Role of Global Indians in Rising India

Certainly India is the most successful country since the rise of globalization 3.0 era which has flattened the world nobody ever imagined. No other country has been able to match the ascendancy of India. Even the nation's founders could not have imagined the prospects of the wealthier & more fulfilling life that awaits in her destiny. The founder's were right in sowing the seeds of high quality education system in the fibre of the country which helped create world class Engineering & Management Institutes. But the socialist environment shackled the dreams of those bright engineers once they graduated from these institutes. For many it was a nightmare to find jobs. Very few managed to escape to the western countries & most lamented on the docks of Bombay & Calcutta. Then came 1991, when India opened her economy. That gave its citizens the chance to fulfill their dreams. Thousands flew to the US, Europe & many more places around the world. Some policy makers started complaining that we are having a brain drain. In a way they were right, the subsidized education made possible by the Indian tax payers' money was not helping India, rather its benefits were exploited by foreign companies. But in capitalist world everything is free flowing and there will be time when those same NRIs will start giving back to the nation. That's precisely what is happening. Once called brain drain now is called brain gain. I came to the US (as many of my friends) to pursue my advanced engineering education. The quality & intellectual rigour of my engineering education in India provided a strong preparation for the discipline required by the US school. India's economy & the global economy would need the very sharpest thinking of the "best & the brightest". Those skills would be required in engineering, high technology, finance, health care and management. Indians who live abroad today have a greater role to play to strengthen India and help all Indians become the very best they can possibly be. Indian diaspora abroad is a powerful resource for building the strong nation. India's global citizens who are equipped with advanced education and higher skills have a pivotal role to play in nation building. As India's economic growth continues there will be time when the socially advantaged class of people like us will have to uplift poverty stricken masses & integrate them in main society. If those poor people can not enjoy the success of this rapid wealth generation we will all fail The only realistic response to such chronic poverty and civic disorganization is to pursue policies & paths that will help create jobs and generate wealth and then to devise ways to distribute that wealth throughout society. For that India needs 5 Sonys, 5 Intels , 5 Samsungs of its own. There should be sensible public private partnership & the process of reforms should not only continue, but should happen with more bold steps taken in opening the economy. Inventions & innovations happen only in capital free markets. Indians living oversea are today contributing to create stronger companies and institutions abroad which can then do business with India based partners. Indians are thus taking part, at home & abroad, in a healthy phase of globalization which can enrich both developing nations & the already wealthy developed ones. Both global & home based Indians, enjoying the success in the global economy, will soon be positioned to reap full measures of benefits from their talent, creativity and enterprise. With this new found prosperity comes new responsibility to help build stronger India. By committing ourselves to that goal would help lifting India into the leadership ranks among prosperous nations.

Verizon's open network move

Last week Verizon wireless declared that it will open its network for any compatible device starting sometime next year. Verizon hasn't published the exact nature about this openness but in general this is a great move by the US carrier. In Europe & Asia carriers already allow their customers to choose compatible devices from variety of handset makers & have custom made applications running on those devices. It's like choosing your own computer & plugging it to the Internet with any applications running on it. Though in the US; there are 2 camps of wireless technologies. One running on CDMA & the second on GSM. Among the dominant US carriers Sprint & Verizon use CDMA while AT&T uses GSM technology. So only CDMA devices will be able to operate on Verizon network. In Europe & Asia, GSM being the dominant technology you can roam in those countries by just changing the SIM card. But as 3G (3rd Generation) & 4G (4th Generation) technologies evolve it's not about voice anymore, but its also about data. One of the main advantages of 3G networks is mobile broadband so you can bring desktop experience on your cellphone. There are already GHz application processors going into cell phones & your cell phones are becoming your mobile computers rendering voice, Internet surfing, productivity applications, Mobile TV, gaming & mobile wallet experiences to us. There is convergence of GSM & CDMA technologies for 3G & 4G (called WCDMA & LTE respectively), which means 4G devices working on Verizon network will also work on Vodafone Europe network & on Bharti Airtel India network delivering seamless roaming experience around the world. Google has already unleashed its open source Android platform for cell phones. The combined pressure of Goggle & Verizon will further foster open source software & hardware development for wireless standards. This would ignite the new wave of innovation & allow anyone to build a phone in their basement, put some new apps on it & get it out on the network. There are some roadblocks in the short term. Currently the wholesale price of a cell phone sold to the carriers is around $220, it could cost an end user around $300. The carrier subsidises the device for you to give it free but in turn gets you to sign a 2-year contract. I guess consumers will continue to sign the contract for sometime in order to get free phones but this picture would change once low cost attractive handsets appear in the market, just as it happens in India. In general its a win-win situation for everyone in this domain & off course for us consumers..

Dollar Slide Continues

Currently US is the biggest exporter of inflation. Countries affected most are China & India. Both shining in BPO, IT & low cost manufacturing domains. Their phenomenal growth is partly due to the substantial low wage labor & high talent pool which attracts these countries as the ideal destination for moving businesses & doing business. As dollar drops they fear falling export & slowing economy. The low cost advantage is getting diluted. If you see from the US point of view it does want to see dollar falling gradually (though nobody is officially humming about it). That's why you don't see Federal Reserve intervening to control the dollar price. It increases US export & helps reduce its high trade deficit. It has its negatives of oil prices going high & in turn hurting the economy. But US knows that OPEC won't like to kill its golden goose & oil prices will have correction in the near term from its current high of $100/barrel. China & India are already making their efforts to control their currency valuations against US Dollar as they find no help from the US Fed. China's central bank, People's bank of China have already pumped in billions of Yuan in chines market to control the amount of the US Dollar in the market. Chinese have been on tight rope in balancing the currency valuation Vs the unwanted effect of rising inflation in the country. China's communist govt knows that growth is pivotal for the nation as any drop in growth would go against it & will have thousands of unemployed workers on the street. China has to maintain the min 8+% economic growth. So far China has been successfull as you can see china's currency to appraise against dollar by only 2% compared to Euro & Canadian dollar rise of more than 40% Take the case of India. Indian central bank, The Reserve Bank of India, has so far spent $3.5bn to control rupees strength against dollar, but still has not been able to control its rise. The rupee has gained almost 20% against US dollar. As an investor the what can we do to hedge against falling dollar? There are many options. Invest in gold (historically as US dollar goes down gold goes up, so true paper currency has no value compared to precious metal), Invest some percentage of your US Dollar savings in Australian or Euro currency. You can also invest in US funds with focus on overseas market as those funds will outperform the S&P and DJ Index, but in this case any gain in the portfolio will be eroded by the further fall in US dollar. Its a chicken & egg as long as you are fully invested in US Dollars. It would be interesting to see how far this slide goes.....

Crazy Inventions -- Churn Baby Churn

Some of the cool, crazy inventions I came across the web....Though crazy I certainly see Curve Jumping (Guy Kawasaki way of innovation).....If you would like to share your crazy ideas or the ones you recently came across please don't hesitate to send me an e-mail...

Solar Cigarette Lighter

Portable Office Tie

concealed shoe case......

My view is the best view.......

shower to shower.....

sardi se pareshan....head-on roll :-)

convenient portable butter stick ...now available at your neighbourhood post office :-)

Khetan noodle fan :-)

State of Immigration In The States...

Recently there was an announcement by America's toy behemoth, Toy's R Us, that they will award a US bond certificate of $25,000 to the 1st american baby born in 2007. Toy's R Us indeed finds the winner in baby girl, Yuki Lin, born on the stroke of the mid-night on New Year at New York downtown hospital. Yuki Lin, an american chinese baby girl wins the sweepstakes. But here comes the twist. Toys R Us finds that the mother of Yuki Lin is not an american resident. The fineprints of the sweepstakes mention (really in fine prints) that the parents must be US residents. Baby Yuki is deprived of her winning & gets $100 in gift certificate with basket of flowers. The grand prize goes to the runner up who is born 19 seconds after Yuki. Now you keep wondering despite being American Citizen why is Yuki deprived of her winning status? Isn't that money going to help her in her education? Is it fare to judge her by her mother's legal status? Welcome to the world of immigration! We have so many barriers, boundaries, lines of control between nations that world peace is a fantacy now. Every human being deserves the opportunity to earn his bread & make a better life for his family. There are 12 million illegal immigrants in the US right now. Why are they there? Not to wage a war but to win the bread for their family. They help keep the prices low by providing low wage services. A father from mexico is desparately trying to cross the border & enter US because he wants to provide better education to his kids. In 1870s chinese immigrants built rail-roads in americas. Then came the chinese exclusion act to omit them from citizenship act. Same thing happened with Japanese & Phillipinos. They were used & when came the time to reward them, give them benefits, immigration monster woke up, they got excluded. All these immigrants have a common dream. To make better life for them & their families. Is that a crime? Will they have a happy end to their story?