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)
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)
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).
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.
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)
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).
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
'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
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)
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:
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
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:
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