Dhirubhai Ambani: Against All Odds

Dhirubhai and Reliance's success have been so phenomenal that most people are unable to see beyond he glitter of their wealth. Dhirubhai's success was by no means a walk in the park. He had to fight long and hard for it. And that is what is so inspiring about his life and success. It gives us the courage 'to dream...with our eyes open' as he put it.

This is a collection of stories not just about dreams but about the price that you pay for achieving them. Dhirubhai's path was liberally sprinkled with obstacles. Some of them were deliberately placed by peers who hoped in vain to slow down his hard-to-beat pace, and some by fate itself. But unlike you and me who would probably change course after overcoming a few, he on the other hand, persevered, found a way around them, bulldozed his way through the others, but more importantly never, ever lost hope, and was rewarded a hundredfold because of it.

This is a story of the triumph of hope.
Against All Odds

Tips for young entrepuners

Ten Tips on Finding Funding


Despite the current economic downturn that seems to be lasting longer than expected, angel funding and venture capital dollars are still available to companies that can prove they have revenue generating potential, have a strong management team, etc.

Venture capital and angels investing received a lot of attention in the 1990s as new economy entrepreneurs were building "designer" companies that were built to be sold. But throughout business history, real companies have been built from funds found in many places:
1. Look in your own bank account

As in the past, entrepreneurs will expect to fund part of their new business from their own wallet. It is the only way to truly get started. It does not matter how much it is, only that it is significant to you. It also enables you to respect other people's money too when you take theirs.
2. Talk to your friends and family

This is the all time favorite place for funding of start up businesses. The good news is that they will invest because they love and care about you. The bad news is that it's not a lot of fun to lose their money and may change your relationship with them forever. On a bad business day, you will never be able to truly answer their question "How is the company doing?"
3. Find a customer that believes in your product and you

Traditionally, businesses have started because someone asked someone another person to do something and was willing to pay for it. Find that person who will pay you to solve their problem. You will have an instant client and put you in business.
4. Talk to your accountant or attorney

They will be able to give you excellent referrals since they deal with "money" people all of the time. They should be your first referral source. Ask those referrals to give you three more names and so on.
5. Find a mentor

Find someone that will help you spread the word about your business. They should share your passion and vision and be your evangelist to the world.
6. Network

Attend seminars, go to events, and talk to anyone that will talk to you. A strong referral is the best way to get in front of the right people. Also, keep these people up to date on your progress even if you do not need resources from them at this time.
7. Submit your business plan in competitions

There are many groups that allow you to post your business plan on their website, utilize their website for testing by allowing potential investors to review and give feedback on the plan and/or learn about your company for investment consideration. Sites such as BusinessPartners.com, Angel Investor News, and CloudStart.com allow you to post business plans for investor consideration and to search for firms in your region.
8. Contact angel groups and other area resources

There are several excellent groups that are national and regional. There are an endless number of resources online to help you learn more about attracting capital and funding such as TannedFeet.com, StartUpBiz.com, and BarryMoltz.com (my personal favorite!). A national list of angel groups can be seen at a Kauffman Foundation sponsored website, AngelSummit.org
9. Achieve business milestones

Nothing gets money like business success. Investors want to put their money in businesses that have achieved their targeted milestones and show a promising future.
10. Attract an excellent management team

Investors put their money in people not a business. The better team you have, the more money you will be able to attract. Get people on your team that have industry expertise and that have been there before. Investors want track records.

Barry Moltz is an award winning entrepreneur, author and national speaker. He co-founded Prairie Angels, a group of private investors committed to investing in and mentoring early stage companies and their entrepreneurs. His new book is titled "You Need to Be A Little Crazy: The Truth About Starting and Growing Your Business." For more information, please visit Moltz.com.

The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari

Wisdom to Create a Life of Passion, Purpose, and Peace

This inspiring tale provides a step-by-step approach to living with greater courage, balance, abundance, and joy. A wonderfully crafted fable, The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari tells the extraordinary story of Julian Mantle, a lawyer forced to confront the spiritual crisis of his out-of-balance life. On a life-changing odyssey to an ancient culture, he discovers powerful, wise, and practical lessons that teach us to:

• Develop joyful thoughts
• Follow our life's mission and calling
• Cultivate self-discipline and act courageously
• Value time as our most important commodity
• Nourish our relationships, and – live fully, one day at a time

A FABLE ABOUT FULFILLING YOUR DREAMS AND REACHING YOUR DESTINY

Shaheed Bhagat Singh Biography

Born: September 27, 1907Died: March 23, 1931

Achievements: Gave a new direction to revolutionary movement in India, formed 'Naujavan Bharat Sabha' to spread the message of revolution in Punjab, formed 'Hindustan Samajvadi Prajatantra Sangha' along with Chandrasekhar Azad to establish a republic in India, assassinated police official Saunders to avenge the death of Lala Lajpat Rai, dropped bomb in Central Legislative Assembly along with Batukeshwar Dutt.Bhagat Singh was one of the most prominent faces of Indian freedom struggle. He was a revolutionary ahead of his times. By Revolution he meant that the present order of things, which is based on manifest injustice must change. Bhagat Singh studied the European revolutionary movement and was greatly attracted towards socialism. He realised that the overthrow of British rule should be accompanied by the socialist reconstruction of Indian society and for this political power must be seized by the workers.Though portrayed as a terrorist by the British, Sardar Bhagat Singh was critical of the individual terrorism which was prevalent among the revolutionary youth of his time and called for mass mobilization. Bhagat Singh gave a new direction to the revolutionary movement in India. He differed from his predecessors on two counts. Firstly, he accepted the logic of atheism and publicly proclaimed it. Secondly, until then revolutionaries had no conception of post-independence society. Their immediate goal was destruction of the British Empire and they had no inclination to work out a political alternative. Bhagat Singh, because of his interest in studying and his keen sense of history gave revolutionary movement a goal beyond the elimination of the British. A clarity of vision and determination of purpose distinguished Bhagat Singh from other leaders of the National Movement. He emerged as the only alternative to Gandhi and the Indian National Congress, especially for the youth.Bhagat Singh was born in a Sikh family in village Banga in Layalpur district of Punjab (now in Pakistan). He was the third son of Sardar Kishan Singh and Vidyavati. Bhagat Singh's family was actively involved in freedom struggle. His father Kishan Singh and uncle Ajit Singh were members of Ghadr Party founded in the U.S to oust British rule from India. Family atmosphere had a great effect on the mind of young Bhagat Singh and patriotism flowed in his veins from childhood.While studying at the local D.A.V. School in Lahore, in 1916, young Bhagat Singh came into contact with some well-known political leaders like Lala Lajpat Rai and Ras Bihari Bose. Punjab was politically very charged in those days. In 1919, when Jalianwala Bagh massacre took place, Bhagat Singh was only 12 years old. The massacre deeply disturbed him. On the next day of massacre Bhagat Singh went to Jalianwala Bagh and collected soil from the spot and kept it as a memento for the rest of his life. The massacre strengthened his resolve to drive British out from India.In response to Mahatma Gandhi's call for non-cooperation against British rule in 1921, Bhagat Singh left his school and actively participated in the movement. In 1922, when Mahatma Gandhi suspended Non-cooperation movement against violence at Chauri-chaura in Gorakhpur, Bhagat was greatly disappointed. His faith in non violence weakened and he came to the conclusion that armed revolution was the only practical way of winning freedom. To continue his studies, Bhagat Singh joined the National College in Lahore, founded by Lala Lajpat Rai. At this college, which was a centre of revolutionary activities, he came into contact with revolutionaries such as Bhagwati Charan, Sukhdev and others.To avoid early marriage, Bhagat Singh ran away from home and went to Kanpur. Here, he came into contact with a revolutionary named Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi, and learnt his first lessons as revolutionary. On hearing that his grandmother was ill, Bhagat Singh returned home. He continued his revolutionary activities from his village. He went to Lahore and formed a union of revolutionaries by name 'Naujavan Bharat Sabha'. He started spreading the message of revolution in Punjab. In 1928 he attended a meeting of revolutionaries in Delhi and came into contact with Chandrasekhar Azad. The two formed 'Hindustan Samajvadi Prajatantra Sangha'. Its aim was to establish a republic in India by means of an armed revolution.In February 1928, a committee from England, called Simon Commission visited India. The purpose of its visit was to decide how much freedom and responsibility could be given to the people of India. But there was no Indian on the committee. This angered Indians and they decided to boycott Simon Commission. While protesting against Simon Commission in Lahore, Lala Lajpat Rai was brutally Lathicharged and later on succumbed to injuries. Bhagat Singh was determined to avenge Lajpat Rai's death by shooting the British official responsible for the killing, Deputy Inspector General Scott. He shot down Assistant Superintendent Saunders instead, mistaking him for Scott. Bhagat Singh had to flee from Lahore to escape death punishment.Instead of finding the root cause of discontent of Indians, the British government took to more repressive measures. Under the Defense of India Act, it gave more power to the police to arrest persons to stop processions with suspicious movements and actions. The Act brought in the Central Legislative Assembly was defeated by one vote. Even then it was to be passed in the form of an ordinance in the "interest of the public." Bhagat Singh who was in hiding all this while, volunteered to throw a bomb in the Central Legislative Assembly where the meeting to pass the ordinance was being held. It was a carefully laid out plot, not to cause death or injury but to draw the attention of the government, that the modes of its suppression could no more be tolerated. It was decided that Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt would court arrest after throwing the bomb. On April 8, 1929 Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt threw bombs in the Central Assembly Hall while the Assembly was in session. The bombs did not hurt anyone. After throwing the bombs, Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt, deliberately courted arrest by refusing to run away from the scene. During his trial, Bhagat Singh refused to employ any defence counsel. In jail, he went on hunger strike to protest the inhuman treatment of fellow-political prisoners by jail authorities. On October 7, 1930 Bhagat Singh, Sukh Dev and Raj Guru were awarded death sentence by a special tribunal. Despite great popular pressure and numerous appeals by political leaders of India, Bhagat Singh and his associates were hanged in the early hours of March 23, 1931.

THE YOUNG INDIA

Youth power is said to be taking over. As we approach the forthcoming Parliamentary Elections, the widespread disenchantment among India's youth, is an issue, which we can no longer afford to brush under the carpet

It's a young country, bubbling with youth. It's a young country all set to stand at par with its big daddy. And it's also a young country that carries a huge ugly belly with poverty and unemployment as its babies. Wondering about the name? No prizes for guessing, it's the world's largest democracy with about 51 % of its population of 1.15 billion younger than 25.

Welcome to India. Better call it the `Young India'.

And with the fact that tens of millions of these Indians are expected to vote for the first time this spring, in India's parliamentary elections, not much is required to explain the role of youth punch in this election.

The last Parliamentary elections saw some promising youngsters making it to the parliament and taking the house by storm a couple of times (read Rahul Gandhi's speech in parliament, Omar Abdullah's five-minute flow of strong words and a few more of them), but the bigger question is, did all of that affect how the country functions?

Categorically the answer is both yes and no.

`No' because few young guns who are often treated as the guys with `hot heads and less experience' cannot always influence the senior party leaders and govern the policymaking. So that way nothing sweeping happened even though the ruling party had a good number of promising young leaders. However having said that, the young leaders did manage to shape and change a couple of things. The modernisation of post offices across the country is a simple example of that thanks to Union Minister of State for Communication and Information Technology, Jyotiraditya Scindia. And very few would disagree on the growing clout of Rahul Gandhi among the urban and rural masses. And mind you, it's not happening just in vacuum.

According to a recent media report, with 65 % of India's voters being under the age of 35 (including one hundred million first-time voters), the young make up a sizeable chunk of the electorate and the Indian electorate of 2009 will be the youngest since 1952.

So that way thoughts of young Indians having an inclination towards the young leaders is quite obvious. A clear cut indication of the fact is the projection of young Rahul Gandhi as the face of the Congress against the 81-year-old veteran, L K Advani. So does that mean that the youth has arrived in Indian politics and the country is set to witness a drastic change?

Ask the voters, and not many agree to that. They believe that Indian politics is undergoing a phase of transformation exactly the way Indian cricket has been undergoing for a couple of years now, where old and the young have played together and took the team to heights.

Stay Hungry Stay Foolish

Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish' is athe story of 25 such IIM Ahmedabad graduates who chose the rough road of entrepreneurship. they are diverse in age, in outlook and the industries they made a mark in. But they have one thing in common: they believed in the power of their dreams. This book seeks to inspire young graduates to look beyond placements and salaries. To believe in their dreams.
I was curious about this book when I came across this somewhat unconvetional title "Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish". So I decided to pick up a copy and flip through its pages. After going through the first few pages, I knew that this is the book I am going to keep with me for life. It's not because of any sentimental value but beacuse it is so insipiring to read about the young men who took risk in career and got ahead of others.

The book talks about 25 IIM-A graduates who, at different point of their life, decided to take a plunge into the challenging world of entreprenuership. They risked their career and turned down high paying job offers to start something of their own. The ups and downs faced by them in their endevours to do something different makes one think how big dreams are achieved. The book is well written in short, simple and crisp English. It doesn't require one to be a Management guru to understand the context. There are a few jargons here and there. But overall, the book is quite interesting and inspiring to read. Highly recommended, especially to all those who are starting out on their career path.

List of Ministers to be sworn in by the Governor this evening

1. YS Rajsekhar Reddy

2. Dharmana Prasad Rao

3. Shatrucharla Vijaya Rama Raju

4. Botsa Satyanarayana

5. P Balaraju

6. Pilli Subash Chandra Bose

7. Vishwarup

8. Vatti Vasant Kumar

9. Pitani Satyanarayana

10. Pardhasaradhi

11. Kanna Lakshminarayana

12. Gade Venkat Reddy

13. Mopidevi Venkatramana

14. Manikya Varaprasad

15. K Rosaiah

16. B Srinivas Reddy

17. Shilpa Mohan Reddy

18. Galla Aruna Kumari

19. Ramachandra Reddy

20. Anam Ramnarayana Reddy

21. Ahmedulla

22. Raghuveera Reddy

23. Sudharshan Reddy

24. Sabita Indra Reddy

25. Danam Nagender

26. Mukhesh Goud

27. Geeta Reddy

28. Sunita Lakshma Reddy

29. Domadar Raja Narsimha

30. D K Aruna

31. Joopally Krishna Rao

32. Komati Reddy Venkat Reddy

33. Ram Reddy Venkat Reddy

34. Sridhar Babu

35. Ponnala Lakshmaiah

36. Konda Surekha

37. N Kiran Kumar Reddy ( Speaker)

38. Nadendla Mahonar ( Deputy Speaker)

Dropped Ministers

1. Kasu Krishna Reddy

2. J C Diwakar Reddy

3. K Jana Reddy

4. R Damodar Reddy

   
   

Why Infosys cuts H1-B visas

Even as the strong anti-outsourcing lobby in the US is forcing US lawmakers to take a relook at their H1-B visa strategy amid huge job losses, Infosys Technologies - which holds the largest number of H1-B visas among all the Indian IT services companies - has started reducing the number as a part of the company's policy to reduce its 'overseas bench' strength.

The number of H1-B visa holders in the company, which was 8,700 as of December 31, 2008, came down to 8,200 as of March 31, 2009, according to information available with Business Standard.

This number is expected to come down further by another 500 at the end of the first quarter of FY10, as the company is further rationalising its workforce in the US by inducting more locals (Americans) in its rolls, a source close to the development said.

However, even as the company is reducing its 'overseas bench', it has simultaneously committed to add another 1,000 American citizens to its rolls in the next 12-18 months, which will take the total number of US citizens on its rolls to 1,800.

However, Infosys [Get Quote] member of the Board and Head of HR, T V Mohandas Pai, insisted that the current reduction in the number of H1-B visa holders had nothing to do with the 'reduction in the overseas bench'.

"The number of people (H1-B visa holders) go up and down based on business requirements. When the business is down due to the recession, we don't need so many people (in the US)," he said.

He said the company had been hiring in the US for the past three years and it's part of the company's strategic plan to hire more locally.

"It has nothing to do with Obama's announcement and the US government's proposals to lower the H1-B visa limit," he added.

According to the latest update from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, as against an available upper cap of 65,000 as mandated by the US Congress, only about 45,000 H1-B visa applications were received till May 19 this year.

Other than the global recession, experts say the fact that each H1-B visa costs about $3,000-5,000 per applicant is reason enough for companies not to invest so much on obtaining such visas.

Of late, most India companies have increased their uptake of local talent in the US. Wipro [Get Quote] has already announced its intention to hire over 750 US workers for its newly opened centre in Atlanta.

IT major TCS [Get Quote] is also focussing on more US citizens in its workforce, according the company's COO N Chandrasekharan.

"It's important to create critical mass and have a local delivery capability to service onsite clients. If we do this from India, it will be quite costly," he said.

Grand finish to IPL 2

A glittering closing ceremony, with dash of glitz and glamour, drew curtains on the second edition of the Indian Premier League razzmatazz in Johannesburg, on Sunday night.

Soon after the Adam Gilchrist-led Deccan Chargers pipped Anil Kumble's Royal Challengers Bangalore in the see-saw final, cricket paved way to entertainment at the Wanderers Stadium.

South Africa President Jacob Zuma thanked the organisers for choosing the country as venue of the Twenty20 league which was shifted out of India after it coincided with the Lok Sabha election.

"I thank the organisers for showing trust in South Africa's ability to host the event in such a short notice. We had to prepare eight stadiums in three weeks' time, besides arranging extra hotel rooms and air tickets," Zuma said.

"I also thank the Bollywood actors Shah Rukh Khan, Preity Zinta and Shilpa Shetty for coming here," he added.