Deep Impressions

A Muslim as BJP's Presidential nominee : Contrarian thinking that might work   Strategic thinking suggests that a Muslim President could bring in broad based dividends  The post of the President of India has very contrasting characteristics. While every executive position with the Govt of India comes with an education qualification and an upper age bar but the post of the Head of the Executive mandates neither any educational qualification nor an upper age limit. And despite this, most of the Presidents of India have been very learned and eminent personalities. To become a President, one does not need to win any general election yet it requires support that transcends political parties. The broad based victory that makes one President, however, portends nothing but the beginning of the end of one’s political career. And while, one may say that the President hardly enjoys any real power, the election to this post offers the ruling party with an o

Can acting talent alone take a Bollywood actor to the top of the popularity chart?   One doesn't need to be a Bollywood expert to answer the above. But, what does remain intriguing is, “If it's not acting, then is there any X-factor that has consistently ensured Bollywood actors reach the top of the popularity charts?” To the surprise of many, history of Bollywood in independent India does seem to suggest the existence of an X-factor. This X-factor is neither glamour nor appearance; in fact, it is a phenomenon that come from outside Bollywood. Independent India's first era belonged to  Dilip Kumar  and  Raj Kapoor . The national political belief then was socialism. During the 50s and early parts of the 60s, the characters played by Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor were a true reflection of the socialistic Indian. Whether the story was about  kisaan  v/s  zameendar  or man v/s machine or poor v/s rich, the hardship of farmer Birju and the struggle of the une

Sanskrit   Version 2 : Open Source or Proprietary Are the  propounders of Sanskrit ready to open the floodgates and accept words like selfie, internet, bandwidth or will they coin new Sanskrit words for every such term. The critics, as expected, have taken diametrically opposite positions on the recent attempts by Govt of India in spreading the knowledge and use of Sanskrit. The Chroniclers of India History, however, have a third view. They are recording this event as “The Biggest ever Irony in the History of India”. During the first millennium, when the masses of this country wanted to learn Sanskrit they were deprived of this privilege by those in power. The Brahmins then felt that the spread of knowledge of Sanskrit would dent their competitive advantage, as all the knowledge of astrology, ayurveda etc would be known to many. AND now those in power want to spread the knowledge of Sanskrit when masses have no interest in learning. You can call it a joke on t

When the consumer is not King Information overload has moved the decision- making power away from the consumer to a new set of market players — the influencers ( article also published in The Strategist - Business Standard, 16th Feb 2015 http://www.business-standard.com/article/management/when-the-consumer-is-not-king-115021500650_1.html ) Information  overload  has  moved  the  decision-  making  power  away  from  the consumer to a new set of market players — the influencers In the latter half of last century, the rising competition among suppliers tilted the bargaining power  in  favour  of  the  buyer.  Competition  intensified,  so  much  so  that  the  purchase decisions  of  the  customer  started  deciding  the  fate  of  suppliers.  This resulted in  the  oft  repeated marketing jargon, ‘ the customer is the king’. The power of the customer was further expected to multiply manifolds with globalisation. Instead, abundance  of information, coup