PodUniversal

e-Banking Security needs to be stepped up to protect customers

2012-01-29T21:59:00.000+05:30

Presently, almost all the banks have introduced core banking facilities and are providing various online transactions. In the past two or three years, the usage of technology in banks have gone many fold.

As at the end of 2011, approximately 1.8 crores of credit cards are in circulation and they contribute around 8000 crores of transactions every month. In the same way, around 26 crores of debit cards are in circulation, crreating around 3000 crores of transaction. Besides, the banks have activated around 6.5 crores of online accounts. The banks in India, put together transact around 2 lakh crores of rupees every month towards NEFT, ECS, credit and debit card transactions electronically.

Anticipating such enormous growth, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) set up a Working Group in 2010 under the Chairmanship of Mr G Gopalakrishna, Executive Director of RBI to look into the Information security in banks and suggest measures. Accordingly, the Working Group submitted its draft report to RBI in Jan 2011. RBI sought suggestions from the civil society on the report. After the suggestions were received, the final report was accepted by RBI and they circulated to all the Banks on 29th April 2011, directing the banks to implement the recommendations in a time bound manner.

The Working Group has given 265 recommendations. Before the end of October 2011, the Banks should have completed the formation of various committees for implementation and for drafting IS Policy. They should have also completed the gap analysis.

With this background, Cyber Society of India (CySI) jointly with Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) organised a one-day National Seminar on "Banking on e-Security: RBI's Gopalakrishna Working Group" on Friday the 27th Jan 2012 at Chennai.

This is the first time, such a seminar is being organised anywhere in India, after the publication of report. A mention has to be made about Mr M Narendra, CMD of IOB, who took the efforts and arranged to get Mr Gopalakrishna himself to address the participants from different banks and IT industry.

When Cyber Society of India wrote to all the banks about the seminar and requested their participation, excepting few banks like Indian Bank, Canara Bank, Corporation Bank, Maharashtra Bank, UCO Bank, TNSC Bank, SBI, others did not bother even to acknowledge or enquire about this. Those banks also did not even respond to phone calls.

Even when CySI wrote personally to few Chairmen, requesting them to participate in the inaugural session, they did not even respond, even after several reminders and phone calls.

While, organising this event, CySI was able to realise that bankers were not well equipped to address the seminar confidently. Their knowledge level on this report was also very less. When CySI, requested one of the Bankers to depute their Senior Executive, who is considered an authority on IS Audit, their GMs immediately deputed him to Chennai from Kolkatta. After the concerned Official boarded the flight, the CMD of the Bank ordered him not to go and speak. This is the type of 'attitude' of the top management in many banks. Probably, for every knowledge seeking exercise, they need some 'directions' from the Government or from Regulators. Only very few Chairmen are pro-active.

While addressing the participants, Mr Gopalakrishna also accepted that the implementation in the first six months was not satisfactory. Subsequently, when the media persons asked him, he responded that RBI would take it seriously, if the recommendations are not implemented before October 2012.

The full text of the speech by Mr G Gopalakrishna may be downloaded from the following link:

http://www.cysi.in/docs/CySI_seminar-GG.pdf

PodUniversal Edition 146

You may listen to the complete speech of Mr Gopalakrishna (35 minutes). He covers the important aspects of the report and also the road ahead.

This podcast may also be listened from the following link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hquNCDSe_A

"Only a thief will be afraid of investigation and police " - IAC on Lokpal Bill

2011-12-26T11:08:00.001+05:30

PodUniversal Edition 145

India Against Corruption under the leadership of Anna Hazare has been fighting for a strong Lokpal bill to eliminate corruption in India. Lokpal Bill is pending in Indian Parliament for more than 40 years and is not getting passed for one reason or other.

The recent Commonwealth game scam, 2 G scam have triggered the anger of the general public and the anti-corruption movement in India has occupied the centre stage. Even the recent Tamilnadu Assembly elections has proved the mood of the people.

Since corruption is affecting even the common man, this movement has brought together all the people across the Nation, irrespective of their age, caste, economic conditions, education, etc.

When Anna Hazare went on indefinite fast, demanding a strong Lokpal Bill during August 2011, the entire Lok Sabha assured the Nation to get a Lokpal bill passed in the winter session of 2011. As promised, the Government of India has introduced a draft Lokpal Bill in the Lok Sabha on 23nd December 2011. The draft bill is coming up for debate from 27th December 2011 in the Lok Sabha. Meanwhile, Anna Hazare has also given a call for 'satyagraha and fast' from 27th December onwards and also to court arrest by way of 'Jail Bharo'. Till this moment, around 70,000 youth in India have registered to go to jail, demanding a strong bill.

Even though, there are criticisms that IAC should not interfere with the functions of the Parliament, IAC is going ahead with their protest.

IAC is not happy with the present format of Lokpal Bill. They want the investigation powers and the Anticorruption wing of CBI to be brought under Lokpal.

With this background, on behalf of PodUniversal, I interviewed Mr Murlidaran, an active volunteer of IAC, Chennai to share the views on behalf of IAC, as to the areas that are causing concern to them.

Please watch and listen to the podcast interview with Mr Murlidaran. (6 m 40 s).

This podcast may also be watched from the following link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snpy74lY8kk

Is Anna Hazare boxed by coterie and self-centered persons?

2011-12-19T19:41:00.003+05:30

Team Anna at Chennai on 18th Dec 2011

India Against Corruption, Chennai (IAC) had invited Anna Hazare to Chennai to address the Tamilnadu people. After his acceptance of the invitation, Anna ji promised to visit Chennai via Bangaloru on 18th Dec, 2011.

Many people, irrespective of their state, education, religion and age started admiring Annaji for the past one year, after he took on the Central Government to bring Jan Lokpal. Everybody, including me, started admiring his passion and will power to take on the Government. When he was on fast during August, 2011, many of the members from India Vision Group also showed solidarity with him, by skipping one meal, sitting at their place.

Socially conscious people at Chennai were eager to have of glimpse of Anna Hazare, when he agreed to visit Chennai. I have personally seen the enthusiasm level of youngsters. Around 200 volunteers started working day and night ten days in advance to make the visit of Annaji a memorable one. All of them spent their money out of their pocket in this process.
Though there were lot of confusions about the visit of Annaji, these young volunteers involved themselves actively in the arrangement of venue, logistics for the meeting, media relations, arranging accommodation for Team Anna, travel arrangements, police security aspects, website and social media management, live webcasting of the event, sponsorship arrangement, publicity through posters and phamlets, etc. All their activities were transparent and had frequent meetings within short time to ensure the proper arrangements. I admire the involvement of around 200 young volunteers, who selflessly worked for the visit of Annaji.

Probably for the first time in Chennai, such socially relevant meeting attracted ten thousand people at Pachayappa's College, the venue for the meeting. Due to the efforts of media team, the entire national and regional media were present to cover the event. While at Bangalore none of the Regional TV Channels covered live, here at Chennai, three popular Tamil channels covered the event live from the venue to reach the entire Tamilnadu population.

Then what went wrong and where?

While, Annaji has triggered the emotions of millions of youngsters across the nation, a closer look of Annaji's visit to Chennai revealed lot of hollowness and arrogance in their top leadership. Many people like me, who have been supporting IAC right from the beginning felt that Anna Hazare ji is more boxed by few coterie and selfish people. Annaji, due to his age (74) not able to do anything. I share with you some of my first hand information.

Insulting rural leader

1. The young volunteers team had planned to introduce Anna ji through Mr Elango, Former President of Koothappakkam Panchayat (a national award winner for creating model village). Particularly when the regional channels were telecasting live throughout Tamilnadu and because Annaji was focussing on rural development in his speech, this gesture could have sent a right signal to all the rural Tamilnadu. It appears, in the last minute, the top leaders of IAC at Chennai did not favour a rural man to introduce Annaji and preferrred to show their face through channels. Mr Elango had come to the venue with his rural people. But he was not even given the opportunity by the top leaders even to meet Annaji.

Selfish interest of a bollywood person suppressed public interest.

2. While Annaji had arrived at 11 AM to Chennai, he was straight taken from Airport to a preview theatre to watch a movie on Gandhi. Though, there were requests from Chennai Team and also from Team Anna to postpone the viewing of film after meeting the press and the public, this was not allowed by the Secretary of Anna Hazareji. It appears, the personal interest of some film producer connected with bollywood had taken precedence over Annaji's meeting with the public and press. Chennai volunteers blame Mr Suresh, the Private Secretary of Annaji for this decision. They say that Mr Suresh is all powerful and controls what Annaji has to do.

Losing an opportunity to address Tamilnadu people

3. Though, the volunteers team wanted to hold the press conference with Annaji at Chennai Press Club immediately after his arrival, due to this film show, the press conference was planned at 2.30 PM at the venue of the public meeting. Though, all the national and regional channels were holding their camera for live telecast at 2.30 PM, announcement came from Team Anna that Annaji was taking rest due the earlier film show, where he was sitting through and asked the local team to postpone the press meet to 5.30 PM, after completion of public meeting. Since the arrangement was perfectly made in a secluded place at 2.30 PM for the press conference, this sudden change caused lot of disappointment to the media. Team Anna lost a great opportunity to convey their message to entire Tamilnadu live through various channels. To please a bollywood person, they sacrificed a nice opportunity to address Tamilnadu people.

Arrogant behaviour of Kiran Bedi in public

4. Kiran Bedi who was present along with Annaji visibly behaved in an arrogant manner with every body, including media. She was even shouting at the cameras of the media. While Annaji was on stage, she even had the audacity to say that India Against Corruption movement was started by her along with Arvind Kejriwal and that Annaji joined later as third person. Kiran Bedi's behaviour was not liked by many people in the crowd. Even during the Press Conference held after the public meeting and also during the closed door meeting with NGOs, Kiran Bedi was dominating the entire show. The entire Tamilnadu was watching her arrogance through live telecast. Even the questions put to Annaji was responded by her, without allowing Annaji to speak. It gave an impression that Annaji was being used as a show piece to project the individual image of few persons.

Lack of connectivity to the audience

5. For the first time, they are visiting southern states after the launch of IAC. Already, people in the south, particularly in Tamilnadu have been considering this movement only as a North Indian movement. The movement is yet to reach villages and smaller towns. During Annaji's visit, there was a great opportunity to IAC to take the message to villages, since three major Tamil Channels were telecasting live. Though the young volunteers team had made arrangements for translation line by line from Hindi to Tamil, the top leaders of IAC on the stage did not allow the translation.

When Annaji rose to speak, an announcement was made that there would not be a translation in Tamil. Immediately, Annaji started talking in Hindi. All the channels, who were telecasting, got perplexed. One of them even stopped telecasting for want of translation, as the rural tamilnadu cannot understand Hindi. The audience could not understand his Hindi and they became restless. Some of them started leaving the venue. After 20 minutes, in a hurry, an arrangement was made to get the Hindi speech translated into Tamil. Many of the media people and the public felt that it was a sign of 'arrogance' by IAC leaders who were sitting on the stage. Today's newspapers have also reported about this 'mess up'.

Even when Annaji was speaking, he did not do a home work. He was speaking as if he was speaking in Maharashtra. Probably, he did not have enough experience of addressing such massive people in the South or other states. Team Anna, instead of thrusting their views on the public, could have done some homework on the various aspects of the states, where they are addressing.

While talking about the second freedom movement, Annaji quoted the first freedom struggle. In that context, he started quoting only the names of North Indian freedom fighters. Instead, he could have mentioned the names of great freedom fighters of Tamilnadu and got the claps.

While many of the people who attended the meeting admired Annaji's passion, they disliked the behaviour of the top leaders of IAC showing arrogance in public even before the media.

Meeting with friends of IAC

6. After the public meeting, IAC, Chennai had organised meeting with 'Friends of IAC'. They had invited few retired top bureaucrats and some of the social workers who are doing great job silently, to interact with Annaji. Even during that meeting, Kiran Bedi was dominating in the scene. Even when some of the senior people were giving their views in the closed-door meeting, they were not listening properly and thrusted their views.

One Mr Balasubramanian (aged 60), a tea stall owner. who has been spearheading a movement called 'Kodambakam 2020' along with hundreds of youngsters was also one of the invitees. A few months back, on hearing about him, Dr Abdul Kalam invited Balasubramanian to meet him. Dr Kalam made a reference about his passion when he was visiting Sanfransisco. Balasubramanian looks very simple. Balasubramanian asked Annaji a question. "Annaji, today around ten thousand people have visited the public meeting of their own accord. They are passionate people. How do you plan to make use of them". Though, it was addressed to Annaji, Kiran Bedi took the mike and asked him, "Sir, do you know who is your MLA? do you know who is your MP? If you do not know, why are you asking this question". Mr Balasubramanian could not understand the connection between his question and Kiran Bedi's counter question.

Being a simple man, he did not argue and sat. But he felt insulted by the behaviour of Kiran Bedi. The same simple looking person, who was invited by Dr Abdul Kalam few months back for discussion, was insulted by Kiran Bedi without even bothering to know about the background. I am just sharing this in public, how Kiran Bedi has behaved arrogantly even with a simple looking social worker.

How volunteers react?

7. As one of the admirers of Annaji, i felt sad by the behaviour of people around him. I contacted few of the volunteers who were working for this event for the past many days, taking leave of absence from their office. Even they shared lot of things. There seems to be no representation from Chennai in the core team of IAC at national level. Annaji made an announcement openly in the public meeting, that they were adding members from south. There is an active volunteers team at Chennai. They want the core team members with 'impeccable integrity' and without any 'selfish motive' to be selected in consultation with volunteers, instead of nominating one more coterie.

Conclusion

I had a very great view on the IAC and its functions. Annaji's visit to Chennai has shown visibly, how arrogant their top leaders, how they give scant respect for the local sentiments, how they do not want to listen to others and want others only listen to them. I also observed 'selfish interest' dominated over the 'public interest'.

I strongly feel, that Annaji is 'boxed' by few dominating leaders like Kiran Bedi, who never allowed Annaji to give answers to media.
Millions of people in this country have shown faith on the integrity of Annaji. On behalf of millions of admirers of Annaji, i request IAC to debate within themselves and come out clean.

While they preach 'transparency' to the Government, they should be more 'transparent' and show to the world.

Jai Hind

Proper energy mix only can lead to energy independence

2011-12-12T16:36:00.000+05:30

PodUniversal Edition 144

In the recent weeks, the protesters of Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project have been demanding the closure of all nuclear projects in India and to generate power through other resources. In order to understand the feasibility and suitability for Indian conditions, we had a discussion with Mr V Ponraj, Advisor to former Indian President Dr A P J Abdul Kalam. Mr Ponraj, along with Dr Kalam has visited all the Nuclear Power Stations in India and few of the major Reactors in other countries. Mr Ponraj has been assisting Dr Abdul Kalam now, to prepare the vision documents. We have also earlier published the 39 page report of Dr Abdul Kalam on the Indian energy status and the safety of Kudankulam projects in our Tamil blog.

Present energy status in India

Presently India is generating around 1.50 lakh MW of Power from different sources. Out of this, 89% of electricity is generated out of natural resources like coal (56%), water (25%), wind (5%), Solar (0.2%) and nuclear (3%). The balance of 11% power is generated out of gas and oil.

Future requirement

As per Goldman Sachas Report, BRIC Nations (Brazil, Russia, India and China) may contribute to 49% of the world economy by 2020 from the present level of 36%. India is growing at a rate of 9 to 10% per annum. This development will increase the need for more electricity. At this rate, by 2020, India may need around 4.00 lakh MW of power and by 2030, we may need 9.50 MW of power.

Environment pollution through power generation

Presently, every year, the entire world is generating 30 billion tons of 'Greenhouse Gas', which pollutes the environment. Of this nearly 26% is generated through electricity generation, as per IPCC report. Such environment pollution leads to global warming and change of climate.

Annually around 20 lakh people die in the world due to environment pollution and 1.40 lakh die due to climate changes. This includes the death of around 5.50 lakh people annually due to the environment pollution caused by power generation.

Green Energy

Now world over, all the countries are fighting against global warming spending more than 300 billion dollars to protect the environment. To the extent possible, they want to avoid power generation using the fuel like coal, gas, oil which may pollute the environment. Even availability coal may not last long. Hence, the concept of 'Green Energy' has become popular. 'Green energy' means, producing electricity using the resources which may not cause pollution. Only solar, wind and nuclear and bio-fuel sources can generate green energy.

Need for energy mix to achieve energy independence.

If a country can produce the electricity fully to their needs from various sources, then it is called 'energy security'. If the same electricity is generated out of wind, solar, nuclear and bio-fuel, then it is called 'energy independence'. We need to move from 'energy security' to 'energy independence'. This is possible only through 'Green energy'.

Generation of electricity in a country depends on (1) availability of resources like wind, solar, water, coal, uranium, etc. (2) accessibility to such resources and (3) cost effective technology availability to generate electricity.

No country can depend on a single source for generation of power for different reasons. It varies from countries to countries. We may have plenty of resources, but technology may not be available or accessibility to such sources will not be there. Hence, they need to tap different sources. Hence, proper 'energy mix' is needed to be planned, basing on the above three factors and also the cost aspect.

Efficiency of different sources

Presently solar cells have efficiency of 20% and researches are going on to increase the efficiency to 30 to 40%. This model needs around 10 to 12 crores per MW.

Presently, the efficiency factor for wind energy is around 30% and cost is around 7 to 8 crores per MW.

Currently, the efficiency level for good coal is around 58% and involves the cost aspect of 4 to 5 crores per MW.

The only energy source which is 100% efficient is the nuclear energy. This involves the cost of around 6 to 7 crores per MW.

Generally, as said earlier, wind, solar, nuclear and bio-fuel are the cleanest energy sources to produce 'Green energy'.

At this present level, India can generate additionally 80,000 MW through coal, 50,000 MW through water, 55,000 MW through solar sources, 60,000 MW through wind and 50,000 MW through nuclear sources by 2030.

Kalam-NSS Space Solar energy initiative.

While solar energy is available in the land only for 12 hours, the same energy is available all the time in the space. This is called 'space solar energy;. Dr Abdul Kalam has been working on this to generate electricity from space solar, which can benefit the entire world. For this purposes, National Space Society has set up an research initiative in the name of 'Kalam-NSS Space Solar energy initiative' to research on this. This is a long term project. Their aim is to bring energy independence by 2030 by producing only clean/green energy.

Podcast of Mr V Ponraj

In this context, we had a discussion with Mr V Ponraj, Advisor to Dr APJ Abdul Kalam. Please watch/listen to his interesting conversation. (10 minutes).

This can also be watched from the following link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auVgSVJOkC8

How to manage the competition through 'competitive intelligence'?

2011-11-20T18:41:00.000+05:30

After the globalisation, every company is competing with each other to secure their share of business. Even the countries are competing with each other to get other's market.

In spite of the huge population and non-transparent communist Government, China is now competing globally with US and other European countries. Even India is looking at China as a major competitor.

What makes China to become globally powerful? Is it their product capability only? The major reason for China's success is the 'competitive intelligence'.

During the recent visit to India, Prof. Muralidharan of Macquarie Graduate School of Management, Sydney in an exclusive interview for PodUniversal explained in detail about the secrets behind China's success story. He even suggested that instead of looking at China as a competitor, India needs to develop partnership with them.

"Instead of fearing about the competition, learn from the competitors", he said. In the conversation, he also explained the concepts of business intelligence and the competitive intelligence. He regretted that Indian companies do not attach much importance to the competitive intelligence, to manage the competition.

He visited India recently, to conduct a workshop at Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai and we have also covered about this workshop in detail in our earlier posting.

Prof. Muralidharan can be reached at murali2000@hotmail.com

Please listen to his interview (8 minutes)

This podcast interview may also be listened form the following link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8eY2wWhIQA

Fear of Koodangulam project is unfounded - Scientific facts

2011-11-05T15:55:00.002+05:30

Dr Abdul Kalam and Mr V Ponraj

Now Koodangulam Nuclear Power station is facing crisis. After an investment of Rs.15,000 crores and work of more than a decade, this nuclear power station is ready to produce 2000 MW of power within a month or two. When the production is to start in a few weeks, some of the activists along with villagers have been protesting against the nuclear power station. They have even met the Prime Minister and requested him to close down the power station. They are creating the fear among the villagers that this nuclear power station may also generate radiation and cause death, if an earthquake or Tsunami happens in future, like Japan's Fukushima.

With this background, on behalf of our group, I interviewed Mr V Ponraj, Advisor to Dr Abdul Kalam former President of India. Mr Ponraj is also a well known scientist. Mr Ponraj explains the scientific facts about nuclear energy. Excerpt from the interview.

Q: Villagers have fear about Koodangulam project. They fear that the radiation may cause death, if earthquake or tsunami happens in future. They are quoting Japan's recent Fukushima example. What is your view?

A: Koodangulam and Kalpakkam are in earthquake zone No 2 with lower risk of earthquake. Nowhere in the world, earthquake zone 2 has suffered any major earthquake leading to death so far. Japan's Fukushima is in earthquake zone 5. Besides, the japan power plant belongs to generation 1, constructed 40 years back. Since Earthquake and Tsunami happened simultaneously, the power plant got affected. That power plant had the backup of only 8 hours of power supply. Hundreds of people died only because of earthquake and tsunami. As per the report, not even one person died out of radiation due to the Fukkushima Accident. A wrong propaganda is being spread in India by some vested interests against Koodangulam safety quoting Fukushima.

Koodangulam is in Earthquake zone 2, which is less prone to heavy earthquake. The Tsunamigenic plate (Sunda ARC) is located 1500 KM Southwest away from Koodangulam. Even if Tsunami orginates due to severe earthquake in that Sunda ARC region , it may not have serious impact at Koodangulam since it is not located straight to that tsunamigenic plate, it is located in a very safe place in the eastern side where it is protected by Srilanka island. Even in the 2004 Tsunami, the impact on Koodangulam was less.

since the direct impact can only hit Nagapattinam, it hit that location in 2004. It was because, 2004 Tsunami was the cause of the earthquake originated in Indonesia/Sumatra in the eastern part of the Pacific Ring of Fire – Tsunamigenic plate. Hence there is no question of Earthquake beyond 6 Ricter scale and Tsunami happening at Koodankulam site. These fears are unfounded. Even if earthquake and tsunami happens the Koodankulam is built to withstand both.

Further, the 'spent fuel', is being stored 20 feet below the earth level in a two level protected concrete structure with 1.20 meter thick walls with a gap of 6 feet and then another wall covering that. Even assuming an earthquake of Richter scale 6 happens, it may not affect the storage of the spent fuel complex. The spent fuel is not mixed with sea, as propagated. No waste or spent fuel is mixed with sea. It is only the coolant water, which does not have any radiation except the 5 degree warm temperature is released to the sea, which is well within the limits of 7 degree. The research studies conducted by 7 reputed institutions have proved that there is no threat to the marine life due to this water release.

While Japan Fukushima had only 8 hours of power supply, Koodangulam has the provision for more than 400 times of requirement of alternate power supply. Besides, we can run the power station for many number of days with diesel also in case of emergency. Now in India, all the nuclear power stations are in the process of getting upgraded to 3rd and 4th generation model.

Any nuclear power station can be built in any part of the world, only after lot of clearances. Now the rules are stringent. Government will invest such huge sums of money, only after the approval by various scientific bodies and regulatory bodies.

The fears of certain Koodangulam representatives are unfounded and not based on scientific views. They can be rest assured that this power station is very very safe.

Q: What is the present status of power stations and what are the plans for future?

A: Presently, India is generating only 60% of its total requirement as on today, that means we are able to produce only around 150,000 MW of power. By 2020, India may need to generate 4 lakh MW of power.

Of this 1.50 lakh MW production of power, India produces only 4750 MW through 20 nuclear power stations. That means only around 2.8 percent is produced through nuclear power stations. Rest are from thermal, hydro, wind and solar sources.

By 2020, India plans to produce 50,000 MW under nuclear source, 60,000 MW under wind, 55,000 MW under thermal, 50,000 MW under hydro and 50,000 MW under solar sources. India is generating power from different sources.

To generate 1 MW of power under hydro, we need an investment of approximately Rs.3 crores, for thermal, we need approximately around Rs. 4 crores, for nuclear, we need 6 to 7 crores crores; for solar, we need 12 crores and for wind, we need 7 to 8 crores.

Nuclear power is clean and does not pollute the environment and it is carbon-dioxide CO2 free. To put things into perspective, imagine a kilometer long train, with about 50 freight bogies, all fully laden with the most typical fossil fuel – about 10,000 tonnes of coal. The same amount of energy can be generated by amount 500 kg of Type-1 fuel naturally occurring Uranium (contains 3.5 kg Uranium-235 fuel), enough to barely fill the boot of a small car.

We can not depend on coal endlessly. It is found that availability of coal reserve in the world will last only for 30 years. Power generation through hydro, solar and wind sources is highly dependent on the monsoon. Only nuclear power can be produced endlessly.

India has the second largest thorium deposit in the world. Within a decade or two, we will graduate to thorium. Our scientists are already on the job. That will help us to generate more power.

Q: How other developed countries use the nuclear energy? Activists report that France is shutting down their nuclear power stations for safety reasons. Is it right?

A: The developed countries are power surplus countries. We are a power deficit country. Hence there is a lot of difference to achieve the target of total energy requirement in various available forms in india compared to our economic growth rate of 9% to 10% for the next 10 years.

Many of the developed countries like US, France have surplus power. US is generating 1.50 lakh MW power through nuclear energy and it constitutes around 19% of the total power generation.

France is generating 0.50 lakh MW power through nuclear sources. It is 74% of their power generation. Unlike India, France is more dependent on nuclear power. (India has only 2.8%). Also, they are generating surplus power. Japan generates 0.30 lakh MW nuclear power (29% of their total power generation). Germany is generating 0.5. lakh MW nuclear power (28% of their power generation).

Germany decided to phase out nuclear power by 2022, not because of the fear out of Fukkushima accident, but they have exhausted the uranium resource. Out of 3400 tonnes of their uranium requirement, now they are able to mine only 68 tonnes, the rest is being imported. Hence in their energy security policy, uranium import found to be not cost effective beyond 2022, rather they can very well use the other forms of energy generation from their own natural resources. Hence every country is free to decide their own energy security requirement, india is trying to achieve energy independence through its own policy.

You cannot ask India to follow the models of other countries, just because they are doing differently. Every country is unique based on their economic development and growth. The power surplus countries are growing only at 2% to 4% GDP growth rate, while India is growing at 9%,GDP growth rate in spite of the power shortage. We should not compare with other countries, as other countries have different production capacity. None of these countries are shutting down their nuclear stations for the fear of safety reasons.

Q: How to remove the fear of villagers about the nuclear energy and radiation?

A: As I said earlier, the fear of local people are unfounded, it is created. Nuclear energy is a clean energy without polluting the environment.

Japan suffered US bombing during world war. That was uncontrolled nuclear energy. But nuclear power stations are 'controlled nuclear energy'.

All the electronic gadgets like TV, computers, mobile phones, etc. are also generating radiation. We have learnt to manage these radiations.

The Government and Media should remove the fears of the local people through scientific facts and explaining them in the way they understand. Indian scientists are of world class and highly patriotic. They will not do anything, which can harm the nation. Just like we go to a professional doctor and accept the suggestions prescribed by him with belief, we should also trust our own scientists who are respected world over and leave the job to them.

I also suggest to visit the site and go throughthe contents.

http://www.world-nuclear.org/education/whyu.htm

'competitive intelligence' is essential to manage competition

2011-10-30T21:21:00.003+05:30

One group working on competitive strategies in the 'War Game'.
Prof. Prakash Sai (IIT) and Prof. Murali Dharan (MGSM) looking on

Department of Management Studies (Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai) jointly with Madras Management Association and Macquarie Graduate School of Management (Macquarie University, Sydeny) organised a two-day workshop for the senior corporate executives on 'Business and Corporate Intelligence" on 28th and 29th October 2011.

In the highly competitive world, all the companies are required to compete globally to fight for their space. Before preparing for the competition, the companies need to spend enough time to know about their competitors also. This is known as 'competitive intelligence'. It should be done in a legal and ethical way. It is reported that many of the Indian Corporates do not take the 'competitive intelligence' seriously and hence they lose many good projects. China is one of the good examples of using competitive intelligence and hence, they are dominating in the world as a powerful nation.

Probably for the first time in India (since no data is available), IIT has organised this workshop to create an awareness about 'competitive intelligence among the Indian Corporates. .

As part of the workshop, they also organised a 'War Game'. They divided the participants into four groups. Each group represented one major existing company viz. Infosys, TCS, Accenture and IBM. The groups were given before hand the real profile of each company and they were also advised to collect more details about their company and their competitors through various other sources.

An Imaginary Government e-Health project worth of 10 billion dollars, spread over 10 years was given as the project for 'bidding'. The groups have to prepare their competitive strategies based on their strength and the competitors' strength.

Finally, all the groups were made to present their strategies for evaluation. The concept of 'War Game' can also be used in the training workshops. It is reported that some of the major MNCs use this 'War Game' concept within themselves, to understand more about their competitors. Some of their own employees will be made to represent their competitors in their 'in-house war game'.

At this stage, I am reminded of a Thirukkural, by Saint Thiruvalluvar who wrote this following couplet 2000 years back. This Thirukkural summarises how modern day corporates can manage the competition.

வினை வலியும் தன் வலியும் மாற்றான் வலியும்
துணை வலியும் தூக்கிச்செயல் - Thirukkural 471

(Before undertaking any task, weigh judiciously (1) the nature of the task on hand, (2) your own strength, (3) Competitor's strength and (4) the strength of your support team, allies and partners.)

PodUniversal Edition 142

This Thirukkural shows, how important is the 'Competitive intelligence' before undertaking any task. Please watch 8 minutes interview on this workshop.

This video may also be watched from http://youtu.be/6eouWvA7IlM

Sabarmati Ashram, the key place where Mahatma Gandhi took historic decisions

2011-10-02T20:14:00.001+05:30

Mahatma Gandhi's room, where he used to meet
the visitors. Only in this room many historic decisions
relating to freedom struggle were taken

PodUniversal Edition 141

After returning from South Africa, Mahatma Gandhi set up a Satyagraha Ashram at Kocharab at Ahamedabad on 25th May 1915. The Ashram was then shifted to the banks of river Sabarmati on 17th June 1917. At that time, Mahatma said, "This is the right place for our activities to carry on the search for truth and develop fearlessness, for on one side are the iron bolts of the foreigners, and on the other the thunderbolts of Mother Nature."

As predicted by Mahatma, this place proved to be the most significant place during the freedom struggle. Many national leaders like Pandit Nehru, Vinobha ji, Sardar Patel, Rajaji have visited this place and took historic decisions.

Mahatma lived in this Ashram till 12th March 1930. On that day, he started his famous Dandi Salt Satyagraha Yatra from this place with 78 freedom fighters protesting against the tax levied by British rule on Salt. This Dandi March and the simultaneous march led by Shri Rajaji in the South were important events in ths history of Indian freedom struggle and galvanised the people. More than 60,000 freedom fighters courted arrest and their properties were seized by the British Government.

Mahatma Gandhi decided to disband the Ashram on 22nd July 1933, as many of the freedom fighters were in Jails. Thereafter, the local people, took the initiative of preserving the Ashram as monument. On 10th May 1963, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru inaugurated the Gandhi Museum and it was made as a National monument. Till date, this historic place is being preserved well, in the original condition, to provide inspiration for the future generation.

When Mahatma left this Ashram on 12th March 1930 for Dandi Yatra, he vowed to return to Ashram only after India's freedom. Unfortunately, due to partition and communal riots, Mahatma could not even participate in the Independence day celebrations at Delhi.

Since he was assasinated in 1948, he could not visit the Sabarmati Ashram again during his life time.

Sabarmati Ashram is an important place, which provided inspiration to Mahatma Gandhi to plan and initiate the freedom movement. Every Indian citizen should visit this place atleast once in his life time.

Please watch a brief video (6 minutes) on the Sabarmati Ashram.

This video may also be viewed from
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkpcJgiU08M

Make Lokpal as Constitutional Authoiry to fight corruption

2011-08-22T09:16:00.000+05:30

PodUniversal Edition 140

As I publish this Podcast, Anna Hazare's fast has entered 7th day and many youth in India have come on streets demanding Jan Lokpal bill to be accepted by the Government of India. Already the Government has introduced Lokpal bill in the Parliament. Jan Lokpal Bill provides more teeth to fight corruption.

With this background, I spoke to Mr Era Sezhiyan, a well known octogenarian Parliamentarian and Mr T S Krishna Murthy, Former Chief Election Commissioner of India to get their views on this bill.

Both of them are of the view that Lokpal is to be made as a Constitutional Authority like Supreme Court, CAG and Election Commission. For this purpose, they suggest a constitutional amendment to be introduced in the Parliament, instead of a bill for an Act. Also, Mr Krishna Murthy says that CVC and CBI are to be brought under Lokpal to fight corruption.

Please listen to their views in the Podcast (6 minutes).

This audio may also be listened from the following link. If you want to download this audio, right click this link and save to your desktop as MP3 file. (5 MB)

http://www.podbazaar.com/permalink/144115188075857547

Many youngsters on indefinite fast at Chennai supporting JanLokpal since 16th August.

2011-08-19T10:48:00.000+05:30

37 young professionals and students are on indefinite fast at IAC, Chennai for the fourth day in support of Jan Lokpal and Anna Hazare. This includes ten college students who are in the age group of 18 and 19. Yesterday (18th Aug 2011), I visited the venue where India Against Corruption volunteers were fasting at Chennai. Besides, more than 50 persons were fasting on a relay fast.

Screen shot of fourth day (19 August 2011) at 10 AM taken
through the live stream at www.iacchennai.org

There were hundreds of volunteers, who were shouldering various responsibilities like lie stream, taking care of people who were on fast, attending to media and VIPs, creating public awareness, etc. meticulously. When I visited the venue on the third day morning, more than 5000 volunteers had already registered.

I spoke to few of the youngsters who were fasting from 16th August 2011 onwards, when Anna Hazare was arrested. Even though, they were visibly looking tired because of three days continuous fast, they spoke to me energetically that they would not stop the fast, until the Government accepts the Jan Lokpal bill.

I made a podcast feature on the third day event by IAC Chennai. I also took the interviews from these brave, patriotic, UnSung heroes. Please watch this video. (6 minuts)

This video may also be viewed from

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJf6OtGB8R0

Government Lokpal bill vs Jan Lok Pal bill - What are the differences?

2011-08-11T21:57:00.002+05:30

PodUniversal Edition 138
Government of India has now introduced the Lokpal Bill 2011 in the Parliament recently in the monsoon session. 'India Against Corruption' team lead by Anna Hzare has rejected the draft of the Lokpal bill. They have demanded a more powerful Lokpal bill to be passed by Parliament. They have also drafted a 'Jan Lokpal bill' and circulated among the people. The Lokpal bill envisages to eradicate the corruption and punish the corrupt people.

Now the Indian media is debating the difference between these two drafts. Meanwhile, Anna Hazare team is planning to start an indefinite fast from 16th August 2011, to force the Government to make the Lokpal bill more meaningful.

It is quite interesting to note that under the recommendations of Administrative Reforms Commission, the first Lokpal bill was introduced in the 4th Lok Sabha in 1968. For one or reason or other, the Lokpal bill is not passed by both the houses of Parliament, even after 43 years. Now with the emergence of various scams like 2G, CWG, etc. this Lokpal bill assumes greater significance in India, to eradicate corruption.

There is a lot of confusion among the common men, about the real differences between the Government bill and Jan Lokpal bill. To inorder to get the real insight, we interviewed Dr Bhavana Upadyaya, a communication teacher and professional. She was educated at US and was working in New Mexico University as a lecturer in communication. She has been living in US for the past 10 years. On hearing about the corruption issues in India, she returned to India to join the 'India Against Corruption' movement along with Anna Hazare and fight against the corruption.

In an exclusive interview to PodUniversal, she has explained the major differences between these two drafts. Please listen to her interview by clicking play button. (7 minutes).

This interview may also be listened from
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiCRncalg2w

Cyber espionage is the greatest threat to Corporates globally

2011-07-22T13:17:00.000+05:30

PodUniversal Edition 137

In the earlier days, Corporate espionage used to be a mild threat to successful companies. The competitors or enemies used to follow some traditional methods of planting their people in the target company as a regular employee, verifying the dust bin, etc.

Now the with technological growth, all the corporate houses are using computers and network. All the important data is stored in the internal server, which is also connected to the network. Even the top companies do not follow the cyber security procedures properly.

In order to sensitise the corporates on the 'cyber security' issue, on behalf of PodUniversal, we spoke to Mr J Prasanna, CEO, AVS Labs. Mr Prasanna is one of the Cyber Security experts. According to him, cyber espionage takes place through (1) Email system (2) Company Websites and (3) Internal server. Mr Prasanna also says that every month 20 to 30 top companies in India are targetted and more than 3000 mails are being watched. He also adds that very unfortunately, many corporates do not know even that they are being targetted. In such circumstances, all the companies need to strengthen their 'cyber security' and train their technical professionals to counter such espionage.

Please watch this interview by clicking 'play' button. (6 m 40 sec)

This video may also be watched from the following link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoTAU_7g0Go

Job opportunities in healthcare 'Revenue cycle management' - Ajuba CEO exclusive

2011-06-22T10:49:00.002+05:30

US entrepreneurs nowadays have started preferring India for setting up their business units. Though many countries are in the race, India is the most preferred country for them, because of 'english speaking' workforce, commitment, stability of democracy and judiciary, etc.

Mr Tony Mira, CEO, Ajuba Group

Last week, I had the opportunity of meeting Mr Tony Mira, President and CEO of MiraMed, a Michigan (USA) based company. MiraMed owns Ajuba International in USA and Ajuba Solutions in India. Ajuba group is a 'healthcare revenue cycle management' company. They service 25 US based leading companies in healthcare. He was on a short visit to India.

Revenue cycle management involves medical coding, medical billing. transaction processing, and Account Receivable (AR) follow up, etc. Due to strict regulations in US, this job involves more level of complexities.

According to Mr Tony Mira, around 1800 employees are working in Chennai. India is a good destination for US companies for setting up 'Revenue cycle management' outsourcing centres for healthcare. More such business opportunities are available from all over the world, besides US, Ajuba plans to increase their workforce to 4000 by 2014.Ajuba is also rated as one of the top 25 ' Great places' to work in India.

In an exclusive interview with me for PodUniversal, Mr Tony Mira said that there is a great career prospects for Indian youth in this field. The potential candidates should hold minimum of a gradulation with good spoken and written skills in English. They should also possess good analytical skils, as the job involves complex transactions. Since Revenye Cycle Management job involves some improved skills, the compensation is also higher than the other outsourcing companies. In addition, the candidates get the opportunity for certification and training and developing domain expertise.

Interested suitable candidates may also send their CV to them at careers@ajubanet.net.

Please watch the interview with Mr Tony Mira (5 m 38s)

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) advises all banks to follow information security norms

2011-06-12T16:45:00.001+05:30

Cyber Society of India (CySI), a non-profit organisation formed to create cyber law/security awareness organised an one-day workshop on cyber crimes and cyber security at University of Madras premises, Chennai. Mr N S Vishwanathan, Regional Director, Reserve Bank of India, Chennai inaugurated the workshop and also explained in brief the guidelines given by 'Gopalakrishna Commitee Report' to the banks on information security.

Mr N Vittal (left) receives the Life Time Achievement Award
from Mr N S Vishwanathan

Mr N Vittal, Former Central Vigilance Commissioner of India was honoured with 'Life Time Achievement Award'. Mr P W C Davidar IAS, who was earlier the IT Secretary of Government of Tamilnadu and the first Adjudicator of Tamilnadu under Information Technology Act was also conferred with 'CySI Fellowship'.

Many experts from Reserve Bank of India, commercial banks, IT industry shared their views in the workshop on the various challenges faced by the consumers in the electronic banking and the urgent need to step up the information security.

Immediately after the inauguration, we interviewed Mr N S Vishwanathan, Regional Director, Reserve Bank of India in the corridors of the University on the 'Gopalakrishna Committee Report'.
For the information of readers, Reserve Bank of India set up a working group in April 2010 under the chairmanship of Mr G Gopalakrishna, presently Executive Director of Reserve Bank of India to look into the various aspects of Information security and suggest guidelines to all the banks in India. Accordingly, the Committee submitted its report to RBI, who accepted the report. The Committee report was circulated to all the banks on 29th April 2011 for impelmentation. The report may be downloaded by 'right clicking this link and saving to your desktop'.

This 174 page report gives more responsibility on the banks to implement information security systems and also to educate the customers on ebanking. Please listen to the interview of Mr N S Vishwanathan, who explains the various aspects of this report in brief (5 minutes).

Please watch the photo stream of the workshop.

What is Aadhaar? How to get Unique Identification Number?

2011-04-11T12:08:00.002+05:30

PodUniversal Edition 134

Aadhaar is a 12 digit identification number, issued by Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to all the residents of India. In the recent days, it is being talked about in the media. UIDAI has named this Unique Identification Number as 'Aadhaar', which means 'foundation' or 'base' in many Indian languages. This Aadhaar is going to be the base for many things in future, to all the residents.

Though it is being talked about in media, many people do not know about the Unique Identification Number, how it is being issued, How to get this number, etc. In order to provide such basic information, on behalf of PodUniversal, we inerviewed Mr K K Sharma, Asst. Director General of UIDAI. You may listen to his interview by clicking 'play' button in the flash player. (8 minutes).

For more information about Aadhar, please also visit their site http://uidai.gov.in/

This interview may also listened from the following link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgTz8AbboLI

Quality Circle - A two-way communication tool to resolve problems in organisations

2011-03-29T16:21:00.000+05:30

PodUniversal Edition 133

'Quality Circle' is a tool developed by Japan in early 1980s, to involve the employees and to develop two way communication model. Many of the Indian manufacturing Companies in India, like TVS Group, Ashok Leyland, Maruti, etc. started encouraging 'Quality Circle' in their companies even in the early 1980s.

Quality Circle is a two-way communication tool, to identity and resolve the problems in the organisations. The commitment and involvement of the management is higly essential in the formation of Quality Circle. Quality Circle is a small group of voluntary members coming together to identify and resolve the problems in any organisation.

Quality Circle can be formed for any purposes, where identification and resolution are needed. Maximum number of members in the Quality Circle can be 10, to be more effective. There will be a 'facilitator' on behalf of the management to be the bridge between the top management and the quality circle. The members will elect a 'leader' and 'deputy leader' among themselves to coordinate the activities.

Quality Circle meetings will be held during 'office hours' only. An organisation can have any number of Quality Circles, depending on the need.

In the first stage, management encourages the formation of 'Quality Circle' in every department, out of the volunteers. Nobody should be compelled to be part of the Quality Circle, and it is purely voluntary, irrespective of their cadre and position. Then the Quality Circle members will elect their leader and deputy leader.

In the next stage, they will identity the problems in their own department and prioritise the issues. After identification of issues and prioritisation they will take the problems one by one for solving. Through brain storming techniques, the group will try to find the best solution for the problems.

V K Venkataramani

Many of the traidtional companies have been encouraging this Quality Circle concept. It is a bottom-top approach and it involves the employees. The new generation companies also have similar project meetings. But in most of the cases, they are only 'top-down' approach. The new generation companies also can try to introduce Quality Circle Concept to resolve their problems.

In an exclusive interview with PodUniversal, Mr V K Venkataramani, one of the Quality Consultants explains the concept and the step by step procedures. Please listen to his interview (5 minutes) by clicking the 'play' button in the player.

The interview also may be listened from the following link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvwY8-mMT1Q

Dr Tamara Gillis speaks on 'Employee Communication'

2011-03-12T22:14:00.000+05:30

PodUniversal Edition 132

Presently, almost all the corporates consider HR as the most challenging one. Public Sector organisations face the problem of 'lack of motivation'. Private Sector organisations face the challenge of 'retaining the talents'. Eery organisation wants to be a 'preferred employer'.

Dr Tamara L Gillis

Many times, the Corporates consider a celebrity (actor or sports person) as their 'Brand Ambassadors'. Seldom they realise, that their own employees are the real brand ambassadors for their products and services.

Right from CEO, all are too busy and unable to find time to look at the 'Employee communication'. Unless the 'employee communication' is strengthened, the companies would find it difficult to manage the competition.

With this in mind, on behalf of PodUniversal, we interviewed Dr Tamara L Gillis, Professor of Communication, Elizebethtown College, Pennsylvania, USA. She is one of the experts in Employee Communication and she has written a book, to be published shortly on the organisational communication. She was on a short visit to Chennai recently and she was invited to interact with the participants of PR workshop in Indian Overseas Bank. The interview was recorded during that time.

Please listen to her interview by clicking 'play button' ( 4 minues)

The interview may also be watched from

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6ZhTL36BnY

Dr Subramanian Swamy shares his secrets of 'perseverance'

2011-02-28T10:20:00.000+05:30

PodUniversal Edition 131

Presently, many people want to achieve their goal. When they face difficulties or failure, they get disheartened and lose their enthusiasm to pursue their mission. We commonly see this phenomenon among the younger generation. Dr Subramanian Swamy, President of Janata Party is known for his perseverance.

Dr Subramanian Swamy

During early 1970s, when Indira Gandhi imposed emergency in India, Dr Swamy was issued with the arrest warrant. Braving all challenges, he entered into Parliament and presented his views and escaped to other countries. Now, when, all the media have been writing about 2G scam for the past two years, only because of the sustained efforts of Dr Swamy through judicial route, many arrests were made possible.

On behalf of PodUniversal, we requested him for an exclusive interview for the Diamond Jubilee edition of ezine (Feb 2011 issue) to get the tips for 'perseverance'. During our interview, he shared his views in a simple manner. Excerpts from his interview:

"Out put of your efforts is not directly proportional to the efforts. Some time, you you put in lot of efforts and get nothing; Some time, with least efforts, you get lot. The same is described in Bhawad Gita as 'karma theory'. Every one should pursue the goal without tension, putting the best efforts. If you understand and develop this attitude, 'perseverance' comes. If you get disheartened, perseverance evaporates.
Generally, people are averse to taking risks. You can not achieve anything without taking risks. When you take the risk, there is a probability of failure also. Risk taking attitude should be developed.
Perseverance is the amalgam of multiple intelligences like emotional intelligence, social intelligence, moral intelligence and spiritual intelligence. India is known for the spiritual intelligence, which connects to cosmos."

Please watch and listen to his inspiring interview by clicking the 'play' button. (10 minutes).

You can also watch this interview in the following link:

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

Institutional leadership is more important than individual leadership

2011-02-23T18:39:00.002+05:30

PodUniversal Edition 130

Many people, when they assume power and position, they become 'changed' persons in their attitude and humility. They do not realise that their position and power are not permanent and only temporary. When they allow the 'position and power' enter into their mind, they would suffer mentally after retirement or when they lose the power.

I have witnessed several such persons, who were not able to balance their mind, when they get into higher position. At the same time, I have also personally witnessed many persons like Dr Abdul Kalam (Former President of India), Mr S Narendra (Former Information Advisor to Prime Minister). Mr T S Krishna Murthy (Former Chief Election Commissioner of India), Mr N Gopalaswamy (Former Chief Election Commissioner of India) and few others remaining mentally balanced when they were holding the highest offices in their career. Such people decorated the 'position', instead of getting 'decorated'. They continue to be respected even after their leaving the high offices.

M Narendra

Mr M Narendra, who recently took over as Chairman and Managing Director of Indian Overseas Bank is one such professional, who is not affected by the position and power. I personally know him for nearly three decades. Still, he remains as the same person, whom I have seen 30 years back. When I sought his appointment for a podcast interview, his office gave me the time at 10 am on the next day.

I went to his office at 9.45 am along with another senior communication professional. I was sitting in the lobby reading some magazines. A smartly dressed person who entered the lobby said 'Hi, Srinivasan. How are you? I will call you in two minutes' and shook my hands and went away. My friend thought, that the person who came to me was a senior officer of the Chairman's Secretariat. He just asked me, "Who is he?". I said, "He is Mr Narendra, Chairman of IOB". My friend had a shock of his life. He has seen many Corporates and met with top people of both private and public sector. For a moment, he could not realise that a Chairman of a big public sector bank could be very simple.

Sharp at 10 am, he invited me to his chamber and after mutual pleasantries, I recorded his 6 minutes interview. When I asked him what was the secret behind his success, he immediately responded by saying (1) his passion to excel, (2) not getting satisfied with his own achievement and bench marking with other visionaries who have achieved more and (3) enabling his team also to succeed. He was giving more focus on 'Institutional leadership, than individual leadership'.

Please listen to his inspiring interview.( 6 minutes)

The interview also may be watched/listed from the following link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaszGg5vngI

Mahatma Gandhi's grandson Mr Gopalkrishna Gandhi speaks on 'electoral and political reforms'

2011-02-17T16:56:00.001+05:30

PodUniversal Edition 129

National Election Watch conducted their 7th National Conference on Electoral and Political Reforms at Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai on 12th and 13th Feb 2011. The current Chief Election Commissioner of India and Former Chief Election Commissioners, political leaders, NGOs participated to discuss the theme.

Shri Gopalkrishna Gandhi

Shri Gopalkrishna Gandhi, Former Governor of West Bengal and the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and Rajaji inaugurated the Conference. In his speech, he traced the history and quoted how in the past, great national leaders were giving importance to electoral and political integrity.

His inspiring speech may be downloaded in the pdf format (80k) from the following link:

http://www.prpoint.com/gopalkrishnagandhi-speech-120211.pdf

Please watch and listen to excerpts from the speech of Shri Gopalkrishna Gandhi (10 minutes).

The video may also be watched from the following link:

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

Business Communication Course at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan sets the trend

2011-01-12T11:44:00.000+05:30

Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Chennai launched an unique skill based Business Communication Course for the working professionals in July 2010. This is a week-end course spread over 120 hours (20 week ends - 40 days x 3 hours each) focussing only on skill development. 15 experts and 10 CEOs/achievers handled the sessions. The course was launched by Dr Abdul Kalam in July 2010 at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.

L to R: K. Srinivasan, N Ravi, M Narendra,
T S Krishna Murthy. K N Ramaswamy and Vaidyanathan

The convocation to distribute the certificates was held on Sunday the 2nd Jan 2011 at Bhavan. Mr T S Krishna Murthy (Former Chief Election Commissioner of India and now the Chairman of Bhavan's Chennai Kendra), Mr N Ravi (Vice Chairman of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan and Editor of The Hindu), Mr M Narendra (Chairman and Managing Director of Indian Overseas Bank) participated and shared their valuable thoughts on communication trends.

The photo stream of the event:

Mr K. Srinivasan, Chairman of Prime Point Foundation and the Course Director presented a brief report on the course.
PodUniversal Edition 125

Mr T S Krishna Murthy, Chairman of the Chennai Kendra delivered his special address. In his address, Mr Krishna Murthy stressed the growing importance of business communication in the competitive environment.
PodUniversal Edition 126

Mr N Ravi, Editor of The Hindu presided over the function and delivered his address. Mr Ravi emphasised the need for maintaining long form of communication, which is now distorted due to SMS, Email, etc. Mr Ravi will be the Chairman of the 'Board of Studies' for the Second batch, which will start in February, 2011.
PodUniversal Edition 123

Mr M Narendra, Chairman of Indian Overseas Bank was the Chief Guest and delivered his address focussing on the need of internal communication in organisations. He said that only internal communication leads to external communication.
PodUniversal Edition 124

Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Chennai will be launching the second batch of the Business Communication Course in February 2011. Interested may contact through email bizbvb@gmail.com

Workshop on presentation and public speaking skills

2011-01-05T20:59:00.002+05:30

In my earlier two postings, I had mentioned about the TNSC Bank Staff Training College and their enthusiasm to train the district central cooperative bank officials on communication skills. For the third time, I was invited to conduct an half a day workshop to their officials, drawn from different districts.

Workshop on presentation and
and public speaking skills

I conducted a workshop tody (5th Jan 2011) on presentation and public speaking skills. After an introductory presentation by myself on the various techniques and steps, we made some of the participants to make presentation on their topic of choice, for two minutes. Their speeches were video recorded and then displayed for review and analysis.

Every time, such workshops are conducted, I always observe that the participants assume 'stage fear' and assume 'lack of confidence'. Once they are given a chance, they do better. I was very happy that the particpants enjoyed the workshop and got a self confidence to remove the stage fear.

I always used to admire the commitment of the officials, who are all coming from various rural and semi-urban branches. The enthusiasm and passion by the Principal Mr Manohar and his team is really worth admiring. This college is situated at Madhavaram and they have been silently doing great job in the nation building. The urbanised high profile, IT Company managers should visit them once for drawing inspiration from these 'unsung heroes'.

Some of the pictures taken during the workshop:

Domain knowledge should be supplemented with business communication skills

2011-01-04T22:26:00.006+05:30

PodUniversal Edition 123

Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Chennai Kendra launched a skill based business communication course in July 2010. This is an unique course in India, probably, the only of its kind with 120 hours of teaching and working sessions (40 days x 3 hours). This course contents were designed after an extensive research and understanding of the needs of working professionals and industry. This course was formally launched by Former Indian President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam on 10th July 2010.

N Ravi

The course was completed in December 2010. A function was organised by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Chennai to award certificates to the participants who completed the course. Mr M Narendra, Chairman and Managing Director of Indian Overseas Bank and Mr N Ravi, Editor of The Hindu, one of the leading Indian National dailies delivered inspiring speeches.

In this edition, we publish an extract from the speech of Mr N Ravi, Editor, The Hindu on the importance of business communication. During his speech, he focussed on the following points:

1. Presently, though youngsters possess excellent domain knowledge, they do not have adequate business communication skills.

2. Even educational institutions do not give importance to develop communication skills of their students. They remain satisfied with the text book knowledge. On the other hand, developed nations like US provide enough importance on developing communication skills at schools and college level.

3. The youngsters should get trained in business communication skills through such courses, to fill the gap in their communication skills.

4. SMS / Emails have brought a new culture of short form communication. Though such short form of communication is done for quick communication, only long form communication is accepted in the formal communication. Youngsters should focus on the long form communication more.

Please listen to his speech by clicking 'play' button. (7 minutes). We will separately publish the speech of Mr M Narendra.

This video may also be listened from:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYjs9qEGZUQ

Shah Commission report on emergency excesses: Lost and regained

2010-12-26T22:21:00.000+05:30

PodUniversal Edition 122

During June 1975, a state of emergency was declared by the then Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. During the 21 months emergency lot of excesses were held in India by the Government officials. Many opposition leaders were put in prison and press censorship was imposed.

Indian Herald newspaper
dated 26th June 1975

In the general elections held in March 1977, Janatha Party returned to power under the mentorship of Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narayanan. Congress lead by Indira Gandhi got washed out in the north. Even Indira Gandhi got defeated in the elections. In the Indian history, it is considered as the second freedom struggle.

After March 1977, when Morarji Desai Government took charge, they constituted a commission under the chairmanship of Justice J C Shah, former Chief Justice of India. This Shah commission submitted its report in August 1978 on the various excesses committed during the 21 month dark days of emergency. The findings were startling.

When Indira Gandhi came back to power in 1980, all the copies of Shah commission report were withdrawn from all the libraries and buried without even an epitaph Till now, it is reported that only one copy is available at National library of Australia.

Even after three decades, no efforts were made to restore the report to fill the gap in the Indian political history. Mr Era Sezhiyan, 87 year old celebrated Parliamentarian, who was also one of the victims of emergency days, has brought out the Shah Commission report with his comments and remarks, under the title ‘Shah Commission Report – Lost and regained”. This book was released in Chennai by the opposition leader Mr L K Advani on 19th Deember 2010.

Mr Era sezhiyan has a wonderful library in his house with more than six thousand books. He keeps the parliamentary proceedings and important reports from 1965 onwards till date. He is able to bring out the original Shah Commission report from the original copy he had with him in his library. I interviewed him in his library on his latest contribution to the political history.

Please listen to his exclusive interview by clicking 'play' button.

This interview may also be watched from the following link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_1wk-wYQZ4

Unimpeachable and impeccable integrity needed for higher posts - N Vittal

2010-11-23T20:10:00.002+05:30

PodUniversal Edition 121

On 23rd November, 2010, while handling a petition against the appointment of Mr P J Thomas, the present Central Vigilance Commissioner of India, Hon'ble Judges of the Supreme Court observed that persons holding higher offices should possess impeccable integrity. The Supreme Court observed that Mr P J Thomas was facing criminal charge sheet in a court in Kerala. Immediately the Attorney General, representing Government of India responded by saying, “If impeccable integrity is a criterion, then every judicial appointment will be subjected to scrutiny and every constitutional appointment will come under challenge,” attorney-general G.E. Vahanvati told the court. This statement was flashed immediately in all the TV Channels and it triggerred a great debate.

N. Vittal

Under this background, I recorded an exclusive interview with Mr N Vittal, Former Central Vigilance Commissioner of India. Under the directions from Supreme Court, Mr N Vittal was the first CVC to be appointed jointly by the Prime Minister, Home Minister and the Leader of the Opposition through consensus in ealry 2000. Mr Vittal is known for his impeccable integrity. During his tenure as CVC, he introduced lo of measures to eradicate corruption and to bring in more transparency.

Please listen to his interview by clicking 'play' button. (14 minutes). Audio streaming will be smooth in broadband connections. If you find any difficulty, you may download the audio in mp3 format, by right clicking this link.and saving to your desktop.

The audio may also be listened from

http://www.podbazaar.com/permalink/144115188075857528 http://www.podbazaar.com/permalink/144115188075857528

Lord Rama gives 7 rules for 'effective communication' in Valmiki Ramayana, citing Hanuman

2010-11-16T22:12:00.001+05:30

B S Raghavan IAS (Retd)

PodUniversal Edition 120

A very interesting incident about the components of 'effective communication' is narrated in Valmiki Ramayana, the great Indian epic.

In the Ramayana, Hanuman meets Lord Rama and Lakshmana for the first time in the forests and introduces himself and his master Sugriva. This is the first meeting of Hanuman with Lord Rama.

Impressed with the way Hanuman, communicated Lord Rama admires the communication capabilities of Hanuman.

In the 7 or 8 slokas, Lord Rama explains the important aspects of communication skills of Hanuman, that impressed him most. They are:

1. Hanuman spoke very briefly. Not too long or too short. He spoke only for the required level;

2. He also spoke with clarity and without ambiguity;

3. He spoke without any grammatical errors;

4. He used only appropriate words, that cannot be replaced with any other word;

5. He spoke in a medium voice that is audible to the other person. Not too loud or too feeble;

6. His pronunciation of words was correct. The way he was pronouncing the words was like a music and it was pleasant;

7. All the words spoken by him, went to the heart straight.

While addressing the Business Communication course students of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Chennai, Mr B S Raghavan IAS (Retd) explained the seven aspects of communication skill of Hanuman, that impressed Lord Rama. Mr B S Raghavan is one of the senior retired bureaucrats of India and he has served as the first Secretary of National Integration Council, when Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was the Chairman. Mr Raghavan is a well known columnist in Hindu Businessline.

The seven aspects explained earlier, summarises the components of effective communication, that are described in millions of pages in various text books.

Please listen to Mr B S Raghavan by clicking the 'play' button. (5 minutes).

The video may also be watched from the following link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKPRqWsG-50

"Innovation is the key for national and individual growth" - Dr APJ Abdul Kalam

2010-11-11T18:38:00.000+05:30

Sitting L to R: K. Srinivasan, Dr Abdul Kalam and Arvind Thiagarajan

PodUniveral Edition 119

I had the great opportunity of meeting and interacting with our Former President of India Dr APJ Abdul Kalam on 10th November 2010. Mr Arvind Thiagarajan, serial inventor also accompanied me to show his latest device invented by him, to check the heart murmur within 10 seconds.

Though, I have met personally Dr Abdul Kalam and spoken to him over phone several times, every time, I meet him, I really feel excited to interact with him. I always feel that is generating a positive vibration like great Sages of this nation. In a child like enthusiasm, Dr Kalam was using the device to check how it was working. He also gave few important technical suggestions to Arvind for further improving the use of this device.

At the end of our conversation, I requested him a brief message to our Indian youth exclusively for PodUniversal and India Vision members. I requested him to give his views on the importance of innovation in the nation development. He sat in silence for 10 seconds and started his message. Within one minute and three seconds, he conveyed a wonderful message for the youth with all clarity. That is his power of communication. Please watch his message by clicking 'play' button in the player below.

The video may also be viewed from the following link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmA71_zv4kM

Please see the photo-show of our meeting.

How to invent and patent? - Success story of serial inventor Arvind Thiagarajan

2010-11-05T21:25:00.000+05:30

PodUniversal Edition 118

Arvind Thiagarajan

Former Indian President Dr A P J Abdul Kalam always says that for sustained economic growth, only innovation and technology can help. Though, India has been doing an excellent job in the software domain, the Indian professionals are being used only as 'workers' by the Multinational companies. Unless, Indian professionals come out with hardware and software products, economic growth of India cannot be sustained.

Inspired by Dr Abdul Kalam's words, Arvind Thiagarajan (30), started working on inventions right from his Engineering College days. When he was studying in Anna University, he was fortunate to meet and interact with Dr Kalam, who was working as a Professor with Anna University in early 2000, before he became the President of India. Dr Kalam advised him to innovate and also patent all his inventions.

Today Arvind has got more than 40 patents in his name covering various important domains like bio technology, imaging, etc. . Recently, he also introduced one device HDfonoDoc, which can detect the murmur in the heart within 10 seconds and give a print out of the sound waves. This is the first of its kind in the world and will revolutionalise the health care industry in the diagnosis of cardiac problems. He has also obtained approvals from FDA and CE. He is also planning to add and more hardware and software products and dedicate to India. For him the hobby is 'innovation'.

This week, we met him and recorded his podcast interview for PodUniversal. In this podcast, he has explained the interesting success story. He has also assured to help young inventors with the guidance for patenting. He can be reached at arvind.thiagy@gmail.com for any guidance on innovation and patenting.

Please listen to his interview by clicking 'play' button. (9 m 50 sec). In this podcast, we have also added a 40 seconds audio clip of Dr Abdul Kalam, giving his views on innovation.

This podcast may also be listened from

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UatSAr1YeeA

Word's first device to detect heart murmur invented by an Indian Scientist

2010-11-04T08:50:00.000+05:30

HDFonoDoc

Mr Arvind Thiagarajan (30), a serial inventor and a scientist has invented and introduced a new handy device HDFonoDoc, which can detect murmur in the heart within 10 seconds. Arvind Thiagarajan holds more than 40 patents in his name.

Auscultation is an ancient method, through which experts were able to detect the defects in our body system through 'sound'. Stethoscope, used by the doctors is based on this method.

How cardiac problems can happen?

Cardiac problems can occur due to (a) electrical and (b) mechanical defects in the heart. Electrical problems are now detected through the device known as ECG. ECG cannnot provide mechanical defects.

To find out mechanical problems, the patients have to go to Echo Cardiographs, which is costly and available in select centres. The analysis of the data needs to be done by a specialist doctor. Even if a patient wants to rule out the possibility of heart problems, he has to go to Echo Cardiography. That adds pressure on the experts also.

Murmur in the heart

Murmur in the heart can happen due to (a) blockage in the heart valve, (b) leakage in the heart valve and (c) hole in the heart. If the murmur is not detected and corrected in time, it may cost the life.

Using the method of 'Auscultation', Arvind Thiagarajan has invented a new device 'HDfonoDoc', which can detect the murmur in the heart within 10 seconds. This device has received FDA approval from US and CE approval from Europe. Indian Government has also certified this device.

In an exclusive interview for PodUniversal, he has demonstrated the use of this device. Please watch this 7 minute interesting video.

This interview may also be watched from

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M16Qz-qNeqI

Era Sezhiyan, a celebrated Parliamentarian gives tips for effective communication

2010-10-25T18:27:00.001+05:30

Era. Sezhiyan

Mr Era. Sezhiyan (88) is one of the well respected Parliamentarians and Statesmen of India. He has served both the House of Parliament for more than 22 years continuously till 1984. He is well known for his Parliamentary debates. Whenever he used to raise to speak in Parliament, even the Prime Ministers used to listen to him carefully. Many a times, due to his debate, even the Budgets were modified.

He is still considered an authority on Financial matters of the Governance. Even at his 88th age, he is keeping updated with the global Parliamentary practices. He is also one of the Founders of Janata Party and then Janata Dal along with Jayaprakash Narayan, Morarji Desai and few others. For many constitutional matters, even today, many of the National and International media used to take his views. Due to his poor health, he has restricted his public meetings.

On 24th October 2010, he interacted with the participants of Business Communication Course at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Chennai. As one of the celebrated Parliament debater, he shared his views on effective communication. According to him, whether it is a political communication or corporate communication, the concept remains the same. In an exclusive interview for PodUniversal, we asked him what was his secret of communication, which made everybody to turn to him. Some of the views are:

1. Communication should come from the heart; Communication in flowery languages to please the auidence and without any purpose is not an effective communication'

2. Clarity of theme is needed for communication'

3. People with good knowledge should come out openly with their views;

4. Keep in mind that the people listening to you are not inferior to you;

5. Communication should be to share your knowledge and to improve others;

6. Morality and value should be embedded in the communication.

Please watch his interview in this video, by clicking 'play' button. (4 minutes). Since this was recorded in the class room, external noises could not be avoided.

The video can also be viewed from the following link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZS8ioqykhVI

Public Affairs professionals should be transparent and adopt best practices to enhance credibility

2010-10-22T18:27:00.000+05:30

PodUniversal Edition 115

In the recent years, Public Affairs (PA) is emerging as a sub-sect of Public Relations (PR) Profession. While PR is a traditional one, dealing with the relationship of all stakeholders, PA focusses on the public policy and relationship with the Government. In the developed nations like US and Europe, PA has become one of the recognised and reputed professions.

Roger Hayes

In the developing nations like India, this profession is yet to get good recognition and credibility. There are many reasons for this phenomenon. Now, many of the Public Relations Agencies have also started PA divisions to provide this special services. In the anxiety to get the works done, some of the professionals involve themselves in un-ethical practices and resort to 'quick-fix' solutions. This also brings down the credibility of the profession.

Recently, one of the CEOs of a well known Indian Public Relations Agency was debated in Indian Parliament for the alleged role in 2G spectrum scam. Media carried negative perception about this profession itself. With this background, we wanted to bring out our October 2010 issue of ezine PreSense on this theme 'Public Affairs'.

Though we approached the CEOs of many Indian PR Agencies, who claim to offer Public Affairs Services, none of them even acknowledged our mails. Now, probably, they are highly scared of investigation by Government agencies, if they say openly that they offer PA services. They should not fear, if they follow ethical practices.

However, Indian CEO of APCO Worldwide, one of the globally reputed Public Affairs firm responded to our mail and connected us with Mr Roger Hayes, their Senior Counselor. Mr Roger is one of the globally renowned Public Relations and Public Affairs specialist.

In a free-wheeling conversation with me over telephone for PodUniversal, he shared frankly his views on the present state of affairs of this profession globally and also suggested ways to improve the credibility. He suggested that the PA professionals should not resort to quick-fix solutions and should be more transparent. He also suggested that they should come together and share the global best practices. Please listen to his interview by clicking 'play' button.

Streaming of this audio will be smooth in broadband connections. If you find any difficulty, you may download the audio by right clicking this link and saving to your desktop.

This audio can also be listened from the following link:

http://www.podbazaar.com/permalink/144115188075857525

How to improve the rapid reading skills?

2010-10-13T15:37:00.002+05:30

PodUniversal Edition 114

Many students and business professionals find difficulty in reading the materials, holding in the mind and to comprehend the contents. Even, if they read several times, they may not be able to comprehend the contents. Just like writing skills, reading skills is also important in business communication.

Prof. S Krishnamurthy, a well known management professor of South India gives few tips for improving effective reading skills. Please click to play to watch this podcast (3 minutes 50 sec).

This podcast may also be watched from the following link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v34gcQJebxg

Ayodhya verdict - An analysis

2010-10-02T18:28:00.001+05:30

PodUniversal Edition 113

Ayodhya verdict delivered by the 3 Judges Division bench of Allahabad High Court (India) has been received by the Indian citziens with maturity. Centuries old conflict between Hindus and Muslims on the disputed site has witnessed the loss of thousands of lives in the past due to various communal clashes. Fearing such backlash, Indian Government had made elaborate security arrangements throughout India on 30th September 2010 when the judgement was delivered.

S Sethuraman, Advocate

Earlier, Indian political leaders and religious leaders had appealed to receive the judgement peacefully. Indian citizens have shown high degree of maturity, when they received the judgement. Even the media, political and religious leaders played highly positive role in containing the emotions.

The verdict is one of the landmark judgements in the history of Indian judiciary. While, all the three judges have confirmed the fact that a temple was in existence before the construction of mosque, two judges ordered one-third portion of the property to Muslims. It is based on the fact that in the past both Hindus and Muslims were using that property simultaneously for prayers.

Though Hindus and Muslims may have a feeling that they are not given the full possession of the disputed proerty, the judgement has provided a win-win situation to both and none of them are the losers.

Some of the intellectual and constituional experts also criticise this judgement as "Panchayat type of judgement". Pakistan leaders have condemned this judgement and are provoking Indian Muslims. Fortunately, Indian Muslim leaders are also showing high sense of maturity, not to fall in the trap laid by Pakistan. Though, both the parties have option to appeal in the Supreme Court, this judgement has given some avenues for reconciliation to end the centuries old dispute.

On behalf of PodUniversal, we spoke to Mr S Sethuraman, one of the senior civil advocates of Chennai High Court and Supreme Court over phone. In this interview, he has explained the background of the case and analyses the important aspects of the judgement.

Mr Sethuraman feels that though the judgement may be criticised by some intellectuals as a flawed one, this has provided a best possible solution for the centuries old problem. He also added that he would prefer a flawed judgement if it provided a solution to the problem in the national interest, rather than a legally correct judgement, which could create more tensions. Since the citizens of this country have accepted this judgement with maturity and calmly, he said that this solution could bring more communal harmony and peace.

Please listen to his interview by clicking 'play' button (14 minuts). The streaming of the audio will be smooth in broadband connections. If you find any difficulty, you may download the audio (13 mb) by right clicking this link and saving to your desktop in mp3 format.

The podcast may also be listened from the following link also:

http://www.podbazaar.com/permalink/144115188075857520

Miscommunication

2010-10-02T15:21:00.002+05:30

PodUniversal Edition 112
Sep 2010 issue of ezine PreSense deals with the concept of Miscommunication. In the communication process between the sender and the receiver (oral, written and body language), the receiver may not perceive the message, in the same manner the sender had thought of. Such miscommunication happens due to various factors.

In this edition, we have explained the many factors contributing to such miscommunication along with some examples. We have also given the tips to avoid such miscommunication.

This issue is guest edited by the students of Business Communication Course of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Chennai as part of their project. Please also watch the podcast produced by them sharing their interesting personal experiences of miscommunication.

The ezine in pdf format (690 k) may be downloaded from the following link

http://www.prpoint.com/ezine/presense0910.pdf

Please watch the podcast produced by the guest editors.

Preview of the ezine

Stress Management through Meditation - Simple techniques

2010-09-23T17:20:00.001+05:30

PodUniversal Edition 111

Brahmakumaris, one of the leading spiritual organisations conducted a three-day National Media Conference 2010 from 17th September 2010 at Mount Abu.

Dr Sanddhya (extreme right) interviewing B K Binny (middle).
K. Srinivasan (left) recording the conversation

As part of this event, they had requested me to conduct a 'workshop on Podcasting'. During the workshop, to give an hands-on experience to the participants, we asked them to conduct an interview among themselves and to edit the audio live.

Accordingly, Dr Sanddhya from Pune, one of the workshop participants, interviewed Sister B K Binny, Public Relations Manager of Global Hospitals, Mount Abu (Rajasthan), who was also a participant. Since B K Binny is already teaching Stress Management through Meditation at various places, the participants in the workshop decided that the topic could be on "Stress Management through Meditation" itself, for the benefit of all. The audio was edited by Kunal C Panchal, another participant from Mumbai.

Since the podcast interview was very useful, we decided to share this audio in public for the benefit of all. After the interview, we have also added one minute 'mild music'. The listners may listen to the music and sit in silence with positive thoughts, to enjoy the power of meditation.

Please listen to the audio interview by clicking 'play' button (11 minutes). The audio was recorded live during the workshop in the presence of all the participants and edited immediately. The audio streaming will be smooth in broadband connections. If you find any difficulty, you may download the audio in mp3 format, by right clicking this link and save to your desktop.

If you want to contact B K Binny for more details on stress management and meditation, you may write to her at bkbinny@gmail.com

While listening to the interview, please also watch the photographs taken during the workshop.

The podcast interview may also be listened from the following link.

http://www.podbazaar.com/permalink/144115188075857519

Corporate and Media communication are extremely tainted

2010-09-22T13:35:00.002+05:30

PodUniversal Edition 110

Press Council of India is the Statutory Regulatory Authority in India to govern the conduct of print and broadcast media. The Chairman of this body is selected by a high power committee, which includes the Speaker of the Lok Sabha and the Chairman of Rajya Sabha. The Chairman is selected from the panel of retired Supreme Court Judges.

Brahma Kumaris, one of the leading spiritual organisations, organised a three-day National Media Conference 2010 at Mount Abu from 17th Sep 2010. The Conference was inaugurated by Hon'ble Justice G N Ray, Chairman, Press Council of India.

K. Srinivasan interviewing Justice G N Ray

After the inauguration of National Media Conference 2010, we recorded an exclusive interview for PodUniversal, with Justice G N Ray. During our podcast interview, Justice G N Ray covered the following aspects.

1. Freedom of speech in India and cross media ownership, as compared to the other countries.

2. "Paid News syndrome". Justice Ray condemns the paid news syndrome adopted by some of the media houses and calls it as 'unfortunate'. He says, Press Council of India has also submitted their recommendations to Election Commission of India.

3. He also feels that Corporate Communication is extremely tainted. Now, some of the media houses enter into an agreement with corporates and acquire a certain percentage of shares. He expressed concern over this phenomenon. He also quoted the example of Reliance Power, who priced their shares at Rs.425/- at the time of IPO. Immediately within a week, the price fell and he says, till date, the price has not reached even Rs.200/-. He expresses concern over the hype created by the communication professionals and the media.

Since the above concerns are being expressed by a person of the stature of Chairman of Press Council of India and a former Supreme Court Judge, Indian Corporate communication/PR professionals and Media houses should introspect the present situation and restore the past glory.

Please listen to his full interview by clicking 'play' button. (8 minutes). The streaming of audio will be smooth in broadband connections. If there is any difficulty, you may download the audio, by right clicking this link and saving to your desktop in mp3 format (7 mb).

This podcast may also be listened from the following link.

http://www.podbazaar.com/permalink/144115188075857518

Lord Ganesha symbolises an ideal CEO

2010-09-11T11:15:00.000+05:30

PodUniversal Edition 109

Today (11th September 2010) is Ganesh Chaturthi and Hindus across the world celebrate this day and worship their favourite God Lord Ganesha popularly known as Lord Vigneshwara or Lord Vinayaka. Lord Ganesha with His big elephant head, an elephant trunk, two large ears, two small sharp eyes, two tusks (of which one is broken), four hands, a big pot belly with a mouse under His feet symbolises the role of a CEO, to render better governance.

Picture courtesy and source: YGOY

Prof. Bala Balachandran, the Founder of Greatlakes Institute and a globally well known Management Guru during his recent visit to India gave a podcast interview to PodUniversal over phone on the various symbolism of Lord Ganesh.

Please listen his interesting interpretations, by clicking 'play' button. (12 minutes). The audio streaming will be smooth in broadband connections. If you encounter any streaming problem, you may download this audio (11 mb) by right clicking this link and saving to your desktop in mp3 format.

The podcast may also be listened from the following site/

http://www.podbazaar.com/permalink/144115188075857513

Managing events - tips to overcome challenges

2010-09-04T10:27:00.000+05:30

PodUniversal Edition 108

Dr S Manivannan being
interviewed by Ms Janani

Dr S Manivannan, CEO, Medicall, the largest organiser of Medical equipment exhibition in India shared his views on the 'event management' with the participants of Business Communication course at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan on 29th August 2010.
Ms Janani, one of the participants interviewed him on various aspects of event management, including the challenges.

Please listen to his interview by clicking 'play' button in the flash player. The audio streaming will be smooth in broadband connections. If you face any difficulty in audio streaming, you may download the audio in mp3 format, by right clicking this link and saving to your desktop.

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

http://www.podbazaar.com/permalink/144115188075857509

India will be the education capital of the world in 20 years

2010-08-22T18:43:00.000+05:30

PodUniversal Edition 107

Prof. Bala Balachandran, Founder of Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai and a well known International Management Guru interacted with the participants of Business Communication Course at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Chennai on 21st August 2010. After the interaction session, Mr Narayanan, one of the participants of the course interviewed Prof. Bala for PodUniversal and to get a hands-on experience for podcast making.

Prof. Bala (left) being interviewed
by Mr Narayanan

During his brief interview, Prof. Bala said that India was an education capital of the world 2000 years back and we had great Universities like Dakshaseela, Pushpagiri and Nalanda in India guiding the world. He was optimistic that India will again be the education capital for the world in 20 years. We will have Dakshaseela, Pushpagiri and Nalanda in United States too.

Please listen to his interesting interview (5 minutes) by clicking 'play' button. This audio streaming will be smooth in broadband connections. If you find any difficulty, you may right click this link and download the mp3 format of this audio and save to your desktop.

The photo stream of the event:

The audio may also be listened from the following link:

http://www.podbazaar.com/permalink/144115188075857508

Challenges in the use of internet - A radio interview

2010-08-20T22:12:00.000+05:30

(L to R) Mr Sudarshan (Producer),
Prof. Namitha Gopal (interviewer)
and K. Srinivasan (interviewee)

Internet has come to stay globally. How the internet can be used for the betterment of the society? What are the challenges provided by the internet? These are all the questions in the minds of many people.

All India Radio, Chennai broadcast an interview with me on 19th August 2010 on this theme. Prof. Namitha Gopal was the interviewer and Mr Sudarshan was the Producer of this interview.

During this interview, I have explained the evolution of internt, blogs and the social media.

Please listen to this interview (14 minutes) by clicking 'play' button. Streaming of the audio will be smooth in broadband connections. If the streaming is not smooth, you may right click this link and download the mp3 format of this interview to your desktop.

The interview may also be listened form the following link

http://www.podbazaar.com/permalink/144115188075857507

Spare two hours a week, to achieve Vision 2020

2010-08-17T16:45:00.002+05:30

ECE Department of VelTech Dr RR & Dr SR Technical University, Chennai organised a National Technical Symposium known as OMZOIC 10, on 14th August 2010, inviting students from different engineering colleges. More than 600 students participated in the event. I was invited by them to be the Guest of Honour during the inauguration. Dr Rangarajan, Chancellor and Founder of the University was also present.

K. Srinivasan addressing
OMZOIC 10

The event was organised in a professional manner. The multimedia presentation (short film) made by the ECE students was highly professional. Since, it was held on the eve of Independence Day, they had requested me to talk on the role of youth in achieving Vision 2020.

In my short speech of 7 minutes, I reminded the students of the struggle made by our freedom fighters and the role of youngsters in achieving the dream of our elders. Among other things, I appealed to the students to spare two hours a week for the society, so that we could achieve our Vision 2020 easily. Please listen to my speech by clicking 'play' button.

This can also be watched from the following link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMw6cRHPFY0

e-Governance enables citizens to feel the Government, without seeing it

2010-08-16T18:35:00.000+05:30

PodUniversal Edition 106

Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Chennai has recently started an executive diploma course on "Business Communication" for working professionals. The programme was launched by Dr Abdul Kalam last month. As part of this programme, successful CEOs are being invited every alternate week, to share their views with the participants. Accordingly, Dr Santhosh Babu IAS, Managing Director, ELCOT and Director of e-Governance, Government of Tamilnadu was invited to share his views on Saturday the 14th August 2010.

Dr Santhosh Babu IAS (left) being
interviewed by Rajadurai

After the session, one of the participants Mr Rajadurai interviewed Dr Santhosh Babu as a project and this interview was edited in the next session by the participants, to get a hands-on experience on making of podcast. Since this interview contains lot of useful information for the public, we share this podcast here. (Since this was recorded in the class room, we could not avoid external disturbances during initial part of the interview).

During this interview, Dr Santhosh Babu explained how e-Governance can help to improve the efficiency of the Government system and to reduce the corruption.

Please listen to his interesting and informative interview by clicking 'play' button. (7 m 28s). The streaming of audio will be smooth in broadband connections. If you find any streaming difficulty, you may download the audio in mp3 format, by right clicking this link and saving to your desktop. (6 mb)

Please see the photos taken during that occassion.

This podcast may also be listened from the following site.
http://www.podbazaar.com/permalink/144115188075857506

Historic event of temple entry by Harijans at Madurai - Rare pictures

2010-08-13T22:58:00.001+05:30

PodUniversal Edition 105 - Independence Day Special Podcast

Independence Day Greetings to all. Jai Hind

Prior to 1940, Harijans, otherwise considered as low caste persons were not allowed into any Hindu temples by customs and usage. In those days, if any Harijan entered into a temple, he could be prosecuted for violating the customs and punished as a trespasser. Mahatma Gandhi wanted to eradicate this un-touchability from the country and tried to change the mind-set of upper caste people through persuasion.

Mr Vadiyanatha Iyer

Mr Vaidyanatha Iyer, a leading lawyer at Madurai was very closely associated with Mahatma Gandhi and the freedom movement. He and his wife spent their time for the upliftment of the poor Harijans and downtrodden. In those days of acute orthodoxy, he was inviting harijan childen to his house and taking food with them.

After Congress party assumed power in 1936 in Madras Province under the Prime Minstership (in those days, the post was called as Prime Minister) of Mr C Rajagopalachari (popularly known as Rajaji), the mvement for eradicating the untouchability grew up. Mr Vaidyanatha Iyer started persuading upper caste people in Madurai to change the customs and to allow Harijans also inside the temple. Though many accepted the suggestion, some of the radical people were opposing the entry of Harijans into temples.

Rare picture -
Harijan entry into Madurai temple on
8th July 1939

On 8th July 1939, Mr Vaidyanatha Iyer took 4 Harijans (including Mr Kakkan, who later became Minister in Mr Kamaraj ministry) and one Nadar community person. (see the rare photo). The temple entry was opposed by a group of radical people. Since entry of Harijans was prohibited in those days by custom, the radical people filed criminal complaint against Mr Vaidyanatha Iyer and the Harijans for 'trespassing into temple'. This was punishable under law then.

Immediately, then Prime Minister of Madras Province Mr Rajaji issued an ordinance permitting Harijans into all temples retrospectively and it was made as a law subsequently. This historic event and the ordinance by Rajaji were pioneers in Indian history. Mahatma Gandhi was running a magazine called 'Harijan'. In the issue dated 22nd July 1939, Mahatma Gandhi praised Mr Vaidyanatha Iyer and his team for the temple entry. (See the photo slide show)

Mr Vaidyanatha Iyer was arrested for his participation in the Quit India Movement. He was released from the prison in 1945, after nearly 3 years. He was one of the leading practising lawyers at that time. The Government filed a case against him to prevent him from practising as an Advocate, as he had undergone imprisonment under criminal charges. The case came up before Justice Sir Lionel Leach, who advised him to seek an apology so that he could continue to be an advocate. But Mr Vaidyanatha Iyer refused to apologise in the Court for all his acts and said that he would prefer not to practise as an Advocate, rather than apologising. Impressed with his conviction, the Judge acquitted him and permitted him to continue as an Advocate as a special case.

Mr Sthanunathan

On the 64th Independence day, PodUniversal wanted to remember and pay respects to such great Heroes and bring out their courage and conviction to the new generation. In an exclusive conversation with K. Srinivasan, Editor of Poduniversal, Mr Sthanunathan, (now 90), son-in-law of Mr Vaidyanatha Iyer shared his memories.

Please listen to the exciting podcast interview by clicking play button (14 minutes). The audio streaming will be smooth in broadband connections. If the streaming is not smooth, you may download the audio (13 mb) by right clicking this link and saving to your desktop in mp3 format.

Mr Sthanunathan may be reached at sthanunathank (at) yahoo.com
The audio may also be listened from

http://www.podbazaar.com/permalink/144115188075857504

India's largest medical equipment expo Medicall 2010

2010-08-06T22:29:00.000+05:30

PodUniversal Edition 104

India's largest and Asia's third largest medical equipment expo was opened on 6th August 2010. In this three-day expo, more than 400 exhibitors from China, Germany, Taiwan, England and India have displayed their latest medical equipments. More than 8000 medical professionals are expected to visit the expo.

During this three days, various seminars are being held on different medical themes. This podcast brings out the birds-eye-view of the expo.

Please click 'play button' to watch this visual podcast.

This podcast may also be listened from the following link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQc-qUqF0y0

How to track the performance of MPs and MLAs?

2010-07-26T18:34:00.000+05:30

PodUniversal Edition 103

Indian Election Commission conducts elections every five years to elect MPs and MLAs for the Parliament and various State Assemblies. The media hype dies down, after the elections are completed. Unless there are some big issues or chaos in the Houses, neither the media nor the general public give serious attention to the performance of the elected members. This process goes on for ever and the media hype starts when the next elections are announced.

PRS Legislative Research is a non profit research body at Delhi established in 2005. They conduct various researches on the bills, questions, debates of the Parliament and various state Assemblies. They also periodically put out their analysis in their website. While, US and UK have many such research bodies to analyse the performance of Legislatures, India has only one such research body.

(L to R: Bharathi Thamizhan, Tonusree,
K. Srinivasan, Era Chezhian)

Chennai Press Club and Prime Point Foundation jointly organised a workshop on 24th July 2010 for working journalists at Chennai to create awareness about the tracking of the performance of MPs and MLAs, with the support of PRS Legislative Research.

The workshop was inaugurated by the veteran and well known Parliamentarian Mr Era Chezhian. During his inaugural speech, he expressed concern over the reduction in number of sittings of Parliament during the past few years. Before 1980, the Parliament used to meet for 120 days every year and now it has come down to around 60 days. Mr Chezhian was also expressing his concern over the suppression of freedom of press by many Governments.

Please watch and listen to the presentation made by Ms Tonusree on the various aspects of tracking of legislators. Please click to play the video. The video will be streaming smooth in broadband connections. If you encounter any difficulty, you may download the wmv file of this video by right clicking this link and saving to your desktop.

This video may also be watched form the following site:

http://blip.tv/file/3927897

The audio version of this presentation can be listened from the following site:

http://www.podbazaar.com/permalink/144115188075857502

Please watch the photographs taken during the occassion.

Inspiring story of high flying Capt. Bavicca Bharathi, the youngest commercial pilot and commander

2010-07-13T16:37:00.001+05:30

PodUniversal Edition 102

Capt. Bavicca Bharathi (21) is the world's youngest commercial licensed pilot and commander. When she was 16 and studying her plus two, she had high ambitions of becoming a medical doctor. She heard about the 'flying' opportunities from her family friend. After completion of her plus two, she joined the flying training. At the age of 18, she got the license to fly. Now at her 21st age, she has more than 2100 flying hours at her credit. She has now become the youngest commercial pilot and transport pilot and commander. She holds three records in Limca records book. Within few years, she will also become the Management Pilot, after completing the required flying hours.

Bavicca is presently piloting the flights to many of the stations like Bangalore, Hyderabad, Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi, Coimbatore, etc. from Chennai.

When she wanted to become pilot, her mother (40) (left in the photo) Ms Judith Jeslin Bharathi also joined her daughter Bavicca Bharathi (right in the photo) in the training. Both underwent flying training together. After getting the license, both are working in the same airline company.

Every aircraft is piloted by two licensed pilots. The second pilot is known as co-pilot. Shortly, Bavicca will be handling the flight as the main pilot. Her mother has the greatest desire to be the co-pilot, when her daughter is the main pilot.

Capt. Bavicca Bharathi is a multi talented person. She has passed with high grades from Trinity School of Music. She is talented in painting, music and dance and has won several awards.

It is quite interesting to know about their surname 'Bharathi'. Their grand father Mr P Thomas is a great fan and admirer of Mahakavi Subramanya Bharathi, a national Tamizh poet who lived a century back. Mahakavi Bharathi was known for his inspiring poems with modern thoughts. His poems were banned during British Rule. A century back, Mahakavi Bharathi visualised the role of 'new generation women'. He wanted the women to go for higher studies, be the rulers to make law of the land. He even wanted the new generation women to take up the professions, dominated by men. Mr Thomas made 'Bharathi' as surname to all the family members, probably to remind everyone about the dreams of the great poet.

Bavicca Bharathi, hailing from the family of admireres of Mahakavi Bharathi, has proved his dream of 'new generation woman'.

Please listen to the inspiring interview with Capt. Bavicca Bharathi and her mother Capt. Judith Jeslin Bharathi. Please click play to listen to the interview. (12 minutes). The audio streaming will be smooth in broadband connections. If you encounter any problem, you may download the audio, by right clicking the link and saving to your desktop.

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Journey of the ezine PReSense - Golden Jubilee Edition launch

2010-05-06T20:46:00.009+05:30

PodUniversal Edition 101

The Golden Jubilee Edition of Corporate Ezine PReSense (published by Prime Point Foundation) was launched on 1st May 2010 at Chennai in the presence of many eminent personalities. During that occassion, Prime Point Foundation also honoured two top performing MPs and 5 UnSung Heroes. (PodUniversal Edition 99). Dr A P J Abdul Kalam, Former President of India also addressed the audience over phone on that day (PodUniversal Edition 100).

Whille welcoming the audience, K. Srinivasan, Editor-in-Chief took the audience through the journey of the ezine from the first edition to the current 50th edition. He explained as to how this ezine had also grown along with the evolution of contemporary technology. Please listen to the speech now (10 minutes). The streaming of this video podcast will be smooth in broadband connections. If you find any difficulty, you may download (right click this link and save to your desktop) this in wmv format and watch through windows media player. The script may be downloaded from the following link (pdf 70k)

http://www.prpoint.com/ezine/journey-of-ezine.pdf

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Dr Abdul Kalam's inspiring speech on "UnSung Heroes"

2010-05-04T17:46:00.001+05:30

PodUniversal Edition 100

In our earlier Edition 99, we have published the photographs of the launch function of the Golden Jubilee edition of corporate ezine PReSense held on 1st May 2010. During the function, Dr Abdul Kalam, Former Indian President also addressed the audience over telephone from Delhi. During his speech, he brought out three important aspects.

1. We should be the captain of the problem and we should not allow the problems to defeat us;

2. We should look for our role models in our home, rather than outside; and

3. Review of a book 'Tiya'

His inspiring speech in pdf format may be downloaded from the following link (50k)

http://www.prpoint.com/ezine/kalam010510.pdf

Please listen to his speech by clicking play button (10 minutes). The streaming of this audio will be smooth in broadband connections. If you find any difficulty, you may download the audio (9 mb in mp3) by right clicking this link and saving the link to your desktop.

This audio may also be listened and downloaded from the following links:

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Honouring top performing MPs and UnSung Heroes

2010-05-03T22:37:00.003+05:30

PodUniversal Edition 99
April 2010 issue of ezine PReSense is the Golden Jubilee edition of the ezine. A function was organised to launch the 50th edition of ezine and also a CD containing the past issues of ezine and podcasts. Mr T S Krishnamurthy, Former Chief Election Commissioner of India launched the Golden Jubilee edition. Mr N Gopalaswamy, Former Chief Election Commissioner of India launched the CD.

In the function Mr Hansraj Gangaram Ahir, Member of Lok Sabha and Mr S S Ramasubbu, another Member of Lok Sabha were honoured for their top performance in the 15th Lok Sabha during the first year ending March 2010.

India Sudar, Dream India, Helping Minds, Thakkar Bapa Vidyalaya and Consumers Association of India were also honoured as 'UnSung Heroes' in the function.

Election Commission of India, Indian Railways and India Post were honoured as 'National pride organisations'.

Highlight of the function was the speech delivered by Dr A P J Abdul Kalam live from Delhi over mobile phone, which was broadcast in the hall. (we are publishing the audio in our next podcast)

Please watch the function (7 minutes)

Presentation skills in 5 steps - special module

2010-02-22T18:34:00.004+05:30

PodUniversal Edition 98

Feb 2010 issue of Corporate ezine PR-e-Sense will focus on 'Business Communication'. For this purpose, the ezine conducted an online survey to find out as to how people working in the corporates perceive about the 'Presentation Skills'. The respondents across the globe had only the following challenging factors:

1. Stage fear;

2. Lack of Self Confidence;

3. Lack of fluency; and

4. Lack of organising the talk

Also the survey revealed that in the past few years, even the technical person were required to make presentations internally and externally and they do not get adequate training inputs to improve their presentation skills.

With this in mind, the experts in Prime Point Foundation, have devised a special module for one day workshop to give sufficient knowledge and skills to the participants on the art of presentation skills.Foundation presently offers this module to benefit small and medium companies at a nominal cost as an In-Company programme. Please watch this video for more details.

The brochure may also be downloaded from:

http://www.prpoint.com/presentation-skils-in-5-steps.pdf

The video may also be watched from:

Youtube

Blip TV
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Feature on Education Loan Scheme in India

2010-01-24T18:40:00.004+05:30

PodUniversal Edition 97

In our earlier PodUniversal Edition 96, we had published a freewheeling conversation with Dr K C Chakrabarty, Deputy Governor of Reserve Bank of India on Education Loan Schemes in India. In his interview, Dr Chakrabarty had suggested an "Insurance Scheme" to be introduced by Government of India to encourage Bankers to provide more education loans to deserving students. He has also assured that no deserving student should be denied education opportunity.

Based on the interview with the Deputy Governor of Reserve Bank of India, we spoke over mobile to Mr T K Rangarajan, Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha (representing CPI M).

1. Mr Rangarajan has agreed with Deputy Governor of RBI for introduction of Insurance Scheme for Education Loans in India, to encourage Bankers'

2. He also wants a total approach towards Education, including Primary and Secondary Education'

4. Though, he has not made up his mind about separate outfit for education loan, he suggested a separate exclusive branch / department by all the banks to focus on education loan to deserving students.

3. He has also assured to take up in Rajya Sabha and with Hon'ble Finance Minister during Budget Session to improve the Education Loan Schemes and to ensure that more number of deserving students get the assistance from Banks.

India Vision Group will be discussing further with Mr T K Rangarajan MP, to facilitate him to take up in Parliament.

Please listen to the Feature on Education Loan, including the itnerview with Mr T K Rangarajan, by clicking the 'play' button in the flash player below ( 7 minutes). The streaming of the audio will be smooth in broadband connections. If you find any streaming difficulty, you may right click this link and save target/link to your desktop to download the audio in mp3 format (6 mb).

The audio podcast may also be listened from the following links"

Odeo

Podbazaar

Education Loan Scheme from Indian Banks - Reserve Bank's Assurance

2010-01-05T17:55:00.001+05:30

Pod Universal Edition 96

"No deserving student in India should be deprived of higher education, for want of funds", - Dr K C Chakrabarty, Deputy Governor of Reserve Bank of India assured the Indian students, in an exclusive podcast interview taken on behalf of India Vision Group and Action 2020 Team.

India Vision Group has been taking up periodically important issues of common concern with respective higher Authorities with a positive approach to find out best possible solutions. In the recent days, we have been receiving lot of grievances from various 'voiceless' people that they could not pursue higher education for want of funds.

One one side, it is reported that if the students are hailing from poor families, the Banks do not consider them worthy of education loans, however brilliant they are. They are asked to run pillar to post.; They are being asked to provide collateral security even for small amounts, etc. On the other side, due to privatisation of education, the cost of education has also gone up which could not be afforded by these poor and intelligent students. There are many instances, where such brilliant students end up their ambitions by joining some menial jobs. This century is considered as Knowledge Century and the country is losing many people who could have otherwise become great scholars and scientists, technocrats.

Do the poor but intelligent not have any space in the world to pursue their ambition? This question lingers in the minds of many people.

With this question, we approached Dr K C Chakrabarty, Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India to find some reasonable solution for this issue. He was highly pro-active in his approach. He assured that no deserving student should be deprived of higher education in India for want of funds. Since, he himself, a Gold Medalist in his student days and an academician and researcher in his earlier days, before joining the Banking Industry, he could visualise how 'Knowledge society' can play a greater role in taking India forward.

He has also nominated a Nodal Officer for the purpose of Education Loan at the Central Office of the Reserve Bank of India. The Nodal Officer is Shi B.P.Vijayendra, CGM, RPCD. His e-mail id is bpvijayendra@rbi.org.in and contact number is 022 22610261.

Jan 2010 issue of Corporate ezine PR-e-Sense will be exclusively dealing with Education Loan Scheme. We will also publish the Model Scheme circulated by IBA, various views, responsibility of the Bankers and borrowing students, etc. You may download the ezine from www.corpezine.com in the third week of Jan 2010. We are trying to make this as a guide to students and parents who are aspiring for Education Loan for higher education.

PodUniversal. India Vision Group and Action 2020 Team place on record the sincere appreciation to the Senior Officials of RBI, Mr G Jagan Mohan Rao (Chief General Manager, Customer Relations), Mr B P Vijayendra (CGM, RPCD) and Dr K C Chakrabarty (Deputy Governor) for being pro-active and coming forward to resolve the issues with a positive mind. Three Cheers to them.

Please listen to the podcast interview with Dr K C Chakrabarty (18 minutes), 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 save the link/target in your desktop and download the mp3 format.

or

The podcast interview may also listened from the following links:

Podbazaar
Odeo

Download in mp3

Copenhagen Climate Change Summit 2009 - An overview

2009-12-23T21:55:00.003+05:30

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.

The podcast may also be listened from the following links:

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

2009-12-12T09:43:00.002+05:30

PodUniversal 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.

The podcast interview may be listened from the following sites also:

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

2009-12-09T20:19:00.016+05:30

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 .

The podcast interview may also be listened from the following links:

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A software engineer paints on leaf skeleton

2009-11-29T15:06:00.006+05:30

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:

Odeo

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How to become a good journalist?

2009-11-29T14:47:00.008+05:30

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.

http://www.podbazaar.com/permalink/144115188075857461

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

2009-10-15T08:11:00.003+05:30

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.

The audio may also be listened from

Podbazaar

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