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).
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"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.
PodUniversal Edition 95 The recent Copenhagen Summit (held in Dec 2009) has thrown many issues open for public debate and compliance. 'Global warming' has become a big challenge before the mankind. The emission of carbon by almost all the countries is posing the greatest risk to our future generation, for safe living.
In our anxiety to compete with each other and make more and more money, we are doing great injustice to our future generation. Fortunately, the world has come to realise the urgent need to address this challenge.
In the recent Copenhagen Summit, more than 190 countries participated and out of which more than 110 Heads of States/Governments participated.
This Summit suddenly brought this Global warming issue to the forefront. Many people are not aware of the seriousness of this issue.
Dr Arul Aram, Asst. Professor of Media Science Department of Anna University, Chennai has also participated in the Summit as part of the Indian delegation. This is the only University in the world to introduce 'climate change' as a subject of study in their Media Science Department.
On behalf of PodUniversal, I interviewed him on phone to understand the seriousness of this issue, the remedial measures to be taken, role of universities and schools in creating the awarenss, etc.
Please listen to his podcast interview (16 minutes) by clicking 'play' button of one of the flash players below. The audio streaming will be smooth in broadband connections. If the streaming is not smooth, please right click this link and save the link/target in mp3 format in your desktop and then listen.
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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.
The podcast interview may be listened by clicking 'play' button in the following flash player. The audio streaming will be smooth, in broadband connections. If you find the streaming is not smooth, you may right click this link and save the link/target to your desktop and download in mp3 format.
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The podcast interview may be listened from the following sites also:
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 .
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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.
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.
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.
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.
Few days back Dinamalar, one of the leading Tamil dailies published a news report about some leading actresses of the Tamil cinema world running a prostitution racket. The report was based on a statement by another actor, Bhuvaneswari, who was earlier arrested by Chennai city police for running a high profile sex racket from her house. The daily published an apology to the actors prominently the next day even before such a demand was made.
Angered by the Dinamalar report, South Indian Film actors association filed a police complaint against the daily. On the same day, i.e. on 7th October 2009 evening, few police men entered into the newspaper office without uniform and without warrant and arrested the News editor Lenin.
He was booked under Section 4 of the Tamil Nadu Women Harassment (Prevention) Act - a law enacted for entirely different purposes - and was let out on bail last Friday, after protests from the journalists across the country.
In a meeting organised by South Indian Film Actors association, last week some leading actors spoke in a derogative, vulgar and inflammatory manner about journalists and their family members.
Journalist bodies like Chennai Press Club and Chennai Union of Journalists then filed a police complaint against the actors, but police are yet to take action on it. Since the police did not take any action against the actors who used vulgar languages, the journalist bodies have now gone to Honble High Court seeking direction to the police to register a case against the actors. The Honble High Court has adjourned the case till 19th October, at the request of Police side.
Please listen to the podcast feature on this incident. We have taken the views of Mr Babu Jayakumar (News Editor of New Indian Express), Ms Indirani Singh (wife of a senior journalist), Mr Pandey (Chief Reporter of Dinamalar) and Mr S Narendra (former Information and Media Advisor to Prime Minister)
In our earlier edition 87, we had published the speech of former Indian President Dr A P J Abdul Kalam, when he met the representatives of Action 2020 team of online India Vision group. After his speech, he answered few questions from the members. We now release some of the questions and his answers for the benefit of Indians, who dream developed India by 2020.
In this interaction session, he has spoken about managing water shed in villages, latest trends in education, cost of higher education in India, trends in Agriculture, global warming, removal of corruption, youth entering politics, starting magazine for youth, introduction of moral science classes at school level and many more.
Please click 'play' to listen to the audio (18 minutes). The streaming of audio will be smooth in broadband connections. If the streaming is not smooth, right click this link and download the audio in mp3 format to your desktop and play through any mp3 player.
The audio of interaction session may also be listened from the following links:
On 7th October 2009, former Indian President Dr A P J Abdul Kalam met 70 representatives from 30 constituent organisations of Action 2020 Team or online India Vision Group at Chennai. Dr Kalam spent nearly two hours with the members sharing his views. At the end of his 30 minute speech, all the members were highly motivated with positive energy. Thereafter he spent his time taking questions from the members and guiding them for Nation building.
Though only 15 minutes was available at the end of the session for taking his autograph and interaction, when all the members left the venue, had a feeling as if they had personally conversed with him for 5 to 10 minutes. This type of mystical experience can happen only with few great spiritual leaders. That is the power of his communication excellence.
We are pleased to release the motivating speech delivered by Dr Abdul Kalam as Part 1. We will be releasing the other interactions separately.
Photo slideshow : Please see the slide show of photographs taken during the occasion. The photographs can be downloaded from this link:
Dr Abdul Kalam speech - wmv version - Please click to play the visuals and audio (29 minutes). The visual and audio streaming will be smooth in broadband connections. If the streaming is not smooth, you may right click this link and download the file in wmv format and play through windows media player (14 mb)
Dr Abdul Kalam speech - Audio version in mp3 format. Please click to play the audio version of his speech. The audio streaming will be smooth in broadband connections. If the streaming is not smooth, you may right click this link and download the file in mp3 format and play through any mp3 player (26 mb)
The speech may also be viewed/listened/downloaded from the following links also: Blip TV Odeo Podbazaar
In the post liberalisation era, lot of companies want to go for public issue (IPO) to generate more funds for their business. To avoid exploitation of the investors, the Government and SEBI have imposed lot of restrictions on the companies.
Sep 09 issue of Corporate ezine PR-e-Sense deal with the 'Preparation for IPO". As part of the lead story, we interviwed Prof. Bala Balachandran, Distinguished Professor of Kellogg School of Management during his short visit to India recently. Prof. Bala is one of the top Management Gurus in the world. He is also an Adhoc Advisor to President Obama on economic issues. He prescribes 7 steps to the companies for IPO preparation.
Please listen to his interview by clicking 'play' button in the flash player below. (9 minutes). The audio streaming will be smooth in broadband connections. If you find any difficulty, you may right click this link and save the link/target as mp3 file, in your desktop and play through any mp3 player.
This podcast may also be listened from the following links
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