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Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Capgemini enters list of top 5 IT employers in India
Ranjani Ayyar & Shilpa Phadnis
TNN


French multinational con sulting firm Capgemini has entered the big league of IT employers at No. 5, shaking up the pecking order of the largest IT-BPM employers for 2015-16 released by industry lobby Nasscom. Capgemini has displaced HCL Technologies in the top 5.Srinivas Kandula, CEO, Capgemini India, said, “India is today the delivery backbone of the group and will continue to play a significant role going forward. We have consolidated our training facilities in Pune and Mumbai and training and development will be a key focus on the people front in India going forward.“
TCS remained the largest employer for 2015-16 while the Teaneck, New-Jersey headqu artered Cognizant moved down to number three, making way for Sikka led Infosys, that stood second. Wipro remained the fourth largest employer, same as last year. The list also saw new entrants in Mumbaibased Intelenet Global Services that came in the 9th position while Canadian IT giant CGI sneaked into the top 20 list as the 20th largest employer.
These rankings come at a time when IT behemoths are reporting lacklustre numbers for the April-June quarter. Wipro announced a staid revenue growth with a 0-1% growth forecast for the next quarter. Infosys lowered guidance and TCS remained circumspect about the markets.

Source: Times of India, 26-07-2016
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Five Ways To Beat Fear In A Scary World
Deepak Chopra


We live in a world that causes people to feel anxious on a daily basis, either by reading about terrifying events or worrying that another may occur. If you look upon the world as a fearful place, you are buying into a collective story , and only you can change the story as it applies to you.Fear does many things to a person, but fundamentally it makes us feel insecure. Feeling secure is a most basic necessity , because without a sense of safety , the mind is preoccupied with threats instead of possibilities. If you go to work worrying that your job is on the line, it's nearly impossible to look for ways to be better at your job and approach the future creatively .
In truth, the remedy for fear is personal and has little or nothing to do with external circumstances. Each of us needs to find our own way out of the climate of fear; no government action is going to do it for us.
Depending on the kind of person you are and the level of anxiety you feel, here are five ways that are effective in returning to a sense of personal safety and security .
1. Become more rational, and let facts diminish irrational fears: Learn about what frightens you. Bring facts to light that offer genuine reassurance.Don't go by rumours and speculations that fuel fear. Headlines about terrorism, for example, are always scary , but your actual chance of being directly harmed is millions to one.
2. Take yourself out of the anxiety loop: Avoid news stories about terrorism. Stop being addicted to violent scenes on television of insurgency , bombings, terrorist threats, kidnappings and more. Do not promote in yourself or your family a sense of vigilance and silent dread.
3. Talk to someone who really listens: Share how you feel and ask for realistic feedback. For example, it isn't realistic to worry that you will become a personal victim of terror. If such a worry haunts you, talk about it. Avoid talking to people who fan the flames of fear. Take all worst-case scenarios with a grain of salt.
4. Build a healing connec tion between yourself and the threat: Forming a human bond with someone else is a powerful remedy ­ this bond begins in your own mind. There is no `them' out there waiting to get you. There are only human beings with the same emotions and interests that you possess. Keep that in mind when someone tries to get you to buy into a story rife with racial or religious stereotypes.
5. Be a practical optimist: There's no need to bury your head in the sand, but psychologically , there's nothing to be gained by gloomily projecting future events that you have no control over.Gaining control over your own existence is the single best way to decrease general, free-floating anxiety.
This strategy of finding your own sense of security and building upon it is very valuable, while adopting second-hand opinions about how scary the world is brings no personal growth ­ instead, it makes your awareness constrict. With expanded awareness, you tap into the level of the mind that actually has the power to bring about solutions.
Meditation is the most important practice to bring your mind to that level.As you cultivate inner security, your personal reality will change and fear will have little or no hold upon you.
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Monday, July 25, 2016

Economic and Political Weekly: Table of Contents

Vol. 51, Issue No. 30, 23 Jul, 2016

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1991 is history: Where do we go now?

A new policy framework is needed to abolish mass poverty in coming decades

In order to pursue inclusion, the focus has to shift back to job creation in the modern sectors
Twenty-five years have passed since one of the most momentous days in Indian economic history. Around noon on 24 July 1991, the government led by P.V. Narasimha Rao tabled a new industrial policy that essentially junked the perverse licence raj. The prime minister was himself in charge of the industries portfolio. A few hours later, his finance minister Manmohan Singh gave a budget speech that was a clarion call for overdue change. The transformational budget that Manmohan Singh presented in February 1992 was anticipated by what he said in July 1991.
Few realize that the radical 1991 economic reforms were preceded by around 15 years of internal debate on how India should change its policy approach. The Janata Party government perhaps made the first move by appointing a committee headed by veteran journalist Vadilal Dagli to examine the issue of subsidies that had already begun to weigh down on the budget. Then there was the committee headed by bureaucrat P.C. Alexander on reforming trade policy that was one reason why Indian industry was inefficient. The 1980s saw even more of such policy rethinking, from monetary policy to industrial competitiveness to trade reforms.
What now? The Narendra Modi government believes it is playing the long game. In that case, it should not only focus on executive action or pushing through unfinished reforms such as the goods and services tax, but also begin work on a new policy framework that will help India abolish mass poverty in the coming decades. Mint has here sketched out a few issues that need structured thinking.
1. Ending the inspector raj: The licence raj is thankfully now history. Businessmen do not have to trudge to New Delhi to get permissions to invest in new capacity. But they are still hounded by representatives of the inspector raj—from factory inspectors to tax officials. Much of this can come under the umbrella of increasing the ease of doing business.
2. Improving human capital: The most successful examples of countries escaping poverty in a few decades come from East Asia. Their investments in human capital cannot be ignored. India still has very high level of malnutrition. The public health system is broken. The same is the case of the education system. The government need not provide these services directly, but it needs to fund them at the very least. The state of the education system is a particularly serious worry.
3. Reforming factor markets: The 25 years since 1991 have seen a transformation of product markets. There has been far less success when it comes to the markets for factors of production such as land, labour and capital. Reforming the land and labour markets are politically tricky, but some state governments are taking the lead with innovative solutions.
4. Inclusion through jobs: Manmohan Singh as finance minister used to talk about the importance of the East Asian experience, where millions could escape poverty by shifting from the farm to the factory. As prime minister, the same Manmohan Singh led a government that banked on subsidies and entitlements as the primary tools for inclusion. The focus has to shift back to job creation in the modern sectors—though in a world where new technology is not labour intensive.
5. Rebuilding state capacity: There is no doubt that the Indian government machinery is creaky. It is low on capability, other than at the very top. Rebuilding state capacity is even more important at a time when power is flowing to the states, and later perhaps directly to cities and villages. India needs far better administrative, policy and regulatory abilities than it does right now.
This is not an exhaustive list but only an attempt by this newspaper to shift the debate from 1991 nostalgia to the more concrete task of charting out the road ahead. That requires structured thinking, political commitment and administrative capability. Just look at China, and the way it has changed its policy focus as the economy has grown. India needs to do the same.
Source: Mintepaper, 25-07-2016
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Let Go of the Future
ANDREW COHEN


While most of us want to be free, there is a part of us that is terrified at the prospect. Is there anything that we can do to make the part of us that wants to be free stronger than the part that is afraid? You have to be willing to make a choice. So many seekers are only waiting for all of their fear and resistance to go away . If you're serious about this, you don't have the time to wait. You have to come to the point where you don't care how difficult it is.To find true confidence, you must be able to bear more doubt and confusion than you ever have in the past. Too many people only want the kind of confidence that they don't have to struggle for, that they don't have to make any sacrifice for.When we are willing to abandon the future, it is then that we have finally stopped waiting. And that means that we realise that a better moment will never come.
We are always waiting for the perfect moment to let go -to be ready to respond completely, wholeheartedly and without any hesitation. So, when that moment actually does come, we are not able to let go. When we ultimately find the depth of courage and the strength of conviction to abandon the future once and for all, we will discover a context, a vast and infinite context where we will know beyond any doubt that we are free.
And in that freedom we will be detached. But that doesn't mean that we won't care. It means that we will care even more, because we are not worried about ourselves any more.
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New entrants in India's middle class: Drivers, carpenters, pani puri vendors
Hemali Chhapia
Mumbai:


India's middle class has seen new entrants.Pani puri vendors, dosa sellers, carpenters, welders, launderers, drivers and cable TV technicians have all pulled themselves out of the clutches of poverty and leapt into a section of the middle class -the bedrock of the economy .A paper titled `The Rise of the New Middle Class and the Role of Offshoring of Services', co-authored by the head of Mumbai University's school of economics, professor Neeraj Hatekar and his colleagues Kishore More and Sandhya Krishna, has found that a faster pace of growth and higher intensity of work has led to the upward mobility .
“Lower middle class households earn better not because they are engaged in different occupations compared to the poor, but because they have been able to get more of their family members to do the same things than the poor do,“ says Hatekar.
In the study , “lower middle class“ refers to households whose daily per capita consumption expenditure is between $2 and $4 (Rs 134-Rs 268) each. Poor households spend less than $2 per capita per day (see graph).
Ventakesh Kumar, political scientist and professor at the Mumbai-based Centre for Governance and Public Policy agrees with the findings of the study . “The social base of the middle class is expanding and it is cutting across caste, occupation, age, gender and geography ,“ he says.
A survey of around 800 households conducted by the School of Economics found a significant shift in the type of assets held by those who had just entered the lower middle class. Almost everyone had a cell phone and a watch or clock.Over 70% had access to electricity and about 60% had a fan, owned a colour television, had a pressure cooker and a chair. More than half of them had gold jewellery and steel utensils. “The aspirational expenditure is different because there is a clear difference in aspirations among the lower classes (poor) and the lower middle classes,“ says Hatekar. The study proposes a new category called the `new middle' with daily per capita consumption spending range of $2-$10. Though the largest number of the `new middle' families are likely to have moved into the lower middle class, some have also moved up to middle-middle or upper-middle -hence the large consumption band of the `new middle'.
The period between 200405 and 2011-12 has witnessed a dramatic swelling of the new middle class -from just about 28% to a little over 50% of the total population.In absolute terms, the size of the new middle class is estimated to have increased from 304 million to 604 million, according to the study .
“The middle class is now a diversified group because the country now offers various opportunities for creation of wealth,“ says S Parasuraman, director of Tata Institute of Social Sciences.
One of the key purposes of the study was to look at the contribution of offshoring services (ITES-BPO) to uplift of poor households.Hatekar and More conclude that the sector has not made a significant direct contribution, at least in quantitative terms, to the creation of the new middle class.

Source: Times of India, 25-07-2016
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91% Indian families spend on barbers and parlours
Subodh Varma


Urban Folk Shell Out Most On Mobiles & Net
In a deep dive into the comp lex ways in which Indians live, a recent report reveals what proportion of families spend how much on such integral parts of life as maids and cooks, the press-walla, the plumber, the daily tea and snacks at office, newspapers and pets and even priests. Unsurprisingly , spending on mobile phones and the net, as well as on daily transport is the most universal and accounts for a large share of average household expenditure.But barbers and beauty parlors are equally used, while recreational services like cinemas, pets and newspapers too are fairly popular.These insights emerge from a first ever focused stu dy on family spend on several key consumer services carried out by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO). Earlier surveys of NSSO too had these items but they were buried somewhere in the 350-item list. It was felt that fatigue in filling up the massive survey ques tionnaires was leading to under-reporting of these minor items that make up the nuts and bolts of everyday life.Hence this focused survey of over 83,000 households was conducted from June 2014 to July 2015. About 15% of city dwellers but just 1% of rural folk employ domestic service providers like maids, cooks, gardeners, watchmen etc. Laundry and dry cleaning services are much more prevalent with 29% of urban and 11% of rural families using them. This may seem surprisingly high but the prevalence is driven by ironing of clothes, an almost universal habit among middle class Indians.
The high share of households using haircutting and beauty treatment services is mainly on account of the universal need for haircuts by male family members although in recent ears women members have taken to beauty parlors.
Communication services, which includes mobile phones and internet services mainly , were being used by about 84% households in both rural and urban areas with city dwelling families spending nearly Rs 500 per month on them, more than double of rural families.
Outside food, ranging from full meals to tea and coffee, juices, even bhelpuri and pakoras, emerges as one of the major spending heads with an urban family spending Rs 854 every month while a rural family spent Rs 329.
The NSSO report has omitted the proportion of households spending on outside food. In the 2011-12 consumer spending survey , such spending was reported by over 80% households.
An intriguing aspect is that expenses on priests and religious donations etc were reported by just over a third of the households, although by all accounts the devout make up a much larger share of the population. This may indicate that piety is more of a private affair.
The survey report does not give any estimate for the total monthly spending of a family .So, it is impossible to say what share of total expenses these consumer services make up.
Source: Times of India, 25-07-2016

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