Seven Billion Dreams. One Planet. Consume with Care.

The state of our environment is critical to human health and survival. Human beings depend on the environment for food, clean air, and water. Our diet includes plants and animals whose survival and safety depend on the state of the environment. Environmental pollution destroys ecosystems that are important to human health and part of our food chain. In additional, the environment is the source of natural resources that nations require for economic growth. Nations create wealth by trading their natural resources and products of such resources with other nations.

The Theme for World Environment Day for 2012 was ‘Think, Eat and Save’.  Think, Eat and Save was an anti-food waste and food loss campaign which was launched to encourage everybody to reduce their food print. The impact of food waste is not just financial. Environmentally, food waste leads to wasteful use of chemicals such as fertilizers and pesticides; more fuel used for transportation; and more rotting  food, creating more methane – one of the most harmful greenhouse gases that contributes to climate change.

Retailers’ strict cosmetic standards result in rejection of food items not perfect in shape or appearance. Consumers’ waste food through excess purchase and careless eating behaviors’. If food is wasted; it means that all the resources and inputs used in the production of all the food are also lost.

A recent study by the Indian Institute of Public Administration on the wastage of food during social gatherings in national capital region Delhi, shows that rising economic prosperity makes people indulge in extravagance and ostentatious behavior during social events and people do not mind throwing away food, but the menu has to be extensive as any shortage would affect their so-called honor and respect in society. Also, celebrations of plethora of festivals in Indian societies waste food on such occasions as it is prepared on a large scale.

Given this enormous imbalance in lifestyles and the resultant devastating effects on the environment, it is expected out of us to become more aware of the environmental impact of the food choices that we all make and empowers all of us to make informed decisions. The objective rallies us to take action from our homes and then witness the power of collective decisions which we and others have made to reduce food waste, save money, minimize the environmental impact of food production and force food production processes to become more efficient.

Although governments bear the responsibility of protecting the environment, all citizens have a role to play in keeping the environment clean and safe.

I would urge you to look for wastages happening around in your vicinity, in canteens, at office get together, at guest houses, in your own house or when you go out to eat in a restaurant. Think of innovative ways to reduce food wastages and you would be doing your bit to save the world

Towards a Digital India

Date: 19^th April 2016

To,
Shri Narendra Modi,
Hon’ble Prime Minister of India,

New Delhi

Dear Sir,

Greetings.

I hope that this letter finds you in best of health and spirit.

First of all, a hearty congratulations to you and your entire team for doing a wonderful work for the country. I follow each of your agenda and I feel proud in sharing that your actions and efforts inspire me every day.

I am writing this email to share a suggestion with you. I am highly ambitious about the fact that you have shown us a dream of ‘Digital India’. With the action plans and strategies which you have planned, I am certain that in future, Digitization will become an integral part of our lives. The drive for automation and other advancements such as artificial intelligence in each sector will transform the country and at the same time drive our economy to a greater level.

I would like to bring to your notice that Companies Act 2013 and SEBI regulations state that any Company shall maintain all records as per the Companies Act, 2013 and SEBI Regulations for not less than 8 (Eight) Years and all these documents to be preserved at the Registered Office of the Organization. While in the age of Digitization, I believe that preserving these documents in physical form should not be a mandatory clause as per the Companies Act and SEBI guidelines. I would request you and your team to propose an amendment in the Companies Act 2013 and SEBI Guidelines by passing an amendment in the upcoming session of Parliament or through Cabinet approval that these documents can be acceptable in digital form (soft copy stored on company server/cloud) as well.

Sir, you will agree with me that as a digitized country, it will be very heartening to see that no matter which whichever branch or office of any company that you visit, you will be able to access these documents and audit as per government guidelines if we store those documents in soft form rather than maintaining it at physical form. 

I hope my suggestion will be looked upon and implemented.

Jai Hind..!

Cc:       

1. Mr. Ravishankar Prasad, Hon'ble Minister Department of Telecom

2. Mr. Arun Jaitley, Hon’ble Finance Minister, Minister of Corporate Affairs and Minister of Information and Broadcasting

3. Mr. Jayant Sinha, Hon’ble Minister of State for Finance

4. Ms. Nirmala Sitharaman, Hon’ble Minister of Commerce and Industry

Regards,

Varinder Singh

A proud citizen of India

Mumbai

Book Review: Beyond the Last Blue Mountain by R.M.Lala

Russi M. Lala, the author of the book – Beyond the last blue mountain who was also known for his books on the house of Tata also happened to be a good friend of an aviator, an entrepreneur, an industrialist, a visionary, a reformer, a leader and a patriot – Shri J R D Tata. Beyond the Last Blue Mountain is a biography of J R D which is divided into 4 sections,. The first section of the book talks about J R D's family heritage and the circumstances of his birth and his childhood days along with his growth as the assistant to one of the directors at Tata Steel as well as his courtship with Thelma Vicaji.  J R D was born at Paris on 29th July 1904.

The second section shares the stories of rise of Tata Airlines as J R D’s brainchild and then, its nationalization into Air India and subsequently to Air India International. The book also mentions that J R D was the first Indian to have flown from Karachi to Bombay, when he founded the Tata Airlines in 1932, the forerunner of Air India which is today the national airliner. The book also showcases a copy of his driving license which has the No. 1 printed on it.

The third section talks about the how J R D has made a conglomerate grow, which takes a credit of providing the services and products to the world ranging from salt to software. Under his chairmanship, ‘M’ was replaced by ‘B’ (The Tata Group grew from 100 Million dollar company to 5Billion dollar company). J R D started with 14 enterprises under his leadership and half a century later on July 26, 1988, when he left, Tata & Sons was a conglomerate of 95 enterprises which they either started or in which they had controlling interest.

The final section of the book throws light on J R D as a loving patriarch, a bobel citizen and an inspiring leader of men. The book also proves that one need not be a politician or activist or civil servant to serve the nation. J R D lived a life full of inspiring stories for the world and proved to this world as how a business man can serve the nation for which the Government of India conferred him with the highest award of the country – The Bharat Ratna in 1992. The book has also been successful in bringing on the table the details about the industrial, social and political history of 20th century India.

Ever since, he landed at India, he kept on adding new dimensions to this nation. Creating employments for lakhs of people in the world and working with a motive which aimed only at nation development, talks about the magnanimity and the generosity of the spirit named ‘Jehangir Ratanji DadabhoyTata.’ The Indian Air Force conferred the rank of Air Commodore on J R D Tata and later promoted him to the rank of Air Vice-Marshal. 

The book inspires me and makes me feel proud to be a part of his legacy and I pledge to sustain this legacy.           

Letter to Minister of Human Resource Development – Govt. of India,

To,

Ms. Smriti Zubin Irani,
Hon’ble Member of Parliament – Rajya Sabha &
Minister of Human Resource Development – Govt. of India,
New Delhi
India

Subject: Feedback - All India College Rankings

Honourable Madam,

I hope that this letter finds you in best of health and spirit. Please accept my compliments and appreciation for the efforts being put by you and your team to arrive at All India Rankings for Colleges in Engineering, Medical and Pharmacy Category and also the All India University Rankings. More than anybody else, the parents of the kids seeking admission for their children will get benefited and relaxed to decide upon the future of their wards. As a citizen of India, I am very proud of the way the present government is taking up steps to bring ‘Ache din.’ It is a fact that development cannot happen in a day or two but it is essential that any step which is taken should be aimed at it. Your ministry like many other colleagues of your party are not leaving any stone unturned. Whether it’s Railways, External Affairs, Finance or Defence for that matter, each of the team members of Team NaMo are consistently raising the bar to redefine their own performance. I wish each one of your luck and best wishes for the tough challenges ahead. You will continue to receive brickbats from the opposition but as a citizen of India, I have accepted this Government with open arms. These days, the opposition team doesn’t even bother us because we know that the government is working for this country’s development.

Madam, I would like to share few suggestions which I think may help you and your team in the next All India College Rankings. I am certain that rankings will certainly close the shop of some sold media houses which have shown few colleges (after charging them lakhs of rupees) as the best in the country which didn’t even exist 10 year ago or nor do this exist today. I would also like to share that while your team has evaluated all the colleges in the country but there are some good one’s which got missed out in the list. Some of them include: TISS – Mumbai, IIFT – Delhi, FMS – Delhi, XIM – Bhubaneswar, IRMA – Gujarat, NMIMS – Mumbai to name a few. There could be several reasons that these colleges doesn’t feature in your list. The list published by you also contains few names which do not deserve to be there at this point of time. May be they will require some more years to reach there. May be, you would be interested in personally examining these in the rankings next year. Also, while the rankings have been considered, I would also request you to consider NAAC Certification and NBA Ratings in the evaluation criteria.

I am certain that you will not settle at anything less than bringing at least 25 Indian Universities or Colleges in the top 500 colleges of the world. I am also sure that the day is not far when we will achieve this milestone and then whole Indian Political History would remember you for your efforts.

Once again, my compliments and appreciation to you and your entire team for starting such an initiative from the Government side which could have been done by previous governments much earlier.

Jai Hind..!

Regards,
Varinder Singh         
A Proud Citizen of India           

    

    

Misconceptions regarding Alumni's of IIM A

Being a alumni of IIM A has great perks. But, just like Peter Parker's Uncle Ben would say, with great perks - come even greater misconceptions.

• You get access to an enormous number of opportunities around the world - so people think that everyone on your campus gets a 1.2 Cr job
• You get a lot of respect from people just because you're from IIM A - so people think you should have an answer to every business question
• You can be with your girlfriend all through the day (and the night) - so people think all you do is what those two did in 2 States
• You have access to a fantastic alumni base - so people think you've hung out with and are surely going to be Raghuram Rajan
• You know a lot about IIM A and the CAT - so people think you know the answer to every question which goes like "I have X% in 10th, Y% in 12th and Z% in UG, will I get into IIM A?"
• You have fantastic internet access - so people think that it's your obligation to download movies and get it for them
• You have lot of Guest Lectures being organized in the campus - so people that you would have met all the big celebrities in the world and would soon going to be the next Ajay Banga of Master Card

Hope we all will clear these misconceptions soon.

Why we can never have FRIENDSHIP with Pakistan

• 28^th May, 1999: IAF MI-17 shot down by Pakistan; four air crew dead, leading to Kargil War
• 26^th November 2008: 10 members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, an Islamic militant organisation based in Pakistan, carried out a series of 12 coordinated shooting and bombing attacks lasting four days across Mumbai.
• 2^nd January 2016: In a pre-dawn attack, a group of heavily-armed Pakistani terrorists, suspected to belong to Jaish-e-Mohammed outfit, struck at an Air Force base in Pathankot in Punjab, leading to a fierce gunbattle

All the above attacks were started by Pakistan but ended by India. The irony is that on 20^th February 1999, Hon’ble Prime Minister of India – Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee, accompanied by 22 eminent Indians, visited Pakistan with a message of friendship through the Wagah Border and in the same year, Pakistan attacked India which led to Kargil War. This didn’t stop here. The same message was further carried by Hon’ble Prime Minister of India – Shri Narendra Modi while he was returning from Kabul visited Lahore on the Pakistan’s Prime Minister’s invitation on 25^th December 2015 to wish him (Nawaz Sharif) on his birthday. Pakistan accepted the visit but backstabbed by attacking at Pathankot at pre-dawn time on 2^nd January 2016.

Such heinous incidents lead to a situation where people are forced to believe that Pakistan has become a habitual backstabber. Every time there are talks and Pakistan agrees that terrorist attacks will be stopped from their side but what India sees is every time there is a breach of trust from their end. It was sad to know that in October 2010, former Pakistan President and former head of the Pakistan Army, Pervez Musharraf revealed that Pakistani armed forces trained militant groups to fight Indian forces in Kashmir. He confessed that the government ‘turned a blind eye’ because it wanted to force India to enter negotiations besides raising the issue internationally.

The facts are even more astonishing. The US Secretary of State included Pakistan on the 1993 list of countries which repeatedly provide support for acts of international terrorism. It would not be incorrect in saying that that Pakistan has been playing both sides in the fight against terror, on the one hand, pretending to help curtail terrorist activities while on the other, stoking it.

We have given many chances to our neighbour but now their intentions are loud and clear. Enough has been said on friendship, peace and trust. These words do not feature anywhere in their dictionary. The country has lost many sons and daughters who became a victim to their heinous crimes – some were the innocent lives while others got martyred while defending the country. It’s time to arise, awake and stop not, to understand and send them a message that India is not ready for any FRIENSHIP. First mistake from their side can be forgiven, second mistake can be ignored but if they repeat mistakes, they need to be punished.

Jai Hind..!

 

The CSR Journey

With an intent to uplift the society and the community at large, Tata Power has always been instrumental in driving activities which impacts the community and other stake holders and help them develop themselves. As a part of my ACE development progress, I got an opportunity to contribute in this field in the form of CSR Projects at Jojobera and Kalinganagar.

The journey of CSR started with Jojobera where the target was to complete 2 Projects – To revisit the Community Engagement Index (CEI) and test it by implementing it on one of the intiative; and to implement the ‘Swachh Bharat – The Tata Power Way’ initiative at Jojobera. After the CEI was finalized in consultation with Prof. Madhukar Shukra, Professor – XLRI, Jamshedpur, the task was to test the Index on one of the initiative. Under one of the thrust areas of CR – VIDYA which aims at augmenting rural primary education system with emphasis on girl child education, the CR Team at Jojobera have undertaken several initiatives to improve the quality of life of people through education. The CEI was calculated on the basis of 3 factors – the feedback from the community, the feedback from the volunteers of Tata Power and the Outcome of the initiative. The CEI score obtained at the end of the initiative was 90.2%. The second part of the project was on implementing the Swachh Bharat initiative at Jojobera. A competition was rolled out among all the departments of Jojobera where each department nominated one ‘Swachhta Sutradhar’ from their department for whom a training was conducted on ‘5S’ by Mr. Supratik Mukherjee. Each department engaged themselves for a period of 3 days to clean their workstations in line with 5S principle. A jury comprising of external and internal members audited each of the department and Safety Department was crowned as ‘The Most Swachh Department’ of Jojobera.

After completing these two projects at Jojobera, the destination shifted to Kalinganagar to complete the third and the final project of CR Stint. This time the project was on ‘Community Need Assessment’ for IEL – Kalinganagar. There are 12 villages identified as the scope of the community at Kalinganagar which comprises of approximately 2,918 households and 11,273 people. The objective was to meet these people and study their current situation and understand their immediate and long term needs and also prioritize the needs of the community and recommend the key initiatives to be undertaken to improve the overall scenario. After conducting a detailed community need exercise some of the key needs which emerged were to ensure clean drinking water for the community members as the water at Kalinganagar has very high iron content; to sensitize people to develop Rural Toilets at their homes which will help in making the community Open Defecation Free; To sensitizing the Parents on Importance of Education (primary as well as higher education) and at the same time improve Functional Literacy of Parents and improving involvement of students through Summer Camps, Competitions, etc.; Training the youth on Skill Development and Re-starting the SHG’s and arranging work for them such as Papad making, mushroom cultivation, Agarbatti, etc and Integrating the services in IEL Premises for Market Linkage

The overall experience has been full of learning and the exposure of having spending time with the community members has made an important impact on my approach to look at any situation in life. I feel each and every employee must undergo a CSR stint in their life. This would help each one of us to become a complete professional.