Making a Blunt edge!

Mood: Business Practices

Archie Andrews has always been my favorite comic strip. We have all grown up reading comic strips, watching cartoons. I still remember, my train journeys from one place to another wasn't without a comic book. But, I recently read in a journal about MBA studies abroad as how these strips can teach us Business practices. 

I wondered how funny, and then I kept thinking sipping my hot chocolate at around 3am at a wintry night all packed in my blanket  yester-night. I had in front of my eyes, all the examples, that I have learnt from people around me & known to me, including a vendor to a friend who has started his own venture. According to what i have been thinking, it's looks so damn simple fact that best Business practices can be learnt from our day to day life happenings or what we see.

If you imagine even the baddie villains we watch in a flick can also be picked up as a best example for Business practices! A wicked looking person we see in Mission Impossibles. They all carry an entrepreneurial imperatives to extremes. Ultimately, a villain (keep aside bollywood movie gentlemen) can be a person who says "Do hell with ethics, I'm gonna bend it my way." They actually start out with a good dream, but then end up with methods that are repugnant.

Example of one Anaconda movie, Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid that was showing up on HBO. the guys start with a good intentions to find an orchid flower, but then one of them just goes blind and crazy, keeping aside the life of his own so called colleagues & friends. 

So, what does it says? Its simple if we actually give it a thought. It says you did start up with a good theme, but then you lost yourself in midst looking out for profits, despite the fact that you knew it wasn't the right way to get it. The Spiderman movie, where the person looses control over his own machine on his body. It's just like the way few business practices growing wrong.

Business Administration can be learned from any1 you see or are impressed with. And, we don't just need to follow just the success stories, but also the failure stories. Even the happenings in our life may be a perfect example of Business practices & administration.

Now, can you imagine, how just a thella of a vada-pav sellers, has evolved them into an entrepreneur & starting a chain of outlets!! Richard Branson, for example never started a business with a deep-strain knowledge of it. He just gave a thought & wanted to do it. Just planned a little strategy of connecting to people & there he is, way too ahead. Ratan Tata has taken an almost out of market,Tata name to every household, not only in India, but also in United Kingdom. It's all about how we learn & look at things. 

Now we do know how Apple has always evolved around one person, Steve Jobs. When not being in Apple Co., he himself started the Pixer Animation, a never-miss-name when it comes to entertainment industry. Apple just didn't exist without him. And, when he was back in Apple Co., they are for-tuning their glory.To raise on what I have been pointing, Steve Jobs himself says his idea logy of Business is actually derived from his favorite band-Beatles!He says his model for business is the Beatles- "They were four guys that kept each other's negative tendencies in check; they balanced each other. And the total was greater than the sum of the parts. Great things in business are not done by one person, they are done by a team of people."

BPL Mobile, have been hearing this name from as long back as 7th grade, when I even didn't know about mobile phones & pagers were still in existence. This oldest Mobile operators in India unfortunately have failed to make a mark, despite being the best operator & brand in India's Commercial capital-Mumbai. It all started when Rajeev Chandrasekhar returned back from to India with his idea & started the company when he was just 27. He almost revolutionized mobile operations in Mumbai, and consecutively, India. But then, today I don't own a BPL sim card, because it probably failed to make appropriate business practices & the one time smallies at that time like Airtel ramped the mobile operations in India. They all turned a huge success, but BPL Mobile failed to capitalize on what it should be credited for in India. BPL Mobile now named as loop mobile, is searching for markets & many probably even fail to know what it is. The one time success story for mobile operations is still fighting the market with other giants.

So, how can a simple Vada-Pav seller can beat the heat of the fast-food joints in it's area whether it's McDonalds or KFC to make its presence felt, what BPL Mobile could not, despite being the starters in their own race? How simple mere common men from little known hamlets are making it big in our neighborhood streets by just selling Vada-Pavs or Pav-Bhajis.There are many such examples to watch on the suburban financial streets of Mumbai & Ahmedabad.

A lot of companies complain about factors like recession! All, what I think is, factors like this do not really govern your business practices, because even if it is a recession or it is not, people don't stop eating, people even before recession never wanted to have 2 televisions at one go. Recession can obviously a factor, but it shouldn't be the excuse, because there are businesses that still did run well even during recessions.

 It's all about how they time their entrepreneur ideas, which they have learnt from life and have actually practiced. Wooing clients is just a big bullshit. If people are not happy with what you serve, how will you woo the clients & keep increasing them? The Confectionery store from where we have been ordering our sweets in festive seasons in Ahmedabad from a decade, have slowly transformed their shop into outlets, and now I see their advertisements on national news channels. Its about the way they time, the way they consistently keep the quality of what they serve, and then, at last, the way they try to keep their 'clients' lists increasing.

Marketing a product is only possible when people actually like what you have. So, why Sacha hullaboo over marketing? Companies hire marketing professionals to woo & increase clients, and this just makes me laugh out. I mean a lady calls me from a bank & asks me to buy their credit card, she keeps trying to please me buy it, & when I deny, she just keeps the fone down in a very shrewed way. So, even if i ever agree too swapping  credit cards, that bank would not be in my list of probables for sure. Marketing is about being true to your product and your clients. Working on its drawbacks, and not about selling them in actual.

So, if companies want to define marketing as something they want for wooing clients and increasing the list, they obviously shouldn't name it as 'marketing'. Marketing was all about making your probable clients know what your product is all about, its features, how it can help them. But, this is not the way for obvious. 

With all the examples I have been seeing all these years, I certainly believe each and every business in the world reaches a phase where they can dominate a certain market and are on their highs. It does happens in every business practices. It's at that very point, that the business administrators must not play with the quality & only look for profits, by thinking that they are now on a dominating score. Nope, it's very then that you are actually & unknowingly are destining your business into doom. They may earn some marginal profits at that stage, but in a bigger scenario, they are all waving for a steep fall. 

It really shocked me, when a steel giant like Ispat group faced heavy losses & closed down their plants near Mumbai. And, now the news is, they are taken over by Jindal Steel Works. Ispat has had the best staff in the industry, they had the best mechanism, they had the required torque to sustain themselves in the market. But, still, how could they have a fall? It's more to do with the way we actually look at our business. Profits & losses are a part & parcel of any business practices, but then the attitude that you carry to towards your business is the most important phenomenon. Ratan Tata, obviously stands as a big example. Despite having a very talented team, he seems to be handpicking & looking into every venture he gets into personally. It's not a magic wound for anyone big or small, else the globe would have never seen a Gates, nor any Ambani, nor Mittals. 

Business or anything related to it, starts with the idea we actually want to do, if we are talented in it & what are our demerits. that may wound down our business at any stage. Patience & delivering to the needs 'with a smile' is main essence to be gulped down, that's what i believe. Whether. it's a person coming from a small hamlet & starting a thella or a person with an adequate financial capital to venture into one.

There was a time, when Rajasthan saw very less railways connectivity. The only option to reach quickly to even it's mega-towns like Jodhpur & Bikaner was through roads. The state roadways buses where obviously never thought to be luxurious & affordable people faced a lot of problem traveling. It was then, that a famous bus travel agency opened up with brand new  & luxurious buses. It was instantly a hit. But then, after few many years of dominance, it started losing it's market. More to do with new agencies coming up & the arrogance they were up with their services. the fares would change constantly. It soon lost a elite class bus agency tag amongst the masses to a new bus travel agency, which only had the same bus fares round the season & believed in better customer satisfaction & time-to time picking up & drop. Today, a large section of people from financial city of Ahmedabad to Udaipur prefer traveling through this agency, because of their timely services( because still the railway connectivity between Ahmedabad & Udaipur is a narrow gauge slow line & flying to 250 kms far Udaipur from Ahmedabad isn't a brilliant idea).

It's an easy saying: 'If you aim for the stars but only make it to the moon, remember there are people who have not yet made it to the moon.' Steps and steps are the only way to reach a destination. we humans obviously cannot fly.My college wasn't a pretty well known they started education, but they were smart to make a name in the elite Engineering colleges' list. They went step to step & catered the best slowly and gradually. They built the first two floors of hostel, and then started building next with growing intakes. It was far more sensible in my eyes than the other few colleges, who built a 5-star look ups, but the education staff wasn't the best ones.

So, when people talk about business and new trends that I keep reading about, all I think is what are they doing, because, the only best thing to do is work on what you have & then deliver it. If you really going well with it, market it, else let your marketing people work on it. 

IT obviously helps a hell lot in business & the way the business is driven. Their is nothing without IT these days, whether even talking to your friend. Now, you do not need to obviously ask people been to Shimla for best hotels in the hill station, if you want to back-pack, Just google or go yahoo and you have the best answers. You can look for rates, you can compare them. So, IT helps in enhancing any particular business practice. Because, in today's world wide web, if you not on the net, you don't exist. In fact, you & your business is not considered one.

Enterprise Resource Planning - I.T.'s gift to Business!

Mood: MIS

Domain: Information Technology

These days, I have this new obsession of sipping Green tea, after a friend pursuing medicals told me it's benefits! Though, not much of a Coffee-tea guy, Green tea has impressed. So, I started my usual healthy experiments with it. In kitchen, squeezing few drops of lemon and ginger into the Green-tea pot, I wondered, if I had all these together, because you may some day have ginger, sum day lemon, or some day not both around you in the kitchen. But, then when I found the Tetley tea bags with all these three at a convenience store & was glad! But, this is not where the story ends, this is where it actually starts.  I understood the need of a Enterprise solution that IT offers.

Change is inevitable, and so is I.T. It's everywhere around us, and is making our lives better and easy. We can do all blah blah blahs.  I believe that the importance of I.T. is actually a result of small challenges that we humans cannot actually solve. Like being at your friend's place when it's his Birthday. There were days when we forgot their Birthdays, but now we have so many ways to remember them. I can't buy a NY Times daily in India everyday, but now I can read them. I mean, we all know how I.T. is working for us. 

The importance of Information Technology in organization is thus also very crucial and this situation is rising with the competitions and business climate that keeps changing rapidly.

Whosoever is reading this already knows that an organization is a hierarchy structure of small entities, that is the specific departments, where each and every department is mutually dependent on each other. These all departments actually combine to make a work-flow for an organization.

So, there obviously is a need to have a single base-point where all these entities can meet and operated and monitored from. 

It can be just explained with the help of our human body. We have a central godfather for all the nervous system and that is our Brain. Here, all the nerves  of departments of our body, that have their own different functionality meets. Hands, Ears, Legs blah!

Now, just imagine if our body didn't have had this common ground called Brain.  How will our body actually work, with no organ actually knowing what the other departments are doing.  They would also not be connected and work mutually. How would we look? 

That's as similar to any business organization that works. A small organization can however, claim that they have an easy communication channel between various of it's departments. But what if you have to grow? What if you have to have branch offices apart from where you actually started? Who doesn't wants to grow, and develop, whether small or big or mid! This is where my green tea bag story comes live again. 

Isn't it good to have all the ginger, lemon green-tea in one small capsule bag? 

 In huge multi-stationed, sometimes multi-lingual industries, this demand, for a single platform for monitoring different branches and departments is high.

This is how I.T , gave birth to the idea of ERP, or the Enterprise Resource Planning. It explains the need of ERP, which is as important for an organization as it is for you or me to have extra nutrients and stuffs to keep yourself fit and going.  ERP is a gift from the ever-happening I.T. world to any business organization from any field. This gift from I.T. is even more precious than it's gift to you and your relations and social circles, where you can actually see, compliment, smile share pains, with you friends living far away from where you're. 

ERP gives organizations much flexibility and scalability. 

I shortly worked as a Product Analyst for an e-Discovery tool making U.S. software firm, where processing data for their clients from the litigation world was a very essential feature. I could notice almost everyday that the increasing market dynamics and high competitiveness presses you to demand faster result, more precise reactions leading to a higher demand of both quality and quantity.

We had legal cases running on our software, where reviewers and lawyers would review loads of data, may be millions and billions for a single case, to fight a legal battle. 

These data would be anything from a simple email to large PDF documents, or even an audio file, and we all know how a single piece of paper or data can be so very essential to turn a case in your favor. Now, a single particular document fail to show up to the reviewer as this obviously there would be millions and billions of documents in for a single case, and how in such a large chunk of data, one cannot rule out a single piece going wild.

A reviewer would obviously not love to see that particular file making him hang for long. So, the process of escalating the issue always had to be very fast and precise for us. 

It was just a small example, but these such very examples exists on large in every organization in any domain or field. So, there obviously needs to be something in the organization system that may possibly recognize, report and correct(if possible).  

Another reason which makes these ERPs more important for organizations is the number of takeovers and economic mergers that has been on a rise since the mid-1990s era, from when the local economies in different part of the earth started going global. (Thanks to the I.T. world again! )

This has led to the constant changes in the corporate structures. Well, we are still in the midst of many acquisition & merger news in India and globe, for example, there was a time few years back when Anil Agrawal led Vedanta group was looking ahead to acquire Cairns India, which may have made Anil Agrawal the Richest Indian entrepreneur, beating Mukesh Ambani's Reliance group. 

This tells us how the global economic arena is shrinking so rapidly. Honestly, I didn't ever know or could realize while crossing the HZL plant while going to the Udaipur airport, that this Vedanta Group may suddenly pop-out and make news. I probably didn't know Agrawal's first name then, or de-facto, a large number of Indian youths still don't know who he is in India

The global economic changes are rapid and are shrinking faster. One organization sitting in India may suddenly grasp a Japanese client, or a Brazilian one.  But then, it is obviously not possible for any organization to hire professionals knowing their job along with Japanese language or Tokyo's economy well. It's impractical.

 So, many many organizations. now need a system which is multi-lingual and which understands multi-currency capabilities.

And, last important factor that makes these ERPS a boon and an essential to boost their  growth and throttle success story is knowing the organization work-flow well. 

Understanding an organization from outside or over viewing it's complete work-flow is always better than seeing it as being a part from within.  That makes us understands the organization's smoothness of work-flow. 

Obviously, I or You cannot really learn or describe and feel how the Earth rotates when I'm myself a very very small part of it from within. Do you realize you and your physical body is actually rotating from the time you where born? Or which side you rotating? East to west or west to east? Do you? It's every single second happening to you. 

But, however, you and me can actually see how the planet rotates when we see it from outside. Then is when I and you can clearly define the Earth's rotation!

(Ahh!! imaginations sometimes help me so much to understand these complex business structures, Isn't it? :)) 

So, having a system where you can see the complete work-flow and functions of an organization. This will naturally help in assisting in building strategies to win this mad mad market race, which is getting big day by day. 

I received a message recently from a close friend on my cell phone where reminded me of Abraham Lincoln( a former US President and a well known personality) stating once ' Work SMART, not hard'. 

Obviously, Now, many won't really be comfortable when I put this along while defining organization, because they all are known to make you work hard out of your skin, but I better put it this way when it comes to the corporate organizations:

 'Work hard, BUT smart , such that Every BIT of your hard work is noticed and doesn't goes wasted,' because you obviously have put in your efforts and no one would love to see his/her energy flooding out to waste.

If we can think that for us individuals, just imagine how important it becomes for organizations as the competition is always there and they don't wanna waste a single work they did!

This time for Africa!!

My brain-waves taking me to jot down anothe write-up so soon.. I didnt expect it..But. its for a cause..

FIFA 2010 World Cup, one of the most celebrated global event has finally kicked off in the colorful South Africa! Its the first time its played in the African Continent, also known as the Dark Continent. Needless to say, Its a reason for every African to celebrate. Africans have always been known for smiling, midst any problem or trouble! They smile it all out with the punch of music and dance! This colourfull continent has so much to given to the globe.

FIFA, the world is watching Africa  which is considered to be the origin of human life. Africa, must be celebrating, and many natiions rejoicing and having a reson to smile. It is the second largest continent with the second largest population on earth. But when this continent seems so united. When we talk about Asia, not one country comes in picture... divided everywhere. Example lets take Asia, it sdidvided geographically with names. Like,  South-East asia, Central Asia, Gulf. Same with the American Continent, North America, Central America, Latin America. But, when it comes to Africa, everything seems threded under one roof, one name Africa. Obviously, this global sporting event is going to be a celebration world over, as it is in Africa this time.  Sports unite the world, Sorts unite and remove boundaries, we all know it, and have seen it in the past. It brings out the best of human emtions, far above races, countries, languauges.

And, the Africans, always dancing to the music, singing.. enjoying. I came close to Africa, when my father shifted there few years back to work in a global firm. I came close to the people. I came close to this fantastic continent with colorful people.

Although it has abundant natural resources, Africa remains the world's poorest and most underdeveloped diseases and viruses (notably HIV and malaria), corrupt governments that have often committed serious human rights violations, failed central planning, high levels of illiteracy, lack of access to foreign capital, and frequent tribal and military conflict (ranging from guerrilla warfare to genocide).

Notably, the major problem, Corruption, which leads to the exploitation of there own people. Africa is full of resources globe is counting on, but still the natives are suffering from poverty. Why?? The countries are allowing themselves to be exploited for money. They know, they're, but they do little, because the invaders are giving them money. Invaders? Did the writer here say Invaders? Yes! I said it! And you get it right, the commercial invaders, who are invading their wealthy resources and paying them too less for that. The local Govts. can do too less for that and why? Because, Whatever, they are paid in return, may be too less, but sufficient for them.

I was few months back watching, "Don't Tell My Mother", a travel show on National Geographic, where Diego Buñuel, the host travelled to few troubled nations. He was in an Africa nation, where he he could see he Chinese fishing away all the natural resource away from that country, and the locals working there in bad conditions as just mere labourers. One of my Morrocan frind told me the same happening by Chinese in Morrocco.  Thats really pathetic. Its the time the Africans must look at what they have, and what they getting. They in my views shouldn't be looking at small profits, instead of looking at long term profit, they must have for those resousrces, and for that , they need a uncorrupt Govt. 

Africa from over centuries, has given this world music, culture, dance, nature, and what not! And what the world has given them, is it justified? Lets forget what hapend in the past, the colonisation and all the world all over went through. Many countries have excelled out of it now. But, after growing up from all that, even Today, are we still giving this lovely continent what it desrves?

Africa, right now , surely will be in a modd to rejoice, and amidst the likes of super strong soccer teams, like Argentina, Brazil, France, Spain, I would want the cup to remain in this continent. They need sumthing to rejoice afterall.

Let's not forget, and always be up-armed to give the respeEct back to the lovely continent, full of lovely people. Even if we don;t Africa will smile anyways, it's always in them to smile, but we should give them what they desrve solely!

Early Case Assesment- Can be India's first baby-step towards e-Discovery!

Best thing to kill time is, when you not sleepy, flush all your thoughts out on anything that is presently on your mind or nerves, and I'm doing just that.,

Early Case Assessment- Wikipedia describes it better- It explains that Oftentimes an organization feels a need to settle a legal case, for whatever reason, only to find they wish they did before they spent so much time and money on the case. Legal Cases are many times bound to happen to any organization and the costs of running a case are usually the most burdensome financially to both sides fighting on an issue. Often, and during legal cases, an opposing party will strategize on how to make it as difficult as possible for you to comply with the discovery process, including time and cost to respond to discovery requests. Because of this, organizations have a continued need to conduct early case assessment to determine their risks of taking a case to trial without painful settlement discussions.

Early Case Assessment or ECA in short, is something you and I do before a big huge event. We analyse, we bring all the points under one roof and make a blue-print out of it.

For example, the Captain cool of Indian Cricket team would do a Pre-match survey before a big game, and accordingly make strategies to combat opposition.  Analysis of anything before is important That's what Early Case is all about, It refers to estimating risk(cost of time and money) to prosecute or defend a case. 

I have already discussed e-Discovery in details in one of my previous blogs. (http://shashiblogs.blogspot.com/2010/05/e-discovery-in-india-call-of-hour.html) and (http://shashiblogs.blogspot.com/2010/02/eureka-discovery-e-discovery.html). e-Discovery in India would require a sea-change in the present legal system India has. India, a house to the second largest population in the world and the fast-emerging global power-house obviously needs to the e-Discovery rains to soothe the Legal system we presently have.  Buy, its a known fact to, that with millions and millions of cases fought in the geographically large India, will need time to accept e-discovery. It cannot be a rocket-Science implementation. 


It will need something to trigger the birth of e-Discovery in India, and if going by what I believe( Remember, I'm a beginner, a learner to e-D world..Hah!!!)..so going by what I think, Early Case Assesment(or ECA) can be the baby-step to India's welcome step to e-D. 


Now, Ambanis have recently settled, what if they had a ECA system, to settle them out? India is home to many multi-nationals, and as stated already, a legal case fishes out loads of wealth and time. 


The companies can have a ECA to review cases before they fight it out and this will also be responsible for trashing out unnecessary documents that they may have stored for years or more. 
As described on the internet, The early case assessment lifecycle will typically include all of the following:
1. Perform a risk benefit analysis.
2. Place and manage a legal holdon potentially responsive documents (paper and ESI) in appropriate countries.
3.Preserve information abroad.
4. Gather relevant information for attorney and expert document review.
5. Process potentially relevant information for purposes of filtering.
6. Produce documents to parties in the case.

7. Reuse information in future cases.

I have my one senior here with whom I was discussing this topic and looking at his experience and far-sightedness in the development of many projects in the organization, I asked him the same. Kirit came out with a reply telling me that the companies can, but the system isn't yet there in place. A shorter version of ECAs can though come up for them. In this small chat with Kirit, I couldn't actually fetch a lot out, ( Little expirence you see :(... Hah!!

But if what he says is to be believed to, I atleast could fetch that he too did agree somewhere between the midst, ECA can surely be India's first step to the astonishing world of e-Discovery. And, the reason why I keep pressing on e-Discovery in India, I don't have to explain people what I'm upto and keep getting great opportunities to rule!! Ha!





 

Internationalism.. A Realization Needed!!

I was listening to a Spanish song which I'm fond of these days. I translated it to realize the lyrics mean same what the may mean for an Indian singer. World's got the same feeling anywhere.

Internationalist!!!! I remember this word from the time, when I actually didn't know what it meant. Way back in 8th or 9th grade probably, my history teacher and I were having a discussion and then when he called me an "Internationalist" and asked me to keep it always there. I wondered was that an compliment, looking at the way I have been, I went home, and searched the word in my favorite mini Collins Dictionary, which I found in my Grand pa's dusty library (which, though got tore, still I binded it, because no one near me had it. Guess, Oxford lovers! Hah!!). The word was back recently when I was talking to a friend from Germany after long. We met when she was in India as a Tourist! This word just keeps coming back to me, anytime I have a new friend from  any part of the world and when I explain them what I have here, in this blog.

The word meant :

1. The condition or quality of being international in character, principles, concern, or attitude.
2. A policy or practice of cooperation among nations, especially in politics and economic matters.

 I was always interested in knowing, that any news in India, which our media persons are flooding our T.V. sets with it, does it really is of same impact in any other part of the world? Probably this is what made him say that. But, that was all in my upbringing. My Mum teaching me, world news mattering my father. Me born traveling different places in India.

The best thing about being an Indian is, you have almost everything here, and probably this is the reason India forms a sub-continent. India is home to almost all the religions in the world from eras to eras. It forms the biggest secularist state in the world. The culture and languages differ in every 100 kms you travel. You got one of the coolest place in the world; Home to Himalayas. You got deserts in the name of Great Indian Tar deserts. You got the rain forests in the North-East! Deltas in the Bay of Bengal! Home to one of the globe's Multi-urbane golden life cities like Mumbai, Calcutta. Darkest of villages in Orissa. India is home to all. Incredible India!

But, that is what I'm not actually talking about! I'm talking about Internationalism. The word.... In short we are One world; One people, divided by cities, districts, culture, languages, food and living habits. Which ever city you are, whether in Poland to Perth, California or Calcutta, Arctic to Antarctic you will find people with mindset you may have. Though these cities are miles away. In Ahmedabad or Amsterdam , you will find people who loves dog, pet dogs, who fear dogs, don't pet them. You will find people who Love long drives or who loves early mornings, or who wake up early. who hate parties, love parties. In short, any two Human beings in any part of the world may HAVE same emotions and feelings, just as I do, or you do!They may like what you say and think the way you do on a particular issue. Or may differ just like any of your pals( may have same vision like your friend).

Similarly, the Indians call their Mother "Maa", an Englishmen calls "Mum", an Urdu or Arabic probably would say "Ammi". The sounds the same.  Hello, Hola, Hi.. The feelings that comes out is the same. In African misty woods, when a person meets his/her loved ones, the feelings he/she goes through is the same like what I may go through when I meet mines back in India. Same from a person in any part of the world.Whether you in Iran- Indonesia, Korea-Kazakhsthan, India, America-Africa, we may find people with the way we think. With our similar likings, just like the bunch of people around us.My heart goes out for anyone suffering in any part of the world, because I belive that they go through the same ain as smeone around me may.

But, then I come across people, thinking, "Oh!! He is a Nigerian, Swedish, Spaniard, Japanese. He must be thinking different then us!" How can we be friends?" Well, my pal, u never know, he may be the one with similar likings as you have. A person living in a torn-ghetto in Africa may have same emotions and feeling for a particular subject with the one living in a castle-like house in America. People who witnessed 9/11 in America and the ones who witnessed 26/11 in India had similar emotions against terror. It hurts an Asian and European or an American the same way to see the victims of  earthquake in Haiti, as for a person sitting in other part of the world from Haiti. I fear dogs, I can't pet them, because I fear they may bite. I may have someone thinking the same in Dallas, America or Budapest. Many of my friends have dogs and treat them and love as their friend,  just like someone sitting in Spain or Japan would. Friends from Spain or Australia, or America, think , feel the same just Like some of my Indian friends.

In every part of the world, from North to South, East to West you will find people who love and think Like you or think like one of your friends. The color, is different, because of the climatic condition they have.

The language is different, because of the the way they have evolved speaking. It is different within the borders too. The food and beverages we have is different, because of the climatic conditions and the source oif food they may have. On an Island country or a county with sandy beaches, you will find people loving and having sea foods like Prawns, Fishes. One Living in deserts, try Camel's, Cow's meats.

That's the way world is. Earth cannot have same climatic conditions, same geographical strategies everywhere. They differ. So do the way people talk, live, eat, speak are different. BUT, the world is ONE. You will find people thinking the same way in any part of the world, similar to you, or may be your friends, family.

It's important to realise for everyone in the world. We need to learn and realise that the globe is not same everywhere, so is the way people live. But, that doesn't mean you may not find people with simliar ideologies in Iraq or Indonesia. You may have people thinking like you, or not going by what you think on any particular topic, just like your friends or the people around you. But, when I say this, I don't mean we stop loving our country and think only globally. Nationalism always needs to be there, but that doesn't mean we over- think in that perspective. What I want to convey is that we must realize and go by the face that every country in the world has people who may think like you or like your loved ones, or like your neighbor, or may be like your friend. Give it a thought. May be, this realization may end our global woes.

e-Discovery in India! Call of the Hour!!!

I don't know when next I would be writing on e-Discovery again, and thus, I really wanted to push out all my thoughts on what I could read and my understandings on it's presence in fast emerging India.

e-Discovery!!! Something I fell in love with after SAP in college! (and now you finally  know that such crushes has actually made me SINGLE !!!! Hah!!) The other guy who really brought me close it, seems to also be madly in love with e-D. Charles Skamser, who seems to be running an e-d vendorship in US. His blogs, his active participation in anything related to e-D, just portrays his interest in e-D!

Anyways, There is something in e-Discovery that made me feel that this stream of I.T. is always open to new ideas and innovations. Because there is so much still needed for it to grow. And, may be, because I find both these fields SAP and e-Discovery, the easiest and fruitiest in I.T.! 

I personally feel, I.T. dealing with defense, legal and government projects always forms the highest priority level for  I.T. world. Something is needed every minute to enhance them, looking at the way they work.

e-Discovery, is something that links I.T. world to legal world. And, in India, to be honest, even I didn't know about it, until I stared working on it, and none of my friends do, because we still don't have it around. This has thus obviously led to my curiousness to learn when will e-D make its presence felt in India. So, in my venture to learn that, I put in posts in LinkedIn to know what the intelligent brains from the legal world had to say about it. Started fishing out all I could from Google to satisfy my curiosity.

But it's important to know first what e-Discovery really is. If you ask me, my amateur knowledge on e-Discovery calls it a concept that brings I.T. and legal world together. Legal work involves reviewing of millions and billions of documents of different formats ranging from a simple MS Word to a RTF kind. So, it's really important that each and every documents reviewed is brought under one roof for review. They are batched, and made to the easiest of convenience for a lawyer or a reviewer to review. So, what I.T. really does is, provides such tools and softwares which really removes other head-aches for reviewers, so that he can only concentrate on reviewing documents and come out with the best of results. But, how e-Discovery does that, it's a real twist, it actually is a series of processing, this and that, which actually thus brings out an smile on a reviewer's face, just like the below cartoon(Ah!):

India is an emerging axis of power in the world. The efficiency and the reforms India has, is well-known worldwide. Moreover, looking at the way Globe is presently bending,  the need of the hour is democracy for each and every citizen in the world. And, India is the largest democracy in the world. The free and fair legal system in well-known and well-recognized in the world. The most recent example is, the conviction of the lone alive Paki terrorist Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab, who brutally fired and killed many innocent Indian and foreign nationals in Mumbai in 26/11/08. There were enough evidence provided and present to convict him straight away, but still, a special court was formed to convict him and hear his case for a free and fair trial. It took along 15 months and 40,000 pages of charge-sheet to finally announce him a death penalty. the menace terrorist was even explained why he has been given corporal punishment. 

There are may cases running and pending every day in the Indian courts. So is it the right time to pitch e-discovery in? Is it the right time to think about e-Discovery and making it all happen with e-Discovery? If you ask me, I would say Yes!!! In fact, why aren't we actually thinking about it?

My Discussions on few Legal IT groups in Linked In are as follows ( Yes, you got it correct. I don't want to pain my fingers jotting it all down for you, so have it eaten all raw!! Hah!):

1. Topic: M working with on of the leading e-Discovery vendors..As I stay in India, I was curious to know when will e-Discovery step in India?? What are the chances?? How long?? Any views from experts??

Comments:

• "Don't see that happening anytime soon. The only e-Discovery I can think of is if MNCs have lawsuits which  involve their employees residing in India (as they may have offices here). " 
• "Thanks Rajiv... It seems seriously difficult...But I really wish to learn the reason why?? why not possible in India?? Whys is it taking time??"

• "I think the current legal system in India is not that great in working with electronic evidence. I sure feel the Satyam case can actually be investigated using e-Discovery and has the potential to be a great example. I don't see the problem as specific to India but this seems to be the case with a lot of countries who haven't upgraded their legal system to handle electronic evidence."

2. Topic: When will e-Discovery come to India? 

• 
  
  
  

  "This is certainly going to take a long time as our judicial system still dependent on mostly paper work(hard copy). Until it get a shift to softcopy, there is very minimal chance of e-discovery in India. Few LAW firms like Pangea3 are into e-discovery but will take a long time to expand its hands in India."

• "Thank you for your answer. It is really worth a reason why we don't have people thinking about it as of yet.Thanks again!"

With both the above discussions and few learning with my talk on this with my beloved collegues, I could feel that the root cause is the legal world in India is actually not thinking about it. Neither is the system compliant for e-discovery and the technology yet. The legal system in India still relies a lot on paper work. 


Furthermore, it is equally important to link the legal students and anyone anyhow related to legal system in India with technology and the miracles of e-Discovery. This should be kinda chapter in their studies somewhere. I personally feel, relating to technology to whatever you do is very important to remin smart! You never know, it may do you wonders. So, it should be a part of curriculum.


These are my learning on what I feel about why e-Discovery isn't in India! India, a home to second largest population in the world, and one of the fastest and influencive economy, needs legal system to be revived asap.

Eureka-Discovery (e-discovery)!

Statutory Warning: The below blog contains Technical terms and issues. Read at your own risk. If you go scratching your head in and out, author of the article shouldn't be cursed!

Eureka Eureka!!

Remember the Archimedes Line? I still have the memories of a snapshot of Archimedes running out of the bath-tub shouting the famous word, straight out of my 8th Grade Physics text book. 

My, then classmate, Kapil Umalkar and me would make fun of him then. Don't ask me how Kapil is, I wish he turns out to be another Archimedes running on the streets of Delhi. he stays so out of touch these years,sucker!

Anyways, the I.T. guys find this word very common to their lives. Sometimes, they even don't need to run down the streets and shout the word out, as I.T.  every single minute is offering something new to this globe. That's I.T. for you. (But, don't ask how the I.T. guys really get screwed down by doing so. Every time there is a new upgrade to work upon, Sucks!)

From past couple of months, I have been working in the field of e-Discovery as a Product Analyst. ( I know, a hell lot  of you guys, don't know what it is. Why don't you do me a favor then? Go check the link I have put for it rather then asking me up seperately. "Yaar! Shashi, mast hai yaar, magar e-Discovery kya hai? What is e-Discovery, temme?" )

The designation of Product Analyst may seem so cool, but you will keep figuring out, what you have been actually doing until you Grey down all your hair. he is someone, who is a Technical personnel, guiding and guarding the software all armed day-night.

e-Discovery is a vast new field of I.T. With the well-structured format it has got, it will definitely come out to different horizons of work-flow in and around the Legal world. e-Discovery links I.T. to the Legal World with a brilliance. Sometimes, you fail to figure out in an e-Discovery enterprise, who is from the Legal background and who from the I.T.

It's a known fact that the Legal world  is something that will never die out for sure. It is to stay till humans are alive on the planet. As, SRK says in My Name is Khan, there are two kinds of people in the world, good and the bad. Legal and Judiciary has been into use from the oldest era of mankind. So, I.T. has always got a lot to offer in here and the way e-discovery brings I.T. into the legal world is just very beautiful.

My organization is grooming up the e-discovery concept too with it's s/w tool, which brought me closer to this I.T. concept. But, there are a lot many concepts that need to be fished into the e-discovery house-hold. Most importantly, as going through, few discussions I get to learn from people around, Cloud Computing, which I have studied at basics while pursuing my Engineering.

The most important trouble I think that e-discovery must be facing, atleast I'm when related to e-discovery tools, is  the searching of the required documents.

The searching of documents and data in e-D isn't a normal search, I must make it very clear. you're actually not running a normal search which one performs in Google or Yahoo. Here, you're searching a series of documents that may be a necessity for a legal case. This series of documents may be defined by many metadata fields (metadata: data of a data), many other fields.

These searches are performed in such a way that, you may have to search for funny Tags, with what all names, according to the folders they are in, according to the few words. In short, the searches are never easy. Very Complicated.

Everybody close knows, if interested in something, I'm all High for it. I come out with anything close to it. This time, it's e-Discovery!! Funny, but true, the lazy bone taking interest.

 So, while reading stuffs on this, and facing a hell lot of trouble with the searches, guiding clients and sometimes guiding myself in it. I found out an article somewhere in blue about Concept Searching, which the e-D developers have started working on already.

Ex. 1: "Hey!! Sachin scored 200 in Gwalior in cricket today!"

Ex.2: "Hey!! Sachin scored 200 runs in Gwalior in match today!"

If the term 'Cricket' was used as a keyword in the search, then example line 1 would be found, but Ex.2 won't. But ,they both mean the same.

However, a concept searching tool would be expected to “find” both examples, because “Concept Searching” is, as the name implies, actually looking for “concepts” rather than just keywords.

As mentioned already, let me warn you,that the searches in e-discovery aren't the normal searches. It is also the most important practice in e-D. Just like, you are trying to find few necessary papers in a room packed with millions of sheets. That's crazy isn't it? But, that's what makes e-d a well-practiced concept in the western world. Guess, when Indian lawyers would stop searching legal papers in their moist room jam-packed with files and folders. 

In e-D, while performing a search,You're actually fishing out a doc. or a set of docs, with any field tagged or with any criteria, because these are just not normal documents. A single document can be the apple for your legal case. This tool is doing just what is done above, but on a more focused paragraph or sentence rather than an entire document. 

  

Concept Searching can be successfully implemented categorically for Tags, Buckets,words.

Also, what I believe, what if we are dealing with large set of documents; if there is a 5000 or more pages, that we usually have in e-D, document that is important or “hot”(lol), because of one paragraph, concept searching for similar documents will often produce a large junk. Like, Concept Searching for example a newspaper with Sachin Tendulkar's One-dayer score, would fetch in a junk result of Sachin's Adidas advert. saluting the master blaster.

I certainly believe that the Concept Searching should be very much worked upon by the I.T. world to implement it sooner to e-Discovery. that's atleast going to push off the headaches for easy going chaps like me. Ask a guy like me, what I go through, whenever I have to work on the searches, just has to go round-and-round in these searches.They so very damn confusing. Fellow mates, sometimes would come into rescue me out of the mad mad world of searching.

e-Discovery is a all new world man, so many to come up.Learn it out, the ones who still don't know a pinch about, it's a lot catchy dudes.

Romancing with the Buzzz Station!

Place: Jaipur

Month- Mid Feb

Cold breeze sweeps on this road here. I pull on the cap of my Adidas pullover and then give a look at my watch, it says 11 pm. I'm still not feeling sleepy even after a a busy day. May be because I'm staying all alone in the hotel. After a chat with few Nepali stewards at the hotel, I stroll down this narrow galli that leads to the Polo Victory road. It's mid Feb, and Jaipur is still so cold.

The silent galli ends for the Polo Victory Road.colored with bright Golden street-lamps. Crowded, loud, bright, with road-sided dhabas and restaurants opened 24/7, its' what this road is all about.

Crispy dry cold breeze reminds me of my office's Air-conditioner going wild. I'm just strolling down the street looking the road-side multi-cuisine dhabas. Very Next to me is Sindhi Camp, funny name, but this what is the busy jam-packed Jaipur Bus terminal named as.

I walk briskly walk into Sindhi Camp. As my feet force s me to the bus platforms, the intensity of noise and human voices increases. 

loud chaiwalas, Himachal Pradesh's Apple-Juice counter and I halt! 

"A glass please"

"Yes Sirji, here you're"

Break Break Break...a question to anyone reading this blog- These H.P.'s Apple Juice centers at various Railway, bus stations around the country, are they really an initiative of the H.P. Govt, and are these cheap 8 INR per glass juice, really the apple drink? I remebber, our Cab Driver during the Manali, Shimla trip, who was laso our local guide at times,lol, was telling us that the apples are too cheap there, a big huge box costs just a  whooping 30 INR. Whether it's Ahmedabad's railway station, Bandra and CST Terminus, Jaipur's Sindhi Camp, wherever you're they are on.

After a great glass of apple treat, I move ahead buying myself a cream-roll. I give a look at the watch again, Its quarter to 12 now.

"Haridwar Delhi Haridwar", "Nathdwara Udaipur Kankroli", "Gurgaona-Delhi", "Rohtak"  , ..loud creepy voices rule the terminus.

To my surprise, I find buses for al the places in North, which always looked far and far to me from Western, Central and Eastern part of the country. Jaipur, being one of the most important tourist destinations, seems well connected. Buses for everywhere, Srinagar to Shimla, Manali to Merta City, Udaipur to Ujjain, Kalka to Chandigarh. anywhere in North.

Rings my fone..."Hey?" 

"Hi Shashi! Happy Birthday".

"Sucker! It's not today.. u the earliest, it's tomorrow. Thank God, I was awake Ashu, rest u were dead"

I look amazingly at the bus station, people and people around. On seats, below seats, sleeping, talking, laughing, even breaking winds and Roaring the ZZzzzzzzzssss while napping.

"Sir, Have to go to Ahmedabad day after tomorrow in the late hours. Buses for the city?"

"Got one at 10.00pm and a Volvo at 11pm"

"Whats the fair for them?"

"Sir?" "Sir??" "Sir???"- Jaipur and most of the country ki adadat, all the govt and civic services employees, short and sweet! ha ha.

Watch shouts 1 AM now.

My message tone rings. Niraj Patel sends "LOAFER aur OFFER mein kya farak hai? Batao toh chavani dunga. Ladka Ladki ko propose kare toh LOAFER aur Ladki kare toh OFFER!" Cool messages like these from Niraj storm my message book these days.

 I move to the other section of the terminus, exclusively for North-Bound buses."Manali Manali"..."Shimla......Shimla", "Sundernagar.....Sundernagar"

And moving ahead, I move to the executive class of the Rajasthan State Roadways Terminus (RSRTC). The Gold-Line, Silver-Line marked, well trimmed, washed decorated buses. The shops on this side are also not normal thellas, like the other sections. You have a Narula's here, a NesCafe Outlet, well-groomed waiting rooms.

I move to the Enquiry Counter.

"Got to go to Ahmedabad day after tomorrow, can you let me know the fare and timings of the buses?"

Unlike the previous encounter with a RSRTC Official at the enquiry Office, for whom, just to listen to his break-way voice, hoards of people were waiting, and he was still unmoved. 

This person politiely answers- "Sir! Bus will leave at 9.30. It's a Volvo Bus to Ahmedabad. You will Reach Ahmedabad at 9.30 am sharp. The fair is 950 INR. I suggest you better buy the ticket now, as the bus suddenly gets packed."

Surprised and feeling nothing less than a king by his gestures towards me, I feel I'm on Cloud 9.

I move to the ticket counter and stand in the queue. The same person points at me - "Sirji, Please fill the enquiry form before standing in the queue, rest, you may have to go round again and stand."

"Form? Reservation Form?" Just Like the Railways?"- I gesture

"Ha Ha! Yes Sir"

The scene here is quite executive. The feeling you get in this section makes you feel you're special. Rajasthan is always known for the hospitality given to outsiders. You see it all here. Padahro Mahare Desh! 

But, the previous sections, normal running buses aren't groomed the same way. Why? I just don't get it? The tickets and fares for those buses aren't cheap either. We blame the large Indian population for this. But, Gosh! Gimme a Break! Aren't the ones traveling by Volvos a part of the same populous crowd? 

The Jaipur bus Terminus is lively, cool, fun to be. But, a sea-change in approach for the normal platforms and executive platforms is different. Foreign nationals to travel by the normal buses. If we can take care of one part at a dead-end kind of approach, why not the same for other class of buses? It's just an example of our approach. May be the crowd make it dirty and messy again, may be they like keeping public places dirty, may be. My be, in few hours the  mess and dirt is there all over again. But lets try keeping them clean once, Let's give it a try. I truely understand that population and the people's approach is very annoying. But sanitize and keep the other sections clean once, and make the people understand that keeping them so would be and is good for them. We don't do it, and rest blame the population again and again.

Rest, you guys, do answer my Himachal Pradesh apple juice counters wala question?