Monday, October 26, 2009

Decade Cycle

Last quarter of decade is one month old almost. How has been this decade: the 00 s. Started with Y2k unknown (predictions were enormous) nothing happened but helped india create a core competance. Dotcom bust was the main fallout of 00;s Bad start. Then 9/11 something which was never seen by anyone zoomed on to TV at homes. Then started afgan war, iraq war, anthrax scare, SARS, Bird flu calamities galore. Things went back to normal by 05. Then started outsourcing boom /manufacturing boom for india/china: a second wave again to fall flat with greatest recession, swine flu scare. Almost a wheel has turned a whole cycle....
whats in store for decade of 10...? Noone knows. Recovery is predicted... lets see...
For India, now our economy being connected globally, almost had same cycle economically. But to an extent our economy has fared well. Some basic fundamentals were correct.
But we had problems galore: Terrorism parlament attackes, 11/26, mumbai train blasts, various blasts in cities like delhi, ahmedabad, banaglore, so on.... Naxalism has grown rampant. Flood 26 july, bihar, famines, earthquakes, tsunami. some positive developments as well like chandrayaan, RTI, economical benefits to needy, Good network of roads. Political space marked demise of NDA and rise and rise of UPA.
Decade of Bollywood was marked by Star wars of khans with aamir doing out of box while shahrukh cannot break free of mould, Big B coming back and staying at top, Multiplex film phenomenon and some new faces tried to create out of formula succcesses. But economics got skewed and complex with many media options.
On cricket, we built a new team under ganguly for great achievements. Then all was lost by chappell with WC disaster. Rise and Rise of Dhoni, T20 and IPL.... But still we remain at 2nd or 3rd position.
In IT: after .com bust, model has to revamp around end to end solutions and cover BPO. Web 2.0 came in with social networking focus. net penetration in india, Mobile penetration in India reached scales. SaaS and Clouds will be rule breakers. ERP companies evolved onto those models. Consolidation happened in Industry. Recession impacted badly since 07. Indian story lost zing due to cost models getting offset by rising cost of people, real estate etc. So there was talk about value creation. H1b and outsourcing created bad publicity for india during US elections. Google was out and out winner through web ad models. Web is ever growing. Microsoft is still catching up after vista debacle. Open source predictions did not match the bullish trends.
Culture has changed drastically atleast here in india. new generations have taken over.. seems like our time ended last decade of 90s with toll of Y2k. Time for my daugther to take over.... No but her decade will start on 1st jan 2020. Vision twenty twenty.... So now all those born since 90 to take over.

Monday, October 12, 2009

election day

today is election day. there is a directive from govt to let all offices close and those who will not will suffer penal action. This is ridiculous. even 2 hr break is enough for voting. why a days off? its a loss of man hrs for private as well public institutions. this year they say because of this people will have no option to go to malls, theatres etc. people will stay indoors if they do not want to vote.
people have very less options. there are rebel candidates, 6-7 major parties with or without allinaces. idea is to chose lesser of evils....
we need to revamp the system. but we cannot shun voting. catch22 situation. what to do . i am as confused as anyone else....

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

whats wrong with Indian Team?

another major event, another buildup, another dissappointment.
Since that glorious june evening at lords in 83, i have really started my cricketultraloyalfanhood (a new word). Its been always the case of ending up disappointed : 87 thanks to gooch and some idiotic batting in semis, 92 was no hope, 96 due to turning eden gardens, 99 again no hope, 03 atleast in finals but a great innings from ponting, 07 was disasater. even in champion trophy thanks to dada's team, we went till finals twice but best we could do was to share. 04 and 06 we were out before semis.
With inaugural T20, i thought my curse has ended with a lucky, down to earth and dynamic leader in dhoni just like kapil. add to that were dream run from australia, srilanka, england, NZ, not to mention IPL. There were few blips likes tests in lanka and asia cup final where we were mesmerized by mendis. But we were on track.
Now after second t20 disasater, comes CT disappointment.
What can be reasons
1. Backup strength is negligible with sehwag, zaheer, yuvraj out.
2. Over reliance of SRT. (have just studied that SRT had a role in each of above victories since ICCT20 in 07 except maybe in lanka08)
3. inability to handle pressure
4. pathetic fielding
5. Inconsistent Bowling.
6. vague tactics (sending virat ahead of himself against pak. loss against pak hurts)
bowling weakness hurts us most. also we have seen IPL performances mean nothing for justifying selection. there is class apart.
i think we need to plan world cup11 carefully. no scheduling of meaning less matches so all team can be fit. bowling selection needs overhaul. put great work on fielding.
but still i am putting my fingers cross for WC11