6 Management Ideas that Kejriwal has ushered with his AAP

1. Disruption – AAP and Kejriwal showed us how disruption can be ushered in politics. With a non existent political machinery (read cadre based organization) , almost no or limited funding & backing and with no specific patronage or lineage, all perceived entry barriers, his party emerged from being a mass protest movement to a potent political force in the shortest possible time. He changed the paradigm for the way election is fought & won in this country

2. Market Timing – If the Delhi electorate could be looked upon as one large market of votes, Kejriwal was its brilliant marketer. He had the pulse of this ‘market’ from the time he saw the response to Anna Hazare fast against LokPal bill and wasted no time devising a ‘strategy to market’ which practically took less than a year to convert the votes to power.

3. Innovate : Kejriwal innovated on ‘people engagement model’ in politics. His concept of reaching out to the masses through ‘Mohalla Sabhas’ and having their say in local development was a big leap in devolution of power . Similarly reaching out to people for small contributions instead of institutional funding to fight elections was a novel way to reach out and connect with people

4. Focus - Kejriwal rallied all his energy and forces around one powerful theme - to fight corruption  at all costs. He cleverly identified himself with Anna Hazare in the ‘anti corruption movement’ and in way used the movement as a springboard to politics. Later he attacked the main political parties with a series of ‘exposures’ to strengthen his agenda. The corruption ridden Govt at the center and states were easy fodder for him and he had his opponents on the Mat even before the fight began.

5. Branding – by choosing the broom as his political symbol, he conveyed a powerful visual metaphor of cleaning up politics and the establishment. With his anti corruption agenda firmly implanted in the political consciousness of people, it was time to represent it with a simple yet powerful symbol.

6. Differentiate - ‘positioning’ in management parlance; he  set a publicly accountable behavior by refusing the perks of power such as security or official bungalow. By traveling in public transport or in his own modest car, and by taking oath in a public ground in front of the crowd, he has resorted to novel ways in differentiating himself and his party in the minds of the people.

This post is for Indian General Elections 2014 with social mobile apps 
by http://www.indiblogger.in

Django Unchained

This is one gooood MASALA movie I came across in a while. SONYPIX premiered the movie last Sunday and boy! Quentin Tarantino had me fixated on this movie from the word go. Even though i tuned in a while after the movie had started.

This is almost the flick every dreamy eyed movie-goer aspires for. A story of two African slaves (a couple actually) separated in the slavery era, Jamie Foxx plays the swashbuckling hero (Django), the eternal romantic madly in love with his wife (Broomhilda) and determined to find her at any cost.

He pairs up with  Christopher waltz (Schultz)  a German Bounty Hunter, and the two catch up on some business with the bad arses in the American badlands from Texas to Mississippi . Tarantino is a master of the bluster and the bombastic; the gun fights and the blasts are spectacularly his stylistic flourishes. The guns of the historical period depicted in the movie could have hardly reloaded that fast or were anything but accurate. But who cares as long we are on a Tarantino groovy train, right ?

Leonardo DiCaprio marks entry as a delectable plantation owner (Calvin Candie) interested in Mandingo fighters and slave trade. He has broomhilda as the household slave but does not realize that the duo have planned to hoodwink him with a plan to get her out. His shrewd butler, played by Samuel L. Jackson (his make up was pathetic i must say) soon finds it out and the plot then unfolds and races to a fiery climax.
 
A wildly enjoyable movie with crackling dialogues, remarkable soundtrack and awesome cast. The movie is wildly comical too, there is a hilarious scene involving a bunch of a negro lynch mob followers (pre-KKK) discussing how difficult it is to see out of their hoods and to ride at the same time!! In another, Tarantino comically blows out Candie's widowed older sister Lara Lee out of the frame with a mere gun shot.

Go watch the movie if you have fallen in love with oldies like "Once Upon a Time in the West" or "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" or have been mesmerized by Tarantino’s earlier flicks.

Finally a word about the director - he is the Steve Jobs equivalent of the celluloid . Reservoir dogs, Pulp fiction, Inglorious Basterds & now this …. phew!! gotta hand it to this guy.

Book Review: IIMA Jamboree – A Bollywood Ode to Entrepreneurship

If you’re looking for a guide on how India’s top-tier business grads take on the entrepreneurial world, Rashmi Bansal’s book is the literary equivalent of a Bollywood Govinda move - cue the expressive, wide-eyed OUIMAA! The book delivers a high-energy, IIMA-centered celebration that leaves you thinking these grads are India’s answer to Hollywood’s swashbuckling heroes, each poised to save the day. Think Innovators by William Davis but remix it to feature an all-IIMA cast with entrepreneurial dreams and achievements firmly set in the Indian landscape.

Unlike Innovators, which gathers stories from a diverse array of American business icons, this book unapologetically sings the praises of the IIMA pedigree. Each protagonist here is an IIMA alum with a story to tell, from tech and education to finance and more. The author invites you on these journeys, narrating each story in an easygoing, almost breezy manner—though the tales sometimes wrap up quicker than a Bollywood song sequence.

Could it have been a serious compilation of case studies, a crash course for aspiring entrepreneurs? Maybe! But what you get instead is a collection of snack-sized stories designed to spark just a bit of entrepreneurial spirit - perfect if you’re just getting started or need a boost of inspiration.

The underlying message seems clear: IIMA grads are born leaders, a bit like Hollywood’s superhuman Presidents who fight off aliens and foil hijackers. The book leaves you with the impression that these Indian grads are the ones carrying the entrepreneurial torch across the country.

But not everything is Bollywood-smooth. Take Shantanu Prakash’s story—one of the book’s standout moments. He delivers a nugget of wisdom: “The trick is to identify the DNA in a person, where he or she wants to do something different and wants to be differently incentivized.” Now that’s the entrepreneurial grit we came here for!

And yet, for all the book’s pep, you might feel a little let down when it comes to real-world, practical resources. After reaching out to one of the entrepreneurs featured in the book with hopes for some advice or startup tips, my email sat as unanswered as a Bollywood cliffhanger—no reply, over a month and counting!

So, if you’re looking for a Bollywood-style book full of inspiring, if sometimes glossy, tales of India’s entrepreneurial spirit, then dive in! Just don’t expect all the lights and cameras to translate into real-life action.

The greatness of Sachin Tendulkar beyond statistics

Unfortunately Peter Roebuck is not around to write a fitting tribute to a great chapter in India's cricketing history. His writings had a unique perspective on the game, he wrote with elan and cared a damn about the etiquette or the organized rigors of newspaper column writing.

While numbers do tell a story of Sachin’s greatness in the game of cricket, a lot more came packaged with it and mostly hidden to the untrained eye. Anybody who has played Cricket at a competitive level knows what it takes to be a good player. Having played in the college team and a rather unsuccessful attempt at the University level , I can write a thing or two about it.

In my previous article on Sachin i wrote about his duel with Wasim Akram, the mastercraft bowler, and the ‘transaction’ that would unfold between them in the blink of eye. Only that it would resume ball after ball , over and over again. This is something available now in the form of statistics i.e, number of balls played, number of runs scored, number of boundaries, average and so on.

What this does not reveal however is the effort a master bowler - absolute craftsman in his art, tried to cut him short in those many attempts. Anybody who has seen Akram getting 3 crucial wickets especially that of Lamb & Lewis in the final of the world cup in 1992 will testify. I mean what it takes a bowler to do at the highest level and at the most crucial of times to win you the world cup. 

  
I am sure Akram would have put in much more than his usual effort when he was bowling at Tendulkar. His variations were too many ; the in-swinging and out going balls, the dipper, the snorter, the length balls and the ones that swung in late were all in his armory. He presented all these at a very lively pace which translates into a potent combination. He was the most lethal bowler of his era and made bunnies of several international batsmen. He had cheeka (Kris Srikkanth) practically for lunch breakfast & dinner during India’s tour to Pakistan in 1989

Sachin’s true greatness can be measured against this backdrop and how he got the better of Akram in this duel. This young man walked into a cauldron of human emotions bearing the expectation of millions of crazy fans and the weight of the entire team. Something like the gladiator walking into the Colosseum with people baying for his blood.

75000 plus spectators rooting for you at every turn, the weight of their expectations getting released with a roar in every boundary scored. On the other end the canny bowler much like the predator is measuring up with every trick in the trade and going for the kill. So much emotions and weighed by so much expectations. Plus the pressure of run rate and the target on hand.

Betraying his emotions and holding his nerve, he took to his crease with amazing grace & poise. He judged and dealt every ball and its cunning package. The length of the pitching ball, its trajectory, its pace, its swing……. all done and dusted in three-fourths of a second (the time lapse between the ball released from the bowlers hand and its moment of reaching the batsman's crease).

Ball after ball, over by over. Against the best in the game and at the highest level. Every ball was probably hurled at him with that extra effort. The opposition knew that he was the lynchpin and getting him out meant winning a psychological battle against the whole Indian team. In a India-Pakistan match this would reach hysterical levels.

Like in any competitive game, Cricket too embodies the battle of one-upmanship in a war of talents. There is a victor and the vanquished. Even in a contest between teams, there is always this undercurrent of rivalry between two players. Therefore this duel between Akram & Sachin embodied the pinnacle of two warring talents at its best

In summary it takes more than sheer talent to make a heap at the highest level. Ultimately numbers do speak for themselves , and that’s why statisticians are always a part of the game. But do they tell the complete tale? Analysts might make up a good story with numbers, but its only a tip of the iceberg.

Vespalogy

Well before you think this is one of those articles paying a rich tribute to Vespa, hold on for a second. Yes I do own a Vespa, a 6 month old ravishing red beauty that makes people often take a second look . Plus an uninvited often heard innocuous question ‘ Kitna dethi hai’?

At Rupees 80,000 plus change on road the Vespa comes at the premium end of the Indian scooter market. There are no two questions about the styling and the ride quality . And I am saying this with ownership experience but is the overall quality commensurate with the style package?.

The service record of the past few months belies my expectations. Before I say ‘all-style-but-not-much substance’ I will list out my tale of woes

Barely 48 hours of getting the vehicle from the showroom wify dropped it while resting it on the side stand. I later learnt that the side stand was faulty & the company had quietly replaced the faulty side stands that often tipped the vehicle (without much resistance from its state of equilibrium)

Initially we had issues with engine idling, much like the diesel engines of yore, the Vespa had to be started with a choke first thing in the morning (and this was a standard instruction given to us at the time of vehicle delivery). The company guys had set the engine idlying idling to such fine levels, ostensibly to stretch its ‘not-so-attractive’ mileage, that the vehicle used to often come to a halt at the slightest hint of slowdown (like a speed braker on the road). After a trip to the service centre and some ‘adjustment’ this was taken care of but the choke thing to start the vehicle is still diligently followed.

The first Mansoon brought its own set of problems with the Vespa. The horn would often get stuck and the keys would be doubly difficult to get the ignition ON. After repeated complaints they replaced the horn switch but I am not yet fully convinced about its efficacy. The ignition set was ‘oiled’ to make it workable.

The battery failed after about a month and after testing and keeping under observation for 2-3 days, the Vespa guys admitted to a faulty part and replaced it with a new one. Two months down the line its back to square one as I write this article. The visit to the service centre is due tomorrow.

Its front suspension is often touted as the best in class and based on aeronautical technology. But I have complained that sometimes I hear some sound emanating from it on rough roads. The guys in the service centre tell me that it may be due to dirt creeping in while washing . The Tip : to slightly screw the suspension cap while washing it (they haven’t bothered to show me practically how though). I am still ‘iffy’ about it.

 

Passers by often stop to admire and inquire. The Italians put their heart out in designing automobiles and its very evident in this product too. But despite its long chequered history and the iterations that the scooter has gone through in its styling and presentation over the years, niggling quality issues still remain (in my opinion)

I am willing to live with its 45’ish (kms) mileage but with quality issues staring at me I will just stop short of paying rich tributes to the world’s most iconic scooter.

2030: A shopping Odyssey

We live in an era of extraordinary opportunities for innovation, creativity and social contribution that seems to have been triggered, much like a primordial life sparking event that changed the face of this earth, by an eclectic mix of ever morphing technology, faster and more powerful data capture & processing abilities and the ubiquitous Internet.

In markets like India this process is getting accelerated, the phenomenal growth of eCommerce in India is coinciding with that of internet explosion and growing flock of young shoppers looking for variety and convenience of shopping. This young population is tech savvy and their motto ‘right here & right now’ seems to nicely fit in the scheme of things. So online shopping is growing by leaps and bounds and the technology is evolving rapidly to keep up with consumer taste & preferences.

With this kind of background it is not hard to crystal gaze into the future and see where the future of online shopping will be around 2030. Consumers will obviously have a plethora of options to shop online through a multitude of devices and platforms to increase the pleasure, speed and ease of shopping. I foresee the following changes in this space;

1. Super Smart phones will arrive on the scene with interactive touch screen interfaces that will provide a 3 Dimensional viewing experience. Enabled with seamless and slick touch pads, they will provide 360 degree navigation and walk through virtual stores

2. Consumer portals will offer advanced analytics with product comparisons, user ratings, offers and other packages that will just pop up on the screen ‘as you go’ on the net. An avalanche of information will be available to the consumer at every click.

3. To enhance the user buying experience, shopping portals, credit rating agencies and finance companies will be come together to offer the discernible consumer with instant buying option without any loan/finance paperwork. Virtually updated credit status of the consumer, on a real time basis will enable these companies to make you offer-by-the minute as you strut the online space.

4. Consumer will have various tools & options to design their own products including new ones altogether, pick and source the right kind of material, and select the finishing vendor to order their products from anywhere around the globe. The consumer will have a virtual control on the entire production and procurement process as a norm and not exception.

5. Specialized accessories like design tools and 3D printers will provide instant gratification to the online consumer. He may like something on the net, say a new product and may download it in a physical form onto his 3D printer after executing the online transaction formalities.

6. Aggregation of consumer data and cloud data warehousing and churning will mean online sellers will have a complete virtual demographic & psychographic profile of the consumer. Online sellers will use this to offer customized user experience based on consumer taste & preferences. So no two customers might get to see the same GuI (user interface) and preferences in any given consumer portal.

7. The all pervasive Internet may morph into a Hypernet and may provide user access to the Products and Markets on Television, ATM machines, hand held devices and ready to access touch screen terminals at offices, clubs, and neighborhood corners.

The future is exciting and the online shopping 2030 odyssey is filled with unlimited possibilities and exciting prospects . Like Artur C Clarke’s journey in his magnum opus 2001: A Space Odyssey, the now familiar story of online shopping will change the way we shop & buy in future. 

Dork: The Rise and Fall (and Rise?) of Robin Einstein Varghese - A Review

What They Actually Teach You in a Consulting Firm could’ve been a more fitting title for Dork, because author Sidin Vadukut takes readers on a laugh-out-loud journey through the chaotic life of freshly-graduated-from-an-Ivy-league-business-school Malayali hero, Robin Varghese. This "consultant in the making" takes his first shaky steps into the world of management consulting, and boy, does he stumble. Vadukut’s sharp wit cuts through every page, making the book an absolute hoot from cover to cover.

At its core, Dork is kind of like a desi take on What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School - only with a hefty serving of absurdity, a dash of slapstick, and a whole lot of ridiculous plot twists. Just think: take the basic consulting principles, add one hilariously clueless protagonist, stir in some laughably outrageous mishaps, and voila! You get Dork: The Incredible Adventures of Robin Einstein Varghese.

So, what exactly does our hero, Robin, learn in "Consulting Land"? Quite a bit, actually…mostly about the absurdity of the industry itself:

1. First up, presentations: Turns out "high-end consulting" means recycling internet slides with a few fancy tweaks.
2. Next, jargon: At consulting firms, layering your speech with impenetrable corporate-speak is practically an art form. If your sentences don’t sound like an AI-generated business generator, are you even consulting?
3. Ethics? Overrated. After all, fleecing clients with a straight face is practically in the job description.
4. Real solutions? Meh. Robin learns quickly that many consultants create more problems than they actually solve.

Robin’s journey through consulting’s "black box" rings uncomfortably true for anyone familiar with the industry, even as it’s wildly entertaining. Along the way, our hero tumbles through bouts of hilariously inebriated escapades, stumbles through projects he doesn’t remotely understand, and slowly grasps that half his firm’s partners know absolutely nothing. The rest? Mostly just expert backstabbers.

Yet, just as Robin’s about to lose it all, he somehow pulls off an improbable transformation: one day, he's a barely competent newbie; the next, he's an unexpected hero and even a media darling. How does this happen? Well, let’s just say it involves plenty of blunders, a good bit of luck, and some solid "fake it till you make it" philosophy.

Dork is much more than an office comedy - it’s a peek into the mind of a cubicle-bound consultant as he navigates (or stumbles through) the absurd culture, petty politics, and sometimes nonsensical practices that come with the job. Vadukut’s debut is a hilarious, insightful, and downright entertaining start to the Dork trilogy, making it a must-read for anyone who's ever felt out of place in a corporate jungle.

The W-L balance

It has been close to 5 years since I walked the other path. And recently I came across two articles one by Whitney Johnson & the other by Sidin Vadukut which echoed some innate voices in the grey hills to this article.

The journey of entrepreneurship is no doubt tricky and challenging. And the reasons that drove me into it was a little bit different from what Whitney had to say.

Coming to her bit first; What drives entrepreneurs? At what age that creative force comes into play? Whitney attempts to answer this. She says that as individuals move into a higher realm of self actualization, what she calls ‘Erikson's Seventh developmental stage’, creativity is a psychological urge into higher gratification and not just something ‘nice to do’.

She goes on to add that this emotional ballast stems from a better quality of life fueled by good well paying jobs secured by medical care which is the reasons why age group of entrepreneurs is shifting into the 40 plus years extending 50 plus years category when people venture out into solo or co creation.

True.

But what about this thing called ‘Work-Life’ balance? How many get prompted by this term to take the plunge?

After 16 years of turning wheels in corporate world, I realized that while the wheels were not only turning slowly much against my expectation, life was essentially happening to me than the other way around.

Soon it realized upon me that the term was inverted. It should have been Life-Work balance.

Work equated at the same level of Life is fundamentally flawed & misplaced. Work is a subset of life, a thing we do to sustain life at a monetary and materialistic level. But in the rat race of today’s existence, many people believe that they are two perfectly different worlds that are always at odds with each other and somehow needs to be balanced.

So a typical world spins around the office, its files, meetings & calls 9-to-7 five days a week and what’s left after that essentially makes up life. Those essential mundane things called shopping, home, Bills, school entertainment etc et al.,

What it all boils down to? Making wish lists and simply burning both ends to tick mark one by one. However the problem is that this list never ends and the deficit catching up much like the Govt’s fiscal deficit always perpetuates.

If you can get over with the list and believe in the following quote by Professor Howard Stevenson of Harvard Business School :

“Entrepreneurship is the pursuit of opportunity without regard to resources currently controlled.”

Then take the Plunge.

Because at some point in life, and it may be now, work experience and its acquired skill sets will tip the balance. It gives you that bit of confidence to invert the equation

However as an entrepreneur things can get really nasty. So be prepared to read this every morning

“We have done so much, with so little, for so long, that we can now do anything with nothing.”

And finally after all the sweat & toil, and the rough ride through the rabbit hole it may be time to savor what Whitney Johnson adds as a parting shot

‘The urge to create, to generate a life that counts impels people to innovate, even when it's lonely and scary’.

Bureaucracy Kills

"A bureaucracy is designed to maximize the distance between
a decision-maker and the risks of the decision."
— Nassim Taleb

Hard work has never killed anyone but Bureaucracy surely does. The Englishmen left several legacies at various shores they withdrew, and also terms like the 'Missionary position' which best described what they did to the native lands they occupied. The made for the industrial age system, the Bureaucracy, seems the most potent of it all - thriving to this day in all its glory.

This legacy of the Victorian age; Hierarchy & (outdated) rule conformist system was supposed to run a Govt machinery on the predictable lines of the conveyor belt based, coal steam fired industry at the turn of the 19th Century. 

That this system can fly in the face of common sense & logic has been documented many a times. In India the system is well entrenched & all pervasive. It was surprising to see this system still calling shots in an advanced economy like the United states.

Take this instance of this American whiz kid who gets turned down at a science fair for some dimwitted rule that bars a student from participating in one too many state fairs. No matter even if he has potentially the solution that mankind is looking for the future. In the Mecca of free market forces, the Bureaucracy still has the audacity to contain a potentially revolutionary solution that could transform society, from potential investors.

At a different level & location, I was involved with this Govt dept trying to seek out some information under RTI about its functioning recently.  Though I asked information about one specific division, the typical bureaucracy shot me back  letters from 4 of its sub divisions, each asking me to cough up  money ostensibly as documentation charges for its respective jurisdictions. And when I do that, I realized I had  to run pillar-to-post at each of the 4 subdivision offices for the required information. 

This same information could have been aggregated at the office of the Public information officer (PIO) which accepted my application in the first place.

You gotta hand it over to these people who framed & implemented these rules.

When Learn = Play

Of the numerous run-in I had with Missus of late one pertained to the junior activity list in the middle of a hop-skip & jump kind of Holiday.

Not far long ago , when our lives were as predictable as the Doordarshan Programme schedule, the last test paper of our final exam meant a release of nearly two months before we hit the next standard. Which we celebrated like holi by spraying ink of whatever was left in our pens!

With CBSE curriculum, Junior had to go back to school after a brief lull and the summer break kicked in only much later. It was during this lull that I suggested that he got out of the house & played with kids in the neighborhood.

Instead of first hand real life experiences, I felt he was too much into gaming & TV shows. His whole day is spent in screen based entertainment, either laptop games or Sony Playstation or Ninja Hatodi else Doremon or such thing on TV. And not to forget Mobile Games.

All in no particular order or sequence as such.

Wifi grouse was that the brat would end up doing something if left unsupervised? That’s exactly the point I insisted!! Lets leave him unsupervised so that he learns naturally to make friends, take turns in groups and deal with problems.

Sue Palmer in Detoxifying childhood rues that ‘Play is one of the main ways we learn and yet when we reach adulthood we tend to forget all about it. Its like a ladder children climb toward adult understanding and as soon as we’ve climbed it we kick it away’. She pegs play as crucial for preparing a child for social life outside home.

Her mantra is ‘Play is a crucial form of learn‘ where a child 

1. Grasps common sense understanding of the world and how it works (the properties of Mud,Wood, Sand & so on ; the effects of friction & leverage)
2. Makes Risk assessment (including judging distances), testing boundaries, learning who & what to trust.
3. Social Skills (making friends, turn taking, sorting out difficulties, getting along , Organizing & cooperating)
4. Self reliance & control ( getting lost & found, coping with play related injuries most of which are minor mishaps)
5. Pleasure of doing, making, creating, imagining (dens, forts, houses)

She goes on to add that by keeping children indoors, we miss out Children on the above vital lessons. 

These skills cannot be learnt second hand from a screen (of which there are plenty today), they can do so through first hand life experiences

Homo Stupidus

There are a few among us who stand erect yet by some quirky fate of evolution carry the same stuff in their cranial bones as that of the Neanderthal man. In my opinion they can be easily classified in a new sub genus called Homo Stupidus in the world of Anthrpology. 

I thought Sushil kumar Shinde was the front runner to take the coveted prize of Homo Stupidus man of the year for his late flurry of gaffe'ose utterances. 

That is until I read the ET of March 6 . Like Usain Bolt just waltzing past his fellow-sprinting erectus competitors, this guy, a Washington state lawmaker beat him with enough and more to spare to amble past the finishing line. And to do some after jig also before Shinde or others could actually touch the finishing line. 

His scorching run on the dumbing-down-circuit goes like this; 

“ If I am not mistaken, a cyclist has an increased Heart rate and respiration…since CO2 is deemed a greenhouse gas and a pollutant, bicyclists are actually polluting when they ride” - Ed Orcutt, a member of the house of representatives.

This wins the trophy, atleast in my mind, not for the sheer audacity of the intellectual chasm but for the string of words and the pearl of a thought which flies in the face of all logic and comprehension.

Its now apparent that Mr.Orcutt was arguing for a fee on bicycles to help pay for street infrastructure but went scurrying for cover after the ensuing public outrage his utterances created.

Following closely on the heels of Ed Orcutt for the coveted post was another US politician Richard Mourdoch’s with his famous “ rape babies are what God intended”

Be’Sahara

Big Corporate names swindling ordinary investors is not everyday News. Getting penalized by the regulators and pilloried by the courts is even rarer news.

Seeing Sahara getting a rap on its knuckles gives a flickering hope that the wheels of justice in this country are finally moving.

Scores of ordinary investors, lured by the high rate of Interests and the deceptive sense of security in investing in big Corporate names would have been left in the lurch had the Supreme Court followed by SEBI not intervened.

The newspaper advt put by Sahara in its defense was nothing but bizarre. With a picture of ‘Bharat Mata’ it claimed that it had nothing to pay & rather eligible for a refund from SEBI !

I wonder when will the Kirloskar’s meet this fate? In the early 1990’s, KIFL (Kirloskar Investment & Finance Limited) sprung up and mopped up large amounts of money from Retail Investors .

Assuring of a 14% rate of Interest and additional 1-2% incentive offered by the Agent, several thousand retail investors of the conservative variety got lured into its Fixed deposits.

Reports came in later that the company had invested the proceeds into dubious real estate investments and financial transactions and was unable to meet the redemption's. Many senior citizen Investors like my late father are yet to recoup their investments.

Kirloskar Investment & Finance Ltd followed a similar trail as Sahara and was charged by regulatory bodies like RBI, SEBI, BSE, & CLB on various counts 

• Non compliance with RBI Laws
• Non compliance with SEBI listing guidelines
• Collecting money from public in money circulation schemes by making tall promises of high returns

Despite the winding up process in this case, no action has been taken against the Kirloskar family, its group companies or any of its promoters. In this context, singling of Sahara by freezing its accounts including group firms and attachment of properties seems particularly harsh.

Meanwhile the Kirloskar's who disowned this completely  celebrated 100 years of existence in 2010 as a proud Kirloskarwadi .Can somebody hand me a rotten egg or slipper or something?