Competitive Economies And Corporate Loyalties

Looking at the header of this post you might be thinking what competitive economies have got to do with loyalties......Well this is the biggest challenge corporations the world over are facing today. It is a paradox that sprang up from the way free markets work viz., competition...ruthless competition.

Competition is the key factor that has driven the success of free markets and ensured that free economies don't stagnate after a period of growth. Competition is one thing that the Soviets couldn't imbibe into their economic policies which eventually lead to Perestroika and Glasnost in the erstwhile Soviet Union and then on to it's eventual fall. All business endeavors are to see profit, and governments that support free markets make sure there always is profit. The way they achieve this is to leave ground for multiple players, thus making sure that no one rests on their laurels for long.

So big corporations run with a single mindedness called 'profit', this hunger for profits has now hit individuals as well. There is a real sense in asking oneself this question......."why should I lose this opportunity to gain more money?" Corporations keep asking themselves this question, and now individuals do as well. The answer to this question is to keep looking for better pastures all the time and switch to a new job whenever there are better opportunities. The first thing that private organizations think of during a stormy time is throwing people overboard!! so why should individuals be loyal to any organization that treats them no more than instruments of profit? well nobody seems to be.......

My father always used to say of his organization... "dear, this is the entity that's feeding us and sending you to school", his organization, even during very hard times never threw anyone overboard, even those who were asked to leave were given money equivalent to what they would earn till they retire!! This loyalty is a rarity to people of our generation. No one has any loyalties to anybody, it is just a hunger for profit that drives people and corporations. So, can we go back to the old system? definitely not, as we have seen where it had lead us. The best example is that of DoorDarshan in India, they were holding 100% market share for television channels in India, I haven't seen it in many years and many like me have forgotten it, DoorDarshan was and is one of the most inefficient machines around.

So, what is the answer to all this volatility we see with individuals and corporations alike? The answer is a pretty tough one, and we can say we still haven't learn't economics properly. Could Communism be an answer to this? May be, time will tell this as people move ahead perfecting the way things are handled. It is to be noted that Karl Marx never thought of forcing Communism onto people, he believed that brutality of Capitalism will lead to a desire in people for an equal share for all humanity to the resources no single person truly can inherit.

We Got A Submarine !!

Finally India got a Submarine, great news!! But wait a minute....we already have submarines and they have been with the navy since the early sixties. So, why are we so excited about the addition of another submarine? Well, yes there is reason to be excited, all the submarines that we got till now are not true submarines, they can invariably be called 'submersible ships'.

Conventional diesel powered submarines constituted all of our submarine force till now and will stay so for the next 15 years at the least. Diesel submarines don't run their engines all the time, their diesel engines are run when the submarine surfaces, the power from which is used to charge the batteries. These powered batteries are then used to run the submarine when it gets under the sea. Surfacing is the biggest weakness of conventional submarines, they become vulnerable to attack and this is the very reason they cannot form part of a defensive response against enemy nuclear attacks.

I will make an attempt at explaining why nuclear submarines are a deterring factor against nuclear attacks.........It had been the strategy of the Cold War powers to send their nuclear submarines to ocean depths when the war begins or position them near enemy territory and launch an attack that cannot be tracked by satellites or ships or aircraft. In this aspect the Soviets reached the farthest, they built the world's most silent and largest submarines ever built, the Akula class. Their size is something that no one else can still match even today!! Soviets built them so large for two reasons viz., carrying more fire power and staying submerged for longer durations before a surprise attack can be launched. It is said that Soviets built Akulas to send them to ocean depths whenever war started and to keep them there for an estimated 100 - 150 days and then bring them up to rain fire, when all means to launch an attack had been exhausted during attacks and counter attacks from NATO, a frightening prospect indeed !! The submarines were so large because they even have swimming pools and other things to keep the crew sane, virtually unknown on all other submarines. So Soviets definitely scored an edge over Americans with Akula submarines, Americans came to know about their existence very late, we never know what answer they had against Akula, a true master weapon.

Now, since India is surrounded by two nuclear weapon states, and since we declared that we would not use nuclear weapons first against any country, we do need to have a credible way to launch a counter attack in the event that our launch capabilities are taken out in a first attack by enemies. A nuclear submarine is the answer to this need, navy could send the submarine to an undisclosed location and launch attack in secret from where it cannot be taken out. But it is to be noted that nuclear submarines proved to be deadly adventures for both the Soviets and Americans. The perils of a nuclear submarine that isn't properly built are portrayed best in the movie "K-19 The Widow Maker", which is the tragic story of one of Soviet Union's first nuclear submarines that went horribly wrong. Infact this movie is one of my favorites for an inspiring portrayal of patriotism by the submarine's crew, which is all real.

Hope that India doesn't have to taste this bitterness with Arihant, our first nuclear submarine. The fact that it took 3 decades to launch our first submarine is an indicator that a careful effort went into building the submarine and accidents are kept at bay. God be with the crew of Arihant while it undergoes sea trials.

If all goes well we will send out a message to the World that India can no longer be messed with, an assuring prospect for Indians but on another note also brings me sadness that one more country has brought the world closer to apocalypse, a country that has been the most peaceful of nations, undeniably in entire human history, but on another note we are not responsible for it, it is other irresponsible countries that pushed India here!!

Largest Aircraft In The World

There is a huge amount of hype going on about the largest plane in the world being the Airbus A380. The fact is, it is not. The West is quite keen on advertising their achievements while the Russians as always do not really create such a huge hype about things that they achieve. There is no doubt that Airbus A380 is one of the largest and one of the most complex aircraft ever built, but it looks like no one seems to notice the existence of another mighty giant, which actually is the Antonov 225 nicknamed 'Mriya' which means 'Dream'. This aircraft was built by the Antonov Design Bureau during the 80s and was originally built to carry the Soviet space shuttle 'Buran'(again another fact that the many don't know). This aircraft today is still the largest in the world. Mriya's wing span is not as expansive as that of Hughes H-4 Hercules 'Spruce Goose' built by Howard Hughes, but it is longer than Spruce Goose.
Mriya has 6 engines and the main landing gear has 32 wheels , far more than any other aircraft in the world. The aircraft was first internationally displayed at the Paris air show in 1989. At the time when it was displayed, some industrialists even started speculation about converting it into a flying 3 floored luxury hotel. This aircraft is presently used to transport large cargo that conventional aircraft cannot carry.

It is estimated that, if converted into a passenger aircraft, this aircraft can carry upto 1500 people which is almost 3 times that of what A380 can carry. The immediate question that comes up is why this aircraft was not used for this purpose. The answer could lie in the fact that given the security scenario and given the fact that very few airports in the world have the capacity to handle the traffic generated by A380 without need of any restructuring, it could be a daunting task to handle the traffic generated from Mriya if it were to be turned into a passenger aircraft!!

Largest Moving Object.... Jahre Viking

From my childhood I had an obsession for large moving things, especially ships and aircraft as their size and capabilities can easily beat that of all other large and moving things. Large ships have always intrigued me, I used to wonder how such large things could move.
From the historic times ships have moved people, civilization and knowledge across lands and territories that could not be imagined even in the wildest of dreams. Men had always wondered what lay beyond the horizon and where the blue sea would take them if they dared to sail its waves. Ships have become carriers of men's dreams from time immemorial and even to this day it is a fact that the world moves on ships. Most of the world's cargo is still moved over ships and ships have grown bigger and ever bigger as the world began to see more economic and scientific development. There is no other way to carry such huge amounts of cargo as ships do today.
If you had been wondering how large, ships could get here you go.......
The largest man-made moving object ever in history is a ship called Jahre Viking also know as Seawise Giant, Happy Giant and Knock Nevis. The ship was built in Japan during the 70s at Oppama Shipyard and was launched in 1979. The ship was built to carry oil(oiltanker), it's capacity is 5,65,000 DWT( Dead Weight Tonnage, which means it can carry 5,65,000 tonnes of oil at a time and is classified as an Ultra Large Crude Carrier(ULCC). It is so large that it can be docked at very few ports in the world, and it cannot pass Suez Canal, Panama Canal or even the English Channel.


The ship is 458.45m long, 68.86m wide and 29.80m. On it's side it is 50 feet longer than Empire State building and four buildings of the size of St.Paul's Basilica can be easily fit into it's tanks !!!
After it's engines are stopped it takes 5.5 miles to come to a halt and to turn, it needs to traverse a circle more than 2 miles wide. Eventhough this ship is so large it has a crew of only 35 men and most of the high ranking officers including the captain of the ship are from India.
Here is an image from the Wikipedia that compares it's size to that of other large man-made structures in the world.



An interesting fact about the ship is that it was sunk off the coast of Iran, after being hit by missiles during the Iran-Iraq war in the Strait of Hormuz. But it was re-floated from the Ocean, which in itself is a gargantuan task, repaired at the Keppel Shipyard in Singapore and started voyages again.



The ship has now been converted into a Floating Storage Unit and is now stationary, permanently anchored at Qatar Al Shaheen oil field in the Persian Gulf.

Assassination...Answer To Mumbai Massacre

We are in a disgraceful slumber, yes we are and the government is too bent on walking the Gandhian steps way as we have reaped the fruits of walking that much adulated path in the form of betrayal from China and repeated attempts by Pakistan to push our nation into oblivion. We are surrounded by one the worst rogue states there could ever be in the history of the world. The countries around us like Pakistan and China are rogue states which will endanger the lives of millions of people around the world directly or indirectly through their policies. It is a fact that China supports in-human regimes like in North Korea and Myanmar and Pakistan is a safe haven for terrorists the world despises so much.
Think of this...could Gandhi's principles work if another nations invaded us? The answer is No, there shouldn't be a wee bit of doubt about this. We can't stand a chance of bailing out our nation from the present crisis by following Gandhian ideals.
Terrorists hijacked our plane and we simply had to release other terrorists to save the lives of the people in it. Now where did the perpetrators go ? They went into Afganisthan and Pakistan. WE STILL KEEP BEGGING to hand them over to us. This is unlikely to happen in our wildest dreams. Now the monsters have struck again in Mumbai and young people lost their lives for no reason. Our leaders sit cribbing about the incidents and still we are begging Pakistan for action. It is a disgrace that terrorists attacked our Parliament and the perpetrators are still alive.
Now where should we look for answers? A very likely answer could be what Israel had done to the murderers of their athletes during the 1972 Munich Olympics.
During the 1972 Olympics, members of the Black September had taken 11 Israeli athletes hostage and murdered them. The response from Israel was interesting and inspiring. It is a fact that those who carried out the massacre can never be brought to justice in Israel, so the next logical step was to assassinate them ! Mossad, Israel's intelligence organization carried out an extensive campaign to assassinate the terrorists involved in the incidents even though they were scattered across the globe.
Imagine this....if stateless terrorists can carry out operations of such great proportions we see today, what could a country with unlimited resources( as compared to the terrorists) can do ?? In fact a lot can be done.
Terrorists who attacked Mumbai and India as a whole are stateless people and are no gentlemen in anyway, and fact is that these people are harbored by rogue nations!!
There is no point in kneeling down before these nations and begging them to hand them over to us. If we cannot get them why not assassinate them ?? Our leaders should wake up from the slumber and the false impression that we can bring those people to justice. Just getting the terrorists killed without any investigation will send out a strong message to the world that we are not week, we should prove to the world that there are teeth in our tolerance and non-violent attitude towards other nations in the world. Our leaders should wake up and prove to the world that we are not week and we can inflict the same amount of damage to the people that so mindlessly inflict such pain on us.

Free Markets And Our Future

There is a lot of discussion going on about this topic around the globe. In fact, free markets have been a bone of contention between world powers since the dawn of industrialization, which gave rise to the two world wars and after them as well between United States of America and the Soviet Union. This issue has come into the limelight, more so in the recent months, because of the present economic conditions prevailing around the world.
Free markets can basically be defined as economies controlled and influenced by private individuals with minimal intervention of the state.
The proponents of free markets say that free markets encourage a competition between players in the industry and stimulate the growth of the economy. It is true to a large extent as we have been seeing the western world being far ahead of other state controlled economies. Historically free markets have been more vibrant than their state controlled counterparts. In free market economies individuals are allowed the freedom influencing a country's economic course.
The one remnant of imperialism and expansionism that we can still see are capitalist economies. Industries in these economies tend to compete with each other and create enormous amounts of wealth, a part of which is vented to the people working for them, who in turn look for more ways to spend their wealth, in turn creating a demand for a lot of other goods and commodities and this cycle goes on until there is a surplus in every everything that is produced. At this point the industries look for other places to sell their products and foreign expansionism starts. This kind of an economic structure has created enormous amounts of wealth in western economies. Think of this...per capita income of India is now about $1000 whereas that in EU and USA averages between $35000 to $40000, this is huge. In Norway and Canada even tribesmen living in remote areas have their own trucks and cars to move about. The best example is the difference in standards of living of Sami tribesmen in Scandinavia and Russia. In comparison to this there are no close analogies we can draw with tribesmen in India and other poor countries !!
This wealth is one of the reasons that prompted Mikahil Gorbachev to initiate economic reforms in the erstwhile Soviet Union, which ultimately destroyed the union itself.
And these days, after looking at what happened to former Communists countries and comparing with what is happening in the western world, many countries in the world have been drawn into the enticing realm of free market economies and what do we see now......?? We see that the world is going through a turmoil and even the richest nations aren't being spared. Rich nations are under great stress because their markets are now being eaten up by competitors from the hitherto closed economies.
The living standards in USA and EU are highly artificial, they cannot be even thought of in underdeveloped countries. People in the developed world thrive upon the poverty of the underdeveloped countries and guzzle up a large chunk of what is produced in the world. Now, the recent rise in wealth of the most populous countries like India and China are leading to a crunch on the world resources and if more countries get onto the juggernaut of free markets, we might well see a gargantuan global economic bubble being created based on demand for raw materials and a subsequent bubble-blow caused by a crunch on the natural resources.
The one big question that we need to ask ourselves is....DOES OUR PLANET HAVE THE NECESSARY RESOURCES FOR ALL COUNTRIES TO HAVE THE SAME PROSPERITY AS USA AND EU ??
The answer is a NO. There aren't enough resources for everybody to enjoy the same standard of living as in USA and EU. The result will dictate a colossal restructuring of the global economy in the near future and there could be a bigger economic turmoil than what we are envisaging now.
Are our leaders even thinking of this resource crunch ? Are people thinking of it? Well, nobody seems to be. Some alarming articles have been published in newspapers during the last few months, and they have gone largely unnoticed, masqueraded by the global liquidity crisis. Some estimates are bone chilling, they say that if the present rate of expansion goes on we would need two planets by 2030 !! and according to the UNO the world is clearly spiraling out of control when it comes to food production in the world. Only a strict tab on the demand and supply can give time for the world to cope with the crunch we are heading for and this well may men embracing the Soviet economic system that the western world holds in great disdain !

World Is Run By Women !!

The header of this blog itself seems to be a myth. Yes, look around, where is the world run by women?? Women are always the ones at the receiving end of our ideology, religious beliefs( yes, the burdens that men can't carry are often left to women) and simply the power men seem to have.
If we look around, we see women always carrying a lot of burden, all on their own without men lending a helping hand and yet they always get the job done. Most of the key positions in the world are held by men and not women, and women are fighting for their rightful place in this unforgiving world. It looks as though men are running the world. But think again, this doesn't seem to be the case. Where did all the men, and the relatively few women we see around learn to be what they are ?? It is a fact that universities in their present form don't contribute anything to the personalities of people. Educational institutions only contribute to the knowledge levels of people but not their personalities.
We see women today, fighting for their rightful place in the world, vying with men for equal opportunities in all arenas. But in all the mayhem, men and women alike seem to forget that the world is already being run by women. The world has come this far only because of women. Think of this.....where does anyone learn life? Is it in schools and universities ? Absolutely not, it is rather the time we spent with our mothers and grandmothers that taught us what life is !!
Women have unknowingly been contributing to the world, by moulding empty personalities into powerful and meaningful ones we see now and have seen over the millennia. People have learned all the basics of life in the laps of their mothers and their grandmothers. When our forefathers were in the wild, men were hunting while women were making 'men and women' and even today, men work and women silently create personalities. It is the time spent in childhood with their mothers during which people learn life, I am what I am only because of the time I spent with my mother and grandmother.
Newer generations around the world are at the verge of losing this magical spell with more and more women leaving homes for jobs. Truly, we have brought his onto ourselves by crushing women and not recognizing their true contribution to the world. Women should certainly be given a chance to wield their power in all areas and it perhaps is the time for men to innovate ways to help women still caste that magical spell they have been casting all through, since the primordial man learned to walk the face of this planet.