Random Thoughts - Pattabhi Sitaraman

It was the year 2000-01. The bank in its own wisdom decided to send me for a training on higher HR concepts and christening it Executive Development Program.  There were about 30 people drawn from different states, regions,  geographies and  speaking different languages and assembled together for the training.  There was a training coordinator for the program who was also an officer of the bank.  One of the sessions started off with talking about one's worst moments in life and how the individual overcame that so that others can draw lessons from that. As the number of attendees were 30+, the session was made into a whole day program.  Each was given a fifteen minute time bracket to talk about the worst trials and tribulations in his/her personal life and how the person overcame that. There was an officer from Delhi itself, but was originally from Srinagar who recounted his worst moments as the head of a branch in the valley and how the entire scenario sp...

With the CAB getting passed with a comfortable majority in both houses of parliament, the bill became an act.  There are protests across the nation engineered by the political opponents to the ruling party, some anti-national elements and refugees and illegal immigrants from across the border.  However, these protests have been largely centered around the states where the party in power is the same as the party in power in the center or those that are in support of the central government.  So much has been written, discussed and debated in main stream media both print and visual and also in the social media, there is no point in recollecting the same here.  However, there is one aspect of the CAA that has been not thought about nor discussed in any platform which this blog is trying to bring to the fore. Recently it was in a face-book post about driving around Mumbai, there was a talk with the driver and he was mentioning about the loss of camaraderie amon...

The Indian Americans in the Texas state of USA arranged for a grand welcome to the prime minister of India Narendra Modi, who was visiting USA for attending the UN General Assembly.  This was arranged in the NRG stadium in Houston city on the eastern coast of USA.  More than 30 senators and congressmen and women across the party spectrum in USA attended the grand gala event.  Departing from protocol, the president of USA, President Trump joined the celebrations and addressed a crowd of over 55000  of Indian Americans.  In the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting, Modi had many bi-lateral meeting with leaders from other countries.  The bi-lateral meeting with President Trump was the cynosure of all and attracted lot of eye-balls and foot falls from the media for the bonhomie exhibited by both the leaders in the Houston event.    President Trump while answering questions from the International and Indian media answered that Modi is com...

India opened its doors in 1991 to the foreign investors and agreed to floating of the Indian currency (though started with partial to almost full now) and therefore, is not insulated from the shocks of downturn in the global economy.  It was the brilliance of the then governor of RBI, Dr.Y V Reddy which saw the country not getting sucked into the vortex of the currency meltdown.  However, subsequently there had been many stalwarts who had been at the helms of the central bank but with limited success in warding off the global threat to have a cascading effect on the Indian economy.  Recently the Indian economy is looking at a bleak future in the near and mid term.  Let us look at some of the aspects that might have contributed to the same. I took retirement from the bank voluntarily some time in 2013.  I was already owning an apartment and a car. As I was relocating to a city in the state where I was born, brought up and educated, I was thinking of disposi...

There had been a slow down on the economic front due to many reasons and some of the chief contributors to this state of affairs can be pinned on the strengthening of the USD vs major currencies of the world, the stand off between USA and China, the resurgence of American economy leading to lowering the unemployment rate in USA etc.  The first quarter growth rate has slumped to a record low of 5% vis-a-vis 8% in the first quarter of last fiscal. When the nation was going to polls in the beginning of the first quarter in the current fiscal and there were lots of uncertainty on the economic front from the new government that would be formed on the outcome of the polls, the slowing down of the growth is an expected one.    The budgetary provisions after the new government took charge added its weight in no small measures to this plight.  There were rumours that the budget was that of the former finance minister and the present finance minister had only presented it in...

So much had been written, explained, discussed in main stream media and social media on the move of the government of India in abrogating the article 370 and consequently the 35A of the Indian constitution relating to the state of Jammu and Kashmir. It is not one more attempt to either justify or otherwise the move of the government.  Here I am trying to look at the entire episode leading to diluting the entire article 370 in the constitution and consequent abrogation of section 35A.  Britain under the prime minister Attlee decided to grant freedom to the Indian subcontinent and as proposed by the then Viceroy and later Governor General Lord Mountbatten went about dividing the country into two parts on religious lines; the Muslim majority western part and eastern part of the subcontinent were carved out into Pakistan leaving the remaining part of India as a separate country.  However, for their own benefit of a larger geopolitical reasons, they wanted to have a cont...

Across the world there are countries that have made military service mandatory. In most of these countries, when the boys and girls graduate from their high school, they have to join the military and serve for a specific term ranging from a minimum of 18 months to 10 years. After that they are transferred to reserve force.  The countries where it is mandatory to serve in the country's military are Armenia, Austria, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Bermuda, Brazil, Cyprus, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, Greece, Iran, Israel, North Korea, South Korea, Mexico, Norway, Russia, Singapore, Switzerland, Republic of China, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine and UAE. The service in the armed forces of the country helps build a nation full of ex-armed forces men and women and a great reserve battalion.  It also helps in building character and unity among the people.  It helps to bridge the gap in terms of language, status, socio-economic status etc.  It provides a platform for building not just ch...