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Become a Social Investor with “Rang De”

Abhishek — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 03:26:58 +0000

I mostly keep my writings focused on HR, Management, People and Technology, but from time to time I have the urge to write about larger issues – ways in which we can make a difference.

Some of you might have heard about Kiva – an organization founded by a passionate couple which allows people to lend money via the internet to fund microfinance institutions in developing countries, which in turn lend money to people in need of funds for small businesses. I simply loved the idea, but was a bit disappointed that they have not yet been able to develop this model strongly for India.

In comes Rang De, which makes a bold attempt to recreate the model in the Indian context. Here is a quick link from their website on what really is micro-credit. So, the concept is dead simple. Rang De puts up profiles of needy people on their site with details about the business they want to start. The business plans are simple – tea-kiosk, grocery store, weaving business, cattle rearing etc. Next, people like you & me review these profiles and provide the funds for these businesses. You can start with as low as Rs. 100 (USD 2). The micro-credit agencies collect all the funds and disburse them to the people, who then pay the money back to you in equal monthly installments (current repayment rate is 99% !!!). And yes, you earn a nominal 2% interest on your social investment. So, this is no donation, it is an investment. This is our opportunity to become social investors and earn much more than interest on our investments – an opportunity to change lives.

And, it’s all doable at the click of a button, without paperwork. So, whatever the occasion, rise up to it in a meaningful way – whether its birthdays, anniversaries, pay days, celebration of victory, festivals or simply a day when you feel passionate about doing something good. Support someone and let’s share better.

Filed under: Business, Economics, Passing Thoughts Tagged: Ideas, Life, Passing Thoughts, Society

Earth Hour is Here!!

Abhishek — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 15:18:46 +0000

Okay! Earth Hour is here. And it’s time to “do the green thing”. And you don’t have to do something “earth changing” all by yourself. You just need to pledge support to this issue by switching off your lights on the 28th of March, 8:30 – 9:30 pm (your local time). By switching off your lights, you cast your vote – a vote for our planet. You can use all other electronic equipments in your house. Catch up with news. Watch Earthhour on TV. Use a fan. But, switch off the lights.

Take pictures / videos and share them on your social networks / Flickr / Picasa / Youtube or send to Earth Hour. If you write a blog, put up a post about how you celebrated Earth Hour and how you felt. Share your observations. Or, simply use 140 letters to Twitter about it. And, most importantly, before you switch off the lights, please get one more person to committ to Earth Hour.

Make a difference. Turn off the lights.

Posted in Global Warming, Passing Thoughts Tagged: Climate Change, Earth Hour, Environment, Global Warming, Ideas, Life, Social Media

iPhone Apps I Cannot Live Without

Abhishek — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 02:16:11 +0000

iLove iPhone – despite some of its limitations. It is not only the gorgeous interface and the reliable performance I like, but it’s also about the apps which add functionality to the device. The App Store has been a great succeess, with over 25000 apps and over 800 million downloads since its launch in July 2008.

I have about 80 apps on my iPhone. While I use many of these applications on-and-off, there are some which I use daily. These are apps that I love and I would dump the iPhone if these apps were not there!

So, here’s my list:

ReQall: This is my favorite app for setting reminders and getting things done. ReQall trumps in providing a dead-simple way of adding reminders from the phone – voice. It lets you add reminders by voice by recording a message within the app and ReQall transcribes it for you. It sends back reminders in the form of emails and SMS. They even have some great pro features now. And, did I forget to mention that they have a great “Memory Jog” feature.
Evernote: Again, a top-notch app. It is a simple note-taking application which takes notes in the form of text, voice and pictures. The great things is that is supports optical character recognition. So, you can search for text right inside the pictures! The package is complete with all the various access options that Evernote provides – it is easily accessible from the web, desktop app and the iPhone app – all in sync. There are many note-taking apps, but none like evernote.
Nimbuzz: If you are not my grandpa’s grandpa, I would assume you use IM (Gtalk, Yahoo, MSN etc.). Nimbuzz provides an extremely comprehensive IM suite with support for all major IM services, VoIP over wifi and “dial-up VoIP over 3G”.
Shozu: If you are a shutterbug like me, you have the need to click and post. Shozu releases the pictures on the phone and can upload to multiple websites like Flickr, Picasa, Facebook, Twitpic, Smugmug, Photobucket etc.
Facebook: Needless to explain!
Twitterfon: If you are a twit-addict and don’t want to dole out a couple of dollars for a paid app, this is the one for you. Great interface. Great functionality. It supports retweeting, opening of links, follow / unfollow, twitter search, viewing of trending topics and searching of twitter users by location. It also has a great little bookmarklet for the iPhone Safari browser which lets you post links from Safari.
Brightkite: I use this as an “add-on” twitter app. I use this to share interesting places, restaurants, bars or simply my location with my friends. It detects your location and can post a link to your twitter / facebook about your location on a map, with details about the place you are at.
Bloomberg: This is my news app of choice. Despite the fact that I love Google Reader for the iPhone, Bloomberg does a great job with business news. You can customize the news section and also take a look at leading indices, stocks, bonds, currencies etc. The app is slick and fast.
Wikiamo: This simple app lets me search and browse through Wikipedia in a format that’s friendly for the iPhone screen. A must-have.
Zyb Sync: If you are always worried about losing your contacts in case your phone is lost or gets “bricked”, this is the app for you. Zyb is a great app that can backup your contacts on the Zyb website. You can even edit your contacts on their website and sync back. Zyb was bought over by Vodafone and should be a very reliable service.

A lot of these would change with the launch of iPhone OS 3.0 and its various features. I am waiting patiently for a brand new lineup of apps this summer. What are your current favorite iPhone apps?

Posted in Mobiles, Social Media, Technology Tagged: Apple, Flickr, iPhone, Life, Mobile, News, Photos, Social Media, Technology

2008 Round-up: Most Popular Posts

Abhishek — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 07:50:58 +0000

Wow! Was that 2008 that just zipped past me!! Time flies.

It has been an eventful year for me. I got promoted. I left my job at Gallup India. I got married. Yay! I had a wonderful vacation in Thailand. Yay, Yay!! I joined Towers Perrin in Sing a pore. I went about Singapore. And so on.

Meanwhile, a lot of posts on this blog got quite popular. And, I thought it will be a good idea to do a quick round-up of the various things I wrote about in 2008.

The concept of “Micro-Boredom” and how the mobile phone has become my saviour.
My wishlist from the grand-daddy of internet – Google.
The business case for Employee Engagement. This post got a lot of attention and was eventually published on the front page of Deccan Herald’s Career Supplement DH Avenues.
I got myself an iPhone 3G and wondered if it is “smart-phone” enough. Subsequent fixes from Apple have resolved some of my issues with the almighty phone.
I borrowed from some research by my company to think about “deal-structuring” for employees or how we could maximize employee RoI from their relationship with organizations.
2008 was the year of economic ‘pain’. I mused about how we could manage differently.
I am bowled over by the wonderful system of ‘incentives’ in Singapore. But, why are restaurant staff here not incentivized enough to provide great service to customers ?
I became a fan of TED. Fascinating stuff. Kevin Kelly impressed with his talk on the next 5000 days of the web.
Mumbai will not forget 2008 so easily. Neither will I. I blabbered as Mumbai took the bullets.
I started thinking about simplifying the interfaces of enterprise applications. I think this is a big big opportunity.
I stumbled upon an idea to convert the employee benefits system into a ‘marketplace for benefits’. I have completely given up on looking at traditional system thinking on solving this critical problem that so many organizations face. An innovative and experimental approach is more likely to lead to a solution. I am looking for organizations who would like to partner with me on such an experiment.

And, if you think, I have bored you enough with this serious stuff, go straight to my alternate blog at Tumblr to enjoy some really cool pictures, videos, quotes and fun stuff. Or meet the shutter-bug in me at Flickr. Or, just head straight to my FriendFeed page to get a snapshot of all my online activity and networks.

Here’s to a peaceful and fulfilling 2009. Cheers!

Posted in Management, Passing Thoughts, Technology Tagged: Business, Cities, Economics, Employee Engagement, Flickr, HR, Human Resources, Ideas, India, iPhone, Life, Management, Media, Mumbai, Passing Thoughts, Photos, Singapore, Society, Technology, Trends, Trendspotting, Workplace

Gibberish Talk: Mumbai Burns and So Does My Soul

Abhishek — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 03:59:16 +0000

I have not stayed in Mumbai during my life. I have been there quite a few times for work and family commitments. In fact, I have never stayed in any one city for more than 7 years. I have lived parts of my life in Kolkata, Nepal, Ranikhet, Noida, New Delhi, Bangalore and now, Singapore. A rolling stone gathers no moss, one would say, and I have no special affinity for any one city. Sure. But, beyond cities, its the sheer tragedy that humanity faces is what hurts me the most. Whether it is Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Kabul, Baghdad or Jaipur that is attacked, ultimately it all leads to tragic losses for so many of us. Mumbai, surely, has a resilient soul. It will bounce back, but sometimes, I just feel that we are just “indifferent”, not resilient. Whatever I have seen in the last few years has affected me a lot. I see a dramatic change in the way my mind has been conditioned, re-conditioned and again re-conditioned over the years. Thankfully, neither I nor any of my loved ones were directly affected in the chaos that has affected so many innocent people in so many places. But, time and again, I feel that my soul has been shot at and torn apart by grenades and bombs. Time and again, I feel an absolute sense of insecurity and disgust.

Today, I live in Singapore, which has a reputation for its safety record. I know that I have nothing to worry about. But, sometimes, it all makes me feel very guilty. Guilty about not being there with my countrymen, guilty about not able to do anything about the problem, guilty about being a mere bystander on the sidelines. But, at the same time, I feel very proud of the people in the thick of it – our security forces personnel who risk everything for us, brave mediamen who bring all the stories to the masses, common men and women who are there to lend a helping hand to people they barely know and a brave new generation of bloggers, photographers, twitterers and other social media activists. Hats off to them!

The scars are deep. Profound. Sometimes I wonder, on my next trip back home, will I need to stay holed up in the safe environs of my house? Will I be able to go out, without fear, for a nature walk in Bangalore or to my favourite eating places in Kolkata or just to see my dad in his clinic in Nepal? I want to and I will. Perhaps, it is easy to bomb humans than it is to mutilate the human spirit. They simply cannot. No matter how many of us they shoot down, they can’t take away our small joys. Our future. Our hopes. Our dreams. For a better, brighter and safer tomorrow.

Posted in Passing Thoughts Tagged: Cities, India, Life, Mumbai, News, Society

Service Charge Built Into Your Restaurant Bill in Singapore – No More, Please!!

Abhishek — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 03:50:40 +0000

I have been in Singapore for close to three months now. It’s a nice place to live, work, eat and travel and that is enough to make me stay here. But, the thing that fascinates me the most about the place is the “design of incentives and disincentives.” Once you start noticing the minute details about how they have built the nation and systems, you feel amazed at the power of incentives. There is an incentive here for all the “right” behaviours and disincentives for all the “wrong” ones. Let me pick up some common examples. Singapore, for most parts of the 20th century, was a dirty country. To discourage littering, the government enacted heavy fines and followed it up with superb enforcement. Fines for littering can be as high as $5000 and repeat offenders might be sent for “behaviour – correction” activities like cleaning of public parks! I know it sounds like an overbearing idea, but it has worked for the country. And then, there is the much-admired Electronic Road Pricing system and taxes on automobiles, which disincentivizes people to own cars and drive downtown during peak hours. The pricing of parking lots, roads and cars themselves, coupled with a super efficient public transport system, incentivizes people to take public transport instead of driving around, adding to the congestion and polluting the environment. There could even be an incentive for taking early morning trains to town and easing off the peak hours. Every action or inaction has a price to it. Since it needs talented people for the economy, there are incentives to take up Permanent Residence in the country and enjoy several benefits. There are strong disincentives for smoking as it is a major cause of health problems and puts a burden on government spends. Heavy taxes make cigarettes quite expensive and there is no way you can legally get cigarettes from other countries without paying the hefty duties.

While I frantically look for such incentives, I have been disappointed with one particular system – the system of service charge or tipping at restaurants. Most eating places have the service charge of 10% included in the bill. Tipping is discouraged in most eateries and even prohibited at the airport and other places. Now, I eat out a lot and try many restaurants and whenever I fork out the dollars, I expect reasonable service. But, I find that missing in so many of these places. Having a fixed, pre-determined service charge could act as a disincentive for providing great customer service and lead to complacency or indifference in the minds of the men and women who work in these restaurants. They are effectively guaranteed the tip, irrespective of how they treat the customers! I simply fail to understand this in a place like Singapore, which goes all out to encourage the right behaviours.

Here is the link to a nice read (slightly dated) on this topic http://www.singaporeangle.com/2006/11/service-charges-replace-with-tipping.html

Update: Check out another similar post by me.

Posted in Management, Passing Thoughts Tagged: Cities, Economics, Ideas, Life, Passing Thoughts, Singapore, Travel, Trends, Trendspotting

A Little More

Abhishek — Sat, 10 May 2008 11:50:40 +0000

As newspapers are flooded with reports on the looming food crisis and the sky-rocketing food prices and how China and India are contributing to the phenomenon, my mind wandered towards the differences in the very act of serving food. In India, whenever people gather for dinner in the home of family people, inevitably you have your mothers, aunts, sisters enthusiastically serving food. Even when you are full till your mouth, “a little more” has to be served and lapped up by you. Almost all of us have heard “बेटा थोड़ा और लो ” at our family unions. As far as I understand, this is not so in Western culture. There people are supposed to eat as much as they can or like. There is hardly any motherly pressure to stuff yourself.

As I think, I feel that the act of “a little more” is symbolic of certain things. For most parts of the last few centuries and even now, India remains a poor country with extremely low per capita consumption of most food items. Offering “a little more” food, I believe, is a sub-conscious way of expressing prosperity. The act is symbolic of the fact that “we are well-to-do and there’s plenty in here.” At the same time, this act also symbolizes another deep-rooted value in Indian culture – that of generosity. The way our motherly figures literally force you to down a few more bites symbolizes that “There is enough and you can have more than you want. It’s all there for you.”

It is quite interesting how basic physical needs, over a period of time, form the fabric of a community’s culture. While in the West, the abundance of food, made it a hygiene need, in countries like India, the abundance of food could possibly signify prosperity.

My Very Own, Personal Jesus Christ!

Abhishek — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 07:12:20 +0000

I had read this piece recently where I discovered a new term “micro-boredom”. Its is basically about extremely small slices of life where one is ‘bored’ or has nothing to do. The article also goes on to talk about how technology provides a much needed escape route from micro-boredom, by filling in those small slices. If you think of it, a mobile phone offers you the privacy equivalent of being in a locked room. There is just very little distance between you and the screen of the phone to allow for intrusion. I have always thought that Indian youth are just so hooked on to their cell phones (always checking SMS, checking for missed calls, doing ‘nothing’ with the phone in a CCD) because of the sheer absence of privacy and personal space in our ‘other’ social life. Personal space is now the screen.

I have my own bouts of micro-boredom and when I think of it, I love the way various companies are tapping into my ‘nothing-to-do’ space. And, it’s far from being intrusive, but is actually quite helpful at times.

I use a Nokia E62 with Symbian O/S. It helps me check my company’s emails (MS-Exchange) with Mail for Exchange and sync my phone calendar/tasks/contacts to my Outlook. Google went on to create a suite of service for the hand phone. So, I can check my Gmail, add reminders to the calendar, watch Youtube videos suited for mobile phones, catch up on Google News, check out my Google Docs and catch up with my favourite feeds using Google Reader. They even created a handy application for Google Maps, which you can download to your cell phone. It is really useful – so when I have to find out where my hotel is located in Mumbai, I know where to look for it! Then, somebody realized that there has to be a better way to browse the net on a small screen and we got Opera Mini. Ideal for browsing, Opera Mini optimizes the internet for your cell phone. I use it to update my Twitter status; send private messages over Jaiku and connect with people on LinkedIn. It also has a feed aggregator and easy management of favourites. Yahoo Go puts in a host of Yahoo services in your palms – push email, weather updates, news, calendar and of course, Flickr. I browse through my albums, catch up on old times and share a laugh with myself at times. Then there is WidSets. It allows me to add tons of widgets to my application window – Twitter, Gmail, Jaiku, Feed Reader, Weather, Sudoku and tons of other time-killing games. I also micro-blog at Tumblr. So, you have this cool application called Tumbla, which lets you post text, quotes and pictures to Tumblr. In the evening, when I get a message that I need to be in Delhi for an urgent client meeting, I use applications from Jet Airways and Yatra.com to book my flight tickets on the go. Did I mention that I like to track the stock markets? I use Markets on Mobile from Moneycontrol to get updtes on my portfolio and the markets in general. Sometimes, when I get up in the night, I even use it to see how the US markets are doing! Whenever I feel the urge to chat up with a friend, I log onto my Gtalk / Yahoo Messenger. There are tons of options for this like Talkonaut, Morange among others. Though multiplex movie tickets are pretty steep these days, whenever I feel like I use the application from Book My Show to book movie tickets. What’s more, it even allows me to choose the seats of my preference. Oh yes! I swear I use my phone to talk as well.

So the other day, someone asked me “Don’t you get bored staying by yourself?” Nah! No way! Micro-boredom has evaporated into thin air! My phone is my saviour – my very own, personal Jesus Christ.

Salvation lies in your hands!

Holi

Abhishek — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 10:29:37 +0000

Here is something that I had written about Holi a couple of years back

You may call me a narcissist for reposting an old post, but I really like this one.

Small Joys of My Life

Abhishek — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 07:25:01 +0000

I caught myself thinking about who really am I and what makes me the kind of person I am. Given the eternal optimist in me, I started thinking about the positives; what are the small joys in my life which make me what I am. Like a good white-collared worker, I also thought it is a good idea to ‘document’ this. So, I decided to take a snapshot in time of things that make my life beautiful. So, here is the list…

The morning newspaper (with a lot of ad inserts)

The thinking pot (thats the place where I enjoy 10 minutes with myself, I get most of my ideas there)

My cold & cough in the mornings

CNBC in the morning

Udayan Da

Bread

Fried Eggs

Haggling with Auto-wallahs

Checking email on my Nokia E62

Browsing the web on my phone

The pre-recorded message of a lady saying “Please close the door” in the office lift

Numbers

More numbers

Tracking stock markets in office

Advising on the outlook for the markets

Buying 2 shares and worrying as if I took a controlling stake in the company

Dreaming of a 7 digit portfolio (that’s a minimum, by the way!)

Gtalk

Kaun-Call

Group chat on Gtalk with friends

Looking at nothing from the office terrace

Stare at the shining sun ( as if I want to scare it)

Looking at nothing from my home’s terrace

Listening to the tranquility

Feeling good about the breeze

My iPod shuffle (it’s so loud that I become immune to the world)

A “Big Mama” steak (with a lot of chilli-pepper sauce) Yum!

Some bread to go along with it

A real cold beer, please!

Fantasizing that I could be a great photographer someday

Fantasizing that I could be a great cook someday

Fantasizing that I am going to start my own business venture

Thinking about owning a house

C’mon, a car, atleast!

Leave it, atleast owning my life!!

Thinking about the wrong position of “I” in IMI; it should have been IIM

‘Strategizing’ about Indian cricket

The walk back home from office

Wondering when will Indian drivers learn to “share the road”

Promising myself that I will blog about this

Mulling over my finances

Dropping off most purchase decisions, thereafter

The smell of home when I reach there in the evening

The surge of energy for the day (evening) ahead

Worrying if the house is clean

CNBC in the evening

Udayan Da’s “mood-change” in the evening

My old laptop (literally looks like a suitcase)

The sight of a full Old Monk bottle

The sight of beer bottles sitting pretty in my refrigerator

A cigarette lying around

Fire-shots (lighting fire to Old Monk and gulping it while it burns!)

The mellow taste of lager

Reliance landline (let’s you make STD calls at 30 paise!! It’s my lifeline.)

Having long conversations with Priyanka (you know who!)♥♥♥♥♥

Boring her to death!

Aur bolo..

Take a break

Reflecting on my childhood

Taking lessons from “Everybody’s free to wear sunscreen!”

Reflecting about our relationship

At times, answer some really tough questions about my previous relationships!!

Delaying dinner as much as possible

Looking blankly at the night sky

Do some bull-sit naaambar 1 (read: poke fun)

Another peg!

Some real cold water

Kolkata

Practicing some Bengali and Punjabi with Priyanka♥♥♥♥♥

Getting thrashed for my poor attempts

Planning about my next trip to Kolkata to see her

To hell with planning!

Another peg!

Philosophizing about life

Thinking that there exists no such thing as sin

Making a plan for almost everything in life

Questioning the existence of god

Questioning the relevance of religion

Cursing the dabba-wallah for bad food

Eating it hungrily

Worrying about my marriage (most friends strongly feel its not happening!)

Wondering about my remaning “leaves”

By the way, what date and month is this?

Thinking about which all places I want to go in the world

Getting confused with the list of those places and the prioritization

Settling on the list, it’s a small list with one word “World”

Discussing the business idea that’s never going to see the light of the day

Worrying if my stamp collection (over 4000) is alright in Nepal (it is supposed to bring me a fortune someday)

7 hours of sound sleep

Another day in paradise!