Ed Matrix Aug 2008

Contents

C Profits on your doorstep Cover Story

Many of us nurture a secret desire to launch a business of our own. Yet, few of us actually go on to convert this dream into reality. Nothing can be more frustrating than to watch others embark on this journey while you are your-self dithering on the shore! This cover story provides some insights into managing your business. Some of these are conventional wisdom while others reflect the state of the art in management thinking, worldwide. Yet others may be shockingly unconventional.

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Strategy

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* 7 ways to grow with your personal wealth

* Strictly love

Psycho-logic

Did you ever think that you have to be rich to be happy? If you are poor a little extra money can bring you absolute happiness. Constant struggle to accumulate wealth and money can empty all your inner resources and energy needed to lead an enjoyable life. At the same time, the constant chasing after money can also motivate you to refocus your life on things that matter. 14

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Are you a responsible parent? Do you feel so responsible that you take all the decisions on behalf of your children? If so, there is every chance that your child develops “Obsessive Compulsive Disorder”, a condition which leads a person to hypertension. To your shock you may find your child getting closer to his/her friends, instead of even spending a little time with you. This can upset the way you relate with your child.

Regular Columns

Media Scan

09

In-Depth

28

Personality

06

Pedagogy

10

Career Seasonal

30 32

Leading Edge

12

Yours Space

33

Strategy

14

Technology

36

Event

16

Bingo!

39

Management

18

Travel

40

E-Learning

20

News you can Use

41

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17

E d i t o r ’ s De s k

Collective harmony, not individual glorification!

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t 14, Suhas Gopinath was the world’s youngest CEO when he started Globals Inc. in San Jose, California, in 2000. The company shifted to India in 2004, and is now a Bangalore-based MNC offering offshore development, IT consultancy, software development, web development and various other services with offices in the US, Canada, Bahrain, Italy, the UK, Germany, Spain and Australia. Suhas is now 22. In a true conquer- the –world- style, he is foraying into Europe to set up new offices there. The World Economic Forum recently selected him as one of 2008’s Young Global Leaders, an honour bestowed upon young professionals the world over in recognition of their accomplishments, societal commitment and contribution with a potential in shaping the future of the world. With this, Subhas becomes the youngest member of the Young Global Leaders Forum. He has also received the prestigious Young Achiever’s Award by the European Parliament and International Association for Human Values. We have seen perfection all around us in the recent times. Media coverage on the success stories of best people, unbelievable entrepreneurs, child prodigies and illustrious students, is overwhelming. But, as individuals we cannot deny the fact that it is not all that easy to become a perfect individual. No matter how hard we try, we act in ways that cause us to make the wrong life decisions almost all the time. Excellence and perfection have very little place in our daily life. It is true 

Editor - in - Chief Rajvee. S.

Associate Editor Raj

Executive Editor Rajesh

that society appreciates excellence in all its form. People who excel are wanted by every organization. But do we realize that it is a by product of several other components over which we do not have total control? It is often coupled with other forces in operation around us in the universe. We cannot for instance deny the fact that many of these so called perfectionists end up with psychosomatic disorders. How do we account for the drudgery, illness and dejection that happen to haunt many such perfectionist. Suhas Gopinath may be a great young achiever. But is this a matter for everyone to emulate? No! There are some hard lessons each of us needs to learn from life’s bounteous experiences. The definition of perfection and excellence needs to be redefined for our society with such disparities. “In most situations what you don’t know is so overwhelmingly more important than what you do know that you have no business acting on what you know,” said Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman. Can we truly claim that we can act on our own with integrity? Can we be certain that our decisions are perfect? As we celebrate the 61st independence day with the huge conglomeration of cultures, religions, languages and traditions that are varied in every sense of the term, we need to accelerate our collective efforts towards total literacy, quality education and a meaningful education. We need to meet somewhere in common and synergise our efforts in moving towards not just individual glorification but a collective harmony.

Rajvee Editor - in - Chief ed matrix august 2008

Sub-Editor Talitha Christy

Design & Layout Ruslius Leeman

Marketing Manager Stalin Joseph

Advertising Manager Moni

Administrative Manager Praveen Kumor

Principal Correspondents Anandha Prabhu Suresh Babu

Photographers

Ruslius Leeman Shanmugasundaram

Videographer Video Editor Special Correspondents

Esther Canrinus (Holland) Praveen Vaidyanadhan (Australia)

Circulation Manager Shariff

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Personality

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udha Murthy is an Indian social worker and accomplished author. She is known for her philanthropic work through the Infosys Foundation. Among other things, she has initiated a move to provide all government schools in Karnataka with computer and library facilities. She also teaches computer science and writes fiction. Dollar Sose (Dollar daughterin-law), a book originally she wrote in Kannada and later translated to English as Dollar Bahu was adopted as a television serial in 2001. She did B.E. in Electrical Engineering from the B.V.B. College of Engineering & Technology, Hubli. She stood first in Karnataka for which she received a gold medal from the Chief Minister of Karnataka. She also completed her M.Tech. in Computer Science in 1974 from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, stood first in her class and received a gold medal from the Indian Institute of Engineers. She was also the first woman engineer to be selected in Telco (now Tata Motors), Pune. She had written a postcard to JRD Tata complaining of the gender bias in Tata Motors (Telco then had a men-only policy) and she was invited for a special interview by Tata Motors. (Please see external link Aapro JRD). She was living in Pune from 1974-1981, later she moved to Mumbai. It was her savings of Rs. 10,000 that was instrumental in the founding of Infosys;

It was her savings of Rs. 10,000 that was instrumental in the founding of Infosys; Narayana Murty proudly mentions this fact.

Dollar Daughter

Sudha Murthy, a social worker and an accomplished author has taken Infosys to humanitarian and Philanthropic grounds of accomplishments.



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Personality Narayana this fact.

Murty

proudly

mentions

On November 19th 2004, she was presented with the Raja-Lakshmi Award “in recognition of her outstanding contribution to social work” by the Sri Raja-Lakshmi Foundation, Chennai. Mrs. Murthy is the wife of software industrialist N.R. Narayana Murthy, the sister of Jaishree Deshpande (wife of billionaire telecom tycoon Gururaj “Desh” Deshpande) and renowned Caltech astrophysicist Shrinivas Kulkarni, and the granddaughter of the late Shri Narayan Melgiri, a prominent 19th century Kannadiga advocate. She has written many stories, mostly published by Penguin, which deal with common lives and her views on donations, hospitality and realisation. Some of them include Sweet Hospitality, Wise and Otherwise etc. She also focuses on social works and her husband Narayana Murthy’s achievements. In 2006, she was awarded the Padma Shri, a civilian award from the Government of India and received an honorary doctorate from Sathyabama University.

Sudha Murthy on Infosys and life’s values It’s her passion and commitment to use what she has been blessed with for the benefit of others that keeps Sudha Murthy ticking. Very few are aware of Sudha Murthy’s achievements. She has single-handedly evangelizing the move towards corporate social responsibility. She has worked almost for a decade to change the lives of children in the heart of rural Karnataka by giving them access to food and education. She is an author of 92 books in almost every Indian language to her credit. She is one of India’s most celebrated entrepreneurs. Here she speaks her mind, shies away from the limelight and truly practices what she preaches. Founder, Infosys Foundation, Sudha Murthy, told CNBC-TV18, “In life’s journey, we all meet strange people and undergo many experiences that touch us and sometimes even change us. If you have a sensitive mind, you will see your life too in the vast storehouse of stories. For me, it is something closest to my

heart. Initially, I was a mother to it but somewhere along the line, it has become the mother and I the child.”

• Life lessons from Narayana Murthy Excerpts from an interview given to CNBC-TV18: You are in a sense the angel investor behind one of India’s largest entrepreneurial success stories. It was your Rs 10,000 that started Infosys. But purely as a person, what is this success story?

Sudha Murthy: How do you define success? I gave Rs 10,000 not thinking

In 2006, she was awarded the Padma Shri, a civilian award from the Government of India and received an honorary doctorate from Sathyabama University. I would get a great return. Here is a man who is dreaming of a company and he told me without your support it would be difficult for me to start and I helped him. That’s what I considered and nothing more. Did you believe in the vision that he had? Did you ever think that Infosys was going to turn out to be what it is today?

Sudha Murthy: No, I only knew that

Murthy is a very honest and hardworking person and he wants to do something and he told me I require three years of hard work from you and I will not be able earn. You’ll have to manage the family and give me the initial investment. I said, okay, let him do it. When you don’t have many things, then you don’t get scared. He also gave you choice and he said that both of you couldn’t be at Infosys together. He gave you the choice of joining Infosys but you chose to pull back and not do it -- at any point of time did you think that maybe you would have liked to have done on? ed matrix august 2008

Sudha Murthy: No, it was very hard for

me, it was not a easy decision because in 1968 I joined an engineering college and in 1972 I graduated. There was not a single girl in the university. For a person like me who was so career conscious and who was so fond of technical things, it was very hard. But Murthy being a very strong person, he said it’s either you or me. When he said that, then I thought practically. If I am in, then he is out and when you start a company you have to run around, stay away from the family, everything you have to do and I am a woman, I couldn’t be away from the family and the children. Secondly, I knew children require their mother at an early stage of life and not so much when they grow up. Whatever value system you teach, it’s only in those crucial years. So, therefore I said okay and I made the decision but my heart was very heavy. It took many years for me to reconcile to this.



Personality But couldn’t you have gone back once your children grew up?

Sudha Murthy: By that time, I realised it is not only technical thing that’s great in life, there are many more things in life, which are very important. So, when one window was closed, God opened a door to me and that is the Infosys Foundation. Have your relationships become transactional? Do people now talk to you only to associate with you because they want something from you?

God is so intelligent, that irrespective of your status or gender, he gives everybody only 24 hours and Mr Murthy used all these 24 hours for one purpose and that is Infosys.

Sudha Murthy: It becomes so hard to find a genuine friend or a genuine relation because everything is a transaction in one or other. It could be money, it could be job, it could be an association and somewhere I feel I lost the golden days. So it’s been a lonely journey, isn’t it?

Sudha Murthy: Of course, when your husband builds a company like Infosys along with his teammates it is like a tapasya -- that means 100% concentration on his work -- and God is so intelligent, that irrespective of your status or gender, he gives everybody only 24 hours and Mr Murthy used all these 24 hours for one purpose and that is Infosys. What was left for me and the children was hardly anything and I became like a single parent with two children. Murthy never knew which class they were in and he never went to any PTA. He only came to know when the children grew up and went to college. I had to struggle with their PTA, their progress reports, their holidays. Is it also because you created your own identity besides being Mrs Narayana Murthy, which is what has kept you going for so long?

Sudha Murthy: Because I believe that every human being should run their own marathon and this was taught to me when I was a young girl by my grandfather who was a Sanskrit scholar. He told a very beautiful shloka. He said Krishna is respected not because he is son of Vasudeva, not because he is the husband of Rukmini, not because he is



never criticize or cross each other’s path. For example, Mr Murthy never tells me you should not give money to these people or you should give money to those people. And not even once, in my 10 years in the Foundation, Murthy has insisted for any project money should be given either personally or officially. But have you been able to translate your philosophy and the way that you have been brought up and the way that you have lived your life to your children as well?

the father of Aniruddha, not because he is Yashoda’s adopted son, but because Krishna himself was a different person.

Sudha Murthy: They won’t see it

Similarly, in real life, it is nice that you are related, you are married and all those things, but you are what you are and I always believed in my own strength, my own weaknesses and my own way of thinking, which helped me a lot to achieve what I liked.

One year I remember, my son sent me a birthday greeting which said: ‘Every mother works for their children, my mom works for somebody else’s child and Happy Birthday.’ And these soft words came from a young boy of 20. Probably, it is the love or compassion he has seen and learnt in his formative years.

Do you consider yourself a feminist?

Sudha Murthy: I really do not know how to define a real feminist. I felt when I was 23 years old, there was gender discrimination and I felt I must inform Mr JRD Tata because I was studying in their institute. The greatness is not me writing a letter but it was Mr JRD Tata, who was great. He was a chairman and a big man who has many companies and he gets a postcard from an unknown girl hailing from a middle class doctor family, from a small town known as Hubli. She writes a letter and he accepts it in a positive way and he said that this girl should be called for an interview -- that made me feel like a very great person. You feel like a misfit in corporate India’s jetset crowd?

Sudha Murthy: Probably, because I am definitely not in the corporate scenario. Did Mr. Murthy ever say that maybe you should try?

Sudha Murthy: Never ever. Actually, both of us have this equation that we ed matrix august 2008

exactly that way. But to some extent they can understand and they can follow.

Apart from the philanthropy, you have said that Mr Murthy has become very serious now, but do you still manage to take out time for the indulgences that you used to enjoy -- you like going to movies and enjoy music, does any of that still happen?

Sudha Murthy: No, Murthy does not come to the movies at all actually -- maybe for 20-25 years we had not seen any movie. Recently, I took him for a movie and he was saying how we should improve the quality, now he looks at everything in a manner of how we should improve the quality, how we should get an Oscar. He looks for excellence in everything. Murthy does not enjoy what he used to enjoy before. So he is a different man, he is not the same man you have married?

Sudha Murthy: Yes, he is different today.

Nirupama

Media Scan

Let’s March to Teach

a difference to someone’s life and as a result of that, your own.

Teach India is a nationbuilding initiative (or social initiative) from the Times of India that brings together children in need of education and people who can contribute a little time towards teaching them.

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hat if today was the last day for you to change the destiny of our nation?

The Teach India Initiative started as an idea with committed individuals who were always keen on doing something for the society and came forward to become the catalyst of social change. Nothing however ,could prepare us for the breathless response that actually greeted our call . Doctors and lawyers, business and housewives, in fact even students and retired people trooped in to become teachers. All we can muster in response to this extraordinary outpouring of sincerity is simple, heartfelt thanks. As for those equally dedicated individuals still trying to make up their minds on those two hours every week, the Teach India team says the time is now. And there isn’t a moment to waste. Because today is the last and final chance to make

Sixty of India’s committed NGOs, schools and other social organization have already pledged their support to the Teach India movement and it is counting on the participation people who can teach willingly. If you are truly possessed by a desire to get involved you can register and begin teaching. To register, just log on to www.teach.timesofindia.com to discover how two hours a week can make the difference to a child’s life. WE’VE JUST IDENTIFIED THE PERFECT SOLUTION TO ILLITERACY. : YOU’ Teach India is a nation-building initiative (or social initiative) from the Times of India that brings together children in need of education and people who can contribute a little time towards teaching them. It is based on one simple principle: If you have the desire to teach, we will put you in touch with underprivileged children who are willing to learn. With over sixty of India’s committed NGOs, corporate, schools and social organizations already supporting our cause, we now look for selfless individuals to come forward and help change the future of a child forever, by giving just a few hours a week to Teach India

How do I apply?

As part of the Teach India movement, The Times of India has established partnerships with several NGOs in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata. Anyone interested in participating can visit the Teach India website at www. teach.timesofindia.com and join us. Alternatively you can also fill out the Volunteer Registration form submit it to ed matrix august 2008

The Times of India office in your city. To receive the form on email, SMS TEACH to 58888.

How does Teach India work?

As soon as your completed form reaches the Teach India office, you will receive a confirmation message. You will then be mapped to one of our NGOs based on your area preference and time commitment, and asked to contact a NGO coordinator assigned to you and meet him/her. Once selected, you will be placed in one of the programmes, and after a basic orientation, your teaching sessions will begin.

What kind of education will I be providing?

Teach India aims to help undereducated children through a variety of programmes, including basic education, support classes and even story-telling. These are all very easy to teach programmes in which simple topics have to be taught to children mostly at primary school level the teaching would be one-on-one or to small groups of children. The type of programme a volunteer is assigned to, will be decided after assessment by the NGO, keeping your location and time preference in mind.

How long will my teaching commitment last?

Teach India is looking for volunteers who can participate in the programme for 3 months. If you wish to continue teaching, the same may be made possible by the NGO you are working with through mutual discussion. Many corporates, schools and colleges have already agreed to join the Teach India movement, and many volunteers from these institutions have expressed their intent to volunteer for Teach India, but still the team is looking for people like you to come forward, in your individual capacity or as part of a partnering corporate, school, college or any other institution or organization. You can opt to teach according to your convenience and satisfaction. Kalpana. E 

PedAgogy

Education in Belgium In spite of three Linguistically grouped syllabus patterns, education in Belgium offers simplicity and uniformity in the educational process.

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ducation in Belgium is regulated and for the larger part financed by one of the three communities namely the Flemish, French and the German. All the three communities have a unified school system, with small differences between the different communities. The schools can be divided into three groups: 1. Schools owned by the communities like Flemish, French and German 2. Subsidized public schools, organized by provinces and municipalities and 3. Subsidized free schools, mainly organized by an organization affiliated to the Catholic church. The latter is the largest group, both in number of schools and in number of pupils. Education in Belgium is compulsory between the ages of 6 and 18. Private home education is possible, and the numbers are rising slowly.

Stages of education

The different stages of education are the same in all communities. Basic education consists of Pre-school - 6 years, Primary school: 6-12 years and Secondary school : 12-18 years. The Higher education consists of University and Polytechnic/Vocational university

While morning lessons often concentrate on reading, writing and basic mathematics, lessons in the afternoon are usually about other topics like biology, music, religion, history or “do it yourself” activities. Primary school

Flemish schools in Brussels and some municipalities near the language border, must offer French lessons starting from the first or the second year. Most other Flemish school offer French education in the third cycle. Primary schools in the French Community must teach a foreign language, which is generally Dutch or English, depending on the school. Primary schools in the German Community have obliged French lessons. There are also some private schools set up to serve various international communities in Belgium (e.g. children of seafarers or European diplomats), mainly around the larger cities.

Secondary school

Primary school consists of six years and the subjects given are generally the same at all schools. Primary schooling is free and age is the only entrance requirement.

When graduating from primary school around the age of 12, students enter secondary education. Here they have to choose a direction that they want to follow, depending on their skill level and interests.

Primary education is divided into three cycles: 1. First cycle (year 1 and 2) 2. Second cycle (year 3 and 4) and 3. Third cycle (year 5 and 6)

Secondary education consists of three cycles: 1. First cycle (year 1 and 2), 2. Second cycle (year 3 and 4) and Third cycle (year 5 and 6)

Education in primary schools is rather traditional. It concentrates on reading, writing

The first cycle provides a broad general basis, with only a few options to choose from

Pre-school

Free pre-primary schooling is provided to every child from the age of 2 years 6 months. In most schools the children can start in school as soon as they reach this age, so class size for the youngest children grows during the year. The aim of the pre-school is to develop, in a playful way, children’s cognitive skills, their capacity to express themselves and communicate, their creativity and independence. There are no formal lessons or assessments, and everything is taught through playful way methods. Most pre-schools are attached to a particular primary school and often share buildings and other facilities. Some schools offer special pre-primary education for children with disabilities or other special needs.

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and basic mathematics, but also touches already a very broad range of topics like biology, music, religion, history etc., While morning lessons often concentrate on reading, writing and basic mathematics, lessons in the afternoon are usually about other topics like biology, music, religion, history or “do it yourself” activities.

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PedAgogy (e.g. Latin, additional mathematics, technology). This should enable students to choose from the different directions available in the second and third stages. The second and third cycle are much more specific in each of the possible directions. Usually the level of choice available to the pupils grows with their age. While the youngest pupils may choose at the most two or four hours per week, the oldest pupils have the opportunity to choose between different “menus”, like Math-Science, Sociology-Languages or LatinGreek. They are then able to shape the largest part of the time they spend at school. However some core lessons are compulsory like e.g. mother-tongue course, sport, etc... This mix between compulsory and optional lessons grouped in menus make it possible to keep class structures even for the oldest students.

Structure in Belgium

Secondary school is divided into four general types. Each type consists of a set of different directions that may vary from school to school. The general types are as follows: • General Secondary Education (ASO): This is known as ASO which is a very broad, general education, preparing for higher education. Once students have completed all six years, it is expected that they continue studying university or college. The job market considers an ASO diploma alone as useless, so a continued study in higher education is not only implied but even necessary to get a job. • Technical Secondary Education (TSO): The TSO is divided into two groups of education again: TTK and STK. The TTK courses focus more on technical aspects, the STK courses focus more on practical matters.

• Vocational Secondary Education (BSO): Very practical and very job specific education. Afterwards, several directions offer seventh, sometimes eighth, specialisation years. BSO is the only type of secondary education that does not qualify students to pursue higher education. If the student chooses to follow the optional 7th (and sometimes 8th) year, he/she will receive a diploma of the same level as a TSO diploma, which does allow him/her to pursue higher education. • Art Secondary Education: These schools link general and broad secondary education development with active art practice, ranging from performing arts to display arts. Depending on the direction, several subjects might be purely theoretical, preparing for higher education. Directions include dancing, acting, and several graphical and musical arts. Many students graduating from these schools go to music conservatories, higher ballet or acting schools or art colleges to further develop their art. Students with disabilities can follow Special Secondary Education of different types.

Higher Education

Higher education in Belgium is organized by the two main communities, the Flemish Community and the French Community. German speakers typically enrol in institutions in the French Community or in Germany.

Admission to universities and colleges In Belgium anybody with a qualifying diploma of secondary education is free to enrol at any institute of higher education of their choosing. There are exceptions. Medicine/Dentistry students must take an entrance exam

organized by the government. Arts entrance exams to arts programmes, which are mainly of a practical nature, are organized by the colleges individually. Engineering Sciences lead to the degree of Master of Science, these faculties had a long standing tradition of requiring an entrance exam. The registration fee for any university or college is fixed by the government, and indexed yearly. Depending on whether the student is eligible and applies for financial aid, there are three prices: Bursary-student is one who is eligible and has applied for financial aid. (registration fee approximately €80). Almost-bursary student is a student who is not eligible for financial aid, but has a family income below €1.286,09. (registration fee approximately €320). Nonbursary student is Anyone not eligible for financial aid with an income above €1.286,09. (registration fee approximately €520). The financial aid awarded by the community governments depends on the income of the student’s family, and other familial circumstances, but is never more than approximately €3300 per year.

Bologna changes

A University education was not considered finished until the licentiate diploma is obtained. Occasionally it was possible to switch specializations after obtaining the candidate diploma. For example, a student with a mathematics candidate diploma was often allowed to start in the third year of computer science class. Sometimes a graduate diploma was also accepted as an equivalent to a candidate diploma, allowing for 2 or 3 more years of education at a University. Since the adoption of the Bologna process in most European countries, the higher education system in Belgium follows the Bachelor/Master system. The Bachelor’s degree takes 3 years. Distinction is to be made between the professional bachelor, which replaces the former graduate degree and which has a finality, and the academic bachelor which replaces the candidate degree and which gives access to master’s studies. Master’s degree is for 1 or 2 years. In Belgium, both Universities and Colleges are allowed to teach Bachelor and Master classes, either professional or academical. After obtaining a Master’s degree, talented students can pursue research projects leading to a doctorate degree. Ph.Ds are only awarded by Universities.

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Le a d i n g e d g e

Visualise! Don’t Just See! Visualising beyond senses

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eepak was an MBA student. The attraction of being part of the much advertised B-school brought him to a different sense of life, business, relationships and even the fact of studying. This chance of studying MBA in a prestigious institution brought him strategies and leadership toolkits that proved to be successful universally and globally. He found within the chance to get acquainted with the influential alumni. In fact there were too many of them. His horizon seemed to have been wide. It helped him to think big. He 12

Visualisation helps the mind to carry the signals to various parts of the body that gets tuned to the brain’s commands.

started dreaming, dreaming Big. In fact he knew everything in theory. He was aiming so high that he would not start till everything is set. Meena was a slim, in fact a famished lean girl. One can easily say that she ed matrix august 2008

hailed from a poor family of a remote village. She had almost no big option open apparently after her +2 studies. She managed to come to Chennai, the paradise of poor people of all south Indians with its variety, heat and choking crowd. She got into a small publishing industry not much known outside. She was inspired to do her BBA through a correspondence course in an university that is not known much outside. She passed out of the course with 70% of marks still not knowing how to explain what she studied. Back in the office, in

Le a d i n g e d g e deed she was doing better and better. She knew different ways of handling a problem. She started settling problems of revenue generation for the firm. She set up a proper mailing system. By the end of the third year as she graduated from the university in theory, she also graduated from her office in practice. She took charge as a manager of Administrative department. With her commitment and honesty she knew what she has to do. She learnt a new way of existing ain a city and managing her routine life without being attracted by the alluring advertisements of the city. Deepak launched a business with all the theory he knew. He hardly understood that apart from the huge money he spent to learn all theories from Big B schools, he has to spend much more to learn real life lessons known as experience. He did not truly learn anything until he learnt from experience. Now he began balancing between the theory he held so sacred and the hard learnt lessons after spending all the money in venture capital. He is dejected and life has taught him some of the best lessons he had learnt for life. Today he is moderate in his plans.

It is quite interesting to see how the gymnasts practice new fetes. Unusual fetes are practiced by them. We wonder how they do such fetes. The secret lies in visualising what they are going to perform before they actually do it before a huge gathering. Visualisation helps the mind to carry the signals to various parts of the body that gets tuned to the brain’s commands. After a few trials and practice, they feel more comfortable to perform the fete that seems impossible for any normal person who is sitting in the arena to watch them perform. What you need to do is to visualise and not just see. That is the key to initiating anything new with ease. That is the key to taking a right course of action. That is the key to directing and channelizing the energy towards one single direction.

Creatively remembering something that is not easy to recall involves a great bit of imagination and literally seeing with our inner eyes as if it is taking place in reality.

What you have not visualised you cannot see in action and in reality. Visualising is the key to a whole new way of being a leader. I used to repeat a phrase quite often to the students who attend my training sessions on memory power. That is creative imagination. Creatively remembering something that is not easy to recall involves a great bit of imagination and literally seeing with our inner eyes as if it is taking place in reality. For all the memory fetes the most fundamental process is the process of creative imagination and the key to registering that is to visualise it in action. This is also true of any invention. Take for example how did people arrive at the fact that the earth is spherical and not flat? How did people come to know that the earth revolves around the sun? Imagine all the scientific efforts were done on the earth and not sitting in moon or sun. While they were on the earth they were able to come out with facts about the universe. Scientists were able to dissect the laws governing the planets. It is still a big mystery for many. But it is quite simple for people who know the art of visualising beyond what they can see with their human eyes. It is said that in a hospital in California, the doctors help cancer patients fight against cancer by asking the patients to imagine themselves as angels. They are taught to look at cancer as a devil. Their only job is to constantly visualise a battleground where they keep chasing away these devils that attack them. This is how the doctors help these patients to fight. It is said that nearly 80% of the cure is taking place not with the help of any medicine but with this kind of visualisation process of fighting the enemy.

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The same is true of any venture be it business or otherwise. We are limited by the vision we have created for ourselves. So dream and visualise your desires and plans. You will see the unbelievable taking shape into a big reality beyond limits. Benny Witt 13

S t r at e g y

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id you ever think that you have to be rich to be happy? If you are poor a little extra money can bring you absolute happiness. For people from a higher strata it would mean that they have more luxury like cars, flats, vacations etc., All look for comfort in life. More and more money need not bring more happiness. Money cannot be equated with happiness. You better change your mind if you think happiness can be bought with money. One of the ironies of life is that, while money facilitates and plays a part in bringing happiness to your life, it can also equally sabotage your efforts to attain happiness and rob you of the little joy you already had in life. Constant struggle to accumulate wealth and money can empty all your inner resources and energy needed to lead an enjoyable life. At the same time, the constant chasing after money, after robbing you of your energy and happiness, can also motivate you to refocus your life on things that matter. The fact is that the more control you have over your finances, the lesser stresses you have. It is quite natural that less stress allows you to be happier. It is true that many things about money are beyond our control. We cannot alter the inflation, the rise and fall of stock market value, the control on oil prices and the value added for gold month after month. At the same time, we have the power to control the money we spend on any item over which others have controls. For example you can’t control the markets; but, you can control how much you can invest. You can’t control the company you work for, but you can choose to save some money so that when you are thrown out of a company you can still pay your rent and credit card dues and go to bed every day in peace.

7 Ways to Grow with Your Personal Wealth Smart strategies to plan and take control of your personal finances

The following are the seven simple ways to take charge of your financial destiny:

clutter-free, a place that makes you feel you are already rich.

money fly out of the door can be weaken you emotionally. Do it in bits and pieces.

1. Get yourself organised

To reduce clutter, pare down your paper. Get rid of old receipts and brochures. Set up a simple filing system: one folder for your investments, one for your insurance policies, another for your credit cards. Then every day spend 15 minutes going through your mail and your files. Toss out junk mail. Open whatever is necessary and deal with it. The goal is to touch each piece of paper only once.

2. Spend sensibly

To plan for your finances, you don’t have to hire a professional or spend a huge sum of money. All that you need is a simple system by which you know that you are safe financially. All that is required is a piece of paper and pen with a quiet moment. See if your life is in a balance between money and happiness. Just plan for four things. They are : Income, Expenditure, Debt and Savings. These are the key areas you should focus if you want to make money and increase your net worth. Your living space should be organized and

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Pay your bills as they come in, rather than stockpiling them until the end of the month. This will lower your stress levels and make you feel more in control. Watching all that ed matrix august 2008

If you have trouble living within your means, you need to understand the specific items sabotaging your wallet. Once you’ve identified them--whether they’re car payments, restaurant bills, mobile phone charges or too many birthday gifts--you can make changes. There are small expenditures on hair, body massage and other beautification. Initially they all look quite inexpensive. Slowly, people realise that they cost them very much when they total up the expenses. They learn

S t r at e g y lessons rather late. But, they are valuable lessons. Similarly with entertainment and restaurant bills. There are many ways to make deals with yourself to live within your means. You can avoid going to restaurants and have a sumptuous meal at home. May be you can cut down your budget on clothing. The important thing here is to avoid all kinds of extravagant spending that is essential for financial control.

3. Minimize Debt Having a very low level of total debt does not necessarily make us better off. In today’s economy, affording a house, or undertaking and extensive home renovation, means taking on some debt. Credit card debt however, is a different animal. You can’t take ownership of the rest of your financial life unless you bring your relationship with your creditors under control and reap the psychological rewards that come with the bargain. If you have borrowed so much that you have trouble making the payments on your monthly cards stop spending and stop borrowing. It’s as simple as that. Do whatever is necessary to make that happen—lock your credit cards in a drawer if you have to. If you’re in a hole, you’ve got to stop digging. Beyond that, you can lower your payments by shopping around for a credit card with lower interest rates. Check with banks for better deals; look for other types of loans that have tax advantages. Also, be careful to avoid the penalties and fees that banks are charging more often these days. So pay those bills on time.

4. Save at least 5% of your income When you are saving money , your control over financial matters gets stronger and stronger. The easiest way to save is to get that five percent out of your hands before you have a chance to spend it. Arrange to have money taken out of your pay packet and tunnelled directly into your savings .Or join a good mutual fund scheme that takes five percent from your saving account each month and deposits it into savings –best also to look into using a tax-advantaged plan. But the fact is you can save only if you are living inside the margins of your income if – you are living within your means. Many people don’t. But once you become a good manager of your own money, you will get better at saving .Habits make a substantial difference as well. Budgeting ,tracking your expenses, balancing your cheque book and paying your bills as

Credit card debt however, is a different animal. You can’t take ownership of the rest of your financial life unless you bring your relationship with your creditors under control and reap the psychological rewards that come with the bargain.

first house soon,” is too vague. Deciding you want to buy a three-bedroom home within 30 minutes of your office before my 35th birthday is better. Write down your financial goals, then figure out what steps you need to take to achieve them. Break them goals is to save Rs.50,000 next year, seeing all those zeros may seem daunting. But saving Rs.955 a week to arrive at that is not so overwhelming. And if you know you can come up with that much money by quitting the health club you never use and dining out one less times per week, your course is clear. Don’t make the mistake of looking at goals as points in times some distance away. You are better off looking at goals as a series of lifelong changes you make to achieve those desires.

they come in all translate into better saving.

6. Check your desire to buy more

Once you find you can save five percent of your income, the accumulation in your account will provide encouragement to do more. Up your contribution to six percent, then seven or eight , until you are really putting away enough to fund your future.

Enjoy the life you have been able to achieve. Remind yourself that wanting more doesn’t breed contentment, it breeds more wanting.

5. Work Towards your Goals Says economist and American TV Personality Ben Stein, ” The first step to getting what you want out of life is this: Decide what you want.” A colleague of mine, a divorced woman in her thirties, lives in New Delhi. She once had the habit of shopping in order to feel good whenever she was feeling low. She looked for sales, thinking how much she was saving but never about the fact that she was actually spending. Eventually her creditors began to call, and that made her take a look at her life. She had a four-year-old son she wanted to spend to a good school: She wanted to Pursue a post –graduate degree for herself: and looking at the price of New Delhi real estate she realized how far away she from being able to buy a place of her own. My colleague decided her goals were important enough to quit spending. She went cold turkey-“Is there any other way?” she asks- and it was far from easy. She would look in the store window and say; “I want that. ”But then She’d realize she didn’t need it- what she needed was an education for her son and herself. Visualizing what you want is the first step in setting goals. Think big, but be as specific as possible. Setting a goal of “buying my ed matrix august 2008

Think about that once-a –year raise you typically receive at work. It’s only a matter of weeks before you are spending to match the new level of income. And a few months later you can no longer imagine how you lived on less. Which brings you right back to where you started . I think buying and owning a lot of “stuff” is fine ,as long as you can truly afford it. But people who over want believe that money buys happiness, as well as independence, security and control. The irony is that these things actually control them. The Way to achieve control and independence is to adopt the good money management habits of planning, Organizing and saving. Control doesn’t hinge on how much money you make. It hinges on how you handle them

7. Evaluate and plan your budget The next important thing you can do is to keep a constant check on the budget you prepare every year for yourself and your family and evaluate periodically to make sure that you are in the right track. In the beginning of the financial ear evaluate your previous budget and plan your future budget carefully. If you do not have some specific plans you can plan an increase of 10% as most organsisations do. All these measures will help you grow with your personal finances. Just keep in mind one last thing: “Failing to plan is planning to fail.”

Rajesh.V.N 15

E V E NT

Road safety programme launched in school

Safety first: Section of the students at the Toyota safety educational programme launch in Chennai.

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HENNAI: A safety education programme in schools was launched in the city on Wednesday by Toyota Kirloskar Motor Pvt. Ltd. as part of its corporate social responsibility initiatives.

initiatives were necessary in view of the worsening road safety situation. Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Sunil Kumar quizzed the students on various road safety rules. “Children can become the ambassadors of the traffic police.”

Speaking at the launch at Chettinad Vidyashram, company’s director Shekar Viswanathan, said such

Toyota Kirloskar Managing Director Hiroshi Nakagawa said the programme aims to raise awareness about of

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ed matrix august 2008

road safety among children and make them better motorists in future. The animated road safety mascot “Traffy” and the child cartoon cha racters “Aki” and “Maya” will adorn the campaign material. Details on the programme are available at www.tsepindia.com. Anandha Prabhu. K

Psycho -logic

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hen Vicky came back home after the dinner with friends, his father stopped him as he entered.

“Why late?” asked his dad. “I had dinner with my friends,” replied Vicky Why didn’t you get my permission?” There was no reply from Vicky. “Never mind, mom has prepared food for you too, so eat again,” an angry response from his dad. A shocked Vicky had to eat again, fearing his strict dad. Such control from dad is not the first time for Vicky.

Strictly Love He has been going through this kind of treatments for all of his 17 years.

His dad was the headmaster of a school and his demeanour was as rigid and strict as he was in school. He was stern, tough, rigid, harsh and dominating. He kept his wife and sons under his control. He took all decisions for them and he expected them to follow them meticulously. Even the smallest of decisions were made by him even if that was selection of clothes. There was no freedom for Vicky absolutely. Each and every little decision had to be approved by his dad. He was able to put up with his dad till his teenage. But as he was stepping into the adolescent stage, he developed “Obsessive Compulsive Disorder”, a condition which leads a person to hypertension. Every little thing angered him and was unable to bear anything that gave him the slightest irritation. He was not able to concentrate in his studies as he was always preoccupied with other thoughts of tension and anger. He started disliking every minute that he spent at home as he found no love there. The only people he related with were his friends. Communication with them was also cut as his father took away his mobile phone, blaming that he was always occupied

His mother was as strict as his father and he hated his mother too.

with the phone and was not studying. At one point of time, when Vicky could not stomach all these any more he left home never to return. He was found later and was brought to me for counselling. When I counselled, I found that Vicky’s hypertension was a result of his dad’s relationship and behaviour with him and the counselling was required for his dad and not him. While counselling his father, I found that he had not experienced explicit show of affection or love in his childhood. His mother was as strict as father and he hated his mother too. The attitude has passed on to him and he showed the same rigidity to his children and wife. He ed matrix august 2008

was not even aware that as a father of the family he can create a congenial attitude in the family for everyone. He never even regretted for being so aggressive. Problems found with his father: • The father was not aware of what a fatherly love and care was. He was having his own definition of love which was being strict and keeping them under his control to show them the right way. • He did not encourage individuality and did not realise that everybody has his/her own liking and disliking. Advices given: • The father was made aware that individuals (son) should be given his space, the freedom of choice and his son must be allowed to take his decisions and that he can only guide him. • To show love and affection, rather than showing control over the family members. • To respect the individuality • To give his children more exposure rather than keeping them over protected at home. Glory Bai This column will feature a case study involving educational psychology, followed by analysis and solution for the same. Write to us at [email protected] for issues relating to psychological problems concerning students, teachers and parents.

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M a n a g eme n t

7

Brainstorming Rules & Techniques to Get More from Group Problem Solving

There is an ideal solution to your problem and brainstorming is the key to finding it. 18

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hope you will accept if I tell you that a camel was a horse designed by a committee?!! I do not know if you truly understand this. This perfectly demonstrates the unwritten law of business, where the output of a group does not equal the sum of the individual parts. The same is also true of any organization be it educational or developmental. As you finish reading this article you will understand my statement ed matrix august 2008

that a camel was an outcome of a group process that tries to draw a horse. Use these 7 brainstorming rules and techniques and be the exception to the rule, get more from group problem and keep the creative juices focused and flowing.

1. No idea too stupid There is an ideal solution to your problem and brainstorming is the key to

M a n a g eme n t finding it. However, discussing, criticising or generally dismissing ideas as they come up reduces your chance of finding the secret treasure and render your brainstorming session useless.

2. Watch the clock A little time pressure is good for brainstorming, so agree on a maximum time for brainstorming, say 10 to 20 minutes, and stick to it. Start and finish on time, and encourage a brisk pace to maximise the time invested in this activity. Maybe assign a time-keeper to own this task.

3. Record your progress All your good ideas are wasted hot air if they are not recorded methodically and

more importantly, legibly. Consider using brainstorming software such as MindManager©, post-it notes, flip charts or other such methods for getting your ideas down. Whatever you choose, make sure you bring all the necessary tools and materials with you!

4. Quantity not quality The aim of brainstorming is to churn out as many ideas as you have time for BEFORE you do any reality check on their merits. Through quantity you will find quality, even though it might take some time and effort to get there. Ideas breed ideas.

5. Use both sides of your brain Most work activities use your left brain, so make your right brain do some work for a change and get more from brainstorming. Use coloured or scented pens, random props or anything that says “creative and fun” and not “stuffy and staid”.

6. Encourage the right mindset and have fun Consider using an ice-breaker or creativity exercise to get group members into the right frame of mind and away from creativity blocking thoughts of unanswered emails, to-do lists and other priorities. And once brainstorming has started, remember performance anxiety will dry up creative juices ed matrix august 2008

Most work activities use your left brain, so make your right brain do some work for a change and get more from brainstorming. quicker than a quick thing, so make sure the atmosphere is kept light and fluffy and above all, fun.

7. Let no good idea go unheard. Not everyone enjoys brainstorming and group problem solving. Shyness, fear of looking stupid or silly may keep people quiet. Brush up on your facilitation skills and avoid the risk of great ideas being un-spoken or unheard. Group problem solving can be effective, especially if you follow these 7 brainstorming rules and techniques. Now you will understand better what I meant in the beginning. Surely, you can design a horse! You can design a horse which may be an outcome of an effort to draw a camel or vice versa. But, certainly there is a creative output to the conscious efforts that you put in through brainstorming to solve a problem. Lyndsay Swinton www.mftrou.com

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E - Le a r n i n g

A

ll over the world people are teeming with ideas to make information access easier, more reliable, secure and enjoyable. Information technology is the field were software, hardware and telecommunications converge. This convergence has fuelled a growth spurt in each component of information technology causing a chain-reaction which spirals the growth of other components of information technology. This chain reaction has caused an explosion in the Internet and because of this explosion and congregation of technologies and ideas; the Web has now become notorious for services which were once the domain of software which ran on PCs under the heading of

On the more technical side, the memberships to some of these Web sites also offer more facilities in terms of downloads per hour, maximum storage allowed, support for down load accelerators, password protection for each download, choice of HTTP or FTP download, and sending files to multiple recipients. Moreover, you can also choose to share your files with the world—free public access. We tried six of these services: MegaUpload, RapidShare, YourFileHost, Xdrive and Cyn.

MegaUpload

(www.megaupload.com) We found that MagaUpload is leading the online storage race. Using this site is simple enough. You don’t have to join or register or anything like that to upload

Online Services packages and utilities. They are explored in this chapter.

Online File Storage If you are the person who has a business operation spanning countries or even cities, or if you’re someone who the traveling bug has bitten badly, and needs to access large amounts of data wherever you go, You’re going to need online file storage services. Besides this, if you find that your e-mail service has an attachment limit that’s just too small for your liking, again, online storage is for you. If you do not want the hassles of upgrading to new hardware every time you run out of disk space, or when storage technology changes, you should consider online storage as an option for storing, accessing and sharing your data.

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files to it. From the main page just click the browse button and select file you want to upload. After the upload completes you can see a link on the next page just about where the browse button was on the previous page. Copy this link to a file on your PC. To download your file, simply paste it in the browser’s address bar and the download begins. It’s really that easy! The site tells you about a hotlink package, which if subscribed to, makes downloading easier. This facility causes the file to be downloaded like an FTP download, without needing to open the MegaUpload site. If you want your own space on the site, you will have to sign up for membership. Just sign up by entering your personal ed matrix august 2008

details including your e-mail address, and the site will send you a confirmation link, and clicking it will activate your account. Now, to upload files use the same browse button from the main page as described earlier. Premium users are offered more in terms of storage, and uploading is still just as simple. You are allowed 500 MB uploads for non-members, 1GB for regular members, while premium members have no restrictions—unlimited file size, subject to storage limits of course. Storage space is capped at a whopping 250 GB for premium members, 50 GB for members, while non-members can only download files of upload individual files. MegaUpload offers its services at a range of prices—$9.99 for a 1 month membership, $59.99 for a year, and even $199.99 for a lifetime platinum membership. It even offers reward points for premium users. On signup itself it offers 9000 reward points free. It has a cool GUI with buttons to view statistics such as the previous 100 downloads, the top 10 uploads as well as the top 10 downloads, world statistics for each file being downloaded in the case of files which are available for public access. Some of these buttons are, however, enabled for premium users only. As a bonus the MegaUpload site offers a toolbar as well as a turbo utility free, which enable batch uploads and provide their own support for resuming broken downloads. We tried using the toolbar on an occasion when the site said that network traffic constraints were preventing file download with a free account and we were impressed. This means that with the toolbar you get priority for your download as much as a premium user does.

RapidShare

(www.rapidshare.com) RapidShare is another popular site which offers unlimited number of file uploads. To use this site click on the browse button to select the file you want to upload and then click on the upload button. The site then takes you to a page which gives you two links on to download the file and another to delete it from the site if you need to. You can download the file using the download link and delete the file by entering the delete link in the browser’s

E - Le a r n i n g is that you need and AOL account to access the site, Needless to say, this site has been developed by AOL. It also has a paid option which offers up to 50 GB of storage at $9.95 a month and $99.50 a year. Once you get an AOL account, which is pretty simple, you get access to an online storage with what we think is the best GUI among the sites we have spoken about here. When you sign in, you are shown your Xdrive folders visually. Click on the link, and you will find a snazzy toolbar to help you upload all your files. Click on the upload button on the toolbar, select your files and click OK TO TUPLOAD.

address bar. When you enter the delete link, the file is deleted and to confirm this, message box pops up. Below, on the same page you are given the option to get a collectors account. This is the free-members area which requires you to provide you e-mail address and personal details to get and account. Alternatively you could get a free membership from the free zone menu item on the first page. If you get a membership, you get access to a space on the site in which you can see a list of your files, and you can add more files or delete those you don’t need any more. The site uses SSL encryption for uploads, so you’re assured of secure file transfers. Premium memberships require the same procedure to upload files. When you download the file, it asks you if you are a free member or a premium member. Click the appropriate button, and then choose a mirror to get faster download speeds. RapidShare has a size limit of 100 MB per file. Larger files have to be split using a utility like FileSplitter, and then individual components uploaded. Premium users, however, are allocated a 2 GB file-size limit.

YourFileHost

(www.yourfilehost.com) YourFileHost is another amazing site which offers unlimited uploads, but

allows a file-size of a mere 25MB. Unfortunately, this site does not have a “premium” option, and is sustained by advertising and donations from its users. To use this site, click on the upload link on the main page add them on the add files to upload button. Select the files to upload and then select ‘general’ or ‘adult’ on the GUI—making it compulsory for you to specify whether your file is for general viewers or adult viewers only. Once this is done, you can click on the upload button and your files are uploaded to the site. The next page gives you the download and delete links. Since there’s no membership option, you need to store links carefully. Of course, this site is totally free, so we can’t really fault them for “not charging” us. YourFileHost is mostly a video site, and most of those videos are adult oriented. You would probably look a little unprofessional telling colleagues or clients to download a file from here. If it’s just your friends that you’re sharing files with, especially videos, this site is fun— the general section, where you’ll find a whole range of really funny videos.

Xdrive

(www.xdrive.com) Xdrive is another site that offers 5 GB of free online storage with an unlimited number of file uploads. The catch here ed matrix august 2008

This site also doubles up as a miniature Web album (more on Web albums later in this chapter). Simply move the pictures you upload to the My Photos folder, click on the photos tab on the GUI, and voila the toolbar changes. You can view the pictures as a slideshow or even share them if you wish. It offers utility software which helps a user to combine music and picture files to create rich multimedia experiences. Also, it offers another utility with a GUI that features drag and drop functionality.

Where To Store We would suggest that if you have many files of a large size, sign up with MegaUpload. Its 50 GB space would cover the requirements for most people. If you are a traveling businessman, or if your want to share files with people across the globe, try RapidShare—its mirroring facilities make for faster downloads across the world. For just fun with friends, and sharing videos or files while you surf, the YourFileHost service should suffice. We recommend Xdrive for its ease of use and look and feel. The downside is that it offers only 5 GB of storage free. However, it’s mich less ominous a site than the first three when it comes to official work—MegaUpload, RapidShare, and YourFileHost have become notorious for virus and porn… Cyn works for businesses that are brand conscious, and those who come across as more serious about online-storage. It’s way too expensive though.

Preetham Sha 21

C o ve r S t o r y

Profits on Your Doorstep

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ANY of us nurture a secret desire to launch a business of our own. Yet, few of us actually go on to convert this dream into reality. For those who have tasted success in their ventures, the satisfaction cannot be quantified or even described it has be experienced to be really appreciated! For the majority who only dream, business is both intensely attractive and extremely daunting. While the desire to start on the journey borders on obsession, a certain diffidence always seems to inhibit the final decision to commence the adventure. Nothing can be more frustrating than to watch others embark on this journey while you are your-self dithering on the shore! But launching the business is only part of the story. It is just the beginning of a lifelong voyage of selfdiscovery. To ensure that your initial foray into business is transformed into a more permanent way of life, you need to do a lot of home work! Only then can you hope to enjoy the higher quality of life that you dreamed of when you started the business Ultimately, the success of your venture depends on YOU-what kind of effort you put in, how open you are to learning new skills, knowledge and attitude, and how strong you are mentally. For us in India, global management practices and philosophy are particularly relevant now. This is because the economic reform process has 22

ed matrix august 2008

C o ve r S t o r y dismantled the barriers to international competition. We are already witnessing the large scale arrival of foreign companies in search of the profits to be earned in our megamarkets. It is therefore imperative that we adopt the latest in management to beat these companies at their own game! I will even go so far as to say that even to survive, we need to change, adapt and refocus. This cover story provides some insights into managing your business. Some of these are conventional wisdom while others reflect the state of the art in management thinking, worldwide. Yet others may be shockingly unconventional.

Ultimately, the success of your venture depends on YOUwhat kind of effort you put in, how open you are to learning new skills, knowledge and attitude, and how strong you are mentally. The art and science of management is taught in dozens of business schools around the country. My intention is therefore not to detail specific tools and techniques. Rather, my attempt is to provide a new framework within which we must view business. Implicit in this framework are revolutionary attitudes towards employees and customersthe two groups of people on whom the entire edifice of any business rests. Some of the concepts and ideas may seem heretical when compared with the traditional assumptions and practices we have all been so accustomed to. But I firmly believe that the time has come for us to adopt a new path. What follows is an attempt to define the new path.

Think big, start small-at home

Some of today’s flourishing companies started in garages, bedrooms or living rooms. If you think that your small home-based business will stay that way, draw inspiration from some of these entrepreneurs and start thinking big! • Operating from his college apartment in Austin, Texas, whiz kid Michael Dell started Dell Computer Corp., in 1984 with just $1000 in saving. His idea then was simple: to sell computers by phone. Today, Dell Corp., is a $2 billion company which manufactures and handles the direct sales of laptops, personal computers (PCs) and PC accessories and is the fourth-largest PC maker in the US.

Today, Hewlett-Packerd Is known as the pre-eminent instruments company with revenues of more than $14.5 billion.

• In 1938, with an initial investment of $538, two engineering students from Stanford University began tinkering in a garage in Palo Alto and launched what became the first start-up venture in Silicon Valley. A year later, William Hewlett and David Packard established a formal partnership and sold their first product-a resistance-capacity audio oscillator used to test sound equipmentto Walt Disney Studios.

• At 21, Konosuke Masushita had a secure job with an electronic company, but he was restless. Wanting to follow up on his idea for a light socket, Matsushita, then already married, set up shop with a partner in 1917 in a two-room tenement in eastern Osaka. He and his wife slept in one corner of the smaller room. When an electric parts wholesaler approached them and asked if they could produce 1,000 electric fan insulators with in a month’s time, Matsushita decided to accept the project and give up his light socket experiment for the timebeing. The insulators sold very well and demand for them grew so much that Matsushita, his wife and partner had to move to a bigger house. The business that started in a small room is now one of the world’s largest consumer electronic companies, Matsushita Group, which operates in Asia, Europe and North America.

• By 1940, the partners’ business had grown to include eight instruments and they had to move to a bigger building.

Some of today’s flourishing companies were started as small ventures and mostly at home.

• Only 20 years old, Steve Jobs founded Apple Computers along with Steve Wozniak, a childhood buddy, in his parents’ house in Los Altos, California, in 1976. The bedroom served as the duo’s office while the garage was turned into a production line, where the two produced computers in kit form for electronics hobbyists. Barely six years later, Apple was a Fortune 500 company.

ed matrix august 2008

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C o ve r S t o r y

People: your greatest resource TAKE a look at the various products and services that we are familiar with. Say, a TV. The TV that we so regularly watch is sleek and attractive in looks and performance. But, behind this is the long story of high-technology parts,components and processes-all coordinated, controlled and moulded together by the skill, dedication and innovation of workers, supervisors, managers and dealers, In short, PEOPLE. So, ultimately, whatever product of service that you may undertake, people play the crucial and most important

responsible for any results…simplicity, and of necessity, all effort is team effort”. One example of such team effort often quoted by management specialists is the orchestra. Each musician in an orchestra plays a different instrument. It is the conductor who combines and

“One day, the Mxnxging Director decided to fill x meeting of xll stxff to inform that x new machined hxd had been ordered from Germaxny. Mxny stxff members xrrived lxte for the meeting becxuse the Office Mxnxger hxd not mxde the time clexr to everyone.” The end result is much the same for an organization in which teamwork is absent.

Whatever product of service that you may undertake, people play the crucial and most important

And most important requirement for team work is interpersonal relationship. Such a relationship is said to exit when people respond to each other over a period of time with care, understanding and patience. If continuity disappears, the interpersonal relationship also, in all likelihood, will cease. Successful relationships also depend on the individual having a strong self image. To be successful in any endeavour, more so in business, it is important to understand the importance of self image, especially in leadership situations, and the considerable power such a self image wields over one’s emotions and perceptions.

Leadership part. Sometimes, people band together informally. At other times, they work together within a organization. Broadly defined, an organization is an environment that brings people, machines, materials and money together to produce something of values. And people are the most important part of any organization. It is clear from experience around the world over centuries, that the behaviour of people within their organizations holds the key to their own success and to that of their organization. The quantity and quality of interaction among its people have a vital bearing on the final results. According to management thinker James L. Hayes. “…In an organizational setting, no one person can be completely 24

harmonises the music produced by the different musicians. The musicians are the people in an organization of which the conductor is the leader. Not only must the musicians master their respective instruments, they must also understand their fellow musicians and what the conductor is trying to achieve. Otherwise the orchestra will only produce a cacophony of noise, not music. In a way, the entire organization can be visualized as a large team. But in practical terms, teams are better viewed as being small-departments or sections. The importance of team work in any business, more so the small business, can be illustrated by the following passage typed on a typewriter in which the letter ‘a’ is defective: ed matrix august 2008

MOST of us have a rather heroic concept of a leader. He is a person with magnificent qualities of the head and heart. Though these attributes are of great value, they are inadequate in today’s changed business environment. True leaders have an awesome ability to transform their businesses. They can take entire organizations from mediocrity to excellence and greatness by creating the right conditions they can unleash the power of creativity, productivity and innovation. Ultimately, they change their people from average performers to people who take pride in their work. As the owner of your business, you are its leader. Therefore, it is in your power to initiate and sustain the transformation of your business into a profitable, productive, high performance

C o ve r S t o r y organization which responds quickly to changes. A capable eldership is your best competitive advantage. The following guidelines can help you be an effective leader in whatever business you are in: 1. Leaders do the right things. Mangers do things right. 2.

Develop a written vision for the future for you business and share it with everyone in your organization. Your people can help you in devel oping that vision in the first place.

3.

Communicate all the time,with employees and customers. Be- come a good listener rather than one who just gives orders.

4. Don’t get trapped in routine. 5. Always be on the look out for change And last but not the least, attach great value to learning. Remember learning is a lifelong process for you and those with whom you work. Do not confuse learning with accepting information. The difference becomes clear when you read a book on swimming. Having read the book, al that one has information on is the theoreticaltechnique. But the reader certainly has not learnt how to swim. Learning, therefore, goes far beyond reading and storing information. It has to do more with assimilation and known when and how to apply the information learnt. In today’s fast changing business environment, a successful business is one that can apply and disseminate new knowledge the quickest in other words, it has to become what in today’s management jargon is called a learning organization. But the question could well be asked, especially by the small businessman, why he should transform his small set up into a learning organization. Firstly, every person in an organization has an infinite capacity to learn If the right conditions are created for learning. After a certain level, to many people, money ceases to become a primary motivator. It is at this

stage and people look for a larger role to play. It is here that the you as the leader of you organization have a major role to play. For unless your people grow, financially, intellectually and skill-wise, your business cannot grow. Secondly, with the world wide explosion in information technology, the only

largest industrial companies in the world today is just around 40 years. In the last 10 years, nearly one third of the famous Fortune 500 companies have simply ceased to exist. And if that can happen to the big companies, smaller business will have an even shorter life cycle unless they learn and change constantly.

Insights that can help you To help you revise your concept of business and to provide some insights from other organisations who have adopted the learning paradigm, here are a few lessons for you to learn from: 1. Think of your business as part of your system. Problems and solutions too are part of the system and not an outside occurrence. But also remember that change is not easy. The harder you push, the harder the system you have in place will push back. 2. If you persist with compartmental thinking, which separates parts of your business and view problems and solutions independently, the solutions of yesterday will come to haunt you as today’s problems. For example, a sudden increase in sales due to a discount offer may produce a slump in sales once the discount is with drawn, which in turn could have an adverse long term impact on your business. 3. There are no short cuts to success 4. Faster can actually be slower as every system has an optimal rate of growth. If your system is growing faster than the system can handle, stress and breakdown are inevitable. 5. Look for continuous improvements rather than quant\um leaps. The Japanese call this process Kaizen and it is now recognized as the key to the world wide success of their business enterprises

constant in any business environment is change, though the pace of change will differ depending on your field of activity. It may come as a nasty surprise to readers of this booklet that there is a 50 per cent change that your present business of organisation may cease to exist during your working careers. According to a study conducted by Royal Dutch Shell, the average life span of the ed matrix august 2008

In other words, become a learning organization As the owner of your business, you are its leader. Therefore, it is in your power to initiate and sustain the transformation of your business into a profitable, productive, high performance organization which responds quickly to changes. Madhava Menon 25

C o ve r S t o r y

The free business environment A whole new class of entrepreneurs is emerging with ideas and skills very different from those of the big companies.

T

HE entire business environment in India has changed beyond recognition. Within the next 12 to 18 months the picture will be vastly different from what we all had resigned ourselves to. This is essentially due to the opening of the autarkic economy by the reforms of Dr Mahamonhan Singh and his team. The changes that we can expect (indeed, as we already are seeing) are as follows:

1. Increased Competition:

Since licensing and other entry barriers are on their way out, new entrants are swarming in. Virtually in every industry we can spot new companies gearing up to offer differentiated products and services. A whole new class of entrepreneurs is emerging with ideas and skills very different from those of the big companies. Today, you do not have to be an Ambani or a Birla to set up a large manufacturing unit. In the pre reform days you could not match the established houses in their ability to raise funds or obtain licenses and permits. This in effect inhibited many would-be entrepreneurs with limited resources. But in the present circumstances, entrepreneurs can concentrate their resources on the project rather than on the corridors of power! The result is a massive increase in competition. While the large scale arrival of foreign companies is owned companies

26

is also bound to soar. The impact of this is to create an upward pressure on the quality of goods and services produced in the economy. For the customer this translates into better value for money and far greater choice than ever before.

2. Access to better technology:

Easing of import controls and the substantial reduction in tariffs enables businesses to now acquire the best technologies from around the world. Indian companies now have the opportunity to set up world class facilities.

3. New sources of finance:

Capital markets are developing rapidly al across the country. The widespread acceptance of the equity culture means that entrepreneurs now have the means to raise large amounts of capital. In addition they can also raise debt from a much wider array of sources. Foreign investment is an attractive option for not only capital but also technological and management resources.

4. Increased information:

With the telecom, computer and media industries shifting to high gear, the information available on markets, opportunities and corporate performance is poised to explode. Credit records, business reputation and other sensitive information will also now be available (but with varying degrees of difficulty). Communication and data transfer will become easier and cheaper. Information technology based networks will no longer be the exclusive preserve of the large companies. Small businesses will also be able to afford computers and other information technology hardware and software.

5. Lower taxes, tighter enforcement: Direct taxes are already being pruned downward. The indirect tax system will soon shift to the value added tax. In either case the tax system will prove to be less of a disincentive than ed matrix august 2008

before. Improvements in th3 information technology and telecom industries will immediately result in the tax authorities being able to assess incomes more quickly and accurately. Enforcement of tax related laws will therefore be much easier and stricter. While tax planning can become more sophisticated, tax evasion will be harder.

6. Heightened environment consciousness: The Indian consumer has

become more environment conscious. Pollution control and conservation are major areas for concern. Therefore, the laws relating to the protection of the environment are also bound to get tighter. Environment friendliness will play a significant part in the acceptance of products and services by the consumer. Environment standards will become more stringent.

7. More disposable income with more people: With prosperity

gradually percolating into our economy, the size of the middle class is increasing significantly. Already, it is estimated to be in the neighbourhood of around 295 million. Coupled with the prospect of reduced taxes, there is a vastly increased amount of disposable income spread among a much higher number of people now than even ten years ago. An incredibly large quantum of purchasing power resides now in the Indian economy. It can safely be classified as a mega market! The emerging Indian business environment therefore presents many challenging opportunities. Businesses which are able to adopt a change-oriented forward looking philosophy will attain spectacular success. For tradition-bound companies, however, this could well be end of the road.

8. More right for the consumer:

The long suffering Indian consumer is already beginning to obtain relief under the Consumer Protection Act. This trend will intensify. Restrictive trade practices, selling shoddy goods and plain old cheating will no longer be as easy as they were. Enforcement will be quicker and evaluation of claims will be more sophisticated. Whole new categories of activities will come within the purview of the consumer protection movement.

Ravi Kumar

6

C o ve r S t o r y

Rules for running your home-based business

All you need to have is a strong will to pursue a business with a discipline that befits of a professional company

R

UNNING a business requires more than just a spare room―you need to have drive and discipline. A home-based business offers several advantages―low overheads, low or no rents, flexible work hours, more time with the family. But it also means distractions of a different kind: children seeking attention,

neighbours and relatives dropping in unannounced. But the most difficult problem of having a home-based business is the entrepreneur’s inability to get away from the stress of everyday work. Often, home-based business owners find themselves dealing with clients after office hours, or discussing a business problem with their spouse over dinner.

A personal computer or laptop with enough facilities like internet, phone connection, a printer, and basic furniture are the investments you will need to make. Anything extra will be considered affluence in a home based business. If you can find a small spare room at home, you can readily venture into what is known as a home-based business.

Rules to be followed while running a home-based business: 1. Discuss your business rules with the family. 2. Chose the most efficient location for your office. But whatever you do, do not turn your bedroom into your office. If your business necessitates clients having to drop by, locate the office near an entrance. If possible have two entrances to your home, one for family and friends and the other for clients. 3. Be firm with friends and neighbours, Don’t give in to the temptation to chat with your friends because you “need the break”. Do the same with family. 4. Determine the amount of time you will spend on work. Allot specific hours to wash the car or go shopping. Similarly do not try to catch up with paperwork after dinner or you will never be able to draw the line between family time and work time. 5.

Dress appropriately. When you put on your professional business face to the world, you should dress the way professionals in your field dress. A T-shirt and shorts or a track suit are not the proper dress to be worn to go to the bank or to meet clients. If you prefer to dress informally while working, allot specific days or time of the day when you can meet with walk-in clients. That way you won’t be caught unawares.

6.

Understand the special circumstances under which you can hire outside employees. Having employees in a home-based business is sometimes illegal because of zoning laws or residential building policies. Any business is time and effort consuming but when it is at home it’s even harder to keep it out of the entrepreneur’s private life. Any home-based entrepreneur needs an extra dose of discipline and self-motivation to really make it. People who set up home-based businesses must be disciplined, determined, self-motivated and very patient.

Running a business requires more than just a spare room―you need to have drive and discipline. Regis Django ed matrix august 2008

27

IN - D E P TH

“I show real life heroes in my films” Interview with R.R. Srinivasan, documentary and short film producer

A

nyone interested in documentaries and short films in Tamilnadu cannot miss R.R. Srinivasan. Amidst myriads of film makers in Taminadu he stands out as a responsible film maker with social consciousness. His nine short films and nine documentaries depict his own powerful personality. Initiating a film appreciation movement through Kanchanai, an organization he started for creating awareness among rural people on films, he went on to host the first Documentary Fest in Tamilnadu through DBICA, a communication centre in Chennai. His recent film on Palaru River made a big impact as it was released during a very crucial period of time when there is a big issue of sand quarrying and water scarcity. He exhibits his social consciousness through his extensive and varied experiences in several areas of visual arts in this interview.

Q:You have been producing and

directing documentaries for many years. How do you select the content for the documentary films?

R.R: I basically have great interest in

some fields like; culture, anthropology and folklore. I am not interested in politically oriented documentaries or any other genre that conveys messages directly. I have done many documentaries for others. So, I have not chosen the subjects for the documentaries; they have chosen. But I make sure I do not take up subjects that have already been handled by others. I choose my own subjects based on folk traditions in which I am interested in. 28

MULTIFACETED: R.R. Srinivasan during a filming schedule. Photo: Senthil

Q: Do you work with a “Pre-

Production Plan” or do you work without any specific plan?

R.R: Right now I am doing a film on

Poombuhar. I do not have sufficient time and money to research on Poombuhar. I have to study a bit and then I have to film it. During my filming schedules I will get to know the complete history. To tell the truth there are both a planned and unplanned element in my work. I like to work without a plan because, working without pre-conceived notion and a predetermined style is quite important. That is how we get to see wonders. ed matrix august 2008

Q: Post-production is an essential

part in a documentary. How important was post-production in your documentaries? What is your experience?

R.R: It is a well-known fact that films

are shaped fine tuned when they are in post-production period. That’s why I spend a lot of time in this aspect. I have always used “live sounds” to this day and I use additional music rarely. I try to use the sounds that are present there. During post-production I work a lot to preserve the originality of the film. There is a lot to convey in exposure

IN - D E P TH and educative documentaries. At the end of the shoot the filmmaker wants to say and include many things. As a result h comes with commentaries and narrations. But I dislike commentaries. I work hard to avoid commentaries in my productions.

Q: Though “The Old Sea and the

Man” portrays Tsunami’s great havoc quite openly, its composition gives a great sense of wonder to the viewers. How did you decide on the subject as you have had many options?

R.R: I had plans to work on two of my

pet projects. I wanted a documentary on Koodangulam, being close to my native place, Tirunelveli, and the second on Sethu Samuthiram Project. I wanted to do separate films on each of them knowing the risks and problems involved in that. As I was contemplating the idea, Tsunami struck Tamilnadu and I was really confused about choosing the subject. The devastating effects of Tsunami was fresh in the minds of the people and they may not be interested in Koodangulam or Sethu Samuthram Project. Specifically I chose to film tsunami as I researched on the subject. The organizations working for the fishing communities gave me enough materials for the where I had meaning and space to bring in the evil effects of Koodangulam and Sethusamuthram. That is how I ventured into the tsunami project. “The Old Sea and the Man” was the outcome of this process.

Q: In “The Old Sea and the Man” you have interviewed several members of the Federations like; Natural Farming Federation, Farmer’s Land Rights Movement, Coastal Action Network, South Indian Fishermen Movement and People’s Forum for Anti-Nuclear Energy etc. Did you meet them by chance or did you preplan it?

R.R: Actually I preplanned it after

going through a process of discernment. Media present many personalities to the public as great icons. Most often 95% of them are all wrong icons. So I decided

to show real life heroes in my films and documentaries. The icons I propose are immersed in doing some good to the society. I go in search of them to show to the public. This is how I wish to show my commitment to the society.

Q: “Death of a River” made a great

impact among the people more than others. You said once that you wanted to record it as an event in history and not as a film. Can you elaborate on it?

R.R: After the incident we interviewed

all the affected people immediately. We documented the event for the sake of the witness value it has in court, in case somebody files a case. There is a lot of difference in documenting an event immediately and interviewing after 20 days. When we do it immediately those affected will speak firmly and with depth. We started interviewing the affected people on the same day. If you had watched the documentary you can see how firm the people were in expressing their sorrow. We worked on it immediately and after recording many people’s interviews, due to the compulsion of my friends I compiled all of them and made this documentary.

Q: You had collected many scenes

of police beating up the people from the News channels and televisions. ed matrix august 2008

You have compiled all of them for Death of a River and presented in the documentary. How difficult the project was?

R.R: We wanted to gather as many

resources as possible like, photographs from the print media and videos from T.V. channels. But we did not succeed because it was elaborately covered by Sun T.V., a channel of DMK, the then ruling party. They shot for more than an hour and they did not telecast it to this day. A Nila T.V. news reporter covered the incident and the rights were with Puthiya Tamizhagam party and I used them in the documentary.

Q: Looking back at what you

have achieved, what are your musings about your short films and documentaries? R.R: They are direct lessons from life. I do not look at a job or project, as if it is done by the camera. This connects me with what I shoot. I relish every bit of my work. I may be shooting an important project, but, if there happens to be a beautiful tree and if I like to take a little rest on the tree, I do not mind resting a while. There is nothing to be excited about it. I learn a lot by directly experiencing and learning from life. Staff Reporter

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C a r ee r

Environmental Engineering

being concerned with local and worldwide environmental issues such as the effects of acid rain, ozone depletion, water pollution and air pollution from automobile exhausts and industrial sources.

Educational licensing requirements

To become an environmental engineer, at least a Bachelor’s degree in engineering (usually civil or chemical, and more frequently environmental engineering) is required, usually followed by specialized training at the Master’s or Doctoral level. Unlike traditional Engineering disciplines like Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering or Chemical Engineering, Environmental Engineering evolved as a branch of Chemical and Civil Engineering over the past several decades to deal with increasingly complex environmental challenges. At many universities, Environmental Engineering programs follow either the Department of Civil Engineering or The Department of Chemical Engineering at Engineering faculties. Environmental “civil” engineers focus on hydrology, water resources management and water treatment plant design. Environmental “chemical” engineers, on the other hand, focus on environmental chemistry, advanced air and water treatment technologies and separation processes. Additionally, engineers are more frequently obtaining specialized training in law (J.D.) and are utilizing their technical expertise in the practices of Environmental engineering law.

E

nvironmental engineering is the application of science and engineering principles to improve the environment (air, water, and/or land resources), to provide healthy water, air, and land for human habitation and for other organisms, and to remediate polluted sites. Environmental engineering involves water and air pollution control, recycling, waste disposal, and public health issues as well as a knowledge of environmental engineering law. It also includes studies on the environmental impact of proposed construction projects.

30

Environmental engineers conduct hazardous-waste management studies to evaluate the significance of such hazards, advise on treatment and containment, and develop regulations to prevent mishaps. Environmental engineers conduct hazardous-waste management studies to evaluate the significance of such hazards, advise on treatment and containment, and develop regulations to prevent mishaps. Environmental engineers also design municipal water supply and industrial wastewater treatment systems as well as ed matrix august 2008

Most jurisdictions also impose licensing and registration requirements.

Development of environmental engineering Ever since people first recognized that their health and well-being were related to the quality of their environment, they have applied thoughtful principles to attempt to improve the quality of their environment. The ancient Harappan civilization utilized early sewers in some cities. The Romans constructed aqueducts to prevent drought and to create a clean, healthful water supply for the metropolis of Rome. In the 15th century, Bavaria created laws restricting the development and degradation of alpine country that constituted the region’s water supply. Modern environmental engineering began in London in the mid-19th century when

C a r ee r Briefly speaking, the main task of environmental engineering is to protect public health by protecting (from further degradation), preserving (the present condition of), and enhancing the environment.

Scope of environmental engineering Pollutants may be chemical, biological, thermal, radioactive, or even mechanical. Environmental engineering emphasizes several areas: process engineering, environmental chemistry, water and sewage treatment (sanitary engineering), waste reduction/management, and pollution prevention/cleanup. Environmental engineering is a synthesis of various disciplines, incorporating elements from the following:

Joseph Bazalgette designed the first major sewerage system that reduced the incidence of waterborne diseases such as cholera. The introduction of drinking water treatment and sewage treatment in industrialized countries reduced waterborne diseases from leading causes of death to rarities. In many cases, as societies grew, actions that were intended to achieve benefits for those societies had longer-term impacts which reduced other environmental qualities. One example is the widespread application of DDT to control agricultural pests in the years following World War II. While the agricultural benefits were outstanding and crop yields increased dramatically, thus reducing world hunger substantially, and malaria was controlled better than it ever had been, numerous species were brought to the verge of extinction due to the impact of the DDT on their reproductive cycles. The story of DDT as vividly told in Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring” is considered to be the birth of the modern environmental movement and the development of the modern field of “environmental engineering.” Conservation movements and laws restricting public actions that would harm the environment have been developed by various societies for millennia. Notable examples are the laws decreeing the construction of sewers in London and Paris in the 19th century and the creation of the U.S. national park system in the early 20th century.



• • • • • • • • •

Agricultural engineering Civil engineering Chemical engineering Public health Mechanical engineering Chemistry Biology Geology Ecology

Environmental engineering is the application of science and engineering principles to the environment. Some consider environmental engineering to include the development of sustainable processes. There are several divisions of the field of environmental engineering.

Environmental impact assessment and mitigation

In this division, engineers and scientists assess the impacts of a proposed project on environmental conditions. They apply scientific and engineering principles to evaluate if there are likely to be any adverse impacts to water quality, air quality, habitat quality, flora and fauna, agricultural capacity, traffic impacts, social impacts, ecological impacts, noise impacts, visual(landscape) impacts, etc. If impacts are expected, they then develop mitigation measures to limit or prevent such impacts. An example of a mitigation measure would be the creation of wetlands in a nearby location to mitigate the filling in of wetlands necessary for a road development if it is not possible to reroute the road. ed matrix august 2008

Key skills

Ability to think logically and to analyse and solve problems Good communication skills Willingness to deal with unidentified hazards Patient, organized and comfortable with detailed WORK

Some Institutes

College of Engineering ,Andhra University, Vishakhapatnam (www.andhrauniversity. info) Delhi College of Engineering New Delhi (www.dce.edu) L. D College of Engineering Ahmedabad (www.idceahd.org) The Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad (www.ismdhanbad.ac.in) Kolhapur Institute of technology’s College of Engineering ,Kolhapur(www.kitcoek.org) Sri Jayachamarejendra College of Engineering Visweswaraiah technology University, Mysore (www.sjce.ac.in) Indian Institute of technology ,New Delhi (www.iitd.ernet.in),Roorkee,(www.iitr. ernet.in)Chennai(www.iitm.ac.in)and Mubai(www.cese.iitb.ac.in) ThaparInstitute of Engineering Technology, Patiala(www.tiet.ac.in)

and

Institute Of Engineering and Tecnology , Lucknow University,Lucknow (www. ietlucknow.edu) Shri Gs.Institute Of Technology and Science,Indore(www.sgsits.ac.in)

Hot Location:

There is a great demand for these engineers to handle the current problem of pollution. Companies involved in recycling and waste management as well as consulting companies, mining, Oil and gas companies offer employment opportunities to environmental engineers. They may be recruited as analysts in Central Board .Moreover ,consultancy firms in foreign countries also recruit environmental engineers for various environment-related project.

Kalpana.E 31

seasonal

I

t was a dream come true. I cherished the fact that I was going to work for one of the reputed newspapers and with one of the best journalists. It was day one, and I walked into the office, with head held high. I was excited to meet my colleagues. I was introduced to them. They were great fun to be with, I thought. I felt honoured to work with those people whose writings I have enjoyed. They stroke conversations with me asking about my education and career. These were attempts to make me comfortable in the new place, I found.

Let’s celebrate development! They enjoy the luxury of 21st century but live with the attitude of 50s.

Alas! The delight did not last long, as the blow came in few minutes, “What’s your caste?” “Excuse me! Why the hell you wanted to know that?” I wanted to shout. But didn’t. I tried hard to hide my disappointment and anger that slipped as tears, without help. I did not expect that ‘caste’ would bother the journalists of this national newspaper, who propagate caste as a social evil in their writings. The feel of honour was totally shattered. The feel of honour and pride about my people has let me down many times and that was not the first. When people kill each other over religion, when they ill treat the other over caste, when they discriminate over gender and when they suppress the other over power, I lost hope in my people. And when I bribed the traffic policeman for violating traffic rules, I lost respect for myself. In 60 years of Independence, India brought heaven into the country in the name of luxury, quick heals and fast money. But these years had not changed people. Don’t you think I am referring to the innocent people from any remote village who have not seen a bit of these ‘development’, defined by the first world countries. I am referring even to those in the urban, who had the privilege to get the first 32

quality education and high paid jobs. These educated Indians are still in the 50s, where the country was divided by languages, caste and creed. They enjoy the luxury of 21st century but live with the attitude of 50s. The education we offer should not only take our people to a high standard of living, but also to a high standard of thinking. That’s what I call as true development.

development, when our fundamental rights of civil liberties such that all Indians can lead their lives in peace as citizens of India is enjoyed by every citizen. Let us believe that the six fundamental rights of right to equality, right to freedom, right against exploitation, right to freedom of religion, cultural and educational rights and right to constitutional remedies are not just in papers.

Let us hope when we step into the 61st Independent year, we see true

Keerthana Raj

ed matrix august 2008

y o u r s pa c e

Defective system Antibiotic to prevent terrorism

Education is the only way to attain prosperity, peace and wealth. But nowadays people think of education as a commodity for buying and selling. Just as charity begins at home, a nation’s destiny also begins in the classroom. Education alone can remove ignorance and bring peace, harmony and unity. The mind ican be the root cause of all evils like destruction, damage and death if care is not taken. Education is the only antibiotic to prevent terrorism and terrorists. G.V. Shankar Chennai.

Defective system Many Universities are conducting memory oriented examinations . Students who do not attend most of the classes scoring high marks is a clear evidence of defective examination system. Such examinations do not testify to the creative mind of the candidate. However, efforts should be made to enhance the credibility of our exam system. The question paper should be choice-free. Reappearance of a paper either to pass the subject, or for improvement should not be allowed. At the end of the course, a certificate with class/division can be issued to all candidates based on the grand total marks secured. R. Sarva Jagannadha Reddy Chittoor, (AP).

Education for true liberation This is the world where man wants to get educated just to make oneself earn his/ her livelihood. However, do all of them understand the real meaning of education? I fear nobody can give me the appropriate answer. The true meaning of education is to gain wisdom and knowledge and to make sound judgement on what is right or wrong in life and also what is good and what is bad. I am not for the current system of education which only makes students memorize the lessons without even their willingness. All that the student knows is a superficial knowledge of the notes supplied to him. Do you agree that this should be the function of education or do you want student to just understand the meaning of what different author says in their books. This I feel should be the basic function of education apart from what people believe should be provided to them through education The pattern of education today make the student learn a different style of studying. They study the book supplied

to them mechanically. And the tutor doesn’t take any responsibility to take them out of this kind of bondage and vicious circle. Teachers are also happy if their pupils get good marks. Making them learn life’s choicest lessons is not their concern. That is what is constantly worrying me. Did anyone care to see why the students hate studying. That the lessons are boring for the students, heavily loaded and unduly painful for the students is not our concern. Unless people fight for the cause of education, like they did during the years of British rule, we will never have the liberation needed to have the education system changed into a meaningful one. The day the students begin to apply all that they learnt from class rooms will be the day of liberation for our people. Similarly the other way is also true. The day people demand for a curriculum that helps directly their life will be the day of true liberation. Kannan Bangalore

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Te c h n o l o g y

So You Want the iPhone? I ndia and iPhone:

The pre-release publicity that surrounded the iPhone ensured that come June 29, 2007 everyone wanted a piece of Apple’s hottest pie. And like everything else that isn’t legally available in India, the grey markets were stocked up within a month. And the increased price tag was not a deterrent to gadget geeks and style freaks alike.

It’s been nearly a year since its release, and the iPhone continues to be the most wanted gadget in the market. We tell you how to make it yours

The phone was subsequently launched in Europe and since countries like Germany did not permit sales of the locked down phone unlocked iPhones were soon available in the market. Though they were more expensive, they made the iPhone dream possible for those who did not want to stick to one network operator. This also took away the hassle of jail breaking, activation and unlocking.

Where can one get the iPhone in India? There are various ways you can get an iPhone in India. Many online shopping sites like

36

ed matrix august 2008

Te c h n o l o g y e-bay, iPhonenirvana.com etc offer iPhones which are either imported or smuggled from abroad. Secondly, if you have contacts abroad (America, UK Germany or France), you can ask them to get you the iPhone. If all else fails, you can buy it from the grey market.

Which iPhones have arrived In India? If you are one of those who want to lay your hands on the iPhone, before its official release here in India, you can head to any of your city’s grey markets. Currently, there are two variants. One is the locked version imported from Singapore (usually they are locked phones frokm US), for Rs 26,000 which is sold with the unlocking SIM card (TurboSIM etc). The other is the unlocked version, imported from Europe (Germany and France) but costs around Rs 27,000 (approx). Don’t go by the price here which is what one usually does. The reality is that with Apple developers and the hacker community playing cat and mouse games, unlocking the features have become harder and harder. Any new updates will lick your phone of make some features unusable and you’ll have to wait until some geek unlocks the feature and makes it available at a cost. For future-proof hassle-free updates and to take full advantage of all the features, go for the latter. It costs just one thousand rupees more, but it’s worth for the freedom it gives you to use any SIM card and upgrades that won’t brick you phone unlike many unofficially unlocked iPhones.

Will it work on India’s Cellular Network? The answer is Yes. The iPhone GSM network support includes bands that our current GSM networks operate on ie., 900 and 1800 MHz

So you have the iPhone. What about the firmware? Apple keeps its iPhone. What about the firmware? Apple keeps its iPhone users busy by providing updates. Despite new features, it is a pain for those who own the jail broken (originally locked) iPhone as this usually locks the phones again. Whether you won a locked or unlocked iPhone, it’s good to know what firmware version it has. To determine what firmware your iPhone has, follow these simple steps. If it is already activated yet, get into the emergency dial screen, dial *3001#12345#* and tap the Call button. Check out what

modem software matches the firmware on your phone from the list below. • iPhone firmware version 1.0 has 03.11.02_G modem firmware • iPhone firmware version 1.0.1 has 03.12.08_G • iPhone firmware version 1.0.2 has 03.14.08_G • iPhone firmware version 1.1.1 has 04.01.13_G modem firmware 0.2 cmiPhone firmware version 1.1.2 has 04.02.13_G modem firmware • iPhone firmware version 1.1.3 has 04.03.13_G modem firmware. Here is list of the firmware updates released so far. iPhone v1.1.1: The first update firmware release for the iPhone locked the unofficial unlocked iPhones. New features added from the updates include iTunes, Wi-Fi

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music store, support for TVour and other useful features. When the unofficial unlocked iPhone was updated using v1.1.1 firmware, it disabled the third party app support, de-activated and locked the iPhone. But it was jail broken, activated and unlocked again, a few weeks later. iPhone v1.1.2: Released in November 2007, it coincided with iPhone’s launch in Europe. Most European phones came with this firmware. Expected to be impossible to unlock, it was fail broken in no time. This update fixed the TIFF vulnerability that was noticed by jailbreakme.com and paved the way to install third party applications on the iPhone. Language and character support included adding the International keyboard layout. iPhone v1.1.3: Released on January 2008, the new features includes the ability to rearrange icons on the 37

Te c h n o l o g y screen and Sari book marking. Google Maps added ‘Locate Me’ feature and Multiple recipients for SMS. Apple tried to make it harder for backers to break in, but in no time there were a lot of sites where the unlocking process was revealed.

The 4 Magic steps That Unlocked the iPhone The firmware version is what decides how difficult it will be to get a fully functional iPhone. But as of now, there are usually three steps that iPhones have to go through to let the user explore its full features. Let’s take a closer look at each of them. Unlocking: It is a process where the iPhone is freed from working with only one network operator. This makes the iPhone work with any SIM card. Popular tools for unlocking include Turbo SIM, AnySIM and a software tools with GUI called iPhone.

This became very popular as it gave simple and clear instructions. Jailbreaking: Apple’s iPhone did not support installing third party applications and customizing ringtones, wallpapers etc on its earlier firmware versions. All these have been made possible by the process of Jailbreaking which opens up its file system. Popular tools are AppTap for Windows users and Independence for Mac users. Jailbreaking usually requires you to downgrade to the older jail broken firmware. You can check out sites like www.iPhone unlock.no/, www.iclarified.com/ or any tech forum which provides detailed instructions on how to jailbreak different firmware in different methods. Activating: This is a process where the network communicates to the iPhone. Without activation, the iPhone is not usable. When

connecting to iTunes, the activation screen pops up where users need to provide personal information and when that is done, syncing iPhones and PC contents is possible. General activation process is not applicable for unlocked iPhones, but from the steps given by the hacking community, It’s just a matter of uploading a small file to the phone. Usually, activation is done by putting the phone in recovery mode. Virginzing: When an iPhone has been hacked to make it work with any SIM card, the baseband (phone’s modem software) is usually altered or damaged. This process usually reverts the phone to its factory settings.

What about the warranty if I unlock? First of all, after jailbreaking, unlocking and activating it yourself, you void the warranty. Apple will not give you support in India if you get the unlocked phone from Europe. Supports will be given only in the country where the phone was purchased, provided you have the bill and did not go the underground way. 38

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For iPhones from the US, don’t even think about it.

When will it arrive in India and how much will it be? It probably won’t take much time for iPhones to hit our shores. Some market analysts have indicated that it will be a matter of months. But the question here is how much will it cost and will it be locked or unlocked? In a country like India, where unlocked phones are more common than the locked phones, there are chances that Apple may introduce the unlocked version just like they did in Europe. Pricing is another big question again. We see lot of gadgets in the market, but cell phones are the biggest sellers and Indiana buyers do not mind shelling out more money if the phone has unique features to flaunt. And if it is unlocked it may cost anything from 30k to 40k. Let’s see how Apple will tackle the Indian market. We are hoping to see the unlocked version at a reasonable price. Laldinfela Pachuau

B INGO ! Royal Advisor.” Akbar knew their intentions and said, “No problem, but you will have to pass the test before any of you could be my Royal Advisor. And whoever would pass the test will be appointed my Advisor.” They agreed.

Problem Solving Story -4

Birbal Solves the Problem

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everal courtiers were vying to be the Royal Advisor of emperor Akbar. They were even jealous of Birbal who had won a special place in the heart of emperor Akbar. As a result he enjoyed a special status in the

royal court of Akbar and continued to be the special Advisor to the emperor. One day, when the other courtiers came to the court. They said to the emperor, “We want to be your

The King unfastened his waist cloth and lay down on the floor, and asked the candidates to cover him with that cloth from head to toe. Now everybody tried to cover him, but in vain. If one wanted to cover the head, then feet remained uncovered, or if the feet were covered, then his head remained open. Just then Birbal entered the court, the king asked Birbal also, if he could cover him with that cloth from head to toe. Birbal paused a moment. He knew what he should do. Write to us about the various ways in which Birbal could have solved the problem. How will he cover the emperor with a small waist cloth? The best answers will find a place in the September ED MATRIX issue.

Answer for the last month’s Problem Solving Story Birbal thought this is good time, so he thought for a moment and spoke, “Your Majesty, it might be possible that the camel has forgotten to honour his promise made to somebody that is why his neck is crooked. Scriptures mention that whoever will forget their promises will have crooked neck. So this might seem the ed matrix august 2008

reason of his crooked neck.” Akbar soon realized that he promised to give some gifts to Birbal, but has not yet done so. As soon as they arrived at the palace, the King gave him his reward. So Birbal was so wise that he got what he wanted without asking for it. 39

TRA V E L

Getaways - Feel Good Factors

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ake a break – this is one simple way to rejuvenate your body and mind. A perfect weekend can get you charged for the next five days or more. This week we will be exploring a beautiful hill station close to Chennai. Yellagiri, also known as poor man’s Ooty, is a great place to unwind yourself. Situated at a height of 920 metres above sea level it has a pleasant climate and can be a perfect getaway for weekends anytime of the year. There are 11 hairpin bends on the way to Yellagiri and every bend has been named after poets such as Kambar and Valluvar. It takes approximately an hour by bus to go uphill. The view from the top is overwhelming especially in the nights. We were lucky to have a glimpse of the town Jolarpet from the top, looking like stars scattered down below. Yellagiri comprises of 12 villages and Athanavoor is the biggest of them all. My friend Jeyachandran alias JC a local of Yellagiri, who is also the only General Physician in the mountain hamlets, was kind enough to show me some of the best spots not featured in any guide books or maps. There are three major attractions in Yellagiri. There is the artificial lake known as the Ponganur lake, where boating is popular. Then there is Swami Malai, near Mangalam, a hamlet at the foot of the hill . It’s an easy climb taking about an hour with infrequent breaks (about a 1000 foot climb). Smaller peaks with quaint names like the Jawadi Hills, Palamathi Hills and others are also worth climbing. The Jalagamparai Waterfall is a five km trek from Yellagiri downhill. It’s a tough trek, but the view of the valley from the sides of the mountain is truly rewarding. It’s not the mountains alone which are special but the quiet villages, thatched houses, the fields and its farmers, sunrise and sunset draws you close to this beautiful hill station. JC, my doctor-friend promised to take me to a place which does not feature in any guide books or maps. We headed to a mountain near Nilavoor. We had to cross a stone quarry which is not open to the public because of the dynamites used to break these mountains. After clarifying if we could go ahead we started to climb. It takes about ten minutes to reach the first base camp but from here only those who dare can reach the temple on top of the hill.

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A very steep rock welcomes us but undaunted I decided to climb only to slip. Prakash, a localite, well-versed with the topography of this region asked me politely to remove my shoes. Also we could not enter the temple with footwear. Anyway I heeded to his words and he helped me cross the first hurdle. There is again an iron ladder with about 30 steps without any support to take us to the temple. Winds are strong enough to push you off your feet and looking at the steep ladder ahead I was a little hesitant. But then the world belongs to those who dare and so I ventured. The sight was indeed rewarding. We can see the whole of Yellagiri, its surroundings, Swami Malai , Jalagamparai falls and the nearby Jawadi hills. As JC pointed out, this place was indeed a suicide point as there was a steep gorge very close to the temple. A small slip can prove to be fatal.

This place also has its mythological tales. It is said that a girl got trapped when she came to pray who was later considered as a goddess. People come to worship here on special occasions.

Driving from Chennai Yellagiri is about 250 km from Chennai. The Poonamalee High Road out of the city leading to the Bangalore highway towards Vellore via Sriperumbudur, Walajapet and Katpadi. Vellore would be ideal for a break, there are a lot of eating places right on the highway. From Vellore continue on to Ambur and then towards Vaniyambadi. Take a left at Vaniyambadi and another left at Ponneri towards Yellagiri- watch out for this one as it is easy to miss. The roads are well punctuated with signboards in English, and the roads expecially the Chennai-Vaniyambadi stretch ed matrix august 2008

are excellent. It is fairly safe, watch out for the occasional truck that changes lanes abruptly. There are 11 hairpin bends on the ghat road from Ponneri to Yelagiri and the road is pretty narrow so you can’t actually park a car to enjoy the view except at some of the wider hairpin bends. Bikes won’t have this problem though. Please note there are no petrol stations in Yellagiri, so it’s always better that fill up your tanks in the city. Except for a few tyre changers there

You need to see a forest, mountain and a river once in your lifetime.

By train By train, you will have to alight at the Jolarpet Junction from where both public and private transport can take you to the hills. The frequency is very less so watch out.

Sight Seeing Swami Malai, Jalagamparai Waterfalls, Vainu Bappu Solar Observatory, one of the largest solar observatories is in Kavalur (Jawadhi Hills). And if you are lover of temples there is one in almost every village here.

Food and Lodging There are number of eateries and lodges available. Tariff ranges from Rs 300 to Rs 3000.

Rajvee

N E W S y o u CAN US E

Wii-habilitation: Using Video Games To Heal Burns ScienceDaily — Video games — often regarded as nothing more than mindless entertainment for lethargic kids and teens — are proving to be an effective, new tool to motivate patients to perform rehabilitation exercises. Rehabilitation therapists from the William Randolph Hearst Burn Centre at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center are using the motion-sensitive Nintendo Wii video game console, along with traditional

methods, to help patients recover from life-changing injuries. Patients hold wireless remotes that control actions on screen. Players swing the controller to simulate realistic motions, like swinging a tennis racquet, swatting a baseball for a homerun, among countless other motions. For burn patients or any patient with a skin graft, moving and stretching the skin is very painful, but imperative for a successful recovery.

The Burn Centre is also employing a special add-on to the Nintendo Wii system, Guitar Hero III. The controller for the game resembles a miniature guitar. Patients strum a bar on the guitar’s body and press color-coded buttons that resemble notes. Therapists hope that Guitar Hero will help patients with burns on their hands, arms and shoulders to regain fine-motor control. For details visit http://www.med.cornell.edu/

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ImPrint

Owned & Published by KALPANA.E and Publised from 36/201, V.O.C IInd Street, Ponniamman Medu, Ambattur Taluk, Chennai- 600 110 and Printed by V.N.A. BASHEER AHMED at Patel Graphics No. 573, Anna Salai, (Inside Congress Ground), Chennai - 600 006. Editor: RAJVEE. S

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