----- Original Message -----

From: Rajiv Bhatia

To: gurcharandas

Cc: 'Rajiv Bhatia'

Sent: Sunday, August 28, 2005 12:21 PM

Subject: meeting you at Stanford ATI & this mornings TOI article by you

Dear Mr. Das

Background for this mail to you

As always, it was a pleasure to have heard you last evening at Stanford ATI. I have read with interest your views on the National Employment Guarantee Act in this mornings daily and find myself in agreement with you. You may recollect my question to your co-panelist Mr. Akhil Gupta last evening as to the `manner and involvement definitions' in taking forward his idea on entrepreneurial funds as opposed to charitable funds and `teaching people to fish as opposed to giving them fish'.

You mentioned last evening the importance of implementation. Your article this morning suggests a faulty strategy in passing the NEGA. This highlights the importance of good strategy followed up by proper implementation for realization of objectives. This particularly in the case of macro initiatives being promoted by the Govt. I believe that not only is the NEGA a poor strategy but anticipate its implementation to be less than mediocre as the model itself is very faulty.

The case

"If you want to grow to your maximum or optimum potential, structure your society and your policies such that you can make maximum use of international capital, management skills, marketing skills, technology and knowledge." - Lee Kuan Yew

 

I agree with your views that we in India would not want to be compelled by the Govt. to do things that we dont want to but a vision of the merits of doing so may go a long way. To this effect, the need for a suitable wealth creation model which provides all stakeholders with a guidance and a vision of the merits of adhereing to such guidance for collaborative efficiencies.

 

A dynamic economic model is a diagrammatic, mathematical, written or verbal representation of an entire economy. A model attempts to abstract from complex human behavior in a way that sheds some insight into a particular aspect of that behavior. A summary of how a country will generate revenue identifying its product offering, value-added services, revenue sources and target customers. A hierarchical definition of all the business and non profit activities in the country with the comprehension of the procedures & the organizations that perform them.  An understanding of the business of the running of a country, identifying objectives, Critical Success Factors, data entities, relationships between entities, business processes, measurement criteria and control factors. 

Having `Globalised' since the early 1990's, we are now a part of the world economy and stand to gain or loose depending on how we play the game. Instead of being mere knowledge fodders, for the globalization machine rushing to and fro from the kitchen executing orders, we need to widen our capabilities to define the agenda of globalization to begin with.

In the process of globalization, with regard to India - Are we going to address Indian producers, consumers and investors? Are we going to create wealth in Indian hands by way of jobs only or investment, profit sharing and entrepreneurial opportunities as well? We must also bear in mind that salaries are a fraction of revenues whereas market capitalization is generally a multiple of revenues. Is China going to be smarter than us at seeing this and frame its policies accordingly? We must find a way to equi-distribution of wealth through a free market economy without imposing protectionist restrictions on free flow of capital. At this critical stage of setting our global business model are the people going to let the nations weakest participant and contributor to the economy, the Central Government, determine our path ahead and negotiate our future standing? Shouldn't the people participate in the deal making at their level too? Globalization by itself is a fantastic idea but the way it is being applied, resulting in exploding opportunities only for a few and shrinking opportunities for the rest, just won't work. We in India have not worked on developing a wealth creation model in this new global environment.

Actionable

It was sometime in late 2002 that I had, most humbly, written a brief paper with my views which highlighted the need for the following to be components of India's wealth creation model in the process of the countries integration into global markets. I believe that in a sense, the definition for the newly structured planning commission would be as the `Modeling, strategy and activity monitoring commission? focused on the performance improvement and socially responsible growth of India. The needs which the commission may address:

1. The organized mining and development of India?s competitive advantages for wealth generation from global trade and investments. The focus here is on foreign & domestic direct and institutional investments and trade.
2. The equi-distribution of wealth through a free market economy without imposing protectionist restrictions on free flow of capital. The focus here on the growth of financial markets ? including capital markets ? as channels for diverse investments for all sections of the economic society. The promotion of a healthy capital market investment culture. The importance of encouraging MNC's to list, at least to the extent of 26%, of their Indian subsidiary on the Indian stock markets.
3. The organized growth of primary, secondary and higher education adhering to international standards and distributed by the appropriate use of information technology.
   Water, cultivation and distribution reforms make those dependent on the agrarian economy (producers & consumers) more resilient to risks.
4. The organized development of SME?s across rural and urban sections developing a new model of a supply chain of expertise for efficiency, scale and optimal utilization of scarce resources. An impetus for scientific reasearch and entrepreneurship. (as opposed to NEGA and in favor of inducting the idea of an entrepreneurial fund)
5. The protection and retention of intellectual property as a faciltator of wealth creation.
6. Restructuring the role of the Government towards limited common causes of ? security, law & order, social causes and overseeing good Governance.

 End note

My company, Advanced Strategies Pvt. Ltd. (www.astrategies.com), has been set up in 2001, bearing in mind the needs of strategising and managing macro initiatives, programs and projects whether it be for the Govt., corporate group or investment fund. A non-profit initiative has been set up by me at the same time, to meaningfully converge academia (across disciplines) and industry,  and help in knowledge based entrepreneurial development. This is called `Abhyas' (www.abhyas.org). My own profile is at www.beemanagement.com/rajivbhatia.pdf

Mr. Das, if you have had the time to, then please accept my gratitude for having read this. I look forward to any suggestions from you which may help me take some of this forward.

yours sincerely,

________________________________
Rajiv Bhatia
Director & Chief Opportunities Executive
Advanced Strategies Pvt. Ltd.