Banker to every Indian.

Over 16000 branches. $127 billion in assets. The only Indian bank to feature in the Fortune 500 list. A banking behemoth. And as a recent public relation activity suggests, the banker to every Indian. Yes, you guessed it right, I’m talking about State Bank of India.

The sweet pleasure of ‘feel good’ was sensed by the great Indian middle class. After all it is satisfying to know that even fishmongers can operate a bank account in our country, save their menial earnings and ultimately progress. ‘Jai Ho’. The government of India that owns a sixty percent stake in the bank couldn’t complain at a time when it has to play with a double-edged sword of ‘recession’ and ‘election’. Two words that send a chill down the spine of any government in power.

This blithe was shattered, at least on a personal level as I set forward on a tax saving mission just before the March end deadline. A well-wisher suggested opening a PPF (public provident fund) account with a public sector bank. And what better than State Bank of India, the best and largest of Indian public sector banks.

I set about on opening an account equipped with the addresses of most of the State Bank of India branches in the eastern satellite township of Delhi. Apparently an easy pursuit, I faced my first roadblock when I couldn’t trace where to ask about opening a PPF account. But my apprehensions were soon put to rest as I saw a small plastic board dangling on corner of the ceiling of the branch declaring ‘PPF/Senior Citizens’. Happy to see the board, I marched forward to know how I can become the ‘proverbial’ State Bank of India customer like they show in the advertisements. After negotiating a queue and spending some time near the counter, a young and smart officer, probably a direct recruitment from the bank exams, curtly asked my residential address. I was not expecting an oral revelation of my residential address and quite bewildered, I answered. I was further surprised to know that I cannot open a PPF account in this branch because there are State Bank of India branches nearer to my residential address. I never knew that bankers also had a ‘cable guy’ mentality of diving areas.

Imagine Swiss banks declining deposits from around the globe! The officer was however courteous enough to tell me which branch I should get in touch with. I rather reached the next branch with an air of high place as a much larger branch’s officer has confidently sent me here. Now no one could stop me from opening a PPF account. After all I was in the right place. I mentioned my purpose of being there to another officer, much older, probably pushing retirement. He brought out a printed paper with lot of things outlined. One set of points were documents admissible as identity proof and another set as address proof. I found I had almost all documents that pass as an identity proof like Voter ID, Driving License, Passport and, PAN card.

Now came the tricky part, address proof. One look made me feel I have them. Credit card bills, telephone bills, letter from an employer seemed quite familiar. But my world came crashing down when the officer with an acidic smile explained that these documents should be of a state-owned service provider or employer. I had none. Like most of urban Indians, I use credit cards of private banks, a private telephone company’s broadband and landline and work for a private limited company. For State Bank of India, I do not have a valid physical address. I do not exist!

I suddenly recalled the picture of the fishmonger on State Bank of India’s advertisement. I wondered does she have these address proof documents. I was also trying to think what I can say to this officer so that he agrees to open an account. I, like most Indians who have some experience of dealing with public sector banks, had asked for references or ‘introduction’ in State Bank of India within the people I know. An ‘introduction’ is an existing customer who will vouch for me being a nice person. And fortunately I had one.

When I suggested this, the officer slyly told me that this system has been discontinued. I had nothing more to say but was firm in my belief that such cannot be the system in a free democratic country’s state owned bank. So, I reached another branch that is near my place of work. I was left aghast when the guard stopped me at the gate saying I can’t get inside because lunch is underway. When did they start closing bank branches for lunch!

It was too much of repudiation for me to bear in a day. Lost all faith in Indian public sector banks all over again and State Bank of India’s public relation ‘gimmick’ and ‘Jai Ho’. When I discussed my affliction with friends, I was suggested correctives. Some also recommended good branches of State Bank of India with eager to help people.

Connection matters in our country where success is measured on a scale of number of ‘right people’ you know. I being reasonably connected for my age might end with a PPF account with State Bank of India. But the bargain is not at all conducive for a progressive nation and slumdogs turning millionaires remains a fairy tale. Or worse still a mirage following which people might get hurt.

Nandigram cauldron: An inbred dispute

The SEZ dream has gone bust. Homes burnt, men, women and children killed. Nandigram today is a battle field, staging almost a civil war.

One is inclined to think what went wrong for an ambitious chemical hub that was supposed to generate employment for thousands of people?

For facts, the Indonesian conglomerate, Salim Group wanted to set up a chemical SEZ. Nandigram was chosen for the limelight due its supply chain compatibility with Haldia, home to IOC’s and Haldia Petrochemicals’ refineries.

But this was not to be. This huge aspiring project needed land and a lot of it. Call it miscommunication by the state, or a general aversion to industry and capitalists that ironically enough, the ruling CPM had created over the decades, Nandigram revolted to the idea of resettlement.

A stronghold of the CPM till that point in time, its men, women and children came out on streets demanding project be scraped or relocated. Misinformation ruled the roost and the good-for-nothing opposition tried to cash on this issue by saying that the CPM is selling the country to foreigners. There was also the impending fear of losing land, the common man’s main source of livelihood. There were talks of jobs coming from the chemical hub, but this was uncertain. No one had worked before in any industry and this change seemed to unsettle everything, including the pattern in poverty.

CPM’s impression was that of being a party of the peasants, the daily wage labors, the ‘borgadars’ who worked for share on farms of large landowners, the common man. The newfangled, pro-industrialization image of the CPM is yet to reach out to the masses, the people who have been almost religiously voting them to Writers’ Building every five years. (I really do not want to strike the booth-capturing debate right now, although it is quite arguable.) These people, who also lived in Nandigram felt cheated. How can we sell our land to foreigners to build something we do not even understand?

Rumors regarding job uncertainty, corruption in the deal and incorrect land valuation were ensured steadily by people who do not want the progress of West Bengal, not at least the CPM doing it successfully. Fuelling everything was the fear of losing the only asset people have, land. And then there was ‘violence’.

Most appalling of all the events related to Nandigram was the onslaught by the state machinery on the common people. Thousands of policemen marched in, to crush any protest for land acquisition for the chemical hub. It is a dreadful thing to think of. Man vs Man, Indian vs Indian, State vs people.

This brings us to the unfathomable argument of to what extent should the state machinery go against the people for development? Development that is aimed at the benefits of the same people who are protesting it. Should there be policies and legislations regarding this? If yes, then on what parameters?

This is a great constitutional controversy, involving a lot of insights into human rights and public policy, best suited for the constitutional experts.
But as commoners, cannot we understand what lies in the best interests for ourselves? People with basic education will know that agrarian economies cannot match the growth or living standards of industrialized economies.

Moreover, one reasoning that is always provided against land acquisition cases in West Bengal is that the land is fertile and multi-crop. This argument is utterly baseless, not because it is false but due to the fact that land in almost whole of West Bengal is fertile and multi-crop. Where do we find barren or arid land to set up industries? The few areas where the land is less productive, largely the areas bordering Orissa and Jharkhand and the hilly areas are far away from industrial hubs of Kolkata, Haldia or the Durgapur-Bardhman. Most undesirable to any business sense.

Furthermore, it is common knowledge that the same size of land when used for industry generates more employment for the people and income for the nation than agriculture. Then why this holding on to agriculture?

If we scour deeper for answers, we find it to be a ‘colonial hangover’. Land and agrarian activities are considered belonging to us, Indians. Anything resembling industry and affluence is connected with imperialism or colonialism. No wonder, we, the educated, employed class have taken from erstwhile ‘gora sahibs’ as the successor ‘brown sahibs’. Though Indians, we take pride when poorer countrymen call us ‘sahibs’ as if are the Indian britishers. We see class difference everywhere, though the gap is closing in with rapid industrialization.

But West Bengal where Nandigram is located is a case in isolation. Communist influence and trade unionism saw the ‘flight of capital’ from the state since early seventies. The state also missed the first bus when liberalization policies were introduced in 1991, again due to the same reasons. It had been such a long time that industry and capital have become as alien as britishers for the masses. Nandigram is not the first instance. Whenever there have been efforts for large industrial projects to come up, there had been repulsion from the masses, largely due to the inertia that was created over the years.

This public apathy needs to be cured from the minds of people, not by police lathicharge and atrocities. Using gram panchayat as a pedestal, the state can easily deliver the benefits of industrialization, albeit slowly but surely.

What happened in Nandigram was disgraceful for the state and the ruling party. But the opposition is to equally share the blame for spreading imprecise and unwanted knowledge across. The so-called Bengal intellectuals came openly out in public to protest atrocities by the police. Public rallies have become regular phenomena in Kolkata, already infamous for being the ‘city of processions.’ One simple question. Why did not they invest their energies in creating awareness among the people of Nandigram about the benefits of the chemical hub? Probably walking a couple of miles in the November sun in Kolkata is after all not that bad an idea to gain limelight, proving ones commitment to a cause than spending the summer months in Nandigram, walking village to village, making people understand, in absence of basic civic amenities.

The CPM might win this ordeal of a chemical hub. Or the Trinamool Congress might win in stopping CPM in its march against commoners of Nandigram. Some Kolkata celebrities and intellectuals might win a cause for the lifetime. But if this trend continues, West Bengal surely stands to succumb.

Moto's face-off with Nokia

Hi! Wrote this one for a job test ;-) But kind of liked it...

Hope u like it too...and have some insights into the global mobile handsets market...

Nokia, a clear market leader in the global mobile phone market is facing stiff opposition from its long time competitor Motorola. Motorola, which fames to be the first company ever to make mobile telephony possible, was under attack from the Finnish mobile giant even on its home turf i.e. USA.

But the scene is fast changing. Motorola has revitalized its product range and launched a fresh new branding strategy. The company is brimming with new energy and come out with good phones with flaunting names like razr, pebl and flip. And the good news is that these are available at competitive prices to the global consumers. This is a definitive edge that Motorola is playing over its rival Nokia.

Moreover, Nokia was able to capture the global mobile market largely due to its investments on newer technologies like GSM. Motorola was happy making CDMA handsets that is the ruling technology in its country, USA. Nokia even dented into this market with flashy CDMA handsets. Motorola learnt a hard lesson as it saw its market share dwindling even in its dominion. Now, Motorola is beating Nokia on its own game. Not only has Motorola strengthened its CDMA range, its core strength, they have invested in and developed a modernistic array of GSM handsets.

Motorola has become a major player in the booming Chinese mobile handset market. Furthermore, Motorola is gradually eating up the market pie of the Indian mobile handset market where Nokia, not a long ago was ruling the roost with a more than 80% market share.

The key driver behind Motorola’s turnaround was a strong management determination which translated into a new branding strategy. The major issue facing Motorola was recognition. In all leading developing markets, Nokia and mobile handsets had almost become synonymous. The intention was now to create new products and build brands. Motorola hired world major, Ogilvy and Mather to take on the reins of building this strong awareness across the markets where Motorola was engaged in.

The endeavors have started paying off and Motorola is evidently giving sleepless nights to the top brass of the Finnish mobile handset major. If the direction and extent of this branding and marketing strategy by Motorola holds steam, we will soon see Motorola replacing Nokia at the numero uno slot.

Thats so sexy!!!

As a kid I remember a song from a Govinda-Karishma starrer being in the middle of a social degradation controversy. There was an intense imbroglio regarding the amount of harm that such morally, and by all Indian definitions, politically incorrect songs can do to our culture and children. May be even the future and economy of the country was in jeopardy.

If it still did not click, it was the song ‘sexy, sexy, sexy, mujhe log bolein’ from ‘Khuddar’. So, the media, which is quite bold today, blew the trumpets along with the moral police back then. Channels and newspapers were full of ghost stories about the future moral downfall of the society. Though some championed the cause of change like always.

Well. Honestly for most of us, it was a new word. And given the scale of the controversy, curiosity was at its crux. Oxford and Cambridge dictionaries came to rescue. Though I remember people, especially guys, across the teens' range referring to that ‘S’ word with erotic excitement for few months on.

Move over the ‘S’ word. Enter the ‘F’ word. Today we live in a society where ‘sexy’ is as good as ‘nice’. From food to drinks, advertisements to cars, even work and evenings can be ‘sexy’. But of course, men and women can also be that. That is not all. We happily curse situations, friends, enemies, ourselves, co-commuters, ex-lovers or worse still, present lovers and a host of other people and things with a wide array of versions of the ‘F’ word. We happily show our middle fingers to people, mostly when we are assured that the feedback will not be physical. Or maybe we are on an automobile and the receiver of our gesture is not.

Okay. Whatever be the reason or method. We are fine with this. I am not encouraging its use. We have to agree that we have been foul-mouthing our fellow countrymen for centuries now. I am only pointing out that we have embraced an Americanized way of swearing on people, while an Americanized way of appreciating beauty was scandalous not very long ago. Imagine the transition in less than one and a half decades. (Khuddar was released in 1994) So, the message is loud and clear. Proved again by the wheels of time. Everything changes. For better or worse, who knows? We as individuals, or even as a group of individuals cannot stop change. If the group is strong, the change can be slowed but definitely not stopped. Even ‘glasnost’ could not hide the benefits of capitalism led industrialization from the commoners of communist Russia.

And why do moral policing? Who decides right or wrong? Good or bad? All these are too subjective and should be left alone to the discretion of the individual. What tickles my funny bone is why people will not bother for obviously wrong doings in public? Leave eve teasing. Or a road rage fight. Indian males take pride in ‘pissing’ in public! And no one worries. One can ‘piss’ in public but forget that sweet ‘kiss’. Most people with whom I had the good fortune to discuss this issue have said that they will not like to kiss their beloved or be cozy simply because of the weird stares that might attract. And talking about policing, we will be doing a great job if we can achieve cent percent legal policing!

Whatsoever be the reason. Or the issue. I can feel the winds of change. Our metropolises are yet to reach western openness. Our hinterland is further away. We might not fill their footsteps at all. Our culture having a distinct identity might come up with a fresh cultural potpourri paradigm. In every walk of life, be it food, clothes, language or the social thread. And I think it will be fuckin’ sexy!