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

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)

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

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.

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What is Aadhaar? How to get Unique Identification Number?

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

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

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

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Dr Tamara Gillis speaks on 'Employee Communication'

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

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Dr Subramanian Swamy shares his secrets of 'perseverance'

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 

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Institutional leadership is more important than individual leadership

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

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

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

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Business Communication Course at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan sets the trend

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

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Workshop on presentation and public speaking skills

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:

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Domain knowledge should be supplemented with business communication skills

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

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Shah Commission report on emergency excesses: Lost and regained

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

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