Arbit Scratchpad

The BMTC bus lurches to the right, missing the road divider by an inch. It crosses over to the wrong side of the road; the traffic on this side should be coming towards our end. Instead the bus continues to move ahead on the stretch, as it is now completely empty. It zooms forward as the traffic on the left side is at a complete standstill. The bus driver looks at the left side of the road with glee. The cars, bikes, and other vehicles stand motionless, bumper to bumper. He has beaten them all and has come to the front of the road blockade. The road is blocked as there is a railway crossing and a train is to pass by any moment now. After a while a train chugs along and the barriers lift and the vehicles start moving on either end of the road. The bus I am sitting in had crossed all others thanks to the driver’s ingenuity! Ingenuity? Ok, then should I say he was smart! Smart? Or did he break the rules as all others followed the rules and were stuck. This bus driver at the nick of time...

'Ambar tak yehi naad goonjegaa' - brilliant song by Kailash Kher. This Janlokpal movement is bringing out the best in people, especially the youth - the good, the creative, the activism, the energy so essential for nation building after years of the 'cancer of corruption and its stench in the form of apathy and complacency and even the horror of mute acceptance '. The anger will cleanse the system without violence like in the Naxal movement, the corrupt can no longer sit on top - the pyramid will be inverted! As Chetan Bhagat was mentioning the true nature of humans is basically good - that cannot be curbed for long within a system that requires embracing corruption for anyone to thrive and as a form of repentance for the insensitivity towards the country, the support for Anna is swelling! Respect Kejriwal, Hazare, Kiran Bedi, Prashant Bhushan and many others like Paranjoy Guha Thakurta for spearheading the movement with tacit or explicit support/leading...

It was a fitting finale to Day 1 of Eximius 2011 @ IIM Bangalore. I am referring to the keynote lecture by Harish Hande, MD Selco Solar. His thrust on helping asset generation for the rural poor rather than just selling to them struck me as crucial. Starting on a humorous note with ‎"At IIT Kharagpur I ragged Saurav (Prof Saurav Mukherjee), Arvind Kejriwal ragged me and now he is ragging the country ... " Harish Hande, Magsaysay Award winner went on to highlight the areas SELCO works on and how his journey started. He focused on the importance of market linkages, technology and financial products for the rural or urban poor. "I told him straight on his face that the concept was exploitative. You take money from the poorest at the Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP) and pass it on to the wealthy top of the pyramid without enabling any asset creation at the BOP", Harish Hande referring to his conversation with Prof C K Prahalad on Fortune at the BOP. A ...