Education Loan

Well I tried out both the ICICI and the SBI option today. Delhi University branch of SBI opens at around 10AM. So, I went to the ICICI bank instead. They directed me to the Kamla Nagar branch. Well the branch was just 50m from the place, where my vehicle was booked for "Parkign in No Parking Area". This time I was more cautious and parked the car in proper place.

ICICI - The smiling lady told me that they dont provide study loan and they are only interested in personal loans and that too they can fetch me only 3-4 lacs only. I had tongue in my cheeks. They are totally haywire and are playing the ball with all the controls in hand....ie I should have proof of income, which can give help me repaying the same in 12 months.
Good Business Strategy - not loosening up their purse strings in a tight Credit Crunch and interest rate of 18% with sound proof customers insure a sound bet.

SBI
Reached back at 10 minutes to 10 AM. I was having some thoughts that even SBI have got professional. See the Facia of insurance advertisement and the new token machine. The gaurd was cooperative to tell me to contact the person with out token. Later on I was told the Mrs. Rekha is absent.

There was some add placed in the bank main hall ........some loan advertisement .......Contact Mrs Rekha...

Albiet, I got the picture from a nice gentlemen sitting out there .........

1. loan for only 70% of the Collateral
2. Interest 12-13.5 %.

God! the interest thing really struck me up - see the difference between 12 and 18 - A good 50% percent difference. That ICICI fellow must be really earning good bucks.

well that Official in the bank asked me that - "Isnt your MBA costly enough" - Well I told him "Perhaps you are not aware abt the Wharton, Kellogs & Havards - they are 2-3 times costlier than this....and I am going to CEIBS - a college equally placed in that league and may be ahead of these in a couple of years."

I gave a very confident answer to that officer... but atleast it made me to think that is it really worth ..........

I mean " 22.5 lacs for 18 months "

What I am going to gain in 18 months that will pitch me ahead with ....

18months+30lacs <<<< Gains out of 18 months for the full life.....

Fees I will pay back in 2 years.......

Education Loan

Well I tried out both the ICICI and the SBI option today.
ICICI p

New Delhi - Initiatives towards cleaner air

These are the commments posted by me on linked-in to in response to a question about Shanghai pollution.

http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?viewQuestionAndAnswers=&discussionID=2812612&gid=46978&trk=EML_anet_qa_ttle-cDhOon0JumNFomgJt7dBpSBA


How to create the GREEN Shanghai?
Living in Shanghai is : 1/ lacking O2, 2/ smelling like an exhaust pipe, 3/no peaceful and green retreat in the city, 4/ no city planner to improve the citizen 's life, 5/ on-going construction sites everywhere...
Am I the only one to be disturb by this?
.....................................................................................


Yeah! I also got the feedback from ppl that Pudong is the only area with some tinge of fresh air.

There was a simmilar problem in New Delhi. But then under the able leadership of Sheila Dikshit, Chief Minister, it changed. People could see all the changes around cleaner air, more trees, less noise and all. Following were the steps taken

1. Introduction of CNG - Public and private bulk transport was forced to switch to cleaner fuels.

2. Relocation of polluting industries - controversial but still left the mark.

3. Metro Rail - eased out the public transport pressures.

4. Planting of more tress around the roads.

5 Deleloping and maintaining of new gardens.

I mean these 5 steps have really changed the air in Delhi. Shangai has a lesson to learn here.

Study loan

Its really difficult to get a loan thes days. due to lot of NPA's in banks
Non performing assest have become biggest liabilities of banks and they are refusign any fresh loan application. otherwise they are putting the app on hold for furhter apprval from higher authorities


A lot students have defaulted on their laons this year
i talked to one fellow that they had laoned some students in Australia 2 years back
and they are now not in a condition to repay back the loan after 6 months of graduation as they are without jobs in australia and hence, the authority for apprval of loan has moved to zonal office than the branch or regional office
still i m goin to Delhi University branch of SBI and ICICI today. i hope they will be more positive as they know the situation more pragmatically

Section 138D - Changes made me to suffer 3 more months

Case 205/9 - Lehana Singh V/S Amit Manhas (Section 138 D IN)

Well after waiting for 3 months for my date at the Tis Hazari Court, I finally had my date for the case today. The lawyer Mr. Saini was confident that we will get the Summons issued today. Got to see those courts again. I was really fed with waiting outside the court premises during my tenure as Area Incharge for HPCL ........following were my legal ventures in the past

1. Fought a very highly publicised and bitterly fought case with Reliance. ( 2005)
2. Land lease case for Swastic Auto, Agra Gate, Ajmer. ( Land lord Mr. Mehra was shrewed person and literally bent HPCL case in the past)(2006)
3. Legal case for dealership of COCO (company owned Company Operated) outlet at Nizampur. I remember while taking over the site even the Police and District higher Authority ( don want to name) pressurised me a lot. Faced a potential vunerable threat from the occupants ( some of them have been convicted of heinous crimes as murder)(2007)
4. Dealership selection case for Kasabkheda Phata - Against complainant Priety Ingle .....if i remember correctly.(2006)
5. Hind Super Services - Land issue for a very hopeless dealer...umm wasnt involved much in this particular case.

But now fighting a personal case was giving the blues to me. When I told the lawyer about some new judgement from Supreme court abt the case Jurisdication, he told me it can be filed from 5 places

1. Complainant adress
2. Accused address
3. Produced bamk
4. issuing bank
5. place of issue of notice

Alas the Magistrate Mr. Sudesh (Case was transferred to him from Mr. Tarun Yogesh) blew the things and logics away.

Despite a no of arguments from lawyer, He gave his final word - " FOR JURISDICATION ON 07.08.2009). I was shocked that 3 months to just start the case......and was telling my lawyer that - JUSTICE DELAYED IS EQUICALENT TO JUSTICE DENIED

I was in rush of blood abt the Indian Judiciary, but later both of us analysed .........150 cases daily of check bounce for 1 magistrate.

3 months = 150 * 3* 20(no of working days) = 9000 cases are in loup with single magistrate

Its horrible scene - the magistrate don hav even time to go deep into the arguments......
GOD SAVE INDIAN FROM INDIAN JUDICIARY AND SAVE ME FROM THIS TORTURE OF - " TARIKH PE TARIKH ......TARIKH PE TARIKH"

EXPLOSION OF TANK TRUCK AT AMBALA- II

A new view of the explosion of the tanker appeared apprantly from 2 sources.
1. Letter from Transporter
2. FIR Copy of the police

While the letter says that the Truck driver was not able to contact police for about 1 hour, the police says that they were chasing the truck right from the spot when it caught fire. Well both agree on one thing - A Lancer was trying to overtake the truck and it got skid on the flyover near Shahabad ( Very interesting place - Full Indian Women Hockey team is from this place). There was some spills of lubricating oil from an accident, which occured the previous day.

Excess Flow Check Valve:-
Well the real culprit was this device, which is attached to the right side of the truck and becomes vulnerable if there is a side ramming in the accidents as in this case.

I have tried to resolve out something. But two things were still not clear to me.
1. Why the driver stopped the vehicle after 2 kms.
2. Why the police was not able to control the fire. I mean the accident occured at 4.oo AM in the morning and fire started at about 5.15 AM. One hour was ample time for any action to control and the explosion could have been averted. There seems to be various reasons for this
1. Inadequately trained Driver - Drivers get the training certificate renewed year after year without getting the real training.
2. Some ghosts from previous accidents in the past and the driver dont want to be trained again.

There is an administrative failure. The police is not adequately trained to handle such emergencies. The private training of the safety methods should be banned and govt should have own agencies for trainig the people related to the haardous product business such as LPG Supply and distribution.

BLEVE ( Boiling Liquied Expanding Vapor Explosion)

EXPLOSION OF TANK TRUCK AT AMBALA ON 14.04.09

The truck which I had loaded on 11.04.09 was reported to have met with an accident at Ambala(a city on National Highway -1). The truck is said to have rammed into a wall and then it caught fire. In the meawhile it had rammed on one Railway Security Gaurd. That gaurd was found to be dead on the spot.

The driver found that he is in a heavily populated area and if the truck explodes there he will take life of a lot of people along with him. Realising this, he picked up speed and jump away from the vehicle after 1.5 kms.

Later, the Tank Truck has exploded and it has huge volume of LPG in it(16235 Kgs). Just imagine the extend of loss of life and property had it exploded in the residential area 1.5 kms before.

Initially, I thought it is a case of PUVCE ( Vapor Cloud Explosion) as I tried to connect the tits and bits from my analysis. But when the wall and other factors came in to picture, I was clear it is an BLEVE.

Tanker undergoing BLEVE

BLEEVE is initiated by a small rupture in body

for example, due to corrosion, or failure under pressure
Vapour portion may rapidly leak, lowering the pressure inside the container
Sudden drop in pressure -> violent boiling of the liquid->large amounts of vapour

This fault line results in further rupture and hence Explosion.

Vapor pressure > Design Pressure -> ruptures the vessel -> torn along the fault line

So, the necessary condition for the explosion is

(over pressure Wave) VAP. PRSSURE> DESIGN PRESSURE.

forming a fireball ->fuel-air explosion->vapour cloud explosion (VCE)

Holocaust sort of effect. (Just imagine the pictures from movies depicting the WWII nuclear explosion in Nagasaki, Japan).

Well, VCE can be more dangerous as it can move to areas, where it can burn without any prior fire prevention arrangements

A relevant Question - What the hell was the safety valves or Pressure release Valve doing

The relief valve on the top is designed to vent off excess pressure in order to prevent the rupture of the tank itself. Given a fire of sufficient duration and intensity, the pressure being generated by the boiling and expanding gas can exceed the ability of the valve to vent the excess. Hence, the PRV was rendered useless.

Relty Check - Placement Statistics at CEIBS

Well I was just thinking of the figures given on the site of CIEBS. But I was corrected by alot of people and they told me two things

1. Placements are good for Chinese students for 2 reasons

A. they have faced more stif competition for admission
B they are more skilled as they are fluent abt the langauage and culture.

2. Job scene is really bad everywhere including CEIBS........

One of the current indian student wrote to me this



"
But job scene for present batch is really very bad at CEIBS.
I know many people at CEIBS who had not been placed. Till now placements are only 25% for present batch.
So you must review your opinions about CEIBS before making any decision.
But anyway job scene is pathetic everywhere throughout the world.
So it really does not matter from where you do your MBA. You are screwed up everywhere.
"

that was close to half a month back
Well the figure has now moved to 50-60 % as I have heard from other people in CEIBS now..........Perhaps the previous fellow was not aware of the offers the Chinese have recieved off campus....and outside networks.

So, 50% is the corrected figure of the placement at CEIBS as of now.........Is it good or bad ?????

I was talking to a colleague on 25th of Mar, just a day before my CEIBS admit and he told that his batch at IIMA-PGPEX is passing out on 28th of March and he along with 80% of the batch have not recieved any placement ..and he is going back to HPCL ....our parent company.......

I mean it is really very embarrasing for him as he has not come to IIMA to go back to HPCL......I really felt very bad for him..,,,The previous batch of IIMA had one of colleague from HPCL ......he got a good placement at Cairn Energy India with a very good salary........

I meant this year is a whole new paradigm......even the elite PGP of IIMA was doled out by PSU banks.....Scene at ISB is worse than this

Same is the scene at the

Global so called M7

Wharton, Harvard and columbia have a big class size and hence the biggest trouble is there as I have heard.......Can somebody throw some light on the placements at M7???????

So, considering the above scenario ....i consider the 50% figueres at CEIBS as good.....and still stands to its reputation of No1. in the no. of job offers per student....

CEIBS Admit Mail

Well this mail was really special to me and was conveyed to me by honey.....she woke me up ....when i was still strugling in my dreams between the various options of Schools from which i would have done my Masters / MBA if CEIBS had not materilised..........HKU / HKUST / NTU / Schulich / Lancaster / MIT (MLOG) / Kellog (MMM)....

Well CEIBS removed all the tui pu tui (to or not to in chinese) ...............

This mail really changed a lot in my life......

Monday, March 23, 2009 6:26 PM


Dear ABC,

We’re very happy to inform that you have been admitted to the 2009 intake of CEIBS MBA Programme. Congratulations, and a very warm welcome from all of us at CEIBS.


Please understand that this offer is conditional, requiring that you take the CEIBS pre-course in Chinese prior to enrollment. We are sure that the pre-course will give you a good start to learning Mandarin, and, at the same time, help you adapt to the new environment more easily.

You will receive from MBA Admissions Office an official letter with all detailed information soon. Please follow the procedures stipulated in the letter to confirm your enrolment.


With Best Regards,
MBA Admissions Office
China Europe International Business School (CEIBS)

Submitted fees for CEIBS

Well after 3 long years, I am finally going to a B School. This is really an emotional moment for me. The most surpurising thing is the school to which I am going.

Its CEIBS - China Europe International Business School.

I had just wired 5000 USD as my admit confirmation and my heart is pounding. I am finally going there.

A lot of things went in between and that too very fast. Albeit after getting the CEIBS admit, life really seemed to be settled but alas it was just a moment of euphorbia as within the next second I realised that there are a ton of assignments to be completed before finally moving to Pudong ( East Shanghai where the school is located).

Most important among them includes

1. Arranging for funds....some how my wife is convinced that we wont be making our life hell by commiting to a bank loan.......

Options : parents, friends and well wishers.


2. Putting in my papers at HPCL - well there are a couple of issues for which I never bothered at HPCL, but now I am straight to it and want to collect out and juice out the last penny and knowledge from HPCL.

3. Going for a vacation :- Yes this also very important on my list of to dos..We havent gone for a long vacation for a long time. It has been more than one year down the line since we went to Singapore and Malaysia......Hence, I am planning for a good leisure trip

4. Fmaily :- Things are really not in good shape. Recesssion and couple of bad investments forced us to suffer heavy loss esp the Transportation business...
Really need to settle some of the thing including funds in the family.......at least that will gimme a piece of mind during my MBA

5. Chinese / CFP / Blah Blah :- God I m really scared, where i will find the time to pay attention to these otherwise important things......I mean i could give them only the 5th priority to my list....

In addition to this there are hordes of other things to do such as networking with people for internship and other resources in PRC. I wish I had more time with me before I am onboard to Shangai

Paragon2Pieces: Hong Kong

Paragon2Pieces: Hong Kong

To MBA or Not to MBA: Winter Quarter Recap

To MBA or Not to MBA: Winter Quarter Recap

AMP Treatise: Some excerpts from CEIBS alumni Tyrell (Class of 2005) BusinessWeek MBA Journal.

AMP Treatise: Some excerpts from CEIBS alumni Tyrell (Class of 2005) BusinessWeek MBA Journal.: "founders sometimes holds spiritual retreats back here,' Stanley"

2009 B-Schools Placements

Well found a very interesting link about the current economic scenario and its effect on the B-Schools....

http://blog.accepted.com/display/ShowJournal?moduleId=183762&categoryId=53975



New Job Prospects for MBA Grads

In "New Horizons for MBAs", the Financial Times, reports that many MBA students are looking outside of traditional "MBA jobs" for work. Due to the current recession, job opportunities in financial services and investment banks are far more limited and MBAs are looking to use their skills in other fields.

Some interesting job recruitment statistics from around the world:

The number of job offers in the U.S. is down 10-20%.
At CEIBS in Shanghai, 40% of students had signed offers at this time last year, compared to 27% this year.
At HBS, job postings are down by 25%; 77% of the 2009 class still have job offers.
At Chicago Booth, approximately 66% of students have job offers, down from 70% last year.
At INSEAD, asking alumni about MBA-appropriate job vacancies, produced 200 job postings.

How much time will I take to learn Chinese ?

This question struk me very hard as the only opinion I recieved from most of the people is that - " Chinese is hard and Learnign Chinese is more harder"

But then I came across one opinion of an expat who learned chinese....aka Mandarin

".........
I speak Mandarin quite fluently and am not too bad at Cantonese. The former is easier. The pronunciation of Mandarin sounds is not difficult. The tones take more work. Is is important to realize that even English is tonal, except that tones are used for emphasis in the sentence rather than to indicate meaning in words. As long as you ignore any and all grammatical explanations of Chinese and just work on listening and reading and getting used to the structure of the language, it is not too difficult except for one obstacle, the amount of time required to learn characters. There you need a system (I had one) and you need to work at it every day..even one day off it and you slide back. It took me 8 months full time to learn the language, be able to read novels, and translate newspapers in both directions.
........."

I was really inspired by his story of his track to learn chinese.........8 months to fluency is not a big deal buddy ......and I am really wiling to invest that much of time...

Now the next question is where to learn chinese from ...........i m currently exploring a lot of options

1. Some sources on net - I found them to be misleading.........
2. some native speaker - hard to find them in new delhi
3. some class room course - how to evaluate which one to join..........


albeit, on thing, I learned abt chinese is that its a phonetic based language......
meanings change with the emphasis of syllables........

so, I finally started a bit ..........so lets see if I can get close inch by inch.............

"WO" - means "I" in mandarin but the same can change with emphasis......

Operations Management

Well I'd be thinking about about my current profile of Operations Officer. I thought that this profile may more of relate to the manufacturing process and production related things in the beggining. But, After spending some 8 odd months in this sort of profile, I am convinced about the diversity of the profile -

Overall enterprise process Management

OM can be applied to a varieties of industries such as - retail, materials, supply chain logistics, IT or consulting to make

1. The process efficient.
2. Optimising the costs
3. Aligning the processes with the wider and broader purpose the company ....ie increasing Mkt Share and the Profits along with customer satisfaction.


So, what I intend to learn from my profile are

1. supply chain management and productivity techniques
2. specialized knowledge in process improvement and systems improvement
3. Inventory Management
4. Human Resource Management for smooth operations.

On fringe, I also want to learn the following
1. Use of IT for efficient OM
2. Optimisation Techniques and their real time applications.

My Comment on Pak site

So, much of nonesense was being written on a pak website that I could not resist putting in my comments ......

I felt it as my moral responsibilty

Hi to all friends,
Well I am new to the discussions but let me state some facts
1. Aryans, which the Hindus says are there ancestors came from the Eurasia to rule South Asia present Afganistan+Pak+India+Bangla+other subcontinent Burma, thailand et all.
( To correct you all pakis and indi’s)…..abt history
they used to worship idols ….its true ….refer the greek gods….
2. In this process they replace the original indians to the south.
3. This race was in constant touch with others mainly and that civilization was known as “Indus valley Civilizations”……other mesopotamia et were comtemporary
4. After some unfortunate events - Quake / flood they fled to all around.
- some went to Europe again - later crishtianity erosed- some to muslims- some remained back they later on converted to jains, budhs…et all- some remained hindus
5. Hitler vowed to unite the pure Aryan blood ………
All of us know he had his eyes over Eurasia and India as these are the only pure Aryan Blood.
Hitler gave the name - swatika - a name used by the hindus for the religious purpose.Hitler wanted to vipe out the non Aryans
6 Hindus have a lot of simmilarities with the world hitler wanted……
Do hindus want the same world …….NO NO
7. Muslim religion was started on a percieved wrong note of plunders and conquest but they were aimed at freeing people not ill motives
Prophet concieved the religion in a very pure form - Islam is as pure as its teaching
Islam is a great religion ……
Unfortunately diluted later on …….by the caliphites and teh ill rulers
they spreaded hatered later on ………messing up the whole meaning of islam……
religious extremist ….blackmailed people to follow a path of hatred to keep their leaderhsip intact
some body rightly pointed out - IF YOU KEEP 10 MUSLIMS IN A ROOM , YOU WILL GET 100 VERSIONS OF ISLAM
Islam need to be purified
Do indians and pakis want to get blackmailed again. …..by their oppurtunits…..army, politicians …and religious leader………
Stilll you want to fight……..- . fight with our common enemy POVERTY and CORRUPTIONand yes the Britishers …..not for revenge but for welfare. of the third world problems….
FOLLOW GANDHANIAN PRINCIPLES……….HE WAS LEADER FOR BOTH THE COUNTRIES……

a very ridiculous link

Of all the stuff on web, i have found a link that stands true to the subject
http://www.pakistanlink.com/nayyer/12192003.html
The writer is so much biased by the muslim supermacy and prospects that he sort of claims that by 2050 the following parts of the world will be ruled by muslims again....
1. France ( repeat of some ....old adventure)
2. Whole western europe
3. China
4. Russia

and yes the most ridiculous 5. Israel

India Managed the crisis better

Well a very nice article about Indian Economy robustness and the reasons behind it.......
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/20/business/20nocera.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1


One of the biggest reason - Strong regulations to check speculative activities and profiteering.


BUT STOP A MIN - WAS BAD FINANCIAL REGULATIONS A REASON OF FAILURE FOR US - I BEG TO DISAGREE

A little more about Atul Punj

A little more about Atul Punj

His second generation moved into manufacturing truck bodies, industrial insulation materials and air conditioners (in partnership with Fedders Corp.).

He bid to construct a 100-mile oil pipeline between Mumbai and Pune for state-owned Hindustan Petroleum. The pipeline was eventually completed two years later but had racked up losses that the group could ill afford. He got its first overseas break as a sub-contractor to PT Trihasra Bimanusa Tunggal, an Indonesian firm with Suharto family ties that had the contract to build a 130-mile pipeline for Pertamina, the state-owned petroleum firm.

Raising a bank guarantee for $2.6 million (20% of the total contract amount of $13 million) was a nightmare as he couldn't provide any security collateral. The banks he approached showed him the door. Ten days short of the deadline a banker at ICICI Bank agreed to provide the guarantee, accepting Atul's word as collateral. Punj executed the Indonesian project six months ahead of schedule, making enough money to wipe out its accumulated losses. "That's when our journey really started," says Atul

Great People do commit mistakes
However, hubris led Atul into another misstep. While building a fiber-optic network for telecom firm Bharti Airtel, he latched on to Internet services, which were just taking off in India. Atul admits that he was lured by the prospect of making a quick buck. Borrowing $50 million from ICICI Bank in 1999, an amount equivalent to Punj Lloyd's revenues that year, he set up Spectranet, an ISP.

A mistake of evaluation
January 2000 Nomura Securities offered to buy Spectranet for $350 million, boosting its offer to $550 million in August. Atul was set to make a killing, but a month later the technology bubble burst and Nomura backed out of the deal.

I was with Punj Lloyd at this time
Punj was once more on the brink. "We'd run out of cash and were leveraged to the hilt. Through it all, Atul kept smiling so we never felt that we were going under," recalls Luv Chhabra, Punj Lloyd's director of corporate affairs.

And .........The rest is History

Regrouping, Atul turned his attention back to construction. Again luck and timing worked in his favor as markets like Kazakhstan and Libya opened up, drawing in the world's oil majors. Punj Lloyd made early inroads into those countries, initially securing modest contracts as a subcontractor to big firms like Bechtel and Kellogg Brown & Root (nyse: HAL - news - people ) (now KBR). "Today we can compete with the global majors," says managing director Vimal Kaushik, a 38-year Punj veteran.

In a bid to unlink Punj from the notoriously volatile energy sector, Atul has expanded into infrastructure, a crying need in India. Punj has built highways, ports and elevated railroads. In June it forged a partnership with Singapore Technologies Kinetics to make defense equipment.

Atul has set a tall target for Punj: to be among the top five engineering and construction firms by 2012 in the markets in which it operates. (It now is only a fourth the size of Larsen & Toubro.) Age seems to have tempered him a bit, though. "We've had some serious tailwind behind us in recent years, but this is a real stretch goal," he acknowledges. "So when I come to the office every morning, I try to remind myself: This is your first day on the job."