SlideShare acquisition - a different perspective

I was reading a news about the SlideShare acquisition by linkedin for 119 million. It was inspiring to know that an Indian led company has achieved so much success. SlideShare wasstarted in 2006 and so it has achieved the status of no.1 presentation sharing site of the world. One could not ask for better success than this and that is why Amit Sinha says - "We could not be happier about this....". I was more interested to know 'Why' about his decision when he has acieved so much in 5 years and so went to SlideShare website and read his own comment where he pointed out following reasons :

One : "I firmly believe that SlideShare will grow faster with LinkedIn."
Question :
Growing faster in which domain ? Userbase,Branding or Revenue 
- In area of userbase , SlideShare does not need linkedin's help. It has it's own and very large userbase.
- In area of Branding , It has established itself as leading brand in content sharing and even can do more if diversify itself in some areas.
- In Revenue : I guess this is the area where Amit seemed more tempted but ....

Second : "I have watched as LinkedIn has grown from being a place to share your resume to a much richer site, where you go to keep up with what your professional network is doing and sharing. We like the path they are on, and are excited to join them on this journey."

Question : It is good that you are inspired by linkedin but you have much scope of as well. Why to sell ur own baby ..just collaborate with other majors and you could have be flying as well.....

As I was not much satisfied by above 2 reasons so I tried to analyzed this by another NON-Business way and found this as another example of Indian tech company bought by American giant just because they lack the world leadeship and tempted by the money.He did following  :


1. Worked for Americans companies
2. Left American firms and start their own business
3. Again worked hard to develop the business
4. Developed recognition
5. Sold the business to another American company
6. Ready to start American company again(After earning 119 million)

So he completed a cycle from step 1 to 6 with more money but lost the opportunity to make it BIGGER like LinedIn or Facebook.

It is not the first time that an IT guy has done something like this...read following example :

1. World fame Sabeer Bhatia, got educated in India and US.
2. Worked for apple as hardware engineer
3. Worked with Jack smith to setup and developed the world famous email brand - Hotmail
4. Sold Hotmail to Microsoft for around $400 million in 1997
5. Worked for Microsoft for 1 year....and now a days doing many things like ......

Above is my thoughtabout this acquisition and somehow it gives me an idea that America are the real business nation who knows how to do the business and dictate the market. They have the simple practice either grow faster or buy the one who have the potential to make Americans grow faster. Indians who are god gifted,hard working and laborious( and have seen life in India ) and love money and recognition falls easily into the trap.......they get everything but INDIAN Business loose the opportunity to be the lead the world and be 'LEADER'....:(

PS : A question that is popping up in my mind ...why India does not even a single world leading product brand ???...may be someone have answer .....

Winning a political battle in 55 days...Great IITian work

There is no doubt why he is most remarkable member of cabinet of Manmohan Singh when performance is concerned. This IITian is different and clearly demonstrated his skills by making sure that landmark land acquisition bill is passed in 55 days(from conceptualization to finally becoming Law). He strategically and systematically made sure that bill is accepted by each section of the parliament ( including opposition). Though he himself accepted that Rahul Gandhi personally took interest in expediting the process, But it does not make his role less significable at all.

1. 21st July : Land acquisition draft bill was submitted in parliamanet. The Draft was his wish list but he was fully ready to dilute his stand to accomodate concern of other concerned.
2. between 21 july and 7 sep : Cabinet colleagues were discussed and accomodated, Mamta Banarjee was persuaded and convinced. Industry leaders were informed and their feedback received and State government contacted and their views accomodated.
3. 7 Sep : Land acquisition bill introduced in Parliament; it  reflected the collective wisdom of the cabinet where different points of view are voiced and a consensus view is reached.

So from start to win in 55 days and in Indian politics....It requires a standing ovation for Mr. Jairam Ramesh....And a obvious hypothetical question that is popping up in my mind ....Why can't he handle the anti corruption bill ?

Understanding the differences between Govt. Lokpal and Jan Lokpal

For many days , I was trying to understand the differences between Govt's differences on Lokpal and so I tried to do get some comparisons before commenting. Here is the difference in excel sheet format :

Farms n Farmers - Incredible Bihar

"Some people refuse to accept things as they are, rather see how they should be - and leave no stone unturned to make it happen" - These are the lines from the heart of 2 young,hard-working and humble IITans.Treading a path less travelled, 2 have taken to agriculture after turning down lucrative MNC job offers and made a mark for themselves within a few months. They started their mission with an offbeat initiative in October 2010 in Vaishali district and now it has spread over 6 adjacent districts in Bihar.

Mission : Social service+Entrepreneurship (maximizing returns from land through natural farming)
Location : Started from Vaishali district,Bihar
Starting date : October,2010
Starting strength : 18 farmers to experiment on six acres of land
Method :
- Farmers are suggested to cultivate Cash crops eg. 'rajma' and flowers instead of the conventional crop of wheat/rice.
- Farmers learn and implement new techniques such as water harvesting and organic farming.
- Each technique is tailored to the soil content and land size.
- Farmers sell directly to food processing companies. It helps farmers earn more.

Organization :
- In February 2011, they founded an NGO, 'Farms n Farmers (FnF)', which does everything from soil testing to providing a market to farmers. Its activities have now expanded to adjoining districts including Muzaffarpur, Sitamarhi, Banka and Purnia.
- FnF charges a nominal 10% of total sale value from farmers. It is planned to lower this figure in future as more farmers join initiative.
- FnF, which has more than 150 farmers associated with it, has an 8 member advisory team which includes Prof P K Sinha from IIM-Ahmedabad, Prof R Singh and P B S Bhadoria from IITKharagpur, and Dr Bimla Rai from RAU, Pusa. Manish and Shashank hold regular training programmes in different parts of Bihar.

Result :
- The farmers earned Rs 1000 per kattha with an investment of Rs 400. For wheat, they used to invest Rs 350 and reap 50kg produce per kattha, earning Rs 400 to 500.
- In Purnia district, where corn and potato are predominantly grown, farmers usually leave their land unused from June to September. They are advised to sow baby corn. As baby corn is reaped within 50 to 60 days, farmers had a bumper harvest just before raising another crop.Several Purnia farmers harvested 25kg baby corn per kattha of land and sold it for an average amount of Rs 750, earning more than Rs 300.
- In Buxar, the farmers, facing water shortage, were advised to grow medicinal herbs, which need negligible irrigation.

Future Plan :
- Though they are currently not using organic methods of farming, they said "organic is best." "Now that we have gained farmers' faith, we have started to work on organic farming. We are advising farmers to avoid using chemical fertilizer," they said.

Last but not the least the Guys..................
1.Shashank Kumar: IIT-Delhi graduate (2004-2008 batch):
- "If I had to go for an entrepreneurship, then why not this sector because no one is ready to work for this sector. This is ignored yet one of the most important sectors, so I have decided to work in this sector,"
2.Manish Kumar, an IIT Kharagpur postgraduate (2005-10 batch):
- Son of a retired clerk.
- Belong to Chakdariya village in Vaishali district.
- "A job in multinational companies wouldn't have given this satisfaction as this job is giving. Here we are changing lives of so many people attached with us."
Link to Video...

Another IITan takes 'Yes we can' initiative

Another IITian has taken the initiative to change the Indian rural environment.25 year old Rohit Garhwal(IIT-khg 2008) now cherishes a dream of developing an international platform for the traditional agriculture art & craft forms and agriculture and minimise the exodus of rural talent to cities.He has left fortune 500 company job and

To achieve his dream :
- He left his job and
- joined as consultant of an NGO Helplads
- and now got admitted into IIM-A.
- He started the groundwork travelling daily from one dusty village to another on the state roadways bus to the hinterland of Sikar,
presiding over small public gatherings, explaining to the villagers the need for education and healthcare to alleviate their social and economic status.
- He uses his technical skills and organises workshops on themes ranging from the basics of a computer to robotics for village children.
- He plans fund-raising activities along with developing business models for small-time social entrepreneurs in this region.Born in Guman ka Bas village of Sikar district, Garhwal received call letters from all IIMs.Garhwal said that there is no substitute for grit and hard work.
"My father is an uneducated man but he wanted me to study well," he said, adding his father, Kishan Kumar Garhwal, a farmer in Guman ka Bas village, is his source of inspiration.
"When I was a child, my father told me stories of great men like Lal Bahadur Shastri and Gopal Krishna Gokhale. He tough me the importance of education by narrating tales of Gokhale,
who studied under street lamps at night," Garhwal said.

Who is Maximilien Robespierre ?

Today I was reading a book about the food we eat and its relationship with our culture, thinking and behaviour.In this book 2 most evil man in the world are mentioned. They both were vegetarians and i.e why , I was interested in exploring them as somebody has said -We think, dream and act according to what we eat and drink.they talked about the Adolf Hitler and Maximilien Robespierre - A french guy(died in 1794) key person in French revolution.Later in Wiki I found that Robespierre has quite impressive style of oratory.
Robespierre’s popularity and appeal to the community came out mostly in the way that he spoke.

His speeches were exceptional, and he had the power to change the views of almost
any audience. (This is one of the reasons why he became such a strong force in the Terror.) His speaking techniques included talk of virtue and morals, and also quite often he
had a few rhetorical questions in his speeches in order to identify with the audience. He would also gesticulate and use ideas and personal experiences in life to keep the
listeners’ attention. And his final method was to state that he was always prepared to die in order to save the Revolution.(Ironically, his death would be an end to the Revolution.)

Rhetorical questions ?- Does not need answer but stimulate you to answer internally.
You are ashamed, aren’t you?
How much longer must our people endure this injustice?
Why me?

"Free our collector"...patriatic words

"Free our collector"...This is the goodwill sentence painted on the banners by the local schools marching on the streets of Malkangiri,Orissa. Objective of this sentence is to peruse the Maoists and pressurize them to release the Malkangiri district collector R. Vineel Krishna.Krishna has been abducted by maoists while he was visiting remote are of his district.

Mr. Krishna(IIT Madras Alumnus and IAS-2005) has been doing what a real public servant should do. Some of the key things:
- Riding on bikes,boats to meet the native people on daily basis.
- Not having heavy security and police for the sake of VIP stature.
- Staying out of local politics and focus on development issues.
- Trying to improve government outreach and services in the most alienated pockets(the best way to tackle the maoist problem).

To show the sympathy to Mr. Krishna , local shops, banks, schools were closed, and the streets were empty. Not only this people organized a meeting at the public ground to display show of support for him.People,NGO and district administration all are vouching for him in one single tune.

Medalistic statements :
1. "He was both clean and hard working," said Madhusudhan Panda, a grocery store owner. "Why else would everybody voluntarily down shutters?"
2. "Go visit those areas and talk to the people. They will tell you about the good work he has done. That is why I am hopeful the collector will return safely soon," said Balwant Singh, project director of the district rural development agency.

Hats off to the to this young lad.He showed that if top level officers are honest and considerate then people at large will appreciate him and adore him. I am very sure maoists-who are our own people will release him ASAP and let him serve the local people to the best of his capacity and prove the India again that if we want we can get over al odds.

Rajesh Singh : Another Social High performer

While I was going thru my daily dose of Indian News I found the following inspiring news and just cust and paste it , so that I can take lessions from it and share it with others who are like me :
This is story of one of the different kind of guy from Bhubaneswar(Orissa) who did not want to join the MNC to go abroad or earn millions. In my opinion this is social high performance:
1. He is true 'Value Creater'
2. He is dedicated 'People Developer'
3. He is intelligent 'Business Operator'

Stats :
Age : 29 years
Resident : Jharkhand's Sahebganj district
Education :mechanical engineering diploma holder
Parents : Father is a teacher and mother an employee in an insurance company.
Year 2000: Rajesh Singh dropped out of his engineering(National Institute of Technology,formerly known as Regional Engineering College, Rourkela, Orissa) course after seeing the plight of orphan children at the platform and decided to educate them and bring their careers on track."I had always wanted to do something for children. Moved by the plight of children at the platform, I had to make a hard choice whether to go for my engineering degree or teach orphan children and help them achieve their dreams. I decided on the latter," Singh told IANS.

Acievements :
# : In the last decade, he has helped educate more than 150 orphaned and underprivileged children. He has also set a target to make engineers out of 100 orphan children in this part of eastern India.
# : Now Singh has built a small four-room school and orphanage named New Hope near the Rourkela railway station where he stays with a dozen other orphans. This year he is grooming half a dozen children for the Navoday Vidyalaya entrance test at his orphanage.
# : Singh also teaches preparatory classes for competitive exams and spoken English, taking a bit of money from local students to sustain himself.

History :
He used to enjoy teaching underprivileged children right from childhood. And for him it was also a way to divert his attention from family problems."Teaching children was a way to keep myself diverted from family problems as there were some differences between my parents," Singh said. But when he decided to shape the career of orphan children he faced stiff resistance from his parents and society.

The eldest of four children, he was literally disowned by his parents for the next five years. He said they were disappointed and angry with him for dropping out of studies to help poor children.

"My parents broke ties with me for five years. They were opposed to my choosing this path till my sister's marriage when my mother gave me a call to invite me for the marriage," he recalled.

"My parents have now accepted my decision. My mother, who strongly opposed my decision, now sponsors excursion trips for these orphan children once a year," he said.

Even the residents of Rourkela initially found it difficult to accept a young man who "lived like an orphan along with orphan children". Initially M.D. Mukherjee, principal of the Indo-English School in Rourkela, helped him financially and morally.

Mukherjee used to provide him with books and money in the early days when he used to teach the children at the Rourkela railway station. Railway officials, including the station master, helped him too. Soon members of the local Rotary club also extended help for the cause.

"The locals ostracised me initially as I used to mingle with orphaned children at the railway platform. I myself felt like an orphan. But their perception changed gradually. They now appreciate my work," he said.

Groomed by him, more than two dozen orphans are now doing professional courses from engineering colleges in Orissa. "Thanks to Rajesh sir, I am now pursuing a degree course in IT from a good college. Otherwise, I can't imagine what I would have been doing now," said Babita, an orphaned girl.

"I am grooming these orphan children to get through the Navoday Vidyalaya entrance test as they would get quality education without spending any money. I am hopeful that this year three or four of them will crack it," he said.

Ten years after dropping out of further studies, he has now started preparation to complete his engineering degree.