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)
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)
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)
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.
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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The audio podcast may also be listened from the following links"
"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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The podcast may also be listened from the following links:
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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The podcast interview may also be listened from the following links:
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.
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