A Blog dedicated to cricket

The gamut of issues I am wanting to write is expanding by the day. To make it easier to I am starting on my first dedicated blog bat the talk. This will be a blog solely dedicated to my musings on cricket. Since cricket is a field I am extremely passionate about, expect to see a lots. Hope you enjoy reading it.

http://batthetalk.blogspot.com/

Minimum support price- A form of government sponsored inflation

Minimum support price (MSP) is a mechanism to regulate prices, wherein trading below an administered floor price in a commodity is prohibited. This is done to ensure that farmers get a minimum price for their produce and can at least recover their costs. However, lofty the idea may sound, the floor price fixed by the government for various agricultural commodities, provide valuable insights as to how minimum support price is acting as a means of government sponsored inflation. The MSP for most of the agriculture commodities has been steadily increasing. The quantum of increase is usually colossal in election years as governments want to project such increases in MSP as pro-farmer schemes and thereby, capture a greater share of the vote bank. The UPA government even takes pride in the fact that it had hiked the MSP for agricultural commodities for a greater number of times than the previous NDA government and included this as part of its election campaign.

The MSP for rice has increased from 650 per quintal in 2005-06 to 1030 per quintal in 2009-10 and for wheat it has been increased from 570 per quintal in 2005-06 to 1080 per quintal in 2009-10.The MSP for other commodities have also increased by a similar margin. When India is aspiring to lower inflation rates to about 4%, such mammoth increases in MSP seem unacceptable.

Since trade below MSP is prohibited, any increase in the MSP is bound to contribute to an increase in the price of the commodity in the market and hence an increase in food inflation. Theoretically if the MSP is above the equilibrium price determined by the forces of supply and demand, MSP is supposed to be unavailing. However, since MSP also represents the price at which government procures commodities from the farmers, farmers would never part with their produce for a price below the MSP, as they can sell to the government at the MSP. Hence, in practise the MSP represents the minimum price at which trade on a particular commodity would occur irrespective of whether the MSP is greater or lesser than equilibrium price. Further, equilibrium prices established by market forces are bound to vary year on year. There might years where equilibrium prices of agricultural commodities would plummet. However, due to political compulsions no government would revise the MSP downward and reluctance to hike the MSP, even in a good monsoon year is considered an anti-farmer measure and the party at helm faces heavy rebuttal.

While a host of factors are being cited for the high levels of food inflation, the contribution of the government to the cause cannot be ignored. As long as the governments at helm continue to indulge in inflating MSP, food inflation is here to stay.

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Quantitative Easing and its Implications

The United States administration has embarked on a new tactic to tide over the sub-prime economic crisis that originated in the year 2008 and one which it continues to reel from till date. The US economy has been characterised by high levels of unemployment (about 10 %) and stumpy economic growth (just 2%). Accordingly, to achieve higher growth rates, the policy makers are of the view that the amount of money flowing in the system should be enhanced. In order to increase the money supply, the Fed lowered the interest rates to record levels in addition to the enormous amount of money it pumped into the system through stimulus packages. It pumped in close to $1.75 trillion into the system. However, all these measures have failed to stimulate the economy and now it has resorted to quantitative easing to spur growth.
Quantitative easing is a mechanism through which the Fed prints fresh money to the tune of $600 billion and through open market operations wherein it would purchase financial assets and thus infuse money into the system. The increased money supply is supposed to bring a raise in the level of economic activity.
The policies of the current US government are strongly influenced by Neo-Keynesian economists lead by Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman. The fundamental assertion of Keynesian school of economics is that spending is imperative for the economic vigour of a nation and whenever private sector spending plummets due to an economic predicament the public sector has to intervene and spend money so that the level of economic activity doesn't fall. However common sense would dictate that saving is more important than spending. This unreasonable emphasis on spending encourages the government to spend more than it earns, which in turn drives the government to print more money to avoid a sovereign debt crisis and this increased money in the system creates inflation.
The major implication of quantitative easing is that the increased money supply in the system is bound to produce another bubble. If one were to examine the sub-prime crisis of 2007, it is amply clear that the causes for the crisis were the policies the US government followed on the aftermath of the dot com bust in 2001. The policies were aimed at increasing the amount of money circulating in the system. This massive infusion of money went straight into the real estate sector as it was perceived by the bankers as the most attractive and this resulted in the creation of a huge housing bubble. In fact even the dot com bust was due to the infusion of money that went into the technology enterprises as they were perceived as the most attractive then. However, now the banking system is uncertain of where to invest its money. That's the major cause for the liquidity crisis that the US economy is suffering from.
Another major implication of quantitative easing is that the increased money supply would create high levels of inflation. When there is more money in the system without a proportionate raise in the goods and services there is bound to be an increase in the price levels.
From an Indian perspective FII inflows are bound to increase further as the cheap money available can be invested in the Indian markets which offer the investors higher level of returns.
It is amply comprehensible from the policies being followed by successive US governments that that the government is yet to learn any lessons from its past mistakes. Instead of setting right the blemishes of the past the Fed seems to be continuing with the same path of action. I hope the US government realizes its folly and starts acting more responsibly.

What’s wrong with having a work exp?

The last week has been a happening week in the campus with summer placements on at full throttle. Though many of my batch mates managed to get themselves an internship at reputed firms my experience was disappointing. The most disheartening aspect was the discrimination meted out to people with prior work experience by most of the companies which visited our campus. Most of my batch mates with work experience of more than two years weren’t picked up by any of the firms.

I was told before joining my MBA that how work experience would add a lot of value, increase pay packages blah blah. However, I was dumbstruck to know that companies preferred freshers rather than people with prior work experience. There are still people who try and console us by saying that it’s just the scene at summers. They claim that the summer jobs being offered are supposedly menial jobs which are not suitable for people with work experience and the scene would perk up greatly in the final placements. I have decided to observe the final placements of my senior batch with earnest to affirm the veracity of the claims.

I find it difficult to comprehend as to why companies would discriminate against people with prior experience. I wouldn’t have had any qualms had they not prized our work experience and treated us at par with freshers. The thing which irks me the most is the bigotry being meted out. Work experience is considered as if it is something which is too horrific to be having in your CVs however in my opinion people with work experiance have an better understanding of corporate culture, show greater maturity.

The only advice I would give for MBA aspirants is to study hard during their graduation and crack CAT, XAT etc and join a b-school as a fresher. If one fails at his/her first attempt they will have to make sure that they make through in the succeeding year. People with less than a year of experience are usually considered as freshers and one’s chances wouldn’t be affected adversely. My opinion though is bound to change depending on the way the final placements of my senior batch progressess.

Do we need earth hour?

For those who have read my previous posts would be well aware that I am not a very big fan of the global warming or climate change phenomena. One of the activities espoused by the doom-sayers is the observation of earth hour. Earth hour is an exercise wherein people turn off lights and other equipment which consume electricity during a stipulated time. This time is different for different regions of the world. The big question is do we need to observe earth hour? We here means Indians,as I feel that almost all of my readers are Indians. Coming back to the question the answer from my side is vehement NO.

Few reasons why I don't like observing earth hour in India are,the first and foremost being my scepticism towards the global warming or climate change phenomena. The second reason would be that we already have our electricity guzzlers turned off,though involuntarily in the name of power cuts. Depending on the region were people dwell, electricity is not available for about an hour or two in a metropolis and anywhere between ten to eighteen hours in the rural areas. The situation worsens in the summer months as the demand for electricity spirals up way above the supply and states have no other option other than resorting to scheduled or unscheduled power cuts. In such a scenario it makes no sense for us to turn off the lights.

Another reason why I wouldn't advocate observing earth hour is we don't achieve anything by just switching off our refrigerators or lights or fans for a few hours.The effect of such an initiative is going to be minuscule and I see no point in participating in it.

So the next time I hear people saying they are going to observe earth hour I simply wouldn't give a damn and turn on all the acs and fans , in assurance that I can enjoy them as the demand for electricity would have come down in my neighbourhood.

IPL awards...

Those following IPL-3 would be very much aware of IPL awards. IPL for the first time this year IPL has constituted a award ceremony and there are eight different categories of awards to be presented. Further for each award there is an experts' choice and a popular choice taking the total tally of awards to sixteen. Some of the categories for which the awards would be given are best bolwer, best batsman, best fielder,best catch,most stylish player,best captain, best commentator and most fan friendly cricketer. Below is my choice for each of these awards.

Best Batsman: Sachin Tendulkar

I guess there aren't many competitors for this award. Kallis, Raina,Ganguly and Vijay do provide some competition but for the sheer consistency and the impact Sachin's knocks have had as far as MI are concerned ,make him a winner hands down. He holds the orange cap too.

Best Bowler: Pragyan ojha

There have many brilliant bowling performances in IPL-3. Zaheer Khan,Lasith Malinga have been remarkable for Mumbai, so have been Ashwin, Murali for CSK and Mishra for Delhi respectively. However Ashwin has been brilliant only in the second half and Mishra not as consistent as he would have liked and same with Murali though he was dropped for a few matches without any reason. In contrast Ohja has been excellent throughout the tournament and has managed to hold on to purple cap as well.

Best Catch: AB Devillers

One of the most toughest choices. Few other breathtaking catches were that of David Hussey, Rohit Sharma, Bollinger. But AB marginally edges them out.

Best Fielder: David Warner

Again another tough category. There have been scintillating fielding performances throughout the IPL with the likes of Raina, Rohit, Symonds,AB Devillers,Dilshan etc giving Warner a run for his money.

Most Stylish Player: Murali Vijay

Another difficult category but Vijay's stylish flicks and drives wins this award for him.

Best Captain: Sachin Tendulkar

I do agree that MI have a formidable team and the likes of Warne, Gilchrist and Dhoni are not blessed with such luxury. However its the way that Sachin carried the team leading from the front most of the times which make him the best captain of IPL-3. My choice would be vindicated if he could lead them towards the championship.

Most Fan Friendly cricketer:

The fact the I had been to only one of the matches and managed to catch all other matches in TV where you hardly get to know what players do between overs or innings breaks or before commencement of the match makes me ineligible to choose a winner. So I don't want to take a call.

Best IPL Commentator:

The commentary has been disappointing throughout IPL-3. Commentators spend more time eulogising different brands like MRF, karbon and pay very little attention to the action on the field. I like to call them marketing agents rather than commentators. So no award in this category too.

Thats my whole take on the different awards. Need to wait till 23 rd to see how many of my choices have found favour with either the judges or the experts.

Can the IPL retain its sheen?

To say that the Indian premier league( IPL) was a stupendous success would be an understatement. The IPL into its third year has so far managed to attract huge crowds to most of its matches,humongous amounts of money in the form tickets, sponsorship,advertisements etc. However, it has never been free from controversies. It all started with the hue and cry raised against auctioning of players. The second edition was blighted by issues of security and the dates of IPL clashing with elections and this eventually lead to the IPL being played in South Africa. This year the controversies surrounding the auctioning of the Kochi team has come to haunt it just at the wrong moment. The tournament is interestingly poised and we have around 5 teams competing for a couple of semi-final spots. However this recent row has managed to deflect attention from the on-field happenings to off-field issues.

All business conglomerates in India and abroad have realised the huge potential that IPL offers. The fact that IPL garnered about 3500 cr INR for the two new teams auctioned indicates the huge potential it offers. However, the billion dollar question is can IPL sustain its growth amidst all these controversies and still manage to stay attractive. My take is that IPL will collapse under its own weight. Just imagine the scenario next year. IPL with the addition of two new teams would expand further and thus the number of matches would almost get doubled to 94. Given the limited time period available to run the show it would lead to more cramming up and players would soon be complaining of burnouts. All players do have their national commitments and players would be more willing to rest their tiring bodies rather than make a quick buck. This line is already being toed by players like Micheal Clarke and Mitchell Johnson and soon we would have more players joining their club.

The other major reason is that it would lead to a saturation among the public too. People are bound to get bored with the never ending frenzy and a scenario similar to 2007 world cup would arise and thereby reduce viewer-ship and cause profits to decline and ultimately lead to the collapse of the whole league.

The IPL would be better-off if it can do away with its double round-robin format and follow a single round-robin league format wherein each team plays against the other team once instead of twice as per the present format. This would lead to a drastic reduction in the number of matches from 94 to 49 and thereby make the tournament more interesting. The other alternative is to divide teams into two groups of five each and have a double round-robin league within the group. The top 2 teams from each group can then proceed to semi-finals. This would bring down number of matches to 44 and the time period required would be much shorter and players would be more willing to participate then.

However if the IPL were to continue with its present format and play 94 matches the public and the players are bound to suffer and in such a scenario it's nigh impossible for the league to replicate its breathtaking success achieved so far.

I am back...

Its been quite a while since I have posted anything on my blog. Now that I am done with all my GDs and interviews,I have so much time to kill and people can expect a lot of posts from me as I dont have anything meaningful to do for the next two and half months.To start off my itinerary for the week looked something like this.

Apr 3 - IMT G- bangalore

Apr 4 - IIT M- Chennai

Apr 5- IIM Idr- Bangalore

Apr 6- NMIMS- Mumbai

Apr 7- a rare off day

Apr 8- MDI- Bangalore

Apr9 - IIM L- Bangalore

Apr 11- IMI- Bangalore

Apr 15-NITIE-Mumbai

The prospect of facing some many interviews within such a short span of time and the amount of travelling I had to do for it was nauseating. I also had to dwell out many a thousands of rupees towards travelling,boarding and lodging.

This is where I would like to thank the IIFT folks for two reasons. First for selecting me and then for revelling their results just at the right time. Having made it to IIFT I decided to skip most of the aforementioned interviews and attended only the interviews of IIM I , MDI and IIM L. I would be sharing my experiences of the few interview and GDs which I attended in the subsequent posts.

CAT 2009 experiance

This is a post which I have been wanting to write for a long time. Now that the CAT results are out I don't want to delay this any further.

I gave my CAT on November 30, 2009 in Bangalore. This was the first time cat was being conducted in an all new avatar. It was the first computer based test not a computer adaptive test as GMAT or GRE. Being a software engineer my eyes were sufficiently trained to stare at computer screens for a long time, I didn't have as much trouble in adjusting to this new version, though I found solving reading comprehensions and DI questions based on graphs a touch difficult. I had managed to give around 30 mock cats in the on-line format as part of my preparation so I felt fairly confident of putting up a good show.

The test was scheduled at 10:00 AM in the morning and candidates were asked to report at-least two hours prior to the scheduled time to complete the security procedures. I budgeted for Monday morning Bangalore traffic and reached the centre by 7:45 AM. We were then directed to a waiting hall and made to wait for about an hour before candidates were called in groups of ten for fingerprint scanning and our photographs was also taken. We were then given a 15 minutes break to refresh and the test started at around 10:00 AM. I was so happy that things were proceeding without any glitches and we could start on time. I had read enough reports of technical snags in the previous days so I was elated to start on time. Candidates had to sit through a 15 minutes tutorial before they could start with their test. The tutorial was the same as the one which was uploaded on YouTube, so I just glanced through it without paying much attention. At 10:15 all of us started the test. I started with VA , my strongest section and things were progressing well. I had managed to finish off about 10 questions when misfortune struck. An error got displayed on my screen and soon the application delivering the test collapsed. My initial reaction was that it was a problem with my system alone but I soon found out that the whole centre was facing the same problem. It apparently had something to do with the server delivering the test and we soon had frantic prometric staff running around, making calls to their seniors finding out how to resolve the whole issue. I was praying that the whole thing be resolved asap as I had to go back to work once the test was over. I was looking helplessly at the prometric staff and I soon got bored and started feeling sleepy. I then started having a conversation with the guy next to me to shake off my sleep and bingo a prometric staff intervened and cautioned us against talking to one another inside the testing hall. Faced with no other option I decided to dose off and had a reasonably good nap only to be woken up by an announcement by a prometric staff that if the issue was not resolved within another 20 minutes our tests would be rescheduled. I felt like a thunderbolt had been delivered. The problem with rescheduling is that its done according to prometric's convenience and their is a high probability of the test being held in Lucknow or Bhopal at a time which may not be convenient to me.Fortunately the issue was resolved within the deadline and we got to proceed with our test by 12:30. Before proceeding we were offered a break of 15 minutes and I quickly went to the restroom and splashed some water on my face to shake off the sleep. My test was completed by 2:30 PM and I found the difficulty level of the test to be quite low. The conundrum with such a test is that it narrows down the line between students who have prepared well and those with reasonable preparation. There were also some many uncertainties involved this year like the normalization of scores of people giving their tests in different slots and there were also reports of questions being repeated which conferred an advantage to people giving their tests at a later date . This was the time I decided that there was no use worrying about all these things and told myself that I have given the test and there is nothing I can change so let me better concentrate on the upcoming exams.

Everyday there were reports of people facing technical snags in different centres and I decided not to give much hear to them. The most disturbing news however arrived during the third week of January. A good month and a half after the testing window was closed and at a time when results were expected to arrive. The IIMs had arrived at a set of criteria on which the tests would be conducted again based on complaints received by candidates who faced glitches during their test. One criteria was that tests would be rescheduled if the the total time exceeded 140 minutes. I very much fall into this category as my testing time took a total of more than 250 minutes. The retest was to be conducted on 30 and 31 st of January just a day before my IIFT Gd/pi which was scheduled on February 1. This news just drove me crazy. I needed to put in a great deal of preparation for my interviews and if I were to take CAT again I had to start revising them again as I was pretty much out of touch in solving CAT questions. I then decided to call up prometric and by god's grace they informed me that there was no need for me to give the test again and my scores of the test I wrote on November 30 would be considered. I was very much relieved after hearing this news and started off with full swing for my IIFT Gd/pi preparations.

Then came the endless wait for the results. The results were originally scheduled to be declared on January 22 but were postponed to third week of February and then again postponed to end of February. Eventually the results were out on February 28 though only IIM Ahmadabad and Shillong had declared their lists of shortlisted candidates for the next phase of the admission process. IIM Calcutta and Lucknow came up with their respective lists by March 3,IIM Bangalore,Indore and Kozhikode are yet to come up with their list though. After rejects from Ahmadabad, Shillong and Calcutta on account of low scores in quants ,I was extremely elated to find my registration number in Lucknow's list. I hope to get a call from at least one IIM out of B,K and I. Fingers crossed.

Why Telangana?

The demand for a separate state of telengana is an issue that has been hogging the limelight for the past couple of months. It all started with the TRS chief Mr.Chandrasekhara Rao going on a fast unto to death until his party's demand for a separate state of telengana, to be carved out of Andra Pradesh is not met.The whole issue gained ground after the demise of YSR. So why did Chandrasekhar Rao who had had his mouth shut during the reign of YSR suddenly rake up the issue of a separate telengana.People who had been following politics would easily call his bluff. He was simply trying to capitalize on the leadership vacuum created with the sad demise of YSR.

A look into the various reasons for people espousing the cause of a separate telengana makes interesting reading.The major reason for the clamour is the lack of development in the Telengana region of Andhra Pradesh. At the outset this demand sounds ridiculous. A brief look across the country and one can find most of the regions irrespective of whether they are part of a large state or a smaller one, do have despicable levels of development. Granting statehood for Telengana will increase the clamour for such small states to be formed and the associated movements are bound to get stronger. At present there are demands for a separate state of Bundelkand, Gorkhaland,Vidharbha etc..This would drive us towards a pre-independence scenario and the idea of a united single nation will undergo a heavy beating. This would leave us extremely vulnerable to extremism and affect us in all possible ways. India would then be like present day Afghanistan, where localised regions are controlled by tribal warlords and thus leave us extremely vulnerable to control by foreign hands. This lack of unity was one of the most significant reasons for the takeover of India by the English.People would do well not to repeat the same mistakes.

The second reason being offered is that small states are easy to govern and administer, hence benefits would ripple down to people faster and more efficiently. This would also accelerate development thereby narrowing regional imbalances. One just needs to have a look at all the north-eastern states to counter this claim. If the above claims had a modicum of truth behind them, then the north-eastern states would have been the most developed states in our country.

The third reason being offered is the cultural differences between people from Andhra and Telengana. India is an extremely diverse country and even within a region we have people belonging to different cultures,religions etc.. living together in harmony. Granting a separate state for people from different cultures would split apart the social fabric of our country thereby disrupting the harmony that exists. Its claimed that because of these cultural differences people of Andhra have always discriminated people from Telengana and this is also being projected as the purported reason for the backwardness of the region. Supporters of telengana point out to the fact the all chief ministers of AP have come from either Rayalseema or coastal andhra. Leave aside the Chief minister. What about the other ministers or the elected representatives. Telengana has definitely had a fair share of representation and people would do well to look into why their representatives have failed so far.

The most dismaying aspect of this whole issue is the way different political parties are trying to use this issue to further their gains. Everybody is aware that YSR never espoused the cause of a separate Telengana, however he managed to win the assembly elections and that too by a huge margin. This is definitely not a people's issue. The politicians have also managed to coax the minds

of the young students and are using them as a tool to project this as a people's issue.The agitations by both the pro and anti Telengana groups has brought life to a standstill in all parts of Andhra Pradesh. Hyderabad,which was being looked up as a valuable investment hub all these years has lost its promise and people now are looking elsewhere.

The various political parties must come together and try to resolve this impasse asap. This brooding has already lead to invaluable loss of life of many a young students apart from valuable loss of property and investment. The people of Andhra Pradesh have coexisted peacefully for the last 50 years and politicians must not try and disrupt this harmony. It is this unity that has helped them so far and

People would do well to remain united and advance to greater heights.

My new found love...

Who or what is my new love? For those of you who guessed it as who am sorry people I am yet to find someone.I am single and ready to mingle. So what is it? Its carnatic music. So what brought about the turnaround?What made me shun A.R.Rahman, Illayaraja etc.. and start listening to Sesha Gopalan,Sanjay Subramanium, Bombay Jayshree, T M Krishna etc. I just dont have an answer.May be it has got something to do with my genes. To those of you who don't me, my family has a rich heritage of music and many of my forefathers were musicians by profession. My grandfather used to tutor a quite a few number of students in my childhood and may be its influence is slowly rubbing on now. Though I did learn music for quite a few years I was never really interested in it.I was coerced into learning music to keep the heritage alive and running but the interest never really kicked in. Whatever learning I did was to satisfy my parents' wish and never took it seriously, naturally once the pressure of academics started to trickle in, I never ventured further.

The turnaround came around a year back and I would like to thank my job for facilitating it. Since I was into a production support type of work I had a lot of time to while away at work. Since we were also working on macs, we enjoyed unhindered access and could install or download etc...I casually borrowed a few discs from my uncle to listen to in my work in addition to the zillions of arr,illayaraja songs which I had managed to collect through my college days. The music was so exemplary and it got me hooked on to it instantly. The few discs soon became many and I also started collecting from various other sources and soon I had a decent collection of songs.Film music no longer impressed me.Listening to film songs didn't quite invoke the same feel as a kambhoji alap or a kalyani ragam thanam pallavi.

The challenge to identify the raga was so immense and this drove towards listening to more and more compositions.I would even create play-lists of one particular raga and listen to it till I got a grasp of the raga.

The Chennai music season arrived at just the right time to further my interests. This presented me the opportunity to move away from listening to recorded music to listening to live concerts. The experience of listening to musicians live was stupendous and I ended up attending most of the concerts in music academy. This was again made possible by my job. I was in bench then and faced with no proper alternatives to spend time I decided to go sabha-trotting to attend various concerts and to taste the myriad dishes that were being served.

This whole experience has rekindled my interests and I am contemplating to learn carnatic music in the near future.I may not turn out to be a Seshagopalan or a Sanjay Subramanium or a T M Krishna but it would definitely help me in understanding this heirloom heritage better.

Is Climate change really an issue?

Those of you who would have read my previous post it would be pretty clear that I am a big sceptic.But I do have reasons, a hell a lot of them to be sceptical especially with regards to climate change.Before I list out the reasons let me acknowledge the people in TIME who helped me come into the "matrix" the real world.Those of you who wish to join us in the "matrix" continue reading and people who think that I am writing something sacrilegious please do read further and bring forward your arguments, it will help me to analyze and find out the flaws if any with my views.

Why is it I am sceptical about it? The first and foremost reason is that I believe in the fact that data represents nothing. Data is like molten iron they take the shape of the things which they are moulded into.Therefore the same data can either be used to support a view or oppose it. So this whole issue of global warming is based on certain data collected by IPCC, the same organization whose reputation is under stake after the theory they had put forward about Himalayan glaciers,hence the authenticity of this study is under question.

The second reason is based on climate gate episode. The emails of the various scientists involved in the study to determine global warming have been hacked recently and the exchanges revel that data has been doctored to support the theory of global warming.

The next reason is based on a statement made by Russian president. He sees the whole issue of climate change as a ploy by the western nations to impose their green technologies on the other nations thereby reducing the clout enjoyed by the major oil producing nations. In an interesting editorial published in the hindu on january 5 th, a parallel is drawn to the Y2K scenario. That Y2K turned out to be no issue at all ,however the vested interests pocketed more than 300 bn USD by raking it up.

The next reason is based on historical precedents. The globe by nature may have phases of warming and cooling. In the 1700, the Vikings have cultivated crops in places like Greenland.This must have been during the warming phase as there was no industrial revolution then and co2 emissions were very less.Then we had ice age which could have been during a cooling phase. Even during the 1970s there were discussions among scientists about global cooling. So if indeed global warming is happening how much of a role does human beings play in it.

These are some viewpoints we need to ponder upon before we embark on cutting emissions and embracing green technology. So does that mean we continue with our emission spree and care little about our environment? Definitely not. It would be better if we leave it to the markets.If green technology is as good as our current technology and if its available for a much cheaper rates people would definitely embrace it. Just to drive my point further, if a car which is running on solar power or wind energy is as good as the cars which runs on petrol or diesel and is available at a much lesser price why wouldn't people use it. The same goes with any other technology as well.

But what has going green done to us. The use of agriculture farm lands to cultivate bio-fuels and diversion of corn from food to fuel lead to a spiralling of global food prices and thereby increasing hunger and poverty.

The whole issue of global warming needs further understanding and till there are enough facts to prove me to the contrary I would remain a sceptic.

IIFT Group Discussion and interview experience

Before I dwell into my experience let me let people know what IIFT means. Contrary to popular belief IIFT is an abbreviation for Indian Institute of foreign trade and not fashion technology. Its one of the top 20 b-schools in India and offers a specialised MBA in International business.

I had my essay writing, group discussion and interview process which comprises the second phase of the admission process, on 1 st Feb 2010.( It was my birthday). Though I did attend a few mock interviews and participated in a lot of GDs as part of my preparation, I wasn't particularly confident and the desperation to convert this call as I had no other calls made this exercise extremely nerve wrenching.

The interviews were held in coffee board,Bangalore and though we were supposed to be at the centre by 9:10 ,I reached by 8:40 as I didn't want to take a risk with Monday morning Bangalore traffic. To my surprise I found a lot of aspirants had arrived much before me. I took a newspaper with me just to while away my time and to know at least the day's headlines as I have heard interview panellists do quiz people on it.

The first step was essay writing. They gave us a high school level topic to write on, pretty weird as IIFT's topics are reputed to be on the lines of the current happenings and I was expecting something on telengana or Climate change or Recession etc..We had to write an essay of about 300 words on " Domesticated Animals are man's best friends" in about 20 minutes. I did take a while to get a grasp of the topic and wrote a few interesting points about how man has domesticated animals from his early days, what is current scenario etc.. I also dwelt into the ego aspect of man-man relations etc.. I touched upon the exploitation of animals for material gains. All in all a fair amount of points though in hindsight I wasn't happy with logical flow of ideas. I couldn't conclude the essay too as I had exhausted the time and the paper was snatched away. :(

The next stage was the GD. We were divided into 4 groups and despatched to various halls according to the group allocated. IIFT gds are quite different from the normal ones. Here each participant is given about 2 minutes initially to express his/her views and then there is an open discussion and then each participant is given a chance to summarize his/her views. Since it is well structured the fish market scenario was avoided to a certain extent. The topic was on Climate Change a topic which I was praying to get since I had prepared a awful lot on it. Thanks to the radical views thrown to me during my preparation phase at TIME I was able to give an all new perspective to the GD. I did took the stand of a sceptic and since I had prepared well I did have valuable points to contribute. I was surprised to see me being the only person speaking something contrary to the established beliefs. Everybody was taking about Kyoto,Bali, Copenaghan,IPCC etc...That I took a different stand is a big advantage but at the end of the day it depends on how the panellists view it. That I had to speak 2nd during the initial introduction was another advantage as my views sounded original. Thank god the guy before me wasn't a sceptic like me. In the open discussion I did chip in for 5-6 times though I felt I was a bit aggressive.The GD really helped my confidence though and it rubbed on to the interview as well.

The interview was a very cool process and the panellists were extremely amicable and tried to make us feel as comfortable as possible. It was very general and most of my questions were related to my father's business(I had written a awful lot about it in my CV form) and how would I compare it with my experience in TCS. There were questions like important learnings from TCS, what are certain things in TCS that can be implemented in my father's firm,how can they be done etc...Since I had also taken up a certification on stock markets I was queried about what are shares,bonds,stocks etc...The whole interview lasted about 10 minutes and I felt really good.

Since I was the second person to be interviewed all the process was complete by noon and I had the rest of the day to roam around Bangalore.

I do feel I have put up a decent show but looks like everybody has had a similar kind of interview. So no idea of what to make of it. Just need to wait for the results, a long wait as results are likely to come by 3 rd week of march.

End of the season....

With me giving my NMAT on Feb 6 th marked the end of my long season of exams. I gave a whooping seven exams spread over three months. This is just one phase of the admission process and if I happen to qualify in any of these tests I then have to slog again for the next phase comprising of essays, GDs and interviews which I have heard from people who have been there before are a whole lot tougher than the written tests. No wonder that management career is tough.

The season started off with the IIFT test in mid november and it was a dream start as I managed to qualify which I wasn't expecting to because of my poor score in one of the sections.Then came the mother of all exams CAT. Any exam in which more than 3 lakh people compete for a meagre 1600 seats is challenging irrespective of the syllabus, quality of people competing etc..The challenge got tougher as CAT was presented in an all new avatar for the first time this year.Though I did slog for over 8 months with my preparation and being a software engineer I was reasonably comfortable with the on-line format, still there were a lot butterflies in my stomach before the exam.The phone calls from my friends wishing me luck and the media reports of the technical glitches faced contributed to increasing my level of nervousness. In the end it turned out to be a damp squib. The paper was so easy that any body with a decent level of preparation could have cracked it. Now this decimates the line between the people who slogged their hearts out and the ones who just gave it a shot.Add to this the fact the most of the questions were repeated from previous years papers and previous slots and about 8000 had the option of giving CAT again( some 1.5 months later), CAT has in effect turned out to be a big lottery. All that I can do is hope that by divine grace I do manage to get a few calls.

After a lull of about 2 weeks after CAT I had to give JMET then followed by SNAP a week later. Given the fact that these exams are a lot more easier and I was looking to get into any of the top 2 or 3 colleges which accept these scores, an extremely good performance was required. I did put in a decent performance in SNAP, JMET though I felt I could have done a lot better. Then XAT followed a couple of weeks later and then FMS and then NMAT a month later.

In the first week of January the results of all these exams started to trickle in and I was faced with one disappointment after another. It was all a case of so near yet so far. The biggest disappointment was SNAP where I missed the boat by a mere half a mark and then XLRI which was again by a similar margin. JMET was another disappointment though I very much expected it. FMS and NMAT given my horrible show I am not even willing to check the results.

So what does the future holds for me now? I had quit my job too hoping to get a few calls and convert at-least one of them. So far the calls have been from IIFT and XIM B and I am expecting calls from a few IITs. A good result in CAT and a convert from any of these institutes is all that I can hope for as of now. Fingers crossed.