dictionaries and thesaurus tell us synonyms. How do you find synonyms for phrases in different languages? Here is my attempt to translate some of those with my limited knowledge of a few languages. जिसकी लाठि, उसकी भैंस = Might is Right मेरा क्या? = What is in it for me? अंत भला तो सब भला = All is well that ends well! जिंदगी और मौत का सवाल = To be or not to be; that's the question! उथळ पाण्याला खळखळाट फार = empty vessels make more noise दिसतं तसं नसतं, म्हणुन जग फसतं = Looks are deceptive! नाचता येईना, म्हणे अंगण वाकडे = नाच न जाने, आंगन टेढा दुरुन डोंगर साजरे= दुर के ढोल सुहावने  अंधो मे काना राजा = वासरात लंगडी गाय વેહલા સુવે, વેહલા ઉઠે વીર, બળ, બુધ્ધી, ને ધન વધે, સુખમા રહે શરીર = Early to bed, Early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise बुंद, बुंद से सागर बनता है = थेंबे, थेंबे तळे साचे = કાકરે કાકરે પાળ બંધાય

This may sound a bit far-fetched and hence interesting to think about. Aadhaar, is the unique ID about 1 billion Indians have (970,327,158 to be precise, on Jan 31, 2016 – about 1/7 or 14% of the global population!). How about making Aadhaar a global ID solution for the whole or part of the world? If majority of the world can use Facebook for social sharing and Gmail for email, why not a global Indian solution for unique ID? Why reinvent the wheel when there is something already working successfully for 1B people!? If Europe has a common currency and monitory system, why not a common ID system for a few countries? Technically, it is not a proof of citizenship anyway. It is only an ID. To start with, it could be a unique ID solution for the neighboring south Asian countries like Nepal, Bhutan, Shri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan, followed by Southeast Asian region and then countries in Africa. It may easily cover about half the global population in next decade before...

Attached are photographs of a magnificent ancient Bawadi (stepwell) situated at Vela (Harishchandra) about 12 KMs from the zero mile, 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. We in India are so blessed by our forefathers to have these stepwells! It will be foolish of our generation to let these disappear without protection and care. All these stepwells should be declared heritage sites and protected with participation from local governments. It may be a good option to involve some corporates to augment resources for the maintenance of the historically and culturally important water bodies in these times of water scarcity. At a broader level, our whole country has thousands of such ancient monuments from Mahakali caves in Mumbai to Markanda in Vidarbh to L...

While thinking about improving processes and practices in healthcare industry, it struck to me that prevention is better than cure! :-) leading to thinking about all the things that help us prevent ill health. Below are a few examples.      ·        Bicycle and cycle rickshaws - promote good health, environment friendly and saves foreign exchange spent in importing petrol      ·        Sports facilities and sports goods - promote good health, team work and social harmony      ·        Gyms and gym equipment - promote good health      ·        Fruit juices - help maintain good health and recover from illness      ·        Yoga and Ayurveda These are a few and there are more such things that boost health. Many countries offer tax incentives for r...

·         I want to close my bank account with ICICI bank ·         I need to personally approach the clerk at the branch which I need with a request ·         My debit card and cheque book is promptly destroyed by the bank clerk, to close the account ·         He realizes that my bank account is linked to my demat account with them. So to close my bank account, I must close the demat account first. I promptly get the form to close the demat account ·         They see some stocks in my demat account which I must either sell or transfer before closing it ·         I request them to transfer it to another demat account I have with them jointly with my wife. ·         They can’t do that because the origin account is in my name while ...

Need - Most businesses or startups with big vision would require multiple partners to share the common vision, risks, toil and rewards. Having seen successful partnership work for some businesses and having failed at it twice, below is my take on what to look for while selecting a partner for a business. Shared vision and values – while this is the most important factor, it is the basic first criteria to even consider a partnership with someone. It is more of a hygiene factor to decide whether to think more about the idea. Your best friend may not necessarily be a good partner. S/he may remain a friend, philosopher and guide to bounce off ideas to, but not necessarily a business partner. I learned this the hard way in spite of cautionary words from family members. Actions must match the Words! – watch if the actions of your potential partner match the words s/he says and commitments s/he makes in most cases. If there is a gap, you are better off finding someone else....

I recently read about VC firms asking the founders of potential investee company to register in a developed country for the ease of doing business in general, and for friendly corporate tax in particular. In that scenario, profit making startups doing business in India become tax payers to a foreign country when foreign funds invest in those companies. That looks like win-win for all as these companies create jobs in India and hence create individual Indian tax payers while they pay relatively less tax to a foreign country and increase profit for the investors. There is no doubt India needs to improve on ease of doing business and have a business friendly tax regime in addition to drastically reduce corruption and bureaucratic processes. We also need to strengthen our laws for intellectual property rights. Recently, in the budget this year, Indian finance minister announced gradually reducing corporate tax to 25% over 4 years to rationalize it. This is welcome. That s...

I have the good fortune of growing up in a remote village in backward part of backward Vidarbha region of India, then settling down in a tier 2 city like Nagpur, after working and living in metros like Mumbai and New York earlier in life. I call it ‘from the bank of a pond to the shore of the Atlantic’, or in Marathi, ‘ Takya chi paal te Atlantic chi paal’ . :-) I still travel to all these places often. Below are a couple of silent observations. For years, every time I travel to my village, I see it more-or-less the same except for a few small changes here and there. It is somewhat like just a couple of new brush-strokes in a still painting, though these have increased of late. On the contrary, every time I travel to Mumbai, I am amazed at the changes happened and happening all around me. Another striking difference is, may be a result of this ‘activity’, is that I see people in metros always running after something to ‘achieve’ in spite of already having achieved a lot and ...

We recently had to painfully let go one of our star performers at Harrier for a reason other than her performance and behavior. Reason, she said is can’t even make a day-trip to visit a client, not even with a colleague, as her father has restricted her to travel overnight in train without a family member accompanying her! We could have sent her by air if we could afford, but this was a fundamental issue of who decides whether she will travel or not for office work! We understand the scary atmosphere created by stories in media about crimes against women and her father is justified to be concerned about her safety, but this sounds like stretching it a bit too much to put a blanket restriction on her overnight travel. Further he seems to have said that she is free to do what she likes after her marriage. So, it seems that he is less worried about her safety and more about his duty to keep her safe only till her marriage, as after that, it seems, it is someone else’s duty to worry abou...

Why software services and products don't go together? Harrier was started in 2004 as a software product company with 'Harrier Stockpile', our flagship product for computing and maintaining market indices. We painfully transformed ourselves as a software services company focused on solutions for global financial services industry, to be afloat after financial meltdown in 2008 though the product bug refuses to go away. Wise-men and elders have always said that it is extremely difficult to run products and services businesses together at the same time as it requires different 'mindset'; though I always felt that we can develop products with people on 'bench' (team members sitting idle) while offering services for quick cash flow. I feel sorry for myself that it took me 10 long years to be convinced that these are two different ballgames though the reasons I have are more than mindset. Below is my learning. First assumption is that any business is...

I wasn’t a great fan of investing in MFs till recently when some of my investor friends finally succeeded in luring me to over 40% tax free RoI that some of these offer in spite of the warning that “MF investments are subject to market risks. Please read offer document carefully before investing. Past performance doesn’t guarantee future returns”. It sounds like warning on a pack of cigarettes and it seems as if banks have lobbied to regulators for it to protect their fixed deposits. J Once I was convinced, I decided to start SIPs for all the members in our joint family of 9, including kids. That’s when the fun started. Below are some observations and learnings. I called a friend who runs an investment advisor shop to advice on how to get started. He turned up the same afternoon and explained to me in detail for an hour the advantages of investing in MFs in spite of me telling that I am ready to ‘start’. He said he’ll identify the funds we should invest in and send forms ...

I was reflecting on various software systems I had opportunities to work on in last 20 years, initially as a VC++ programmer, then as a project manager, and now as CEO of an offshore IT Services company, Harrier Information Systems. I feel, regardless of the technology, team, project manager or business domain, the single most important factor that separates a system that nobody uses from the one that nobody realizes exists while using it daily; is the software architecture of the system. We have delivered several software systems that customers use daily like Air without realizing those exist till they require an enhancement once in a while. We also had a couple of those that failed to ever go ‘live’. First, a few successes... We developed a custom ETL tool that processes millions of records every month, and it just works! There is a process automation system and another one for equity research that are working smoothly for years! Another web-based reporting tool h...