November 19, 2011

Pissed off at unpluggd

Posted in Uncategorized at 5:14 pm by chait83

So recently been to this event startup event on startups called unpluggd. There was an element of anxiety since my startup made in the final 10 startups who would be presenting in front of Angles and VC firms.

When short-listed as a finalist I don’t expect the organisers holding a bouquet for me at the entrance, but at least I expect them to turn up before hand at the venue and provide some briefing as to how they have planned the sessions, dos and donts, etc. Well the organiser were themselves late. My queries might be stupid or obvious, but someone from the organisers need to address those.

Well things get delayed in India, that’s the way we Indians are. That’s the way our bureaucracy is, our politicians are and so is the traffic ! It is so easy to blame the whole system for that and we won’t change the way we are. Still no issues. What really pissed me off was so called Mr Ashish, one of the organisers/volunteers of the event turning cold shoulders when I introduce myself. OK I am not expecting organisers to give me red carpet treatment, but ‘Hi Chaitannya Nice to see you.. XYZ would brief you about presentation.’ would have been sufficient. Instead you just turn around ! WOW ! I had been to Nasscom Conclave and there some of these volunteers who owned more than million $$ businesses were so courteous. There was a warmth in their behavior. I was there just attending the event, not even as a speaker and in terms of revenue nobody. That didn’t matter to them, they valued all their attendees as they much as they valued their speakers.

 Next shockers was folks presenting their product had to pay as well. “We had emailed you” Stop lying ! I didn’t get any such email. I don’t mind paying, but prior notification is very essential. Just a week back I paid 1500 bucks for Nasscom conclave and there were a 1000+ startups who happily did that. Even after paying 700 bucks, you had to write your own name in their database, on your Name tag, collect your notepad , pen , etc. Good enough, but at least look into the eyes of the person and with a smile say ‘Hi, welcome … something.. something’. Very similar to movies where you see a prisoner who has to collect his stuff and move on. Reception guys at Nasscom welcomed warmly 1000+ people to the venue. Can’t you say ‘Hi’ to 100 odd people here.

 As usual the session got delayed. Next shockers was no diversity in the presentations.

Facebook + linkedin + deals + geo locations + hiring + education + SaaS → you make a bhel and VOILA ! That’s your next billion $$$ startup. I have nothing personal with these startups, you folks chase your dreams, build great organisations.  The organisers should have taken care to have startups from diverse background. I know companies in Pune, doing excellent products in Medical electronics field, DSP, embedded systems, critical electromechanical domains. Aren’t these startups ? Don’t they deserve platform to pitch their products and companies ? They are not on facebook and linkedin, you have to reach out to them through phone. If you are interested only in Social Media, why not make your agenda very clear. Why not shortlist only those startups for the event. What was a guy like me from Embedded Systems doing there ? When I presented , all I saw was blank faces. My presentation made no sense to people from non-embedded systems background. I didn’t get any traction from the event. When we organise ‘Startup Saturday’ here at Pune, Sandeep Saxena from Acton Biotech would spend hours and hours making sure we have speakers from diverse segments of the industry and motivate us to do the same. At Nasscom, the volunteers spent around a month with speakers of the likes of Vinod Khosla, Naveen Jain, Vivek Paul reviewing their presentations, making sure that there is no conflict in terms of content., timing their presentation, pushing for  creativity,etc. They put in every bit of effort to make sure, they had speakers from diverse segments and their talk delivered 100% value to the audience .

Before my presentation I had a few queries, but some Mr. Pratyaush was busy discussing best places to booze around and made me wait for ten mins.

The intention here is not to compare this event Nasscom Conclave or Startup Saturday (Far better than your event),  all I would request you is to be courteous and attentive to people who turn up for the event. It helps a lot even if you smile and say Hello when they greet you.

May 5, 2011

Is the justice really done?

Posted in Uncategorized at 3:49 am by chait83

On 1st May 1945 US announced death of Adolf Hitler and year later on the same day, US again announced death of Osama bin Laden. Probably they are still celebrating in US, but is the justice really done.

This dialogue for the movie “Halla Bol” has permanently itched on my mind, “Khoon toh bohot bahaya hai maine, par khoon bahane se aadmi marta hai samasya nahi !”

Rightly pointed out by Pankaj Kapoor’s character; shedding blood would only kill the person, not the problem.

A few facts before putting up my opinion.

  1. The mansion where Osama was killed is technically a part of the premier Military training academy of Pakistan equivalent to India Military Academy or the Royal Military Academy of UK.

  2. Even officially US has records that he lived in this mansion for at least 2 years.

  3. There were no records of ownership of the land or financial accounts of the people who lived in the mansion.

  4. The mansion was literally a fortress built to protect such high-profile terrorist.

  5. Apart from the public statement of President Obama, there is no other credible source of information that he is dead.

  6. There was no official confirmation from Pakistan that their intelligence or Military was involved in the operation. It took more than 24 hours for their Prime minister to deny it.

  7. Till date $19.6 billion aid was given to Pakistan, $13 billion for security related purpose. The multiple occasion of Pakistan defaulting loans from various countries/ banks, loan waiver are not included in this figure.

  8. The amount of aid given, has accounted the death of only 1 major terrorist.

Now some speculations:

  1. Osama’s pics are not released, keeping his identity completely secret. President Obama released a statement saying the pics would not be released and showing sensibility by stating that the job is yet not done.

  2. Osama’s body was (allegedly) set to rest in the Arabian sea. This means no chance of autopsy in case someone wins the right to verify the facts from.

Based on facts and speculations we can place our assumptions in 2 sets.

Set A:

  1. Pakistan hide Osama in his fortified Mansion.

  2. Pakistan had no clue of Osama hiding.

Set B:

  1. Laden was killed as mentioned by the US statement.

  2. Laden was killed way back sometime, details unknown. US now realised it and planned a cover operation.

  3. Laden is still alive, details unknown. There is a mounting pressure in terms of elections and mercenary business (unlikely, but possible scenario).

The two most logical combinations are to my mind are.

  1. Pakistan hide Osama and Laden was killed as mentioned by the US statement.

  2. Pakistan had no clue and this was a cover up operation. Laden was dead long back, details unknown or unverified.

In either cases Pakistan’s situation looks very grim, the first case is obvious.

Overall looks like Pakistan’s Major source of Income is terrorism. Hence giving protection to high-profile terrorist becomes very essential for them. They operate the way farming is done.

Sow the seeds in the young minds. Nurture them in a protected environment. Boost their growth with subsidised weaponry from mercenaries or allied nations. Harvest them when ripe and sell them to international market creating artificial need to eliminate the terrorism. Then hoard them the most wanted ones and rake is as much as benefit as possible. Finally at the tipping point sell the harvest at enormous profit.

The diplomats on Indian side would go on saying “Told you so.. told you so…” . Pakistan’s would go on with their monotonous monosyllabic response, “Denied… Denied !!” and USA would in its own league would talk of “Freedom, liberty, Justice league of America, Men of honour … ” and then giving out billions of dollars of hard-earned people’s money in aid to Pakistan so that they can buy M-16 and Falcons from US. In a way money comes back to the US defence allied companies.

In second case the threat would be, why did US plan this cover up operation under the very nose of Pakistan’s most elite military academy and abode of top brass retired army officer? Do they want to make a point that Pakistan’s military is indulged in terrorist activities ? Internally US has already considered ISI as a terrorist organisation.

Surprisingly what I see is that for years together there have been no education related partnerships from the US or aid been channelised in that direction. India would have to thank Russia (former USSR) for setting up the IITs and US for setting up the IIMs. There are multiple programmes / partnerships which are running between elite universities of these nations and worldwide, but Pakistan. Not a word on education. All the elements of terrorism are still there in Pakistan and Afganistan. Poverty, illiteracy and radical religious fanaticism. I won’t be surprised if there are more terrorist attacks and more Ladens and Zavaris taking leadership of misguided youths.

Sadly what US is doing here is just keeping a things evenly poised so that there is a continuous demand of weaponry.

What can we do?

So far, I don’t think as tiny little responsible citizens of India can do anything beyond reading newspaper.

April 9, 2011

Vouching for venture capital

Posted in Uncategorized at 7:25 pm by chait83

These are the snippets that I collected from the session organized by NeN on business plan writing, conducted by Mahesh Murthy.

Mahesh Murthy is an accomplished businessman and a VC. His company Seedfund is ranked as the best VC fund in India.

A VC typically has close to 60 secs for any business plan to scan around, based on the flood of business plan they receive each day. In that time a VC has to take a decision to throw the plan or try digging more into it. So how do you compel a VC to do that?

Here is some insight from a investor’s point of view.

A VC is similar to mutual fund business, where money is pooled form people and invested into startups in for some share in the startup. Unlike mutual funds, a VC firm cannot sell it’s shares in an open stock market.

So then how

  1. Does a VC firm book profit.
  2. How is it different from a mutual funds.

Typically a VC firm would return 25% IRR, which is way higher than mutual funds. It’s a high risk high gains fundamental.

Lets assume that a VC firm invests 10 crores in 10 different companies. Generally a VC firm would expect this at the end of 5 years.

3 venture would die
3 would be break even, but there is no exit visible for the investment.
2 will give 5 crores on exit
2 will give 10 – 15 crores on exit.

So ideally an investment of 10 crores, the VC firm has made 30 crores of profit.

Now coming back to original question, is your company worth returning 10x returns on investment at the end of 5 years. VCs have to think with that conviction for every company. A 10x return on the investment is achieved only if the company is no. 1 player in the segment, no. 2 position is far fetched. So do you have in you what it take to be no. 1 in your segment?

Now on to the exit strategy. How does the VC firm book it’s profit.

A VC firm would never want a pie out of your company’s profit. They book profit only when they sell their share to someone and exit from your company.

  1. Management buy back: Typically when the management has 70-80 % share of the company why would it buy more. Deal is uninterestin for the management and a tough bargain for the VC.
  2. Merger or Acquisition : Best option for the VC to exit from the company
  3. Public issue: Very unlikely, a startup making headways into the stock market. None the less this is a viable option. Typically a IT company would have to have valuation of 50 crores, a manufacturing company should have valuation of 200 crores, etc

Now another important question for the VC can you survive with the money that they handover you and thrive thereafter.

Let’s summarise what a VC looks into your business plan.

  1. 60 secs pitch that should arouse interest. So business plan has to be concise and not an encyclopedia  of what your business is all about.
  2. Before getting into the deal, does the investor have a profitable exit door after 5 years.
  3. Can you survive with the money given by the investor to you.
  4. Can you thrive to be no. 1 in your market segment.

For an investor all you need to give is a spreadsheet with shows when the break even point occurs and what happens at the end of 5 year.

So just grab an excel sheet and start filling the numbers. Doesn’t matter if they are right or wrong. Start planning, get it vetted from peers, successful businessmen, investors.

As Mahesh Murthy has put it, business plan is a model not the real thing. In reality no business runs the way it was planned for. The business plan is a blur reflection of your ideas for the investors to which they can relate to.
Some number nuggets:

  1. Typically a VC firm would be looking forward for investment in the range of 2-5 crores, with a share of 20-30 %.
  2. For that share of your company should be close to 50 – 200 crores at the end of 5 years, for the VC to rake in their 10x profit.

My views on lokpal bill

Posted in Uncategorized tagged , at 1:52 pm by chait83

Well the facebook and twitter streams , my mailbox and my sms inbox are all flooded with “Support for lokpal”.

Something of this significance  and of national importance cannot be simply overlooked and I started digging in.

Anna Hazare is the man who is at the epicentre of it. He is a social worker and a Padma Vibhushan. I haven’t had an opportunity to interact with him personally or really investigate his work, hence would consider his role from a very neutral angle.

Wikipedia mentions that this bill was presented in the parliament for the first time in 1969 and has been unsuccessfully been staged there after. The bill is drafted taking references of similar act implemented in Scandinavian countries in and apparently looks like it worked for them. Sweden and Denmark are least corrupted countries today based on statistics. As Navjot Singh Sidhu would have stated, status are like mini skirts. They reveal a great deal, yet hide the essential things. How can statistics account for White collar corrupt practices.

Lets start listing down key clauses of the bill:

  1. ‘Ombudsman’ / Lokayukta : In simple words the person / entity who can initiate a proceeding on his own for greater cause of the people against a complaint. Now prosecuting culprits or not by Ombudsman, our honourable MPs (Whom we have elected / ignored to vote) would debate on.
  2. Appointment is to be made on the recommendation of a committee. Lokpal will have its own administrative machinery for conducting investigations.
  3. The Lokpal is supposed to complete the inquiry within a period of six months. No minister or bureaucrat will be able to influence their investigations.
  4. He can order search and seizure operations.
  5. If any work of any citizen is not done in prescribed time in any government office, Lokpal will impose financial penalty on guilty officers, which will be given as compensation to the complainant.
  6. Lokpal is supposed to investigate cases of corruption only, and not address himself to redressing grievances in respect of injustices and hardship caused by maladministration.

Now thinking like an electronics engineer.

  1. Now why can’t these amendments be made to IPC / CBI / Income tax / Excise rules, a system already in place for investigation. Why a separate institute?
  2. Lets say there is a separate institute, who are the most qualified personnels (ethically and unethically as well) for this job. Well no prize for guessing, Judges , CBI , Income tax / Excise, etc.
  3. Indians love the game called “Pass the buck” .. Now let’s say that there is a case which lokpal is handling. There is a huge money scandal, like Hawala. Automatically IT (Income tax) dept comes into picture and then a few more committees to audit their reports. Now lets say the guy is a criminal. The CBI/ CIA/ KGB / Crime branch Mumbai, etc comes into picture as well. Now these guys decided to pass the buck. What can Lokpal do? File a lame report?Moral of the story: A scandal clean up drive is not single person’s (institute in this case) undertaking.
  4. Now how do we know Lokpal is not corrupt? Ghourmint of India’s Classic solution… Set up a committee, investigate for like 25 – 50 years and then the parliament has to reject the recommendations unanimously. By this time the kids of the accused person are chilling their heels in some states of Ambrika.
  5. How is corruption not different from maladministration. Lets say I allow a blacklisted vendor to bid for a project, oops I didn’t knew it was a blacklisted company. Thanks to my insightful vision which usually cannot be tried in the court, the vendor wins the bid.. Now is this a case of administrative mismanagement or corruption.

Ok let say all my logical arguments are proven wrong and the parliament passes the bill. This would be truly a landmark event, but are we ready to nurture this sapling into a humongous tree which would protect us from the blaring heat of corruption.

Let’s find out with some simple introspective questions:

  1. Do you have voter’s ID. You might have driving licence and passport, but do you have voter’s ID.
  2. For ZP / municipal corporation elections, which ward do you belong to.
  3. Who is your local corporator. What was the budget allocated to your ward this year.
  4. What’s the fine for not carrying your driving licence, assuming you have a valid driving licence.

So if we don’t know very basic things about the government we are part of, no amount of committees and institutes can help us. We need to participate at basic level.

January 30, 2011

Visit to Mhada Office

Posted in Uncategorized at 9:22 am by chait83

Recently I had been to MHADA (Mumbai housing and Area Dev Auth) office in Mumbai and felt like I have moved back by 50 years in time.

So here’s why (A bit exaggerated, for fun ).

The concerned dept building was at least 100 years old (Antique piece ) . It had that old conduit wiring with big round switches (Again an antique piece) .
Now the fun begins, computer scientist might actually enjoy watching evolution software algorithms.

So as we entered the office concerned officer to be referred as Babu hereafter :D was attesting some tax related docs. He found a glitch .. immediately the peon was summoned (अरे तुक्या !! हेच्या receipts कुठे चिटकवल्या).
Now both started backtracking the references for the taxation made for that property ( Linked list) , finally the bug was found and the account was settled. Then the officer greeted us with a smile and asked us to have a seat. We were by then desperately looking out for chairs and by god’s grace a few officers / peons/ good for nothing folks / leeches were off duty (It’s a ghourmint Affice after all).

The officer then went to hunt file related to our property. Now there were huge line of cupboards (again antique) with cryptic numbers on them. He found the right cupboard but met with the segmentation fault … The file was missing from the right shelf, fortunately it was placed in the same cupboard. The thick file had all the records of the previous owners of the land since it’s inception, I guess.

After sometime we very done with our job and then the babu started doing his exclusive job.

  1. Manually copy a letter from template. (Time 30 mins)
    1. Check for all spelling mistakes.
    2. Do some correction (whitener and scratching stuff)
    3. Fill my details (Name, age, etc ) 
    4. Get my signature.
  2. Attach the new docs into the file.
  3. Start numbering the pages from based on the ref no of the latest doc.
  4. Update the index on the last page with relevant doc titles and page no. 

Once done with that .. File moved to senior babus,  तुक्या is summoned again, using VFTP (Vintage File transfer protocol) .
Then senior babus summons junior babus for IRC chat session.
File is then locked into the xyz shelf of the abc cupboard.

Chai and then good bye :D … I was back to the future.

August 16, 2010

Life is tough but it only makes me stronger

Posted in Uncategorized tagged , , , at 6:14 pm by chait83

This is an interesting story that I had come across years ago. Later on I couldn’t find any references, so I am not sure if the story is for real. Yet it’s an interesting story we all can learn from.

So there is a poor man who wants make a living out of sword fighting. He has heard that the Tsar rewards sword fighters handsomely. He wants to earn a big reward, so that he can take care of his ailing parents.

He had heard that there is a monk who lives on the mountain is an excellent sword fighter. So the man goes to the monk and asks him if he could teach him sword fighting and how much time it would take. The monk replies that he can teach him sword fighting in ten years. The man is astounded, his ailing parents would die meantime and he would never be able to serve them. He got anxious and told the monk can he make it bit quicker?

The monk replied, “Yeah , you could take twenty years.”

After some argument with the monk the man relented, decided to stay with the monk and do whatever it takes to be a good sword fighter.

So the training starts with mundane tasks like watering the plants, doing kitchen work, cleaning the monastery, etc. Slowly the monk starts hitting the man with stick without any warning while he is doing his work. As the days pass the frequency of the attacks increase. Now the man is whipped even when he is sleeping. Yet there is no sword training in sight.

The man is of tough vigour and continues to stay with the monk. Meanwhile he now slowly starts defending those attacks, with whatever strength he has. Over a period of time his reflexes become very sharp, he learns the nature of his master. He is able to read the moves of his master before he attacks him. Over a period of time he is able to defend the monk even when he asleep.

After five years of such harsh thrashing the man now becomes impregnable, his reflexes are extremely sharp and he has completely read his opponent. At this moment the monk decides to teach him sword fighting.

To summarise, the man becomes excellent sword fighter and wins two Olympic golds for Russia in sword-fighting.

Well there are some very important lessons for us from this story. Here the monk does not teach his student how to defend. The student learns on his own, based on cognisance, skills, strength (physical, mental and emotional) and vigour. His ability was inherent, is was not made by the thrashing it is only brought forth.

We all have to lead our lives. Now the question is do we lead it complaining about the hardships en-route or do we take up the challenge unto ourselves and face it with all that we have.

Each one of us have our own set of skills, strengths and weaknesses. Formal education would form the structure the structure of your goals, but it can never be the foundation of it.

Life is similar to this monks, it hits us without any warning. If things go wrong, understand that’s a lesson for you to learn. You have to face it and successfully overcome the challenge with your own skills, cognisance and strengths. Over a period of time you develop your become impregnable and bad things stop happening to you or at least you have the required strength to overcome a bad situation. It is life’s own way of teaching you. You are first slapped hard on your face and then taught a lesson. This way you won’t forget the lesson even when you are half asleep. So next time when life presents with you a challenge, understand you are being chiselled for a bigger opportunity.

Second thing the monk teaches is “Haste makes waste.”

You cannot learn things in a hurry. If you want to be a master in your field, you must dedicate necessary time to acquire the mastery with a laser sharp focus on the goal.

If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere. Life is tough, but it only makes me stronger.

Cheers to life !!

May 23, 2010

Product design with Powers of ten

Posted in Uncategorized tagged , , , , at 7:09 pm by chait83

Powers of ten:

I just came across an interesting case study on product design. This is one is called “Powers of 10”. Powers of Ten is a 1968 American documentary short film written and directed by Ray Eames and her husband, Charles Eames,

The Powers of 10 analysis helps innovators identify stakeholders, envision scenarios of how their product may be used, and anticipate how it may make a difference in people’s lives

So the product involved in our case study is a product by Lubrizol known as PuriNOx a.k.a. Q white, an emulsification  of diesel and water which reduces / eliminates the NOx emission into the environment.

This case study is taken from the book “The design of things to come” by Craig M. Vogel, Jonathan Cagan, and Peter Boatwright. I am just summarizing it.

A few things that the author observed were.

  1. Product developers often focus on the aspects in their comfort zone or closer to their comfort zone
  2. Technologists are technology driven tend to focus on the technology alone (I fitted in here in early stage of my career)
  3. Companies often fail to take into account all the different views and requirements of all the stakeholders of their product. I would like to add that in a most of the cases companies fail to identify even the stakeholders or justify their role in the whole ecosystem.
  4. They don’t envision potential difficulties in gaining acceptance in the target market.
  5. They also fail to leverage enthusiasm of other stakeholders and potential role in encouraging it’s adoption.

Now how did Lubrizol assess their challenges using the Powers of 10.

101 Molecular levels:

  1. The ad agency and the technologist focused on the molecular structure, which did not concern the stakeholders.
  2. Technologists were unhappy over the ad agency for portraying their molecular structure as some junk food candy.
  3. This brawl gave jitter to the executives who had to invest money into marketing and sales of the product.

102 Blending water with diesel:

To blend the unit you need a new blending unit, lots of engineers, suppliers, eventually opening door to new opportunities. Now the question is would the blending process be hidden from view or prominently displayed. But the Powers of 10 suggests it should be visible, providing a new opportunity to establish a visual brand identity of the product. Elaborated in 103

103 The blending machine:

The water molecules blend temporarily, settling to the bottom of the mixture unless they are stirred. The supplier/stakeholder has to incorporate the new product line into his work routine, which is critical to the product’s long term success. How will he react? Anticipating stakeholder’s needs affects the product design itself. Companies would always want their products to be widely appreciated and accepted. Lubrizol anticipated these concerns and designed a support programs for them.

104 System Operations:

The typical supply chain management trail chain, which sprocket fits when and where. Resistance of the existing shop floor folks towards learning new thing and unlearning the old ones. This certainly affects the productivity in the initial stages. What about the union, plant manager, et. al? Lubrizol addressed the concerns by educating them on the benefits and use of the product, not pitching the benefits to the plant manager alone. From the start, the operators and maintainers will have a sense of the goals of the new product and the purpose behind the process changes.

And as always education helps reduce foibles.

105 System Operations:

This new fuel affects residents around the refinery, politicians dealing with pollution in their city, and even the gas stations. Could these stakeholders harm the product’s success? Or could they be used to the company’s advantage?

106 Region:

This would involve political level decision-making. Does clean environment only means using a different type of fuel, how do politician take a decision, formulate policies? Can there be subsidy or a mandate for using this new fuel. Could the enthusiasm of the environmentalists be leveraged?

107 Continent:

I guess I should stop here because the context is getting beyond my scope.

108 Global environment:

FYI it deals with humanity and environment.

The Powers of 10 analyses people who are relevant, and scenarios of each of the identified individuals provides needed insight and understanding. Scenarios ensure that people remain real.

103

April 26, 2010

Trek to rajmachi

Posted in Uncategorized at 10:04 pm by chait83

After a long tryst with destiny (Gumption traps) we decided to trek Rajmachi and came across this blog which said the walk to Rajmachi was enchanting. My legs are still aching and I cursed the person who wrote the blog, yet once done with the trek the experience was truly exhilarating.

We reached Lonavala station at 2 pm (don’t ask why), but an avid trekker would have reached at the most by 10 am. The adventure started with the very fact that we reached at 2 pm, which meant the return journey would be after the sunset through the dark forest (No Street lights, obviously!).

Rajmachi foothill

Rajmachi ... The road ahead

The fort is typically characterized by undulating hilly terrains, as most of the forts belonging to Shivaji Maharaj are.

Majestic view on the way to Rajmachi

History:

Shrivardhan fort from the foothill

So Rajmachi hosts two forts or rather citadels (Bale Kille) know as Shrivardhan and Manoranjan, Shrivardhan being bigger of the two. These two citadels were mainly used as watch towers to guard the Bhor ghat which connects Pune with Mumbai.

Although Mumbai came to prominence only after the Suez canal was built, none the less this was an important trade route even during the reign of Shivaji Maharaj. I haven’t heard of any battles being fought at Rajmachi or any references on the internet, I guess this was indeed a safe haven.

The road:

On the crossroads ??? Take the road on the left

On the cross roads.. Phew !!! Well the road on left is the right one ;)

Well you can take two roads.

You can start from Lonavala and walk down to Rajmachi, which is approximately 20 km. The road is straight without much hiccup for a rookie trekker. Initially the forest was not dense, but as you proceed the forest gets denser. Also there was some construction activity going near the Fort (10 km from the Fort). I hope I won’t get to see street-side vendors around the Fort selling cheap stuff, just the way we have here at Shaniwar wada. Lazy bums can get their bikes right upto the foothill of the fort through the dusky road, but not in rainy season. I would rather prefer to walk out of respect for our historic heritage.

The other way is from Kondivade village near Karjat.

Word of caution: Take lots of water with you (at least 2 ltr / person), because along the way you won’t find any drinking water, no locals, no other source or water. Well the good news is that there is a village on the foothill of the fort and yes you do get mineral water as well.

Near Bhairoba temple, locals still worship here

The main attraction for me was the not the fort but the temples. Most of the Forts in Maharashtra are no more than a hip of ruin surrounded by fortified walls in ailing condition (I so very painful to make this statement, but that’s the truth). After a long time I saw a few glimpses of historic architecture in form of temples and the cave. Last time I remember getting a feel of this kind of architectural beauty was Sindhadurg fort.

So near… Yet So far. After a marathon run from Lonavala station, this 100 mtr climb seemed Herculean.

Finally on the top of the world! On right hand side is Shrivardhan.

Well having said that, the view from the top was worth three hours of huff-puff (to be read as breath taking) journey through the woods.

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April 18, 2010

It’s a sustainable world ?

Posted in Clean tech tagged , , , , , , , , , , , at 9:39 am by chait83

Part – I

This blog is inspired by the clean tech Presentation on Clean tech by Anil Paranjape at  startup Saturday. I was particularly interested with this video on clean tech.

This particular video showed in animated manner how natural resources are exploited by corporate giants for the generation of consumer good. Although I feel the video is bit overkill, but here’s my take on the video.

Well this brings to my mind some scenes from some of my favourite movies.

So here are the scenes:

  1. Lagaan:

Well who can forget the characteristic “Tumse dugna Lagaan Vasool karega!” dialogue, inspiring intense loathing for the British.

Umm… really? Well what about the lovely British lady who sang songs of love running around the sparse bushes of Champaner for our adorable “Bhuuvaaan!!”…. “Yesss.. I am in love!” So, well the loathing is not for the British, but clearly their undue “Dugna Lagaan” policy. Well in technical terms it would be the imperialist policies of the British that Indians opposed of. During the 17th and 18th Century Europe experienced the great industrial revolution and England was the cradle of the revolution and subsequently the leader. Now England being a small country it couldn’t find all the resources it’s factories required and hence venturing out was the only logical alternative. With it’s new found technology and “By hook or by crook” policy the British Empire never saw sun going down for a long time. Not only India but all the British colonies were exploited of their natural and human resources. In this century the imperialism is left far behind, but the traces are still there.

  1. Gandhi:

Well another very inspiring movie. I clearly recount the scene where Barrister M K Gandhi descends from the ship on India shores and take an extensive tour across the nation ascending to the role of Bapu. Along the tour he meets farmer aggrieved by forced cultivation of Indigo and battling the famines. Well after twenty years Bapu figures out that the natural resources of India are exploited for the factories of Manchester and Chelmsford. So he laid the foundation of non co-operation movement.

Apart from the overall success or failures of his life, Gandhiji was very wise to clearly demarcate values from people. This demarcation at any point of time is very important for a value centric, process oriented action plan.

  1. Blood diamond:

This movie was a showed stark reality of the happenings of Liberia and their diamond mines. Here Leonardo di Caprio shown as a mercenary who trades weapons for diamonds. At one point of time explains how the whole business runs. So he trades weapons with the extremist for the diamonds, he then hands them over to local authorities who certify them to be excavated in South Africa by a Big South African company. They are then sent to India for polishing and then the company hordes the diamonds, to create artificial scarcity in the market. Then the advertisement campaigns are run to show how rare a diamond is.

The worst part of all this blood diamond was school going children were abducted, brainwashed, exposed to drugs and prostitution at a very early age and made soldiers of the bloody revolution.

Now there was another scene where after an extreme bloodbath an old man sadly exclaims to the protagonist of the movie “I hope they don’t find oil here!”

The movie ends with the UN passing a resolution stating that the natural resources of a country are their own and others have no right to exploit them.

Thus end the sad saga of conflict diamonds, well at least in the movie.

Well the video also shows the same thing, portraying entrepreneurs as imperialist. As I said earlier that imperialism though non-existent in official senses the traces are still there.

Some of the things that we see around:

  1. Well with India having 50% of the child labour the problem is very serious.
  2. The saga of builders trying to grab land on Vetal Tekdi in Pune.
  3. Leather tanneries in Kanpur letting out their untreated waste into River Yamuna.
  4. The famous Taj corridor case.

And many many more…

… To be continued

April 2, 2010

Startup Saturday 10 March

Posted in Starup Saturday at 9:46 am by chait83

This blog is a followup of the previous blog in the startup Saturday series.

The theme for today’s meet was adventure sports. The speakers for the meet were
1. Commodore V. G. Praveen from Inland windsurfing and sailing academy.
2. Anita from Templepilots
3. Rohan More from Japalouppe (A horse riding academy)

One common thing evident about all the speakers was the air of euphoria and the passion with which all the speakers spoke.

The session started V. G. Praveen’s presentation. His “Inland windsurfing and sailing academy” is located at Varasgon near Panshet dam in Pune. There they conduct sailing, kayaking and windsurfing activities. They are associated with the Yachting Association of India

Praveen has been into sailing and windsurfing for past seven years and started teaching five years back.

How did he start his academy?
Well started Sailing from a club in Pune, which organised a camp once in a year. Later on he moved to Goa to get a formal course in sailing, windsurfing. When he decided to start his academy he looked out for second-hand equipment and he found out quite a few sellers for that. There was a very peculiar associated with the purchase, all the equipment required repairs and the spare parts were not available in India. To add to the trouble the spare parts were not interchangeable and hence he had to go to Thailand to buy new equipments.
Currently the equipment is exempted of customs.

When he was asked as to why there aren’t many adventure sports enthusiasts in India, his answer was:
1. The general prejudices in the minds of people, that adventure sports are dangerous.
2. All the equipment required for their water sports activity has to be imported; hence the overall cost for the course is expensive as well.

Where can you organise water sports:
For kayaking: A place where the water is calm and there is not much wind, like lakes.
For windsurfing: The water body should be more than three kilometres in diameter otherwise it is not enjoyable. Also as the name implies there should be sufficient wind for windsurfing.

How do they promote their academy?
Through their website http://www.windsportsPune.com and word of mouth. They have taken no effort in doing the promotion for their company since there is a very niche segment of people who have interest in water sports and according to him it’s not possible to attract these people through advertisement campaigns.

Business:
Since this sport is very niche there aren’t many people involved in this business.
Adventure sports enthusiast should be looking forward to this as a wonderful opportunity, since in coming five years there would be a new generation who would want to get involved in adventure sports and they would be earning enough to pay handsomely for adventure sports.

Personal safety:
If a person follows basic instructions of the course, there is no risk involved in water sports. Till date there has been no mishap in his academy.

Their achievements:
Templepilot:

Anita spoke about Templepilots and was very vocal about two things, passion for flying and safety measure they practice at Templepilots

About Templepilot:
Templepilot is the only registered school for paragliding in India. They started 14 years back.
Anita quit her corporate job to help her husband formalise his hobby of paragliding into a well structured course with a good business vision.

Keep the Aspidistra Flying:

This is an interesting excerpt about Avi (founder of Templepilots) from their website:

“..,.his (Avi) being in the top three in the NDA entrance, winning the prestigious Presidents Gold Medal and being chosen for the IAF as a Fighter Pilot came so naturally that it seemed as if he were destined.

He is a simply a flier, not an aviator, a flier…at heart. He is at home in the sky…and his love for flying comes through to all his students whom he shares it with. His one burning passion is to get more and more people flying with him and tasting the magic of perfection and oneness that he lives by.”
About Anita
“Anita has a background in advertising and pure marketing. Having done her MBA she abandoned her Corporate career as a Senior Brand Manager for TATA Home Finance.”

Well Anita testified that she is enjoying every bit of Templepilots and never once did she regret quitting her job.

Looking at their success story and along with their decision to quit their jobs (most people reading would die to get that kind of jobs) for the sheer joy of flying, it is in the true spirit of “Keep the Aspidistra Flying”.

Competition:
Templepilots is experiencing competition created by them. Yet since the space is really wide more competition can still sustain without much adverse effect on the business.

Obstacles in scaling up:
There are not lot many instructors willing to take up the job. It takes around two years for them to train a person for the job of instructor.
All equipment required for the flying has to imported, also there are no tax exemptions for the imported goods.

Level of physical fitness required for flying:
If you are physically fit to drive a cycle, you can fly. You should not have any back aliments.

How did they promote their flying school?
Anita is the one who does all the promotional activity for their venture. So when they start Templepilots. Anita randomly caught hold of groups in a cafe or any other public tweeting places and told them about flying and Templepilots. The good thing that happened for them wa s that their initial students were influential people of the society and hence the word of mouth publicity was very effective from the very early days.

Their track record has been so far very clean with no mishaps.

Fun trivia:
Is there any scope you running into a tree?
Well if you aim for it, for sure you can!

This was a witty reply to the above query by Anita.
Moral of the story, paragliding is a very safe sport and the glider is in total control at any point of time, provided the glider adheres to the regulations and does not push things beyond the safety threshold.
Japalouppe:

Japalouppe is a Horse riding club located in Talegaon Dabhade, an hour’s drive from Pune.
It’s a mother and son venture. Started by his mother Lorraine Morey and later on assisted by her sons Rohan and Nikhil.
Japaloppe is into training for horses riding, consultation, breeding and allied services for horses. Right now they are the biggest players in Pune and recently they have started another training school at Ranchi.

Inspiration:
Rohan was born and brought surrounded by horses. His father and grandfather are involved in the business of breeding horse. He is a third generation horseman.

How did he start his business?
So Rohan started his business by borrowing money from his father. At some point of time he did want to quit the business since at an early age (about 25 years) he was not able to manage the business. The only motivation at that point of time was his passion for his horse riding school. Slowly he managed to turned the tide and right now they are doing great business and profitable as well. Currently they are catering big corporates and schools in and around Pune.

Their business:
Japalouppe not only conducts training for beginners, but also grooms up students for competition. They have resorts and

Market segmentation:
So Rohan talked about the different Market segments in his line of business.

1. Single horse owners: Not much of the competition since they own a single horse and their business operations are ad hoc in nature.
2. Riding schools to train riders for competition: So there are a lot of riding schools which exclusively train students for competitions, which is a very niche market segment.
3. Generic riding school: This is the segment Japalouppe operates in. This accounts for the largest pie of the horse riding schools, which has a formal structure to its training. Major portion of their business comes from the camps which they conduct for the students in the summers.

Japalouppe not only conducts training for beginners, but also grooms up students for competition. They have resorts wherein they offer a complete joy ride for the trainees or weekend euphoria for enthusiasts.

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