Business to the Buddha

Tag: economics

  • Gratitude – clap your hands

    A few weeks back I had a chance to meet an Art of Living faculty. During his discussion with us, he said to be grateful. Be grateful to what you have and life will be full of abundance. There were wonderful examples and stories he shared with us. It was fascinating to listen to him. I remembered this discussion on gratitude and Prime Minister Mr. Modi’s suggestions for clapping and applauding many unknown people in healthcare or essential services sector who are selflessly working day in and day out. Show your gratitude – clap your hands.

    Have you ever thought of those who pick up your dustbean everyday morning. The sweeper, the cleaner or for that matter the car washing young man of your society. Many of us may not even know the names of these people whom we pass-by every morning. However, bad is the status of cleaning in Mumbai – compared to Indore, my home town – but it works at its own level of efficiency. Is not it? Should not I be grateful to this cleaning system too? Yes there is room for improvement, yet grateful to the existing levels of cleaning.

    http://business2buddha.com/2015/07/12/gratitude-by-coincidence/

    Gratitude – an example

    Last week, I went for a haircut to a nearby saloon with my father. Since, I was with him, it was nearby and finding parking was difficult I took two wheeler. While returning, my hair were oily, we lived nearby so I took it for granted and did not wear helmet. Murphy’s law kicked in. Police was challaning, I was charged INR 500/- (roughly $70) for not wearing helmet.

    This is another story that I paid the challan outstanding within 15 mins on Mumbai Traffic Police App, ICICI Bank has cut the amount from my account and yet Mumbai Traffic Police App shows the challan is unpaid. On a lighter note a lesson – do not use the app to make challan payment.

    Coming back to the story, I told the police sir I live nearby – literally 300 meters from here, I am coming after a haircut and my hair are oily. So I did not wear the helmet, it is in my dickey. He replied – it is for your safety, you should have worn it. He didnt budge, completed the process. I asked now can I go without helmet it is just 300 meter! He replied what is more important – your head, you and your fathers safety or helmet getting oily? You can go you be a better judge, no one is ahead to cut another challan for you.

    http://business2buddha.com/2018/02/06/driving-in-india/

    I was upset, my father told me he was right. My father always wear helmet (it was even when there was no one wearing it about two decades back). He continued – you should have worn helmet. I made payment on the app instantly and gave it a thought later on. That policeman was not wrong, he was doing his duty, he could have done his job and let me go. However he was kind enough to politely remind me – what is more important “your safety”. This lesson costed me 500 rupees. Though I am rarely that careless, in last 24 years challaned second time. Once for stopping ahead of stop line on signal which where stop-line was barely visible. I felt bad but grateful later on for the policeman – I even wonder if I would see him back in life (I would not want to too :)). Small cautious act can go a long way. In current times it is home quarantine during Coronavirus spread. This small act of individuals can go a long way for the whole society.

    Gratitude – clap your hands – be grateful to the unknown

    Gratitude

    Today is the day when we have to be grateful to the healthcare and essential services professionals. Prime Minister Mr. Modi has said that we have to clap for these people whom we have not seen, not known. They are doing their best to help us fight the biggest challenge our generation is seeing. The graveness of Coronavirus cannot be ignored – especially when there is no known vaccine or medication for that. It is immaterial whether we are sick or healthy, rich or poor, youngster or senior citizen. We must be thankful to these professionals.

    We miss-out on thinking about so many people working on so many things on a daily basis. Some are directly associated with us many are not – be it the local trains of Mumbai or bus or Metro trains services across many cities. If you work in a stockbroking company, you may be taking a local train to the office. Your boss or the owner of the company is not. But to come to work in the owner’s company the employee needs to take the local train. Unknowingly or indirectly the local train driver is adding value to the stockbroking company’s owner. Many a time’s people do not consider this list for gratitude.

    Be grateful

    There is a good amount of research on this – check Harvard articles. Gratitude is a virtue, one must inculcate it. You are alive, be happy about it. Someone told me a couple of days back, you woke up you are fortunate, respect that you have got time and today to live. Especially we must be happy, restrained and grateful at this tough time when the world is facing the pandemic of Coronavirus.

    Be happy today; be grateful for so many known and unknown people and things in your life. Take care and do not forget to Show your gratitude – clap your hands on 22nd March 2020 at 5 PM for 5 minutes.

  • Coronavirus – Lock down? Stop and introspects

    Coronavirus has put many people across the world in a lock down situation. Many cities in Europe, China and US are standstill. In India also, some states govt or cities authorities have closed malls, cinema halls, schools etc. Who have got the luxury for them, it is a great time to sit at home to stop and introspect. People should not become couch potato at home and watch Netflix / Youtube day in and day out. This is a time to sit and introspect, what I did and what is my take? Here it is.

    Phylogenetic analysis of Coronavirus

    Introspection

    I started off with asking a question to myself – have we become dinosaurs of current times? Animals evolve, even the virus evolves check this last para of CDC website on Coronavirus – “…coronaviruses … can evolve….” This research by The Lancet states the virus has evolved and closely related – 88% – to two bat derived virus. Imagine how fast the virus is evolving from 2002 to now. It is an amazement that the tiniest virus evolves. How about human beings? How are we evolving? We’ve improved our healthcare system from outside, is this healthcare restricting us from developing our inherent immunity that has been there in every organism naturally? If your belief system does not allow you to accept the theory of evolution be it. However, this evolution is evident scientifically and being researched and discussed on the science fraternity widely.

    Dinosaur’s extinct one fine day, we are still struggling to hypothesize how this happened? Is it a possibility that something like Coronavirus happened with them too? I do not intend to scare with conspiracy of dooms day. My thoughts are still on introspection, we have developed a lot of technologies. Example is mobile phone, I have a 6 GB RAM mobile, I hardly require such configuration, My father has a smartphone too, he only accesses calling feature and one fitness app. Our technologies have grown multi-fold; many of us we do not even know how to use these. During this lock-down of cities, people are going to waste time on entertainment and create havoc on social media. Instead, we must spend this time with self sitting silently. It could be above conspiracy theories war, economy, healthcare and evolution.

    Conclusion

    I introspect on evolution and meditation. We spend time on how we can remain fit. Here is an interesting research done by Oslo University on a Breathing technique (Sudarshan Kriya) taught in Art of living courses. The research says Yoga Changes your Genes (Oslo university, Norway) and improve your immune system. Until the natural selection helps human beings evolve, practice Yoga and meditation it will help you – as the research states that “…changes in 111 genes expression patterns were observed, improving immune system…”.

    I leave you with this thought – stop, meditate and introspect.

    Image Source – The Lancet “Phylogenetic analysis of Coronavirus”

    Disclaimer – I am associated with the Art of Living foundation and practicing Yoga, Meditation and Sudarshan Kriya from 2004 onward.

    Related other blogs –

    http://business2buddha.com/2013/07/06/yoga-secular-or-not/
    http://business2buddha.com/2019/04/06/the-observer/

  • Socialism the right way

    Recently I wrote on why socialism fails? The article may sound a complete no-no to socialism. I believe any concept is inherently not flawed. The flaw is mostly in the execution – be it capitalism, socialism or any other “-ism. So, what can possibly be socialism the right way? I am sure many would know Venezuela going through hyperinflation and complete chaos – that is one gift that socialism may give you.

    In economics many of the rules are written in some assumption or concept like – “everything else being constant…” the concept will work like this or like that. For an example – demand curve or supply curve. These curves are belied by the prices in some cases such as – price of oil or price of diamond.

    Similar is the case of assumption in the underlying concept of socialism. The assumption is – no one will try to game the system. If I take the same example of Sarla or Kishore of the previous blog any Sarla or Kishore with average intelligence will stop working or will try to get a certificate that proves (s)he is the bottom 20% of Indian population to get the benefits of NYAY scheme announced by the Congress Party in its election manifesto.

    In India, Amitabh Bachchan got a certificate of being a farmer long back. So, it is not difficult for people to get a certificate to the race to the bottom. Though, off late Mr Bachchan has paid off loans of many farmers in UP. The way a farmer’s certificate was easy to obtain for Mr Bachchan it is easy to get a BPL certificate too. What the scheme Nyay is most likely trying to do is – make youth and many Indians lazy or to game the system. This is how Socialism fails.

    There is another example of similar scheme running in India – MGNREGA. I have heard of cases where there is immense corruption in this scheme. People are getting part of the allocated fund per person just for signing a document (rest goes to the chain of officials). Thus, the unskilled people for whom it was an employment guarantee, get money for free. If one wants to get the same work done by someone, the wages asked are higher. It results in increase in inflation.

    With schemes like MGNREGA or Nyay, does not the leaders of the political parties implying that they do not have any idea for – 1. how to create more jobs (run the economy) and 2. how to increase skill level of the citizens so that citizen can do something for themselves rather than depending on others. It looks like these politicians have not heard the idiom – “Teach a man to fish and you feed him for life”. By the way, MGNREGA was started by one of the most renowned economists of the world!

    If I recall 2009 farm loan waiver of Manmohan Government – again a Congress government – more socialistic in its letter and spirit that did not augur well to our economy. The impact of that according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch the farm loan waiver will cost 2% to the GDP of India by 2019. At times educated economists try to fix a problem at the wrong place. Possibly the Modi Government GDP numbers could have been 2% higher!

    No doubt the basic principles of the right to food, shelter, water, education, and healthcare is considered given in today’s capitalistic economies and countries – example Obama care in the USA or Ayushman Bharat Health Scheme in India. There is a universal education program running in India Education for all (Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan). When I started looking at quick implementations of government’s schemes such as Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana I feel current Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is more socialistic than the Socialists / Marxists in India. In fact, recently I went to a village (about 500 KM from Mumbai), and I first hand saw – took some photos too shown here – the scheme being used by the villagers effectively.

    However, good the intentions to keep everyone at an equal level, humans do not seem to have found a way for equality. Possibly in the ant world, socialism is practically depicted to a better extent. Why USSR failed and communism of China is not worth appreciating, why Venezuela failed? Because there is no incentive to work or there is no ownership (common ownership) involved. Further, the move from capitalism to socialism follows communism as a midway stop. Communism gives power to the few, who – like any other human being – would not want to relinquish their power? The result – communism does not seem to end ever.

    Socialism (to some extent any -ism) can only work if we create a different scale for all of us – human beings. A different scale for success, survival, and growth. Many times greed and wish to control – people, things and systems – makes way and thus the Marx intermediary (read communism) from capitalism to socialism remains never-ending. Why can not we have a good execution, social good, and profit together? We can have it, provided we look at some new scale to measure ourselves.

    If any form of socialism needs to survive it has to be a middle path – a mix of different approach to economics, policy making and system. A system where we reward work, we provide essentials at appropriate cost or subsidy or for free and let people benefit from their work. At the same time, all the world political, social, economic and cultural systems must include teaching spiritual practices, trust and fairness – example is concepts of Jainism – Ahinsa (non-violence), Asteya (non stealing), Aparigraha (non-attachment) and concepts of Buddhism – meditation, interdependent co-arising. These concepts are essentially from different philosophy of Hinduism.

  • Why socialism fails? NYAY

    Our maid – Sarala – works at about 4 homes. She works close to 6 hours a day. With this hard work she earns more than INR 15,000 per month. There are laborers who work at construction sites and as daily wage electrician or carpenter – Kishore – in our area. Assume laborer earns INR 250 per day that comes out to be more than INR 6,000 per month. I am giving these numbers for Mumbai’s unskilled workers. So, I did some back of the envelop calculations. Here are some questions that make us believe Why socialism fails?

    Now let’s review a probable scheme NYAY announced few days back. NYAY is promised by Congress party (erstwhile Congress (Indira)). In this scheme they intend to offer 6,000 per month to the bottom 20% poorest people of India.

    Many of the people identified in the beginning, will fall in that category. Why? Because there is no way you can define bottom 20% poorest people. The reason is none of the above are in tax bracket. There is no way you can define their being “poor”. You may argue that there is a Below Poverty Line (BPL) cards. Many of the Indians know that our systems are such that this card – like a Bangladeshi illegal immigrant can get an Aadhar – is easy to get. If you do not remember any such card being made, read here. At the same time, if without such verification a scheme is run – you would get to see a misuse like this. Both the points are seemingly contradictory, however this is how manipulation happens with Government schemes. Most of the money allocated goes to the corrupt party’s politician’s pockets.

    population-estimate-India-2017
    GDP-estimate-India-2017

    This corruption is just one part of the story. Let’s dig a bit on how it can impact country’s economy. Now, since Sarala and Kishore are immigrants from different parts of India either they can get the benefits in their respective villages or the worst migrate back to the village – because they can get 6,000 for free per month. A village may not be as expensive so survival can be easy there. If they get the benefits staying here the NYAY scheme becomes UNNYAY (injustice) in itself. If they migration and so possibly many others. The shortages of unskilled labor in cities certainly will result in expensive labor. This expensive labor will translate in expensive stuff – be it real estate (the industry is in a tight spot anyway) or a house maids.

    Assuming some numbers and bringing others numbers, I did some back of the envelop calculations, references are attached herewith. Click on the images to enlarge.

    NYAY-GDP-impact-calculation-Summary-base-2017
    USD-INR-Exchange-rate-2017

    The worst is yet to come – one of the Congress’s think tanks Sam Pitroda says we will have to increase tax on income to manage in this expensive scheme. The outlay of NYAY can be as much as 22% of GDP. The numbers are calculated based on population estimates of 2017 and GDP estimates of 2017. Please check screenshots. This scheme would most likely cross defense budget of India. Effectively, it will reduce savings of middle class due to tax burden and higher inflation.

    I will leave you with few questions on this scheme – why would Sarala or Kishore want to up skill him/herself and ADD to the economy if such free money is available to him/her? Would not there be a competition to show oneself poorer than the poorest to get this free money? Should not job creation and up skilling be the priority of government rather than splurging tax money? Just imagine if up skilling program gets such fund (3.8 trillion or 3.8 lakh crores INR) how much skilled labor we can create? How successful is MGNREGA? If it really was, we must have had pukka roads across country by now. If a report writes positively about the scheme – can it possibly be PAID for?

    And the last question to you – if you were Sarala or Kishore what would you prefer – free money or a dignified earning, up skilling and job opportunity? If your answer is former – read individually smart collectively dumb.

    Note: numbers of 2017 are taken as those were readily available on Google Search

  • Grass grows by itself







    For last couple of years, I have been buying stuff (mostly grocery and vegetables) from where I get a bill (invoice), even if I have to pay a bit more. Reason has been straightforward – I am fine paying more because presumably the one who gives me bill pays tax. It reduces burden on my tax and thus country can improve and prosper. Straightforward logic. However, another thought runs in mind – things are getting automated, be it agriculture or industries. Technology based jobs are likely to get automated too. This will create a scarcity of jobs. We should support roadside vendors otherwise how will they sustain their livelihood.

    Next level challenges for Governments and even for private sector will be job creation at grass root. The other thought says possibly there would not be a need of job creation. Things will happens automatically due to automation. On a philosophical level as Ramana uncle keeps on quoting – Sitting quietly, doing nothing, spring comes and the grass grows by itself. ~ Basho. This no one would require to do job, the same possibility suggested by Keynes.

    The world thus would be a kind of utopia, we hopefully wont require ruling over the other. It would be a time of soul searching, digging inside doing inner revolution. I strongly believe prosperity of each individual is the best way to reach the Utopian world. Economics, fails at such Utopian world, because where there is scarcity there is demand and supply. However, if everyone is prosperous probably no one will feel wealthy. Feeling of being wealthy at that time would be defined by some other measures – not necessarily by money. Currently too we are on the verge of redefining wealth, money is not what you have in your pockets or home is no more the only wealth. Wealth is – stocks you have, count of zeros in your accounts, may be in future we would look at bitcoins in your electronic wallets.

    Possibly, the Buddha was disillusioned by wealth – he was a prince after all, wealthiest of kingdom – when he saw a sick old man, a dead body etc. Likelihood of seeing a Buddha like person is far higher in prosperous economy. India was at peak of its economic, scientific and spiritual knowledge. The world now and in future needs to think about spirituality and economics in same plane. The world we are creating for our coming generations should have growth, livelihood, sustainability and spirituality together. This requires learning a couple of concepts of Buddha’s teachings deeper – i. interdependent co-arising ii. the middle path and iii. righteousness (speech, action, livelihood,efforts, mindfulness, concentration, view and resolve).

    I think we need to think beyond jobs creation, wealth, we need to think about a holistic development of human race because the grass grows by itself.

    Happy Buddha Purnima, may everyone become The One soon.

  • Melting pot







    I am sure when we read the title we all will speak about culture and nation. My take apparently is no different. India as a country, culture and in terms of way of life has been a melting pot of thoughts. If we look at Mahabharat time – there were many kingdom fighting from one side or the other in the war. The range goes from present day Afganistan to South East Asia and Kerala.

    Afganistan reminds me of Bamiyan Buddha statues. The smaller statue was so big, check photo (sourced from Wikipedia), that a man standing at the foot measures only till the ankles. The statue reminds me of Gwalior fort Jain tirthankar’s statues. No wonder, when I saw them some had disfigured heads.

    The Buddha was basically from Nepal. He came to India for his quest of spirituality. India at that time too, was a confluence of different ways of life. Buddha studied with same master’s who were worshipers of fire, some teachers were of Yoga and Indian philosophies. After learning so many things we was still not self realized. After six years of hardwork, following many different teachings – including fast he was emaciated and almost on the verge of death. That day he was enlightened. Lord Mahavir was his contemporary – he had a different teaching. Both the teachings blended in Indian culture.

    Indian culture basically accepts many different approach of spirituality and religion. The best blend you can see is Bhagvad Geeta. It talks about Bhakti, Gyan, Dhyan and Karma yoga etc. Every chapter in the book is a type of Yoga – yoga means addition. What does a melting pot do – it mixes everything. Right? That is what Yoga is. I have written on Yoga earlier too – including a debate and court case in the US – whether Yoga is Secular or no!

    The question on secularism moves me to another dimension of India. We are secular, and in last couple of years Indian intellectuals (apparently others are equally intellectuals but are considered lesser) have returned awards for lynching of a Muslim Indian citizen. It was a sad incident in the state of Uttar Pradesh during Akhilesh Yadav Government (Samajwadi Party, which apparently is more Muslim centric political party). Recently, another lynching happened – a police officer was killed – muslim Indian citizen – in the state of Jammu & Kashmir, this time state Government is a coalition with BJP (more Hindu tilting political party). Last time the intellectuals returned awards, this time no one came forward! This is all economics of power.

    Economics reminds me of an interesting fact of Indian politics. The best economists – Mr Manmohan Singh and P Chidambaram – came up with farm loan waiver in last decade. When a non economics expert can understand that it is not a solution why a renowned economist takes such a decision – a melting pot you see. The decision was a confluence of politics in economics.

    All the above thoughts are in a melting pot here. My thoughts mostly are  multi-directional – so this blog moves from socialism to capitalism and spirituality to business etc. The melting pot includes few dreams I have – one is here, add to it wish to help Sindhutai Sakpal‘s Orphanage, Art of Living foundation projects and rainwater harvesting in Malwa region of MP. I wrote to one District Magistrate, never received a response, not even from CM’s office – is this a participative government?

    Melting pot was this week’s LBC topic where Maria, Rummuser, Ashok and Shackman write weekly. You can visit their blogs and read their thoughts on the topic.

  • Leaking pipe, economics and politics







    Recently I went to meet one of our relatives. We were generally speaking and his plumber came, I asked what happened? He said – Pravin, we requested our plumber to fix the leaking pipe. Later we asked him to put blocker from where the leaking pipe was having water inlet. I said why did you solve the problem of leaking pipe twice? He said the fixing the pipe with m-seal and other plumbing means was cheaper. But second time you had to put a blocker, isn’t it? It costs and your plumber might have charged you twice too. I curiously went to check the place – being an insider to this family it was alright. I repeated – you tried to fix a wrong problem and you did it twice! and also by putting blocker you made the pipe irrelevant too…

    The same keeps on happening in our society be it bailout or loan waiver to farmers. Those who cannot get in such beautiful moral hazard go to UK or become part of crony capitalism.

    I was speaking with my wife today, she said “loan waiver is not a permanent solution”. Yes she is right. This endemic was started by government of our own very famous economist Mammohan Singh and his another gem of an economist finance minister Chidambaram in 2008. It was a waiver of 60,000 cr, largely to win upcoming election. Manmohan Singh government won that election too, just to end up embroiling themselves in scam after scams. The scams resulted in public anger and protest – India Against Corruption. There are long lists of corruption under the Manmohan Singh government however the point of discussion currently is farmer’s loan.

    The kind of waivers offered mostly result in moral hazard. Just imagine, if I am a farmer – this year monsoon is expected to be good – why would I care to pay my loan EMIs when everyone is getting sops? The other trouble is – even after 70+ years of independence of India we are more dependent on monsoon rather than our skills of farming! Connecting all the rivers was a dream project of Atal Bihari Vajpayee 10+ years back, yet it has to see light of the day. Furthermore, we ignore solving the problems we created ourselves such as depleting underground water level. Mostly, the reason is – we are individually smart but collectively dumb. We assume that I cannot control where the underground water goes – why should I?

    Imagine, the amount of 60,000 cr farm loan of 2008 – had it been utilized in making canals and rainwater harvesting, educating farmers for better methods of farming and technology interventions in agriculture and post harvest we might have been able to solve the problem to some extent if not completely. The other thing to note is – how can we ascertain the benefits are transferred to the right people? Those who have small land holding may be taking loans from local private lenders, also they might not even have their credit ratings for bank to offer them loans. Where exactly does such huge amount go?

    Now think again about where the government gets this huge amount from? Have you ever seen your bills? Did you see Krishi Kalyan Cess? Government generates parts of such sops from us when we pay taxes – indirect tax. This is a problem to worry for middle class only. They earn and pay income tax, they buy and pay Krishi Kalyan Cess and when farmer’s are on strike they pay exorbitant amount for buying vegetables too. Mostly this expensive vegetables are procured by middlemen at cheap prices – all cash business less or least tax with black money. A better option for middle class Indian is to either become a farmer and get loan waiver or become an industrialist take loan and leave India!

    When I completed my sentence – “you tried to fix a wrong problem and you did it twice!… …The leaking pipe was old and rusting, you should have changed it at first instance. why don’t you fix it permanently? My relative said “why should I? It is a rented property? I may go next year, someone else will come, so I am fixing it temporarily.” Same is with the governments – they solve a problem as temporary fix – farmer loan waiver for winning next election and not solving problem which causes farmers to take extreme step of committing suicide or protesting for loan waiver.

    According to the Bank of America Merrill Lynch the farm loan waiver will cost 2% to the GDP of India by 2019. This wrong precedence was set by two of the most knowledgeable economists of India – Mammohan Singh and Chidambaram. Go figure what it means to be subject matter expert!

  • Farewell 2016







    Wish you a Very Happy New Year.

    Cherish the moments you enjoyed and learn from the mistakes made – that he how we must move on in life and celebrate. Isnt it? The year 2016 was eventful. Every year is eventful though New Year blog 2016, New Year blog 2015, New Year blog 2014, New Year Blog 2013, New Year blog 2012, New Year blog 2011  😉

    Terrorism – There is a new common for the world – terrorism – so that was as usual, religious extremism has not only kept its target India but added Europe to it. These apparently look like some unorganized terrorist attacks, but the end of many of these thread is common. The list is not small – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_terrorist_incidents,_2016 We need to ask ourselves – when are we going to be “human” behave like humans? Did we learn anything from this in 2016? In fact I wrote this and heard 2017 has started with terrorist attack in Turkey! Waste! These good for nothing parasites on the face of earth do not understand what nonsense they are involved in, if some religion teaches this that is not a religion at all.

    Business & Economics – There were few big developments in the year, first UK voted to leave European Union, second Wells Fargo of US was found out to be involved in a big scandal and third India demonetized high denomination currencies. Here is a wonderful Ted Talk on UK’s vote to leave EU.

    Wells Fargo scandal has no lesser words for taking strict actions against the high, mighty and decision makers who looked for Q-o-Q results and made up books, profits and rewards the culprits. You must watch this video to know how

    Demonetization in India shook many within India, and to utter surprise three others countries planed to follow suit – http://qz.com/867724/three-countries-across-three-continents-after-modis-india-demonitisation-has-spread-to-other-countries-too/

    What banks did post demonetization in India must be a subject matter of scrutiny same as Wells Forgo in the US.

    Another battle happening currently in India is Tata group Vs Cyrus Mistry (the story is yet to unfold fully in 2017). As of 10th Dec 2016 (source), Investors of Tata group have lost about Rs 81,000 crore (810 Billion INR) in seven top Tata group companies since October 24 as Mistry was replaced by Ratan Tata as Tata Sons chairman.

    Politics – Donald J Trump the next President of USA. It was most surprising and unthinkable when campaigning started last year. I wonder if what inspired Trump was mockery by Obama in white house in 2011.

    Corruption – There was enough and more hue and cry about Panama papers. Corruption of many rich people worldwide. What is Panama papers? Watch the following video to know more. We must ask each one of these filthy rich people – what would they get by making, hoarding and rolling so much money all over the world? Remember we all leave everything here, including the wealth.

    Somethings caught my eyes, were AT&T’s acquisition of Yahoo, LinkedIn’s by Microsoft and the phenomenon called Pokemon Go! https://techcrunch.com/2016/07/11/crunch-report-pokemon-go-mania/
    Pokémon Go added $9B to Nintendo’s value, global rollout continues within a week
    Pokémon Go has an estimated 7.5M U.S. downloads, $1.6M in daily revenue within a week
    Will 22K people turn up to catch Pokémon in San Francisco and what less – Robbers target Pokémon Go players in Missouri.

    What all these events have taught us? Humanity is important than a religion and terrorism. Globalization needs a perspective of interdependence at times we need to let go of some control, at times be need to think of inclusion. Every company has to be responsible, whether its Wells Fargo or Tata group. Never mock anyone, even if you are the president of the worlds most powerful, economically strong country. You will leave your wealth here only, pay your taxes instead of evading it. Legitimate money will make you and your money more respectable and in the end you would leave your body too here, wont take anything back with you. If you are doing something, put your heart and soul in it, make it awesome like the Pokemon Go!

    This was LBC topic for farewell to 2016, I am late, was bit occupied with a preparation for a workshop on IPR held yesterday 31st Dec. You can read other blogs of other Loose Bloggers Consortium members at Ramana Uncleji and Shackman.

  • Are You Enjoying What You Are Doing?







    I have been writing on Business to the Buddha for 6+ years, 325 or so blogs now. If you have read my previous posts and at times the title, you might have wondered, why such title? One reason you can read it on this link, and other is to look for a way how we can have a more inclusive, economically better and psychologically calmer society? The question of this post – “Are you enjoying what you are doing?” is directed towards that economics and psychological thought.

    What all do we do except our daily chores such as eating, sleeping etc? In those activities there are some mandatory activities and some forced and other times hobbies there are always choices and challenges. Some things we do not like doing yet we have to do, some times we like doing something but we have to postpone those. This is where many people think of such question.

    Long back precisely in Oct 2011, I drafted a blog “Do what you love doing”. Somehow I never completed that article, parts of that are produced below –

    …On this point, I had contention recently in a professional set-up. I also believe that if one does what he/she enjoys doing lot of issues of his/her life could be solved. Take an example – in Mumbai average a person travels 2 1/2 hours per day, works for about 9-10 hours, sleeps say 7 1/2 hours and whatever time is left she/he either stays with family, goes to social gathering or does domestic works. If more than 1/2 time daily goes in office related activities, why not someone do something which is relevant to the interest of the individual? This choice of ‘doing something which is of interest’ has to be a mature and personal decision of a person…

    This was with reference to a reward program in a company. My point of view was very opposite of what many other employees of that company believed in- though the management was appreciative of my opinion. I understood later why employee-employer relations are the way they are in many companies. My observation is – in many cases, beyond money there is a drive that makes a person get up in morning at go to a job. Until one reaches that level of awareness, person looks forward to the last day of month when salary will be credited. If someone has passion and purpose one finds time, energy and resources to do that activity. When this happens a person truly enjoys what he/she is doing.

    This small point what Osho said – “If everybody learns this simple art of loving his work, whatever it is, enjoying it without asking for any recognition, we would have a more beautiful and celebrating world.” is very valid. If we would either start loving what we do, or we start doing what we love our economy and Human Development Index both will fare better.

    I raised this question to some of my email & blog friends, from that discussion the question became topic of Loose Bloggers Consortium. You can read thoughts of other two writers – Rummuser uncleji here and Shackman uncleji here.

    Image source – http://oshoinsight.com/tag/enjoy/

  • I always wondered why?






    “I always wonder why birds choose to stay in the same place when they can fly anywhere on the earth, then I ask myself the same question.”  – Harun Yahya

    Adnan Oktar (born Ankara, 1956), also known by his pen name Harun Yahya, is advocate of Islamic creationism in the creation-evolution debate. He is considered to be the leading Muslim advocate of creationism.

    I have wondered about many things in life. It includes creationism, economics and war. Many of the thoughts are posted in the blogs here. Recently, Ramana uncleji commented on my blog post – Free will and Fate.

    Sitting quietly. doing nothing, spring comes and the grass grows by itself. Zen Meditation

    How often we looked at growing grass as the Zen saying states. I’ve a difference of opinion though. The growing grass does not do anything on the surface, but inside it, below the surface too there are a lot of things going on. Struggle of survival, isnt it?

    The other thing I wonder a lot about is economics and our interdependence. I know many people do not consider economics as a play of interdependence however they see it has how do I improve my marginal utility. Most of the times this thinking of these smart people is based on “how do I… at the cost of other”. This needs to change. The discourse of economic value has to change. It needs to include everyone. If there is inequality we would not achieve peace.

    On the debate of creationism and evolution – I wonder why people keep on fighting about creationism but accept – and use too – scientific discoveries? I liked the way The Buddha kept silent on the question of existence of God.

    There are many more things I’ve wondered, why? The most regular point I cogitate is economics and spirituality – interdependent co-arising. This blog is an outcome of the same wandering of mind.

    It was topic of Loose Bloggers Consortium for this Friday. Others who have written this week are – Shackman, Ramana Uncleji and Dunnasead.