Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Copenhagen Climate Change Summit 2009 - An overview


PodUniversal Edition 95
The recent Copenhagen Summit (held in Dec 2009) has thrown many issues open for public debate and compliance.  'Global warming' has become a big challenge before the mankind.  The emission of carbon by almost all the countries is posing the greatest risk to our future generation, for safe living. 
In our anxiety to compete with each other and make more and more money, we are doing great injustice to our future generation.  Fortunately, the world has come to realise the urgent need to address this challenge.
In the recent Copenhagen Summit, more than 190 countries participated and out of which more than 110 Heads of States/Governments participated.
This Summit suddenly brought this Global warming issue to the forefront.  Many people are not aware of the seriousness of this issue.
Dr Arul Aram, Asst. Professor of Media Science Department of Anna University, Chennai has also participated in the Summit as part of the Indian delegation.  This is the only University in the world to introduce 'climate change' as a subject of study in their Media Science Department.

On behalf of PodUniversal, I interviewed him on phone to understand the seriousness of this issue, the remedial measures to be taken, role of universities and schools in creating the awarenss, etc.
Please listen to his podcast interview (16 minutes) by clicking 'play' button of one of the flash players below.  The audio streaming will be smooth in broadband connections.  If the streaming is not smooth, please right click this link and save the link/target in mp3 format in your desktop and then listen.

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Saturday, December 12, 2009

A Pro-active and visionary Trade Union leader - T R Bhat

T R Bhat. Corporation Bank Officers Organisation, CBOOPodUniversal Edition 94

When we think of a Public Sector Trade Unions, particularly from the Banking industry, the image is of strikes, delay, casual attitude towards customers. The Public Sector Banks are actually at the cross roads today.
On one side, many of the trade Unions in the banking sector focus only on their monetary benefits without looking at customer service. This negative approach only helps to drive the customers closer to Private Sector Banks for better service.
Also, on the other side, it is murmured that some of the Chairmen of the Indian PSU Banks try to please their political bosses allegedly by adopting unethical practices, to secure ‘plum posts’ for their post retirement era. Trade Unions also shut their eyes on such practices in their own interests.
Unfortunately, we cannot afford to ignore the concept of Trade Unions in India. If they mind, they can play a more positive role in the Nation building.
Very few trade union leaders have emerged with some vision and enthusiasm transcending the boundaries of employees’ monetary benefits.
In 1981, Corporation Bank Officers Organisation (CBOO) organized their Annual General Body meeting at Mangalore. That was the time, when all the Trade Unions were crippled due to Emergency in India and the Managements were exploiting the employees. One lean young man in the last row who came to watch the Union meeting for the first time, emerged and talked to the audience in a highly matured and in a simple manner without usual ‘trade union style’. His way of communication attracted all the hundreds of members present there. Immediately in a single voice, they made him General Secretary of CBOO to lead the Officers of the Bank, particularly when the Trade Union movement was facing a lot of challenges. The young visitor was surprised and started his new journey as a ‘Trade Union leader’. When he entered the Union Meeting hall, he never expected that he would be leading the Bank Officers for the rest of his service in the Bank.
That young man of 1981 is Mr T Ramachandra Bhat, popularly known in Indian Banking circle as T R Bhat, presently the Chairman of CBOO. Eventually, before long, he rose to the level of Joint General Secretary of All India Bank Officers Confederation (AIBOC), the official and non-political Trade Union of the Bank supervisory staff with more than 2.50 lakh members. AIBOC is the world’s largest Trade Union body of the Supervisory staff in any industry. He is retiring from Corporation Bank on the last day of December 2009, after nearly three decades of his leadership.
His simplicity, his deep knowledge on banking, his honesty have earned him a great name as ‘UnPurchasable leader’. Presently, he is leading around 4500 bank officers in his bank, besides other bank officers. Throughout his stint as a Trade Union leader, he has been following values and ethics personally and promoting them amongst the members of CBOO.
Before demanding ‘transparency in administration’ from his Bank management, he started practicing it in his own Union. While the attitude of many of the political and trade union leaders seems to be to hide their omissions and commissions from their followers, Mr Bhat was open to admit any fault of his. That made him a credible and trusted leader amongst his banking colleagues in India.
In 2002, when Mr Bhat took some decisions as a leader, persuaded his office-bearers to engage an independent agency to study the perception of the members of the Union across the country. The Agency submitted a confidential report to him detailing the areas, where he went wrong. To everybody’s surprise, the entire report was circulated verbatim amongst the members of the Union. Even his critics appreciated him for his transparency. While none of the Managements will dare to ever circulate a critical review fearing Image loss, as a trade union leader, he was transparent with his members and enhanced his image.
He visualized the trends ahead of time and started preparing his members for the changes, as a Trade Union leader. There were occasions, while other Trade Unions used to oppose some measures of the Government or Bank Managements, as a loner he would support those measures, leading to criticisms. He was thinking pro actively for the benefit of the Institution and to the Society.
While all the bank employees, were resisting computerization in 1980s, he was motivating his Bank Management to go for computerization. Though, at that period, it was seen differently, later, the reality was Corporation Bank became pioneer in technology which enabled better customer service. While all the Trade Unions opposed ‘VRS’ scheme by Banks, he demanded VRS to be implemented in his bank, to give way for new generation. In the long run, such pro-active measures brought benefit to the system.
He set up an Education and Training Wing in his Union, to train his members to the changing realities of the system. While all the Trade Unions used to invite politicians for their Annual General Meetings, he developed a policy of inviting only Nationally eminent scholars to share their views with their members.
For the first time in any Trade Union movement in India, he introduced the concept of ‘CSR’ in his Union, by creating a Trust known as ‘Swasti’ to help the poor and downtrodden in different parts of the country. Since the Bank branches are situated across the country and their members are well connected with the society, they can reach out to the poor personally with a better understanding. Such ‘out of the box’ activities of the Union made the members understand the society well to offer a better customer service.
For the past 28 years, he has been editing a monthly newsletter titled ‘Officers Voice’. The newsletter is circulated among the members and various bank and government authorities. Because the contents are rich and informative, many of the top Management executives and policy makers are regular readers of this newsletter.
Even today, you can walk into any branch of Corporation Bank and enquire about Mr T R Bhat with any of the officers. They all hold him in high esteem almost unanimously.
As a Trade Union leader, he believed the development of good HR practices would improve the morale and quality of customer service. For the first time in India, by any Trade Union, he engaged in 2006, a reputed independent agency to study the HR aspects of Officers of Corporation Bank. Though this exercise was to have been done by the Management, the Union took the initiative. He shared the copy with all his members and also with the then Chairman of the Bank. The report went into cold storage apparently.
Even at National level, he has silently played a positive role. During 2004, Reserve Bank wanted to amend Banking Regulation Act. Under the initiative of Mr Bhat, AIBOC set up an Independent Commission on ‘Banking and Financial Policy’ under the Chairmanship of Former Finance Secretary Mr S P Shukla and few other renowned banking and economic experts. Though the Government did not accept the report officially, the input was helpful to them in understanding the situation.
I had a freewheeling conversation with him over phone to understand his views after nearly three decades of his role in the Trade Union. When I asked him, what was his greatest disappointment at the time of his leaving the Bank, he answered, “We are not able to change the mindset of the Corporation Bank Management, in spite of all our pro-active and positive approach. When we, as a trade union, have changed according to times, the old mindset of management still continues. Officers are not considered as partners in the development and not taken into confidence while framing the HR and business policies. Though, as a Trade Union, we are transparent, the Management is lacking in transparency’.
The Bank officers have organized a felicitation function for Mr Bhat during the last week of Dec 09 at Mangalore. While, one of the past chairmen is participating, unfortunately, the present Management does not find it worthy an event associate itself, even as a gesture of goodwill and to honour him for his pro-active and positive contributions to the Banking industry.
Managements use high sounding jargons on HR and IR. When it comes to reality, they yield only to violence and blackmailing. It is sad they do not understand the language of simplicity, honesty and pro-active visionary approach of Trade Unions. Only because of such poor HR policy of such Banks ‘blackmailers’ are encouraged and ‘visionaries’ suffer in silence without space.
Mr T R Bhat can be reached at bhat_tr@yahoo.co.in
The podcast interview may be listened by clicking 'play' button in the following flash player. The audio streaming will be smooth, in broadband connections. If you find the streaming is not smooth, you may right click this link and save the link/target to your desktop and download in mp3 format.






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Wednesday, December 09, 2009

Music helps to balance one's life - Chennai Music Festival 2009




PodUniversal Edition 93
Every year, during December, Chennai City in India will be showered with music vibrations. The largest Music Festival of the world is being held here, without great fanfare. Thousands of Music lovers across the globe land in Chennai to enjoy the best of the music performances. Starting from a cub to the senior, most will get the opportunity to showcase their music talents. Besides, there are lots of seminars and workshops, discussing the nuances of Carnatic Music.
One will be surprised to know that the first Music Festival was started in Chennai, way back in 1927, by Indian National Congress. Can you believe that a political party, which was fighting for freedom then, was also serious about promoting music? From then on, every year Music Festival has been an integral part of Chennai life.
Many National leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Rajaji and C Subramaniam were great music lovers and they encouraged the music and dance culture. Even today, many well known achievers like Dr Abdul Kalam, T S Krishnamoorthy (Former Chief Election Commissioner of India), N Murali (The Managing Director of The Hindu and President of Music Academy) and many leading professionals take time off during December and hop between one Sabha and another in Chennai to listen to Music.
Is there a relation between Music and achievement? I asked this question to Mr K T Jagannathan, a well knwon Senior Business Journalist in Chennai and also a passionate music student. He says, "Music helps you to balance your life". Probably that was the secret behind Indian National Congress starting the Music Festival in 1927, to rejuvenate their freedom struggle.
Mr K T Jagannathan is learning 'flute' in his forties under his guru S. Ravi. Along with his journalist friend, he and wife Sudha maintain a websitewww.carnaticdarbar.com to give updates on Music. In a freewheeling conversation with me over phone, Mr Jagannathan shared his views on the Music Festival and how Music could help a person to balance in the life, etc. He is also inviting articles for his site. He can be reached at ktjagannathan@yahoo.co.in
Please listen to his conversation by clicking 'play' button in the flash player below. (14 minutes). The audio streaming will be smooth in broadband connections. If you find any difficulty, right click this link and save the target/link to your desktop in mp3 format .



or



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Sunday, November 29, 2009

A software engineer paints on leaf skeleton

Madhangi Mohan holding banyan leaf skeleton
PodUniversal Edition 92
Mandhangi Mohan is a sotware engineer working in one of the leading IT companies at Chennai. She has a passion for paintings from her childhood.
She is involved in glass painting, Tanjore painting, oil painting, fabric painting, poster colour painting, water colour painting. She even paints on wastes like coconut shells, etc.
What is unique is her ability to draw pictures on leaf skeletons. (see her picture holding a leaf skeleton).
It is not so easy to draw pictures on the leaves. She picks up the best suited banyan leaf and passionately prepares each leaf for one month, to get the skeleton. Then she paints the pictures on the leaf skeleton.

Her father Mr Mohan is the Deputy General Manager of BSNL and when I visited their house, I found many pictures adorning the walls of the house. I was amazed by the passion that she has shown for developing this art.
She is quite fortunate that both her father and mother take all the efforts in supporting her initiatives and developing her talents. Though she has not commercialised her talents, shortly, she plans to put an art gallery with all her paintings.
I could not resist the desire of taking a podcast interview with this talented young girl. Please listen to her interview by clicking 'play' button in the flash player below. The audio streaming will be smooth in broadband connections. If the streaming is not smooth, you may download this audio in mp3 format, by right clicking this link and saving the target/link to your desktop.

Madhangi Mohan can be reached through her email mmohan_bsnl@yahoo.co.in
This audio can also be listened from the following links:



How to become a good journalist?

PodUniversal Edition 91
November 2009 issue of Corporate ezine PR-e-Sense focusses on 'Making of a Journalist'. This issue is Guest Edited by Ms Megha Gupta, an young journalist from Mumbai. As part of the ezine, we made a quick online survey on the current status of the present day journalism. We have studied the aspirations of the entrants for the profession, whether the educational institutions offer suitable inputs, etc.

In this podcast intervew, we have taken views of three people.
1. Sherry Italia - A journalism student from Pune speaks about her aspirations and her views on the present day media.
2. Megha Gupta, Guest Editor, explains the outcome of the online survey along with her observations.
3. Mr R Bhagwan Singh, Consulting Editor, Deccan Chronicle speaks about the quality of academic inputs, media training provided by the Media Houses and also the attitude of young jounralists.
The ezine may be downloaded from our  site.
Please listen to the podcast, by clicking 'play' button int he flash player below. The audio streaming will be smooth in broadband connections. If the streaming is not smooth, you may download the audio in mp3 format, by right clicking this link and saving to your desktop.

The podcast may also be listened from the following links also.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Dr Abdul Kalam appeals to youth to spare one hour every day for their body and mind

Dr A P J Abdul Kalam
PodUniversal Edition 90
Today (16th October) is the birthday of Dr A P J Abdul Kalam, former Indian President, who is being hailed as 'People President'. On this day, PodUniversal offers humble 'pranams' to Dr Abdul kalam and prays Almighty to give him long and healthy life to guide the youth of the globe.
When the Action 2020 team of India Vision online group met Dr A P J Abdul Kalam on 7th October 2009, I recorded an exclusive message from him. PodUniversal takes pride in publishing this exclusive message to coincide with his birthday.
In his messge, Dr Abdul Kalam appeals to all young people, to spare atleast one hour every day to keep body and mind healthy. He has prescribed 3D Healthcare.
(1) He suggests all youth take fibrous food; (2) spend one hour daily in walking or games or any physical exercise and (3) to sit on Meditation. Dr Kalam says that even at this age of 78, he never misses one-hour walk every day, wherever he is.
Please listen to his exclusive message by clicking 'play' button in the flash player below (5 m 45s). The audio streaming will be smooth in broadband connections. If astreaming is not smooth, you may right click this link and save the link/target as mp3 format in your desktop and listen.






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Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Derogatory and vulgar speeches of Tamil actors anger Indian journalists

Demonstration by journalists at Chennai
PodUniversal Edition 89
Few days back Dinamalar, one of the leading Tamil dailies published a news report about some leading actresses of the Tamil cinema world running a prostitution racket. The report was based on a statement by another actor, Bhuvaneswari, who was earlier arrested by Chennai city police for running a high profile sex racket from her house. The daily published an apology to the actors prominently the next day even before such a demand was made.
Angered by the Dinamalar report, South Indian Film actors association filed a police complaint against the daily. On the same day, i.e. on 7th October 2009 evening, few police men entered into the newspaper office without uniform and without warrant and arrested the News editor Lenin.
He was booked under Section 4 of the Tamil Nadu Women Harassment (Prevention) Act - a law enacted for entirely different purposes - and was let out on bail last Friday, after protests from the journalists across the country.
In a meeting organised by South Indian Film Actors association, last week some leading actors spoke in a derogative, vulgar and inflammatory manner about journalists and their family members.
Journalist bodies like Chennai Press Club and Chennai Union of Journalists then filed a police complaint against the actors, but police are yet to take action on it. Since the police did not take any action against the actors who used vulgar languages, the journalist bodies have now gone to Honble High Court seeking direction to the police to register a case against the actors. The Honble High Court has adjourned the case till 19th October, at the request of Police side.
Please listen to the podcast feature on this incident. We have taken the views of Mr Babu Jayakumar (News Editor of New Indian Express), Ms Indirani Singh (wife of a senior journalist), Mr Pandey (Chief Reporter of Dinamalar) and Mr S Narendra (former Information and Media Advisor to Prime Minister)
Please click 'play' to listen to the pod-feature. The audio streaming will be smooth in broadband connections. If audio streaming is not smooth, right click this link and save the target/link to your desktop as mp3 format and then listen. (12 m 40 s)


The podcast can also be listened in the following link

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Dr A P J Abdul Kalam - Interaction session with India Vision Group - Part II

L to R: Natarajan (sitting on floor), Prime Point Srinivasan, Dr Abul Kalam, Kartheeban, Kalam Nagappan, Shivanarayanan (standing)
PodUniversal Edition 88
In our earlier edition 87, we had published the speech of former Indian President Dr A P J Abdul Kalam, when he met the representatives of Action 2020 team of online India Vision group. After his speech, he answered few questions from the members. We now release some of the questions and his answers for the benefit of Indians, who dream developed India by 2020.
In this interaction session, he has spoken about managing water shed in villages, latest trends in education, cost of higher education in India, trends in Agriculture, global warming, removal of corruption, youth entering politics, starting magazine for youth, introduction of moral science classes at school level and many more.
Please click 'play' to listen to the audio (18 minutes). The streaming of audio will be smooth in broadband connections. If the streaming is not smooth, right click this link and download the audio in mp3 format to your desktop and play through any mp3 player.






The audio of interaction session may also be listened from the following links:


Friday, October 09, 2009

Dr Abdul Kalam's motivating speech to India Vision members - Part 1

PodUniversal Edition 87
On 7th October 2009, former Indian President Dr A P J Abdul Kalam met 70 representatives from 30 constituent organisations of Action 2020 Team or online India Vision Group at Chennai. Dr Kalam spent nearly two hours with the members sharing his views. At the end of his 30 minute speech, all the members were highly motivated with positive energy. Thereafter he spent his time taking questions from the members and guiding them for Nation building.
Though only 15 minutes was available at the end of the session for taking his autograph and interaction, when all the members left the venue, had a feeling as if they had personally conversed with him for 5 to 10 minutes. This type of mystical experience can happen only with few great spiritual leaders. That is the power of his communication excellence.
We are pleased to release the motivating speech delivered by Dr Abdul Kalam as Part 1. We will be releasing the other interactions separately.
Photo slideshow : Please see the slide show of photographs taken during the occasion. The photographs can be downloaded from this link:



Dr Abdul Kalam speech - wmv version - Please click to play the visuals and audio (29 minutes). The visual and audio streaming will be smooth in broadband connections. If the streaming is not smooth, you may right click this link and download the file in wmv format and play through windows media player (14 mb)


Dr Abdul Kalam speech - Audio version in mp3 format. Please click to play the audio version of his speech. The audio streaming will be smooth in broadband connections. If the streaming is not smooth, you may right click this link and download the file in mp3 format and play through any mp3 player (26 mb)




The speech may also be viewed/listened/downloaded from the following links also:
Blip TV
Odeo
Podbazaar

Saturday, October 03, 2009

How to prepare for public issue (IPO) - 7 steps

Prof. Bala Balachandran, Kellogg School of Management
PodUniversal Edition 86
In the post liberalisation era, lot of companies want to go for public issue (IPO) to generate more funds for their business. To avoid exploitation of the investors, the Government and SEBI have imposed lot of restrictions on the companies.
Sep 09 issue of Corporate ezine PR-e-Sense deal with the 'Preparation for IPO". As part of the lead story, we interviwed Prof. Bala Balachandran, Distinguished Professor of Kellogg School of Management during his short visit to India recently. Prof. Bala is one of the top Management Gurus in the world. He is also an Adhoc Advisor to President Obama on economic issues. He prescribes 7 steps to the companies for IPO preparation.
Please listen to his interview by clicking 'play' button in the flash player below. (9 minutes). The audio streaming will be smooth in broadband connections. If you find any difficulty, you may right click this link and save the link/target as mp3 file, in your desktop and play through any mp3 player.

This podcast may also be listened from the following links


Sunday, September 27, 2009

Beware and be aware - 5000 Indians die of heart diseases every day - It is time to act now!

Dr Satish Gupta, Global Hospital and Research Centre,  Abu Road, RajasthanPodUniversal Edition 85
Today (27th Sep 09) is the World Heart Day. Recently, I had the opportunity to meet Dr Satish Gupta, Global Hospitals and Research, Abu Road, Rajasthan. He had dedicated his life to find out alternate treatement for heart diseases through lifestyle changes. With the support of Global Medical Hospital, DRDO, Government of India Ministry of Health and National Yoga Institute, he had conducted extensive research in this direction for nearly 12 years. Dr Abdul Kalam, who was then heading DRDO also supported him in his project and was taking keen interest in the studies.
Three days back, I wrote in detail in the groups about the interview I had with Dr Satish Gupta with more details. More than 5 million people get fresh heart attack in India every year and out of this nearly 12 lakh people die within one month. On an average, nearly 2 million people die every year in India due to heart attacks. That means, every day around 5000 people die of heart disease in India. In spite of this, the awareness level is very low in India.
Though 50 lakh people get heart attacks every year, only 1.60 lakh people could get higher treatements like angioplasty or by-pass surgery. That means more than 95 percent of the affected people are not in a position to get high medical treatment due to cost factors. In view of this, Dr Gupta after various studies and research programmes found out that 'artery blocks' could be removed through proper meditation, diet, good sleep, exercise and with change of life style.
Brahmakumari Centre at Abu Road also conduct free trainings for the people who are affected by heart diseases. Please listen to the full interview ( 29 m 30 sec). Dr Gupta has explained in detail the causes for artery block and tips for prevention. He has also given details for those who want to contact them for training.
Please click to 'play' the flash player below. This audio streaming will be smooth in broadband. If you find any difficulty, kindly right click this link and save the target/file to your desktop as mp3 format and play through any mp3 player.


This podcast may also be listened from the following links
Dr Satish Guptha may be reached at Global Hospitals and Research, Abu Road, Pin code 307 510, Rajasthan.
Their website is http://www.3dhealthcare.org
His email id is 3dhealthcare@gmail.com
PH: +91-2974-228880 & 228600

Saturday, September 05, 2009

Is Australia safe for Indians?

Bala Natarajan, MelbournePodUniversal Edition 84
In the recent months, lot of media reports are coming about the so called 'racism' and violence in Australia. Huge number of Indian students go to Australia for higher studies every year. Such media reports have created more confusion in the minds of Indian students and parents. Even the Indian Government and the Australian Government are trying to sort out this issue.
In this background, today (5th Sep 09), I met Mr Bala Natarajan from Melbourne in a function. He is one of the leading businessmen in Australia in leather and hospitality industry. He has been living there for nearly 35 years. He has come to India for a week's stay. I immediately recorded his podcast interview about the situation in Australia in the same venue.
In his interview, he says, "Australia is the safest destination for all Indians; Australia provides opportunity for all the immigrants, provided they are willing to work hard and follow their rules; Many immigrants have prospered in their profession and in education; All the present confusion is due to some bad elements and there is no racism in Australia".
Please listen to his interview by clicking 'play' button in the flash player below (4 minutes). The audio streaming will be smooth in broadband connections. If the audio is not smooth, right click this link and save the link/target in your desktop as mp3 file. ( 3.6 mb)

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Thursday, September 03, 2009

Recession in US and its impact in India

Prof. Bala V BalachandranPodUniversal Edition 83
We have been talking about recession for the past few months. This 'so called recession' has impacted the people across the globe in different ways. 'How the recesion started?', 'What is the real impact on India?'. 'When the normalcy will be restored?' - These are the few questions raised by many people.
In this context, we spoke to Prof. Bala V Balachandran, a distinguished professor in Kellogg School of Management in USA. He is considered as one of the Top 10 Management Gurus in the world. He is an 'Adhoc Advisor' to President Obama. He is alo advisor to various Governments, including Indian Planning Commission. He has a passion for developing Management Institutes in India to provide world-class Management education.
He is mainly responsible for setting up globally renowned Greatlakes Institute of Management at Chennai and Indian School of Business at Hyderabad. He is also closely associated with Management development institute at Gurgaon in designing the programmes. In recognition of his contribution to management education in India, Govt. of India honoured him with the coveted Padma shree award in 2001.
Prof. Bala is also known as 'Uncle Bala' amongst his students and colleagues. We recorded his interview on 2nd Sep 2009 over telephone, during his short visit to India. In this interview, he has spoken about the start of the recession, its impact in India, salary parity between IT and traditional industries, etc.
Please listen to his interview by clicking 'play' button in the flash player below (12 m). The audio streaming will be comfortable in broadband connections. If you encounter any difficulty, please right click this link and save the target/link to your desktop to download mp3 format (10.8 mb)

This podcast interview may also be listened in the following links also:



Saturday, August 29, 2009

Tweet @ 140 - More about Twitter

PodUniversal Edition 82

Twitter, the new micro blogging tool has changed the way of communication. The limitation of 140 characters for tweets has made a tremendous change in the style of net discussions. Twitter, with more than 20 million unique visitors currently is considered as one of the fastest growing micro blogging tools.

Though Twitter was started in 2006, with a view to encourage discussions within the closed family members and friends, the potentiality of Twitter has now extended to Governments, Corporate houses, individuals, business, etc. Even the Business houses, use the Twitter for their marketing purposes, customer care, etc.Hundreds of Twitter applications have also brought in lot of creativity in this 'tweet' communication.

August 09 issue of Corporate ezine PR-e-Sense deals with this concept of Twitter. As part of an article, PodUniversal interviewed telephonically Deep Sherchan, Chief Marketing Officer of InRev. Deep, hailing from Kathmandu, Nepal is one of the social media evangelists and is also part of the team who write a book on Twitter.

Please listen to his interview (15 min), by clicking 'play' button in the flash palyer below. The audio streaming will be smooth in broadband connections. If you find any difficulty, you may right click this link and download the mp3 file (15 mb) to your desktop and listen.


This podcast interview may also be listened from the following links


Please tweet this page through the link given at the top.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Give more; Take more happiness - Dr Abdul Kalam's exclusive message

On 11th August 2009 morning 11.15 am, I got the SMS from Mr Ponraj, Advisor to Dr Abdul Kalam that Dr Kalam was on flight to Chennai and he would be at Chennai Airport for two hours, before he boarded the other flight. During his waiting time, he would like to meet at 1 pm, 5 to 10 youngsters of Action 2020 team, who were doing service to the society. It was a pleasant surprise for me. I was wondering how Dr Kalam was passionate about meeting youth, even during his small break.

Barely two hours left, I rang up to Balasubramanian (Kodambakkam 2020 project), Britto (Friedz for Life), Vinod (VTrust) and Natarajan (Dream India). They all jumped with joy to get the unexpected reward. Around 10 of us assembled at the Airport. Immediately, after his arrival, he called us to the VIP waiting lounge. He spent around 50 minutes of his time with our team. He discussed meticulously on the projects done by the partner groups of Action 2020 team. He also gave them suggestionsfor improvement.

Dr Abdul Kalam with Action 2020 Team at Chennai
At the end of 50 minutes, we requested him to give his message for the Indian Youth and he readily permitted us to record his message. In his message, he naratted one instance when he participated in the 101st birthday of Tumkur Shivakumar Swamiji. The birth day celebrations was attended by 5 lakh people. After all the people spoke, Swamiji spoke for 15 minutes without any difficulty, standing erect. This made Dr Abdul Kalam to wonder how Swamiji was maintaining such happiness even at the age of 101. Then he realised that Swamiji was running 220 educational institutions, benefitting more than one lakh children. In addition every day, he is feeding more than 15000 poor people. Dr Kalam realised since Swamiji was giving more, he was taking more happiness. In his exclusive messge, Dr Kalam advises the young people to 'give more and take more happiness'.

Please watch the pictures and listen to the message of Dr Abdul Kalam by clicking 'play' button in the flash player( 2 min). The video streaming will be smooth in broadband connections. If the streaming is not smooth, you may right click this link and save the link/target to your desktop in wmv format (1 mb) and play through windows media player.


You can also listen to the audio version of the message. If you want to download this audio in mp3 format, right click this link and save the link/target to your desktop.

This message can be listened from the following links:

Saturday, August 01, 2009

Medicall 2009 - India's largest medical equipment expo

Medicall 2009 - India's largest medical equipment expo at Chennai title=
PodUniversal Edition 81

Medicall 2009, India's largest medical equipment expo was launched at Chennai at Chennai Trade Centre on 31st July 2009. In this three day expo, more than 250 National and International exhibitors are displaying their latest equipments. In addition, they also conduct Seminar on hospital management and patient safety issues.

Recently, Tamil Nadu Government has announced a medical insurance scheme to benefit 1 crore poor families. This scheme would enable the poor people to avail the medical facilities free of cost in private hospitals also. 300 private hospitals are already approved by the Government to provide facilities. This has exerted pressure on the private hospitals to increase their facilities. This expo comes at this time, when privte hospitals are in look out for competitive world class products.

Please watch the feature on Medicall 2009, by clicking 'play' button in the flash player (8 minutes). The video streaming will be smooth in broad band connections. If the streaming is not smooth, you may right click this link and download the video in wmv format to your desktop and play ( 4 mb).

This podcast may also be watched from the following links



Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Sound of Silence - Impact on Corporate governance and personal life

N Vittal, former central vigilance commissioner of india
PodUniversal Edition 80
'Silence' has played a greater role both in Corporate governance and also in the personal life. Generally, peopole perceive that only text and speech form part of communication. Many of us do not know that 'Silence' is also a powerful communication tool.
June 2009 issue of Corporate ezine PR-e-Sense deals with the 'Sound of Silence". As part of the lead story, Mr N Vittal, Former Central Vigialnace Commissioner of India and an erudite scholar has given his broad views on the various aspects of the impact of silence both in governance and in personal iife.
Plese listen to his interview by clicking 'play' button in the flash player below. The audio streaming will be smooth in broadband connections. If the streaming is not smooth, you may right click this link and download the mp3 file of the audio. (12 m 39 s)


This podcast interview may also be listened from the following link:




Sunday, June 21, 2009

How Indian telephony users perceive? A snap report

K. Srinivasan, presenting the snap survey report
Prime Point Foundation and Corporate ezine PR-e-Sense conducted an online 'snap survey' during the second week of June 2009 to quickly understand the perception of various Indian telephony users. The survey coverred landline, mobile, broadband and DTH/Cable TV services. The survey findings were presented by K. Srinivasan, Chairman, Prime Point Foundation on 20th June 2009 in a Seminar organised by Consumers Association of India (CAI) jointly with Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

1. Generally, the BSNL users are critical of the quality of service (QOS) and customer care provided by BSNL. Generally consumers are more concered that BSNL is not giving tough competition to the private operators. This attitude of BSNL is not in the interest of the Nation.

2. Users from Private operators are critical of the customer care and lack of transparency in their tariff structure. Though TRAI has directed that all the operators should have a proper system in place for customer care and to provide 'escalation path' like call centre, nodal officer, appelate authority, etc. I personally found that they are more in paper. In some of the sites, it is difficult to get the numbers of the nodal officers. In many cases, the numbers will not be picked up anybody.

TRAI was represented by Mr Mathew Palamattam, Deputy Advisor. Airtel, Aircel, Vodofone, BSNL were represented by their middle level Officers. Tata Indicom and Reliance did not send any representative.

From the various deliberations, I observed that TRAI does not have enough 'teeth' or 'powers' to punish/penalise the erring operators. I understand that TRAI has powers only to announce rules and regulations. When the operators do not care for such rules, possibly, TRAI also will join the consumers only to 'weep'. They cannot do anything more. Only Government can explain as to why they keep TRAI 'teethless'.

The recorded version of my presentation in the Seminar is gien below. Please click 'play' button in the flash player below to watch the presentation (17 minutes). The streaming will be smooth in broadband connections. If you find any difficulty, right click this link and save the target/link to your desktop in wmv format and watch through windows media player.


The presentation can be watched in the following link also



Tuesday, June 02, 2009

Music, and dance develop 'team playing skills'

A scene from the dance - Lord Vishnu as NarasimhaPresently, the biggest challenge before the Corporates across the globe is the lack of 'team playing skills'. Many of the HR Managers complain that the team members do not sync with the team policy or team project. The problem arises, because, the children right from their school days, are not allowed to play in a team. They learn to live separately and independently. Many of the parents care more for the education of their children, than developing their skills to sync with the society. Only good 'team players' subsequently become 'good leaders'.

I had the opportunity of witnessing a wonderful dance event organised by Premalaya Natyaniketan at Nanganallur, suburb of Chennai. This Institution trains large number of young children in Traiitional Bharata Natyam (Indian classical dance).

Four children viz. Sunanda (Age 13), Bhoomija (Age 9), Sripriya (Age 11) and Sruthi (Age 12) are the students of 'Premalaya Natyaniketan'. They have been performing their shows together in various Sabhas and Temples even at this age. The event I witnessed was their 60th joint performance. :)

The manner in which these children synchronised their dance performance with behind-the-scene operators like Choregrapher Latha Aravindan, Musician Sowmya and Sarayu (Jathi) was really amazing. I also understood that these children were not only excelling in their dance performance, but also in their studies.

It made me to think further. How such activities trigger the young children to perform better in other fields too. I wanted to share my joy and concern with other netizens too. . In my personal view only music, dance and sports will help the youth to develop 'team playing skills'. Parents should provide more opportunities for the children. The entire 90 minutes show is brought down in 9 m 30 seconds.

Please click 'play' to watch the video. (The streaming will be smooth in broad band connections. If you find streaming not smooth, right click this link and save the link to your desktop to download wmf format of the file. The file can be played through windows media player.



The video may also be watched from the following link
http://blip.tv/file/2188237

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waiutXIQsfE

Latha Aravindan (Premalaya Natyaniketan) may be contacted at latha_aravindan_ajay@yahoo.co.in

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