Brida by Paulo Coelho : A tale bridging the visible and the invisible

This is the story of Brida, a young Irish girl, and her quest for knowledge. She has long been interested in various aspects of magic. She wants to follow her heart. But like Santiago, the Alchemist, she is also in search of her personal legend. The search leads her to people of great wisdom. She finds a teacher from the tradition of the Sun, and another from the tradition of the Moon. They take her to the levels of enlightenment, through the nuances of worldly wisdom.
To bridge the visible and the invisible is magic. And how do some manage to get there? According to the book, there are two traditions: the Sun (for wizards) and the Moon (for witches).
The author links the nine gifts that these two traditions took care with St. Paul’s first epistle to the Corinthians : the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, faith, healing, the working of miracles, prophecy, the discerning of the spirits, speaking in tongues, and the interpretation of tongues.
The book takes us through the link between the physical world and the world of magic and mystery. Brida learns that she is a witch. She learns what witches are supposed to learn. She understands the past and the beauty of the present world, as she moves towards being initiated as a witch.
The author takes a deeper look into witchcraft - the four ways a woman can communicate with the Universe through reincarnation: the virgin, the saint, the martyr, and the witch.
The book is a collection of knowledge and experience. It teaches us that without one the other has is insignificant. The book has a meditative and poetic rhythm, the vibrations of which you can feel even after you have finished reading the book.
The literary expressions used by Paulo Coelho have his trademark style of vividness. To quote one - “Nothing in the world is ever completely wrong… even a stopped clock is right twice a day”.
All in all, Brida is a must read for all connoisseurs of literary aesthetics, whether for inspiration or pure joy of a good read.

Corporate Governance

While the high-profile corporate governance failures in developed countries have brought the subject to media attention, the issue has always been central to finance and economics. The issue is particularly important for developing countries since it is central to financial and economic development.

The subject of corporate governance leapt to global business limelight from relative obscurity after a string of collapses of high profile companies. Enron, the Houston, Texas based energy giant , and WorldCom, the telecom behemoth, shocked the business world with both the scale and age of their unethical and illegal operations. Worse, they seemed to indicate only the tip of a dangerous iceberg. While corporate practices in the US companies came under attack, it appeared that the problem was far more widespread. Large and trusted companies from Parmalat in Italy to the multinational newspaper group Hollinger Inc., revealed significant and deep-rooted problems in their corporate governance. Even the prestigious New York Stock Exchange had to remove its director, Dick Grasso, amidst public outcry over excessive compensation. It was clear that something was amiss in the area of corporate governance all over the world.

So, what is 'Corporate Governance'? The four principles of governance as stated by Kautilya too convey the crux of the concept : "It is the duty of the king to protect the wealth of the State and its subjects, to enhance the wealth, to maintain it and safeguard it and the interest of the subjects." Corporate governance is essentially a state of mind and a set of principles based on relationships. Good governance is not simply about corporate excellence. Corporations of today are no longer sheer economic entities. These are the engines of economic and social transformation.

Corporate governance has, of course, been an important field of query within the finance discipline for decades. Researchers in finance have actively investigated the topic for at least a quarter century and the father of modern economics, Adam Smith, himself had recognized the problem over two centuries ago . There have been debates about whether the Anglo-Saxon market-model of corporate governance is better than the bank based models of Germany and Japan. However, the differences in the quality of corporate governance in these developed countries fade in comparison to the chasm that exists between corporate governance standards and practices in these countries as a group and those in the developing world.

Corporate governance has been a central issue in developing countries long before spate of corporate scandals in advanced economies made headlines. Indeed corporate governance and economic development are intrinsically linked. Effective corporate governance systems promote the development of strong financial systems -irrespective of whether they are largely bank -based or market-based - which, in turn, have an unmistakably positive effect on economic growth and poverty reduction.

There are several channels through which the causality works. Effective corporate governance enhances access to external financing by firms, leading to greater investment, as well as higher growth and employment. The proportion of private credit to GDP in countries in the highest quartile of creditor right enactment and enforcement is more than double that in the countries in the lowest quartile. As for equity financing, the ratio of stock market capitalization to GDP in the countries in the highest quartile of shareholder right enactment and enforcement is about four times as large as that for countries in the lowest quartile. Poor corporate governance also hinders the creation and development of new firms.

Good corporate governance also lowers of the cost of capital by reducing risk and creates higher firm valuation once again boosting real investments. There is a variation of a factor of 8 in the “control premium” (transaction price of shares in block transfers signifying control transfer less the ordinary share price) between countries with the highest level of equity rights protection and those with the lowest. Effective corporate governance mechanisms ensure better resource allocation and management raising the return to capital. The return on assets (ROA) is about twice as high in the countries with the highest level of equity rights protection as in countries with the lowest protection. Good corporate governance can significantly reduce the risk of nation-wide financial crises. There is a strong inverse relationship between the quality of corporate governance and currency depreciation. Indeed poor transparency and corporate governance norms are believed to be the key reasons behind the Asian Crisis of 1997.
Such financial crises have massive economic and social costs and can set a country several years back in its path to development.

Finally, good corporate governance can remove mistrust between different stakeholders, reduce legal costs and improve social and labor relationships and external economies like environmental protection. Making sure that the managers actually act on behalf of the owners of the company - the stockholders - and pass on the profits to them are the key issues in corporate governance. Limited liability and dispersed ownership - essential features that the joint-stock company form of organization thrives on - inevitably lead to a distance and inefficient monitoring of management by the actual owners of the business.

Managers enjoy actual control of business and may not serve in the best interests of the shareholders. These potential problems of corporate governance are universal. In addition, the Indian financial sector is marked with a relatively unsophisticated equity market vulnerable to manipulation and with rudimentary analyst activity; a dominance of family firms; a history of managing agency system; and a generally high level of corruption. All these features make corporate governance a particularly important issue in India.

With the legacy of the English legal system, India has one of the best corporate governance laws but poor implementation together with socialistic policies of the pre-reform era has affected corporate governance. Concentrated ownership of shares, pyramiding and tunneling of funds among group companies mark the Indian corporate landscape. Boards of directors have frequently been silent spectators with the DFI nominee directors unable or unwilling to carry out their monitoring functions. Since liberalization, however, serious efforts have been directed at overhauling the system with the SEBI instituting the Clause 49 of the Listing Agreements dealing with corporate governance. Corporate governance of Indian banks is also undergoing a process of change with a move towards more market-based governance.

A Tribute to Dr. Vijay Tendulkar

The news of the passing away of noted playwright Dr. Vijay Tendulkar came as a shock to me. It brought back memories of his illustrious career.

Tendulkar was a leading contemporary Indian playwright, screen and television writer, literary essayist, political journalist and social commentator. For the past four decades he had been the most influential dramatist and theatre personality in Marathi. He had written 35 full-length plays, over 40 one-act plays, some plays for children, short stories and two novels. His newspaper columns, Kovali Unhe and Ramprahar were very popular with readers.

Among his works, Shantata! court chalu ahe (Silence! The Court Is in Session, 1967), Sakharam binder (Sakharam the Book-Binder, 1972), Kamala (1981), Kanyadan (The Gift of a Daughter, 1983), Ghashiram Kotwal (Ghashiram the Constable, 1972), a musical combining Marathi folk performance styles and contemporary theatrical techniques, are some of his famous plays. American actors performed English versions of Ghashiram Kotwal and Sakharam binder in the US. Many of his plays are translated in other languages. Besides these, his plays Gidhade, Ashi Pakhare Yeti and Baby were also acclaimed.

He also became an iconic screenplay writer in the Hindi film world as he scripted Ardhasatya, Akrosh, Aghat, Manthan, Nishant and Gehrai. He also left his mark in Marathi films with Samana, Simhasan, Umbartha and Akriet.

His works challenged conventional wisdom and forced us to think about harsh realities. Never been before, the stark contrasts of world we live in and world that also exists were so brazenly portrayed on theatre scene.

Tendulkar was born in Kolhapur and wrote his first story when only six. He went on to write his first play when he was 11 years old. He was a recipient of many awards —Sangeet Natak Academy, Saraswati Samman and Kalidas Samman.

Inspite of all the well deserved success that he achieved, he remained a humble man. His early days spent living in a chawl added a unqiue perspective to his writings.

My only privilege of interaction with him came during my graduation days in D.G. Ruparel college. It was December 2005 and we were making arrangements for our annual college festival "Kshitij". I was incharge of the literary events and I had decided to invite the great Vijay Tendulkar as Chief Guest and judge for the Marathi events. I was initially apprehensive to call him, as I was awed by his stature as a playwright and writer. However, the moment I heard him speak over the phone, all my fears were laid to rest. He was as humble and accomodating as anyone could be. He readily accepted the invitation.

However, few days before the festival, I received a call from him, expressing his pleasure at being invited and regret that he wouldn't be able to make it because of his ill health. He was so humble and nice. Those were my only interactions with him. I never got a chance to meet him face to face. And this regret would always remain.

May his soul rest in peace.

Delhi Thunderstorms : An Analysis

Every May, Delhi is lashed by thunderstorms of high-speed squalls and rain that cool down the city drastically. And just as suddenly, the clouds part and it’s scorching hot again.

“Actually, May has been like this almost every year. In fact, Delhi has seen more dust storms with greater intensity in the past,” said SC Bhan, director of the IMD’s Safdarjung observatory.

The Met office is never impressed or surprised. But it did admit that this May has been a far more active this year than the last — it has had six thunderstorms already, compared to the seven in all of last May.

But the ferocity of the squall and the intensity of the rain has been in the past — the highest wind speed recorded this year was 98 kmph (at Safdarjung) on Saturday, against 111 kmph last year.

“The strongest ever was 152 km per hour on May 23, 1976,” he said. That’s shade faster than the fastest ball bowled by cricketer speedsters Shoaib Akhtar and Brett Lee — and we are talking about winds of that speed here.

Is it because of climate change, global warming? Some experts say these thunderstorms and Cyclone Nargis that hit Myanmar are because of global warning. But others say they want more proof.

But here is how the Delhi thunderstorms happen according to the Met office. As temperatures begins to rise, air over Rajasthan, which is the hottest of the northern states because of the large expanse of deserts, gets lighter and rises and cold air from neigbouring regions rush in fill up that empty space.

The neighbouring regions in this case happen to be the Arabian Sea or the cooler hilly states of Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir. This air is not cooler but is also heavy with moisture.

This cool, wet air rushes in take the space vacated by hot rising air and creates cyclones of high speed winds and rain — and that brings rain and squalls to Delhi, and some welcome relief from summer.

But these squalls can get quite destructive — uproot or break large number of trees which have known to have killed and injured people and damaged vehicles and houses in their vicinity.

Outsourcing

It was thought that the practise of law would be one of the few areas that would be safe from the outsourcing trends that have had such a profound affect on American businesses. However, that hasn't been the case. Americans facing the hardhitting economic crises, are hit even harder by the outsourcing of jobs to countries like India.

According to the New York Law Journal: “Outsourcing legal work to India is no longer a novelty. It’s a reality.”

In a recent study released by the Forrester group, a Cambridge-based research firm, they estimated the current value of legal outsourcing to be $80 million with more than three fourths of it based in India. They go on to predict that the total amount of legal outsourcing will increase to $4 billion by 2015. And they expect much of the outsourced work to go beyond the basics like IT and human resource support. http://www.legalweek.com/Articles/1029148/Management++IT+The+evolution+of+outsourcing.html

It is currently estimated that there are as many as 200 business process outsourcing companies scattered around India alone, providing a variety of business and legal services. Two companies in particular are worth noting as representative of the trend.

The first is Pangea3, one of the largest of the Indian legal process outsourcing (LPO) companies. Pangea3 has received two separate infusions of venture capital cash from the United States: $4.4 million from GlenRock Capital and $7 million from Sequoia Capital. Sequoia is a well know silicon valley firm that was an early investor in Yahoo®, PayPal™ and YouTube™ among others. Pangea3 has used the money to expand its operations, which now include five offices (three in Mumbai, one in Delhi and one in New York). On their Web site they claim they: “… deliver best-of-breed patent analytics and patent drafting, contract drafting and contract management, legal research, competitive intelligence, electronic discovery, and document review services to U.S., European and Japanese corporations and law firms at a radically low cost.”http://www.pangea3.com/index.html

The second firm is Office Tiger, which was started by two American graduates of Princeton University, in Chennai, India. Specializing in business and financial services, Office Tiger provided legal outsourcing as well. After growing to more than 5,000 employees with revenues of more than $125 million, Office Tiger was purchased in 2006 by RR Donnelley for $250 million. The division currently has more than 10,000 employees with multiple locations.http://outsourcing.rrd.com/wwwFinancial/OutSourcing/Solutions/solutions.asp

Legal Process Outsourcing is a sub set of Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO). KPO is posed to form the third generation of outsourcing where its USP remains the arbitrage of technical expertise and domain knowledge rather than cost reduction such as with its counterparts BPO and ITO. The global KPO market is set to be worth between US$10billion and US$17billion within two years according to research by KPMG.

The global financial sector has harnessed this business model to the maximum extent. The services in the KPO financial sector alone are expected to reach US$5 billion by 2010. KPO has already been used to handle credit scoring, loss protection calculations and fraud analytics and more.

Outsourcing made its debut in the 1980s with Information Technology Outsourcing or ITO where third party organizations managed internal IT system’s maintenance, development and application. This was followed by Business Process Outsourcing or BPO in the 1990s where elementary or standardized processes that were supplementary to an organization’s core activities were outsourced to another organization. And then entered KPO where the focus is one task and expertise that are central to an organizations core competency or competitive advantage. The outsourcing industry has thus moved by leaps and bounds. It used to be supplementary and cost cutting measure and now has become an intrinsic and indispensible model.

The concerns regarding KPO according to Bob Hayward, KPMG IT advisory director could be the risk faced by valuable intellectual capital due to lacunas in the service provider’s legal and compliance departments. Also, KPO calls for a highly specialized skill set and defined domain expertise hence, the available talent pool is smaller. KPO organizations are stepping up ramp up and retention processes to attract and keep a workforce with required qualifications and skills.
India is a dominant force in the KPO industry due to the easy availability and apparent abundance of qualified and trained staff and experienced professionals. A report by GlobalSourcing Now identifies India as the leading KPO destination. A large pool of trained staff and technical professionals are reversing the myth that India is good to provide software professionals only, says the report. Organizations from all over the world are leveraging the benefits of India’s knowledge base. The report predicts that by 2010 the KPO market in India will be worth US $12 billions and will employ more than 250,000 professionals.