Friday, September 7, 2012
Friday, October 8, 2010
Sholay is life
Ever wondered how much Sholay reflects real life. Here are some of them for you
Village besieged by dacoits, Thakur unable Outsourcing
to take them on, brings in Jai and Veeru
Handless Thakur unable to pick the gun and shoot Motivational Speakers.
Endlessly chatting Basanti RJs, VJs, etc.
Gabar Singh Taxman
Radha All female colleagues who get their job done through you without meaning the smile nor the affection.
Surma Bhopali Commentators, Economists, Human Rights Activists, etc.
Dhanno Anti Virus Softwares/ Firewalls
Samba/ Hariram Nai Management Information Systems.
Imam (A K Hangal)/Ahmed (Sachin) Indian Middle Class or Bali ka Bakra
Jai's double sided coin Reality show voting system.
Angreez Zamane Ke Jailor Kalmadi, Ramalinga Raju and con godmen.
Gabar gunning down three of his accomplices Annual assessments
Veeru faking suicide Netas going on hunger strike/enquiry commissions/ press exposing scandals etc.
Village besieged by dacoits, Thakur unable Outsourcing
to take them on, brings in Jai and Veeru
Handless Thakur unable to pick the gun and shoot Motivational Speakers.
Endlessly chatting Basanti RJs, VJs, etc.
Gabar Singh Taxman
Radha All female colleagues who get their job done through you without meaning the smile nor the affection.
Surma Bhopali Commentators, Economists, Human Rights Activists, etc.
Dhanno Anti Virus Softwares/ Firewalls
Samba/ Hariram Nai Management Information Systems.
Imam (A K Hangal)/Ahmed (Sachin) Indian Middle Class or Bali ka Bakra
Jai's double sided coin Reality show voting system.
Angreez Zamane Ke Jailor Kalmadi, Ramalinga Raju and con godmen.
Gabar gunning down three of his accomplices Annual assessments
Veeru faking suicide Netas going on hunger strike/enquiry commissions/ press exposing scandals etc.
Friday, August 20, 2010
Friday, August 13, 2010
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Commencing a RTI Campaign to save our Cities
Bangalore is the most pedestrian unfriendly city in the world. Footpaths are badly laid in most of Bangalore. In residential areas they are used for car parking or a huge slope is created on the footpath to ensure smooth entry and exit of the vehicle. Commercial establishments treat footpath as extension of their business area. Builders use it to construct temporary structures. Two wheelers use footpaths to commute in case of traffic hold-up.
The High Court of Karnataka has ruled in the recent past that it is the duty of the concerned authorities to ensure that pedestrians have free access to the footpaths but nobody seems to be bothered. The traffic police and BBMP (Authority in charge of ensuring Bangalore’s municipal well being) shift the responsibility of clearing footpaths on one another. Unlike traders, pedestrians don’t have any lobbying power (read political influence) to ensure free access to footpaths.
Encroachment of footpath by shopkeepers poses the biggest danger to pedestrians. They encroach upon the footpath and their customers park vehicles on edges of the road. Thus, pedestrians are compelled to walk on middle of the road.
Email complaints to these authorities never get answered as is the age old practice of writing to the newspaper. Any personally written letters with your residential address only leads to pressure for withdrawing the complaint.
RTI Act, 2005 is the only way such authorities can be made accountable. However a single application may not be of avail. There should be a RTI deluge from across the country. Any Government Officer would prefer to solve the problem than sign a few lakh applications. Please remember that only a senior officer is appointed as the Central Public Information Officer and lies cannot be told under the Act.
The ground work for this campaign is as follows:
The nature of the problem has to be identified and atleast 25 related questions evolved on the subject.
If citizens from Bangalore have a problem with their municipal authorities, in addition to RTI applications from them, lakhs of applications from all parts of the country should flood to the concerned authority with atleast 5 questions from the Question Bank formulated above.
Each applicant should insist for an individual reply. If you require to protect your identity you can insist for a reply by email, since there is nothing in the RTI Act to the contrary.
This is just a test campaign. We can initiate many more such campaigns for every city based on suggestions from co-bloggers.
I will be posting the set of 25 questions and who to address the application to once I receive atleast 20 to 25 replies to this blog. Choice of which 5 questions you want to ask will be left to your discretion.
We can change the way this country is governed if we can use the RTI Act, 2005 in an innovative way. Quell them with quantity that is our motto. We the upper middle class don’t vote in elections atleast let us spend Rs.10 per month to try and ring in radical changes in the country. I look forward to your suggestions and cooperation in this regard.
The High Court of Karnataka has ruled in the recent past that it is the duty of the concerned authorities to ensure that pedestrians have free access to the footpaths but nobody seems to be bothered. The traffic police and BBMP (Authority in charge of ensuring Bangalore’s municipal well being) shift the responsibility of clearing footpaths on one another. Unlike traders, pedestrians don’t have any lobbying power (read political influence) to ensure free access to footpaths.
Encroachment of footpath by shopkeepers poses the biggest danger to pedestrians. They encroach upon the footpath and their customers park vehicles on edges of the road. Thus, pedestrians are compelled to walk on middle of the road.
Email complaints to these authorities never get answered as is the age old practice of writing to the newspaper. Any personally written letters with your residential address only leads to pressure for withdrawing the complaint.
RTI Act, 2005 is the only way such authorities can be made accountable. However a single application may not be of avail. There should be a RTI deluge from across the country. Any Government Officer would prefer to solve the problem than sign a few lakh applications. Please remember that only a senior officer is appointed as the Central Public Information Officer and lies cannot be told under the Act.
The ground work for this campaign is as follows:
The nature of the problem has to be identified and atleast 25 related questions evolved on the subject.
If citizens from Bangalore have a problem with their municipal authorities, in addition to RTI applications from them, lakhs of applications from all parts of the country should flood to the concerned authority with atleast 5 questions from the Question Bank formulated above.
Each applicant should insist for an individual reply. If you require to protect your identity you can insist for a reply by email, since there is nothing in the RTI Act to the contrary.
This is just a test campaign. We can initiate many more such campaigns for every city based on suggestions from co-bloggers.
I will be posting the set of 25 questions and who to address the application to once I receive atleast 20 to 25 replies to this blog. Choice of which 5 questions you want to ask will be left to your discretion.
We can change the way this country is governed if we can use the RTI Act, 2005 in an innovative way. Quell them with quantity that is our motto. We the upper middle class don’t vote in elections atleast let us spend Rs.10 per month to try and ring in radical changes in the country. I look forward to your suggestions and cooperation in this regard.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Need to redefine audit of Corporate India
What would you say of an examination system which lets the student choose the evaluator of his answer script? What would you say of a judicial system which allows the plaintiff or defendant to choose the judge? The obvious answer is “ridiculous” in both the cases because such a system has a lot of scope for manipulation. This being the case, why is the concept of allowing Public Listed Companies to choose their Auditors under Section 224 of the Companies Act is not being questioned or reviewed?
This provision requires a definite review after the Satyam fiasco. Let us not assume that the erstwhile SATYAM was the last realm from the corporate dark underbelly. An auditor who depends on the company’s board for renewal of his contract every year cannot be said to be above suspicion. Everybody who has attended an AGM knows that appointment of auditor is the least discussed topic. More often than not, an auditor recommended by the company is accepted in an AGM. If Corporate Audit should be made more credible, a system has to be established where the auditor does not depend on the company for his business.
The Comptroller and Audit General of India throughout its existence have come out with scathing audit observations about holy cows of the Government. What happens to these observations is not a matter of debate in this blog? The important thing to note is that the CAG of India is able to do so because it is an independent authority under the Constitution of India. A similar system is required for Corporate Audit.
I am not suggesting that Corporate Audit should be handled by the CAG of India. Let the existing set of auditors continue to audit Corporate India but who should audit a public limited company should be decided by a transparent computer aided system of the Company Law Board or SBI. Let every public limited company contribute a part of its profits to an Audit Fund and proceeds from this fund should be used to pay the auditors based on the amount of work done by them. No auditor should be allowed to audit the same company for more than once in a time frame of five or seven years. The list of approved auditors should be updated on a half yearly basis.
Such a system will make company audit fair, transparent and free of bias. This is what Captains of Corporate India so eminently clamor for in various television channels when it comes to functioning of the Government. As they say “Charity and Clarity should begin at home”. The CIIs and FICCIs of the world should pressure on the Government for an independent audit system for corporates. After all Public Money (read Small Investor) money is involved in public limited companies also.
If an auditor fails in his duty in India, he faces a ridiculous penalty of Rs 10,000 (under 200 dollars) and maximum imprisonment of two years. In contrast the U.S. Sarbanes-Oxley Act, passed after the Enron and WorldCom scandals, awards imprisonment for 20 years. When we want to be on par with US of A in terms of economic reforms, we should also argue for equally stringent punishments for corporate audit misdemeanors.
This provision requires a definite review after the Satyam fiasco. Let us not assume that the erstwhile SATYAM was the last realm from the corporate dark underbelly. An auditor who depends on the company’s board for renewal of his contract every year cannot be said to be above suspicion. Everybody who has attended an AGM knows that appointment of auditor is the least discussed topic. More often than not, an auditor recommended by the company is accepted in an AGM. If Corporate Audit should be made more credible, a system has to be established where the auditor does not depend on the company for his business.
The Comptroller and Audit General of India throughout its existence have come out with scathing audit observations about holy cows of the Government. What happens to these observations is not a matter of debate in this blog? The important thing to note is that the CAG of India is able to do so because it is an independent authority under the Constitution of India. A similar system is required for Corporate Audit.
I am not suggesting that Corporate Audit should be handled by the CAG of India. Let the existing set of auditors continue to audit Corporate India but who should audit a public limited company should be decided by a transparent computer aided system of the Company Law Board or SBI. Let every public limited company contribute a part of its profits to an Audit Fund and proceeds from this fund should be used to pay the auditors based on the amount of work done by them. No auditor should be allowed to audit the same company for more than once in a time frame of five or seven years. The list of approved auditors should be updated on a half yearly basis.
Such a system will make company audit fair, transparent and free of bias. This is what Captains of Corporate India so eminently clamor for in various television channels when it comes to functioning of the Government. As they say “Charity and Clarity should begin at home”. The CIIs and FICCIs of the world should pressure on the Government for an independent audit system for corporates. After all Public Money (read Small Investor) money is involved in public limited companies also.
If an auditor fails in his duty in India, he faces a ridiculous penalty of Rs 10,000 (under 200 dollars) and maximum imprisonment of two years. In contrast the U.S. Sarbanes-Oxley Act, passed after the Enron and WorldCom scandals, awards imprisonment for 20 years. When we want to be on par with US of A in terms of economic reforms, we should also argue for equally stringent punishments for corporate audit misdemeanors.
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