MyTake

Roughly around half a century back, Alvin Toffler was thinking and writing on how jobs, people, relationships and society shall change in the 21st century. Jack Ma might have barely started going to school by that time. During the World Economic Forum 2018 session, Jack Ma was talking about the future trend of work and sounding quite relevant when he was warning that automation would eat the kind of jobs that humans are doing today, so we need to have thinking shift and develop different kind of mindset. Ardent follower of Jack Ma, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, the man behind Paytm, is the richest billionaire under the age of 40 in 2018 according to a recent report. These people reflect on the call of time as they could think much ahead of times when it comes to market. In this backdrop when we look at the environment today, we find existence of impermanence, dominance of technology, transient social values, changing work schedules, emergence of multitasking, generic work portfolios ...

The future has always been there. Today shall be past tomorrow and history shall determine the future. So the future can never be isolated with the past or present. Future is here and we are deliberating on the nature of the future and the expectations of today's generation for staying alive, relevant and sustain in changing and challenging times. Yes the future is going to be different than the present as it has always been. The only thing which is important in this context is - whether we are prepared to face the future or are we putting efforts to develop systems, structures and styles that would successfully deal with future. Do we need to be effective or efficient in order to perform at the front to face the challenge or we can afford to allow the mighty to fall. The trend shows that the future is going to be more technology driven and the speed shall decide the future of an organisation. Economies of speed shall spearhead organizational performance. Artificial Intelli...

The other day we were discussing among ourselves the motivation of students to study.  And some of the views of friends were really surprising. One of them said,  'these students are not really students, they are individuals, the class is a group of individuals, not really group of students'.  I thought let me think in my mind what ideally a student is. A student has a drive to learn new things, a student has urge to know more, a student has desire to excel, a student want to compete with others, a student raises questions, a student prepares and participates, a student engages him/herself in studies, etc etc. And then it struck to my mind, if a student is not doing either of this activity, one can not really call a student a student.   This is what gave me questions to raise and solutions to find for the problem that we, the teachers, are facing. Our experiences may not be generalised to all students at all geographies and I also wish that it is proved wro...

One friend (A) was talking to another friend (B) (while pointing towards his 10 year old son) A - 'aajkal bachche bahut smart ho gaye hain' B - 'itna jaantey hain, na... baap re... computer, mobile, tv, meri 9 saal ki beti hai, mobile se khelti hai' A - 'mera beta bhi.... kehta hai.. papa mobile me internet nahin hai..lelo na' B - 'meri beti kehti hai, papa ye nokia purana ho gaya... iPhone lo ya fir Galaxy' As this conversations was going on I was just observing their gestures.... and trying to read the background.... may be both of them did not have these feelings (as their kids) while they were this young. Anyway... lets enjoy their conversation: A - 'or kitna padtey hain ye bachchey...school, home work... tution... music... drawing... ' B - 'sach me kitna pressure hai na in par' A - 'inka school bag kitna bhari hota hai' B - 'jab tak college pahunchenge, Spondylitis ho jaaega' A - 'really... yaar... aajkal ke...

It was a great opportunity for me to attend this Conclave on Financial Inclusion, under the aegis of Meghalaya Basin Development Authority, Government of Meghalaya, Shillong. The beginning coincides with the beginning of the 12 th Five Year Plan of the Government of India and as was communicated it is coterminus as well.  Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs) are the key players in helping and supporting the cause of financial inclusion.  Grameen Bank which was established in Bangladesh to help poor in improving their livelihood conditions has pioneered the movement of MFIs all across the globe.  SKS was a great success story for India, however its fate is not less known by its stakeholders as well as the patron of all, the government.  It is really nice to hear policy makers, bankers, MFI representatives etc who show their concern for poor and poverty through their talks and data support.  I shall like to vent my views on the issues discussed in the conc...