March - 2001 - issue > Inbox

INFRASTRUCTURE BONDS?

Congratulations on an excellent magazine. You are in a position to motivate change, so I wanted to share the following idea with you. It is clear that India has huge infrastructure needs and requires a great deal of capital investment. During World War II the US government raised huge amounts of capital by issuing savings bonds to fund their war effort. Can some savvy financial group in the US come up with a way to raise funds from NRIs to loan to the public and private sectors in India to build infrastructure? I believe NRIs would settle for a nominal rate of return, if they could be assured that their principal is safe and that the funds will not be misused. Such an opportunity would give NRIs a chance to give to India in a way that benefits both the investor and the nation.
- Malini Deepak

A RISING SUN

Whenever I read siliconindia, it always motivates me to bring out the best within me! All the articles are focused on me, as if they are being written keeping in mind the cultural base of IT professionals and entrepreneurs. It gives the mantra to us: getting our niche in the changing global scenario, especially in the field of information technology. I am thankful to siliconindia and its team for the marvelous effort at keeping a rising sun in front of us.
- Raja

INDIA'S POVERTY: A REBUTTAL

Several comments in Kanwal Rekhi's article “Why is India Poor?” seemed distorted. On the subject of GNP per capita, Rekhi claims that the average American is 80 times richer than an average Indian. This is a distortion at best and a lie at worst. The ratio of per capita incomes, expressed in PPP terms, is 17!
As to the productivity of farmers, Rekhi claims that one Indian farmer feeds only 0.5 of another person and one US farmers feed 50 Americans. In reality, it can be shown that one Indian farmer feeds 3.5 others. So, the ratio will be about 1:10 in favor of US farmers. But the much higher level of irrigation, mechanization, use of fertilizers and pesticides, and the much larger scale of farming in the US can explain that. Not to mention the fact that US has a much more recently discovered fertile soil compared to India.
My hats are off to him for being a successful entrepreneur and co-founder of TiE. But he has a habit of putting down India and the people of India that is very annoying. On top of that, he makes his case by citing wrong data!
- Dr. Avinash N. Patkar PE, president, ILA Consultants

A BUSINESS SOUL?

I read with interest Deepak Chopra's article in the February issue, “Paying Attention to the Soul of Business.” I am a big fan of Chopra, but I tend to disagree with him when he extends his concepts of spirituality to the business world. Whether we like it or not, “the purpose of a business is to make a profit” and that's precisely what Chopra is doing himself. While I do believe that a business should be ethical, moral and legal and be held accountable to its actions when it has an impact on the society, I cannot expect a business to act spiritually. Spirituality transcends the material world and it has as much to do with the material world as the sun has to do with its reflection on water. Business strictly belongs to the domain of the material world and it recognizes spirituality as much as does a clump of dust. The concepts of spirituality can be utilized by the businessman who does have a soul, but not by the business, which is devoid of it.
- Pradeep Srivastava

II

I used to think Deepak Chopra was a smart, efficient communicator, a worshiper in the shrine of Lakshmi, the Goddess of Wealth. After reading his article carefully, a thought suddenly occurred to me. He uses lovely words of the East, and nice words like quantum, chaos and entropy. He redefines several words like ecosystems. My thought is: perhaps he is a genuinely confused, mixed up soul. Otherwise, how could he attempt to make such a huge hodgepodge of disconnected [ideas] seem digestible? I get a lift out of these profound words, even as I feel an emptiness created by the scarcity of clarity and simple truths.
- Radha Krishna

MARKETERS: PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH

In respect to Prof. Rao's article “Finding Your Marketing Edge” (January 2001, page 80), I wanted to share some of my experiences in trying to get accounts and building a viable model/business. It's amazing how many people you come across in this world who want to pay more. You heard right! The interesting thing about Prof. Rao's article is, no matter how many people read it and understand it, they will always revert back to their fears and lack of knowledge. No matter how much they believe in marketing the various aspects of their own product or service (i.e. cheaper, faster, and/or better), they themselves are closed to the same concept when it is presented to them. I believe that a lot of marketing managers today, or at least ones that I have seen, are not up to speed with what they need to know or what the art and concept of selling is.
- Mehernosh Mody